Australia Tomorrow!

And by tomorrow... I mean Thursday.

I have just figured out that I will be traveling for 34 hours straight in order to get to Brisbane, where my orientation is being held. That's right, 34 hours. So tomorrow afternoon when you're busy at work, I'll be traveling. And tomorrow evening when you're eating dinner, I'll be traveling. And tomorrow night when you're sleeping, I'll STILL be traveling. And finally, by dinner Wednesday night (New Jersey time), I'll get to Brisbane (which will be Thursday morning at 11am Australia time).

That's only slightly ridiculous.

Here's a breakdown of my trip:

2 hours at Newark Airport before my 1pm flight to LA

6 hour flight to LA

8 hour layover in LA

15 hour flight to Sydney

1 hour layover in Sydney

2 hour flight to Brisbane

= 34 hours

I also figured out (by making a chart) that in order to sleep on Australian time, I would need to sleep on the LA flight, stay awake in LAX the whole time, and then fall asleep 5 hours into the Sydney flight... at 5am LA time. All I can say is, there better be good in-flight movies.

So my bags are packed. (Each weighing exactly 49 lbs.) I'm checked in for my flight. And the feast-of-a-meal for my last dinner is cooked. (Think eggplant, pasta fagioli, roasted peppers, and cake.) There's nothing left to do except get to the airport and pray for no delays. I can't believe this day has actually come. It always seemed so far off. But here I am, just hours away from the "experience of a lifetime". Here goes nothing. Wish me luck.