Rhonda is HERE!!

Early this morning I went to the airport to meet one of my very best friends from high school, Rhonda, and her mom, Bev. This was my first time going to the airport to pick someone up (sorry Mom), and I stood there on one side of the railing with the other Sydney-siders bundled up in coats and scarves wishing we had woken up at 5:30am instead of 5:45am so that we could have had our morning coffee as we eagerly look for our friends and family. I could tell when the plane from California arrived as people poured out with their flip-flops, T-shirts, and capris. As I waited for my two blondes I watched as people greeted each other, making up little stories about them in my head – the father whose son is going to college in the U.S. red faced but too manly to cry or hug so gives an over exaggerated handshake, the teenagers who were there to surprise their parents holding a huge sign above their head frantically asking “Did you think we were going to be here? Did you?” the lesbian lover returning with her mom making out with her girlfriend and all of us trying not too stare as they were really going at it, the mom saying, “Um, honey, I am going to have to break this up.” It seemed like forever and I started worrying that somehow I had missed my girls and as the outpour of passengers started to slow the ones of us left began to look like the sad puppy dogs at the pet shop peeking over each other’s head with our sad eyes. But then Rhonda and Bev were through the doors and I couldn’t believe how quickly it felt like it hadn’t been almost a year since I had seen them.

In the weeks prior to their arrival I started getting a little nervous, remembering all of the things that are different about the U.S. and Australia that I might have thought strange at first, but now am used to. Like the fact that in the middle of winter cafes and restaurants keep their doors open and houses are so cold that you never take your coat off. Or that the Australian dollar looks like monopoly money and the ATMs shoot out fifties instead of twenties, as if vacation money wasn’t easy enough to spend and you hand over your yellow bill to receive a red, blue, and purple one and a handful of change as anything under five dollars is in coins. The cars drive on the other side of the road and the drivers sit on the other side of the car and Sydney is about six times bigger than San Francisco – imagine the joy of driving in that as a small town girl! Here we say take-away instead of take-out, you have to ask for your bill, and there is no tipping. I tried to ‘warn’ Rhonda about a few of these things, but part of the fun of visiting another country is finding all of these differences in culture on your own!

So, after the initial hugs and greetings we found an ATM and then the taxi queue, and after the much-needed first cup of coffee we were off to the Taronga Zoo. I figured that they needed to do something active to stay awake, although they both slept great and were able to spread out on the plane. The zoo is beautiful and as you walk further down there are great views of the city, Opera House, and Harbour Bridge. And the weather was amazing, I spent all this time warning them about the winter cold and we actually had to take off our sweaters in the park. With all the gorgeous photos they took somehow I only ended up with this one at the new and improved seal exhibit – Makoa approved!