Moving Day (for real this time) . . . | . . .
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Content Warning: Cockroaches, fear of parent/shitty parent(s), poor living conditions, mentioned psych hospital (in the context of discussing psych hospital food), implied issues with food/eating, dissociation
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Note: This page will be updated throughout the day. New content warnings (should there be any) will be added to the top, and will also appear before any newly added section where they are present.
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9:38am. It's the morning of the move. I still have to weigh my luggage and pack my bag. I really don't have much carry-on, so a whole backpack might be a waste. Or maybe not, maybe I'll find something I really want to keep, and that turns out to not fit in my luggage.
We're leaving at 5pm. There's some stuff I want to find, notably my sticker paper, as I believe I put that in my little carry-on luggage last time, but it was not there when I moved things into the big luggage. There's a chance that I gave it to my mum last time to put into a big luggage but I'm not sure, I'll have to check.
There's this photo album I have, but I think that one is truly lost, and if not, ruined by cockroaches. I haven't seen it in ages. I really liked some of the pictures I took with that instax, though.
There are also these paintings. I really liked them, two I bought and one I made myself. I hung them up in the kitchen. Of course, nothing is safe in this house, so they were batted down, and my one had a hole stomped through it and had orange juice(?) spilt on it. The other two were also pressed down into the floor, which hurt me since my favourite one (snowy evening mountain with a tree in the foreground), had some texture with the paint, and it all got flattened.
This was done by my then 2-3yo brother, so despite my initial anger, there was no one to blame. He didn't know better. I couldn't really bear to look at it, so they all got lost to me. But I saw them yesterday stacked up on a vanity(?). There was cockroaches on them, but I could still take them. Will probably pack them.
Ah, my siblings started playing stuff on the TV. It's now 10:30am. It was nice waking up to them next to me (these past days they've been sleeping in my bed :)). My little baby brother (4 now) slept here too, and he was so cute!
I thought I might be able to go to the park today, but I'm not so sure now. Ah, I should go wash the remaining sheets of my bed (washed most of it yesterday but it got too late, so I went to bed), and vacuum.
Content Warning: mentioned fear of parent, poor living conditions
Some text got deleted. It was about how I was going to mention today how I was impressed my headphones were still working, since last time (when we missed our flight), I thought it would only last the flight. But look how it shows no signs of breakinng a month(?) later! But lo and behold, it suddenly stopped working today. No audio at sll. It was fine last night. I've never had headphones break so suddenly, it's always been gradual up until now.
I might take some "headphones" from grandma? I'll have to ask first. (The quotation marks are 'cus the speakers clip onto your ears, so they're dissimilar to how headphones usually look.)
(There may have been more deleted text, since I only realised it hours after the fact ot had been deleted, but I don't think there was anything else.)
Edit: I found the "deleted" text! Turns out I put it in the wrong blog post by mistake (I have an offline version of my entire website since I create it in an offline text-editor, so you won't find that text in the online version, since I accidentally inserted it into the ofgline version of a page that was already uploaded)! It is as follows:
11:39am. I was going to make a comment today that despite the apparent poor-quality of my headphones when I bought them (with me initially doubting they'd only last for the flight), they have surprised me by lasting this whole month(?) with no signs of breaking. But as I tried to listen to a video just now, it stopped working. No audio at all. Hopefully it sorts itself out.
(/end)
2:17pm. Read some comics with my sister. Packed my bag. I need to go clean my clip-on sunglasses. Everything's done laundering. I'm gonna go to the bathroom and start makibg the bed properly & vacuuming. The photo album's already been packed, I packed the paintings in my bag, although a lot of the mess is there for good (especially the orange juice stains).
The bags and the luggages are kind of gross, hopefully no live cockroaches, just the shed + stains. Just means I'll have to clean my things once we arrive. I'm not actually sure where we're staying, and if we'll all be together. Seems I'm a lot more out-of-the-loop then my siblings.
I think my sisters are gonna be at a new house. Don't know if I'll be there too. I'm a bit scared that we're gonna see our dad at the airport. I don't think mami will keep her pronise about him not being there. Nothing I can do.
My dorian chiton is still missing, it might be packed, but I've just decided "oh well". Same with the sticker paper. Might look for a bag of buttons I'm missing, but I have plenty of buttons so it doesn't really matter if it's missing.
