To Adelaide!

So today was move in day! We flew from Sydney to Adelaide this afternoon (after waking up for a morning run across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, fourth longest single arch bridge in the world) and started getting settled. Jenn and I were Super excited about coming to Adelaide and finally seeing where we’re going to be for the next 4.5 months. Unfortunately we were rather unpleasantly surprised by what awaited us in our apartment. We had the terrible start of waiting about half an hour to actually be checked in and given keys to our room. We didn’t mind that so much. The issues with our internet, having the same id and password to the 5 GB a month that we are allotted, seemed like it would be easy enough to sort out. But the fact that the hallway to our apartment was windowless and more prison-like than welcoming didn’t add much. The sterile entry way to unwelcoming, closed doors with one light out wasn’t fantastic. And the bare rooms without even a splash of color or the linen set we were promised was not ideal. Then we saw the disgusting kitchen and dreary living room that didn’t have the tv we were led to believe would be there. The real kicker was when we tried to use the restroom only to find that those had not been cleaned properly. Did I mention we were starving?

Jenn and I both about had a fit. I called my mom and was generally sad. We don’t know what we would have done if we’d been there alone. We think we probably would have starved to death while crying ourselves into oblivion in our room with the door closed. But we had each other so we went and told the desk all of our issues and found a McDonalds. Neither of us really eats fast food or drinks soda. But there’s an exception to everything. We just needed some ‘Murika. Then Jenn found a hair in her drink… Not our most shining moment. On our way home from the airport we had seen an Ikea, Jenn had never been before, and decided that the best thing we could do at that point was go to Ikea, get some decorations and some things I felt were sanitary to cook with, and hope for the best. We ended up without many decorations, just a few fake flowers, and pretty much an entire kitchen. No sink though. Our trip to Ikea and McDonalds was the first successful public bus trip for both of us. It ended up being pretty fun.

After that everything got better. We came back to clean bathrooms and beds made up with pretty blue comforters. We met up with some other American students on the summer version of our program and had dinner in Chinatown. They showed us where the grocery store and a cheap store for random things are and we generally had a good time. The management felt bad about everything that had happened so they gave us each 2 $10 gift cards to the grocery store. Since we’re sharing food, this means we get $40 for food! Which is good since we’re both dirt cheap and Australia is expensive. Now I’m all unpacked and ready to go for tomorrow where Sharna (our program guide/person/mother while abroad) is going to show us all around 😀

Also, I tried to update the pictures on the other posts. Not sure how far I’ll get tonight but hey, I started!

Here’s my room! The shower is a bit of a closet… My teddy bear is happy and even blends in nicely!