We came to a land down under!

Hi all.
Welcome to the new blog. I itend to make it more sparkling and entertaining than our previous blogs. If that is possible.
Well for a quick update... the date is May 13th, and we are in Australia! I have no dowubt this blog will be easier to maintain because we now have wireless in the apt.

Oz is amazing. When we look out our window the place stll makes my jaws drop. Its warm (and its winter). Ozzies don't know what a real winter should feel like. Its quite green, the buildings, skyline and area we are in is just great. We can walk all over the place and people for the most part seem quite friendly.

we arrived here on the 9th. We left edmonton on the 7th evening, flew to san fran on a tiny plane ( that was a regional jet), it was suprisingly small. The sort f plane you would fly to Ft mac in, But any ways we got to san fran in one piece, and then took a huge jet from san fran to Oz. I thought the flight felt like 6 hours because i took my sleeping meds, and was out for a good portion of the trip. The flight was about 14 hours, but it was pretty smooth. As soon as we got into sydney, we made our way through the airport, half glues to the aiprort terminal windows, in shock that we were finally down under. The weather was great, Blue skies, all green. People looked quite healthy, sort of tan, and happy. We were really happy to be down under, and it sort of kept getting better through out the day.

We got on our next flight to brisbane, which was lovely, and then took an airport coach/bus straight to our apartment. Easy as pie. The one thing that strikes about oz, is how easy it is to live here.It has all the comforts and technology of home, but its nicer, warmer, prettier, so its sort of like home, but different.

As people would say in thailand. Its same same but different. We got settled into our apt by our land lord Charlie. Hes very nice, sort of like our previous land lord "Archie" in halifax! Our place is great. its in a tower at the end of the complex, and we are on the top floor. from our balcony we can see the horizon, bond and a bit of the broadbeach coast line. Although the apt came fully furnished, we still needed to get some odds and ends from Target (rice cooker), i really dont feel at home till i can eat rice!. Then we went to K mart, big W and some other stores to get all the comforts of home.

2 nights ago, we went on a pub crawl that was a little young, but a good night out in Surfers, the nights are quite warm, and we decided to walk home... from surfers. A good adventure, and a few hours later. We got home. We signed up at school 2 days ago, and today we are going back for more orientation sessions. I have a introduction/tea at 1 30, a welcome international students session at 10:30, and movies under the stars on campus at 7 pm.

Miss you guys lots. xoxoxo
jan and shiv