After a brief stint spending time with my family in November 2012, I flew out to Los Angeles from Brisbane on beautiful sunny morning. I never stepped in an international airport before. I was amazed how it was going through the customs like I have seen on these TV shows. I left Australia on Tuesday at 11:45am. The flight was 13 hours long, longest ever had. While trying to sleep on the plane I was thinking many times where I was going and why I am here. Then I had time to sleep for a couple of hours until this sun glare woke me up. At that stage, it seems about time to land in Los Angeles. The pilot told us it is breakfast time and the landing is within an hour. Finally landed at Los Angeles, shockingly we are on a parallel landing mode as I saw another plane opposite to us took off! The airport looks massive from above I saw from the window. So once I got off the plane, I went through maze of aerobridges, tunnels and bridges to get to the gate. It amazes me how long the walk was from the plane! Going through the customs was crazy, at 6:40am on a same Tuesday(!!) in the morning the customs check out hall is so full of people. Noticed there were flights from Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul and Toyko. Once got through the customs, picked my bag up and finally got outside of the airport terminal. Cold wintry Californian breeze got onto me at 7:30am in the morning. It was around 12C at the time. I took a long walk to the other terminal to change over flight for Salt Lake City. So I waited for three hours (around one hour of walking distance from the international terminal!!?).
So I took my flight to SLC around 11am that morning, yes that is almost 24hours on same time I left for Australia! It is first time being on a foreign flight. The plane is full of Americans with some Mexican ancestry. Oddly, the flight attendent spent his time hanging around with the customers rather than doing his job! After two hours of beautiful views of LA Basin, Sierra Nevada, deserts and mountains I arrived in SLC. My abroad hosts were there to pick me up. Greeted them and off we go. Stepped out of the airport terminal a bleak, frigid and icy air blew on me! It was 2pm and it is almost at freezing level. I swear it was a coldest temperature I ever felt in my life at this time of the day! So the hosts took me to their place up in the mountains to the small city of Park City, the premier ski resort place. On the way I went through SLC, sighted snow capped mountains and wonderful views from the top. First I arrived in Park City stepped outside of the car it was even more colder! I touched snow with my bare hands, for first time in my life!
After settling in, I was expected to go to orientation dinner meet up for the group of Australians for the working holiday program. At that evening, the air got so much colder! Sundown was around 3:30pm, which is weird experience for me. Eventually went to downtown Park City to the Mountain Resort where I am going to work for the winter season. Met those Aussies for first time. Everyone seems so shaken up after a bit of culture shock, but also weather-shock! Most of us seem so frankly in response to cold polar air!
I will never ever going to forget my first experience travelling overseas, doing so many new things in one day at the time.
Continued.....................
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