Arriving in Aussie!

Hello friends and family! Welcome to my blog! I am writing this blog for multiple reasons. Reason 1: I have so much that I want to share with everyone but simply not enough time to text, call, or email everyone individually so I figured this was a good way to keep in touch! Reason 2: I want to be able to look back years from now and remember everything about my time in Australia. Reason 3: My Mema wanted me to make a blog and I love my Mema lots (hi Mema!!).

I left for Australia on January 2nd, 2020 at 15:00 from Boston Logan International Airport. I then flew for 4 hours and 25 minutes to Houston. From there, I boarded my flight to Sydney, Australia!! I settled into my seat quickly and got comfortable as I was about to embark on the longest flight that I had ever been on (17 hours and 30 minutes!). The flight to Sydney was surprisingly fun and painless. I spent my time, sleeping, watching movies, listening to music, playing WordScapes, and looking out the window into the dark sky over the Pacific Ocean. We landed in Sydney at 6:20 UTC on January 4th, 2020. I got off the plane and headed towards baggage claim. After retrieving my things, I went through customs (in probably about 3 minutes at most) and then went to find my program leader.

I am studying abroad on a program run by Arcadia University. So they call us Arcadia Australia. My program leader’s name is Holly and she is very nice. I met up with Holly and a few other students who had already arrived. We waited for a few hours in the airport for other students to arrive and then we headed to downtown Sydney! We were able to explore the Sydney Opera house and the boardwalk by the water there. It was 99 degrees in Sydney on the day that we arrived so I was sweating a lot since I had come from the winter in Massachusetts.

Shortly after, we boarded the bus and headed to where we would be staying for our time in Sydney. We drove to Manly, which is a northern beach-side suburb of Sydney, to a place called Q Station. Q Station used to be the Quarantine Station for migrants that were arriving in Australia from 1832-1984. The station is now a hotel and is part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. The hotel rooms are the original accommodation areas that people stayed in. The hotel operates 365 days a year and hosts many weddings, events, and conferences. It even has “ghost tours”. It is said that ghosts of the people who died there still linger on the grounds at night. So let’s just say that I wasn’t enthused with the idea of encountering a ghost while staying there for 3 nights. However, the view from our accommodation was amazing. We could see all of Sydney, so it may have been worth the scare. Here’s a link to the hotel website if you want to check it out! https://www.qstation.com.au/

Here are some pictures of the view from Q Station!!

On Sunday, we were scheduled to do orientation stuff all day. We had a few lectures on how to live in Australia, health and safety, indigenous culture, and our responsibilities. We had the afternoon to ourselves so we went into the town of Manly. We walked around and eventually found a place to eat. We then had another early night as we were all still adjusting to the time difference.

On Monday, I got up at 4:40 to see the sunrise with Holly and some other students. However, this meant I had to walk alone in the dark in this haunted place to the meeting spot. So I grabbed my flashlight and called Oliver so that I wouldn’t be as scared during my walk (thanks Oliver!!). We walked through Sydney Harbour National Park to reach the overlook. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the full sunrise due to cloud cover but the view was still amazing! We hung out on the overlook for about 40 minutes and talked as a group.

After our morning hike, I took a much needed nap (still adjusting to the time difference) and then got ready for surfing!! We took the bus down to Manly again and had a small lunch. At 13:00, we prepared for our surfing lesson. I have to say that getting in the wet suits was not as hard as I had anticipated. Our instructor was very nice and lead us through the steps of what to do in the water. I think I got about 12 turns in the water to surf and I stood up successfully for 3 of them. This was also my first swim in the Pacific Ocean! The water was beautiful and warm. I can definitely say that the Atlantic Ocean really has nothing on the Pacific (sorry Massachusetts beaches). The lesson ended just as I started to get tired, which was perfect timing. We took the wet suits off and headed back towards the bus stop.

After showering, we took the bus back into Manly for dinner. We went to a really cute mexican place called El Camino and had a lot of fun. On our way back to Q Station, we missed the last bus by 4 minutes, so we decided to walk all the way back up to the hotel. It was a nice walk though and we talked/sang the entire way. When we got back to the room, I passed out from exhaustion.

On Tuesday morning, we had an early wake up call for breakfast at 7:00 because we were finally headed to Bond University! We got a quick breakfast and then loaded on to the bus for Sydney Airport!! I have been at Bond for less than a day now, but I will be writing about the school soon!

Thanks for sticking with me through this first blog post and I hope you guys enjoyed it! Be sure to subscribe to the blog if you want to be notified when I post a new one 🙂 I can’t wait to share more about the next few months in Australia with you all!