No Worries Mate...I'm Here!

It all begin from Lihue, Kauai. I left on short flight bound for Honolulu. It was only 30 minutes, and of those, only about 10 were spent in a slight freakout mode about what I had gotten myself into. From there on out the trip was thrilling. Any fear I had disappeared on that first brief flight. I saw an amazing sunset.m the plane and flew right by an enormous storm

Before leaving Kauai

The Sunset

The Storm

I sat in the airport for nearly 3 hours and used them to my advantage by using my cell phone for the last time. I called lots of people to say "farwell for now." I had some of the best, most honest conversations within those hours. These talks were exaclty the note I needed to leave on. They made me think about how I want to live while I'm here and how I want to live when I return, they made me laugh, and they made me grateful to have such amazing people in my life.

From Honolulu I was off to Auckland, New Zealand. I was on a very nice flight and had an empty seat beside me perfect for attempting to sleep.

Hello Land

I made it there in just under 10 hours and transferred to a flight to Sydney. After watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and realizing once again that this is the journey that I need to be on I was flying over Sydney Harbor. I met up with my group and headed to Wollongong (without luggage - they lost it, of course). There are 8 of us and we are all from different states so it's a pretty interesting group. There are 7 girls and our one token guy, Taylor. They didn't have anything arranged for us yesterday so we were completely on our own. We ended up gointo the beach (a 10 minute walk) which is breathtaking. We also found out rather quickly that the hole in the ozone is very real here down under. Everyone was fried in less than an hour, but luckily I had my base from being in Hawaii and survived without burn.

My First Look at Sydney

North Wollongong Beach

Today we had orientation. The UOW campus is absolutely beautiful. There is mostly bushland, so even though there is a small city right next door, you're surrounded by nature. I am excited about this course, but also realizing that it is going to entail a lot of work. We are here until Saturday (Friday for everyone on the other side of the dateline) and then will be leaving on a 10 day field study along the coast, in Canberra, and in the Snowy Mountains. It should be quite the adventure.

For now, I am very happy. I know that this is just what I needed to do this semester. If the first 2 days have been this amazing I am psyched to see all that is to come. I have a whole new country to conquer and I intend to do it right.

Cheers for now!

Much Love,

Anna

PS. Here is the sign above my computer. They have amazing signs down here. We saw one for a "weed man" yesterday as well as one warning about the swooping birds..don't forget to duck and cover your head. Love the Aussies