SYDNEY!

First of all, the plane rides from Portland, ME to Sydney are LONG. Just getting from Portland to LA took 10 hours, 8 of which were on the planes. Then, the plane ride from LA to Sydney was delayed 2 hours (we were on the plane the whole time!), and then the trip was 14 hours. I slept the ENTIRE ride (except for meals). Although the movie selection was pretty good, I slept through Wall-E, A Fish Called Wanda, and The Duchess. Lets just say I have never been happier to see an airport than I was to see Sydney's airport.
When I got off the plane, I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans. After all, I left freezing from Portland! But I was too hot in Sydney, so I put on shorts, t-shirt, and thongs (flip-flops).

I am currently in beautiful Sydney, where the temperature is 95F (ie wicked hot!). Yesterday I went to the beach and swam in very warm water. The waves are huge, and they really push you far, so body surfing was a lot of fun.

Today, I went to the zoo. I SAW PENGUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were really hard to get pictures of because they would not sit still, so I took a movie. They were adorable Little Penguins and Fiordland Penguins. I am a happy. Oh yeah, we saw kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, other Australian creatures. I will post pictures tonight/tomorrow hopefully. We took a harbor cruise in Sydney harbor. We saw the opera house and the islands and it was beautiful. It was really relaxing, and I did not burn much. Australia unfortunately does not have much of an ozone layer, so the sun is very dangerous.

Have fun wherever you may be (especially those of you stuck in the snow!).