So, JoAnna brought to my attention today that I did not finish off the story of my trip, leaving my adventure incomplete. She indicated that she had been checking it on a regular basis so that she could catch it when it finally went up...which is of course pretty funny since if anyone knows how the adventure ended that's her! So to satisfy my loyal readers I will finish off the 4th year work term tour. We spent the morning at Jeanettes just playing around with our luggage, we did all our laundry and then packed and repacked until it all fit and we had assured ourselves our valuables were protected (non valuable items to us were far and few between because we loved everything). By around noon we set out to buy the books about NZ that I had put on hold at a second hand shop. I called the man at the store before leaving just to make sure...and right away he remembered me and was very excited, he said that people had tried to buy the books but he kept saying that I was coming back for them! It was a very hot day, but it turned out to be not too far of a walk. I thanked the man at the store for fighting the crowds for me and then we went to my work place so I could say goodbye to Becky one last time and get a group shot at work. Turned out becky was on the road so I didnt get to see her, but I did get a semi complete group shot! At the airport it took us about an hour to check in because we had to keep moving things from our suitcase to our carry on to abide by the airlines weight policy :S Eventhough it's all going on the same plane...go figure! Eddie thought that we had checked in our bags and left without him! haha... Then we had to pay our departure tax at the in airport BNZ. Dropping off our luggage (I ended up having to just check in my carry on because I had too much stuff) to get on the plane we had to wait and make sure they didnt need to open them up because we had locks...and as I watched my stuff come hurtling out of the machine, slam into the wall, then get chucked onto the table and shoved onto the belt...I could feel my stomach turning! We shakily walked onto the next stage...many many more cues followed by more and more security checks, I guess they dont trust the first ones? At the last one I had to chug my glacier water that I for some reason had completely forgot was in my bag...pretty funny...but at least it was good! While waiting inline I think I threw out 10lbs in brochures! Before long we were back on our favourite plane lalalala Qantus! This time I was the middle seater since it was the trip back. We were very excited about this plane ride because our first time on Qantus coming over was all a blur, this time I was prepared! Last time I was pretty much dead for 10hours of the 12 hour flight....unfortunately I was conscious through the entire trip to LA. The guy beside us this time was a Kiwi who was working in BC at a ski resort...but he was the toboggan guy? Yeah I dont know? I probably drove him crazy because I was so fidgety. We settled in and Jo and I synched up a movie to watch together (Employee of the Month) then we had supper...fish and a potato and awesome carrots (Jo had lamb and a pasta type thing but I had some of her lamb which was ok) And for dessert...oh yes...Icecream lollies! hahahaha....it was hilarious! Of course we also saw (since we were sitting right beside the little kitchen crew spot, and had been able to anticipate the icecream way before they served it) that they had a special hot chocolate to serve us later. We asked our flight attendant if we could have some hotchocolate when he came around with the drinks before supper, and he said they would bring it out after supper, so after supper we were sitting somewhat patiently waiting for our treats. We watched the attendants go up and down the aisles serving out hot drinks, and then we watched them start closing up the kitchen. Some time passes and we are left staring at the closed kitchen with the lights off and our empty hands not holding steaming mugs of delicious hot chocolate. Attempting to maintain some level of coolness we raised our hands like school children when we saw the same attendant we had asked earlier about when it would be served. We asked again...if we could get some hot chocolate, and he laughed at us thinking we just wanted more...he was quite surprised that we had been missed. I told him that I thought he was playing some cruel joke on us. So we got our hot drinks and kicked back with another movie. I watched Babel and I was so excited because I had wanted to see it...I actually cried on the plane! We got our snack packs and we tried to steal the cool stuff out of Williams (toboggan man) while he was in the bathroom...what you didnt get a chocolate bar? Thats weird because mine has 2. He caught us though so no luck on the candy...he did however settle for giving me his apricot granola bar...score! At this point I started to think it would be a good idea to try and sleep. I could not for the life of me find a comfortable position so I pretty much just tossed and turned while I went out of my mind! I finally gave up and put on The Last King of Scotland. A very good movie but I am missing the middle chunk of it because I must have blanked out in delerium. Then it was breakfast and I forget what we had. Shortly after this I was forced to shut the window blind because JoAnna kept imagining pieces of the wing falling off. When the turbulance started I was frantically searching for her Lorazepam, unfortunately she packed it in her suitcase. Lets just say she didnt take