day one//day two.

okay...so it's actually day two right now. i left philadelphia airport for chicago around 2:30pm. i, of course, was a MESS leaving my family and william. but they were all so supportive and wonderful. my plane was supposed to fly out of philly at 2:50 but there was bad weather in chicago and so our 1 hour flight was supposed to be delayed 1 hour and 35 minutes...and then we couldn't land so we had to go to st. louis, missouri and THEN to chicago and so our little no big deal flight wound up being FOUR HOURS AND 10 MINUTES. i, who HATES flying, was obviously upset. i was restless and dehydrated and all scared and anxious after leaving my family and william. i felt so comfortable on the plane, talking with the woman next to me, jenna, who was so comforting. turns out she is in the theatre business as well as so i was glad to bond from the start. if i'm ever in chicago [or if you're reading this and you are], a visit to the second city theatre is a must; she's the producer there if i remember correctly. but of course, regardless of the comfortable flight with jenna, the second i got my new boarding pass in chicago, i had a break down and almost didn't get on the plane. this was, by the way, not my original flight to LA from chicago. my parents luckily booked me on a new one since i missed the other flight with the plane delay. so while in line to board the plane in chicago, thinking about how i would probably get sick on the plane and make a fool of myself, i heard the girl behind me in line say something about brisbane. turns out she was headed to the same university as me, same flights, and same apartment complex to live at. this girl turns out to be emma from tennessee, who is the sweetest thing with a southern accent. she uses "golly" in her vocabulary which gets me every time.
the flight to LA was not bad at all, i sat in between a man who travelled to china every week for business, and a girl who worked in LA, but also happened to have lived in australia for 18 months for business and so she gave me a bunch of helpful hints [bananas cure jet lag].
i thought i would need to brace myself for the 14 hour flight ahead of me to brisbane after my legs feeling like someone hammered them while i was sitting, and being hungry not eating for an entire day and traveling and being dehydrated..yuck. BUT turns out the flight was much better than expected...except for the food. turns out in australia [or at least in the sky in australia], if you don't eat meat, that translates to "i don't eat." while everyone else was eating their chicken or salmon with parsley mash, mashed potatoes, roll and butter, cheese and crackers, small salad, chocolate lava cake, etc. [and this was just ONE meal], i was graced with white rice with peppers and onions in tomato sauce, a small salad, bread and water. i don't even like peppers that much so i figured i'd eat the rice and salad and stuff and wait for the next meal-breakfast. and so everyone else was served either a frittata or cold cereal with yogurt, fresh fruit, roll with butter and jelly, a chocolate croissant, etc. I of courseeee was served ANOTHER DINNER, because what i really wanted to eat at 6am was marinated mushrooms, steamed spinach, and white beans in that same tomato sauce with a roll. so, i basically went hungry for two days. i had watched three movies on the flight and only was able to sleep for 20 minutes until the stewardess woke me for my DELICIOUS meal, while everyone else got a good 10 hours of sleep. but alas! we had landed in australia and my flight surprising felt like only 5 hours which was super awesome. we got picked up at the airport by a man who would drive us to the university and our new apartments-unicentral [i was the lucky chosen one by airport security who apparently looks threatening and was asked to go in the drug and bomb sniffing dog line...i passed].
and despite what i now realize was just described as a horrifying trip, it really wasn't that bad! being here washed all problems away, it is SO beautiful and i just love it. along with emma, i made friends with another girl named ande who also lives in tennessee and goes to school with emma but they didn't know one another before. we've been going wild! trips to the grocery store and back and in bed by 8:30...
ha. i know. but we were jet lagged and it's only day two! today we DID get to kick it with some kangaroos whilst exploring campus which was SO awesome and i'll post the picture i got with one as soon as emma puts it online.
i forgot to mention! i'm really awesome and didn't bring a camera to the most beautiful place on earth.
yep, bet you all just looove me so far. i'm really sucking at this blogging thing if it's all about trying to get other people to wanttt to read it.
i almost forgot! tonight the fire alarm went off in my apartment...twice. it wasn't late, goood thing, it was 8:30pm sunday here, which means for all you in the U.S. it was 6:30am sunday there. i really like my roomates a lot. they are boyfriend and girlfriend from france and his name is mael and her name is marion. they're wonderful and they're going to teach me almost-fluent french! and i'm going to attempt to teach them slang english...so far i've failed at explaining "static cling". we should also still be getting one more roommate who has yet to arrive but i'm hoping is australian!

tomorrow morning is the start of orientation, and we have to be at the school from 8:30am-4:30pm; long day ahead.
i also will attempt to set up an australian bank account tomorrow in my free time between 10am and 12pm which does not exist and so ande and emma and i are gonna bounce out of the 'president's welcome' early in order to do so...[sorry pres if you're reading this..although idk why you ever would..]



gnight from here, goodmorning over there!