Reflections on a first stop

So, first, pictures! Here are the Sydney pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135123&l=94f8c&id=1032

Now, a few reflections on Sydney itself. Maybe it's just the beautiful sunshine I've had while here... but Syndey seems like a shining city to me. It seems so clean. In many ways, it reminds me of home - like another Toronto or Vancouver (actually more Vancouver because of its glassy, modern skyscrapers). Many cultures all coexisting in a clean, modern, safe city. The public transit seems reliable and useful. The parks are clean and many. The waterfront beautiful. It has older sections (though old here means Victorian) and newer ones. It has pedestrian thoroughfares. It has a distinctive (and large) Asian population and area. Oh, and it also has homeless people (one of whom I think I saw peeing into a coke bottle on the sidewalk today. I didn't stop to ask him why).

I have relfected also on how I reacted to getting here and being here. Though perhaps it was not entirely obvious, I suffered greatly from jetlag. I am still adjusting to the time change, and I am only now getting any semblance of an appetite back. I found myself fatigued and disoriented, no more sure of where I was than what day it was (what day IS IT??). So that part was tougher than I anticipated. In the past I have shrugged off this thing people refer to as "jetlag."

I was also homesick. Yes, I know most people would have been bursting with excitement at the chance to visit Sydney. But simple, routine-oriented, comfort-seeking me sort of just wanted to go home. Home to my bed, home to my parents, home to my friends and the life that makes sense to me. But that, like the jetlag, is fading. I am adjusting, accepting. I wanted this year to be a challenge; I wanted my five days alone in Sydney to be a challenge. I got my wish and I think learned and grew from it.

I have enjoyed my time in Sydney and its environs. But I am done. Ready for my next stop. Tomorrow, Megan arrives and we fly to Adelaide. Good bye, Sydney; I hardly knew ye.