Life in the Land Down Under

The long trek to get there: Do you know how much stuff you need to pack for 4 months? I sure don’t. I know that I packed 110 lbs. in checked baggage and at least another 20 or 30 in carry-on luggage. Plexiglas is a lot heavier than one might expect (I had to pack my plastic boxes for my research in Australia). Luckily I’m going to a country that has a high standard of living, so I’m pretty sure I can buy almost anything I need when I get there.

Time zone math: I just don’t get time zone math; it makes my head hurt. My flight to Sydney leaves San Francisco tonight (Tuesday, January 20, 2004) and arrives in Sydney at 7:45 a.m. THURSDAY morning, but it’s only 14.5 hours long. Near as I can guess, January 21^st will last about 3 hours for me, sometime between when we leave San Fran and when we cross the international date line. Of course, since time is going earlier as I fly west, I really don’t know when Wed. will happen. At least I have a watch with a second time zone setting, so I’ll be able to keep track of what time it is in the U.S. (Thanks, Becky—that’s one of the better Christmas gifts that I would have never thought to ask for.) Coming back is even more confusing, since I leave Australia before I arrive in the US. Where does that time on the plane go? I’m reminded of the Stephen King short story “The Langoliers”, about a plane that got stuck outside of time and the only people who survived the transition were asleep but everything around them in the nowhere place is being eaten by a strange black balls, which are the Langoliers. Since I can sleep on planes, I won’t disappear like the rest of the passengers, but I’m not sure I’m up to being erased by a Langolier. J

Business class: It’s the only way to travel. (Thanks, LJ, for gallivanting around the globe enough to get me a free upgrade.) The seats are really wide, with really good recline and footrests. The food is very good—good enough that I could imagine paying for it in a restaurant. The service is impeccable—your glass is never empty when you fly upfront. I’m not sure that it’s worth it when I have to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege, but when I’m getting it for free I’ll happily take it. So apparently either LJ needs to keep flying a billion miles a year and remain with SuperGrandMaster Status (I’m pretty sure they’d let him pick the movies and have a stopover in Hawaii if he asked) or I need to rich, filthy rich so I can afford to travel the right way.

A few first impressions: First impressions of Australia: I am reminded of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and all the other Pacific Coast towns that I’ve been to in the US. The architecture, the beach, the weather… all are reminiscent of the southern California locales.

In many ways, I feel like Alice stepping through the looking glass. Some things are completely backwards, like driving on the wrong side of the road, while others are just a little bit off (“Yield” signs read “Give way”). I think that driving is the bit that seems most like a mirror image. The steering wheel is on the right and they drive on the left, which makes for some odd street signs regarding left turns on red (which seem to be allowed in most places). It’s a great deal hotter and more humid than I thought it would be. I’m guessing I probably won’t need my fleece very often.

Now I’m off to spend the weekend on holiday. Turns out that it’s Australia Day on Monday (the equivalent of Independence Day for us Americans), so I have a three-day weekend when I first get here. I wish I knew what to spend it doing. I’m sure I’ll spend some time at the beach, and trying to find places to live.