Wow! I have been wishing I could get to a computer sooner because I have SO much to share! So I began my journey to Australia with the Carey family. My friend, Kimberly Carey, and I student taught in St. Peter together for the past ten weeks. She was in fourth grade and I was in third. Her family was kind enough to give me a ride to the airport from Mankato.
We arrived at the airport just after Noon. Fortunately, our friend Kari hadn't gotten there too much before us and met us before security. The three of us had a great time wandering the MPS airport for neck pillows, gifts for our soon to be Aussie families, and a little food before we boarded our plane to Dallas.
The ride there was a fun, short two and half hour flight. The people who sat around us were friendly and intrigued to hear us share our funny student teaching moments with one another. We arrived in Dallas just before 7pm. We took some time to sit around and charge a few electronics before we enjoyed a meal at Chili's. Now, I have to share with you a short story about the southern gentleman we had for a waiter. As soon as we landed in Dallas, I was in dire need of at least one of my comfort foods. At this time it was a chocolate shake. The idea of leaving America for so long and being on a plane for so long was starting to get to me. I would have done anything and gone anywhere for a chocolate shake. Mind you, I had already been shut down by the Burger King at MPS for a chocolate shake. So five of us girls head in to Chili's for some supper. The first thing that caught me off guard was our waiters accent. I had forgotten we weren't in the Mid-West anymore. It came my turn to order and I asked if they had any shakes by chance and he said no and that they only served a little ice cream with some desserts. Of course I slumped my shoulders and said it was fine of course. We finished ordering and not even three minutes later he returns and says, "Actually, I do have enough ice cream to make you a shake. What flavor would you like?" And what more would you expect from a table of five girls except a uproar of high pitched, "Awww! How sweet!" The man topped off his good deed with even taking the extra reach to set the ketchup bottle that was on our table in front of my plate because he knew I was the only one at the table who didn't order ranch! Too funny.
So I was defintely pleasantly surprised by our air plane. They definitely set you up nicely for a decent over night flight. There was a pillow, blanket, toothbrush, toothpaste, and sleeping eye patches in every seat. Each chair leaned back comfortably and had movable head rests. The best part was the individual touch screens! Kim and I enjoyed watching three movies and even a little documentary on Kate and Pippa. You could also track the flight path the entire trip!
Our humongous plane landed safely in Brisbane at 5am local time, 2pm home time. For some reason they had to double check my passport and visa two different times going through customs. I had to be pulled aside twice but I was never told what wasn't lining up. I had a warning of this in MPS when they checked mine and told me I would just need to show the future destinations my visa. When I was questioned, I pulled out my visa but they hardly looked at it. But, whatever.
We were taken from the airport to the Caboolture Campus. This is a small campus of only 500 students. It is a part of the QUT which is the University we are working through to do our studies. We spent the morning talking with some staff members from QUT about what to expect in Australia and then snacked and walked a little while we waited for host families to come pick everyone up.
Kari and I were taken to our host home by Janelle. She let us in and we found multiple notes from our host mom, Heather. We picked our rooms, ate some delicous pizza (except it was nothing like the kind of pizza you see in America), unpacked, got settled, and SHOWERED.
So far so good, friends! I am a bit worried about how much I might miss home, family, and friends from time to time, but I do know that this is already an experience of a life time!
I'll leave you with some Aussie lingo that's been tossed around..
Tricky bits = difficult parts to get through
Tip it = pour it out
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