Day 1: The Saga Begins in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Wow what a trip! After an absolutely mind and hand numbing flight, we finally arrived in the wonderful city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia!! Getting through customs was quite simple and easy. I filled out a card while on the plane and showed that and my passport to the agent. After a quick ok-ing glance at my OTC meds and a beagle sniff through my bags, I was free! The Sydney airport did not seem too different from an airport in America and it was easily navigable. We hopped on a bus outside the airport, but only rode it a short ways. The remainder of the route to Wesley College at The University of Sydney was done on foot. Probably close to 5 miles, all uphill, with a massive backpack and grievously large duffle bag thrown over my shoulders. Pure adrenaline kept me going.

For me, the most immediately noticeable differences between Sydney and any large metropolitan city in the United States was the flow of traffic (they drive on the opposite side of the road), the number of Oriental folks walking around, and to cross the street meant looking right first, as the traffic comes from the opposite direction.

Wesley College at the University of Sydney looks pretty sweet on the outside and has nice dorms on the inside. I am in a room with one other guy, Jay, and we each have our own bed and desk area. The plugs here are different. Basically the same as in America except the top two prongs that conduct electricity are turned inward at a 45 degree angle. Odd, but it works just the same. I have a converter that lets me plug any kind of outlet into the wall, so I was easily able to connect my electronics. (Only trouble encountered here is that the outlet in the wall is not tight, and I have to keep the converter upright and plugged in with my tennis shoe underneath it.)

The entire group was pretty tired when we got to our accommodations, though Anoop, one of two professors on the trip, wanted us to beat the jet lag by staying up until it was the proper time to sleep in Sydney - nighttime. The problem was that it was 9:00 in the morning the next day. Not only had we been up all day on December 26th flying, we crossed the international date line somewhere over the Pacific and completely lost December 27, 2011. Let me know if you find it and what happened on that day, I never experienced it. All I knew was that the current time was 9:00am and it was not advisable to sleep yet.

Anyway, most of the group was more famished than tired and, running on adrenaline, we walked across the beautiful university campus (see photos) across the street to a shopping mall where we bought the most American lunch we could find - Ham and cheese sandwiches, complete with raspberry lemonade. We walked back to the city park on the outskirts of the university and ate lunch sitting in the grass. The trees here are all sorts of spectacular and awesome varieties. The bark is different on almost every tree and, being Summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, a lush green. The day was picturesque. Around 70 degrees Fahrenheit (they do the math here to get to Celsius - either multiply or divide by 9/5). We finished lunch and walked back to the college to shower and get ready to out to Circular Quay - they location of the world renown Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Before we left though, I was able to get in contact with Brittany! (God willing she happened to be on Facebook during the 15 minutes I had to spare in the dorm room before the group left to explore Sydney!! We got to do devo without missing a day in the Central Time Zone!).

Circular Quay ("Quay" is pronounced like the word "key") is a bustling area around Sydney Harbour in downtown Sydney. We enjoyed walking around and taking in the sights, which included a street performer fitting herself into a 16"x16" glass box about 6 feet off the ground. Slightly weird, yet totally entertaining after being up some ridiculous number of hours in a row and losing a whole day in the process.

We proceeded next to the Botanical Gardens and what a sight this was! Numerous species of trees and plants and other flora along with some of the most wonderful animals. Among the animals included wild parrots, cockatoos, massive bats, and even eels. There were tons of people enjoying the gardens by sunbathing or just walking around and sitting on a bench to enjoy the Harbour. The sun was shining warmly and the breeze kept us nice and cool. However, the wind did not act as sunscreen and many people in the group took away a souvenir sunburn! (Thankfully I had on a hat and shades on that kept the sun off me!)

From there we went to a mall area to the Vodafone shop (an international cell phone company) to retrieve SIM cards for our unlocked GSM phones. It took a little time, but everyone walked away with an Australian cell phone number!! (Not sure why, but I found this pretty sweet!)

We left the phone shop in search of some dinner and ended up choosing a place called "Star Bar." Interesting name for a place, but it that looked exactly like Planet Hollywood. Food was pretty good and inexpensive (I got a 300 gram steak and chips (fries) with a Pepsi for only A$11.95). The inexpensive part is rare in this town. Thankfully though I haven't had a bad meal yet!

We returned back to campus after dinner, at which time I began working on school related work due the next day. Woo!

My adventurous and pretty awesome day finally came to a close and I drifted off into a peaceful sleep on the oh-so-comfortable dorm beds. I was so tired, I could have slept like a baby on solid concrete.