I didn't know I'd get hit by jet lag until 7 PM when I got knocked the eff out.
The flight was alright. Too bad I didn't have time to get out of the airport to explore during my layovers because it would have been cool to roam around Los Angeles and Fiji Island. Before I got to Fiji, I thought it was some well developed country because Fiji. Come on, islands usually attract so many visitors year round. But nope, it was kind of scary when I had my layover at Fiji because the airport was patched up with wooden boards and all the seats in the waiting room had wet stains on them or they're extremely dirty. However, the people there were SUPER nice, so it's all good! I learned a few words on the way too:
Bula = Hello!
Vinaka = Thank you!
I've heard stories of people meeting their best friends on the plane. Unfortunately, I am still shy and couldn't really strike up a conversation. The kid that I was sitting next to for the flight from Fiji to Sydney was even more shy than me. If I didn't introduce myself, he would not have talked to me at all. He was so timid that he did not want to ask me to pardon him so he can go to the bathroom. He waited until the flight landed and I got up to get ready to leave before he rushed to the bathroom.
I arrived Sydney airport at 12 PM but I spent the longest time at the airport speaking with a Vodafone rep to get my T-Mobile service to work. It seems like T-Mobile picked up Vodafone AU as the roaming service. Calling and Texting were working but data was not and the guy at Vodafone couldn't figure it out what was wrong. It took me until 2 PM to get it working by changing the preferred network from LTE to 3G. Who knew.
Thank goodness that Australia is an English spoken country. I had to ask around so much since the the moment that I landed. Apparently, there are some construction going on with the subway, so there was a free shuttle from the airport to Central Station which was where my hostel was located. I got to my hostel Bounce Sydney and the first thing I did was take a shower! I felt so greasy and nasty after 28 hours of travelling on the plane.
This marks the first time that I traveled to a country where I do not know anyone and it is my first time living in a hostel. My first thought? People make it sounds like hostels are so easy to make friends because there are so many people there with interesting stories and eager to meet people. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that vibe. Some people has already been here for months and established their own group of friends. Others, they don't seem too eager to meet new people. They take a glimpse of me and before you know it they're back on their phones. If I don't introduce myself, they weren't going to talk to me. They don't seem to want to make an effort to introduce themselves and strike up a conversation. Some of them outright ignores me when I try to talk to them. How am I going to get better at meeting strangers? There was one roommate named Hannah that seemed to genuinely want to talk to me. She was from the UK and this is her second year here in Australia on a working visa. Too bad yesterday was her last day because she is moving on to another hostel. This is extremely different from meeting people from my trip to Hong Kong. I guess it was different because we were all in the same program so we all had something in common to talk about. Here in Sydney hostel, different people have different goals and and plans and some of them are not there to meet people but to just have a place to stay for the night.
I have only completed my first day here in Sydney Australia and I am already feeling home sick... I miss home. I miss my friends. I miss my parents. I miss Dexter. This place feels more or less like New York with nicer people. I honestly don't know how to meet new people and I'm really bad at talking with people. This doesn't feel any better than home. I'm so glad that I had the chance to chat with Eva, Lucy, and Unkei on Facebook. They're the three friends that I miss the most and they always got my back no matter what. Unkei told me that being home sick for the first few days is normal because I don't know anyone, I'm bad at making new friends, and I just left home flew 22 hours away. She told me to hang in there and it will get better. Right now, I feel so alone. There's good and bad about travelling alone. I like how I can set my own schedule and move at my own pace, but I have no one to share the experience with me by my side. I miss travelling with Eva and Isabel. *sigh* I just hope it does get better because it's gonna mess me up if it continues like this! Why can't we just meet new people like we did in college? It seemed like it used to just spark and we're bffls!
Today was a relaxing day. I woke up at 5:30 AM and headed off to the Sydney Opera House are to walk around and explore. I saw a lot of cool stuff, see the sunrise from the harbor, and even Skyped with my mom and showed her the place. There's a lot of free museums and free things to do around here. I got to go to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Arts and their current showing was a project about energies. Energies around us that we cannot see but hear the wavelengths that is crossing our paths each and every day. On my way back to the hostel, I came across Sydney's Chinatown which is probably no bigger than the one in Boston. There is this huge market place that sells China products and even a food market place with veges, fruits, meat, and seafood! Inside Chinatown, there's this one mini store that sells "Emporer's Cream Puffs". The line was well over two hours wait... I gotta try this sometime before I leave Sydney because if it's that popular, then something must be special about it.
Well, I just finished my dinner and using the free WiFi at the shopping plaza food court. I should start cooking since eating out is not healthy at all. I checked out the hostel kitchen and it had cooking ware and eating ware, so I should be all good to cook my own meals. My plans for tomorrow is to get a bank account up and running and drop by the RTA to get an Australian license. My watch is showing that I've walked 28k steps (~12 miles). If I keep this up, I'm gonna lose my belly fat!
Long day ahead of me and a lot to look forward to. Until next time, peace out!
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