I made it!

I know you had your doubts, but I actually made it to Australia. It's amazing thus far. I'm currently located in the Community House in Lorne, which is about an hour outside of Geelong. It's a surf town, which makes it all the more appropriate that I'm going surfing tomorrow! Yes, it is a bit nippy for a dip in the drink, but what can you do. I'm not complaining. The weather here reminds me of fall in Troy... everyone keeps apologizing for the fact that it's so cold, and I keep telling them that I lived in the Capital District for two years, and this is beyond mild. But yes, allow me to highlight some of the various things that have gone down since I hopped a plane from Philly to LA to Sydney to Melbourne.

On my flight from Philly International to LAX, Seth Green was on my plane. Hahaha, so good. I told him I was a fan of Robot Chicken, and he seemed pretty surprised that anyone actually recognized him. On my first flight, I was seated between two people who were also going to Australia, something I found to be relatively entertaining. The LAX to Sydney International flight was... well, there's no other way to put it... it was a bitch. I slept a decent amount, though, and I had the window seat, so that was nice. The plane itself was huge, and very well maintained. There was an upstairs to it? Sure. Anyway, I was seated next to a gentleman who reminded me of Mr. Trabocco in a sense, but I couldn't quite put my finger on how. We arrived in Sydney just as the sun was rising, which was really pretty. I wandered around the airport for a while... they were selling boomerangs in the gift shop. That made me laugh. Then, within a short enough amount of time, I hopped back on the 747 and we were off to Melbourne. Cleared Customs and all that jazz with no difficulty, thankfully. I found the rep from Deakin easily enough, and we waited for a long time for a guy who never showed up. It was about an hour's drive from the Melbourne airport to Geelong, which wasn't even entirely painful, considering the trip I had just endured. Nothing too intense. Anyway, I got my res accommodation and moved in, met the one guy who was in the res at the time (I'm the only international, sweet!), and had a bit of a fit when I realized I had bought the wrong converter. Bad news, none of my electronics work. So yeah, that was that, and I'm still trying to find a US to Australia converter AND voltage adapter.

But, aside from that, everything has gone off wonderfully. I've already met kids from all around the world; I rode the bus to Lorne next to a girl from England, am rooming for the trip with a German girl, and met Austrian, Slovinian, and, naturally, Australian guys. It's been pretty amazing thus far. A few Aussie stereotypes I'd like to confirm and/or deny are as follows:
+ "No Worries," and "G'Day Mate" are commonly heard phrases
+ No, there aren't kangaroos, wallabies, crocs and koalas everywhere. Although it's rumored that we're going to see all of the above in the next three days during our Lorne trip.
+ Aussies don't speak English. They speak Australian. It's kindof hard to follow at times.
+ Australian food isn't completely awful. Tim Tam's are amazing, but I have yet to try Vegemite.
+ Everyone from Australia is really, really, really nice. It's a welcome change from the barrage of expletives I'm used to hearing in and around the City of Brotherly Love.
+ I'm sure there are more, but either I haven't yet encountered them, or... I'm still too jet lagged to be comprehending anything rational.

OH! And, I got my mailing address. This is the part where you get your pen and paper, and write it down, then send me a whole lot of awesome things. Like Reeses. Because they don't have Hershey's products here. BUMMER. Anyway, here it is:

Kirstin Schoeninger
Evatt 2
Barton College
Deakin University
Geelong VIC 3217
Australia

I'll try to update again as soon as possible, but with the whole converter issue, I'm not sure how soon that will be. Although I will be able to say that by the next update, I will have engaged in the Aussie tradition of SURFING! That's on the docket for tomorrow, as well as some beach Yoga and a dinner and clubbing of sorts in the evening. Can't wait. To Liz, Priya and Alicia... I'm going for number one of five in the next three weeks tomorrow. I've seen the material, and I'm ready to work my magic. To everyone else... disregard the previous two sentences; either you know who I am, or you don't need to know. Right-o, mates. Until next update... Cheers!

+K+