First impressions from Down Under

I'm in WA! No, not Washington...I'm in Western Australia!
After about 30 hours of being in an airport or an airplane or somewhere in between the two, I have finally arrived in Perth! The flights were long and actually kind of painful, so I'm very glad to be with family; I'm staying at my cousin's house near my uni until I get to move into the dorms.
The longest of these flights was a whopping 14 hour one, which found me sandwiched between two rather large men in the center aisle of the plane. I could've sworn I'd previously picked out my seat to be next to the window, so I'm guessing the airline changed it at some point without my knowledge. Needless to say, I was a little miffed at my situation. I did get to sleep for about 6 hours, intermittently, but after that my lower back ached so much I couldn't fall back asleep. On the bright side, I saw a couple movies I've been wanting to watch.
Upon arrival in Sydney, I found myself really disoriented due to the lack of sleep and the sudden humidity and heat. Maybe I'll also blame it on being upside down on the globe from where I normally am :) My airline got changed for some reason too, so I was told by an agent that Qantas would be taking me to my final destination of Perth. Hesitantly and blearily, I asked "...is that an airline?" to which the agent, probably for my sake, smiled broadly and nodded. Not one of my brightest moments. I later learned that Qantas is the national airline here, after being laughed at by my cousins when I told them what happened.
After my awkward moment with the agent, I followed some oddly-placed signage to the bus loading area, where a bus shuttled us to the Qantas domestic transit terminal. It was then, when I was sitting there in the 80-degree, humid bus that it struck me: they drive on the left side of the road here. Also, there's a lot of roundabouts. You can imagine my terror the first time the car veered left on a roundabout!

Another thing that struck me when I left the airport is the plant life here. The plants are really interesting to look at, and there are large succulents everywhere. We went to Kings Park in Perth City yesterday, where there is a botanic garden, and if you know me you know that I really enjoyed that! Kings Park is one of the largest inter-city parks in the world, and it has an area larger than Central Park in New York. There's also a beautiful view of Perth City and the Swan River, which is a saltwater river because the Indian Ocean flows into it.

Today, we visited the Wanneroo Cemetery to see kangaroos. It's an interesting place because there are no gravestones, only little placards and flowers where people are buried. The kangaroos and birds and people all walk around and it's like a park. Kangaroos are really weird in person; I stared at them for a while wondering how the heck those things are real because of the strange way they sit and eat grass.

The weather here has been unusual for the area, because it's been colder and wetter than normal for the summer. Apparently it's been the coldest February in a long time. Today it was about 70 degrees F and I felt perfectly happy as I walked along the coast on the nice bike path, but I saw a few Aussies with sweatshirts (jumpers, if we're trying to speak like the locals). I'm mentally preparing myself for when it gets to 40 degrees C (about 100 degrees F).

I'll be at my cousin's house in a suburb about 40 minutes from my uni until I move into the "student village" on Wednesday and start orientation, so until then I'm enjoying the nice weather, seeing what there is to see, and adjusting to the slower pace of life in Perth. It's been only two full days here and I can already say I love it here, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how this semester turns out!

~ JP