Shyzer.com

First off, I got on AIM today for about 20 minutes and I think about 70% of the IMs sent to me were blocked for some reason. So to anybody I ignored or never even responded to, it wasn’t at all intentional.

Well, here it is. I promised that I would keep a running log of my trip over here and this is what I came up with. Kinda long, but Jesus H Christ was the trip over here long! Oh, what am I talking about, it only took 42 hours from start to finish. I’ve always wanted to kind of do one of these full day, running blog type entries and I figured that this was probably my best chance to do so.

But before I get to that, I just wanted to say that so far I’m having a blast. I’ll be honest, the first few days (and even today for that matter) were a little weird. Knowing nobody, barely knowing those people that you just met, not having any earthly idea what to expect. But with each passing day it gets a little easier and little funner. ( I know that’s not a word, but I think it should be.) Classes start this Monday, which should make things a lot more interesting and I’m trying out for the baseball team this Sunday. Who the hell knows how good their team is. Hopefully they suck so I can make it =) But all in all, I’m enjoying myself immensely and I just hope it gets better and better.

But here’s the log.

Saturday
07:00 - Oh crap, I have yet to shower. Sleep you ask? HAHAHA
07:40 - Showered, shaved, packed the car, and ready to go.
08:10 - Give a few hugs and head out in the car with my dad.
08:45 - Looks like we got here a little early. Eh, can’t hurt.
08:50 - Check in and get rid of these two gigantor bags holding all my possessions. If United loses them, so help me God
08:56 - For the second time in my life, the security agent looks through my bag and finds a weapon. Guess I forgot to unpack me knife. The first incident occurred when I was 8 and they took away my toy ray gun. I never saw that thing again.
09:05 - Dad comes back to the airport and picks up the knife for me. I really liked that knife. I wasn’t about to let it go the way of my ray gun.
09:10 - Successfully make it through security. The old ladies enjoyed making fun of me for my mistake.
09:16 - I’m already bored.
10:04 - Called to the ticket counter for my boarding pass. So far the itinerary is on track!
10:05 - The lady beside me is talking on her cell phone very loudly. About how heavy her period is!
10:10 - Thank God, we’re boarding.
10:13 - Yeah, I can’t move in this sardine can!
10:30 - Wheels up.
10:31 - Jesus Christ!
10:32 - Seriously, what the hell.
10:33 - JESUS CHRIST!
10:34 - OMFG WE ARE GOING TO FUCKING CRASH IF YOU DON’T STOP SHAKING THE DAMN PLANE!
10:35 - Better, but that was still by far the bumpiest takeoff out of GSP in the history of all takeoffs.
10:40 - Zzzzz.
11:30 - JESUS CHRIST ROUND II!!!
11:35 - What the Hell did I do to piss you off God? There has never been this much turbulence from GSP to IAD.
11:40 - Wheels down.
11:50 - As I’m exiting the plane, I see the pilot. I swear to God, if he was a day older than me, I will pay each and every reader of Shyzer $100. For the past hour, my life was in the hands of some kid who cannot fly through turbulence worth a crap.
11:55 - Get on the “people herder” to take me to the other terminal.
11:56 - There’s an airline called Ethiopian Air. Uhhh, no thanks.
12:01 - Receive phone call from guy interested in my apartment. Fingers crossed, he’ll take the place. He sounded pretty cool to boot.
12:48 - Just got off the phone after possibly the weirdest, most random 26-minute conversation with Jules. Just the way I like it.
13:02 - Hear on CNN that Howard Dean was elected to become the new DNP chairman. Thank God. That man should be our President right now, but I digress.
13:14 - No seriously, I’m bored and tired.
13:39 - My mom was supposed to meet me here in the airport for lunch 39 minutes ago. She’s just now leaving the house, an hour away. I called her to see where she was and the first thing she said was “I’m on my way, but I have bigger news. The 5:00 flight was cancelled, so now you’re screwed! Good luck!” Itinerary’s approximate lifespan: only 5 hours. Well this trip finally just got a little interesting.
13:40 - I love these new CNN commercials. I just saw the one with Wolf Blitzer. Great stuff. See, whoever came up with those would avoid the “Death Button.”
13:41 - VICTORY IS MINE! Just saw that commercial too.
15:11 - Apparently I fell asleep because I was just awoken by my mom laughing at the sight of me sprawled out in the airport sleeping.
15:19 - We run into a friend of my mom’s named Stacy, who is a ticket agent. He shows us that my 22nd birthday last week bumped me from an 8A rank to an 8B. Translation for all you non-frequent fliers out there is that I now went from 3rd on the Space Available List to 19th. I shit you not.
15:31 - Okay, here’s the plan. I try for IAD-LAX. If I don’t make it, I go to BOS, spend the night there, fly BOS-SFX-SYD and then get my luggage sent from LAX to meet me.
15:55 - Mom and I depart, hopefully for the last time for the next few months (I’m not being mean, I just don’t want to have to see her in Boston, because that would mean I didn’t get to this flight!)
16:20 - Due to my unexpected demotion in rank, I doubt I’ll make this flight. Damn it.
16:24 - Stacy calls the ticket agent working the LAX gate and guess what… THEY’RE BEST FRIENDS! Suddenly, I’ve gone from no seat to seat 8D, which is Economy Plus. Wow. Thank the Lords of Cobol.
16:40 - My seat is not only an aisle seat, but it has no seats in front of it and has as much legroom as I could ever use.
16:50 - Wheels up.
17:00 - Zzzzzz.
18:53 - Woken up for dinner. Normally I just pick at these things, this time I devour it.
19:04 - I wish something funny or interesting would happen so I could put it in here. So far, I got nothing.
19:34 - I just checked the Hemisphere magazine to see what movie is showing on the way to Sydney. They’re showing three. Just how damn long is that flight?!
19:35 - Start writing by hand a post for Shyzer.
19:46 - Have to stop writing because my hand gets tired. Wow, my “in class essay speed writing without cramping my hand” skill has seriously deteriorated.
21:04 - This NBC in-flight crap really sucks. I mean, really sucks.
21:05 - How much longer is this freaking flight?!
21:10 - There’s a young lady sitting next to me that keep bending over to mess around with her bag and/or shoes and every time she does, her thong practically rides up to shoulder blades. I’m not complaining though.
21:23 - 45 minutes until we’re there……….
22:10 - Wheels flippin’ down.
22:37 - Okay, I made it over to the International Gates, found the Sydney ones, and decided that the line was too damn long to stand in. I’ll wait a few minutes.
22:59 - I’m told no SA’s are being taken because of weight restrictions. I don’t trust the ticket agent, so I go to another one.
23:15 - I might have a seat on this plane…but wait…
23:20 - I have a problem with my VISA! Of course! In fact, I expect nothing less from myself! However, this Aussie chick is not only extremely nice to me, but she calls Australia and tells them to fix the problem for me. Then she and I make fun of her American counterparts who totally blew me and my problem off!
23:30 - VISA problems cleared. Apparently I put the wrong birth date for myself on the application. Whoops.
23:40 - There’s only 1 seat left with 9 people ahead of me. Wonder-fucking-ful!
23:44 - Oh you’ve got to be shitting me. That was such a mean trick. I SOMEHOW GOT THE SEAT! Everybody in front of me turned it down because they wither had more than one person in their party or they had left!
23:46 - I’m in BUSINESS CLASS! The seats are like freaking palaces!
24:15 - Wheels up!

