Leaving and Flight 1:
Brian and I left Wisconsin in a whirlwind of packing chaos, tears, and a severe lack of sleep. We boarded our 14 hour flight to Hong Kong around 3pm and our journey began. We flew straight North through Wisconsin, through Canada, through the Arctic Circle, and down Russia and China. We flew even with the moon during our cross over of the North Pole and saw the sunrise over the ice-berg laden ocean and frozen Russia. It was the most amazing views and the pictures do not do it justice at ALL. I never thought I would get to see the arctic or russia, but I am beyond glad I did. We flew with Cathay Pacific and probably one of the best airlines I have been on. The seats on the first flight were interesting: to recline the inner lining slid down instead of leaning the whole chair back in the way of the people behind us. The food was fantastic! We had Penne with pomodoro sauce and Italian mixed vegetables with a roll, melon, and vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream. For our Breakfast meal we got Bow-tie pasta with mixed vegetable and mushrooms in pesto cream sauce, seasonal fruit, and chocolate mousse cake. DELICIOUS CHOICES! We landed in Hong Kong about 9pm their time and had to go through security again (just our carry-ons - our checked bags went through their own security without us having to grab them). Brian and I went on to find our gate and once settled we each took turns going to the bathroom, changing into shorts and brushing our teeth. Brushing your teeth is the best experience after a flight that long. The only bad thing about our first flight is that our backpacks didn't really fit underneath the seats in front of us and we had to be very creative with our leg space. Also, even with getting up and moving around a few times my legs swelled a bit, but not Brian's.
Flight 2:
In Hong Kong we only had to wait about an hour before boarding our next flight where we had to go through yet another small security check of our carry on's before boarding. In this security check they even dumped out the contents of my water bottle even though I had filled it up from their airport water fountains. However, that was not a big deal at all. On this second flight we had more room because it was only two seats by the windows and 4 in the middle, unlike the first flight that was 3 by the windows and 3 in the middle. Our backpacks also fit under the seats which was way more comfortable! Again, the food was amazing! For Supper we had Penne pasta with roasted vegetables and tomato sauce, a small chicken/corn/and Pommery mustard salad (FANTASTIC), a roll, and cookies and cream Haagen-Dazs (Brian didn't want his so I got TWO ice-creams! Totally worth it). For breakfast we got fresh fruit, strawberry yogurt, a roll, and smoked salmon egg souffle with Hollandaise sauce and bacon, potato wedges, spinach and cherry tomatoes. I can not state enough how amazing this food was, especially since my food to Guatemala last January was of a rubbery consistency with a taste to match. Back to my story, we landed in Perth around 7:30am after a seeing a beautiful sunrise over the outback. We could see the mining quarries that helped boom WA (western Australia's) Economy since before WW2. There is also a LOT a LOT more greenery than I had ever anticipated. By 8am we were through immigration, grabbed our checked bags and headed to customs/quarantine where we were surprisingly allowed to skip and head straight for a taxi! I was so paranoid for nothing! :D I read of so many horror stories of customs where people got brand new golf shoes thrown out or things with animal hair on it thrown out (WHICH I DON'T OWN A THING THAT HASN'T BEEN IN CONTACT WITH A CAT) hahaha
IN PERTH, WA:
So we had our luggage in two "trolleys" = Shopping Cart and we found a taxi. Brian almost got in on the right side of the car thinking it was the passenger side! Still weird seeing the steering wheel on the right. Also the whole time we were driving to the University Village I felt like the driver was going the wrong direction in the roundabouts or about to turn into oncoming traffic. I am so happy Brian sat in front so I could just look out and see the town without worrying to much about the driving itself. It was about a 30 minute cab ride from the airport to the Village. We arrived at 830 with 6 bags and two backpacks only to realize the residential office didn't open until 9am. We got checked in, paid our deposit of $1,200, and got the keys to our room. We have a 4 bedroom apartment - 3 single rooms and our double room, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a balcony. Each of our bedrooms have a key so we can lock it! Very comforting feature! No other roommates were here and our apartment is on the second story with no other apartments behind us, just one underneath us! Meaning we have our own separate entrance and its way better than any other on campus housing I have seen!
We threw all of our luggage on the floor, found our pj's and past out before even pushing the two twin beds together. We slept all the way until 11pm! After sleeping the whole afternoon where it was 98 degrees and no fan, we decided to go for a walk at night when it was in the 60s! A very good decision. Even though we couldn't see a lot of campus at night it was a beautiful walk. They have brick trails everywhere and my walk to campus is a sandy path with towering trees! Absolutely gorgeous. We didn't walk through the heart of campus, just stayed near the road that circles campus (Discovery Drive) because it had street lamps and we figured we couldn't get lost that way! We looped the entire campus which is HUGE! It is like UW Eau Claire, UW River Falls, and UW Parkside combined and a lot more greenery than ALL the campuses. Which is hard to believe since Eau Claire has a gorgeous river running through it and River Falls has so much space between buildings! Its just hard to describe! I'll try to take more photos! They just do not do it justice! After our walk, Brian and I made some Asian brand of ramen noodles - Stir Fry flavor, which I have fallen in love with over what we have in the states. It has less sodium and its super cheap. We each got one package of the ramen noodles in our welcome bags from the dorm along with tips of where to shop, water bottles, and some instant coffee mix. I'm glad we brought our favorite sauté pan otherwise we would have been stuck! After dinner we went to back to bed, again without rearranging our room or putting luggage away.
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