Australia 8/19/2022 - 9/6/2022 |
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Monday 9/5/2022 - Tuesday 9/6/2022 - DepartureWe woke up at around 7 a.m. We had a message from Qantas saying that our "flight had changed." We got a little panicky, but then realized that it was just delayed by 40 minutes, so it would not impact our overall connections, etc.Sonam Tshering had gone to work, but came home at 10:15 to eat brunch with us and then take us to the airport. Sonam Choki spent the morning making homemade dumplings. We ate them at around 10:30, and they were absolutely delicious. The Sonams are both amazing cooks, and they had made such good food for us while we were here. We left the house at 11 o'clock, arriving at the airport by 11:11. It was a difficult goodbye; we had really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with our honorary Bhutanese children. We checked in and went through security. We were flying to Melbourne, and even though it was a domestic flight, we had to go through international security because our flight was coming in from London. Our flight was at 1:50 p.m. We took a picture of ourselves posing like sleepy koalas on the plane and sent it to the Sonams. The airline fed us lasagna, cheese and crackers, a banana ice cream bar, and a Lindt truffle. There was nobody in the aisle seat, so we had three seats to ourselves. We landed in Melbourne to find that we needed to clear customs again and go through security again. Perth is not a point of egress from Australia for international flights, so we needed to "leave" the country in Melbourne. We boarded our flight to Los Angeles. We were in the middle section, and nobody was in one of the aisle seats, so we could spread out across three seats. This was great, given how long a flight it would be. They fed us braised beef, then later apples, cheese and crackers, meat pie, scrambled eggs, sausage, yogurt and granola, and a muffin. Overnight, we listened to Bob Dylan on the iPod and dozed. I watched "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," one of my favorite movies, to pass the time. I found it to be difficult to watch because of my jet-lagged brain. I was struck by the darkness of it, whereas I usually focus on the dark humor. We landed in L.A., went through customs and security, and caught our connecting flight to Boston. We landed at 6:50 a.m., picked up our luggage, got a taxi, and were home by 7:40 a.m. |
 A tough goodbye at the airport  Like sleepy koalas on the plane See all photos from September 5 |
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