Goodbye, Australia

The time has come for me to officially say goodbye to Australia.  My brother has convinced me that I will be back some day, so I guess it's not really goodbye, just "see you later."

My family made it to the airport early this afternoon after walking around Circular Quay one last time.  My brother and I checked in easily but our parents had trouble because they exceeded their luggage allowance.  They actually had to go buy another small duffle bag and rearrange everything to make it work.  Despite the hassle, we all made it through security in plenty of time and sat at the United gate until it was time for my parents to leave.  I was sad to see them go because the past two weeks have been great, but at least this time I know that we'll only be apart for a couple of weeks.

After my parents were off Kenny and I took our time wandering to our gate, stopping at stores along the way.  We finally boarded our first leg and after seven hours we're now here in Singapore.  We don't have long before our flight to Paris leaves and all I can hope for is that I can sleep when I get on the plane.  I got a few minutes here and there on the way from Sydney but definitely not enough.

We'll arrive in Paris at 6:05am tomorrow...talk about an early start.  From there we'll get on a train and start heading down towards southern France where we'll meet up with Sandro, a boy who came to stay with our family for a couple of weeks a few years back.  It will be a really nice way to start the trip, with home cooking and a nice bed to sleep in.  I'm really excited to kick off this adventure...should be an amazing trip!