Arrival In Australia

So!  June 6th @ 2:00 p.m. I headed to the airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Once I got there I went through all the fun airport stuff (security and whatever else) and had about an hour to wait around until my flight left.  I spent most of my time listening to my iPod because the wifi in the airport wasn't free.  Once I got onto my plane I was off to Phoenix, Arizona.  The flight took off at 5:55 p.m. Central Time and arrived at 7:15 p.m. Eastern Time.  Even though it looks like it was an hour flight, it was about 3 hours.  In Phoenix I had a 45 minute layover before my flight to LAX, so I didn't have much time to waste.  It was pretty easy finding my gates/terminals because I had a pretty good itinerary and maps of where I needed to go.  My flight from Phoenix took off at 8:15 p.m. and arrived in LAX at about 9:15 p.m.  This was probably the most interesting part of my whole trip over.  An older woman had two dogs on the plane with her, in dog kennel bags, and had bought an extra seat so they could sit next to her.  The flight attendants were trying to get her to put them under the seat in front of her and she wasn't having it.  Eventually they were going to make her leave the plane, but a bunch of people got up and went over to her and helped her out.  It was pretty crazy.  Once my flight landed in LAX and I had about two hours before my flight to Brisbane, Australia was scheduled to leave.  This was the most confusing/difficult part of the trip.  I had to go from the terminal I arrived at, to another terminal down the street, and go through a whole bunch of security again.  Luckily I had a long layover so I could find my way and etc,  because it literally took most of the time I had just to make it to my gate.  At my gate, I met a few people that were from Australia and had been travelling around the U.S.  They had seats a few rows back from me on the plane.  Again, I tried to get internet, but who wants to pay for it when you can only use it for 10 minutes?  Then at about 11:45 p.m. my flight took off for Australia.  This was a 13 hour flight!  It seemed like it took foreverrrrr.  We were served a complimentary dinner (chicken and dumplings) and a breakfast (eggs and toast) on the flight.  I was seated in between a fellow from New Guinea, and a man from Southern Australia.  So, I had a pretty good time talking to them and hearing about all the great places I need to go.  For the first half of the flight the New Guinea guy was sleeping in the chair on my left, and the Southern Australia guy on my right and I were watching movies.  After awhile the New Guinea guy woke up and we chatted for a bit.  By this time they were bringing dinner around and I was starving.  After devouring the meal I pretty much clocked out for a couple hours.  When I woke up we were maybe a third of the way across the ocean, which meant we still had around nine or ten hours to go.  The New Guinea guy told me when I fell asleep I ended up leaning on his shoulder and he had to pick my head up and put it on my seat haha.  He said he woke me up and I just gave him a look like, "What the hell are you touching me for?"  I just apologized and we both laughed about it, both of the guys I sat next to were pretty chill.  So, I guess I can tell you what I could see out of the window, since I was right next to it.  Nothing.  It was pitch black for almost all thirteen hours.  Only for the last hour or so could you even see any light outside.  We landed in Brisbane (pronounced Bris-bin, not Bris-bane), at about 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday June 8th.  I completely skipped over my Tuesday, and they say time travel is impossible, hah just switch time zones idiots.  Once I arrived in Brisbane I had to go through Customs and some more security.  It took about a half hour to wait for my bags to come up from the chute.  Then I was off to the shuttle that would take me to the transit center downtown.  Once I got to the transit center I got a bus ticket that would take me to Lismore, but it was a five hour bus ride.  So I boarded the bus around 9:45 a.m. in Brisbane and was off.  There were only about five or ten people riding the bus, so it was pretty relaxing.  I got to see a lot of the places that I will be visiting once I'm all settled in and what not, so it was pretty nice.  We arrived in Lismore at about 3:00 p.m. at a bus stop around 5-10km away from my college.  The bus that traveled out to the college wasn't scheduled to run until 4:45 p.m.....what a drag.  Luckily, an older woman that had been riding the bus overheard me talking about going to the university offered me a ride.  Her daughter (Amega, sorry if I butchered it, lives a block or two away and goes to school here) was coming to pick her up and she offered me a ride also.  So, this pretty much made my day because I was getting a ride to the campus and she gave me a little tour of the town/college.  I got to the school around 4:30-5:00 p.m. and met Las (I think that's how you spell it), a German foreign exchange student that has been here for four and half years.  He took me right into the International Education Office and that's where I got started with the interesting stuff.  I got my room key and some other stuff, and then Karen took me downtown to go shopping.  Oh, I forgot to mention, everything is way more expensive, a Big Mac and McDonalds is $8 just for an idea.  After I got all my stuff for my room Karen brought me to the apartment.  I opened the door and BAM!  The dirtiest thing I'd ever seen, but luckily nobody was home.  After I moved all my stuff in Karen took off and I went across the walk to my neighbors apartment.  We got to know each other a bit and played some poker.  After that I went back to my room and cashed out for the night.