1 Week to Go!

It's hard to believe that I will be on the plane heading "down under" to Australia in one week! My twin sister Katie is also going, which makes me less nervous and more excited! Our schools will be about 20 minutes away from each other, so we plan on hanging out and traveling together :) My packing is almost finished (hopefully not over the weight limit!) and I will be saying my good-byes shortly.

I will be studying at the University of Sydney about 5 minutes from the city's center. There are 47,000 students there, so it will be a big change from Hope's small campus! I am living in an apartment with 4 other students either from my program, AustraLearn, international students, or Australians. It should be quite interesting since it is supposedly a co-ed apartment...

I leave on July 13, but won't arrive in Australia until July 15. As I'm sure you are well aware of, the flight is extremely long! I am flying into Melbourne from L.A. which will be a 15.5 hour flight, and then I am flying to Cairns for my program orientation, a 3 hour flight. It's going to be one loooong day, but well worth it when I finally get there! For my four-day orientation my program group will be going snorkeling/scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, seeing the wildlife, and learning about the Australian culture. I have always wanted to see/pet a kangaroo and hold a baby joey(so cute!) so maybe my time has come :)

All in all, I can't wait for my Aussie Adventure to begin! I will probably be writing a couple times a week, but if you would like to post comments or email me, I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you and how your lives are back in the States. You will be in my thoughts and prayers, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep me in yours too. Thank you so much and God Bless!