Travel Diary - Introduction

To celebrate the ten year anniversary of my trip from the United States to Australia, New Zealand, and back, I've decided to publish the diary I kept during the time I was actually travelling, day by corresponding day for the next five months or so. We'll pretend I published the first few entries on their corresponding days ten years ago, although a huge snowstorm prevented that from actually happening as my diary was in the mail. I wrote something every day I was going somewhere far from Melbourne, where I went to school for a semester, or returning there. Hope you enjoy it.