Adventures in Australia

It Begins

So, I'm currently sitting in the Chicago O'Hare Terminal waiting for my flight from Chicago to LA. I'm plugged into the only available power outlet in my gate and paid the $5 dollar fee to get a 24 hours access pass to the wireless internet. Little steep of a price, but its worth it compared to just sitting bored.

Saying goodbye to my parents was a little hard. I got a little chocked up hugging them goodbye, but I was perfectly fine going through security and waving goodbye to them. I got really choked up when I turned the corner and walked to my gate. Even now I'm a little choked up, but I will see them soon, and will probably feel fine after the 5 hour flight to LA.

It's going to be a LONG day of travel, but it will defiantly be worth it!

Day of Travel

It has finally come. It feels so odd. Today is my official day of travel to Australia! In roughly 5 hours I will be leaving for the airport for Los Angels and finally from LA onto Brisbane. I'm frickn' excited! Goodbye States, I'll miss ya. Australia, I'll see you Tuesday Feb 7th!

Surreal

T-minus just under 2 hours till midnight. I'm sitting here in my now almost empty bedroom just looking around thinking about how I got to this point. I know the steps I took, but I'm left wondering on how the time went by, and the amount of crap I've piled up. It is a real surreal moment when you are throwing out crap that has just been building up. Things that you haven't thrown away during random urges to clean the madness because they had a "reason" to stay. Well, everything that I can't fit in the suitcases are being tossed.

At this moment, I have no free room. I've packed both of the large allowed suitcases, each coming in at 2 inches below the allowed size and 5 pounds each under the allowed weight. I figured this way if my scale was wrong, I'd have a safety buffer. The two boxes that I'm paying extra to bring along are also under weight. The computer coming in at right around 50 pounds, the monitor and all accessories coming in at roughly 60 pounds. I think the landlord is going to freak out when he sees these four large baggage items, even though I told him in advance. Luckily, only 1 and a half, are clothes. Half of it, and most the weight are my books on film. Then two boxes are for the computer. It's really hard, and frickn' insane, to try to pack your life into 4 pieces of baggage!

I now am starting to get worried about the weight on the flight. The representative I talked to a few weeks ago told me that the flight was oversold, and that if every single person brought 2 bags at 70 pounds each, that my two extra bags would have to be shipped later. However, she pretty much assured me though, that they have never had that happen. My two extra bags come in at roughly 110 pounds, so if two people only bring one checked bag, I'm good. Otherwise, just people bringing less weight than allowed is what I'm counting on. I'm not going to be loosing sleep over it.

Also, I really doubt the flight is going to be completely jammed packed. From what I was told by my father, and a friend who works for America Airlines, a lot of business men and women will book 2 or 3 flights a week and then just pick one to return on depending on what's needed with their business. They then pay a small fee and what they paid for the ticket is credited to a new flight, and the game begins, so hopefully the weight won't even come into the equation.

Have I mentioned yet that I'm tired? But oh yeah, 0 DAYS, 1 HOURS, 51 MINUTES!!!!

21!!!!!

I cannot believe how fast this week went by. Most of my packing is done. I've pretty much finalized everything here in the States. Today I just have to finish packing, box up my computer, and go make some absolute last purchases.

But the big thing is this: my countdown is now in HOURS.

Thats right baby, hours. In 21 hours it will be midnight Feb 5th here in the States, the day my adventure begins. I can't believe it's finally here. Am I excited, scared? Nope, still stressed and tired! However, I am 100% confident that when I walk through security at the airport, I will be really frickn' excited, and fucking excited when I step on that Qantas airplane!

0 Days, 21 hours, 11 minutes till Australia!!!!

February

I cannot believe it is now officially February. I have been counting down to this month for now over 18 months! In 3 days and some hours it will officially be midnight Feb 5th, the day of my departure to Australia. Awesome! I've spent most of the night tonight just cleaning my room, throwing away a bunch of crap that I've piled up over the years, and really looking for things / paperwork that I need to keep.

Another very good thing happened yesterday. I officially found out that my financial aid check went through, and I contacted my rep at the disbursement company and paid for Priority Overnight shipping, so my financial aid checks will arrive in no more than 10 hours from now. Once they arrive, I will be immediately running to the bank to deposit them. I will then return to the bank on Friday or Saturday once the checks have officially posted and wire the money to my account in Australia.

It's February, HELL YEAH!

3 Days, 23 Hours, 47 minutes till Australia!!!!!

Single Digits

Holy Shit! I cannot believe how fast time has gone by. My countdown till I leave for Australia is now in single digits! Thats right baby, in 9 days, I will be leaving for Australia! I'm so excited, yet at the same time overwhelmed with the simple fact that I only have 9 days left here in the States.

I've been getting a couple emails about when I exactly leave, so to set things straight, let me explain the countdown. The countdown is to 12:00AM of Feb 5th 2006. My flight doesn't leave from Chicago until later in the evening on the 5th, but I decided to countdown to the day, as the entire day is really the start of the trip. Due to the time the flight from L.A. takes off at, and changing the international date line, I officially will be in Australia on Feb 7th Australia time, Feb 6th here in the states. So there's the explanation :)

I'm frickn' excited! All my shopping is done, I just have to cancel a few services I have here in the states, and I also still need to go tanning. I'm going to be entering Australia in the heart of summer, and I need to get my body prepared so I don't burn. I grew up working as a golf caddy, so I'm used to being out in the sun. I'm not looking to get a perfect tan, but just something to start off with so I don't end up as red as a lobster!

