Jon's Arrival...

Wednesday, May 13th, 2008.
Sydney, AU

Note: I had to bum internet time from a friend to even post this. Stupid internet people will not be able to get us up and running until next week. The sooner the better! Anyway, I typed a bunch of posts so as I get access I can quickly post them. Here's the first one...


Wow. So much has happened and no access to the internet to share it. This also the first time I have really had to sit down and write anything about our adventures since I arrived last Friday at 6:15 AM local time. There is so much to tell it will take several posts to get you all caught up. Might as well start from the beginning…

Wednesday (Columbus, OH):
Todd dropped me off at the airport around 7:30AM for my 9:15 flight. We had not meant to get there quite that early, but traffic was exceptionally light and we had no difficulties. I pay $3 to use a cart to get all my crap...err…“stuff” to the check-in counter. Being so early on a Wednesday, I have no problem getting everything checked and through security except for the fact I have to drag out TWO laptops and the Wii and place them in individual bins for x-ray. Then I had to pack it all back up again. Oh well, I only had to do it once, right? And I was on my way…

…To sit in Chicago for 3 hours. No problems on the first flight, other than a short 10 minute delay because of weather in Chicago. We arrived and I found out I would have to go all the way over to the International Terminal and re-check in. Great. At least they told me my checked bags would go through automatically, I just needed to get my boarding passes for the Korean Air flights…and go through security again. Crap! Oh, and we landed at terminal 2 so give yourself plenty of time to get over to Terminal 5. Took me a good 30 minutes. After finally getting my boarding passes and dealing with the laptops at security again, I sat in the Korean Air business lounge and polished off free ginger ales and chips. What is it about flying that makes me crave ginger ale? Flying and Christmas – the only two times I really crave ginger ale.
When my flight was called I queued (Aussie word #1) up with everyone else, but since I was business class I got on first. “Wide” seat only in that it was wider than coach. I did I have plenty of “on demand” movies to watch, and the seat folded almost flat. The Koran Air flight attendants did a wonderful job making me comfortable…until they asked in broken English for the fiftieth time, “You want coffee?” NO! Go away and let me sleep! I watched I Am Legend, The Bucket List and Jumper before becoming bored and falling asleep for a while. Fourteen hours later…I landed in Seoul, South Korea.

Seoul/Incheon Airport is very nice with lots of duty free shopping. Maybe I’ll pick up a little something before finding the business class lounge. Oh, wait! No $$ other than about $30 American. I could use my credit card, but it’s not worth the hassle. Let’s get some ginger ale, it has only been a hour since I had one (and probably 20 minutes since I went to the bathroom).
When the time came to board the flight to Sydney, I went to the waiting area only to find that sharing my flight would be the Melbourne A-League Soccer Team! Interesting. I chatted with the guys for a little in the waiting area, never mentioning that I played a lot when I was younger (darn pregnant stomach!) and they shared some interesting tales of playing professional soccer. Most were younger than me, including one lad who had to be 16. I swear! Also on our flight was a class of Korean “high school” students (not sure of their school levels but they were high school age). A handful of the girls giggly asked the team to pose with them for pictures. It was really quite sad, but the team did a nice job of playing to their “fans”, especially the 16 year old. I sat back and laughed.

The ten hour flight to Sydney consisted of my sleeping for a hour, waking to go to the bathroom and down another ginger ale (all free to us special business class passengers) and then repeating the cycle until landing. The plane was older so the seats were not as nice, and while we had movie choices it was not “on demand” so you had to know when the movie was starting to watch it all. The selection was the same as the first flight, however, and I was trying to sleep as much as I could to overcome the jet lag when I landed at 6:15 AM.

We land and my travel adventure is over…not. Being business class pays as we were the first off the plane and the first through customs. Since we were the first flight to land for the day the customs agents were nice and I flew through the process, or so I thought. Australia, because it is an island and has a very unique ecosystem has very strict quarantine laws. You have to declare everything and they are more worried about things that will harm the ecosystem than they are about your declaring the $200 watch you bought in Hong Kong. I was warned about this and everyone told me, “Just declare everything and pay the fine if they give you one. It is much easier.” All I had in my bags was my prescription medications…and Clarice’s two plastic jars of Skippy peanut butter. Ugh. Wonder what they will say about that. Turns out, because they were still vacuum sealed, there was no problem. I wonder what they would have said if they were both open and half-eaten. Customs took five minutes, baggage and Quarantine took twenty-five. No worries though, I am here!

And just in time. As I walk out of Quarantine I see my lovely Clarice for the first time in almost two weeks. Looking back over ten years (end of this month people!), I can only remember a handful of times we were apart this long. Once was last spring’s trip for Clarice to Sydney and Tokyo. Off the top of my head I cannot remember another of longer than a few days.
Our friends Paul and Amber had graciously (and for Amber who does not have a job at the moment waking up at 6:00 AM is above and beyond gracious) accompanied Clarice on her drive to pick me up. Clarice had driven quite a bit locally, but was afraid of the highways to the airport. Turns out she was right as she made a wrong turn (even with the GPS we bought) on her way to Paul and Amber’s and ended up crossing the Sydney Harbor Bridge! Oh well, they were here, I was here…and I was tired.

We dropped Amber off to sleep at home, Paul off at work, and then Clarice and I came back to the apartment to get me all settled. We walked down to the “shops” of Narrabeen (a wonderful bakery, little dime store, bike shop, surf shop, newsstand, post office, grocery store and a few other little shops) and bought some odds and ends to get settled. Then Clarice went to work and left me to settle in, but not until after she got a call from work…

That’s enough for now. I’m sure most of you are as exhausted reading this as I was living it. Friday was not over yet, not by any stretch of the imagination so stay tuned. I’ll get caught up eventually!

Jon