George Hayward, 2012 North Queensland Sustainability student blogger, writes:
May 18
Goodbye Pennsylvania!
One hour and thirteen minutes until my first of three flights. I can’t believe I’m already in transit! It feels like only yesterday I found out about study abroad and thought “Australia?! That’d be cool!” Now I’m sitting in the airport with a backpack and a camera thinking “Wow, time flies.” With each new passenger that joins me in waiting I’m convinced that this is a reality. I’m totally stoked!
For whatever reason, though, this is the most nervous I’ve been for a trip. About a half hour before I left the house, I actually felt the butterflies in the stomach and my palms started to sweat. I have never traveled internationally, and I think maybe I’m nervous because of the finality of it. I’ll have limited Internet (which added immense pressure to finish all emails and such beforehand), and there isn’t any going back if I forgot something at home. I’ve also never checked a bag, until today, so I hope it gets there. Anyway, I only have about 30 minutes until we board, so it’s time to relax my mind and immerse myself in a good book. Catch you again on one of my next flights.
May 19 (A.k.a. Date Unknown). Written from the plane.
Wow, I feel like someone lost as sea when I realize that I don’t know what the date is. I’m pretty sure we skipped May 19th when we crossed the International Date Line but does that start upon landing or right when we cross? Accordingly, I don’t know if it’s Saturday or Sunday. Geez, this is a weird feeling!
We’re still on the plane to Australia; it’s the ever-so-anticipated 14-hour flight. I think we have about three hours until we land in Brisbane, and then we have another two-hour flight to Townsville. On that note, to all the future students studying abroad, bring something to do on the plane. Of course, you’ll probably sleep as much as you can, but hey it’s always good to have options. They do have a TV on the back of every seat, and it has movies, music, games and so on for free. I didn’t actually check it out though because my personal entertainment of choice is a good book, and I brought two!
Check out how big the plane was; the group could finally see it in the daytime upon arrival.
Speaking of things to bring on the plane ride, food and a pillow have proved most lovely. Food is great to combat the natural feeling of hunger (I know – I’m a rocket scientist), but I’ve learned that boredom is correlated to hunger as well, oddly enough. They do give you dinner and breakfast on the plane with a snack in between, and I was pretty impressed so far with dinner and the snack.
On that note, where is my breakfast? Then again, I have no idea what time it is, so maybe breakfast is still a few hours off. Anyway, for dinner we had the choice of chicken or salmon. I had the chicken and it came with coleslaw, potatoes, some broccoli, bread, a small desert and a piece of chocolate. It was awesome! The snack was a fig bar, potato chips, a piece of chocolate and a bottle of water. The portions are small/medium size though so I still recommend snacks.
As for a pillow, they do give you one on the plane, and it’s about 12 by 16 inches so rather small. I bought one of those circular neck pillows at the airport for $18. Had I known how much of a luxury it would be, I probably would have gotten one in advance and presumably at a lower price.
If I think of any more plane advice or stories I’ll add them later, but now I’m going to catch a few Z’s before breakfast gets here.