My luggage is heavy, and it's almost entirely clothes! Who knew clothes could be so heavy! But it's under the weight limit, so that's good.
Might check out some of the stuff mami says is mine. So much of it isn't salvageable, what with the cockroaches and baby and the now-gone cats. There could be somethin, though. It's just gross to go through it.
I'm living so much better than my siblings. Where I am is so much cleaner and less smelly than where they are,and things don't get destroyed. But, for most of them, that's their choice. So I don't feel too bad. They ran the numbers and determined it wouldn't be worth it. I understand, our grandparents can be hard to get along with. But I know for one of my siblings, me being here influenced them to stay over there (they wouldn't be alone/have privacy/they felt it would be cramped(? Maybe they were accounting for the rest of our siblings coming too?).
If they're living in a new, clean house, then I'm really happy for them.
5:56pm. Apparently we're actually leaving at 6pm, not 5. Should be soon. Something's wrong with grandma/pa's upstairs TV. Something about it not connecting to the internet and thus not getting video. They asked me to fix it, I think they think it's my fault. The only time we used the tv today was to mirror a phone screen (I was with my sibling), amd nothing out of the ordinary happened. It's been off ever since.
I tried to troubleshoot but no dice. After resetting the receiver, it still wasn't receiving video. The tv's saying to call or scan a qr code now to fix it. I don't think grandma would take kindly to mw asking to have her headphones.
That's alright. Plenty of non-video stuff I can do. There are two books I've been wanting to read on Libby, for example (not to mention all of my downloaded fics...). I could write more blog posts, or flesh out some more stories of mine. I can always draw, too.
Ooh, I can also sort out some of the downloaded stuff I have. There's many things that need editing, like the comics I'm formatting into html. I've also figured out that putting the viewport meta tag fixes the problem of long ao3 fics being zoomed out. Plus, I've discovered how to view the source code of sites on firefox, opening new ways to download.
6:17pm. We should be leaving soon. I tried not to drink anything 'cus it's a bit of a drive to the aurport, and then I don't know how long we'd be there, so I'd really prefer trying to avoid the bathroom. I feel fine about using it in the airplane, for some reason. I drank a litre in the morning, but I'm really thirsty now so I took a sip of water. My head hurts.
I deposited some money in the bank earlier. I thought grandma said grandpa would take me, and maybe she did,so I assumed he'd come to me. But apparently I had to go to him. Whrn we arrived back it was 5pm. There's $153.17 in our bank now. I share a bank account with my mum, but I deposited all but 17c of that total. I guess we really can't be buying things.
7:04. We started driving sometime ago but idk cus EXPLODING MONEY FOREVER I CSUSED A DELSY BECUSD EI THOUGHT I LEFT MY PHONE BESIFE THE CAR BEFORE WE LEFT SO WE TURNED SROUND BUT UT WAS JUST IN A D8FFERENT P9CKET THAM I THOIGHT AND WAS THINNER THAN I THOUGJT IT WOULD FEEL </33333.
exploding things forever. Exploding tmoney forever. No more money. In the new world there will be no need for money. It definitely took more than ten minutes. Maybe a 15-20 minute delay? Sun-blistered horsefeathers we better not miss the flight AGAIN cus of this. We were already late, apparently.
Uh anyway ignoring that, the money. I think we'll be able to buy a decent amount of stuff. I think it was intended for food and drinks? I'm not sure. On top of the money that was deposited into the card, they gave me some money for the american airport. 20 bucks I think. If anyone wants food and water ill give it to them.
I have to wonder why they gave the money to me and not mami. If it was ro keep it aqay with her, they're sorely mistaken, since we share a bank account. I told them that via text, but I'm not sure they understood. We seem to have some problems undwrstanding wjat the other is saying.
Typing is hard. We're driving first of all, but more importantly it's really cramped. Either I type with my left arm pinned or held unnaturally high above me. Either way I have to contort a bit to type.
Ahh right, the money, the money. I don't know where we're staying once we land. Oof thought about the scary stuff that could happen at the australian airport. Okay anywsys I don't know where we're staying, or if we'll all be together. If we need new pans and stuff I can buy them. Or toiletries. Or soap. Shampoo. I think my siblings have only had access to shampoo re:showering for a while, so, I'll get conditioner and bodywash too.
