G'day from Australia!

I made it! It is Wednesday morning now and I feel more rested than I thought I would be after few nights of not enough sleep, including last one.
We arrived at the Sydney airport around 6.30 am on Tuesday, local time. The flight was 14 hours, and it surprisingly was not that bad. I tried to sleep for about 10 of those hours, but slept maybe for 5. We went through the customs fairly quickly and with not too much waiting. The WYD organizers have called a shuttle for us, and we were at our accommodation site by 8.30.
We are staying at a girl's college, 7-12 grade, in a classroom, 10 of us girls from our group. The first thing that strucked me when we arrived is these wild parrots flying around the campus, dozens of them. They are cockatoos of some sort, green with red tummies. Chirlip, chirlip,... super cute. I was chasing that flock of parrots in San Francisco, and here they are right in our front yard!
We had breakfast, picked up our registration pack, settled in for a bit and were on our way by 10-10.30. I had planned to go to (the only) event in Hyde Park, but there were sooo many people we couldn't really figure out where of what the event was supposed to be :)
We then stopped by the Cathedral, but again there was a long line to get in and they had to close the line so that people will be able to get to the next event at Barangaroo. We just went into the adoration chapel for a while. We then stopped at Starbucks to get a doze of caffeine, got some postcards, and then joined a sea of pilgrims toward the harbor. It took us quite a while to get there, and the way it worked out, we came in at a different gate than what we were assigned and just picked up lunch (meat pie, orange, juice and lemmingtons 6-pack) and stayed at that location.
The sections were separated by metal fences, with wide corridors for people to get between the sections. After lunch, I spotted Tish, my friend from Austin, walking through the corridor closest to our spot, and we we decided to go for a stroll and check out the entire site.
It was colder a bit in the morning when we first arrived, but by the time we left for the town it was already warm enough for just a t-shirt. It is beautiful weather, sunny and warm. It's winter here, so the sun went down around 5. Within an hour of sundown the temp went down so much that I put on a sweater, a jacket, hat and gloves!
We were about 500 meters from the main stage, where the altar was. There were huge screens every 100 meters or so. So many different nationalities, and I tried to get a picture of as many flags that I see, and take random pictures with people from different countries. (I'll upload them tomorrow) But after an hour the police started closing down some of the corridors to make room for the prime minister to pass buy. So, Elridge, Tish and I got stuck in a different section until right before the Mass.
The Mass was beautiful, with hundreds if not even thousand priests. It was well organized and we all were able to receive the communion even though we were so spread out and there were so many of us.
After the Mass, we had dinner at the same site - chicken stew, biscuit, cake and juice. We stayed until about 8 and then head for another really long walk back. My group got separated from me, so I ended up taking a bus by myself, and they took a taxi.
We have a media pass, and there will be 1 minute reports on relevant radio in Austin every day at at 6.15, 7.15, 8.15 am and 3.15, 4.15, 5.15 pm

I will finish this post tonight......
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