Here

Well folks, I finally made it to Australia!  It is warm (I'm not going to say hot because it still isn't hot like Phoenix) and I live on a Medical Ship.  It's pretty cool. (:

My travel here was blessed and easy.  I traveled alone from Reno to Los Angeles, but I knew from our Facebook group that there would be three others traveling with me on the same flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane.  I was the first to arrive at LAX and had about a 5 hour layover.  I was the first of our group to arrive and got to stand at one of those charging stations for about an hour so my phone didn't completely die!  The other three finally did arrive from all over.  The other girl on my flight is from  Arkansas, one of the guys is from Pennsylvania, and the other from Canada...I think Ontario.  It was nice to sit and chat for a while and share some of our jitters about the flight and just the fact that we were all finally there!

Once we boarded our flight (Which was HUGE.. Two stories on a plane is just crazy!) we said our goodbyes for the 14 hour flight ahead of us.  None of us were seated next to each other.  I had a window seat and once we were all seated, the guy next to me introduced himself and we got to talking. We soon discovered that we were both going to Townsville although he is doing the Trekking DTS while I'm doing to Reef to Outback.  God is good and I have to believe He also has somewhat of a sense of humor.  Come to find out, this guy I was seated next to was a wildland firefighter.  Who would have ever thought that 2 people from our field would end up in the same city, on the same flight for that matter, seated next to each other?  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  It was fun to be able to talk to someone and not really have to explain too much when they ask what I do for a living.  It made the 14 hour flight seem much shorter (That also might of had something to do with the fact that I slept for 10ish hours...).

We got off the plane in Brisbane and decided to wait for the rest of the group.  Altogether there ended up being 8 of us on the same flight.  After making sure everyone had filled out their entrance cards with the correct address we got in line to start the customs process.  We had a two hour layover in Brisbane which was just enough time to make it through customs.  It wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking or odd as I thought it would be.  My favorite part???? We still got stamps in our passports!!!  Someone had told me that they didn't do that anymore, so I was very glad to receive one!  After all 8 of us collected our luggage, we exchanged some money (Australian money is so pretty.  It's colourful and feels different than ours!  I'll post pictures at some point when I'm in wi-fi again.) and then proceeded through the next step in customs which in essence was standing in a line and letting a bomb-sniffing dog sniff our bags and persons.  We all passed!

In Brisbane we had to switch from International flights to Domestic flights so at this point we had to re-check in.  It was pretty simple though since we already had our boarding passes.  So once again we dropped off our luggage.  At this point we had to catch a bus to the Qantas domestic flight terminal.  We were a little concerned because we had a little more than half an hour before our flight started boarding.  When we arrived at the domestic flights we realized that we had to go through security again.  So another line, and we all found out that Australia is much more lax then America in their airport security.  You don't have to take your shoes off (yay) and you can have anything but sharp, pointy objects.  They do make you do this thing where they swab your bag and your arms and legs for explosive device stuff though.  All 8 of us made it through security fine (apparently I'm a mother hen sort wherever I go.  I kept counting everyone and making sure we were all together at every stage of our journey through the airport...and I may have learned everyone's name before we got on our next flight. Haha) and up to our terminal with about 15 minutes to spare before our flight to Townsville started boarding.  There we met up with one more of our group for a total of 9.  We had representation from Arizona/Oregon, Arkansas, California, Montana, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.

I've never been on a flight where they serve you the choice of a cookie or an apple before.  I chose the apple.  Chocolate chip cherry cookie sounded a little funny to me!  It was a nice flight and only about 2 hours long.  The sun was actually up (it was about 0900 local time) and I had another window seat, so I got to watch the scenery below.  A lot of farmland and ocean!  On this flight most of us were spread out.  There was a lady in the aisle seat in my row, but no one in the middle.  I have to say that I'm blessed to not have really felt nervous at all!  I was filled with excitement and a little bit of awe and wonder when we started to land that it was all happening and that the time had finally come.

We all got off the plane fine and once again congregated to proceed together to baggage claim.  Awaiting us there were two of our staff members with YWAM signs.  So they were easy to find!  We all collected our baggage for the second time and loaded it up in the bus and made our way to campus.  Our group of 9 was the first to arrive on Saturday.  3 were in the Trekking DTS and the other 6 of us RTO.  Those of us on RTO got to store our luggage temporarily.  We all connected to wi-fi briefly to let our parents know we made it and then decided to head off on an adventure to the mall.  We had about 7 hours to kill.

Good news is there is a Target not far from base (:  We all got a few things and wandered around for a few hours before heading back.  They have this cool cafe with a library and free wi-fi and tons of tables and chairs at base.  So we hung out there and drank lots of water.  Finally another guy and I decided that we had enough of just waiting and zoning out and got everyone together to play some group games.  (It was either that or fall asleep...) At this point another large group of girls had joined us but no one was really talking.  So we convinced everyone to play Mafia and introduced ourselves.  After an hour of that we played some other group games.  One called "Whoosh Ball" which was pretty fun.  I was the last of our group, and actually ended up winning!  Haha.  Then we played "I Never" except we just did things we had done.  That was pretty brutal with 30 people.  But fun as well.  We managed to kill 2 hours of time, which was our goal before we had dinner with the Street Youth program.

Finally we made our way to the place that will be our home until December.  The ship is pretty cool, I have to say.  Although most of us were too exhausted to really have much interest last night.  I was very happy to have spent the money to invest in good travel packing cube-things-that-I-don't-remember-what-they're-really-called.  It made unpacking SSSSOOOOO easy!  (Living on a ship = pretty much no room)  All of our luggage is now stored in some hole in the front of the ship.

There are 40ish of us on the boat.  3 showers and toilets for the girls and 3 showers and toilets for the guys.  Pray for us and that we would all extend grace to one another as we figure out how to live together in such tight quarters!

Today we get to hang out until 1400, at which point we will go to the new campus for orientation and a BBQ.  There isn't any wi-fi on the ship yet, just 3 iMacs.  Until I get a SIM card for my phone, my online presence will be spotty.  Please don't be offended if it takes me a while to answer back!  Love you all and I'll talk to ya later!

-Katie