Australia

Phew! What a journey it is to get here! My flight left Chicago to San Fran at 3pm. After a 4 hour flight, had to hang around the airport for a good 6 hours (my flight was delayed 2 hours). We actually finally departed at 1am. Who departs at 1am?!?! Anyhoo, the time went by quickly - I pretty much started and finished this book called "Eat, Prey, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (thanks Chrys!). Soo... I get on the flight and decide to take a sleeping pill just to get some rest. Well, I wake up... and have NO idea what time it is, where we are in the flight, anything. I finally asked the flight attendent just so I knew how many movies I had time to see, how many books I could read, etc. Well, he informed me that it was a 13 1/2 hour flight, and that we had an hour left to go, and if I wanted breakfest. Wait..... what? An HOUR left to go? Then it dawned on me (mind you, I just woke up), that I literally passed out for freakin' 12 hours! 12 hours!!!! Daaang! Not only that, but I had the good fortune of being on an empty flight and getting on business class. So I freakin' missed these awesome gourmet meals and all the alcohol I wanted. Oh well. Alas, I had a delicious breakfest, and wah-lah, next thing I knew I was in Sydney! I still CANNOT believe that I slept for that long and that that sleeping pill hit me so hard. 12 hours! Needless to say, that flight was the quickest flight I've ever been on! :-)

Soo... 2 days from when I left Chicago, here I am in Sydney. I'm staying with my uncle's best friend in a quaint suburb about 5 minutes from the ocean. I got settled and what not, and being that the day was beginning here, I have the whole day to just hang out and get used to this 14 hour time difference. Right now its, what, 2am in Chi-town? Well, we spent a nice day walking around the beaches here. What can I say so far except for that I loooove it! I just loooove water and the smell of ocean, so right off the bat I feel happy being soo close to it. So far my impression of Sydney is a combo of San Fran (with the rolling hills and obviously being by the ocean), Seattle (with the climate. Today it was cloudy, sunny, rainy, more cloudy, and more drizzly. But the word is that the weather is rarely like this and that is it usually super sunny), Colorado (everyone is athletic and super active it seems), and Vermont in how they everything seems super environmentally friendly. I love all the nature around here and so far the people seem pretty nice. Oh, and they are really into surfing here, which is REALLY cool to see, being that its kinda cold out ("cold" meaning low 60's -ish). Coming from hot and humid Chicago, it feels cold to me, so I can't imagine even swimming. I'm sure I will though, I have to!! Tomorrow I'm doing my pow-wow in the city to see the Opera House, etc.

Well, we are having some gourmet Russian style dinner soon, so I gosta run. Ahh... just like home! :-)

p.s. I have a comp in my room, so while I'm here in Sydney, I'll probably be doing daily updates
p.s.s. Day 1 - 36 pictures! I'll try to post a few, if I can figure it out!!!