Update #1

Hey all. I'm finally in Australia and living the good life. I love it so far. Getting here was a bit rough. Traveling on Friday the 13th turned out to be not so lucky, go figure. My entire trip from Pittsburgh to Townsville took around 37 hours total. The ride from the States to Australia was great. QANTAS airline treats you like royalty so the 16 hour plane ride was not terrible. It was more after that where things turned sour.

I flew into Melbourne and had to go through customs and recheck my baggage, which caused me to be late for my flight to Brisbane. When I got to Brisbane I waited for awhile for my plane to Townsville. The flight was supposed to leave at 4:25 and we boarded around 5:30. Finally, when I arrived in Townsville, I found out that my luggage had been put on 2 separate flights. I got picked up from the airport from an interesting character and he took me to my residence, where I promptly fell asleep from a LONG day of travel.

The next day my bags arrived and were driven to my dorm building (University "Uni" Hall). I showered off 2 days of filth, but I felt I needed another shower no less than 10 minutes later. Here it is the wet season and it has rained more this month than it usually does all year. Therefore, the humidity level is sky high and add that to 90 degree heat and you have Townsville in February!

My room here is amazing. I have a small balcony outside my room and double doors leading to it. I've kept them open as much as I can, which causes a number of unexpected visitors. For example, I came back from the bathroom (which is co-ed) and found a tiny lizard on my ceiling, two moths under my desk light and a number of misquitos flying about my bed. I'm enjoying the openness though. The view outside my window is beautiful. There are tons of palm trees, a flowering tree, and a mountain in the not so far away distance.

The accent here is unbelievable too. I'm surprised I can understand half of what these aussies say. Its terrible. In fact I'm pretty sure I got jipped at the tavern last night when I bought a mixed drink. The tavern was an interesting experience. I met a number of colorful Australians. One guy was a pool repairman, I believe around 45 years old. I also met two guys that had been in the Australian armed forces that, I'm pretty sure kept buying me drinks just to keep me around to listen to their shinanigans. I had a great time!

Here at my University, it is Orientation (O') Week. Each hall seems to have its own events and then a number of school wide events. For example, I have the opportunity to go to the Great Barrier Reef on Thursday. Unfortunately, unlike American colleges nothing is provided. You have to pay for EVERYTHING. I'm actually worried about my bank account so I'm trying to get a job sometime this week.

Classes don't start for another week. I'll be updating again around then on everything that happens during O' week and the start of actual school! G'day mates!