I think my mum's already figured out some stuff for food.
Okay. Gonna go download some more stuff now + research one player card games that don't require a lot of space. 7:26pm.
7:43. Can't believe we're at the airport already. I thought it was like 3 hours away? Grandma must've been driving really fast.
7:59pm. We are IN the airport! Luggages are in, and I think mami's going to get the tickets now. She wanted my passport. Now we're all in a line! I've taken to dragging my luggage behind me with both hands while I face forward. I like to imagine myself like an Ox pulling a cart.
Okay,I think the gate closes at 10:40pm. I thibk that's the same as last time. We're definitely making it.
I don't remember if I explained, but unlike last time, I'm allowed a full luggage + a backpack unlike the little carry-on luggage I had last time. I've been able to pack a lot more clothes! Almost all of them, in fact!
8:07pm. We're about to go to the counter. Turning my brightness down, I have sunglasses on inside, so while I knew ir was bright, I didn't realise quite how bright it was. 89%. I want to save my power. I don't know if they have outlets in the plane. Grandma gave me a powerbank, but I don't know if it'll work and I need to share it with everyone.
We're at the desk now, party of 6.
8:26pm. Still at desk. Sister brought up the excellent point that we'll be able to see the stars again. We'll see them on the plane, even, provided we have a window seat. Our bags (carry-on) Now have tags on them. They had to zip my suitcase open because a bag of mother's was too heavy, so they put some of that stuff in there. For a moment, I thought my suitcase wasn't let through because of the anti-dandruff shampoo I put in there. It felt like they were doing surgery on her.
8:29pm, and we have left the desk. Baby looks very funny and sweet as always. He's the most hilarious toddler to exist. Comedy genius. Mami said we had to be alert 'cus the people at the desk would ask to check our faces to see if they match our passports, but that didn't happen. Perhaps later.
At 8:31pm we started moving again. We didn't make it nearly as far into the airport/past that step (the desk) last time. I've finally thrown my empty water bottle away (I drank it all shortly after we entered the airport). It's nice and air-conditioned in this area. Grandma is fetching the jacket for baby from my backpack (extra space was used for him). There's a small food court and escalators.
We've said goodbye to our grandparents and went up the escalators. It occured to me I can't remember the last time I went up an escalator. The were K-9 dogs in use, and do to the nature of the lines, there is now one person separating me from the rest of my family. We're in another line now, it's 8:51pm. 86%.
Okay so the line was to check if our faces matched our passports. I was ruinited with my family for this. Next line is to check our carry-on.
Possessions checked, and there are seats for us to sit down as we wait for our mum to collect her last bag. 9:06pm, 85%. Someone had a guitar inside a cute/cool green bag.
Okay, so after TSA, we went to find our gate. After some fautly elevators and cool treadmills, we found it! We waited in a line for a looong time to seee if we needed to check in, only for the desk people said we didn't. It was pretty funny how anti-climactic it was.
Then we decided we were pretty thirsty, so walked aaalll the way back to the start of these gates, and we got some money. I offered to pay with the money grandma gave me for this, but mamu wanted to use hers. It's the same either way.
Grandma called while we were picking out drinks, she wanted to know how things were going so far. I told her things were going fine, and she asked me to text her once we board the plane, which I will.
Originally I was going to wait 'till the plane refreshments to drink, but while we were in the shop, I decided that was silly! It's fine to spend money, that's what it's for, and I'm thirsty. Plus I care less about the bathrooms now.
I didn't get snacks though like mami suggested. Maybe next time. But grandma literally packed us snacks, so. Plus we're boarding in a bit over an hour.
I bought a green tea. It was pretty good. It looked nice, too. We sat down at a gate that wasn't our own, but that was closer. There's barely anyone here, so it's not a big deal. There's chargers in all the gate chairs, so I'm charging my phone now. Maybe I should've brought my other two xhargers in the carry-on. I do have an extra one that's my sibling's, though. It's still in the box.
Haha, well, not anymore! Unrelated conversation turned towards charging, and I asked everyone if anyone wanted a plug to charge their phone, and one of them did! So, my sibling's one is being used now haha.
It's 10:44pm, now.
