The Goodbyes and the Flight

Days before I left Saint Louis, I thought I was ready to leave, I thought I was ready to get back to school, I thought I was ready to go to Australia. But, in all honesty, the fact that I was leaving my mom, my dad, and my wittle Queeny, didn’t hit me until that Sunday morning. It was as if my time with them suddenly seemed too short, and that I couldn’t get enough of any of them.  I wasn’t going to cry, but OH WAIT, yeah, that didn’t happen. I finally stopped playing Gin Rummy with my mom and dad, and I knew that I wouldn’t see them for a very, very long time, and BAM! Waterworks. They waited until I passed through security (the TSA officer gave me a look I imagine a psychopath would give someone who’s crying mixed with a slight hint of disgust), and that was it. I arrived at LAX at 3:30, and my flight to Sydney wasn’t until 11:50 at night; I had a lot of time to kill. After dining solo at the airport Chili’s, I meet two other girls in my program, Sandy and Rachel. As time went on, more and more of the group began to file in, and time flew by. Next thing I knew it was time to board my flight for Australia.

I had imagined that my flight would be the worst thing in the world like when my family and I would drive down to Florida for vacation, but I was wrong, the drive to Florida is worse. The flight wasn’t bad at all, the two Aussie blokes I sat next to, Andrew and Ryan, were so friendly and more than willing to help me out with some Aussie slang (cheese and kisses, fair dinkyum, and, my personal favorite, “taking the piss out of ya”). I took a sleep aid which knocked me out for about six or seven hours. The rest of the flight I was entertained by the delights of Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Daniel Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint.  The flight all together was only about 12 or 13 hours or so, but it flew by! After hauling my 22 kg of carry on through the international airport and customs, I was already to go on to Cairns.