The Flight and the First Day (Wednesday, July 1-3)

I will never fly this entire trip alone again... lol

I had a total of 3 flights in a little over 24 hours of time. My first flight was only about three hours from St Louis to LA and it was undoubtedly the worst of the flights. Its terrible to fly by yourself and the first flight made that very clear. The LAX airport is entirely too big! My plane dropped me off at the terminal that I eventually found to be the exact one I needed for my next flight. (And in a very similar situation that Christie found herself in Chicago...) one of the LAX people told me that I was in the wrong terminal and that the one I needed was in a completely different building about a 5 minute walk from my present location... and of course once I got there and got in line the lady that was going to check me in informed me that I was supposed to be in a completely different terminal (aka the one I started in). Soon after I made "flight friends" with two girls during our 5 hour layover in LA... one was going to New Zealand and the other to Melbourne (if you don't pronounce it "mel-bin" the locals will give you dark looks and know that you are American) The three of us talked about books, made fun of some girls who were fawning over an Aussie on his way home (he was layin the accent on marmalade thick- it was hilarious!), and what our plans were away from home. During the long 14 hour flight from LA to Auckland (New Zealand) I slept a full 8 hours...it was awesome. I was dead asleep before the plane even hit the runway. When I did wake up I finally watched He's Just Not That Into You and tried not to cry on a plane in front of total strangers lol and 17Again which was actually pretty cute. I missed dinner (which was served at like 230 am LA time) but I was unfortunate enough to be awake for breakfast (a spinach fritatta with mushy ham and sausage link) By the time I got through a couple episodes of Family Guy we were landing in NZ. And from my short view of it New Zealand is an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful country. Its covered in greenery and mountains and pretty birds. In the Auckland airport I had my first foriegn beer, a NZ beer called Speight's, with Tori (one of the flight friends from LA) and soon after we boarded for Melbourne. They actually had to change planes because of an engineering problem with the first plane...thank god they found it before we had lifted off lol We made it to the MEL airport in about 3 hours and that flight had the best food. I had steamed fish with mash potatoes and steamed veggies, a cadburry candy, and chocolate ice cream for dessert :) and for the record...Australia's customs is a joke lol it consisted of a woman at a counter asking me why I was there, a brief questionairre about whether or not I had swine flu and an x-ray scan of my carry on luggage... the end. Its a bit laughable. All in all- because of my full nights sleep on the LA plane I really didnt suffer much jet lag. I went to bed that first night in Australia at about 830 but since then I've been great... I have been waking up early (like 8 and 9 am- gross) but other than that I was pretty much unaffected.

My first day was relaxed... Simon's parents are very sweet and were excited to finally meet me. That night we had veal tortellini with a mediterranean sauce and a greek salad for dinner (fabulous) and I fell asleep like 10 minutes after I finished unpacking...