Welcome to the Land of Kangaroos, Cool Accents, and Sunshine

I'm here! Down Under, Back of Bourke, Other Side of the World. Australia! I can't believe it. I never thought this day would come. It always seemed like a far off dream. But here I am! And it only took 38 hours of traveling (the trip to Brisbane took a little longer than expected). Surprisingly enough, every minute of the trip was eventful. I mean, I'm known for having crazy travel stories, but some of this stuff was weird even for me.

On my flight to L.A., the lady next to me was singing to her iPod. Yes, singing. Out loud. At first I thought that maybe she fell asleep and didn't realize she was doing it. So, I gently nudged her in an I-was-trying-to-put-my-arm-on-the-armrest way, thinking that might get her to stop. I was wrong. She calmly turned towards me, apologized, and went back to singing. Boy, can she belt Celine Dion.

When I arrived in L.A., I had a lot of time to kill so I ate a long dinner, called some friends and family, and then was granted access to the Continental President's Club. But, you have to be 21 to get into the President's Club. You do the math. After hours of chatting, watching The Tudors, and taking full advantage of the President's Club free buffet, it was time for my group flight to Sydney. I knew that the international terminal was between Terminal 3 and 4, so I figured that if I went through the underground tunnel from 6 to 5, it would just keep going to the international terminal. And that's when I learned a very important lesson: ask for help if you don't know how to get there or else you will be a sweating, panting fool running around the airport with 2 very heavy bags. After about 30 minutes of this, I lugged myself to a desk and asked for directions. Out of pity, a very nice airport security man gave me a free baggage cart and I had to walk outside through dark LAX alleys to get to the international terminal. I got on my flight and was on my way.

The Qantas plane was intense. It was a double decker with spaceship-like pods for first and business class seats. The wings were huge and each seat had its own TV screen and big comfy cushions. I sat next to a girl from my program and we talked for a while and ate dinner (delicious curry vegetables and rice - vegetarian option is the way to go). And that was when I saw it. The Movies On Demand. It was the most extensive, incredible movie catalogue I have ever seen on a plane. I seriously considered not sleeping at all and watching as many movies as I could. Instead, I alternated sleeping with watching a movie. I watched a movie, slept a little, watched a movie, slept a little, etc. (and of course I was eating the entire time). All was well, we were only a few hours away from Sydney, when all of a sudden, lightning struck. Literally. I was looking out my window, thinking about how pretty the clouds were, when a huge lightning bolt struck the wing of the plane. That would happen to me.

But that wasn't the only natural danger I encountered on the trip. On my way to Brisbane, the plane was forced to circle the city. Why? Because an underwater earthquake had occurred and they wanted to make sure a tsunami didn't form. Great.

Despite all of that, I made it here in one piece. Now, the fun begins.