One Stressful Semester Deserves a Retreat, How About Australia?

     After one stressful semester, drowning in an ocean of deadlines I've washed up on the shores of Australia. How did I get here, you may ask? I'll tell you...I don't know.

     Getting here was a migraine of its own. After getting to Los Angeles, all I had to do was sit around the gate for five hours until my flight left. Would've seemed like an easy thing to do had there been electrical outlets falling like manna from heaven, and wifi as strong as 100 bulls. Alas, they were about as scarce as decent gas prices and wifi was about as useful as the muscles in my fingertips are for lifting a 50 pound weight. *sigh*

This is what happens when you need to charge,
but all the seats are taken.

     I had it all planned out in my head. As I landed in my transfer areas I would pass the time taking pictures and posting them for my friends and family to see that even while making the longest flight trip in the world all on my own, I was surviving. But no. Once connected to the wifi I couldn't even get an iMessage to send. Useless. Beautiful...

     Upon boarding the flight and taking off, I knew that I had the next 15 hours to fill with...stuff, because I don't sleep on planes, so I was going to keep myself occupied one way or another. My row companions made sure of that. The little boy beside me, who had been so unfortunate as to have been seated apart from his mother, while he managed to fall asleep; kept jumping up awake in a start, alarming me to the very split-ends of my new haircut that he would momentarily heave himself over in a fit of nausea! I would as fast as I could possibly manage (which much to my chagrin wasn't so fast at all) jump out of my seat to make way for him to hurl. Not so.
     For whatever unexplainable reason, after jumping awake, he had somehow lost all awareness as to where he was going or that he was even on a plane for the next 14 hours in the first place. Besides that, for only being about eight or nine years old, he had some pretty choice words to throw out of his mouth in his bouts of confusion. His mother, who while not beside him was in the middle row aside from us would lean over and softly explain to him that he was on a plane and that everything was okay. The sweetheart kept apologizing for whatever inconvenience he was causing me. I had a thought on occasion that maybe I should offer to switch seats, though I never followed through.

Riding on the clouds, so beautiful. Isn't it?

     Needless to say, I was relieved to land in Sydney. From there is was a new headache waiting about 20 minutes for my luggage to appear on the carousel and getting the cart to roll with all of my luggage on it, and another 45 minutes going through customs and rechecking my luggage for my flight to Melbourne.

     When I finally landed in Melbourne, I again felt it rather odd that they had the back rows exit outside the aircraft, walk across the port and re-enter the terminal. I'll pride myself in saying I did all this in a pair of heels. Yes, as crazy as it sounds I had a dream of arriving in Australia looking splendid and ready to conquer the world.
If you thought I was the one out of sorts, listen to this.
     As I did not have a working phone and walking towards ground transportation, I assumed I would just have to spy my mother out of the crowd. I found her. Though she did not see me after calling out her name at the loudest my lungs could manage. In fact, she walked right past me! Ha, silly. After several attempts and resorting to her first name I finally grasped her attention, we grabbed my luggage and headed for the place I will call home for the next few months.

I made it!

Well, at least I made it this far.

Cheers,

Jess