Darn, Australia is far away!

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G'day!!

I have finally made it down under.

I say finally because, a) I left Montreal in November, and b) I left Switzlerand on Monday morning to get here Wednesday night. And it's not because I crossed the date line and lost a day. No, it's because I actually traveled for that long to get here.

As much as I love traveling, I have gotten to the point that I start to dislike the process of traveling. I was dreading the flights, because I knew how long it would take me. Not to mention I had 2 suitcases of 24-25kg (which for anyone is heavy but especially a weakling like me), a backpack which probably weighed a good 10-12kg (I'm glad they didn't weigh my carry-ons), and a camera bag that was already heavy but was loaded up with extra Swiss chocolate.

I left Hasle-Rüegsau on Monday morning, transfered at Bern, took the TGV to Paris, caught a bus to the airport, wandered around lugging the bags looking for the check-in desk only to find out I couldn't check my bags in early, took a shuttle to the hotel, slept, woke up late, missed breakfast, shuttled back to the airport, plane to London, then finally boarded the plane to Sydney (with a 40 minute stop in Singapore). Finally caught a cab to my sister-in-law's, but of course got caught in traffic at 10:30pm, and $30 later, I finally arrived. Phew!

One odd moment in my travels was at the Charles du Gaulle airport in Paris. After discovering that I wouldn't be able to check in my bags early and had to drag them to the hotel, I set off in search of the shuttle bus to the hotel. When I asked for help, and explained that I needed to get to the Comfort Inn, I was insulted when the man switched to English. He was very proud to switch to English, but I was annoyed. You know you've lived in Québec too long when you get annoyed at someone not speaking in French!

The exciting part of the voyage, however, was finally getting on the plane in London. I flew on the new Qantas A380. I noticed the plane seemed quite big and more spacious than other planes I've been on, especially the last time I flew Qantas a few years ago. And everything seemed so new! Then the guy next to me mentioned that we were on the A380, and suddenly I was EXCITED!
I noticed the stairs at the back, the water fountains and snack stations, the fact that when I reclined my chair, the seat slid forward a bit too, relieving the stress on my lower back; and the best part was the Skycam. They have a camera mounted on the tail of the plane, so you can watch the plane fly through the air. This camera gave me a new take-off and landing experience, and brought back memories of sitting at the window seat as a child, watching the airport and city fade away as we took off into the sky. It brought back the joy of flying. I felt like a kid again, and was equally giddy.

As an adult, we get used to experiences and take them for granted. We might find it harder to be impressed or excited by things, because we've seen it all before. (A Barenaked Ladies song comes to mind...) But this Skycam reminded me of what it was like to be impressed with the fact that this huge machine was taking off into the sky, carrying hundreds of passengers to international destinations in a relatively short amount of time. I think part of the reason I lost the love of flying is I no longer take window seats to watch the world go by underneath me. I now take aisle seats in order to be able to move around enough in an attempt to prevent my feet swelling. Oh thank you, Skycam, for re-introducing me to the wonder of flying as I watched the plane fly through the sky with a bird's eye view.

And so now I am in Australia. I will be making my home here for the next few years. I'll learn to adjust to the accents, learn to be tolerant when someone has a laugh at my accent, and hope that I won't pick up too much of the strange accent.
Dave has six weeks of school holidays, so we'll be celebrating Christmas with his family in Jamberoo, having a "meet-the-newlweds-and-celebrate-his-30th" party, go to Sydney for the fireworks, and go camping somewhere. Then we'll return to Orange, I'll get settled in and find a job, and we will celebrate the fact that we will finally have a home base, together.

Australia will be my home for the next few years. But I have a feeling we will be planning another adventure before long!

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