After numerous goodbye parties and a stressful evening of packing my Parents and I drove into the city (Sydney) to our apartment, where the idea was that because we would be closer to the airport and therefore be able to wake up later and get more sleep. In theory that was the plan and it worked for Mum and Dad, but I being the anxiety ridden stress head I am hardly slept at all.
9th August, 2009
We were up and in a Taxi unnaturally early (before the sun even) and on our way to Sydney International Airport.
At the air port after checking in and removing my beloved books (I'll miss you Nigella) which were making my bag too heavy I met up with Amy, another Au Pair who was traveling from Perth, and though we weren't sitting together on the plane, she became my traveling buddy for the flight.
The flight to LA was long and boring, I stayed awake watched movies and walked around the plane a lot, I honestly don't know how people sleep in coach ( except for that one lucky guy with the whole row to himself) its entirely uncomfortable. When the plane finally arrived at LAX it was go go go, we originally had an hour and a half to make the connection, but we were a little late, had customs to go through and our bags which we had to recheck for NY took over an hour to be unloaded, I was tired emotional, and carrying a lot of baggage, not emotional, just heavy bags, I had 2 heavy carry on bags without wheels plus a handbag and a winter coat. In my distress about missing my connecting flight and trying to make my way to the end of a huge line i somehow slipped and tripped over my bags and fell, landing on my right hand bending my fingers back in the most painful way I have ever experienced. Embarrassing! obviously though it was not embarrassing enough, I was surrounded by airport personnel who rushed to my aid took my passport and checked me in to my flight, or you know whatever they had to do,Amy came out of the line (she was further ahead of me) to help too and took one of my bags and due to some completely incompetent decision not to have first aid open until 10am at an international airport, my hand was taped up with cardboard and i was wheeled past everyone including Amy through security and straight to the gate, where I refused to board without Amy, even crying just to embarrass myself further. Eventually Amy came running over just making it in time and we boarded, for me a hellish 6 hour (or whatever it was) without even ice for my bruised swollen hand sitting in the middle of the row, thinking about how this had to be one of the worst days of my life, if your reading this thinking how shallow and sheltered I must be that this could be the worst thats ever happened to me, I want you to know that I acknowledge I have had it pretty good in my life, and many people face worse situations, however I was quite tired and emotional that day, nursing an injury and my expectations of customer service in a western country had been far from met, seriously no first aid till 10 am, not even ice!!
Finally late, we made it to NY, well the plane was early but somehow the airport stuffed everything up and so we still got in late. While waiting for our bags which always seem to take forever Amy started being way too excited for someone who had been flying for the past 20 hours when she noticed Lisa Kudrow, who was apparently on our flight and also waiting for her bags. I was like "oh wow a famous person" but she really wasn't that impressive and I was never really a huge "Friends" fan so it was really hard for me to force myself to be excited about it.
Greeted by our driver who sported the kind of New York accent my brother seems to like so much, we loaded our bags into a town car and headed into Long Island to St Johns College where we would be for the next 4 days in the Cultural Care Au Pair Training School.