the bumps so well and was very close to losing window seat privileges. We landed, alive, in LA, miles from our gate. They had to pack us into busses and then drive us to the airport. Which means they had to do the same with our luggage. We actually didnt have to wait in the customs line that long because a lady came around saying canadian passports canadian passports and pulled us out of line to form our own little extremely cool elite canadian line. Customs was a breeze, I just had to say I didnt have an apple from the plane and I was in. Our luggage came right through and we couldnt believe how fast we were out on the other side. In LA. Out on the street in LA. And so not excited about it. We took a shuttle to our hostel and it was pretty crowded, I had to sit up front by some guy who can thank his stars that I didnt actually sleep on his shoulder. The whole ride to the hostel (and it was a long boring one) was me fighting the inevitable...my head was bobbing all over the place as I fought sleep furiously. It was a painful battle but I eventually won and arrived at the hostle without having embarrassed myself by collapsing on the guys lap...only embarrassing myself with the near whiplash. Turns out the guy was a kiwi so we instantly liked him. After we dropped off our stuff...and I begged for a nap which was disallowed...we set off to do what you do in LA. We got a bus pass and went to rodeo drive. We even met helpful people, the bus driver told us how to save money and a very colourful loud lady told us the best places to shop and gave us directions. She was one of those women who repeats herself over and over when she thinks she has said something cool...yeah. But nice, and helpful. I found it pretty cold, because I was unprepared for the switch and I was now in winter eventhough it was LA, it was the evening. I followed Jo around Rodeo because I couldnt really afford anything...and felt too scrubby to even play around and try stuff on...but Jo somehow managed to find stuff to spend something like 400$ on. I did however find something exactly in my price range....free samples! Jo pointed out a Lush store so we popped in and they gave us 2 free samples of face masks each. So we had 2 spa nights in our hostel room. Speaking of the hostel room...haha...it had an interesting layout. When you first walked in you were in a sort of alcove I guess...with a toilet behind a half wall to the right, and almost enough room for my suitcase on the left, then you went through a doorway and the shower with a glass door was to the left and the sink to the right and the bunk bed right in front of you and a tv screwed to the wall. Very...intimate. We had to leave the room when someone had to pee. And we used a sheet to make a makeshift wall around the shower. The second day we got a bus pass and went to Burbank for 8am when they start letting you pick up your tickets to the Jay Leno show. There was only a little line there but we were there early so we had to wait for them to open. A girl showed up and stood on the wall and announced " Hey y'all, let me introduce myself, I have been to the leno show 150 times so if you have any questions I can answer them!" She annoyed me, to say the least. One of the things we notcied about most of the people in LA, was that they were "pay attention to me" types of people. Loud talkers, constantly repeating themselves, talking for the sake of talking, saying things out loud just for people to hear eventhough they dont know you etc. So we got our tickets and Jo wanted to go wait in line right away....hahaha...I almost burst a kidney on that one...sit on the sidewalk for 8 hours, not my idea of a good time. She was adament that she was going to go wait and I could go do whatever and then come back and jump in with her. I still didnt think that was a good idea...I mean....it is LA. Luckily on the bus we had driven by the WB studios and it wasnt that far away...so we went to check that out, assured we would be fine to get in line a few hours later (I mean we had 8 of them to kill right!) We checked and we could take a tour for something like 40$ and it was a 2hr tour so we signed up. I was so excited...I LOVE the WB, I LOVE movies! I was shaking in my skin thinking of all the behind the scenes things I would see after the security guard listed off the shows they take care of. Needless to say I was mildly disappointed by my tour of the other side. We did get to go to Stars Hollow, speechless, so cool, but I wanted more time, I wanted to see sets, I wanted to play around and pretend that I lived there...yes I am slightly nuts...but this is Stars Hollow we are talking about! Stay tuned for an episode where the square is turned into a hay maze...because I was in it! I went to Lukes, and Rorys, and Kims Antiques and Sookies with a little trip around the town. Fun fact, if you walk through the Gilmore house you come out in Sookies house...now thats efficient use of space! We also checked out the ambulance bay of ER (we wanted to be in the hospital of course) and saw where spiderman gave maryjane the famous upside down kiss which funnily enough is the same place that the Orphans sang It's a Hard Knock Life. There was heaps of other stuff, like sitting on the friends couch and hanging out in Amanda Peets Studio 60 office etc etc. After our tour we pretty much just sat on a cement wall for a few hours until we could go into Jay's studio. We took turns leaving to make some phone calls home and grab some lunch/supper...after consecutively going into the same restaurant