The beginning of a life Down Under

As I prepared to board the plane in St. Louis at Lambert International Airport, I hugged my mom, dad, and sister goodbye and proceeded on through security. After arriving in San Francisco Airport, I had to recheck in at the Quantas airline counter, re-pass through another airport security, spent $12 on a roastbeef sandwich, bottle of water, and a banana, and then waited to board my Qantas 747 airliner destined for Syndey. They call my group and I walk to the plane with my boarding pass in hand, only to find out that I would be sitting in the very last row, in the middle seat. Being 6' 3" and smashed between a bitchy black woman and her husband, a pissy fiancee' of some sort, and directly behind a woman who likes to put her seat back all the way without warning, with my backpack between my legs was not the most ideal 18 hour flight of my life. I got up twice during the entire flight. I got 2 meals, a small bag of "snacks", a hard pillow, a complimentary toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste, and the worst pain in my ass I have ever experienced. Needless to say, it was a pretty decent flight where I watched 3 movies, read almost my entire book, and caught some pretty decent sleep only to be woken up by turbulence...no big deal!
The airline staff was very friendly and, miraculously, can pour coffee and tea during turbulence while serving breakfast, breakey if you will. After departing the plane I had to locate both pieces of my luggage and attempt to make it through customs. Since I left the states in jeans, moccasins, my white T and Tshirt combo with a thermal over it and a jacket, I was sweating in the 75 degree, humid weather. After getting my luggage, I had to bear customs. Awkwardly enough, I stood on a yellow line with my bags facing forward, and a little cocker spaniel came and smelled my baggage. Unknowing to me, I thought it was a dog that was confiscated or being held in quarantine for a person so I reached down and pet him and he made his way onward. So I made it through customs very easily. Dear America and Mexico, adopt this policy...it works great!
I then had to wander all around this airport, walk outside and back into the domestic departure terminal, recheck my baggage, and pass through security once again (3 for 3 on airline security checkpoints, 1 for 3 on full body scans). However, in Australia, security must be not that important to them or they just assume that I didn't get anything in the airport that would do any harm. I walked through the metal detector with my belt, shoes, and stuff in my pockets with no problems. I then had to board a bus and be taken around to my terminal where I waited on my next plane to Brisbane.
When I arrived in Brisbane, I once again had to reclaim my luggage and attempt to find some people that were supposed to take me to Bond Uni (Bond University). This is when I ran into Helen and all the people doing the group Study Australia, where I boarded there bus and got a free ride to Bond, even though I wasn't supposed to be with them. Hey, I made friends and got there in one piece with all my luggage. Pretty fair trade in my eyes.
After arriving at Bond I checked into my dorm room, which is so classy compared to dorms in the states. I'll post pictures of it soon. After unpacking and getting settled me and my roommate, who is from Boston, went with his friends down to a "barbecue", which turned out to be a 17 year old teen center, and then left 5 minutes after. We then decided to go to this bar that was about a 5 minute walk from our dorm, might I add this was Sunday night at like 9 something. We went to the bar and tore that place up. Met some Aussies who told us "You are sooo American" as we were wearing shorts, American Eagle polos, backwards hats, flip flops, nike tennis shoes, and accents. Regardless, we made friends and had a good time. I ran into the SLU kids at the bar and ended the night stumbling home screaming in our faux Aussie/English accents until we stumbled to our rooms and passed out from our drunken state and our extreme jet lag.
We started our first day at Uni starving, hung over, and very American. On a rainy day in the states you would find it totally acceptable to walk around in a pair of flip flops, basketball shorts, and a white T or T shirt of the sort. In Australia...NO! These people are dressed up constantly. Jorts (jean shorts) are popular on men, as well as sleeveless shirts, tight jorts, and extremely short shorts...I'm talking inches above that knee. Every person we encountered knew we were from the states instantly, we attempted to fit in and look normal but it just didn't happen. The questions we asked, the way we talked, the way we looked made us stand out like sore thumbs. It was somewhat unbelievable.
As the day progressed we were deemed more and more American, until finally the night ended in a Toga party, that then proceeded to continue at a club, that then ended on a bus ride back to Uni and calling it a night.

That was my first few days down under, let's see what follows.

Until Then,

Wilson