Sunday

02:20 - Ladder 49 is by far the best movie I’ve ever seen during a flight. I’m on the verge of bawling here.
02:21 - Oh yeah, they just served me fresh salmon that was some of the best I’ve ever had. And it was the appetizer! Oh how I love business class =) The chicken dinner was delicious and the cake? Heavenly.
02:29 - I feel like royalty up here.
11:36 - Just woke up from my sleep. Did I mention the seats up here recline all the way into beds?! Yeah, that’s a nice touch.
11:40 - God, I’m almost here.
12:15 - Breakfast of fruit, Danish, and um, something else that I forgot to write down.
13:16 - I’m watching the sun rise over the ocean. I’m already loving this country.
13:56 - Okay, when you are flying internationally and in Business class, each seat has their own TV. One of the channels is a map of the flight you are on and it tells you the speed you are traveling, etc. I was just looking at the map and the name of the city south of Sydney is Wollongong. I laughed for 10 minutes after seeing that.
14:08 - Almost there…
14:17 - The view is beautiful.
14:19 - Wheels down.
14:20 - That was the smoothest landing in the history of aviation landings. The pilot needs to go teach that kid who flew me to D.C. a thing or two.
14:21 - I now set my watch forward 16 hours =)
14:33 - I always let everybody else get off the plane before myself. It’s habit. In doing so on this flight, I got plenty of “It must have been nice sitting up here” looks. It was hilarious.
14:41 - I realize its Monday here. What the hell happened to my Sunday?!

