And it begins...

May 27, 2010

City: Brisbane

Day one of journey: Today we arrived…at 6 am, little sleep was gained on the 15 hour flight due to various reasons but there is no need to complain now. The excitement over powered the exhaustion and anticipation. We are staying at the Tinbilly backpackers hostel. The cost of internet is outrageous so I guess my addiction will be tested. Upon arrival I felt like I was not messing well with the others in the group. My shy side came out and seems to be here to stay for a while. I am sure I will make friends but I did have some fleeting thought of regret for coming I tried to tag along for a walk around the city but I defiantly felt like the odd one out. I gave up trying to follow the crowd so I went back to the hostel’s lobby to wait for our check in time. I really wanted to explore more but I didn’t want go through such a big city alone (just seemed like a bad idea). Home sickness was kicking in but luckily it was time for check in. I thought that rooming with the others would make it easier to get to know the others which would eventually lead to some sort of friendship. I ended up in a room with only two other girls. The other two girl rooms had 6 in each. I liked the idea of having more space but not the idea of only getting to know two other girls (who by the way stayed up way past my bed time, not necessarily a bad thing, but cut down on our bonding time). After check in we had our orientation meeting. It was loads of fun and very relaxed. We did a brief overview of our scheduled activities and possible unscheduled activities. We also learned a lot about Aussie lingo and culture. Then we were allowed free time before dinner. My free time was spent napping…very much needed. We ate dinner at Caxton Thai Restaurant…very neat and filling. I learned that a lot of Australian restaurants are BYO (bring your own) alcohol. You buy the alcohol at a store and bring it with you to the restaurant to enjoy with your meal. Some places charge a “corking fee”, basically a small fee per person drinking an outside alcoholic beverage (about 2 dollars). Another thing I learned was that Aussies refer to take out as take away. When I decided to come to Australia, I figured culture shock would not play a huge impact in my experience. Many because they spoke English I thought it would be easy to understand and relate to the locals. However, they do have a language of there own here. Aussie slang is fun to learn and easy to pickup but more times then not I have to ask someone to repeat themselves or define a term they used. I am enjoying the big city and a lot of the stores and restaurants remain me of home (subway on the corner and starbucks across the street). Well tomorrow should be fun and hopefully my strides to make friends will pay off soon. Till then G’Day!
Notables:
Subway has $7 foot longs (everything is more expensive) but with the same $5 advertisement
Pokies= slot machines
Legal drinking age is 18
There is no sales tax