Bon Voyage!

At SFO saying goodbye to my nephew puppy, Nugget

Entering the airport with the backpacks!

Well here I am, 42 minutes from boarding at the SFO airport to embark on my journey to Australia.

My intentions of this blog are to keep people informed on my adventures (particularly my mother :) ) without bombarding people's inboxes full of e-mails.  It is also a way for me to journal and keep my journey documented.  

Choosing my blogs name was a feat all in its own....But, I landed on A. Blueview, not only because it is my name, but because when you look out of a window of an airplane, typically it is a blue view and in the next several months I plan to be on many planes.  I also want this to be a place where I share my opinions, thoughts, feelings, "views," etc., as well as pictures of the views I will be seeing.

Tonight, I just said my final goodbyes to my brother and sister-in-law, and my nephew puppy, Nugget.  It still feels like I am only on vacation, and has not quite hit me that I am moving...to another country... (!!)  

For those of you that have talked to me the last several months know I have been hoping for a St. Christopher necklace.  St. Christopher is the patron St. of travel and is suppose to keep you safe.  Unfortunately, time has ran out and I never found my necklace.  But tonight, my Sister-in-law, Valerie, handed me a picture of St. Christopher to keep with me as I travel.  It meant a lot!  So now, I can rest assured knowing I have my man, Chris, with me :).

In the last few months I have began to get rid of all my belongings and possessions, I can now (as of a few hours ago!) finally say I have successfully packed the remainder of my belongings in my backpack!  3rd attempt is the charm!  Although, I do believe I will need to continue to eliminate more to make the backpack comfortable and have accessibility to the clothes I have packed!

Right now, my plan is to fly (14.5 hours to Sydney & another 2 hours to Melbourne) into Melbourne and meet a friend I had met last year when I traveled to Australia.  He lives in a city called Berwick, which is an hour outside of Melbourne.  I plan to rent for 2 weeks, a room in a shared accommodation house (where I will rent one of 8 bedrooms).  I only have to give a weeks notice on when I plan to move out.  When I arrive to Melbourne, it will be Wednesday at 11:20 a.m. (17 hour time difference from CST).  Hopefully, I will find my friend at the airport and we will take the train to Berwick.  There I can rest for my big Thursday of attempting to get back to Melbourne to meet with my bankers to receive all my banking information.  

Alright, I must start packing everything up, because with bags this full, it takes time to squeeze everything in!!  Stay tuned....When I repost, I will be an Australian migrant! Oh how I welcome Summer!!!