Okay, I could just make up some times to go with the stuff I’m about to type, but I’ll be honest. I put away my notebook and stopped noting the times because it got really hard for me to lug all my luggage and whatnot around. So, instead I’ll type everything that happened here and let you read it like a normal post. Like I said, I got in around 14:40 and proceeded to go through Customs, or the Australian version thereof. After about a 40 minute wait, I made it through alright and walked into the baggage area to claim my bags. The only problem was that after about another 40 minutes, I realized they weren’t there. I found an agent and made a lost baggage claim and realized I had no idea what to do. I sat down for a few minutes to think and remembered that there was supposed to be another flight leaving LA for Sydney two hours after my flight. Since I got the very last seat on my flight and boarded practically as they closed the door, I realized that my luggage probably hadn’t been placed on since they saw I was 9th on the list and assumed that I wouldn’t make the flight. I crossed my fingers and prayed that they threw my luggage on the next flight once they saw that I had actually made the first one and decided to wait around the airport for the next flight to land. My flight had landed around 0600 Zulu (local) time and so I reasoned that the next flight would land at 0800. Add another hour for my luggage to not be claimed in the baggage area and another hour for it to make its way to United’s. So, I waited around for a few hours and at 10:00 I went up to the offices and viola, there were my bags. I loaded them up on a luggage cart and made my way down to the train station. I bought a ticket, grabbed a map, and went to wait. That’s where I realized just how heavy my bags were. I was about to have to lug these puppies by myself and let’s just say this. Today, a full 4 days later, my shoulders are still bruised and sore. So there’s a lesson for you all. And honestly, my room is bare and practically empty since I didn’t bring that much. Clothes just weigh a lot I guess.

Anyway, I boarded the train and made my way to Sydney Central, where I was going to have to get off and board another train to Newcastle. I got off, went to the Destination Screen, and saw this message next to Newcastle “Ask Station Attendant.” I found an employee wearing a blue shirt, asked him which train was going to Newcastle, and boarded the train on platform 8. I drug my entire luggage onboard, found a seat near the front, and passed out. The time was about 11:00 local. About 20 minutes later I awoke and just sat up for the view. That’s when I noticed I was the only person on the train. I looked at the name of the next station we passed and then looked at my map.

I was headed South.

I had no idea what to do, I was fairly exhausted, and so I just sat back and decided to get off at the next station it stopped at. By 11:45, we had yet to stop and I was getting worried. The train finally slowed around noon and I looked out to see “MAITSLAND TRAIN YARD” Oh great. I grew up with siblings who watched Thomas the Tank Engine and I knew what trains did in the train yard. They just sat there, going nowhere. Once the train stopped, I pulled out some food, had a little snack, and decided it was time to go find somebody. I found a door I could open, jumped out, and walked up to a group of extremely shocked workers who had just watched me dismount a supposedly empty train. I explained what happened, they all laughed, and two of them put their arms around me, led me back to the train, and told me that I was in luck. It was just here for refueling and they would be taking it back to Sydney in just a minute. I climbed back on board and when they did so as well, they invited me up front to sit in the conductor’s car for the ride back. I gladly accepted, if not just for the company, and we were off. Turns out one of them was a huge Cleveland Indians fan (I didn’t hold it against him). The view, being able to watch from up instead of looking sideways out a window, was amazing. We finally made it back to Sydney, the Indians guy personally escorted me to the correct train while making fun of all the blue-shirted employees that worked there since in his words they were all idiots, and I was off. It was close to 13:00 by this point and the train finally left at 13:16. I climbed onboard, found a seat, and looked out the window for the next three hours.

To make a long story a little bit shorter, I had no idea what station to get off at. I ended up riding the line until it ended, calling Newcastle, and riding it back towards Sydney for 10 minutes before getting off at the correct stop, Warabock. When I got off, I had no idea which direction to go in and trust me, once I take some pictures, you’ll understand. It looked like I was in the middle of nowhere. I went up to some other kids my age who were waiting for a train, asked for some directions, and they all pointed me in the right direction. I gathered my bags, rode the “lift” up, and began the 10 minute trek to campus. My bags were so heavy that I could only really travel 50 yards or so before stopping and after about 20 minutes, I was exhausted. It was already 17:00 and I knew that the school was closing up and that I had to get there as soon as possible. Enter my knight in shining armor, the Newcastle Security Car. He saw me struggling, pulled over, introduced himself as Edward, and offered to drive me into campus. Edward was freaking awesome, not only for his kindness, but for his story of Italy that I will have to share in a future post. He drove me around campus to all the buildings I needed to go to and sign in at and after making the stops, he dropped me off in front of my dorm and made sure there was somebody there to check me in. I went in, filled out the forms given to me by the “night” clerk, thanked Edward for his help, and made my way to my dorm room.

And so, at 17:30, 01:30 EST, I walked into my dorm room and smiled. I had finally made it.

I’ll try and upload my next post fairly soon (within a few days). I’ll stick to first impressions and whatnot with it. Until then!