"Where did I come from?" asked the baby Roo.
I knelt down beside him and explained that all kangaroos come from a place all the way on the other side of the globe called Australia. In fact, I told him, I was going there that moment, to study and appreciate the land.
"I wanna come too!" squeaked Roo.
Sorry, but you need to have a ticket if you want to go. I have to fly for almost 24 hours just to get there. It's very expensive, and sure to be a gruelling process. I'll take you when you're older.
"I'm old enough! I want to fly!"
But he was just wasting his breath. I loaded up the car, drove to the airport, and after saying goodbye to my parents at check-in, I made my way through to the gate. I sat and waited to see if I saw anyone I recognized from UMD. One person looked familiar, but it was a false identification. I decided to reach into my backpack and pull out my iPod to listen to U2: Songs About Airports.
"Uh-oh!" yelped Roo.Roo! You aren't supposed to be here! How will I explain you to Customs?!
But the little animal couldn't take much yelling (he is a baby, after all). And so, in order to prevent a scene from occuring, I zipped the bag back up to muffle the sobs.
Okay, I whispered through the backpack, you can come, but you'll have to be very quiet. It'll be a long trip to Los Angeles and an even longer trip to Australia. So don't get cranky.
He stayed fairly quiet during the 6 hour trip to LA. I did let him out to enjoy the view. Oh, it was marvelous! We left when the sun was setting, and since we were travelling west, the sun didn't finish setting until 2 and a half hours later. The sky was a very rich rainbow for a majority of the time (I tried to get a picture, but it was hard to make it look right from the plane.) The bottom layer was the dark cloud level, then a very deep blood red, followed by a layer of orange and yellow, then that weird part where the sky tries to be green but just ends up being brown, then blue and finally the purple night.
And then the night sky! It was great when there weren't any clouds below because then the city lights from the ground couldn't be separated from the stars in the sky. If I ignored gravity, it was like we were travelling through space. That flight was magical.
Then came the flight to Australia. It was supposed to be 14 hours, and I told Roo it might get very uncomfortable if he doesn't situate himself right. Right off the bat, I noticed that people on the flight to Australia were very friendly and talkative. A lot of people my age where travelling to study abroad. I even saw one of the girls from UMD sitting a row behind me (her name's Brooke, with a K). One of the girls sitting next to me was already drunk. I talked with a nice boy who was sitting across the aisle from me. He seemed a lot like Vinnie, for those of you who know Vinnie.
"Vinnie-the-Pooh?" asked Roo, as I typed this. Kind of, I said back.
Well, right before we took off, the pilot said we'd have an hour delay. Oh well, that shouldn't be a problem. 4 hours later we took off. By this point, I could tell I had gone mad. I kept cracking up everytime I realized that the plane hadn't moved yet. I wanted to fall asleep so that we'd be in the air once I woke up, but I couldn't. I was too giddy with annoyance. Roo had already chewed through the backpack and started roaming the aisles out of boredom and frustration. I was pretty upset, because the late start meant that I'd have to miss the orientation barbeque and deal with the shuttle service from the airport informing them of my late arrival.
I've never travelled alone before,and this was starting to worry me.
But, once we were in the air, I decided whatever happens will happen, and I should stop worrying. Things were fine until 6 hours into the second flight when the pilot said "We will now begin our decent into Hawaii."
What? I squeaked.
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