Welcome to the Wonderful Land of Oz....

I'VE ARRIVED!
Well not in the 'I've arrived as a powerful woman in this world making my own independent way to glorious fortune and fame' but I HAVE physically arrived in Australia! Hoorah! Unfortunately this Texas girl was not ready for the heat and humidity (go figure-what the crap is wrong with me? I've gone soft since leaving Austin apparently) and it feels sweltering to me here. Anywho...here are a few highlights from my trip so far:
[DISCLAIMER: I'm typing this blog on a paid internet computer so unfortunately no pics yet-though of course I already have like a hundred-such a camera nazi]

The Plane Ride(s)
So believe it or not, traveling for over a thirty hour time period is never very fun, but we did make the best of it. Did you know the STRAIGHT LINE distance between Amarillo and Brisbane is over 8,000 miles and let me tell ya we DEFINATELY did not travel in a straight line- Amarillo to Vegas, Vegas to L.A., L.A. to Auckland (New Zealand) and Auckland to Brisbane. Whew! A few interesting things did happen along the way: I SLEPT ON THE PLANE! Yep. A full two hours. Nice. Also, have you ever thought about someone living a Parallel Life to your own? I never really had before, but I think I met the girl who is living mine: 23 year old female from Texas, graduated from A&M, moved abroad to New Zealand, met a Kiwi (that's what those crazy New Zealanders are called), he came to visit her in Texas a couple of weeks ago, and they are about to move to Australia together for a year. Crazy right? And I sat next to this girl on the plane...what are the odds? Anyway, something to think about.

A day in the life of a Traveler
So we've only been in Brisbane a little over 24 hours, but here's a quick breakdown of what I've experienced:
6:56 am (12:56pm Texas time) Our plane touches down on Australian soil and we are T-I-R-E-D. I think Chris slept even less than me on the plane.
7:30am Collect our baggage and make it part-way through customs. Unfortunately we have a slight detour when Chris has to declare his rugby boots because they have foreign soil on them.
8:ooam They let us in the country..yay! I was a bit worried about this since I don't TECHNICALLY have enough money according to the visa specifications but no one asked any questions so I didn't offer the information. duh. I exchange about $500 American dollars, and I'm feeling pretty good at this point since I get about $800 Australian dollars in return. That is until I discover they have quite a bit of inflation here....$3.oo for some yogurt. From the grocery store. I mean honestly.
8:05am EEK! We realize we aren't sure how to get from the airport to the hostel we picked out. Information Kiosk anywhere? Oh good...there it is!
8:08am Successfully purchase bus tickets into Brisbane and look up hostel on map...short walk from bus station. Good.
9:52am One sticky bus ride, a grumpy bus driver, 4 block walk (WITH 100lbs of luggage), and a few direction inquiries later we've made it the hostel. Oh. This place does NOT look too encouraging.
10:15am Cloud 9. That's the name of our hostel. Yeah. Maybe if they had clouds in HELL. Ugh. I don't know if I've just gotten lucky in the past, but all the hostels I've stayed at before have been pretty nice, more like the Marriot when compared to this place. Chris DID pick it out, but I'm not pointing any fingers. It's just my idea of comfort is not staying in the "nicer" of rooms they offer (since that is all that is conveniently available) with 6 other people (three of which we find out are crazy Swedes who stay out late, come home and yack away for hours in foreign languages) in a dirty room, with a tiny bathroom that I won't even use (it's bad when you WANT to find a public restroom to use) that is supposedly air conditioned. Oh well. All part of the adventure right? I wonder if this is where old travelers who don't have a will to live anymore come to die...I should enquire at the front desk.
10:45am Feeling slightly more sane. Have showered (with my eyes closed-I DO NOT want to see what is in this bathroom) and changed into fresh clothes. At least the hole of hostel serves a purpose-we want to find jobs ASAP to get out of this place.
11:55pm After using the $4 an hour internet service next door, we feel highly discouraged. The fruit of our frantic job searching labour is two shaky leads. We proceed to sort out phones and grab some fruit at the grocer before stopping into a Backpackers travel/job finder place.
3:40pm Walk out of Travellers at Work (the name of backpacker place) $145 lighter. Argh. Been convinced I should pay 100 Australian dollars for joining an online job service finder for the next year and $45 for a permanent mailing address service. Chris is all gung-ho but I just hate spending my money on that. I guess it IS an investment, and we definately weren't successful searching online by ourselves. Cross your fingers this works out....
5:00pm Well in need of a couple of drinks, we decide to spend some of our precious cash on a few ciders at a backpackers pub. MMMM...nice and crisp.
6:15pm Feeling significantly more relaxed but also significantly HUNGRY. The last real meal we had was on the plane more than 12 hours ago. We decide to forgo cooking in the kitchen at the hostel (personally, I don't think food should be allowed anywhere near that place), we pop into subway for a sandwhich.
7:00pm Drag our feet back to the hostel climb into bed and have blissful sleep until those crazy Swedes get back from their partying. Thanks goodness for headphones and Coldplay to sing me back to sleep.

Well that was our first day-kinda depressing huh? Oh well, I'm feeling much more optimistic today. It's only noon, but we've already walked all around central Brisbane, through some beautiful botanic gardens, along the river, through famous shopping on Queen St., and now we're back to work searching for jobs at TAW. Right now we're thinking about finding jobs out of Perth and driving across the outback in a rented camper van to get to the West coast. Man I love adventures....