4:33 am (Brisbane time, Saturday) : Breakfast is served! After getting about 5-6 hours of on-and-off sleep, we’re woken up for food. Cheese omelet with bacon (which I quickly learn is what Australians call ham) and asparagus, blueberry yogurt, and a blueberry muffin. Not the best breakfast I’ve ever had…

 

6:30 am (Brisbane time, Saturday) : Got off the plane with Bri and we headed to customs which took about 10 minutes, actually quite a quick process. Then we went to baggage claim and hauled our luggage to claims. At this point Bri and I had to head out separate ways, but while I was going to the information desk to find my shuttle I saw a girl with a Concordia-Moorhead sweatshirt on, small world! Erin is also studying at USC so we got new SIM cards for our phones and then headed to our shuttle together. It is incredibly hot out and we were sweating just standing there! The hour bus ride to UniCentral (our apartments) went very fast as Erin and I talked the whole way and got to know each other!

9:30 am (Brisbane time, Saturday) : After dumping our luggage in our rooms and finally getting to take a shower – I was able to meet 2 of my roommates Michael (from Australia) and Luke (from New Jersey). Both are very nice & are super easy to get along with! Michael offered to take Erin, 2 other girls from MSUM and NDSU, and myself to the grocery store. Let me tell you, grocery shopping in another country is hard! (And everything is a bit more pricey here). And just because I could (legal drinking age is 18 here) I bought some boxed wine which they call “goon”.

1:00 pm (Brisbane time, Saturday) : Erin & I decided to head over to campus, which is just a short 3 minute walk from our back yard, and do the “Hop on, Hop off” bus tour of the city. We go off in Mooloolaba, met Darcy who joined us, and then we all immediately decided that we needed to grab lunch! The restaurant was so amazing because it was right on The Warf and all the windows were open so you could feel the warm breeze while sitting inside. Of course, I had to get Fish & Chips for my first real meal in Australia!

(Darcy, Erin & I having lunch)

Darcy had to head off to a job interview, so Erin & I set out to find Mooloolaba Beach. We were walking for quite a while with no success, only finding the area with a lot of boats docked. When we saw someone with a boogie board, we were laughing at ourselves because the ocean was literally just across the street… we were on the wrong side! Putting our feet into the ocean felt amazing. We both agreed that currently it feels like we’re on vacation in Florida, it doesn’t seem real yet that this is our home for 4.5 months. As we walked along the beach we were amazed by the big waves and the beautiful area.

We decided it was time to head back to UniCentral and maybe go for a swim… but things never go as planned! We got a bit lost finding our way back to the bus stop, but thanks to technology we were able to find our way back. We soon discovered that the bus stop we were dropped of wasn’t the one we would be getting picked up at… so after 45 minutes of waiting we finally were on our way back. Unfortunately, on our bus ride back Erin realized she left her phone at the bus station, but to our relief a USC representative was at the bus stop and able to grab it. We had an hour to kill while we waited for Erin’s phone to be brought back so we decided to take a walk around campus. We ran into a security guard and started chatting with him, and asking him where the kangaroos normally were. (Since campus is on a wildlife reserve there are lots of animals that wander around the area) He was very kind & actually used his walkie-talkie another call another guard and ask if he’d seen any. And sure enough, we headed over to the “footie field” and there were about 7 there! The security guard told us a bit about the kangaroos, how to not get in the way of the males and females, pointed out a mother and a joey, and then told us how close we could get to them (which was quite close since these ones are tame)! Kangaroos might be my new favorite animal… they are so cute, scratch they stomaches and backs like a human, and roll around in the grass like a dog. Needless to say, hanging with the Kangaroos was a highlight of our day!

6:00 pm (Brisbane time, Saturday) : Erin & I were both quite tired so we each headed back to our separate apartments. I got to meet my 4th roommate, Chelsey, who is from Australia. Her, her friend, and my other roommate, Luke, were watching Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures – which is basically just a humorous TV show of a guy who is horrible at surviving in the Outback. They invited me to join in so I ate dinner, got to know my roommates a little better, and watched the show for about 2 hours before I could barely keep my eyes open any longer. At 9pm I called it a night and headed to bed after my first, eventful day in Australia!

(On the far right, beyond the lake is my apartment complex)

Note: Normally my blog posts won’t be this long, but after having such an eventful first day I wanted to be able to look back and remember it all and share with you guys!

Note (pt. 2) : While I am in Australia, calling and texting my phone will not work. The best way to contact me is through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Snapchat.