I moved on campus on January 11th- Sunday. We got on a plane in Sydney at 12:00pm and landed in Brisbane at 12:30pm. It was a painful journey because I was unable to locate my earplugs and I didn't take any benadryl to counteract the pressure. Once we landed we had to check in at the shuttle desk and wait outside for about an hour and a half for our shuttle at 2pm. During the waiting time, I met an awesome kid named Ryan who lives in Granby, CT. It's pretty cool to know that more than just Kyra and I are here from CT. Anyway, we loaded on and prepared for the (at least) hour journey up to Robina, where Bond University is located. When I say the views are breathtaking...I wish I could find a word that is stronger than that. I will thesaurus it one day because I was absolutely fascinated. Almost every home in the area had it's own boatdock in the little lake areas leading out into the ocean. Every yard has at least one palm tree and gorgeous driveways. All of the buildings are neat, clean, and innovatively designed. Arriving at the school we unloaded our baggage and walked up a bridge to go to the office and collect our keys. Once we finally arrived at the desk, we found out that in fact, I was living with Lindsey and Kyra was living with someone else. Needless to say, we switched that immediately. All of us are in Accomodation Building 9 on the 4th floor.

Our room is quaint, and immediately reminded us of a hotel room, being so bare and all. First thing I noticed when I walked it- we have our own bathroom! Oh thank god. I didn't want to revert back to freshman year sharing with an entire floor. That would have been horrible. We each have cute desks with plenty of book shelf space, my bed is by the balcony door (YESSS! a balcony!) and kyra's is by the little hallway to the bathroom. Our balcony has a wonderful view of the fountain/lake in the center of campus and looks directly to another dorm area. Not going to lie, my bureau area is already a mess. I will organize tomorrow. We unpacked a little and went to a barbeque that was free for all new students. Afterwards, Lindsey, Pat, Sam and I wandered to downtown Robina (richyrich area) and happened upon Hotel CBD, a hotel-bar-bistro place that has fantastic couches to lounge on and three awesome bars to go to. Relatively cheap for the country and all. It was nice to relax and finally feel moderately settled in.

Monday we all went to the information hub, acquired our gym memberships and Student IDs, as well as some busing information and bank accounts. If you buy the Bond Pack for $50 you get admission into every event that is held throughout the week. Kyra and I did not have cash on us, so we were unable to go to the event that was held on Monday night...but we were able to relax and catch up with our family. The pack comes with a backpack, two tshirts, movie discount card, a coozy, and some other random things. We were also able to figure out our class schedule. All three of us are only taking three classes (still 12 credits, hell yeah) and I now have a 4 day weekend. OOOOH yeah.

Tuesday we went to Pacific Fair- a huge outdoor shopping mall with tons and tons of shops. We went to Target and Kmart to get the essentials--some towels, handsoap, etc. Once we got our lives in order, we all got ready and went to Hotel CBD. Met up with some people and had an overall chill time. People in this country are positively the nicest people I have ever come across in my life. Maybe it's just that people in CT are...I'm not even sure how to describe it, but I have never had so many people come up and introduce themselves to me and be smiling while doing it. I am never really good with introductions and sometimes am even hesitant to go up to people I already know...but in this short time I have met people from Norway, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Dubai, and home. It makes me happy to be socializing. It also makes the transition a little bit easier. Even if America isn't the most favored of countries. It's strange though, on the day I checked in, another 345 Americans also checked in. It'll be easier to meet Aussies once everyone comes back this weekend.

Today we decided that we wanted to go to the beach and check it out. We took a bus for $3 round trip to Surfer's Paradise, a wonderful area full of shops, eateries, and long stretches of beach about 15 minutes from school. The entire bus ride I was antsy to be there- and I am not even a beach person. I get bored very quickly and want to be doing something else. Not this time around. I was actually anxious to be in the sand, and the water, and see what it's all about. Once we got there we had to walk through a strip of shops, one we stopped in and bought some postcards and souvenirs, and finally onto the sand. Never before have I felt like I was walking on some sort of....cushion....clouds....comforters or pillows...when going to a beach. I was afraid 1) of the rocks, because you know how CT beaches are...rocky as hell 2) it would be painfully hot so that you could not walk (temperature was absolutley perfect) 3) there would be so many people we wouldn't get a spot near the yellow and red flags. All three were absolutely untrue. We found a place right away, lied down until we were hot, and then jumped in the insanely clear water. You could see your feet the entire time. The waves were fantastic, the water crystal blue/green and we made sure to stay within the patrolled areas. Between the yellow and red flags ensures that there is monitoring of jellyfish and rip tides. The waves knocked us a little bit but we weren't in long enough to get swashed about terribly. A few people were surfing, but mostly everyone was lying around/playing volleyball or frisbee. We left around 4 to come back and clean up before the Hypnotist show. Three or four people we know participated in it and I can't wait to talk to them about it. Since most of them won't remember anything.

Now that our long day is over I'm just sitting on my bed relaxing. I will post pictures to this entry tomorrow, when I get the beach pictures from Lindsey.

Post again soon.

Goodnight. (It's currently 11:04pm Brisbane time)