The Time Between Places

I’ve never felt greater writer’s block than I do right in this moment. Knowing that I have so many days to cover, events to retell, and things to explain of the past few days – all the while not even sure what day it is really or how long I’ve been here. I know it’s a Monday for you, and I left home on a Tuesday. It has NOT felt like a week! 

I'll just start with the flight, since we are going out again to do something on a time crunch, so I will blog about the rest of the trip so far at some point. 

 

 After I blogged in Dallas, Emily and I fell asleep on our broken sleep number beds. I slept like a rock. Emily had requested a 2 pm check-out instead of noon, so we both obviously took the opportunity to sleep until noon. Getting all of our junk together took a bit, because I know I still had to make sure that my checked bag wouldn’t be overweight, but my carry-on bag couldn’t have too much bulk in the front to make it not fit in the metal rig should the airline challenge its ability to fit on the plane (just in case). So a lot of unpacking and re-packing happened. 

Then it was about 1:58 Emily went down to check-out and I watched all of our stuff. Then at like 2:03, the phone starts ringing. So I froze like, are they calling to talk to me, or are they calling to make sure the room is really empty like Emily said? But I picked it up anyway and it was the front desk asking when we were going to check out, and I said Emily was already down there to do that and they said okay and I said yep and they hung up. Cool story bro, tell it again!

We then went downstairs with all of our suitcases to catch the shuttle bus to the airport. The driver was not Fred, and this one was very nice. He made sure to drop us off right outside the international terminal right under where it said Qantas. He wouldn’t let us take our own bags out of the trunk either. He was fussing over there not being any carts for us but we insisted that we would be okay rolling them, so he left with the rest of the people on the bus. 

We get inside, ready to check our bags, and then walk around aimlessly and then find out that at the Lufthansa counter, at 6pm, they change over to Qantas. So we can’t check in until 6. Aaanddd it was only 2:45. Cool.

So we parked ourselves in a corner with a plug so we could charge iPods, and then played a rousing game of skip-bo. I had pretty much forgotten how to play and the game is really no fun with just two people. We ended up getting stuck with no moves five or six times, so I had to reshuffle all of the cards and all of the draw piles just so we could get something done. Emily ended up winning, but she didn’t want to count it as a win because we had to cheat a few times just to be able to play.

Then she found a Starbucks, which was like a beacon in the night. So we sat around there drinking our starbucks and eating our expensive starbucks food and watching the news because we couldn’t change the channel. The news is never more angering than when you are forced to watch it for hours.

Then it was 5:45 so we walked back over to the counter that was being transitioned to Qantas. There was a short line of people, and we should have fought to be first in line because none of these people had been around for three hours, but whatever. Got in line. When I got up there, my bag weighed 22.2 kilos, and I asked if that was alright, and the guy said as long as it was 24 or under – but then he laid it down flat and it only weighed 17.2 kilos. So it all depends on how you place your bag on the scale apparently. Then he printed my boarding pass and that was it. I was bummed because that meant my boss wasn’t able to get us into any special places with her connections. But then Emily was checking in as well, and there were two women at her counter. Then one asked her if she wanted to switch to a row with three seats and one of them empty – and she looked at me, and I said sure, and so we were moved up a row. Then the women read something on the screen and talked about us having an invite to the lounge. So I celebrated inside!

One of my bosses works for an airline so she offered to try to get us lounge access or seat movements for the flight, but both of us didn’t know if it would work because it was Dallas and not JFK – but apparently the counterpart in Dallas went through with the request even though he didn’t know us or my boss. Which was super awesome.

So we trekked up to the lounge, which was between gates 21 and 22. It was through sliding glass doors, up an elevator, and then in a lobby a guy checked our boarding pass, which had on it “lounge invite – per Carlos.” Which apparently worked because we got past him, and then once in the Qantas room, we got checked again by the desk guy, and let through again. So we popped a squat in the nice leather chairs and had a minute to decide if the food really was all free or if we’d be stopped. It was so quiet in there too, because we were so early, so we just kind of found a little corner to ourselves where we could whisper and eat and plug in our laptops for the free wifi. 

I had a packed of Walkers shortbread, cranberry juice, meatballs in sauce, macaroni salad, broccoli cheddar soup, an irish cream latte, another cranberry juice…it was lovely. So we sat in there until boarding began at 9:15. We walked down to the gate at around 9, and took a chance to peruse all of our fellow plebians in coach who we hadn’t seen before.

Once we started boarding, Emily and I were just beside ourselves with excitement. It was so cool. I was in such a good mood, I didn’t even care how long the flight was going to be. The lounge really was the perfect transition I think because it didn’t feel like we were waiting around just to be waiting in a plane.

My carry-on fit in the overhead storage, Emily took the window seat and I took the aisle. The seats were comfortable, and the tv screen was touch screen. It had so many good movies and shows, I was excited for take-off – I kept making mental notes of what I was going to watch with those 16 hours to kill. 

Take-off was a breeze, it was actually the smoothest and fastest of the three flights. Once we were up in the air I started an episode of the Big Bang Theory. I then watched five more episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

Then dinner was served, which was either beef or chicken. I chose the beef which was alright. The salad that came with it was good though – it was cous cous with spinach and veg and stuff. Strawberry cheesecake, a bar of dark chocolate, water, tea, and a roll. Right after dinner they passed out big drawstring bags that had a water bottle, a pack of cookies, potato chips, and fig bars in it. 

Then I watched Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Great movie. Love it so much still. Then I was flipping through the movies again, wondering if I should watch Avatar next, but then I saw Good Will Hunting was on it so I just clicked it and watched that first. If you haven’t seen either of these movies, please do. They are fantastic.

After Good Will Hunting I started getting really tired, so I fixed myself up to sleep. I used the sleep mask, my own earplugs, and the pillow. It was rough, sleeping, because the chair was a bit uncomfortable by this point, so every few minutes I’d wake up and have to switch positions. I ended up sleeping for 5 hours total – which would have been more had I not really wanted to watch Avatar and finish it before we landed. 

Every time I checked the screen to see how much longer the flight duration was, I got a little sad to be honest. I didn’t want to land. Thinking about why, I knew it helped to have a television, because my other two flights could just not be over soon enough. It helped that we got fed on this flight, and I didn’t really feel nauseated or anxious at all. 

I thought about the time between places, and how it didn’t really feel like I was going so far away – especially on a plane. Even traveling in a car, the only thing to look at are roads and trees, so even then, 9 hours later, it didn’t feel like Virginia was as far from New York as it was. But then planes are several times faster than cars, so it warps time and distance even more. 

I guess I’m just so used to leaving that it doesn’t faze me anymore.  No place I’ve traveled to has felt worlds away from where I’ve been. Even here in Australia, it feels like a cross between Silver Bay (summer, old houses, smells), Florida (palm trees and bugs), and England (abroad – commonwealth - accents). It doesn’t feel like I’m on the other side of the world from those I love. I know I love traveling, but I think I love the time between places just as much. It’s just however many hours of possibility. Just moments of not knowing what is coming – but knowing you will be so different on your way back. 

I still can’t believe I am here in Australia. I don’t think I’ll believe it until I’ve left. And even then – coming back won’t seem like an impossibility due to location or money – because my brain will never comprehend or care about the fact that it is ridiculously far or ridiculously expensive. In a few months, this place will just be another home to me...because home is not a place anymore.