Arriving in Australia

I went through a travel agent in order to get a cheap and easy flight to Perth, Australia. I was told that I would fly from Chicago to Melbourne, Australia and then from Melbourne to Perth, Australia. I left Chicago at 7:30 pm EST. I then flew for 4 hours to Los Angeles. Had to get off of the plane and transfer to a new one about 1 hour later (midnight EST). Then I flew for 14 hours to Sydney. After flying for 1 hour they fed us dinner. I slept through it, but the people that I shared the flight with said is was really gross. The food on United Airlines is awful. Later, around 7:30am EST I received a snack. It was chicken sandwich that consisted of a white bun, 3 slices of chicken, and 1 slice of cheese. I took a big bite because I had not eaten for 10 hours and it turns out the sandwich was crunchy and very cold. It was FROZEN! I called attention to a stewardess and she told me to open it up and wait for it to thaw. When they served breakfast 6 hours later (about 3pm EST) it was a yellow hockey puck that they called an egg. It quite literally had the consistency of rubber. This hockey puck came with diced fried potatoes mixed in with either granola or bacon bits. I honestly cannot tell you what it was. I think it was a weird hybrid combination of both. Eventually was landed in Sydney where I had a 1 hour layover. Again, I had to get off the plane, go through security, wait at the gate, and get back on the same stinking plane. All of this so I could fly 1 hour to Melbourne. At the Melbourne airport I did get to transfer to Quantas airlines. This is an Australian airline. I had a 3.5 hour layover. I recharged my computer and met an Aussie named David. He was very nice and let me borrow his computer to write an email home. He also told me all about Perth (where he was from) and pulled up a map on Google and showed me places to go and see. We then boarded the plane. Even though the plane left at 2:30pm Australian time and was only 4 hours long they fed us lunch!! I was so excited! And it was GOOD food too. They also fed us Frosty Fruits a type of all fruit popsicle as a snack later on. Landed in Perth FINALLY. And David had a co-worker picking him up. He offered me a ride to campus because he was going that way anyways. I took it and saved $50. Now, I know my parents would probably yell at me and call me stupid for doing that. But this guy had also given me his business card and called a friend to help hook me up with a job. And was as every bit helpful as he could be.

Once I arrived to my on campus housing office they quickly informed me about what seemed to be a thousand different things. It was 5:30pm Australian time and the stores closed at 6:00pm. It also takes 15 minutes to drive there. So another girl and I had 15 minutes to buy towels, sheets, and pillows, and food for dinner/breakfast in the morning. They dropped us off at a grocery store. I could only buy food. I came back and the people in the office made is sound like I had to buy their package of 1 towel, 1 pillow, 1 set of sheets, and 1 duvet. This package was $110!!!! I finished moving in and one of my 7 roommates had come back from being out and about. She invited me to her friend's place to drink wine. I don't drink but I decided to at least be social and it was only 7pm. We walked 15 minutes to her friends. I was there for about 1.5 hours and did meet a bunch of people. But then my head kept dropping because I was so sleepy. keep in mind is was 7am EST. So to meed it felt like I had stayed up all night long. I made my way back via campus security (they give rides to students at night for safety reasons).

Once back I place everything on the floor called matt and my parents and I took every last ounce of energy to make my bed with the super scratchy, formaldehyde scented, expensive sheets.