Gold Coast 2018 | Part 1
Where to even start with this one. I'm sure you've all figured this out by the title, but I'm splitting my Commonwealth experience into a few parts - mainly because there are sooo many photos and videos I want to share, but I don't want to overload you guys, either.
So, without further ado, I'll start from the beginning.
March 26th - April 1: Murphy's Law
I'll admit it - getting to Australia was an endeavor. I explain it all in-depth in the first part of my Commonwealth VLOG, but basically, I arrived a day later than planned. For the first few days after I arrived it rained on and off all day, so I stayed in the village mostly and tried to get over my jet lag.
Speaking of jet lag, this was the first time I've ever truly experienced it. I'm usually one to adapt quickly to different time zones, but this time was just so much more...intense. The Gold Coast is 14 hours ahead of Syracuse (EST) and those first few days dragged F-O-R-E-V-E-R because of it. I eventually got used to it, though.
The village was very scaled down compared to last Commonwealth Games. I think because of the time of year and the location, they knew a lot of countries would be sending smaller teams, and so a larger village wasn't needed. At least that's how I rationalized it in my head. I didn't really like how things were organized in general, but I will say that this is one of the only villages where I could immediately see how it would be re-used when the games were over.
Food was the same as in every other village - bland yet edible. They served a lot of "local" choices like kangaroo meat. They had a ton of kangaroo options everywhere. Question to any Australians reading: do you guys eat kangaroo regularly? Or was the village just trying to be interesting? I did try it (how could I not), and even vlogged it!
I've included my VLOG here so you can get a better idea of what the village looked like and see me eat that kangaroo, of course.
I usually end my posts asking about your own experiences, so I'll end this one by asking how you guys get over jet lag? I'd love to hear more tricks other than sleep all the time (my usual method).
