I'm HERE!

Although nothing rivals my 28-hour, man-having-seizures-in-the-seat-next-to-me, same-dirty-bathroom-for-75-people, chickens-clucking bus ride in Peru last summer, I must say that the trip to Australia was, indeed, quite long. The first flight was 14 hrs. and 35 mins. I slept probably a total of 2 hrs. as I was anxious, sad, nervous, excited, and really annoyed at the Korean lady next to me who:

a) thought it was a great idea to do her arm exercises, which required her to lift her smelly armpit in my face over and over, while we were being served our food. As I sat there, not very appetized by her body odor, I wondered if she bothered to note that I was not eating my veggie sandwich because of her repeated arm raises. I'm not sure which was worse...these exercises or the ones that required her to ask the stewardess for a toothpick so she could basically perform acupuncture on every finger and toe, yes toe, on her body while sitting next to me.

b) thought she lost a $50 bill on the floor, coincidentally rummaging through her wildly disorganized bags, throwing papers on the floor, standing up on her seat, making me and the other girl next to her stand up, crawling on the floor...only to later, after 1 hour of madly calculating every receipt from Walmart and Dominick's she had in her bag, realize that she didn't really lose it after all.

and c) thought it a good idea to personally insult me by saying Chicago was a very boring city, one in which she would never want to live because she had lived in exciting New York, only to tell me later that her and her husband were considering buying a place in Des Moines, Iowa because of the low prices...lady, have you ever been to IOWA?!?


Anyhow...the other girl (on the other side of the plane) and I got to talking; her name was Carol and she has been studying at University of North Carolina. Originally from Taiwan, she was going back to visit her family before moving to China to work in her field of international business. We got off the plane in Tokyo and headed to a cafe to talk while waiting--friend number one, made! If I ever make it to China/Taiwan, Carol, I'll be sure to look you up!

After saying goodbye to Carol, I found a place to sit--with another 3 hrs. in my 5 hr. 40 min. layover remaining. At this point, I discovered that I had not only been traveling for close to 18 hrs., but it was also 2 am at home. I became very tired and extremely nervous at the thought of another 10 hr. plane ride.

Luckily, upon entering the plane to Sydney, I realized it was not a full flight and I was able to move up to the bulkhead to have extra leg space and the whole 3-seat section to myself! This meant three seats to spread out, three blankets, three pillows...and no annoying Korean women performing acupuncture or stinky arm raises next to me! After being served a quick vegetarian meal of chickpeas, aspargus, and rice, I settled into a deep sleep and before I knew it I was in Sydney.

The customs line was quite long...but I got lucky and didn't have to have my bags inspected. I was greeted by Mom at the airport and we "queued up" for the taxi. AUSTRALIAN SLANG LESSON ONE: to "queue up" is to get in line...Aussies tend to queue up more than we do, lining up for taxi service at the airport and even to get on the bus in Sydney.

Mom and I were both happy to take the taxi, as the combined weight of my three bags (2 suitcases and carry-on) was about 162 lbs. (The night before I had to go to KMart at 11:30 pm to buy a scale which later resulted in me throwing things out of my bags onto the kitchen floor to put into storage...I have a LOT of stuff!)

Seeing as I got here at 7 am in the morning, I had to try to force myself to stay awake for the day to catch up on the normal sleeping pattern...so Mom and I dropped the luggage off, visited with Scott and Hewitt, had coffee at a cute cafe, and then went for a long walk. Sydney is GORGEOUS...like no other city I've ever seen. The entire city is on a harbor, but there are little inlets everywhere and the houses are all lined up on the inlets, overlooking the water. Everything is accessible by bus or by ferry--the ferries are part of the public transportation system and you can hop on and be across the harbor in 10 minutes! The houses in the area Mom lives, Cremorne, are AMAZING. The AVERAGE home price in the area is 2.4 million dollars...but we are moving July 4th to a new house, as their lease is up.

The house we are staying in now was built in 1916 and has cool arched doorways, gorgeous Oriental rugs, tiled cielings, and a jungle-like backyard. In fact, Sydney's landscapes and horticulture amaze me...there are palm trees and parts that resemble a rainforest. It is also in the 60s and the dead of winter! I can handle this!!!

This morning I went for a run through the city and then Mom and I headed into the business district downtown to set up a bank account and buy toiletries. I spent $70 on shampoo, conditioner, lotion, razors, and shaving cream. It is EXPENSIVE here. I needed barrettes, but refused to buy them, as it costs a whopping $8 for five barrettes. Tomorrow we will check out the local version of Walmart/Kmart to see if we can find better deals!

I'm exhausted, but content. And excited to be here. Thank you all for your supportive emails and messages. I will be in touch soon.

Sign up to be "a follower" of the blog and I think it will send you a message everytime I post!

LOVE YOU ALL! :)