Running Through Boston Airport, Accidental Naps, and Basketball Shoe Shopping

          

Long time no see! As you may have guessed, this is my first post from the comforts of my lovely homestay here in Australia!

So as I am writing this on Sunday morning; I have been in Sydney for a little over 48 hours and have enjoyed it from the start. Let's backtrack to the traveling that got me to the other side of the world. Becky and I met up in Newark, NJ to board our first flight to Boston. My carry on got checked at the gate so my only experience of Logan Airport was of me sprinting from gate 22 to baggage claim, back through security (sweating bullets as I had less than half an hour to do all of this) and then back to gate 22. Thank goodness Becky was at the gate to make sure they didn't leave without me, thanks, girl!

The flights as a whole went smoothly, I was able to sleep a good amount so I wasn't entirely dead by the time we arrived in Sydney. Elizabeth Pooley picked Becky and I up from the airport (it was really cool seeing someone waiting at the airport holding up a sign with your name on it [hint hint @ Mom for when I return in July]) and took us to our host families' homes. I am living with the Randall family for the six weeks that I am here and their home is situated in Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney! The family is headed by mum and dad: Helen and John and they are the parents of Hilary, Emma, Alice, CJ, and Sally. Everyone is super nice and I have been feeling extremely welcome here!

It is definitely going to take some adjusting to get used to the fact that the driver's side of the car is the right side! And that they drive on the left side of the road here! I took care of some business with Becky and Jane Sulis so that everything would be ready for when we arrived at St. Lucy's on Monday to begin our service.




But before that, my host sister, Alice took me to what is called Burwood Shopping Centre. It's basically a large mall but they also have grocery stores along with the classic American mall shops. Well technically we went to her boyfriend, Hugo's house to pick him up and then we went to Burwood. So yes, the first thing that I did once I was in Sydney was go to a mall, see a bunch of American food places (Macca's, KFC etc.), go basketball shoe shopping with Alice and Hugo (8 stores later....) and then we had some Chinese food for dinner ;). Quite the Aussie adventure, am I right? I did have this delicious apple cinnamon crumble scroll while we were at the mall!

After all of the travel, a bit of shopping, that delicious scroll and then a quick walk to the train station to buy an Opal card (my ticket to traveling on trains and buses in Sydney), I came home did a bit of unpacking and knocked out for a few hours. I guess I was a bit jet lagged! Well, I think that's enough for now!..... Oh, were you expecting pictures of the Sydney Opera House, and Kangaroos and Koalas?? That's coming up! Here's a sneak peak of the Opera House! I'll tell you all about my trip down to The Rocks and the Harbour in my next post stay tuned! Feeling great despite the minor jet lag and am loving it so far!

(What a tease!!!!)