Day 1--in flight

En route to OZ, it is hard to believe that I am finally on the road. From rhode island to san Francisco, to palm springs to san diego, back to sanfran—and now, on the 14 hour flight across the pacific to a land down and under!!
The excitement is without a doubt growing as I sit here cramped between the shell of this soaring vehicle and a couple of friendly Australian-nationalized philipinos (is it tagalag that they speak?? I am ashamed not to even know hot to spell the language!!)
In any case, after an intensive 3-weeks of socializing in the state of CA, making sure to put as many miles on my father’s new car as I would in my own (1000 miles in 3 weeks between Palm Springs, LA and SanDiego), I sail into the unknown—albeit civilized, but who the hell knows, really. I might just drop off into the bush and disappear for a few months ^_^ As Kevin Q keeps asking me: are you goin’ on a some walkabout?—ha ha
Popping a Xanee, I am ready to do a little soaring myself…it’s only been 3 hours since we left SF. The next 10 hours will surely not fly by as quickly as I would like them to, but no complaints from this side—as it is painfully obvious that one does not go to the complete other side of the world without a little suffering and a few aches and pains.

On the other side, Brad awaits with some hospitality. He is an Australian surfer dude that I have never met. He met my good friend ryan in Ecuador, surfing…(gawd only knows), 3 years ago?? He is being an angel by letting me stay at his pad at Bondi beach until I get back on my feet and perhaps with some semblance of an adjusted circadian rhythm. They say you need a day per hour of difference and considering that the time difference between Sydney and CA is 18 hours…well…that’s really not too bad, as it is nearly a full 24 hour cycle. So rather than having to adjust to being ahead, I will simply try to adjust to being behind (—minus 24 hours of my life that will have vanished as I cross the international time line, and will only be recovered when I return towards the Americas).
Interestingly enough, I met another philipino girl on my flight today from LA to SF and she asked me before I got up to leave my seat: so when are you coming back this way? And I responded: you mean, to this country? And she just smiled and said: I gotcha.
It was an interesting though very fleeting and comforting connection!
I mean, I don’t know when I might come back—if I come back at all to the USA. I have been toying with the idea that after I am done with my travels, that I may try out my own home-county for a while. Yes, that country that America has always asked me why I don’t go back to—I have fond memories of an American embassy employee in paris, telling me those exact words as I was pleading her to stamp my passport so that I could return to the airport where I had already been denied access to the plane to fly back to the USofA—oh glorious country of liberty and equality *sarcasm*

Surely though…I shall return at some point—if not to say hello and launch myself on another cross-country tour.

And by the way, if I haven’t said this yet, to all of you who supported my arse during my trip for the last 2 months—you are GREAT and I LOVE each and everyone of you!!! The universe blesses you for your generosity and kindness! I may have been able to do it without you, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun ^_^