I am officially not good at blogging, but I'm trying. I like to think its a testament to me NOT being as nerdy as I previously thought... Anyways, today was day 1 of the internship at Matilda Rose Early Intervention Center! Yesterday, I went out with the assistant director of the program here to meet with my new boss. My internship is located about 30 minutes from my apt by bus which really isn't so bad. Yesterdaywent well with just a few minor hiccups (there was a bit of a fiasco on the bus on the way there where some guy tried to sneak a dog on so the bus driver shut off the bus and the guy started swearing and claiming his dog was a seeing eye dog... mmmmk) and then during my interview, a lady came to show these felt books that she makes for kids which resulted in me being an hour late for my first class- whoops. But it all went well and I started the internship at 9 AM this morning. I got there and met all the staff at the center and sat in on a session with an adorable little boy that has CP and a hearing disability. He was such a sweet kid and clearly very smart. Its a first for me to be in this kind of environment so it was somewhat of a tough day but really amazing. I finished early because many of the kids didn't come to their therapy sessions today, so my boss invited me to go with her to listen in on a meeting at one of the local schools for deaf and special needs children. The school is about an hour away from the center I'm interning at but it was totally worth the trip. I got to listen to some stories about children who had been neglected or abused and how the teachers at the school were trying to work through some of the emotional difficulties they are having. After the meeting, my boss drove me home which I REALLY appreciated because it took about an hour to get back and I was starving by the time we got done in the meeting and really wasn't feeling like sitting on a bus to get back. When I got back I met up with some other students to have dinner together (it was mexican night- yum). All in all, a pretty damn good day. I think this internship is going to be really great- I can't wait to get to know all of the kids in the center and watch their progress over the next few weeks!

Wheeeeeeeeeew. Okay, so sorry to everyone for the delay in my posting. Its been a busy couple of days. Hmmm where to start. Well, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent in orientations for the most part. I'm trying to get used to looking right-left-right when I cross the street. Also, I'm exhausted so maybe this post won't make so much sense. Yesterday, we went on a harbor cruise. It was AMAZING. I'll be sure to post pictures ASAP on fb. We got to the harbor around 3 and boarded the boat. There was really delicious food and drinks and for the first time since we arrived it was actually sunny. When we finished the cruise, it was around 6 so too early to go out. We headed back to our apts and hung out for a bit, then headed back out into Sydney. Weird thing here- lots of the bars are called "hotels". We ended up in Chinatown at a restaurant taking shots of sake and eating spring rolls because we couldn't find a decent pub to go to. I think it was because we were all EXHAUSTED from walking. I think I'm covering 10 miles a day easy. This morning I got up and headed downstairs to meet up with the crew in the lobby to head out on a tour of Paddington Market. Its a big open air market that they hold on Saturdays in this really cute area of Sydney- lots of cute villas and really good shopping. It was raining again (otherwise, I would've opted for the tour of the cliffs that run from Bronte to Coogee). There was a lot of cool artwork, clothing, and hand crafted jewelry at the marketplace. When we were all starving, we headed to a pub in the area for lunch. After that, we decided to tour the neighborhood. We wanted to go see the Victoria Barracks, but since thats an actual military base, it was closed to tourists today. So, we opted to go find the hedge maze. It ended up being a maze for four year olds (literally, the shrubs were 18 inches high hahaha). So, after challenging ourselves to complete that, we wandered on through the streets. We ended up stumbling upon a high school rugby game so we sat and watched- it was pretty awesome. At the concessions stand I talked with one of the parents who said that in Australia, rugby is non-compulsory for private school kids. And the game we were watching was a private school versus a local public school (pretty competitive game). As the game winded down, we were all pooped so we decided to head back. Two hours later (Yes, we wandered that far), we were back on Broadway near our apts. I've been wanting to have a group dinner but literally didn't have enough time for it so I asked everyone if they would be up for it tonight. General concensus was YES, so we went to the grocery store across the street and loaded up on groceries. The final head count was 12 people, so I was really surprised when the grand total for the groceries was only $50. I think we'll be doing lots of group dinners haha. It was really fun cooking in the common room and hanging out with everyone- drinking wine, talking about the day. Lots of us had gone on different tours that were offered today so it was great hearing about all the adventures. Tomorrow there are more tours planned so we'll see how it goes. Now that I finally have my internet hooked up, I'll be able to update more often.

"reLAX"

LAX= fun for maybe 15 minutes. But ten hours? Not so much. I connected to wifi but then there was no outlet. Then I found an outlet, but I couldn't connect to the internet. Life is so hard. Also, being sandwiched next to two crazy girls that think singing and dancing for five hours on a plane is acceptable was... interesting. And I mean singing OUT LOUD and dancing (spastically- at one point, one girl used her water bottle as a flute). Hope whatever they had wasn't contagious.

I'm starting to get tired. Not sure how the sleeping situation is going to go now that I found out I have the middle seat for this 14 hr flight. Yes, be envious of my good fortune... My next post will be from Sydney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Hey Everyone! So, I've officially started my journey. Mook and Bob dropped me off at Natalie's house just a little while ago. I'm sitting here waiting with Natalie while she sits under the dryer with her hair in rollers haha. I leave tomorrow morning for LA and then have a million hour layover until my flight leaves for Sydney. SO EXCITED!