Flight Details

Okay, so I wrote some things down while I was on the airplane(s). I wish to post them here. (By the way, THANK YOU so much to everyone who wrote in my journal! It's AWESOME!!) Note: I fixed the comments :p You no longer have to create a Blogger account to comment on one of my posts. Sorry about that, I guess I forgot to do it earlier *shrug* Also, I changed my time zone. Haha, you people are going to be like... "She's writing from the future!!" Because I am. Hahaha.

Alright. So, flight numero uno was 2.5 hours long. It was dark outside, but LA looked SO AWESOME when we flew over it! Dude, that city is huge!! It was all lit up and beautiful :)

November 8, 2006 (This flight was about 14 hours)

((Snippet from Journal))

I'm writing this in the dark, seeing as how I can't figure out how to turn on the light in the plane. It's about 7:30 AM in Portland, and the flight crew is starting to prepare breakfast. I'm still full from the pasta they fed me a few hours ago (at about 1 AM).

People are beginning to wake up; I probably slept for 5 hours, maybe longer than that. I just finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; I didn't see the beginning of it, because I was sleeping, but I watched most of it. That movie is awesome!! The first movie they showed was called something like "A Prarie Home Companion," (the only person I remember being in it was Lindsay Lohan) but it was boring and I fell asleep during it.

I boarded this airplane at about 1o PM, and I haven't stood up once. I think my legs will die from being cramped; however, I don't need to get up, so I'll remain seated for the time being. (I have a window seat, and the people next to me are sleeping.) I really wish that we were in Sydney now.

I think I'm going to try sleeping again. I don't want to look like the living dead when I make it to Melbourne, after all!

November 9, 2006

Okay, I can see now.

Yes, the last time I wrote was only a few hours ago. Our plane crossed the Date Line, so now it's officially the 9th for me. It's kind of funny, and slightly confusing to me, to know that my November 8th was only about 8.5 hours long. Haha.

I've slept around 8 or 9 hours on this plane trip, and now I'm awake--of course, the fact that it's about 11 AM in Portland right now might also have something to do with that. I watched the sun come up over here--it was about 10 o'clock in Portland, so 5 AM in Sydney/Melbourne. It was gorgeous. I don't really know how to describe it; it was almost like looking out the window and watching a rainbow grow steadily larger. As the rainbow grew, it started to paint the clouds with lighter versions of the same colors. Absolutely beautiful. Before the sun rose, I had been looking out at the stars in the sky. I do believe that I was looking mostly at the part of the constellation Hydra that you can only see in the southern hemisphere. The tip of it, when you connect the dots incorrectly, kind of looks like an inverted "big dipper." Okay, enough astronomy rant.

We are traveling at 35,000 feet up in the air, and at about 555 miles per hour. For any kids who may be reading this, that means that I am up sooooo high in the sky, that my plane would look like a dot--if you could see it at all--if I flew right over you. As for 555 miles per hour... Imagine a car ride where it takes you about 30 minutes to get somewhere; to me, that car ride would be more like 2-3 minutes.

Kate would laugh at this... I'm listening to music on the airplane--alternative rock/pop/hip hop stuff--and they just played a Jesse McCartney song >.< ((I don't really like him, but I almost started laughing when it started playing. It's kind of a joke between Kate and I.))

I'm looking out of my window, and I can see two layers of clouds; underneath those layers is the ocean. It's magnificent, but I'm more excited to see it turn into land :) It should only be 2 hours at most before I get to see Sydney--then it's just 3 hours until I get to Melbourne!

I still haven't stood up. My legs are getting used to being cramped now... is that a bad thing?? Hahaha.

The flight crew is serving breakfast. Yes, I was mistaken before--they served lunch a few hours ago. Interesting, no? Lunch at 7:30 in the morning, then breakfast afterwards. Hmm. I get to choose between pancakes and a cheese omelette... neither of which really sound good right now. Oh well, pancakes it is!

I'll write more later. Have a great day! I hope I get there soon...

Later That Same Day

Our plane stopped in Sydney, and everyone had to get off and go through security. It took me a long time to walk around the airport and find the right gate, but in the end I still ended up waiting for a while before my pane started boarding. The airport was funny, because I asked people for directions to my gate and I didn't remember to expect them to talk differently than I. My mind almost stopped functioning when they began talking, and then it started back up again when it registered that yes, I was in Australia. People talk differently than I'm used to. Heh.

I spent the entire flight between Sydney and Melbourne staring out of the window at the ground below. That flight was only slightly more than an hour, but the land was BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't figure out if the land was covered in trees or bushes, because they looked bigger than bushes but not like any tree I've ever seen. (Yes, they were trees.) We passed over a lot of random little towns.

Anyway, when I got to Melbourne, I had to go through Customs. (To the kids: that's where the people from the country you're visiting makes sure that you're legal to come into their country, and that you aren't bringing anything bad with you.) The security guards scared me, just because they looked scary, but they were actually nice. Customs went really fast, to my surprise--the only long thing about it, was the part where I waited for my luggage to appear on the carousel. Then I walked outside of the Customs area, and... there was Melissa! I shall later post a picture of the sign she made me. It's awesome.

They took me to their house, and then to the grocery store. I found something called "Lamingtons" when I was helping load the groceries into the cart (or "trolley"). They're like... cake covered in chocolate and coconut shavings. I will also later post a picture of those. And I get to try sultanas. Um... I'll explain what those are, when I actually figure that out. Cheryl, Melissa's mom (or "mum"), kept threatening to feed me snake for dinner. (As a joke, of course. It was funny.)

We went back to their house after that, and I unpacked my bags. Melissa's neighbors came over, and I met them. Then Melissa's aunt, uncle and their two kids came over, and I also got to meet them. Apparently, Melissa's cousin was anxious to meet me, to find out what a real live American looks like. (-insert laugh-) She almost died when I started talking, too. It was really funny. I gave her some Sees candy (sugar sticks) and Melissa gave her some of the 500 Tootsie Rolls that I brought (they don't have them here). She almost died again. American candies (or "lollies")!!!! Hahaha. I look forward to seeing her and her brother again.

I went to bed at 8 o'clock here, which is about 1 AM in Portland. Then I woke up at 6 AM here, wich is 11 AM in Portland. Hmm. I went back to sleep and woke up at 8 AM, then gave up. Haha.

I'm going to sign off now, so that I can eat some breakfast with Melissa before she goes to take her Business exam (it's the end of the school year for her). Then I'm going to exchange my money--theirs is neat, because it's all cool colors! I will have to take a picture of that, too. Haha.

Anyway, bye! I'll definitely write more later :)