Arriving

I finally landed in Adelaide around 3pm Sunday, July 10^th. It was much easier than the Sydney airport there! I followed the signs down to baggage claim where there was an older gentleman standing with my name on a sign. I introduced myself and he took me over to get my luggage, which didn’t take more than 5 minutes. He seemed pleasantly surprised I only had 2 suitcases, and we made our way out to the car. As he was putting my luggage in the trunk, we were chatting and I made my way over to my door.. only to have him smile and tell me I was on the other side. I’d forgotten the driver’s side was on the RIGHT, so I got embarrassed and apologized. He said it wasn’t the last time I was going to do that.

My view from the plane to Adelaide

The Village University Housing entrance

It was just a 10-15 minute drive into the city to my housing. The main thing I noticed about Adelaide was the Space.. everything was very open. The roads and sidewalks were so wide, and there are trees and other vegetation everywhere. It was lovely. We got to The Village, the University Accommodation place, and my driver helped my with my suitcases and wished me a good stay. When you walk into the building its basically a lounge/reception area with a reception desk, and a huge room with lots of couches, a tv, a ping pong table, and a pool table. The lady at the desk, Alicia, handed me a lot of paperwork with tons of information in it on what to do my first week of arrival. I then had an introduction to the accommodation session with 2 other students that consisted of a slide show and some rule explaining by Alicia. Then we were taken to our housing. Unfortunately, I’m being put in temporary housing for now until my actually place is ready.. so I can’t really unpack and get settled, but the townhomes really are great! The bedrooms are small but have a desk and 2 dressers, and we have a closet as well and a small bathroom. I didn’t have any time to settle in at all though because Alicia said the supermarket place closed in an hour. I was definitely impressed at the smoothness of my arrival in Adelaide. Getting to and set up in my housing was easy and comfortable. Everyone seems to be there to help us get settled in okay and learn everything we need to know.

Me right before Chinatown in Adelaide

Oliver at dinner

One of the students I’d met earlier, Oliver, from Germany, and I rushed off to get the essentials we would need immediately, like toilet paper, food, and drinks. It was just a 5-10 minute walk over there and I got bread, peanut butter and jelly, some juice, and apples, as well as some toilet paper, paper towels, and hand soap. Found out my debit card doesn’t work here, but I am able to take out cash through the ATM with just a $2 fee. Then we took all our stuff back and dropped it off. At this point I tried to get my Internet working. It worked fine in the lounge area, but wouldn’t work in our rooms without some cable that we had to wait to get Monday. I emailed home quickly to say I was okay, then my friend, Ben, who lives here in Adelaide and I met online. Hopefully I’ll be getting a tour from him today (Monday). :) Anyhow, after that, Oliver and I decided to go explore a little and grab some dinner and drinks. We found a great spot on Rundle Street and had a great dinner of salads and wine. The streets were relatively empty because it was Sunday and nearly everything was closed, but it was still so exciting looking at all the shops and restaurants. I can’t wait to see it during the week!

With my after dinner wine

I took lots of pictures and Oliver and I made our way back to The Village. I was surprised to not feel more jetlagged, but I assume it was simply the energy from the excitement I was feeling. I felt great.. thrilled to be here in Adelaide finally. It was everything I’d hoped. I knew I needed to get some sleep though because we had to be at orientation at 9am Monday and I had pretty much gotten no sleep the last 48 hours. The bad news is, I didn’t have an alarm clock. Anywhere. So I literally fell asleep just hoping I’d wake up early, which I usually don’t have a problem with being such a light sleeper. 6:30am this morning I woke up.. checked the time, and got up to shower. Oliver met me in the lobby at 8:30 and we headed to Uni, which is about a 20-minute walk from where we live. From there we met up with tons of other International students for orientation. We checked in and then went into a huge lecture hall for a power point presentation. Literally 90% of the international students seemed to be Asian.. many from China. I chatted with a girl next to me and she asked me where I was from.  I said Indiana and she looked very surprised. After chatting for another minute or so she commented that it seemed many Indian people spoke excellent English, she’d noticed. From that point on when people asked me where I was from I simply replied “The U.S.”

Looking at map on our way to Uni

After chatting with that girl, a girl sitting in front of me, (also Asian), turned around and asked me about myself. She’d never even heard of Indiana! She also thought it was hilarious that I was going to school for English AND spoke English! All in all, it was interesting to see the perspective other international students had on me. After that we got a tour of the campus. Its huge and the buildings are beautiful! Oliver and I met a handful of other Germans, surprisingly enough, and afterwards we all went out for lunch at a pizza place right off campus. They’re all very nice and friendly and want to know the story of how I ended up here. I definitely feel like a small town Indiana girl here… many of the other students I’ve met are very intelligent or very rich or very beautiful. I feel like I’m in a unique situation, but I like it. I like being different. Also, its been a huge challenge understanding all these different accents! There are so many of them from every corner of the planet!  I’ve only met one other girl from the U.S. and she’s from California. The majority of the other students I’ve met are either Asian or from Germany, but there are truly students from everywhere. Its crazy.

After lunch we all went to get our student IDs, then Oliver and I went to get a cup of coffee and relax for an hour before our enrollment workshop. After that, I’m meeting up with Ben and soon after getting dinner on Rundle Street with him, Oliver, Oliver’s friend, Frank, and hopefully a couple I met today from Norway.

Its an exciting time and I’m loving every minute! Its been a blast :) More to come soon!

Walking through Adelaide