Worth the fifty-six hours of travel . . . . .

After fifty-six hours of travel time, five airports, four flights, numerous delays, and one very large ocean on July 17th I finally arrived in Sydney, Australia. It was a moment I had been looking forward to since I sent in my first round of exchange applications. Never having been outside of North America it is needless to say Australia is farthest I have ever been from home.

The week before classes started we had a short two-day study abroad and exchange orientation, and sorry University of Sydney you are beautiful and I love you but you don’t have anything on the Boilers.

In Boiler Gold Rush Purdue has one of the greatest orientation programs around. After participating in and leading BGR the past two years I suppose I have become a little spoiled. I now know you cannot put a price on an excellent orientation. It can take away so many nerves and anxieties that come in hand with starting in a new place with a diverse population and different ways of operating. By the end of those two days I had been told so many times to “just keep walking, it’ll be down on the left” I was just wishing for someone to appear with a Boiler Beacon and show me the ropes.

Do not get me wrong Sydney is a beautiful place full of wonderful people and I love it more and more everyday; but when in comes to introductions they could take a few tips from old West Lafayette.

Here's a couple of photos from the trip. The first photo is at the International Rugby Match - Australian Wallabies vs. South African Springbok (which Australia won!) The second photo was taken at Sydney Harbor in front of The Opera House.































--- Maggie Flynn