arriving down under

Ahoy mateys,

a report on the flight and settling in!

flight was good -- didn't realize I needed a visa for australia until I went to check in and they said I needed one, so I paid $25 for it at the counter.. funny thing is is that they normally cost $55 if you buy them from the government in advance... so we lucked out I guess...

1st flight I sat in front of a couple with a baby who wouldn't stop screaming "a-DA! a-DA!!!!!!", it was annoying... five hours to LA, wasn't that bad... got to LA, went to the duty-free shop to find Lea's perfume, which they had a tester bottle of, but none for sale... i asked politely if I could buy the tester bottle because it was very important that I get this perfume... the guy had me wait around for a while while he did other stuff, then said he needed to call his boss to find out if he could sell it to me... so i went and got a happy meal at mcdonald's, ate, and came back.... he puts the tester in a bag and hands it to me! So i got a $50 bottle of perfume for free!! Turns out it's been discontinued anyway sooo... yay! probably the coolest thing that happened all 30 hours of flying!

So then came the looooong haul. Mom upgraded me to "economy plus" which bought me about 3-4 inches of leg room, which I was grateful for after I boarded the plane and saw the regular economy class seats, HA... every inch helps. I wasn't really able to sleep; i dozed off a few times. there was an overweight older man next to me who snored, just my luck... something funny though, you lose track of time when you're flying sooo long, you just sit there and get into this dreamlike, almost euphoric state, and you don't remember what its like to NOT fly... especially if you're by yourself. And since I didn't realize how much time was passing, I was sooo hungry, I kept eating and eating and I was just hungry all the time it seemed like. For me it was all one day that had passed, even though it was really almost two days, so I ate more than three meals and felt like I had overdone it food-wise, haha

I read all of Twilight and started on New Moon... didn't like Twilight as much, the movie probably ruined it for me...

The flights really weren't that bad... United Airlines stinks though, it really does. the food was okay, the staff was not, no one was really that nice at all! Once I got on the Sydney-Perth flight though, everything was super pleasant, I sat next to an 18-year-old Australian guy named Jack, who was nice and was ALSO reading Twilight, haha.. he was fun, we talked about accents and he thinks American accents are "so distinct!" haha... I dozed off for about 30 minutes and they also had on a documentary about Australian pin-up girls in the 40s, very interesting!! I was just so excited, though, I couldn't wait to see Lea!!!

And since I flew domestic I didn't have to go through customs again once I got to Perth, I just walked off the plane and there was Lea! YAY! Ruth came too, I am enjoying getting to know her! Check out the pic Lea posted of us on her wall! Very funny stuff,we were just both so ecstatic. There were beagles walking around smelling people's bags to make sure they didn't bring in any illegal stuff, very neat.

So we went to Leas house and I gave Lea alllll her presents that I've been collecting over the last seven or eight months (mom she likes the green sunglasses!), then I took a shower, and then we went to have lunch, and then when we were home again i slept for two.5 hours and i told Lea she HAD to wake me up, because I didn't want to sleep all day and be up all night, so I woke up at like 6:15pm (6:15am wednesday morning, lol) and I met Lea's parents; they are both so nice and funny, now I know where Lea gets her sense of humor! :-D

Last night we went to a mexican restaurant, where we ordered quesadillas, which were actually burritos surrounded by a ketchup-y substance, it didn't taste bad at all but it wasn't a quesadilla, haha and we also had sangria!!! like old times! i was very tired though so i don't remember much of last night, but it wasn't because of the sangria, I swear!

And then this morning we hung out for a while, and Ruth came over and we drove down the coast and I saw the Indian Ocean!!! I haven't seen the pacific "in person" yet, most people see that one before they see the Indian ocean, i'm mixing it up a bit, what can I say?! ;-) The beach is pretty here, indeed. We drove a little further. Lea and Ruth bought these crazy wideleg wrap pants things...We ate lunch at this restaurant in a warehouse type place, it was called Little Creatures. i think our waitress was canadian... they had really good french fries and they were served with garlic mayo, sooo yummy. strolled around in town, which was called Fremantle, it was a really cute town! i liked it.

we then went to the university campus where Lea and Ruth are students. its such a pretty campus! lots of lovely landscapes. Peacocks hang out there, its really neat. we also went to the river and saw black swans. there are seagulls here but a different type-- they look much cleaner than seagulls at home.

we went to the grocery store and got stuff to make sangria and quesadillas... the quesadillas were really good; we also had refried beans, rice, and pico de gallo to go with them!!!! so yummy :-D

so now we're just hanging out, i'm about to go to sleep... not really feeling jetlagged at all, I'm happy about that. I was awake all day, felt pretty darn good. my throats a little bit sore, which is freaking me out a bit. lea's is sore too... maybe its just the weather... i sure hope so... !

tomorrow we are going to go to swing dancing!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can hardly wait! :-D it might not be as awesome as UCF, but still, i'm excited about it. also i will get to see where Lea works! I also found out that Bank of America DOES have an agreement with a bank here, so I can withdraw for free if/when I need to...sweeeet!

well good night world!