Stars and Stripes

It was with a 4am wakeup call that I began my epic 36 hour journey to my new life. I had meticulously tried to prepare as much as possible to ensure my journey was a smooth one. One thing I did not account for was an Asian group check-in on the same flight, arriving 1 minute after them and getting stuck in a ridiculously long check-in queue. After accepting my fate and graciously getting in line it wasn’t until a leader of the group thought he could squeeze in 5 more people in front of me that I laid down the law on my foreign traveler friends and told them in no uncertain terms that if he was going to try that then I would jump the queue and go straight to the front. Guess who got checked in first?

I had an uncanny dream about a month before this trip that one of my flights got cancelled and I missed my connecting flight. When I woke up the next morning I found Qantas had emailed me informing me that my first flight had been cancelled and it would need to be rebooked. All went well and I got a flight 30 mins later allowing a bit more of a sleep in. Yay me! Now on a 36 hour journey with 3 different flights, any well-travelled person would book a connecting flight so they didn’t have to deal with dragging luggage all around at each stop. So that’s what I booked…. Or thought I had. Due to the cancellation, my national carrier downgraded me to their low cost carrier, which in the beginning I didn’t mind, but as the check-in lady proceeded to explain to me that due to the different carriers I would have to transport my own bags in Brisbane.

Now I wasn’t upset that I had to get my bags. What made this traveler an unhappy traveler was that my connecting booking was no longer connecting, my 4.30am start was not starting the way I it needed to and 2 checked bags (46kgs) 1 carry on bag 1 laptop bag & 1 handbag did not equal ‘fun times’ to me as I hashed out a plan to move terminals. So I informed her as much. Upon arriving in Brisbane I tried my luck at International check-in, because let’s face it my trip wasn’t amazing so far, and after some checking the check-in lady Marji upgraded me which made the 13 hour flight more bearable.

It amazes me how people can board a flight at 10.30am and be asleep soon after take off. Didn’t you just wake up? Needless to say I didn’t sleep. The flight to LA was super smooth and other than 2 bits of turbulence you would never think you were over 30,000ft in the air. The flight was pretty non eventful for all on board but this is me I’m talking about. Where there is a will there is a way. Not that I wanted to but I somehow found myself red-faced and embarrassed midflight.

I made quite a few trips up and down the isle to stretch my legs and to the toilet. My first trip to the toilet, in my defense, was in near darkness. I went to the door that had a sign mentioning toilet and I assumed that was it. Well it wasn’t. What a nice surprise it was when the male flighty came over and in a not so quiet voice advised me that the door lead to the cupboard and I couldn’t go in there. Red faced, I turned around to see the door behind a curtain behind me. After returning to my seat I was putting my bag in the overhead locker when the same flighty stopped by and kindly advised me that the cupboard on the left (super small and skinny cupboard) was not a toilet either and I shouldn’t try going into that one either. Ha. Ha.

So I finally made it to LA, scanned all 10 fingers & thumbs on the customs scanner and seemingly registered myself with US Homeland Security, got some well needed sleep, skyped my family and got asked if my accent was English. Now I sit in the Alaskan Airlines departure lounge waiting for my next and final flight to my new home – Canada!