Landed in Sydney

And here's to my first post from Sydney, Australia. Minus the tearful goodbye to Michelle and the obscene bag fee from United, my flight went well. However, I believe China Airlines was better when we flew to Singapore and Vietnam... But whatever, I made it here safely!

The lines at customs were huge. Apparently 7 international flights landed at about the same time. No problems there, though. On a somewhat funny note, I noticed signs posted around the customs area that said no cameras or cell phones in that area per the Customs Act 1901. Seemed odd to me that over a 100 years ago the Australian government banned cell phones...

It was pouring outside at about 8am when I finally got my bags and through customs and to the car that took me to my apartment. I'll post pictures of it later.

The first thing I did was hang up my clothes and put some things away (slightly annoyed that the hangers provided were crappy wire hangers, but that might also make me super pretentious). Later tonight I'll have to iron my shirts for my first day of work.

I next went for a little run to explore my area a bit. I'm staying in the City Center, which is kind of like the financial district, so things are a little dead at 10am on Sunday. Another thing I noticed, Google Maps wildly prepared me for what my immediate streets looked like. Just 2 blocks away I found a Westpac ATM and withdrew some cash. BofA has deal with them, so no bank fees. Woo hoo!

Next I found a little coffee shop with free wi-fi. Score! My apartment doesn't have wi-fi, which I find really odd. I guess my work is going to provide me with one of those 3G cards you plug into your laptop. Sounds brutally slow, but oh well. Anyway, I don't get that until tomorrow, so I was excited to find this coffee shop. Got some bacon and eggs (although it was Canadian bacon, which I still enjoy). The coffee is good, too, but realized it's $4.

Time to sign off and go walking around the city some more. I'll make my next post a little more exciting by adding some photos.