Welcome to Australia!

Alright, so we made it here.  30 some odd hours in airplanes and airports, but we made it and so did our luggage.  I think we are adjusting to the time a little better than last time when we visited, but there is still some jet lag.  We arrived here on Wednesday May 1 at 6 am.  It was nice arriving at the start of the day, but we couldn't check into the hotel.  We certainly looked like a circus arriving in town with our 6 pieces of luggage and no place to go.  Luckily the hotel was nice enough to hold our bags until noon when we could check in.  So, we began walking around the city, had a cup of coffee, and made it back here to the hotel somehow.  

Today we looked at apartments all day, it was quite exhausting.  Don't ask me why it was exhausting it just was.  We think we found one, but housing is in high demand.  Then Joe had to pick up the rental car...

I'll let Joe tell you about driving....because I wasn't in the car:

"...yeah...so driving on the right (sitting on the right) is not exactly as easy at it looks...I only had to drive 2 blocks in downtown rush hour traffic from the rental lot to the hotel lot and it involved maybe three turns...sounds easy, right?  Not for this Joe.  So I conservatively hugged those right hand lane markers (as the left side of the car now seems like 50 feet away and in a horrible blind spot) and consistently, without fail, turned the wipers on instead of the turn signal (turn signal is on the right side of the steering column, ladies and gentlemen)

In short...I must have looked like a bulbous American idiot moving at 5 mph (not to mention this whole kph bit they have going here) with the wipers going full bore with nothing but sunshine hugging the right....To say I need some practice is a bit of an understatement...tomorrow at like 4:00AM on some empty streets would be a good time..."

I opted to walk the three blocks from the rental car place to the hotel in fear for my life and Joe's driving.  He is a slow driver anyway, but I picked him out like two blocks before he arrived at the hotel.  I had to get the parking information from the hotel, its only 15 dollars a day, what a bargain.   He went from driving a 3/4 ton truck to a Toyota Yaris, Whoot!   I think we both need to work on driving, maybe taking drivers ed again???  We really feel like foreigners now, the whole driving bit.

Oh, one other thing, it is Autumn here and there are people wearing winter jackets and scarves, it was 75 degrees today!  I must have looked quite stupid in my sandals and shorts.  Oh well!

Hope you are all doing well.