One of the snacks grandma packed was toffee/caramel (I don't know the difference between these). I'm usually not fond of these 'cus my teeth aren't great, so if something sweet like that gets stuck on them (which this type of candy is wont to do), they ache. But I've figured out how to eat them without hurting (sticking it to the roof of my mouth), and I gotta say they're pretty good!
Okay, it's 11:01pm now, and we moved to go back to our actual gate. But there's a big line here, now. We're probably boarding.
Content Warnings: mentioned psych hospital (in the context of discussing psych hospital food), implied issues with food/eating, fear of parent/shitty parent(s)
Ah, I forgot to mention, but it seems I have left my cap (really cool, awesome) in the car. Sad! Oh well, perhaps our grandparents can mail it over later. We're definitely boarding, btw.
Another thing I forgot to mention was that there was this person driving this big mobility shuttle (don't know what it's called, it was a shuttle that ferried people with mobility issues around the airport), and he was trying to catch our attention so that he could afterwards tell us to move out of the way, 'cus he was driving, y'know. But for some reason I got it into my head that this person was trying to catch our attention in order to arrest us? And that if I didn't react he wouldn't arrest us?
Obviously someone else eventually turned around, so I turned around (since we already reacted, so it wouldn't matter anymore), and saw that person driving the mobility shuttle. My brain started catching up to how big a leap in logic it made as that guy drove by us. I would've apologised for taking so long to react, but I was still processing what happened. At least we didn't actually stop or slow him down, though we would've if we had delayed any longer.
11:23pm. YAYYY WE'RE ON THE PLANE NOW!!! AND IT COMES WITH FREE HEADPHONES (Do we get to keep these?) SO IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT MINE ARE BUSTED TO HELL YAYYY!!!! PLUS THE LADY WHO HELPED US BOARD WAS SUPER AWESOME AND NICE!!!!!!
Edit: There was music during boarding, and I think take-off too, which I thought was real neat :).
So, there's charging on the plane. That's awesome. There's cameras showing the outside, too. It's probably been like that on the last few planes I've been on, but I did not know that! That's cool! I was aware of the map, though, which is real neat.
Baby didn't like the instructional video. He didn't want any video to be on screen, so he started crying. Not awesome! He stopped as soon as it stopped, but then he realised his phone couldn't connect to the internet and started crying again. Mami had to pretend she was "fixing" it to get him to calm down. My sibling told me to ask him if he wanted the the 3ds instead, but he said no.
Eventually, our mum gave it back to him and told him it was broken. He seemed fine for some reason. He's playing on it now, the apps still work, of course. Some nice cabin crew gave us some food for him while he was crying. I was worried since he had been using his phone without his headphones, but mami had convinced him to turn it down, so it was quiet, and now he's playing something that's silent.
I feel bad for him. I hope he's not too uncomfortable during the flight. He looks pretty comfortable right now, though.
Edit: I forgot to mention this, but shortly afterwards Baby fell asleep, and stayed asleep for the rest of the flight.
I did text our grandma, by the way.
The flight crew said something about only using headphones for the in-flight entertainment, as in, only the screen and not personal devices. So I suppose he (and me) couldn't use them anyway. I guess watching videos is (probably) struck off the list of things I can do, since I suspect the audio jack is unique/won't fit standard ports. Let me check.
Ah, yes, it is. Although I'm curious if it truly will not work with my phone. Let's see.
How curious! So, there are two headphone jacks at the end, and I can get audio to play if I plug either one into the phone's headphone port(?). However, it seems each jack is connected to only one of the speakers on the headphone. So, audio will only play out of one of them if only one jack is plugged in.
Interesting! Although that doesn't really stop people from using the plane headphones with their personal devices, does it? It does sound very annoying, though. I know I hate it when audio only comes out of one speaker.
Ah, well, I wouldn't have used it with my phone anyway, since that is not allowed.
There has been some oversight regarding my libby books. I suppose I wanted to believe I would have access to the internet, despite also believing there would be no internet at all? I had intended to look into if there was an option for reading the ebooks offline, but it had slipped my mind. Like how I forgot to download the pages I found that said how to play card games.
Sigh. I was not lying, though, when I said I had plenty of non-audio activities to keep me busy.
I forgot to say earlier, but we've been in the air for a short while now, we've been able to take our seatbelts off for 26 minutes now. It's 12:43am btw.
I think I liked the plane better when the lights were dimmed for take-off. Oh, well. They probably will be dimmed again when it is deemed suitably late/time for people to begin sleeping.
