Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia!!

I realized I haven’t blogged in a thousand years, so here it is. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I am officially going to Australia, and my work has been accepted for presentation. So I will finish my data analysis, and make a poster of some sort. Then when we go there (my supervisor, and the other master’s student in my lab) I will present my work on 2 of the 5 days. It is exciting and scary, and stressful because it’s a real deadline (instead of the artificial kind that I create for myself all the time). So, we have planned the trip to go something like this (though some of it is not set in stone of course).

August 28^th (around 3pm): get to airport

6:40pm: flight leaves the airport (5.15 hours in flight) and lands at L.A. airport where we stay about 3 hours before boarding another flight to Melbourne, AUS (flight time: 15.15 hours).

August 30^th (9:35am AUSSIE time): get on the third plane to go backwards 3 hours to Cairns. Total flight time: 23 hours, 45 min. Total travel time: 28 hours 10 minutes (assuming all goes perfect and we don’t miss a flight or something)

August 30^th (around 2:00pm AUSSIE time, in real people time it’s actually midnight turning into Aug 30): Check into hotel and hit the beach to relax and unwind from a shitty 30 hours en route. Do nothing but relax for the next 16 hours.

August 31^st – check out the city, the beach, the shops, relax, and miss home.

September 1^st – do a full day tour of the rainforest from sunrise until dinner time. Go back to the hotel for a nap and journal time. Miss home, and then go out to get drunk (?) and meet some cute Aussies (?) Tee hee

September 2^nd – Trainee orientation and workshops for the conference all day. The other master’s student arrives today, so likely hit the beach and meet some other “young” people before going to some pub and socializing (because this is the most important part of conferences so I’m told). In down time: journal and miss home.

September 3^rd (conference day 1) – trainee breakfast starts at 7am, then sessions (with breaks for tea and lunch) until 4pm. Then it’s my turn to present my work (4-6pm). Nighttime – undecided (possibility for night zoo walk to pet a dingo and learn tribal dance, depending on how tired we are). Back to the hotel to journal, and cry about missing home.

September 4^th (conference day 2) – Trainee breakfast at 7am, then sessions until 12:30pm. Hitting the beach in the afternoon for some alone time while supervisor and other student go white water rafting (crazy cats!). Probably write a lot, try to get a tan, take a nap, and cry about missing home.

September 5^th (conference day 3) – Trainee breakfast at 7am, then sessions (with breaks for tea and lunch) until 4pm. Then it’s my last opportunity to present my work (4-6pm). Go back to the hotel to journal and miss home. Nighttime will be spent in the city, doing what cool people do (can you tell we have left our night plans open? I think it might have something to do with pitchers, and pubs, but I’m not telling).

September 6^th (last conference day 4) – ummm…we aren’t going. Instead, we are going to spend the entire day (10am-6pm I think) chilling out on a catamaran and snorkeling in the great barrier reef. It’s going to be amazing. I’m pumped about it (and only a tiny bit guilty about missing the whole last day of the conference). Spend the evening journaling, sleeping, and being ridiculously home-sick. Cry.

September 7^th (last day in AUS) – tentative plan is to wake up early, rent a car, and head to the highest natural pyramid in the world. Spend 6-8 hours hiking up and down it (just over a kilometer high, but super steep, and a difficult hike). Go back to the beach and finish our tan. Nap. Journal. Get excited to go home. Start drinking…

Keep drinking….

September 8^th (3:00 am Aussie time) – arrive at Cairns airport (hammered?). Hope that the hangover doesn’t kick in before we have time to order more drinks on the flight. Stay drunk whilst flying to Brisbane (flight time 2:05), then 2.5 hour stopover before getting on a flight back to L.A (flight time: 12:55) and hopefully passing out/getting some sleep, another 2:55 stopover, and 4:40 minute flight before arriving at the airport (home sweet home) on September 8^th at 5:35pm. Total travel time on the way back: 25:05.

Something tells me that if I live through this work trip / vacation, I’ll have some awesome stories and pictures to tell / show. I’m officially excited.

Now I just have to work on getting a passport so I can actually leave the country.