I made it! I made it!
It is currently 6:30am local time here in Sydney and I am, not surprisingly, jet-lagged. The last two (three?) days or so have rushed by in a complete blurr and there's been so much to take in I'm not even sure where to start!
I got to Ottawa's International Airport around 6:30 on Tuesday morning. Check-in went just fine and I even got a seat number on my boarding pass - which apparently was a good thing, since I was flying standby. Had breakfast with my parents at Tim Horton's (gotta have a last few rounds of Tim's!), hugged them goodbye, and headed through security. The security guys didn't like the fact that I was carrying toothpaste - apparently it comes under the "no liquids" rule for carry-on luggage. The tube I was carrying wasn't full by any means, but since the tube would have originally carried over 100mls, I had to give it up. Grr.
The flight from Ottawa to Vancouver was uneventful, except that I was VERY aware that this was only the first leg of the journey - and up to now, I'd never traveled further than Vancouver! This was also the first time I'd been on a plane where every seat had its own entertainment centre... so I had way too much fun playing around with that.
Got off the plane in Vancouver and went to find my luggage, since I knew that I would have to carry it through US customs before getting on the next flight. Well, wouldn't you know it, my luggage didn't come off the carousel! Ack! (I have a bit of a track record for losing luggage in airports.) But when I went to the lost baggage counter, the guy told me that my bags would be already waiting for me at a special carousel just outside the US customs gate. PHEW! I now had six hours to kill before my next flight.
I've been through the Vancouver airport several times before, and really, there's not a lot to do there. I ate lunch at Tim Horton's (hee hee!), walked a couple of laps around the shops, and realized that so far I'd only managed to kill about 45 minutes of the 6 hours I had to go. So I wandered over to the international terminal to see what was there and find out where I had to sign in again. There I came across this rather famous statue called "The Spirit of Haida Gwa'ai", by Bill Reid. My students from last year should recognize it - we saw a replica at the Museum of Civilizations last year in Ottawa.
Six hours is a LONG time to have to wait. Needless to say, I was bored out of my skull by the time it was finally time to head through security again, go through US customs ('cause my plane was travelling through Hawai'i), and get back on board. Once I'd finally made it to the gate, I found out that there were only 16 empty seats on the plane - and 16 people in front of me in the standby list. Whoof. So I sat there, fingers crossed, for quite some time, hoping that someone would be late and miss the flight so I could get on. And I did!
The next leg of the flight was very tiring. It was already 10:30pm Ottawa time when we took off for Hawai'i. Five and a half hours later we touched down in Honolulu and let me tell you, I was really glad to get off the plane for an hour! We had to take all our carry-on luggage with us so the plane could be cleaned. And here was my second shock - the terminal in Honolulu is somewhat open to the air! The lounge just before the gate was air conditioned, but the walkways where the shops were was open. So I strolled up and down, up and down, enjoying the tropical midnight air, and watching my plane get refueled through a stand of palm trees. Unreal.
Then it was back on the plane again for the last leg of the journey. I had somehow miscalculated and thought I only had another five hours to go - so imagine my horror as I sat down and listened to the pilot tell us it was going to be just over 10 hours to Sydney! Yar! Starting to feel a little claustrophobic! But for the last part of the trip, I was lucky enough to have two seats all to myself, and a window to lean my pillow against, so it was all good. I will admit that there was a point about halfway through that last leg where I really, REALLY wanted to get off the airplane - I was so tired and felt like I'd been flying through the middle of the night forever. But then before I knew it, the sun had risen, the plane had landed, and I finally got to step foot on an entirely new continent!
Once I made it through customs and quarantine control (Australia has strict rules about what foods etc. you can bring into the country - they confiscated my apple and almost took my trail mix too), I was surpirsed to find my hosts, Ruth and Bill, waiting for me at the airport! The original plan had been for me to give them a call when I landed and then they'd drive out to meet me... but they just came on their own. I can't tell you how good it felt to be met by a couple of cheery, smiling faces.
So now it was about 8am Sydney time on Thursday. I had been in the air for something ridiculous like 22 hours, had lost an entire day due to the crossing of the international date line somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, and was completely exhausted. So what did I do on my first day? Bill took me back to their house, where I showered (sweet, blessed shower!), brushed my teeth for the first time in two days, then we had a cup of tea and he whisked me away on a driving tour around their neighbourhood! The rest of the day passed as a bit of a blur, mostly because I was so tired, but even so, my first impressions of Sydney were wonderful. Everything is new to me here.
Of course I spent a lot of time looking at the trees, birds and other wildlife we were passing. For example, cocaktoos fly around the city in big noisy flocks. There are other parrots here too. Every tree we passed was completely new to me, and I pestered poor Bill all afternoon about the names of different plants. This place is definitely a nature lover's paradise. Bill took me out to Botany Bay National Park, which marks the spot where Captain James Cook first landed when he discovered Australia. It is a beautiful spot and the colour of the water is an incredible turquoise blue. I picked up what I'm sure is only the first of many shells I will collect on this trip.
In the evening, when we had returned home, Ruth's friend Carroll joined us for dinner and conversation. It is actually through Carroll that I ended up staying here at Ruth's place. Both of these ladies are Girl Guide leaders here in Sydney - I will be going to play with their girls on Monday night. I stayed up as late as I could, but by 9pm, I was so tired I was seeing double and finally dragged myself off to bed.
And that was my first day! I'm leaving a lot out, but I'm sure the details will come through in later posts. It is definitely going to take me a lot of time to absorb/describe everything here.
