Hello, America.

This is blog 1 in a series of posts about my Startup Catalyst trip.

Wow-wee, what a whirlwind of an adventure it has already been.
It all started yesterday, or technically today, at 4.40am with an alarm and quick trip down to the Gold Coast Airport. The fast flight down to Sydney was all in build up to my first international flight, and one I feel so fantastic about going on.

The 747 on the ground in Sydney was heading to none other than the USA. Specifically, San Francisco, for a 10 day whirlwind mission to ignite the minds of twenty Aussies. They've been selected based on their technical expertise and ability to become the next batch of globally successful tech entrepreneurs.

We took off just after 3pm Sydney time and landed at SFO around 13 hours later... at close to 10am that morning.
The flight was fairly lengthy and not much sleep was had, but on the upside, the food was pretty good.

After landing, we made our way through security and onto a bus. This was my first chance to see the USA in person. It seemed so familiar, but at the same time foreign. The media, pop culture and technology have helped to bring the world so much closer and allows everyone to see other's customs and traditions. This in turn makes those things so foreign to us, seem so familiar.

After getting to the hotel, we all headed to Blue Bottle for coffee and then to a phone shop for a SIM card.
Following this, we split up into our own groups to explore San Francisco as we saw fit. This will be one of the only spare moments we get to ourself.

I went with a couple of the others down to the Ferry Building, looking around and taking it all in.
It's still hard to believe that I'm here in this city and country I've long seen and wanted to visit.

I'm extremely excited to kick off our tours and talks from tomorrow, starting with Zero AI, Twitter and StartupHouse. What a fantastic opportunity I have been given!
Of course, it couldn't happen without sponsors. For me specifically, this has been Griffith Sciences at Griffith University, so once again, THANK YOU!

For now, it's time to head to dinner and then it looks to be an early night to recharge for tomorrow.

P.S. Don't forget to checkout Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram for the latest updates!

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