G'day mate!

So I officially have been in Brisbane for 5 days and now that the jet lag is waning I think it's time for a report. 

Virgin Australia plane

My mom and I got on a plane for LA around 6pm in Atlanta on the 26th and landed in Brisbane at 7 am on the 28th. It took about 22hours total to fly over, but with the time difference it ended up being almost 2 days. When I boarded the plane to Brisbane in LA I first thought that it was going to be an easy ride ( as I have flown to Europe a couple of times and it wasnt a bad flight at all), and secondly thought that the jet lag once I got to Australia wouldnt be so bad either, as I had dealt with jet lag before. I was completely wrong on both counts. The flight was intense. We were on a Virgin Australia plane which was brand new and gorgeous, but we ended up in the back of the plane, and there was a poor baby crying the whole way there so sleep was pretty much out of the question. I maybe got 4 hours of sleep total on that plane. The air was pretty rough as well making dinner hard as the whole tray was moving all over the place. Once we landed we made it to our ride over to the city (which the school provided) and into our hotel. We decided to stay in the city which was great in the end because everything is in the city.

View of Australia from the plane

Day 1: we land and get situated in our hotel. Then we decide to go out and look at an apartment that a classmate had been looking at. We got a taxi from the central business district (CBD) to St. Lucia (where the university is) ( refer to map bellow) which ended up costing us $30, a ridiculous amount. That was out first indication that Brisbane is incredibly expensive. The apartment we saw was a very small and dingy about half a mile from the university and the asking rent was $150 a week. Way too much for what it was. As we made our way to campus from seeing the apartment we saw some of the amazing vegetation in Brisbane. Huge trees with ornate red flowers and palm trees whose leaves overflow onto the walk way. There were a couple of big yellow and blue spiders along our walk as well. Campus ended up being closed for the holidays so we made our way back to the city on the bus.

Map of Brisbane

People in Brisbane are incredibly nice. The bus driver took us along pointing out all of the things im going to need to know while I'm a student at the University (or Uni as they call it here). Anyone we asked for directions jumped on the chance to help us and took the time to walk us in the correct direction.
Once we made it back to the hotel it took all of our energy to try to stay awake. We wanted to assimilate to the new time and began looking for apartments. As I called various places we happened upon a place right by school whos owner happens to be from North Carolina. He told us that he would come pick us up to have a look at the house. My mom and I waited for them trying very hard not to fall asleep and when we got to the house I fell in love with it.

my room looking out onto the deck

It is a typical Queensland house with three bedrooms and another makeshift bedroom. A small kitchen attached to a small living room complete the top floor. There is a large separate dining/living room that is nice and cool. The laundry is outside and there is a pool out back. The house doesn't have air conditioning or heating or a dryer. Electricity is very expensive here so most places lack all three. The best part about the house is the proximity to school. Although there is better public transportation here than in Atlanta  it is still not incredibly reliable, and can be expensive so being close to school is a very big plus.
My mom and I went home completely exhausted. The jet lag hits you in a wave of exhaustion mixed in with confusion. If you've ever pulled an all nighter for a difficult class like organic chemistry or physics, its like the feeling you get around 4am where you are awake from the caffeine but your whole body is tired to the point where your neurons aren't firing correctly any more. I think we were even speaking in jibberish.

Day 2: We jumped on the house and the nice couple that owns the house took us to IKEA to get lunch and to get stuff for my room. IKEA is the same here. Still Sweedish. We got some Italian for dinner at a restaurant on the river. Everything is overpriced here. At any restaurant the cheapest dinner you can have is $20. I had a small piece of lasagna that cost $28. At least it was good.

Story Bridge at night

Day 3: The nice couple took us the the beautiful Gold Coast where we took to the beach! The water is prestine. Its tourqoise and the sand is so soft. We went to the more touristy part of the coast called Surfers Paradise. The wind was making the water choppy, and after hearing about sharks on the news I wasn't too keen on getting into the water but I got in a little :)

Surfers Paradise

By the Surf Recue life guards

With an aborigine playing the didgeridoo

Day 4: New Years eve we decided to take it easy. We went to dinner with one of my new classmates that I got to meet and then went home to skype with my family back in the US. Happy 2013!

Day 5: New Years Day. We met back up with the couple that own the house to meet a potential new roomate. We went to the top of a lookout mountain called Coot-tha where we could see the whole city. It is really a very beautiful place.

We also went to south bank, a man made beach on the shore of the river. It is a public place and it is really very beautiful. It is basically a public pool but it winds along like the river would and is covered in plants and wildlife. Its gorgeous.

part of the wildlife at south bank

The man made beach

Australianisms 1:

- People dont say "your welcome" instead they say "no worries", or "thats ok"
- G'day isnt as commonly used as one might think
- catsup is tomato sauce
- everyone says "cheers"
- "mate" is a very commonly used term.
- McDonalds is "Maccas" here. don't ask me why
- The place we call Burger king is called Hungry Jacks here