July 7-July 9----I've arrived

Sheryl dropped me off at the airport on Wednesday at 3:45 and by 4:30 I had my boarding pass, unloaded my luggage (had to pay for the 2nd one...Quantas lets you take 2 but United, the starter airline, doesn't....so I had to pay!), went through security, then customs and was sitting in the boarding! No long lines no long waits, but a long wait for the 6:30 flight!  Met a nice couple with 3 little girls who were returning to Lima.  

Collections at YVR

Flight to LA good.....then got to LA and had to hoof it to the Tom Bradley Terminal from terminal 7...got boarding pass but then the line to get through security...a half hour.....after that I had to find garte 130 ( I wish I had a pedometer, it must have been about 1km)....I just sat down and they started boarding (11:00pm)!  What a crazy airport, now I know why I have tried to avoid it ....people everywhere.

The flight was great.  Nearly 15 hours....time for eating (wonderful food) and a glass of wine, sleeping (I actually must have slept about 4 hours total...really slept not dozed like I usually do.) watched one movie, read, chatted with the lady next to me (who was a cacher!!!) , watched the flight map (I am a map geek!) .  The time went fast.  As we neared Melbourne we discovered the Skycam!  a camera that is attached to the top of the plane.  We watched the sunrise and the landing of the plane....very cool!  We landed in Melbourne 8am Thurs Aug. 8....we lost a day along the way.

I was met by Trish and Sherryl , sister of my home exchange lady and her partner.  It was  wonderful to be met by friendly faces and taken to my home for the next month.  Joan's home is great....a cute little Australian bungalow....3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a living room, a study and a large eat in kitchen with lots of windows facing out to a beautiful backyard.  (pictures will be added tomorrow)  After I was shown all the ins and outs of the house, they left and Curtis arrived about 15 minutes later.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Melbourne.....not as warm (11C) as I left behind in Vancouver but a Vancouver spring time  day.  Curt and I walked down to the Preston market about a kilometer away and bought some groceries and came "home"...oh and  found a cache (it's the 7th in Vancouver). 

Since it is winter in the southern hemisphere the days are shorter....the sun goes down about 5:30pm.  My goal was to stay up until near my usual bedtime.....Curt left about 9 after he cooked me a delicious dinner of the supplies we got today, lamb chops, sweet potatoes and broccoli....oh and for desert macarons from the store he works at Cocoa!  I was in bed with the lights out at 10:00....exhausted....I lost track of the time I was awake since I left home!.

Friday, I woke up to wind and rain....about 10C.  But by the time I showered, dressed, got the kitchen and my luggage sorted out the rain had stopped.  

I phoned Curt and made my first trip on the train using the Mykey card (a transit card you load  with money and use it to check in at the station and then when you get off the train you have to check out)   The card is supposed to give you the best deal for a day's travell...hoping it has.

Friday to be continued tomorrow........