Mami gave me a scotch finger. I'm gonna eat it now :).
My ass sees bread and butter on a plate with a lidded cup filled with unknown food that's probably desert and goes "OMG SO PSYCH HOSPITAL CORE <3". Tgis is a compliment, I have many fond memories of the psych ward. All this is to say that the food has arrived. I was pretty hungry, so good thing!
It was this warm pasta with chicken + mushroom + spinach maybe. The bread, butter, and unknown desert thing were on the side, along with this salad(?) thing that was also in a cup with a lid. I still don't know what the desert is after having eaten it, but it was definitely something we'd have in the psych hospital <3. So psych-hospital-cored <3.
Although, there, the butter would be in its own little circular container with a top you'd have to peel back (like the seal of a new juice bottle), and it would be soft, instead of how it was on the plane, where it was rectangular and hard (though could probably melt easy) and was wrapped with foiled paper.
Anyway, I liked the bread + butter and the pasta. Bread is actually really easy for me to eat (food can be difficult sometimes) so I scarfed that one down first. Especially since it had butter? God-tier. I liked the pasta too :), it tasted good.
I could've had a drink, but decided against it. I'll definitely have tea next time, though.
It's 2:11am. The lights were dimmed a bit at 1:54am, but they've been completely shut off for a bit now. Good timing! Even at 1:54am, I was sleepy. Usually I go to bed at around 2am, so, right on time.
The time I usually wake up at (10-11:30am), is more around the 3am mark in Australia, I think. I checked the times a bit ago, so I'm not quite sure, and obviously I can't check now since there's no internet. But the point is it's actually early. So I figure it wouldn't be too bad if I didn't sleep just yet.
But I am sleepy. So we'll see what I decide. 2:17am.
I decided to go to sleep.
After waking up, my phone says it is now 7:40am. Y'know, something I forgot about planes, is that they aren't quiet! You can hear the wind wooshing by the whole time, and it isn't quiet! I actually really like that. I thought it would really bother me, but it's actually quite relaxing! What can I say? I suppose I am a white noise enjoyer <3.
I also sort of remembered, but kind of ignored, that these flights are a lot shorter than they would seem to be. We're taking two planes, and this one's the longer of the two. But because we're flying at night, we slept through most of it. And I'm going back to sleep (hopefully), so I'd have even less time! When I slept there was about 8 hours left of the flight. I bet someone could sleep right through to the end of the flight.
Edit: This is funny to me, considering this is exactly what baby did. At this point, I don't think I expected him to actually sleep through it. I thought he'd wake up soon.
So, I suppose, your stockpile of activities doesn't need to be that substantial to get through the flight. Ah, they're turning the lights back on. It's 7:47am according to my phone, but the time of arrival will be 5:28am (local time at the airport).
My point is, I don't think there'd even be enough time to do all my activities. I suppose that's a good thing, though. Better have too much than not enough, right?
Ah, a bunch of people are moving around, I'm not sure if I'd be able to go to sleep. Well, I think Mythbusters proved in one episode that just lying down and shutting your eyes is more restful than not doing that, even if you don't fall asleep. So I'll shut my eyes, at least.
I wonder if it's Sep 5th already.
7:58am/2:58am (next airport's local time). Okay, I'm getting some shut-eye, bye.
Discovered that I actually am quite sleepy, and I would definitely have fallen asleep if I didn't have to watch over (Edit: a sleeping) Baby while mami goes to the bathroom, and then have breakfast roll around after that. I definitely don't think I'll rest now. That's okay, flying this far usually leaves people sleepy, and most manage.
I still wasn't feeling very hungry because of dinner last night, but I was gonna eat breakfast anyway since I probably was hungry, and just couldn't really feel it. But I actually really didn't like most of the food.
I ate the peach yogurt, which luckily didn't have fruit chunks in it (I would've eaten it anyway but it would be unpleasant). I drank some tea. I liked it. I managed to eat most of the top part of the omelet, which was the main dish, despite it tasting bad to me.
My sister used the power bank last night and said that it did charge her phone. I'm relieved, as I wasn't sure of its quality/authenticity. I'm charging it now. When I first charged it on the night before the move, I wasn't sure how to check if it had fully charged. I think I got it now, though. If all the blue lights are on then that means it's fully charged (I think).
