first impressions

We flew in with the sunrise.

After over a day spent on four planes, five airports and ten time zones, solid ground felt like waves under my feet for hours. My first day in Sydney was spent getting rehydrated, carrying my baggage up three floors and countless flights of stairs because the elevator was broken and I was in desperate need of a shower and clean clothes, obtaining an Australian phone number, filling out forms and getting accustomed to the life on the opposite end of the world (and on the wrong side of the equator!). Campus is a gothic little paradise of high ceilings, palm trees and a choir of birds and some endangered rodents. I can see Manly beach from my dorm, and the waves and a horizon without mountains separating ocean from sky. From where I’m sitting, I can see my two first spiders, and the ceiling above the window is cobwebs. The floors are carpeted, and the hallways are cold and I regret deciding against my knitted socks.