The plane rides were a bit hellish. First a morning flight on the 31st from Edmonton to Vancouver, then a 13 hr flight from Vancouver to Shanghai. An old Indian woman was sitting behind me, and yelled and pounded on my seat every time I reclined! She even got her granddaughter to yell at me in English to put my seat up. 13 hours without a recline seemed physically impossible, so I slowly snuck my seat back, but she figured out my trick and made a huge stink, even getting the poor stewardesses involved. I'm going to have to get over some of my Canadian politeness, because man, was my entire body sore after that flight. When we arrived in Shanghai it was 5pm on January 1st. i completely skipped New Years Eve. I had a 4 hr layover in Shanghai, and met a young Australian guy and we had a few beers in the airport to celebrate missing New Years. It was nice to chat with someone, though we had next to nothing in common and it was a bit awkward, especially because I was delirious from travel and exhaustion. Apparently I can make small talk in my sleep.
My next flight was 10 hrs, from Shanghai to Sydney. Luckily the exhaustion from the previous flight came in handy and I slept through most of the flight. I arrived at 10am, and so hopefully I'm on the proper sleep schedule now! My friend Isla from law school is here. She is originally from Regina, but her fiancé lives in Bondi Beach, and I am here staying with them. Isla came to pick me up from the airport in a BMW convertible, which was the first car I've been in with the steering wheel on the wrong side. Not a bad start! Now we are a couple of prairie girls drinking gin and tonics on a beautiful patio by the beach!
Anyway, I better sign off as Isla is eagerly waiting for me to finish this post so we can go to the beach. Apparently yesterday there was a shark sighting, and they have a special airhorn and helicopter and such to warn the beach bums. Hopefully no sharks today... Maybe I'll stay on the shore for now.
Here are some pictures, first my final sunrise in Edmonton, then the hilarious Engrish movie descriptions on China Eastern Airlines. Lastly, of my beautiful pal Isla on her beautiful Bondi beach patio. Yay, summer!
Until next time,
Jessica
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Sydney, Australia
A BMW convertible! wait til you see our car, it's a charming granny car from the early 90s with Mc Donald's wrappers on the floor. Bondi sounds amazing, hope you get super tanned by the time you get here.
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