Day One

Hooookay
Here goes. So I've never written a blog before, and I've pretty much failed at every journal I've ever tried to keep, so this is a new experiment to attempt to document my Sydney time. I couldn't figure out if I wanted this to be a kind of record of what I did or a chronicle of how I am slowly going insane so I figure it'll be a little of both. I'm sure it'll be boring sometimes and I'm sure there will ramblings of a crazy lady on here sometimes so bear with me and ignore what you don't want to read :)

So, day one in Sydney and its been hot, like the 'sticky humid I feel it all around me' hot. The plane ride over was seriously one of the best flights I've ever had. It was 15 hours long, but I really felt like it took 1, maybe 2. I watched 2 movies and slept the rest of the flight. We were served dinner and breakfast on the plane (both of which I had to be woken up for), and though it wasn't the greatest it was better than normal plane food. I also ended up sitting next to this really adorable couple who made sitting in the window seat very easy. Once I was at the airport I basically sat around for 5 hours. I wanted to kill some time because the hostel check-in wasn't till 2 and I couldn't really wander Sydney with two pieces of luggage and a huge UCLA backpack. So I bought some internet time to update peeps/fam and a sim card for the intl phone Omar generously lent me for the trip. So I am officially mobile - set and ready to go for when my social life shoots through the roof ;) haha. I finally headed to Base (my hostel) at about noon, checked in a bit early, stored my luggage and began my first wander around the city and also find my new place of work, The Australian Museum (the attached pic). My first impression? Sydney is very LA. The first thing I wandered upon was a huge shopping center with possibly the largest food court I'd ever seen. If it wasn't for the accents surrounding me I would think I took a very long trip back to LA. I like it though, it's a bit of a home away from home and I appreciate that. Second thing I noticed? The same 5 of 6 shops reoccur every couple of blocks. No matter where you are you can get a slurpee from 7-11, a coca cola from the 'city convenience store,' grab a book from Drydens, munch on a wing from KFC, or get a mobile contract from vonaphone. There are some cute little shops and a lot of small coffee shops scattered in there too though, so I'm going to have a lot of things to try out. End of day one and I am exhausted. Lots of walking around, a ton of heat and sun, and i'm off to grab a quick dinner and go watch some fireworks in the bay. Day one: Success :)