I made it, sucka

The first few days here.... (well it's only been 2) were a bit rough. I met some friends on the flights over, not to mention hanging out with Dwight Yoakam's drummer in first class. Even the flight into Auckland was quite the sight. My troubles began when I arrived in Brisbane. How many times have you sat at the baggage claim and wondered, how do they always get my bags here? Well the thought running through my mind was, I bet I don't see my bags. Well, turns out I was half right. I did get one bag. Amazed, I figured I would see bag two come through. Nope. Lets not forget that the bag that came through had shoes, two flags, 3 hoodies, and a few books. Not real useful when it is 88˚F outside.

As I made my claim the thought set in, chill out mate you're in freaking Australia. So with that in mind, i decided that i was going to remain calm and get my bag at some point. Making my way through customs was real easy.... almost like too easy but that's how it should be in my opinion. I then went to the coach travel office to grab the taxi to Bond. The Taxi pulled around about 20 minutes late but I didn't mind, I was tired and was happy I had made it to the country in one piece aside from missing material pieces. It was warm, the sun was out and the people were friendly.

The taxi ride was quite the trip. I don't know for a fact and may never know if the gentlemen sitting shotgun (left side, hah) was mildly retarded or not but was making weird sounds with his mouth, boppin around and playing a didgeridoo. He looked maybe to be in his 30s, buzzed head, tank top and black short shorts. This guy was weird. Like, real weird. All I could think at first sight was, "Well, I guess this really is Australia."

The taxi, which was like a bus that towed a trailer took us almost 2 hours to get everyone off the bus. I was second to last but I didn't mind, I was talking to the driver almost the whole time about how awesome the beach and city were. I started to get excited but was like, wait, I have no clothes. (Even at this very moment, I am still wearing the underwear I wore 5 days ago when I set out.)

The taxi driver was real friendly and even called the number for me on the papers from Bond to find exactly where I needed to be. The school had a beautiful entrance and reminded me of Florida but with like some bizarre European flare. It was cool, something I did not picture. I said my good byes to the remaining couple on the taxi and driver and headed to Bond.

I walked into the office and was incredibly tired and just wanted to throw my stuff aside and run into the ocean but... this is reality not a cool movie, or something like that. I got all my accomodations set in but had no clue where I was going. The nicest mom on planet earth (Aside from Laurie Karchon) said to me, "Would you like a ride to your place?" (with an American accent of course).... "Uhhhh yeaaa, that would fantastic. Thank you so much." She walked me to a car and explained how her son was going for a bachelors degree and that she, her husband and son were from California. They were incredibly nice, but the son was off somewhere else. She said, "Yea my son has been trying to ditch us since he got here." To which I replied, "I wish my mom and dad were here right about now." (Mind you, I had no clothes, was tired and noticed prices were outrageous.)



They proceeded to drive me to the housing and gave me great advice on how to do everything on campus. Very kind family. I knew at that exact moment that there is something about Americans when they meet another one in a foreign place. It's almost as if you share a bond, as if you are buddies, you feel almost obligated to help one another. It was a touch of home, like I wasn't alone. It made things seem not so bad when I thought about not having my clothes and being in a place where I knew no one.

The room is nice. Almost like something along the lines of what Aunt Barbra has up north in the room that is CJ's. It's like, very well managed, clean, and the furniture is all in the appropriate spots. I like it. I just need to decorate the walls. ; O

The second day was much better. I had a shower, got ahold of the people I loved the most, found my luggage, had a shower. Much better. I met a lot of kids, surprisingly many are from the US. You can kinda pick them out, they wear those stupid flat brim hats with basketball shorts and annoying clunky shoes. Lame. Some are just like me and kinda blend in but are in the same position, just on study abroad. I bought a phone, set up a banking account, got put on the list for adventure club (skydiving and camping ooooo) and met the soccer captain/manager. I wish my knee was better, I would be all over the soccer scene if I could, but yes, I know, gotta take it easy.

Well, I got my bag and things are falling into place. Got a security card, met some kids on my floor (they make me feel old because 3 of them are 17, one 19 and the others maybe 18). I guess thats when you get to uni here is at the age of 17. They look super young and they were excited when I said I was 21 and I was excited when they said they had a car. Rule one of buissness... what do you have that I want, and what do I have you want ; ) This will come in handy going to the beach and stores.

That concludes the first two days. I think I am going to eat some pizza.

O PS
Everyone should come here if not for the beauty but to see what socialism does. The fixed price wages in this country have caused everything to be incredibly expensive. Some of the Aussies act like this is a good thing. NO NO NO NO NO NO. When you have fixed price wages at... 17$ you decrease the supply of jobs because the employers can only employ so many to meet the wage rate set by government. The price of goods then climbs. This place is beautiful but backwards. I enjoy the reverse but not when it comes to common sense economics. This debate will be had many times with the law students... there are a lot here. Should be interesting...