So it begins...

Well, the biggest trip of my life is almost here and I plan on making it huge!!! My buddy Garett is over in Sydney, Australia (AU) now for an internship for 3 months and then he's traveling around that region of the world for 4 months. He left the States towards the end of July to spend a week in Fiji before he finally arrived in Sydney and won't return to Omaha til March 2nd. But first allow me to back up a few steps in this process. When he first told me he was going to Sydney for 7 months I thought to myself what a great opportunity for him and the experience he will gain is priceless. When I was in college, I always wanted to study abroad but never made it a priority to make the arrangements. And then time got away from me and before I knew it, my college days were over. :( And it almost seems impossible to experience something like that at this point in my life but I guess never say never. So, back to my point here. Since Garett was going to be in AU. (I've always wanted to visit) I thought to myself why not make a trip out of it. After talking with him about it, he agreed that it would be a great idea for me to come visit him. This was all happening back in April and May/2007.

Here is some more info about the planning of my trip to AU. Garett graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, IA in May/2007 and I attended his graduation party at his Mom's house in Omaha in May. Now the question was, when do I come visit him? I checked on prices in January/2008 and the plane tickets from Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Sydney, AU were running around $2000+ roundtrip. YIKES!!! Now I was kinda freaking out because I didn't know how I was going to afford this trip by spending that kind of money just on the plane ticket. Next I check the ticket fares in February/2008. Much to my surprise they were around $600 cheaper. This is because January is a prime vacation time in AU and it's their summer season too. Ok, now I wasn't freaking out so much anymore knowing that the tickets weren't going to cost me 2 grand but regardless still a good chunk of change! I mostly checked the major airlines websites and STA Travel (Garett bought his plane tickets from this student travel agency). I did call Travel and Transport in Omaha, NE to see what they could offer me but I never got a call back from them. I talked to a lady there and gave her the dates of when I would be leaving and arriving but I guess she got busy and forgot about me. Oh well, I highly doubt they could of beat the deal I got from STA Travel but I thought it was worth a try to see what the local company could do. Now was the time to decide when I was going to make my journey to the land down under and for how long. For some reason 2 weeks struck me as the right amount of time to spend over there since it is a 14 hr flight from LAX. And beings there's so much to do in AU, I figured I better make the most of it because who knows when and if I will go back there. So the dates were set: I am leaving from LAX on February 8th and returning to the states on February 23rd, 2008. But before I leave the states for just the third time in my life I will leave Omaha after I get off work on February 6th and head to Phoenix, AZ to visit my Uncle Dan. I will spend a few days in Phoenix before I make my way to Los Angeles to board my flight to AU. I purchased my plane ticket from STA Travel and bought some travel insurance in case the airline were to lose my luggage, have to be evacuated from AU for some major reason or get sick (since my American health insurance won't work over there). The ticket from LAX to AU cost me $1507 (includes travel insurance) which isn't bad considering it's a 14 hr trip there and half way around the world. =) Before I purchased my ticket, I applied for an American Express Blue card and got 0% for 12 months so I could pay it off within 12 months without paying any interest. I did this because I didn't have that kind of money off hand so I thought this would be a smart way to finance my trip without paying any more than I have to.


Here is my tentative flight itinerary for my trip to and from AU:

• Feb 6th: Depart Omaha @ 8:05pm and arriving Phoenix @ 10:00pm
• Feb 8th: Depart Phoenix @ 6:45pm and arriving Los Angeles @ 7:05pm and departing Los Angeles @ 11:45pm
• Feb 10th: Arrive Sydney @ 9:15am (I will never see Feb 9th, 2008 because of the time difference)
• Feb 23rd: Depart Sydney @ 12:00pm and arriving Los Angeles @ 6:30am and departing Los Angeles @ 10:50am and arriving Omaha @ 5:50pm