Day 1, the longest day of my life (in the literal sense)

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How very frustrating. It's currently 2.40am I had just taken an hour to complete my first blog entry when my battery went flat and I lost it. I've since walked to Tim Horton's (a 24-hour bakery recommended by Josef the old German guy)) froze my arse off, got a hot chocolate and muffin and calmed down. As well as a chicken wrap it all cost CA$4.46. But this story started a while ago so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I woke up before my alarm on Saturday morning around 7am Melbourne time. I'd had 2.5 hours in the previous 2 nights (this was intentional as I wanted to get a lot of sleep on the long flight). Thursday I went to Shooters (or whatever it's called these days) with people from Hog's Breath for a 19th. I used to think it was a hole but it was actually a really fun night thanks to a course of antibiotics, 6 beers and some old school RnB. I'll miss those girls. I had a 7am start at a temp job so it was easy not to get any sleep. Friday night I was offered a free nght out by Mary to the good old Stammo. There's an awesome R rated story from that night if anyone wants to hear it 😉

After a mum-cooked breakfast (Eggs Benedict) and saying good bye to Jack, we (Margaret, mum and I) drove to the airport and got there at 9.45 am; right on schedule. It turned out not to matter as the filght was delayed until 3pm. This meant I would miss my connecting flight to Vancouver. After a phone call and 1 hour and 45 min in the queue, I learned that I would be flying from Auckland to Los Angeles and then onto Vancouver. I shouted mum and Marg a coffee seeing as they waited with me. I had to cut short the goodbyes as I don't think the waterworks would've stopped otherwise (mum's, not mine!) and walked through the doors of no return. Straight away I saw that the flight was delayed by another hour. On to the duty-free and boom!! It was delayed until 4.55pm, but the blow was softened by window shopping the biggest collection of alcohol I've seen outside a Dan Murphy's. I eventually found the internet and saw that i would now miss my fight to LA. I went to the Air New Zealand lounge and was told the flight would wait for us due to the amount of people on our flight connecting to that one. There I met Emma, who was in Australia checking out her new job in Ocean Grove before she moved there. The delayed flight meant she would miss out on her dad's birthday party. We went for a drink and met Mel and Ian (mum would remember them as the couple who had to get a visa to get into LA airport (LAX) thanks to the shitty delay. They're from Warrigul and came to Vancouver to go snowboarding for 3 weeks, taking in Whistler and Banff. We all hung out until boarding time where we lost Emma, who I didn't see again.

The flight to Auckland was 3.5 hours. After dinner I watched Family Guy but fell asleep until we started the descent. As soon as we landed we were boarding the next flight. Thank christ for small mercies!! This time Mel and Ian were only 2 aisles back but they ended up with the 2 middle seats. Poor buggers! I happened to sit next to same guy as I did on the flight to NZ. It turns out he was going skiing on the French Alps and still had 2 more flights after LA. But I would soon hear a lot worse. I watched a movie called The Lincoln Lawyer, had dinner and fell asleep. I had to be woken for breakfast so I'm thinking I got 8 hours which was pretty sweet. i then watxhed My Name Is Earl until the descent. I was very excited when I saw the first bit of land out the window: another country!! (LA is enormous, by the way) We landed at 2.30pm LA time, which is the same timezone as Vancouver. We had to go through immigration which means my first official stamp in my passport is from the USA. LAX isn't as scary as i thought. The x-ray machines were a bit much but I was fine (I got away with my vegemite!). After buying a 1L Smirnoff Blue (50% alcohol) for US$19 and a souvenir, I went had some bevvies. I really like Coors Light, which is actually light in colour, not strength. I caught up with Mel and Ian in the gate lounge and boarded our flight on time (Yay!). I scored an emergency exit seat (Yay again) and was sitting next to a guy named Edgar, a chatty 17 year old from Colombia. He will be studying in Vancouver for the next 6 months. We had a bit of a language barrier but it was fun to help his English and it definitely made the time to go quicker. Opposite me was a girl who was part of the Lattitude Volunteer group wearing the red t-shirts. They are all working on summer camps and were on the same flights all the way. Her flight schedule was as follows: Launceston-Melbourne-Auckland-LA-Vancouver-Toronto-Halifax-Sydney and then a 2 hour bus ride. Good luck to her!!

Once landed (3 hours later) we were held back on the tarmac because some idiots forgot to schedule someone to open the gate and let us in the building. 20 min later we were in the terminal and I found Mel and Ian after I got my bag. I was going to swap facebook details but we decided to do it once we got through immigration. Unfortunately, I took ages and I didn't see them again. It sucks but I will still try to find them on facebook anyway. The Lattitude group were in the working visa queue as well as some girls from Rotary Exchange students (with the green blazers), who also shared the same flights. We shared a few laughs while we were waiting (AGAIN!! it took over half an hour and I was third in line) and I was in the country at around 10.45 pm. I went straight to the skytrain and was checked in at midnight. It seems like I'm in a pretty rough area, but it is only a Saturday night so I'll know more in a few days. There is a goth nightclub just downstairs (I saw some interesting outfits) and the hostel is really old. The rooms are really small so I don't know how long i'll last, but, once again, i'll know more in a couple of days.

Well it's 3.30am now and I'm pretty tired. It's pretty funny that my sleeping patterns seem just the same already!! Thanks for reading!!

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Comments

[Sarah Williams]

Yahay - You made it!!
Hey Jase, Glad to hear you made it safe and sound.... my god what an adventure just getting there!! The travelling, planes, check ins, security, immigration can be the worst part... but sounds like you met some people to talk to. Sucks that poor girl missed her Dad's birthday. And good to hear that you managed to get some decent sleep on the plane. How long were in LA airport for? And how far from the airport was your hostel? Ha, ha... sounds pretty interesting... a Goth club would be quite an experience ;o).... what's the name of your hostel again? Well buddy, keep up the posts.... loved reading this one, gets me so jealous... and it makes me smile bringing back some memories :) Luv ya xox

[Mum]

well written jace.......i laughed out loud whilst reading it, look forward to the next....be safe!