(Sidenote: It was my grandma who charged it. She then asked me to check if it was fully charged, since she wasn't sure. That's when I plugged it in for a little bit, 'cus I thought that might reveal how much it was charged, which it didn't.)
We were handed those passenger card things and filled it out. Juice was also handed at this time, and I got apple juice. I had to take lots of things out of my bag so that I could hand someone a pencil, and after I while I was able to put everything back. Good thing! It was kind of annoying having everything out.
We're beginning our descent now. 9:55am/4:55am. Turns out we're not allowed to keep the headphones and blankets.
10:17am/5:17am. I went to use my phone while it was charging, and a notification popped up like "allow connected device to access phone data?" So it seems that the plane's screen thing can actually connect to my phone! Perhaps this is how you can watch your personal device's video/audio content? I can't try right now, as our headphones have been taken, but I can test this out on the next flight.
I just had no idea you could transmit information (other than that needed to safely charge) with a charger!
11:13am/6:13am. We've gotten off the plane now. It was cool to see the plane land on/via the live cameras. There are two people playing music at this airport, which is awesome. We accidentally got into the wrong line at first, but we're in the right one now, and we've got plenty of time.
I'm changing the date to 3rd of Sep — 5th, because it is the 5th now, and will continue to be until the end of our trip (although what counts as "the end" will be decided later). But know that as I've experienced it, we left for the plane at around 6:40pm, we boarded the plane at night, it continued to be an abnormally long night, and now it's morning.
Hgg. Okay okay. Lotsa stuff happened. First of all to be clear the airport that we stopped at was NOT our final destination. As stated before, this trip is separated into two flights. That airport was the stop inbetween.
1:34pm/8:34am. I'm gonna drop the u.s. times now. We're in a hotel now. A very nice hotel, imo. I had to withdraw some money for us to pay the final bit for the hotel and hhh. It was a whole thing. I didn't understand what the lady was saying at all. She kept explaining the exchange rates and how much I would need to withdraw to cover the expense and what the amount I needed even WAS 'cus mami didn't actually tell me how much was left to pay, and I just did not understand ANY of it.
Likr did I need to pay 175 extra to be able to cover the expenses (no)? Would whatever amount I entered to be withdrawn be smaller than tge amount of money I received due to the exchange rates (so I would end up with more money than I entered/typed) (no)? If I entered twenty dollars to be withdrawn would that be enough (yes, but I thought the answer was "no")?
And then the atm didn't work so I had to go to another one and she spent sooo long trying to explain to me where another atm was but I just did not understand. The only "blue building" I saw was allll the way down the street and definitely not what she meant.
Ewww they're calling papi now. Get his ass out of here. I can hear his voice ewwww. Mami came into the room I was in (which I came into to get away from her 'cus her complaining about the staff was stressing me out, lol. I don't mind 'cus I've calmed down a bit and she's not complaining now) so that he wouldn't see her, either.
Hhh. Anyway I eventually found it. I withdrew 50, and received 50 in the local currency. It came with a $25 (usd) fee. I needed 20 of the local currency.
Whateverrrr it probably wasn't actually a big deal. It's whatever. Only a small time loss. Who cares. We maybe could buy some stuff at the hotel now with the extra money? Apparently a light breakfast is free, while a cooked(?) one costs money.
Okay okay okay. Let's back up a bit. So, at the desk for the correct line, I learned that mami had actually stowed away a bunch of food from the airport. So it would need to be eaten, discarded or declared when our bags were checked. We had time to eat it after that line, though, while we looked for our luggages.
Also, I think we're all going to a house which we already have. I think I know the address now.
So, after the line, we looked for them. We accidentally got someone else's suitcase at first. Apparently, one of my siblings was kinda confused 'cus it didn't have a pink ribbon on it, which all our suitcases had.
We kept watching and watching for our luggages on the conveyer belt, but they never arrived. Eventually, I looked around and realised some of our suitcases were a little ways away from us at another section of the conveyer belt (they were a bit obscured by pillars). When we walked closer, we realised they were all there!
—Papi's gone now, phew.
