First two days!

We are finally beginning to settle into our cabins! But first, the flights

It was a long ass day. 4 flights. I still have to do the math for time spend traveling. Began at 4:30am and took off at 7am. Took an hour for the flight and waited an hour in Chicago. The Chicago flight was 4 1/2 hours and spent EIGHT HOURS IN SAN FRANCISCO. The flight from America to New Zealand was 12 hours. thankfully right after dinner i fell asleep and woke up occasionally but slept pretty well. I woke up 2 hour before landing and in time for breakfast. So the flight was not bad at all and the sleep helped the jet lag. Spent another 5 hours in New zealand. It was a very cool airport (will be back there). And then had a three hour flight to Brisbane. So looks like total flying time was.....i dont know. i will do it later.

Upon arrival and driving (2 1/2 hours) the country side is beautiful. it is amazing. cant wait to take even more pictures. lake ainsworth is a very interesting lake. it is stained a coca cola kind of color. The community is a very tight nit and warm place. I am very excited to get involved. We had a cook out and met the professors. We went to a pub that night, one that i imagine we will frequent quite a lot. Went to the beach and walked along it and my winter paleness got burned after about 30 minutes total on the beach (not even all at the same time!!). Definitely putting sun screen on a lot. My upper back and forehead are a little burned :( oh well! Sleeping was easier than i figured. It was humid and a little warm but it was surprising easier to sleep though.

The next day (2nd day here), we got a little lesson on water safety. mainly rip tides and then we went to a town south of us called Ballina.and we were at a mall and got food at Aldis. The mall was a cool place and would like to go back. i got back to the cabins and just hung out and eventually went to the beach and went for a swim! Rain clouds are rolling in and it was VERY choppy. the waves were huge! it was a workout but a lot of fun. The ocean is much cooler than i expected. difficult to get used to at first. Can't wait to get even more settled in. It's going to be a great three months