Abroad @ MindSay 
study
So I'm sitting at my desk looking out at penrith. In the distance there are small mountians and everything here is green. At first glance I feel like I'm looking out at just another US state and in a way that is comforting to me. Then I started meeting people and seeing places that are in no way familiar to me. Im just going to start at the beginning:
THE PLANE RIDE SUCKED! First off I had to go through security at RDU and that was enough to make me want to leave the country(people are sooo mean). Then I took a 40 minute flight to DC, waited 2 hours, took a 5 hour flight to LA, waited two hours, then one 14 hour flight into sydney. As bad as the flight was, I had a sigh of relief when I saw the Sydney Opera house out the plane window. When I arrived in Sydney it was soo crowded and customs was a nightmare. I finally got to the area where the shuttle was supposed to pick me up then realized I was in the wrong spot. Finally my shuttle driver found me and i tried to get in on the drivers side of the shuttle (they drive on the other side). He was very nice and for about an hour told me all about australia.
When I was dropped off I met up with my mentor, Cameron who is a senior and an australian living next door to me. Him and his friend Marcus, from England, gave me a tour around the campus and then took me on the train to get to the shopping area. We bought some things I needed and then I ran straight for the Starbucks.
When we got back I started setting up my room. Our apartment is pretty nice. I have four roomies, three which I have met. We have two bathrooms, a kitchen, laundry room, and a pretty big common room. My room is upstairs along with three of my roomies. Alisa is one of my roomies and I love her because she is soo nice and she takes me around because she has a car. Raya is another roomie from sydney as well, and Nicole lives downstairs. They are all nice and are excited to show me around. Anyways, as I was unpacking, Alisa comes in my room and tells me they are headed to the "bottle shop". And since I am legal I decided I would joing them. I bought my first bottle of alcohol and cameron and alisa told me to take a picture of the experience.(dont worry it will be on facebook soon).
Australians are def hardcore drinkers. They started drinking last night at around 6 and kept going till around 1 in the morning. We had around 12 people crowded in the next door apartment and orders dominos pizza. I was the only american there and everyone was very nice. Jet-lag hit me around 8 and i told everyone I was off to bed. I got the reaction "Your going to bed at 8 and you arent drunk, I thought you were american?"
Well Im tired and upset that Duke just won against UNC. Its also been raining and storming really bad here, which is odd for this area but it makes me sleepy. I will hopefully be headed into the city this weekend and if not i know we are going to Bondi or manly beach next week.
Ill write again soon,
erica
ps here are some interesting things I've found so far
-vegemite is not very good... way too strong and tastes like soy sauce to me
-they like american music but are also big into techno music
-they say "no worries" all the time
-they call flip flops thongs which really took me by suprise when someone said Im glad you brought thongs haha
-a trolley is a cart
-they eat meat pies and sausage rolls and the idea of a sausage biscuit freaks them out
-they dont have ketchup... they have tomato sauce
- a line in a store or anywhere is a "que"
-They all are glad that i want Obama in office
The first thing most people want to know is why I would choose to travel to the other side of the world for my first time abroad, instead of somewhere slightly more familiar. It's true that the most exotic place I have ever been is Toronto, (So very foreign, with those Tim Horton's on every corner). But ever since I was a kid, I've loved learning about other cultures and countries. I could often be found searching the bookshelves at the library for books about ancient history, myths, and art. While I fell in love with all of the cultures, from Native American to Greece, the Norse, and the Egyptians...above all I loved Japan. From the first image of a crazy yokai*, to the scenes of samurai warriors, I was hooked.
*Yokai are the multitude of demons that populate Japanese folklore. There are hundreds of different yokai, from the demon shaped like a sandal, Bake Zouri to the tragically beautiful Rokuro Kubi. They are easily my favorite part of Japan's rich and bizarre folklore.
From there it was just a simple progression to a love of everything Japanese. I have always loved cinema, and I quickly started watching everything I could get my hands on that was from the land of the rising sun. From Akira Kurosawa to Kiyoshi Kurosawa, from Takashi Miike to Shinya Tsukamoto, I have seen them all. The anime of Hayao Miazaki and the manga of Junji Ito...the list goes on. Needless to say, I have grown from a nerdy bookworm into a woman who has the deepest respect for the country and people of Japan.
But beyond that, I feel that it is of the utmost importance in today's world, to really make an effort to travel outside of our country, and experience the globe. In a world full of the greatest advances in technology that is more and more bringing the world closer together then ever before, it is up to my generation and the ones after it to change the world for the better and open our minds to other cultures and ways of life. It is a global society we are living in, with the horrors of war on our televisions, radio, and computers every day, it is truly up to us to make the effort to change. I want to understand why Americans are so disliked, even hated, in most countries...and do whatever I can to change that. In Japan, I will truly be a representative of my country, my state, and my city, and it is an opportunity for change and growth that will stay with me forever.
Alright, enough with the drama. Welcome to my blog and my journey...I'll be updating almost daily so keep checking back! I am so excited!!!
Leah
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