LAX

Saturday July 5th, 2008
LAX

We arrive at the airport hours ahead of our flight. Although we were standing in line at Quantas with our 3 REI XXL duffle bags and 2 huge boxes, it did not feel as if we were leaving our home and moving to another continent. All of our belongings were packed away in these bags and we hoped they would all be there when we got off the plane in Sydney. We learned that our flight was delayed another hour until 1AM for departure and that our flight was over booked by 20 people. Our chances of having 3 seats to ourselves seemed slim. The next step was saying bye to Ron’s parents, Tina and Kevin (also my new Mom and Dad). They walked us up to the security line and we hugged and kissed. I had to turn away before I saw Tina’s face and started to cry myself.

Ron and I settled in for our 6 hour wait. We sat down at a Starbucks and began opening our going away gifts from Corrie and Lauren as we sipped our over priced airport iced vanilla lattes. The bulging card was the first thing we opened, I was curious why it needed to be taped shut. Lauren gave us magnets of different places in San Diego for us to remember our home by. If I ever get home sick, all I need to do is look at our fridge. If I ever miss Lauren, I’ll just open the fridge and eat a TimTam. ☺ She also named Ron and myself the keeper of the original Twilight, which I will return to her when she comes to visit. (Team Jacob!) Earlier in the day, the girls had driven up to Oceanside and we had our last girly nail day together. Lauren had given me a photo album filled with memories of the 3 of us from our first week in college together. The other package was from Corrie. She made me a Goodbye book filled with her favorite memories of our friendship and of me. It made me laugh and cry at the same time.

We were one of the last people to board the plane. Our seats were the second row after First and Business class. When I got to the front, my ticket was rejected! Apparently, they re-sold our tickets due to some system error and were not sure if Ron and I could sit together. We were clearly upset and almost made a comment when they came back with an upgrade to Business class. We settled into our 75 degree reclining chairs and toasted our new future with complimentary champagne. What should have been one of the worse flights ever turned into the best. Did I mention that it is World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney and that our flight was filled with hundreds of 10-12 year olds? Sitting in economy with all those kids would have been a complete nightmare. Instead, we changed into our fresh Quantas socks, reclined our seats, ate chicken laska for dinner, drank wine and fell asleep.