Seth and I are finally relaxing after several consecutive weeks of anxiety. We are at the Melbourne airport, waiting for our evening flight to Darwin. The process of getting to this point was so stressing that it blanched the fact that we were leaving Canberra permanently. The trip to Sydney over the weekend was a break from it all, but when we returned it was a non-stop whirlwind of meeting with friends to say good-bye, selling everything possible (and giving away the rest), returning lent items, applying for visas, arranging taxes and refunds, etc… I feel particularly under-prepared for this trip, but at least it will be more straightforward than the previous ones. As I mentioned before, the hardest part was trying to fit everything we want to have with us for the next three months (which is when our sea mail is supposed to arrive in the U.S.) into two medium-size suitcases (each with a total weight limit of 15 kilos, or about 32lbs.) and two backpacks. We spent yesterday desperately trying to dump everything we didn’t need, leaving us each with just a few clothing items: for me, three very thin long sleeve shirts (we won’t need warm clothes anymore—our winter will soon become summer), 1 pair of light pants, 2 pairs of tights, and just a couple of t-shirts and singlets. I even dumped a few extremely loved and very old items, including a black fleece pullover, only pair of very worn-thin jeans, walking shoes, and brown boots I have worn for the past nine years! At least this will give me an excuse to buy nice new clothes when I get back home :o)
I had never before felt so anxious and slightly panicky before a flight: we knew we were a few kilos over-weight, but no single item in our bags weighed more than a few hundred grams, which would mean having to dump a lot of much-desired stuff. Our tricks included Seth stuffing his pants pockets with shirts and wearing two pairs of thick wooly socks, and me wearing all three leggings and belt (even though my pants did not even have belt loops) and six layers of tops, including a raincoat, which had its pockets filled with smaller items. Seth nearly peed himself laughing when he saw how much clothes I was wearing, though at least I won’t have to dump the things I manage to wear. The very strict fee for over-weight luggage was $20-33 per kilo, so we really did not want to go over!
Our tricks worked and we managed to pull out enough stuff from the suitcases to reach the limit (after dumping our sunblock), but we were worried that Tiger Airways was also strict about their carry-on baggage limit, which was rumored to be 7 kilos. If this were the case, we would have had to dump our most prized items from our back packs. Luckily, they did not enforce this rule and we made it on to the plane!
I can’t believe this issue of packing dominated the past three days. I really do wish I could have enjoyed soaking in Canberra and seeing our friends without this and other stresses. Nonetheless, it was still very sad to say good-bye to everyone, most of whom we got to see one at a time. We were lucky, though, that we were able to meet up with nearly everyone, even sneaking in a dinner with Kim and Stephen on Tuesday. I trust, though, that since most of our friends are big travelers, we will see quite a few of them again sometime down the road.
I can’t believe at one point Mom and Dad wanted to come down to Canberra for a visit during this week. That would have been REALLY crazy. It is equally hard to imagine soon being in Crocodile Dundee land, followed by visiting a developing southeast Asian country, and finally hanging out with Synni in bustling, densely populated Hong Kong before going to Rochester, Minnesota! With all this, it will still be nearly six weeks before I am in Raleigh, NC. I hope I make it! This morning felt really weird, probably because we only got about 3 hours of sleep (about the same amount as the night before). I normally don’t run before big trips (usually because that means waking up at some terrible hour, which Seth does without question), but I decided to not pass up this last chance to run through the nice familiar trails near Mt. Ainslie. It was still black outside and very foggy, and we even took a detour to drop off a bottle of wine at Oanh and Hawk’s house (we stuffed it in their mailbox, without a card or label)—we meant to drink it last night but did not have time to enjoy it. The run was so stereotypical: full of kangaroos, rosellas, galahs, white-winged choughs, magpies, peewees, and rabbits. When we got back, we rushed to try to pack a few last-minute items and throw away a few others, then Julien was kind enough to take us to the airport. It was weird abandoning food in the cupboards and fridges, as well as the stereo in my room (the one valuable thing I could not sell), and leaving dirty dishes in the sink—once again, I wish we had more time to leave the house properly! We quickly said good-bye to the housemates, then flew to the airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment