Leaving On A Jet Plane

Song: "Leaving On A Jet Plane" (John Denver cover) by Chantal Kreviazuk

February 11th (US time)

I originally planned on waking up at 3:15 am (EST) to get ready, shower, etc. for the airport. That didn't happen. I had gone to Ben's house to watch Scrubs the night before until 10pm, so I wanted all the sleep I could get and ended up waking at 4 am. Showered and packed, my mom and dad helped me get my stuff to the car, and we drove off down Rt. 70 to BWI. Best part of the car ride: me demanding that the station playing "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon stayed on and singing it very loudly in my sleep deprived stupor in front of both my parents.

From San Francisco

Mom tried to sneak some Valentine's Day goodies into my luggage, and I ended up just taking a large bag of pink M&Ms on the plane. She did successfully manage to sneak a birthday present in there that I didn't see until I hit customs. ("Ma'am, did you pack your own bags?" "Yes" "What's in this orange handkerchief?" "Uhhh....") It was unbearably sad having them drop me at the airport, and while I went around the security corrals, I waved to them multiple times. Also, my the checked luggage case I was worried about was a perfect 49 pounds. Hells yes.

I jumped through security and got on my plane to San Francisco without a problem. The flight was pretty uninteresting. I enjoyed watching an old episode of The Office and How I Met Your Mother ("nothing good ever happens after 2 am...") and listening to my iPod.

I arrived in San Francisco a little after 10 am (PST) and with my purse and giant laptop backpack in tow, got in a cab and rode on into the city. I pretty much said, "take me to a good spot for a tourist" and ended up in Union Square, where I jumped on a double decker tour bus around the city. The bus was, um, well, it was a double decker, but the seats cushions on the top deck were soaked/not there. I sat on the bottom, and it worked just fine for what I needed. It drove us around, pointing out various landmarks, and then dropped a batch of us off at Fisherman's Wharf, where I was going to wait until the next bus to the Golden Gate Bridge came. (3:00 pm PST) I enjoyed Fisherman's Wharf very much, and there will be pictures to come in due time. Try here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Rebecca.Selzer

I got some amazing clam chowder and some sourdough bread once I got there, and walked around the piers and saw the pier full of sea lions. Tons of them.

From San Francisco

My favorite/"dumbest move" part of this day was climbing up to the top of the country's crookedest road. I believe the man said the turns were at 43 degree angles. Regardless, San Francisco, while only 64 sq. miles large, has about 40 giant hills. This was one of them. I had some time to kill, and I somehow decided that this was today's Everest and I was going to go up. I decided this while it was beginning to rain. By the time I was at the top, it was essentially pouring. My backpack was drenched (including that spare change of clothes) but luckily my laptop remained pretty dry.

From San Francisco

Once at the top, I still had more free time, so I decided to follow my map down a different direction and ended up exporing Ghirardelli Square.

Note: I, noted ice cream lover, have never had a more delicious ice cream sundae in my entire life than the one I had at Ghirardelli Square. It was called Mint Bliss and their "hot fudge" tastes like melted chocolate bars, which I believe it is. So good.

From San Francisco

After that, I trekked back to the bus station and got on board for the Golden Gate Bridge vista trip. It was still raining when I left Fisherman's Wharf, but miraculously, by the time we got to our Golden Gate Bridge destination it had cleared up. My pictures turned out okay considering.

From San Francisco

The bus then drove us around a little more and brought me back to where I started. Me being me decided to go amble around down some street on the map and see what I found. As I was walking, I looked up and saw a giant Apple logo. heh. Next thing I saw was an Old Navy and I really needed flipflops (thongs, whatever) so I went in. "Magic" by Ladyhawke was playing on the speakers for the few minutes I was in there, and my feet were so cold from the rainy nastiness I'd been walking in that just trying the flipflops on was a hassle. After that I decided to retrace the path of the tour bus and check out some of the other things the guide mentioned for myself. I went to North Beach (which is like their Little Italy) for dinner which was tasty and I took more photos of a building owned by Francis Ford Coppola (director of The Godfather) and uncle to Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman and the lead singer of Rooney. The building looks like it came out of a movie set. It's gorgeous.

From San Francisco

Anyway, I caught a cab outside that building after dinner and my taxi driver was an extremely interesting man from Ethiopia who seemed really happy that I was going to Australia. He was lovely, and if you ever run into him in San Francisco, tell him I say hello. I think our final words were "see you in another life." I got back to the airport around 7pm PST (end of Lost time in EST) and talked to several people on my phone as I realized it'd be the last time I got to use it for awhile. I fought so hard to stay awake because I was determined to not have jet lag. I got on the plane and despite my best efforts, conked out a few minutes after sitting down.

Bonus: The person who had the seat next to me didn't show up so I got a window seat, twice.

February 13th, Sydney time (?)

I slept for 2 hours, woke up for the meal, slept for 6 more, woke up for the meal, and then stayed awake essentially the rest of the flight. My iPod was amazing and the in-flight entertainment was bearable so I didn't have to waste my iPod battery the whole time.

When we arrived, I found two other people who sat two rows in front of me who were also studying at Macquarie, Kristina and Zach. We got our luggage, made our way to customs, and found the shuttle with no worries, but Zach wasn't on the list when we got there. I believe he found his roommate and was ok. On the shuttle I found a Joseph Arthur fan and felt at home, enough.

Well, there's the boring checking in to my empty apartment story, but I'll spare you. It's almost 2am here outside Sydney, and if I learned one thing from the in-flight showing of How I Met Your Mother, it's that nothing good happens after 2am. Even kicking Korean Elvis in the groin.