July 21

I arrived into Brisbane after midnight. By the time I got my bag and cleared customs, it was about 2am and the trains into the city had stopped running, so I booked the shared van. They waited for our entire flight to get out, so they could make one trip. I arrived at my hostel around 2:30am. They lost my reservation, so I showed them the email on my phone. The 6 person female dorm was booked, so they gave me the 4 person dorm instead. Good deal. Luckily, I was the only person in the room that night, so I didn’t disturb anyone when I got in. Maybe this would be a good sign and I’d be alone in this room a lot?! One can hope..

Anyway, I slept in until about noon. Then I got dressed and headed over to the University, signed some paperwork for the Financial Aid office, ate lunch, did some stuff on the internet, got a replacement ID card and then headed home. On the way home, I bought a beach towel (the hostel doesn’t give towels, you have to buy one for $10, plus I need one for the beach if I plan to go a lot in the next month). I also bought a new Student Bus Pass, then went to the grocery store for some food.

The hostel has a GIANT kitchen - 6 stovetops, 3 double-basin sinks, and a wall of refrigerator space, which was conveniently FULL of everyone’s bags of food. I labelled mine and crammed it into the fridge. I didn’t have any cash for the deposit for a set of dishes from the hostel (it seems they make you pay for a bunch of weird things), so I gave them my key in order to borrow a set for the evening. Then I returned them shortly after dinner. The hostel also has free movies (5 different features per day!), but I wasn’t interested in any of the features for this evening. Internet here is free, but doesn’t work in my room, ugh.

I got two roommates, one from Germany the other from Brazil, but they only stayed one night.