June 20 2011 Monday

My alarm started to sing a song, buried deep inside my red handbag on the floor. I rolled out of my warm bed to turn it off. I grabbed the bag and tried to un-zip it quietly. I then thrust my hand deep inside the sack of clothes, food, accessories and books, searching for the cold, thin item that was buzzing. I started to panic and took it nearer the hotel room door and further away from my sleeping family. Where was it?! Darn. Now Dad was up, and I hoped that was only because his alarm had gone off and not because of mine. Finally, got the noisy thing and switched it off. Phew.
Now, time to start getting ready to leave. Get dressed, have breakfast, make certain that everything was packed in the right bags. Check, check, check and...check.

Ready to go? Last minute goodbyes to Mum and Christopher, pull that sock on, take the bags and off we went.
Out into the corridor, past the snoozing doors of other rooms, into the lift, in the lobby, outside, and finally into the car. 1. Walking.
2. Driving.

Goodbye Rydges.

It seemed to take a long time to reach the airport and Dad and I chatted in the car about rising early and then having to travel and only getting this many hours of rest in a day. Pesky sun. Why is the sun only so annoying in the car? Who thought of making cars with glass windows anyway?

....

Ahem.

So, anyway,
We had a fair way to walk from the car park to the airport and I noticed yellow (I think they were yellow) paw prints wending across the walkway and found it a bit odd. I mean, sure, it's cute but, seriously, wouldn't footprints make more sense?

I had to wear a name tag inside (and for the rest of the day) so that the BSDE teachers knew I was from the school and so that other students would know my name. Obviously.

We found a cluster of people around my size and I immediately began trying to spot people that I knew, either by their name tags or faces. I remember faces well.
Yes, there was Gary, one of the teachers. Hello, how are you? Good? And how's "Chris" doing? Great. Yes, there's Michelle.
So we go over to Michelle, the teacher in charge of medication. We gave her my bag of pills (Travacalm and so on) and informed her that I could be trusted not to 'overdose' or anything dangerous.
I noticed her nose piercing and ear piercings. Don't judge a book by it's cover.

I just stood around awkwardly, not un-like some other people. Dad told me that on the last day it would be very different; everybody would be talking and saying goodbyes and writing down contact details.

After a few minutes, Dad decided to go, so we said goodbye and he returned to Rydges.

I recognized a few people who had attended the 2009 ABBA Camp but they had already formed into miniature 'cliques' so I stayed where I was.

Soon, there was a "Follow me" and the group started to parade after the teacher.

We had reached a place where you enter a Que... Like at Cinemas where you are required to line up for your ticket. Well, this Que was for sending baggage away and confirming your name.
"Next please!"
I was up.
The lady asked for my surname and I hoped to have said "Hills" clearly enough.

When I was finally through, I stood by a post, waiting for the other students to get through which was an awfully long wait.

Finally, we were moving again. But alas, some strange hold up was going on so I was instructed to "keep walking and following the signs to Gate 48".
For a while I was fine, since there were some people who were from BSDE ahead of me and making their way to Gate 48 as well.
I tried not to slow down when they stopped because that might have been too much like I was following them and also, I was sure that I was still heading in the correct direction.

After a while of following signs and walking down long hallways without anybody from the school in sight, I started to get a bit nervous.
Well wouldn't you find it a bit un-nerving to suddenly find that the group you were supposed to be in the middle of had suddenly vanished?

But I was still on track and, after all, I was only doing what the teacher had told me to do. So I kept walking. Turn left...Gate 50...49...48. I sat down, opposite a lady reading a book.
I waited. Every person that came around the corner had to be BSDE. But it wasn't.
Finally, a couple of students appeared and noted the Gate numbers. Obviously not very accurately, since they settled down at 49.

More and more of the group came and settled themselves at 48. Eventually the ones at 49 figured out that they had made a mistake and moved to 48.

Everybody was talking, joking and telling stories.
The lady I had sat next to tried to hide her agitation.

It was around now when I popped half of a Travacalm pill in my mouth and gulped some water. (Don't worry, Michelle knew about this)

I don't remember when we passed through customs.

My boarding pass stated that I had seat '16F'.

When we climbed the ladder, onto the plane, I couldn't figure out how to find my seat. Hmm. There were little number thingys so I followed them to 16 but now I was stuck.
I asked Michelle where 16F was and she showed me to my seat and sat down next to me (I was lucky to have the window.)

We just sat there for ages. And ages. And then...taxi, taxi...picking up speed...brace yourself for my least favorite part of flying...take off.
3. Flight.
Goodbye Brisbane.

In the air...levelling out...seatbelt sign off. Mentos time. Book time. Chat to Michelle and the person wearing a rabbit on their head in the aisle seat.

My favourite part of flight...landing. So, this was the Rockhampton Airport. Surprisingly, all airports are pretty different. Well, maybe you don't find that surprising.

We trouped to the Baggage Collection area and people started to pull their luggage off the conveyer belt.
Mine was...not there? Less bags were showing up...it was almost bare...and then, luckily, my suitcase turned the corner and glided into my welcoming arms.

It was quite a wait for the bus to arrive so I sat on the floor with some other girls.
It was surprising. There were hardly any boys, compared to the number of girls there. Maybe one third or one quarter of the group were male. I'm not counting teachers though.
And the odd thing was that there were only about four who actually said anything throughout the entire camp.

Eventually, we were outdoors, packing bags into the bus.
I wanted to get on first so that I could take the front seat, I didn't say anything though, because when I clambered on I discovered all four front row seats had been left vacant.
It's an odd thing. Everybody wants to sit at the back. One of those things that has never made sense to me.

I sat at the window seat where I would get the best views and tucked my handbag under the seat.
A girl named Rachel sat next to me and we talked a little bit.
I noticed that a girl I had been cabin mates with at ABBA Camp sat in the same row as me. I said hello to her and she seemed to have difficulty figuring out where she had seen me before and said a confused "hi" back.
Oh no. What if nobody recognized me?

4. Bus

The bus ride seemed long. I was tired and soothed. I always find bus travel to be quite nice. Except for the noise. But it was happy chatter so, for now, it didn't bother me.

When we arrived at the ferry dock we had to wait to go down in grades. For example, everybody from grade six went down the ramp and on board first. When grade eight was called I dragged my suitcase down to the ferry. I don't know who took over it but I was instructed to 'hop on board'.

5. Ferry
Goodbye Yeppoon