First post from Australia

It’s the beginning of day 2 for me in Australia, and seriously what can I say except it’s absolutley beautiful here. We had such a good (and long) first day though. We arrived in Brisbane around 6am on July 16th (Aussie time), also known as 4pm on July 15th to those back on the East Coast. That was about 31 hours after I first began the trip. Crazy, right? All the flights were good, including the 14 hour Quantas flight. Quantas had good entertainment, good food to eat, and the gave us eye masks to help sleep… so I mostly just slept.

After we got into Brisbane, it took a while to round everyone up in the program, and we got a chance to call home. Home didn’t answer, so if anyone reads this and feels like telling my mom and dad I’m here, it would be appreciated! After we were all together, we jumped a coach bus and drove about an hour norht to Caloundra, a very pretty coastal town where we are having our orientation. We’re staying in the lovely Shearwater Resort, and it seriously is a resort. It’s so nice.

We’ve mainly been doing orientation activites, but we got to do a few fun things too. We played Cricket on the beach, walked into town, learned about some trees and the area. I learned what a TimTam is, and that it is the best thing ever. I also learned to never eat Vegamite again. Seriously. It’s nasty. I’ve already made a few friends that are going up to the same school as me, so that’s a relief. Oh, and I already tried fish. Fresh fish and chips, aussie style. Not too bad actually.

Today we have a ton of orientation things to do: learning about Australian culture, money, government issues (all sorts of things so we don’t embarrass ourselves while we’re here). Breakfast starts in half an hour, and I need to get ready, so I’ll leave it here for now. I also want to mention that I’m excited for Saturday. We’re going to Steve Irwin’s zoo! It’s suppose to be amazing, and I’m sure it is.

P.S. theres a large group of people that are trying to go to see Harry Potter over the next few days, so I should be good. Please tell me it was amazing.