We've Arrived!!

After a long, long flight over, we made it to Adelaide! Our total travel time was over 30 hours and we were completely exhausted by the time we made it to our apartment. Ellyn was able to sleep on the long plane ride (LA to Sydney) but John attempted to get on "Adelaide Time" as soon as he got on the plane...drinking caffeine to stay awake until it was night-time in Adelaide and then trying to sleep when it was Adelaide's night-time. His body had other intentions, so he was awake for all but 1.5 hours of the 14 hour flight. Ellyn was too busy snoozing to notice...

Given the craziness and unorganized nature of the Sydney airport, we missed our connection to Adelaide. As we were waiting in line to go through security, already having missed our initial flight, some guy informed us "you should never fly into Sydney"...thanks, we'll remember that. No worries though - there was another flight to Adelaide about an hour later, which we managed to get on. However, we needed to inform the driver that was picking us up that we would be late. For some reason, John was unable to work the pay phones (we didn't have Australian cell phones yet) and so we had to boot up a computer and send an email. As Ellyn is tapping her foot watching the time, John frantically sends an email. Then we hear, "Final boarding call for flight 123 to Adelaide." John presses send to the email, practically mid-sentence, and we take off running through the airport...great way to start the trip!

We arrive in Adelaide and are greeted by our driver and also fellow Greenville office natives, the Schmutzs. What a nice surprise! We visited with them for a few minutes while waiting on our luggage and they gave us a bag full of goodies - Australian goodies that is: tea, Tim Tams, Shapes and fresh fruit! After saying goodbye to our fellow Americans, the driver gives us a quick driving tour of the City on the way to our apartment. We are met at our apartment by the Corporate Housing representative. After a quick tour and some signing of paperwork, we quickly change clothes and are off to meet Christian (Schmutz) and Hillary (another American from Denver working in the Adelaide office) for lunch. ( Click the link to see a video of our new place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1fsLkbHHHE). We love that lunch over here, during a work day, can still include beers. However, one beer + long flight over + jet lag = one very tired person. So we leave lunch, get cell phones and head back to the apartment for a "quick nap" before getting up to go to one of Ellyn's favorite restaurants from last time. BUT we sleep until almost 10 so we just grab gyros and come back to the apartment for more sleep.

Ellyn had already "planned" to go to the Central Market for a Big Brekkie on Saturday morning. We are up and at 'em and on our way to the Market by 10 am. We head straight to the Big Table. Ellyn loves the atmosphere of the Market and fighting for seats. John, on the other hand, is less than impressed. (Perhaps because he was convinced he had a table and Ellyn was convinced she'd found seats at the bar. We give up the table and go to the bar, just in time for the table to get up and someone else to get it. So we ended up sitting at a side bar area looking at a wall, not the people walking around...oops!) After a yummy Big Brekkie (Texas sized Toast, poached eggs, tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms in pesto sauce) and a coffee, we walk around the market and purchase some fruit, cheese and bread. We walk around the City for a few hours and join a gym (John's idea...they are MUCH more expensive than back in the US and Ellyn considers their time in Australia "vacation". Vacation = no working out) then head back to tap a "quick nap". We wake up at 3:30 am. Great - we're really going to be on Adelaide time in no time at this rate...

Sunday was a fairly lazy day, we went out to lunch, walked around the park, went to the grocery store (astonished by how much things costs - 18 pack of Cokes were 1/2 off and still cost $11; $3.50 coffees with no refills, $3.50 for 12 oz Coke in a restaurant/lunch bar...guess we are sticking with beer and wine) took more naps and had a true South Australian dinner - wine and cheese. Monday was the start of work, and well, we all know work isn't that exciting so we'll just leave it at: we had training, we got our client assignments and we tried to get acclimated to the differences between the US and Australian offices.