G'day Mate!!

Australia!

So I arrived Friday, February 13th at Sydney airport after my 24 hour flight. Everything went quite well besides the little girl who had a seat next to me freaking out because she didn't want to sit next to a "grown up" girl and wanted to sit next to her sister Jenna. So apparently I scare small children - I'm glad I'm not going into a profession where I deal with kids - oh wait...
But my Qantas flight was fabulous - two delicious gourmet-looking meals (dinner had a chocolate lava cake for dessert...um hi! fabulous!) and each seat got their own personal T.V. screens where you could watch countless movies (around 180 to choose from). I ended up watching Four Christmases, Australia (how fitting!), The Duchess, and of course High School Musical 3 was thrown in last. The University of Wollongong has a complimentary pick up service that drives you from the airport to the "uni" which was wonderful. I arrived, a little jet lag and in need of a shower, but there none the less. I am living in Campus East which is a grouping of little "units" in four different sections that all share resources and is very community centered. In total there will be 615 UoW students living here so it will be quite busy.
My room is great and I have three roommates - two boys, one girl. One of the boys has still not moved in yet so we are waiting with baited breath for his arrival. My other two aussie roommates are just wonderful and super nice. Each day there is a new activity that Campus East sets up to get you meeting and greeting more students and familiar with the area. So far we have done "speed mateing" where we got thirty seconds to introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about one another before moving on to the next person, a walk to the beach (which is only about 1/4 mile away), movie night, and a tour around Campus East. It's awesome to have that kind of resource because coming as an international student not knowing anyone, it was a great way to meet some people.
Today I skyped with Jean Marie and Big Dave this morning - it went well! It was a little static-y and the picture was kind of pixelated but it was worth seeing them even just for a bit. Big Dave managed to give me a lecture about GPS' even from across the country leaving Jean Marie and I just laughing because he still could scold me through skype even across the world. Later on, a group of us went out for Tacos which are quite different than in America. They are just the taco shell with a soupy tomato sauce, field greens, your choice of meat - beans, chicken or beef, and then shredded cold cheese. It was so different - but still tasty! We split some strawberry sangria that was just a lovely end to the meal and walked about a half hour home from the city. I can't wait for the adventures to start and really dive into my time abroad in this awesome country!! I feel like there's so much to tell that I don't know where to start so I will take it bit by bit for the next couple days!