Sometimes I Wish I was Short

Here goes. Most of you reading are family/friends of mine and know what's going on, but, for the sake of the few random people who might happen to stumble across this blog and read it out of bored curiosity, I will introduce myself and what this is about. As you can read in my "about me" I'm a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering, studying abroad in Australia this semester. I grew up in a small town in Iowa, and while I've traveled many places in American including Florida, Maine, and Las Vegas, I've never been outside of the States (unless you include the trip just across the border at Niagra Falls when I was 4... the trip that I don't remember). Because of that, I'm pretty much as excited as can be for this trip. I even packed 3 days early (as a pro at procrastination this is quite the accomplishment for me). This blog is mainly for my friends and family back home to see what I'm up to, and also a little bit for myself to document so I can look back and remember this fabulous trip.

A quick disclaimer, I apologize for my horrible grammar and spelling. I'm already bad enough as it is, but let's add the fact that in Oz they use some different words (e.g. fortnightly) and spellings (e.g. aging vs. ageing, customize vs. customise, color vs. colour) so this is going to be a good time for me.

So here goes nothing... I'm sitting in LAX airport. I managed to survive my 4 1/2 4 hour flight. We arrived early allowing me time to write this post (the top two paragraphs were written the other day).

Packing for this trip was interesting. It was hard because it's six months and I didn't want to forget anything, but that also made it a little easy because you pretty much pack everything you can.

 I took over the other guest room...

 I apparently only took a picture of one of my bags :/

 The pile of stuff my parents are going to ship to me.


I said my goodbyes to my family (excluding my parents who drove me to Chicago today) last night. Alexa cried, which made me cry. It was awful :(

We left DeWitt at 9 this morning, had lunch at Panera and then made it to O'Hare airport. After driving around a few times trying to figure out where to go we finally parked and headed inside...

 Both bags weigh ~50 lbs

Can you spot the creeper?

I made my parents stand behind while I checked in because I wanted to feel like a big girl :)

YAY TICKETS!!!!!

I said my goodbyes and headed through security. Naturally I made it through just fine since I'm harmless. Found my gate, sat down, tried to write a blog post only to find O'Hare does not have free wifi. Played Flow Free for an hour, boarded my plane and here I am!!!


And now I'm just preparing for this :)


This flight is going to be a very long one. I'm flying on a Boeing 777-300ER for any nerds like me who care.


Yeah, that little red dot is my seat. I bet I don't even have a window :(

Well I'm officially awful at this blogging thing. I'm going to go walk around for a while before sitting on a plane for 14 hours straight. 

G'day!!!!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Shayla, this is a terrific post, love it! Quit apologizing and just keep writing. Have a fabulous time! Connie O.
January 7, 2013 at 2:51 PM
Anonymous said…
What a wonderful opportunity for you Shayla. I will be reading every post that you make. Love you. Grandpa John
January 7, 2013 at 9:37 PM
Mom said…
I agree Connie, great post so quit apologizing! Love you and miss you all ready and you haven't even landed in Sydney yet. :o)
January 8, 2013 at 1:22 AM
Jessica said…
Love it! Thinking about you today. Can't wait to hear about your first day in Australia! Crazy.
January 8, 2013 at 1:50 AM
Teisha said…
Why are they shipping you a baby stroller? :) Keep up the posting!
January 8, 2013 at 3:38 AM
rnshively said…
Awesome!!!! I love it I'm so excited and can't wait to read all of your posts!!!! Have fun!
Xoxo,
Rochelle
January 8, 2013 at 4:05 AM
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