[-1] 20: The Magic Number

One of the most common questions that people ask me when they find out I'm going to Australia is "how long is the flight?" To be honest, until about ten minutes ago, I didn't know. And upon further contemplation, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care, nor do I think it's an important piece of information to have. Useful, perhaps, but not important.

With the time difference, I will depart Thursday evening (New York time, so Eastern Daylight Savings Time) and arrive Saturday morning (Brisbane/Melbourne time, which is Australian Eastern Standard Time). To me, the total duration of the actual flight matters less, for two main reasons:

1. I'm stuck on the plane for however long it is. It's not as if I can get a faster flight if I think the flight duration is too long, or a slower flight because I like sitting on planes so much. And since I'll most likely be sleeping for most of the flight (almost half, if not more -- I can sleep for a long time when there's no sunlight streaming through my window to wake me up!), it's not as if I'll be counting the hours/minutes, either.

2. If I know my departure time and arrival time, that's all that really matters. When I get on the plane I will set my watch to the local time in my destination, so theoretically at that point (if I cared) I could figure out how long I'd be on the plane, without having to worry about working in the time difference. Since I'll be arriving in Brisbane at 6am, I'll plan on going to sleep by, say, 9 or 10pm (Brisbane time) on the plane to help minimise the effects of jet lag. (Yes, a bit early, but I find it difficult to sleep through descent and landing, so I'd effectively be getting up at 5am.)

But for those who are interested to know, the total duration of my two flights (JFK to LAX and LAX to BNE) is approximately 20 hours, with a layover of about an hour at LAX. So my total travel time will be nearly a full 24 hours, especially if you count checking in and going through security at JFK, etc. However, I'll lose all of Friday the 10th (sorry to anyone whose birthday I'm going to miss =P) between travelling and the time difference. (On the upside, I'll get to live November 28th twice when I return!) So there's a bit of fun maths for you.

In other news, it's been a bit peculiar saying goodbye to people. It feels different than our usual goodbyes at the end of the summer -- perhaps because I'm going to miss half the time we would usually have to spend together. It feels more like saying goodbye between senior year of high school and freshman year of uni, which makes sense in a way. Still, I think it's sort of interesting how my being in Melbourne makes me feel like I'll be so very far away from my friends here -- which I will be, but it's not as if I can just pick up and visit them when I'm at uni in Ohio, either. The physical difference is greater, yes, but the mental/emotional difference seems like it should be the same. But these goodbyes seem so much more final, as if I'll never see my friends again, which is silly, because I know I'll come home to them when the semester is over.

I should add that I haven't begun packing yet. This is going to be a fun couple of days.

For anyone who's confused by the countdown in my subject lines, that's the countdown of full days between now and midnight on Thursday. Even though I leave Thursday evening, I'll have to check in by 5pm at latest, and braving traffic to get to JFK airport is not exactly a breeze, so Thursday will pretty much be all travelling.