Day one in Australia

Well, since Tiiu's blog about my health was such a success, and since I don't have international roaming on my cell phone, I thought I would create one for my short visit to Australia. I am here presenting at the Music Technology in Education Conference.
http://www.sibelius.com/shows/mtec09/

I am presenting a keynote address tomorrow at the start of the conference and then a session on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I am staying at the Novotel Glen Waverly Hotel in Glen Waverly, Victoria. It is a very nice hotel. It took me a while to figure out that you had to put your room key in the wall in order to get the lights and air conditioning to work. It is summer down here and the temperature is in the 70s today. I also had to buy a $15 adaptor so my laptop cable would work. This international traveling is expensive :)

The trip started with me rushing to the airport on the late side (what else is new?) after teaching school and running a staff meeting at Haverford until 2:30.

When I arrived at the airport, USAirways tried to check my one bag to LAX. When I told her that it should be checked to Melbourne, she said it was not possible. After I suggested she consult her manager, they were able to check my box of handouts and some food to Melbourne. It did take a while to convince them that I was arriving tomorrow, even though the ticket said Sunday. When I mentioned crossing the international dateline, they were not aware of this concept?!

BTW, everything costs money now: $15 to check the FIRST bag. $2.00 for a coke! I found the best deal to be $1 for a cup of tea.

I got to LAX on time and then had an adventure trying to find the right terminal. I started at the domestic terminal and had to run to another area to get to international. When I got there I was told I had to have a VISA to get into Australia. That cost me another $25.00. I got to the gate and was starving. I did not buy any of the bad food on USAirways. I purchased a turkey sandwich that was $9.00!!! Back home at Wa Wa that is two shortie hoagies.

The flight on Quantas to Australia took a little over 16 hours. I did pretty well. I did have some diarrhea and took Imodium and everything was fine. I was in the economy (cheap) seats and they were cramped. I was in an inside seat. Everyone in the plane has their own screen and controller. No more big movie screens on this 747. Kalev would have liked it - you can pick any movie, video game, etc. that you want and watch it when you want. Very cool.

I landed in Melbourne after a 22+ hour ordeal. Boy, I am glad I don't do this trip that often. The last time I was here was in 1988 for the Estonian world festival. Liia was 10 months old. Well, they lost my box of handouts and food that I packed in a brown shipping box. They say they will deliver it to my hotel. I don't need the handouts until Tuesday, so hopefully they will arrive.

Today, I am trying to stay on Australia time. That means staying up for quite a while. I will miss the Eagles game tomorrow, as it will start at 7:00 a.m. Monday morning Australia time. My keynote is at 8:30. If you want to see my slides, I just posted them on my website at:
www.tomrudolph.com/handouts.htm

Well, I am leaving for the 5:30 welcome for the conference in a few minutes so this will end my day one post of the trip.

Tom