Well, I made it! Right now I'm in an internet cafe in the World Square area of Sydney. We're staying at an incredibly nice hotel/apartments complex. I'm staying with two girls who seem pretty nice, but I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with them yet.
The flight from IND to LAX went by quickly because I didn't have any idea of what time it was. Picked up my baggage and went to the international terminal to recheck it. Went through security just fine. Boarding the plane took a while because there was a lady on a stretcher that had to board through the back. That delayed our flight about 45 minutes. It was so weird being served dinner after we had started the flight! I suppose it really was dinner time in Australia, but in Indy it would've been about 4 a.m.
I slept on and off throughout the flight, but never very well. Once we landed in a rainy Sydney, we got our bags and went through customs. All my bags made it, but my friend (and future roomie) Hannah had a bag missing. Although a hassle, she was compensated for it! From there we were taken to where we're staying and had some time to put ourselves together before meeting for lunch. We received our international cell phones and tried to put them together. We had a few more hours to ourselves so Hannah and I went and set up a bank account for her.
We met back up with our group and had an information session regarding culture and our schedule for the rest of orientation. Really they were just trying to keep us awake so we can better adjust to the time change. We went to dinner at a place called the Bluebird Cafe. Nice casual restaurant with good food. I ate Kangaroo!!! (They suggested eating it before we go play with kangaroos Sunday) It was surprisingly good. It was served rare - medium rare with a Jack Daniel's sauce on it. The sauce was not the greatest, but the emat itself was pretty tasty. They said kangaroo meat is really healthy - 100 g of kangaroo meat has between 20 and 25 g of protein and little to no fat! Eating kangaroo has been endorsed by the Australian department of Health and the department of conservation. The department of health for the above listed reasons and that department of conservation because kangaroos are overpopulated. Any kangaroo killed for eating is from the wild and only from areas of overpopulation. Here's a fun fact: The human population in Australia is approximately 22 million whereas the kangaroo population is approximately 40 million!
Not much time left here at the internet cafe! Tomorrow we're going on a walking tour of Sydney. Sunday going to some kind of animal place where we can play with kangaroos and pet koalas as well as going to the Blue Mountains ( described as the Grand Canyon filled with trees, and if you know me you know I am in LOVE with the Grand Canyon! ). More meetings and a dinner cruise Monday and then the end of orientation Tuesday. Hopefully more to come in the near future.
Love, Em.
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