Okay just heard "So the six months [before returning to the u.s.] was a lie" come out of our mum's mouth. Not boding well.—
After we returned that one suitcase and collected all our stuff, we learned that we definitely did need to dispose of the food before proceeding with the next step. Mami had stowed pasta. So luckily, I did not starve after my lackluster breakfast! I had a bit of pancake, too, which I was jealous of when I heard some people had that instead of omelet, since I would definitely eat that.
I think some airport employee came over and told mami that we needed to hurry up. Luckily, I was practically finished eating, so it didn't take much longer. After we ate and disposed of the food (some of my siblings ate as well), our bags were checked. Mami and the employees checking our bags chatted (there was no one else there) and they realised something was amiss with whatever mami's plan was for waiting for our flight.
After that, we went to another area. There was a bird indoors at a food court, it was awesome. Apparently one (of two?) of the hotels mami paid for would not actually be viable given when our flight leaves. Didn't create any other problems besides lost money, at least. We left two of our suitcases at the airport (we'll get them back later) and put the rest in a taxi to the hotel.
We all crammed into that taxi. That car was definitely not built for that many people, hah. We saw some cows and there was a mongoose (although I didn't see it) on the drive to the hotel. It was pretty. I saw some cool looking benches as well.
We are at the hotel now. It's 9:13am. Apparently the taxi's gonna pick us up at 4pm, despite us needing to be there at 3pm. This is also despite what my mum asked of them, and what they said would be fine to do. This is what she was complaining about. I think it's a fair complaint? I don't have a lot of context, though.
The hotel is very nice. We get two big rooms. One of them has two bunk beds (equaling four beds) with a red frame. There's another, normal bed in here too that's bigger than those ones (so five in total). There's a ceiling fan (there's one in both rooms), and a cloth-covered bar that goes from the floor to the ceiling in the center of the room. There's a cabinet, a desk, and a desk with some drawers
The other room has a large mirrors, some desks, a large bed, a couch, and the aforementioned fan. The bathroom is attached to that room, which I haven't seen it yet.
Edit: I've seen the bathroom. It's small, and has a shower in it. It's overall a normal bathroom.
Haah, some stuff I overheard during the call makes me think papi's gonna be at the airport. Mami liiedddd. I will endure, I suppose. Whateverrrr. Nothing I can do about it.
Okay, I'm gonna look over what I wrote and then try to upload it. I don't understand the wifi situation in this hotel. It's 9:26am now.
11:42am. We did some Stuff. I don't know what's up with the wifi situation, but my sibling's doing hotspot right now, so I'll figure it out later if relevant. But I have proofread everything! So if we do not go grocery shopping within the next 5 minutes I should be able to post this! Cya!
1:02pm. Went grocery shopping. Walked a tiny tiny little bit, and I saw some cool flowers.
We've made this stop everytime we've gone between australia and the u.s., but this is the first time we've ever gone outside the airport. I think this is the longest we've been in this place, too.
Okay, so I've got a clearer picture of what happened with the hotels. Apparently our mum had actually booked a different hotel for us to stay at, but then it turned out that it would only let us check in at a point real close to when we needed to leave for the airport, so it was essentially useless. Futhermore, even if we were to leave later, it would still mean hours and hours between when we arrived at the airport, and when we could check in. In fact, at the time I'm writing this (1:20pm), we would still be waiting.
So she had to pay for a different hotel using the money she was saving for Australia. She might've had to pay extra for the bags too (it cost money both to leave them, and to ferry them to the hotel), assuming she had sorted out payment for them before things with the hotel fell through.
2:29pm. Perhaps I should drink, even if it is soda, which I usually do not like very much. I've been charging the powerbank for a while, and the lights definitely show how charged it is. Before, two lights were blinking, and now it is only one.
My phone is at 50%. After the powerbank is done charging, I'll start charging the phone.
4:24pm. In an airport again! Me and one other sibling are waiting with the suitcases while everyone else gets the other ones. 41%. Writing from here on out will be sparse, I want to focus on another blog post of mine, which I suppose I could finish after we get settled in Australia, but which I prefer to finish before we get there.
Also, I did end up drinking that soda. See you in due time! <— words of a guy who forgot they didn't know the access code. Uh. See you hopefully soon, then!
I DIDN'T HAVE A VISA??? I think it was 'cus I got a new passport. And here I was thinking I was a dual citizen. The whole debacle was stressful BUT we figured it out and now I have a visa!
This situation granted me the password for the internet! I will attempt to send this shortly.
