America the… um… bitterly cold?
In case you hadn’t noticed, I am now back in America. Oregon, to be exact.
So let’s see… Tane took me to the Brisbane airport at 8.00 am on 26 December, 2007. My flight departed at 11.45, and after hopping quickly down to Sydney to catch my international flight to LAX, I arrived safely in California at 9.00 am, 26 December, 2007. Huzzah for the International Date Line! And no, Charlie, it’s not a telephone number that you can call to get hooked up with “Hott Asian Girrrrrlz.”
Anyway, I had a long layover in LAX while I waited for my flight to Portland, and after arriving in Portland (where my absolutely amazing dad and superbly wonderful sister Christine were waiting for me), I then drove the three hours home. In the snow. Talk about climate change. Anyway, so all up, it was just about 38 hours from Brisbane to home. I don’t plan to be doing that again any time soon, thank you.
So there. Being back stateside has made me realise just how much I missed my family and friends and has certainly put this whole “living internationally” thing into perspective. More on that later.
But for now, I would just like to let everyone in the States know that I am home and ready to catch up, and I’d like to let all of my new Aussie friends know that I miss you all very much and think about you daily. I’d also like to add that if I were to delete all of my “Friends” on MySpace and Facebook who never emailed me or bothered returning the emails that I sent them whilst in Australia, I would be left with my family and the following individuals: James, Charlie, Janna, Keenan, Lisa, Stephanie, Aileen, Craig, Sabrina, Whitney, Liz, Roger, Justin, and Rachel. In SIX MONTHS. That’s just over two people per month. So, thank you to the fourteen people who remembered me!
January 14th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Hey! What about me? I must have emailed you a dozen times before I arrived! Granted, most of those emails went something to the effect of “Good heaven’s Jack, what do I bring?!!!” But still! And speaking of not returning emails, I think that you owe me a few =) I’m glad to hear that you’ve returned home safe. Has anybody told you about the rainstorm we’ve had? 800mm in 5 days! It was insane! Chris nearly lost a bus on the way to Moran’s Falls with the TPO group–Tane came to the rescue, and soon after the managers were brought in and there is a fabulous photo of Matt Perry examining the nearly-over-the-edge bus that they had all just managed to make worse! In the end, they had to rope that bus to Molly, and our only other bus was down at the repair shop so we had NO buses at all for a while! It was great fun. And Moran’s Falls has been absolutely incredible lately. I never imagined it could flow so strong. All along the Border Track there are waterfalls that definitely aren’t usually there, both of the Wishing Tree bridges have washed away, Elabana Falls is currently pouring OVER the rocks behind the sitting area forming a third waterfall (and that tree trunk up top has washed down), and the Canungra Valley Vineyards have drowned. Half our annual average in the first 5 days of the new year! I’m very sorry you missed it. But I hope you are having tons of fun in the snow. Email me when you get a chance, okay? I want to hear all about Oregon and what you’ll be getting up to this Spring. Hope to hear from you soon! God Bless!