sunday, may 27 did not exist

I met up with the rest of my group in Los Angeles minutes before our flight boarded. There are a total of five (5) of us--two from Louisiana (me and Taylor), Maggie from Oklahoma, Ashton from Georgia, and Mac from Tennessee/North Carolina. We instantly became friends; it was one of those rare moments where you meet someone and you feel like you've known them for years. Taylor is going to Sydenham (near Melbourne); Maggie and Ashton are going to Packenham (also near Melbourne); Mac is going to Perth (in Western Australia); and I'm headed to Adelaide (in South Australia).

As we got on our plane, we kinda gawked like tourists at the flashy interior of the really cool vehicle. It had the purple running lights that changed colors, the nifty drink bars in first class, the chairs that recline into a full bed (gotta say, it was tough not to envy those people!), the individual video screens for each person...it is just one neato machine.

Our flight was 14 hours long from Los Angeles to Sydney. Honestly, it didn't feel like that long at all. Most of us slept for over 7 hours--Mac and I slept right through dinner and woke up without any knowledge that it was ever even served. The flight attendants were super-nice and peppy, and the seats were some of the most sleep-able seats I've ever seen. After a long nap, I watched part of a movie, fell asleep, watched a full movie, took a nap, got some water, watched part of a movie, slept for a bit, watched Modern Family, slept, ate breakfast, and hey cool we're there! It truly didn't feel like 14 hours.

Immigrations was a really long line, and to top it off my big suitcase got left in Los Angeles. Somehow the people transferring my bag decided it belonged in L.A. and not in Sydney with me. And somehow I suspected that would happen, so I had packed a change of clothes and my toiletries in my smaller rollaboard bag. Customs was easy, Taylor and I had the cutest little K9 dog sniffing our bags.

We met our Aussie contacts, Mrs. Karen Ray and her husband Mark and one of their compatriots from Brisbane, Mrs. Mandy. The five of us immediately started asking questions about the Australian culture, people, society, manners, customs, etc. and we started getting a feel for where we are going individually. For example, we learned that Melbourne is a hugely diverse city with some small pockets of Aboriginal communities. Perth is a huge outdoors-recreational community, and Adelaide is a coffee community that prides itself on being a "small country city."

As we drove to our conference center, we came through some beautiful countryside. We learned about kangaroos and the range of wild koalas; how Australia got the biggest wild camel community in the world; and what are the differences between gum trees and eucalyptus trees (there are none). At our center, we actually got to walk up to a mob of about a dozen wild grey kangaroos! Day 1 and we've already seen wild kangaroos!

We struggled to stay awake through dinner of Australian burgers (which is basically a small meat burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, a slice of pineapple and a slab of beet--surprisingly it's really tasty). Our first few orientation sessions kindof became a blur, and we all collapsed in bed at 7:45 pm.

I was warned about jetlag and how your body tries to stay awake during "normal" hours from home. I didn't experience that at all. I woke up for about ten minutes and fell back asleep. All in all, most of us slept between ten and eleven hours last night and we're all chipper and refreshed this morning. We're going through alot of culture orientation and learning about the people and the ministry of the International Mission Board in Australia. And I'm afraid I may never want to leave.