9 Days till Australia.

Staying up late...

So I really haven't accomplished anything off my list of things that I must do before I leave for Australia. The only thing I did was transfer my mobile phone here to my parents package, who have agreed to pay the $9.99 a month fee for me so I can keep my US mobile number.

Besides that, nothing on my list has really been done. A lot of the items are things that can be crossed off with one day of shopping, but the thing is that I have no real time to shop, as I'm working non-stop. I could easily get it done before I go into work, but I've been staying up later and later for some reason and thus am sleeping in as much as possible. For the past month I haven't been able to fall asleep until 3AM, I don't know why, but I need to make sure I get out of that habit. The only advantage to this is that when I fly out, I'm technically going to need to stay up to 5 or 6 AM my time, and then go to sleep, so hopefully I won't be as tired.

The flight from LA to Brisbane is 14 hours. I figure if I stay awake for the first four hours of the flight, then fall asleep for the next 8 hours ( as I have a sleeping pill that is going to keep me asleep for 8 hours ), and wake up for the rest of the flight, I will wake up well rested early morning Brisbane time, as my flight lands at 7:45 AM Brisbane time. At least I hope to wake up well relaxed, as it will just help with the jet lag.

28 Days till Australia.

What the...

I think my level of stress just hit a new high. Several weeks ago I received information about my orientation. I was required to attend 2 of the 4 main events, with the other 2 being optional. The two required events were the getting started session for international students, followed a week later by the school session. About two weeks ago the official guide for orientation was published. This guide listed all the times and locations for the orientation programs depending on your level and area of study. So, I scrolled through the 60 or so page PDF file and couldn't find my program. I went through it again, maybe I had missed it. Nope, it wasn't there. So, I sent an email off to several people / offices at Griffith, and over the past two days I've been in contact with an international advisor. Tonight, I got this in my email.

I contacted the school of Arts, Media and Culture about the information session for the Master of Arts in Film and Television Studies.

I was informed that this program is being phased out and will be discontinued, or no longer be offered, after the semester that you have been accepted into. That is one of the reasons why no session was organised for the program.

My reaction: fuck.

Rest assured that the program will still be running when you arrive. The convenor for the program will be Dr David Baker and he will be able to provide you information about the program.

My reaction: breathing has returned to normal.

He is, unfortunately, away on leave until late January.

My reaction: double fuck.

Now, from my own research I've found that most of the courses in my degree are cross-listed, so the course is in the Griffith Film School as well as the Arts, Media and Culture School. I can only assume that the program is being morphed into a program solely within the Griffith Film School. However, there is no real way to tell until I talk to Dr. Baker. However, he is on holiday until late January. No exact date, just late January, which doesn't really ease my level of stress.

While I may not be affected right now, what about down the road when the courses I have to take are not cross-listed? Is the program being morphed into a new program, or is it simply being cut for low applications. If it is the latter, then what will happen if I'm required to take course A, and the only section is canceled because not enough students signed up for it?

I'm positive that all of this has been taken into their plan for phasing out the program, and in all honesty, all that really matters is that in the end run I get my Masters of Arts. However, I would feel a whole lot better if I could hear it from someone directly involved in the program. The only good thing is that I have my prescription nicotine inhaler to get my dose, cause otherwise I'd need a cig.

31 Days till Australia.

Banking

Today, my welcome letter from ANZ arrived telling me my account information. ANZ has a partnership with Griffith University called Griffith Advantage. Basically, it's an account with no fees attached. The true advantage to myself was that I was able to open the account before I arrive, and then wire funds into the account so I would have an account with money in it waiting for me when I arrive.

I just sent an email off to my contact at the bank to find out one quick thing though. Is there a fee attached to receiving a telegraphic transfer? They advertised opening the account before I arrived strongly; however, if there is a fee attached to depositing funds before I arrive then why would I wire funds when I can simply show up and deposit them with no fee?

Here's the catch - All banks are going to charge a fee for converting US dollars into Australian dollars. My bank here in the states allows me to wire money directly from my account in any currency I want, meaning that I wouldn't have to pay the charge for converting currency as I would be able to wire Australian currency. I also have several friends who work at the bank I use so no fee would be attached for sending the transfer. So the thing I need to find out is basic: What fee is more? Accepting the telegraphic transfer or converting currency?

32 Days till Australia.

Holy Sh...

Thats right... Holy Shit. It's JANUARY!!!!

I can't believe that January has come up so fast, but now its here. Simply put, this month I am going be: happy, excited, scared, stressed, and hung over. In just 34 Days I will be leaving for the airport for my flight to Australia. It really puts it into perspective when you realize that you only have a limited amount of time left to accomplish things you still have to do.

I have to buy clothes, shoes, cancel or transfer any services I use, change my address, go get my teeth cleaned, go to the doctor for one last check-up, and pack. It really isn't a big deal. In fact, many of you are probably saying to yourself that you could easily do that in 30 days, and I couldn't agree more, in 30 days I could easily do it all. Except, I have to work 50 hours a week for the next three weeks, which is not a big issue, cause I still have the weekends to get my errands done. The issue is that everyone is calling me and wanting to hang out. I'm getting pulled in every which direction from friends and family alike. It's like I'm never going to come back or something, and I keep telling them that I'll be back in Chicago for the holidays next year, but no one seems to be hearing that.

Anyway, in perspective, it all adds up to a small issue, cause no matter what, in 34 days I will be heading towards Australia!!!!!!!!!