We're currently waiting to board the plane, and we've all gotten burger meals. It was 91 dollars, probably in the local currency. I don't know how much money is left in the bank. I also got my little baby sibling some gummies. It's 6:37pm. Okay! I'll try to upload this now.
Content Warning: dissociation
Haah, the plane moved into position for take-off and I felt none of that whimsy I did on the first flight. All I felt was dread and fear. Then I felt the beginnings of dissociation. As the plane started moving in earnest, tears started pricking my eyes. I could feel the slight urge to hyperventilate, but I'm not nearly bad enough yet forr that to happen. Breathing did get weird though. Thank god for the box breathing technique and my sibling <3. My sibling was being cute and funny at times throughout this, which cut the tension. I was able to calm down via the box breathing technique (personally I like it when all four sides are four beats).
I kind of want to let myself dissociate. It'd be easier that way. But I want to finish writing my stuff, and I need to be more present than I would be if I actively tried to dissociate to do that. Maybe when I get off.
They offered us some water. I accepted. It made me feel better.
My phone's at 24%. I forgot tgis charger takes a while to charge the phone, but I don't think my phone will be at risk of dying before I find another outlet. That's good. Don't want to be without my phone for what's to come.
The box-breathing made me sleepy. In the u.s. it's 2:09am (it's 9:09pm here), which is when I normally go to sleep, nevermind the fact I qoke up early.
I was torn between trying to distract myself for the rest of the flight, and trying to prepare for what happens when we depart and/or ""prepare"" (worry endlessly) for it. But then I remembered I wanted to write that blog post, so the chouce is made for me.
Hah, I feel a bit of dread and have a slight headache from the strain of it all. I need to fill out that passenger card thing before I can get started on the other wip. 3 hours and 19 minutes before we arrive at our destination. 9:14pm here, 7:14pm in australia. 25%, 6 hours and 55 minutes 'till fully charged. Okay. Wish me luck.
Spilt crumbs everywhere trying to get my notebook to ask my mum some questions without getting up or shouting through the plane so that I could answer my CARD. Tried to clean up some of it. Decided whatever it's fine if I can't clean it all (I can't I really tried) they're not gonna kick us out, people make messes all the time. How did it even spill, Im pretty sure no one ate that cornbread, so it should've been in a plastic case which itself was inside a sealed ziploc bag. I shoulda thrown the whole bag out, after that time beforee we boarded the first plane it's only served to take up space. Goddamn.
10:23pm, 2h 12min left in flight. Finally able to start om the other blog. But im gonna poke around on the plane's screen to calm down first. Gonna see if I can play videos from my phone.
Couldnt do it. Think I migjtve damaged my charger a bit 'cus I got it caught in the tray ewhen I folded it up, bit hopefully its ffine.
12:04am/10:04pm. I will be using local time from now on. We are beginning our descent. Only 30 minutes left.
We're landing soon, and what I wrote in my other blog post is what I want to say. Here it is:
"Ohh, we're descending now. Not much I can do. The moment's finally upon us. To be honest, I'm scared. But I know I'll live. I've gone through plenty of bad days before and come out the other side. Plenty of really, really bad days too. It'll be okay. It'll soon or eventually be in the past. It's okay.
Through whatever adversity any of you reading may be facing, I wish you strength. Good luck to everyone. See you guys later. <3."
10:17pm aest. 39%. See you all on the other side.
12:49am. Okay, bad news, good news.
Bad news it that my parents suck, he was at the airport. I hatteee my parents </3. Second bad news is that papi might be living in this house too.
Good news, the house is beautiful, and it's in a wonderful location (to me). It's surrounded by trees. It has a large patio. With a massive hammock. Plus there's three bedrooms. Other good news is that there's a bus stop outside the house and to the left. And all public transport is dirt cheap until further notice (recent law).
I need to spend as little time here as possible if papi truly lives here.
Okay he does, and this is his house. I have to get away from here, man. Ughh. I'll do what I can.
Well, with that dour note, I'm finishing this blog post. We have completed our move. Technically this blog post extends to the 6th of September, but for simplicity's sake.
Apologies if these last few paragraphs are strangely worded. There's a cartoon playing in the background, so it's kinda hard to think.
Hope you all had a better one than me. Have a good night/day/etc, everyone! Much love <3.