we were told we looked like sisters because I said my friend was just in here and I'll have what she has. Not too much later a lady from the line proclaimed "there are the twins!" Turns out Jo and I really were spending too much time together! We were in the front row of the ticketed guest, turns out the floor seats are reserved for hoochies etc. The studio was absolutely freezing! We felt a little gipped on our tv time, and the game show portion of the show wasnt live so we just watched it on a tv like you guys did. And the singer...omarion? What? who? exactly? Plus they bring the huge cameras in and place them inbetween the audience and the stage so that rains on your parade a little too. Other than that it was funny and better than hanging out at the hostel. The next day we did the typical take your pictures with Marilyn Munroes star, check out the Kodiak Theatre and "walk the red carpet" while being bombarded, and I mean bombarded by people trying to sell you maps to the stars homes and tours to creep around looking at rich peoples front gates. Then we took a very long bus ride to Santa Monica beach through Beverly Hills after discovering Laguna Beach was hours and hours away! Santa Monica...what can I say...the pier looked pretty cool...the beach was lacking a little je ne sais quoi and there were signs saying dont swim here because of sewage pipe...mmm...awesome. We didnt stay long, the blasting heat we experienced in the city had faded by the time we got to the coast. We did some more upscale Hollywood shopping before heading back for another spa night and fun suitcase packing. We left fairly early for the airport on our last day because this time we anticipated the repacking delay. Our luggage made it through and we hung out in the airport lounge for a few hours waiting for our flight to TO. I was feeling pretty sick and called home to say my wondering feet were ready for a rest! We finally boarded the plane and I was getting worse, I asked the attendant for some Gravol and that might have been my first mistake. We sat on the ground on the runway forever because the plane didnt have any water so they had sent someone out to the store (I'm guessing in New Mexico) to pick up wetnaps so we could wash our hands in the bathroom. I had taken my Gravol and discovered that I dont do well with this type of medication so my dizziness had increased ten fold and I felt like I was going to vomit all over the nice man beside me. Hours later we finally took off and they let us know chipperly that they were going to give us a free drink to make up for the delay...yeah awesome...booze...thats just what I need right now. I got a gingerale instead and tried not to let everyone see me crying in pain. Jo did not have good company for this portion of the trip! We were in a bit of a panic at this point as the delay had eaten into our plane transfer time in TO to catch the next flight home, when we landed we had half an hour to switch planes. Only....of course...we werent alowed to get off the plane because someone was blocking our gate. Seriously... With 16 minutes to catch the flight we took off amazing race style and sprinted to the baggage claim (heres a tip, if you are vomiting, sprinting is not so much a great idea). We got to the claim and no luggage was coming...we ran to find out what our options were. Jo- Hi we have to catch a flight in 16 minutes and we were just wonderi... Desk Dude- You wont make it ...Jo- It's the flight to Halifa... Dude- You wont make it...So there was our hope crushed. The two of stood there on the brink of losing it...teetering on the edge of tears and hopelessness we slumped down onto the floor and waited for our bags. We depressingly made plans to book the next flight, and Jo read over her travel insurance which assured us a hotel room if we missed our flight due to plane delays. Jo called home to let everyone know we wouldnt be there afterall...that after days of wanting to be home we were going to add one more. Our bags came and we sluggishly picked them up and shuffled over to the section where we would book our new flights. We walked through a security check and then as we went through another room a lady stopped me and asked where I was going...Halifax...Her eyes lit up and she quickly pushed me toward a conveyor belt, Quick put your bags on, that flight has been delayed, you can still make it! Amazing Race action ensued once more as we rushed off to another security check...we ran through and there it was...heaven in a delayed plane! They were just boarding the last people so Jo ran off to call home and tell them that the travel gods had rained down some luck and we would be home afterall....just an hour late! The check in lady said I may be the only person to have ever thanked her for having a delayed flight. We got on the plane all smiles, beaming in our fortune...and then they announced a further delay as they searched for someone to fly the plane. An hour later we were headed home and my heart began to swell...ah home! Mom, Emily and Lisa greeted me at the airport, we grabbed our bags and I dont think I stopped talking until I was forced to walk outside. Thats when the fake sobbing started haha. BRR!!! In the car cheesecake was waiting for me and I told stories all the way home! I stayed up all night showing mom stuff from my trip and telling stories and then went to bed a little after Emily left for school. I went to bed in my own bed! With my happy little puppy!
Pretty ladies: LB, Kelly, Jo, Marth, Julia, Jill, Annie...and me hovering :)
