30+ hours in the airport/air

I boarded the plane on Monday the 12th at 1:45pm heading to LAX. The plane was full and the man next to me took up more than his seat. Hoping that they would play an enjoyable movie I was disappointed to find some Miley Cyrus film on the screen so I attempted to sleep. Every once in a while I would wake up conscious that my mouth was wide open as I tried to sleep sitting up. I maybe got a couple hours of sleep in before exiting my first plane and wondering around the airport looking for my next- which apparently was located in a whole different section requiring a bus.

I was able to find a pay phone and give Chrissy a quick ring, letting her know to contact the parents and let them know all was well. I then sat around talking to strangers and watching Monk on my laptop until my friend Amanda showed up where we made camp on the floor playing Oregon Trail and trying to guess who the other Study Abroad kids were. We decided one lonely looking fellow looked about our age, so I nominated myself to go over and invite him to come sit and chat with us. "Aeropostale", as we dubbed him, came over to chat with us and we realized we were going to Australia for different reasons than what we thought- him being there for vacation and not study abroad, and us for study abroad. We had a good time until around 9:30pm when the Quantas flight people came around checking the carry on bag weights. Thanks to my sister who had me pack all sorts of books in carry on I was 10kilos over the weight of 15kilos. Amanda and "Aero" helped me rearrange everything so that my 25kilo bag only weighted 15 and my other bag had some of its excess weight.

We then boarded a two story airplane. On our seats we were given a pillow, blanket, snack bag, earphones, eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste. I loved the freebeez and I probably would have taken them all home if I didnt ask myself, "what would chrissy do?" The flight provided all sorts of movies and I ended up watching some aussie films- Triangle (a horror) and I love you too (romantic comedy), along with some of The Office. They served dinner at 3am Eastern Time so I was all out of wack already. Chicken, mash, bread, lemon squash, mushrooms, cheese, and a brownie. then was bed time. I woke up maybe a couple times in the night until maybe eight hours later when I could hear Amanda playing trouble. Breakfast came and I got a hot breakfast that was so unlovely to eat that it doesnt deserve much mention. Amanda had suggested I get some wine with dinner since it was free (how i like australia already!) but the flight attendant never brought me back one so I ended up ordering one for breakfast- Scrubby Rise- a bitter red wine that was not enjoyable compared to the samplings of her wine i had- Cricket Pitch.

The plane touched down at 6:30 am Australian time. We got off and waited in line for travelers validation to be in Australia. After two hours there I went to pick up my luggage at the dock where only 2 other Study Australia people were waiting, most everyone else had had their luggage lost in the flights. Once done there we traveled through customs where I had no problems and waited with the group for everyone to arrive.

All in all the flights were so confusing in the sense of losing track of time that falling into the time difference wasnt too hard. The time difference is 14 hours ahead but I didnt feel a hard adjustment. I did loose a whole day of my life- July 13th 2010 did not exist what so ever in my life.... kinda scary