Greetings from Australia!

Made it here safely, with some delays, but all in one piece. I will write a real update after I take a nap.
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Now for the update.

I left Seattle Jan 24th on a 9:51 AM flight to LAX. I was supposed to have left on the 23rd at 4:00 PM have a short layover in Dallas/Fort Worth and continue on to LAX for a 20 hr layover. I had gotten that ticket with frequent flier miles and it was the only one that would give enough time in LA to get my bags and get checked in again. However the morning of the 23rd that didn't seem too appealing to me, so I called up American Airlines and got it switched to an award flight through Alaska Airlines that wasn't posted on the AA website.

My new flight got me to LAX at 12:20 PM and my next flight out of LAX would be leaving at 8:30 PM. Still a long layover, but much better. I had to pick up checked bags at baggage claim and get over to another building with them, I checked in with Qantas Airlines and waited in the International terminal for hours. I got lunch, there weren't many things to do in the International terminal, all the food and coffee and shops were outside the security, so there weren't anything to look at and see. Somehow I kept myself busy, talked to my mom and Ben, watched The Office, cleaned up the files on my laptop... Finally it was time to board the Boeing 747-400. We didn't end up leaving until 11:45 PM. We waited on the airplane for over 3 hours. First they had to replace a filter on the plane, then an elderly lady started having some medical problems, they had her on some oxygen and we waited for an ambulance to drive out to the airplane to get her. While all this going on another lady started getting cold feet about flying across the ocean and wanted to get off too. Once all this was done they had to refuel the plane, I guess top it off since we waited there for so long.

There was a layover in Auckland, New Zealand but the delay didn't matter for this flight because the same plane I was on from LAX was continuing on to Melbourne, Australia. Everyone continuing still had to get off and go through another security check while they cleaned up the plane. We reboarded and headed to Melbourne. Because of all the delays I did have to get my flight rebooked. We got off the plane, went through customs, waited for our bags had to check in again (while in line to recheck my bags a nice lady helped me out, I had way too many bags for one person to carry so she moved my bag up the line so I wouldn't have to move my other two bags and come back for the last one every time the line moved.)

While waiting for my last flight I exchanged some money, got some coffee (my first purchase with Australian money! and it was good!) and then tried to call the school to let them know that my flight was rebooked because of the delays. Making a call in Australia is a little different then in the states, and the payphones didn't give change so I lost a few bucks while trying to unsuccessfully call the school. I got online for $5/hr and emailed them to let them know.

Finally, I was on my last flight to Adelaide, it was a pretty short flight compared to all the others (SEA to LAX: 2.5 hrs, LAX to AKL: 12 hrs 40 min, AKL to MEL: 4 hrs, MEL to ADL: 1 hr 20 min). When I got picked up at the airport it was like in the movies when the limo driver stands at the bottom of the escalator with a sign with your name on it. Except my driver didn't drive a limo, he had a van, and it was almost my name, it was spelled wrong (that's OK, I am used to it). The driver was very nice, his name was Garry and he gave me a lot of information about Adelaide and the Gum trees and the sporting events (quite different then the big events in the US - Cricket and the tennis open) and the festivals coming up (hopefully I will be able to go to some of the things going on around here. He guessed that my family came from Germany and said that there are a lot of Hoffman's living in Adelaide because a lot of Germans came here in the 1800s to flee from religious persecution. Also, I road in the passenger seat, which would be the drivers seat in the US. Its very hot here, like in the high 80s.

I haven't seen much of the school yet, it looks amazing and beautiful, the architecture looks pretty old. For this first week I am staying with a couple girls in a house, then I will move over to the dorm on campus. Which is good because then I will know at least someone. I have meet one of the girls and we talked for a little while about being away from home (she is from a small country town, population 200) and is in Adelaide to go to Uni (University, they don't call it college here, that is like High School I think), we also talked about differences between here and the states. Like they have a fast food place I saw on my way from the airport to Annesley that has the same exact logo as Burger King back in the states but its called "Hungry Jack," I will have to try it to see if it tastes the same. She said that Burger King here is a doughnut place, funny huh?? I went to sleep last night and slept for like 13 hours. I felt so good to sleep in a bed! Well, that's all I have so far about my adventures down under, I am hoping to go explore sometime today or tomorrow so hopefully I will have some pictures to post soon. It's beautiful outside! Its currently 70 degrees outside! Its a great change from winter up in the states :-)