After sleeping very peacefully, my alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. As I got ready for the long plane ride ahead of me, Courtney called from one of the other rooms and said we should meet in the lobby at 5:15 to be on the safe side. Josie met up with us too. We took the shuttle back to the international gate of the airport, only to find it completely empty. It was eerie considering how busy it had just been the evening before and because we were told specifically by the Qantas desk to be there when it opened at 5. Not only were there only a very few other travelers, there were no Qantas employees in sight! We got in line and just stood there for the next hour, figuring we would at least be in the front of the line by the time everyone else arrived. A little bit past 6, the Qantas employees began to set up at the check-in desks and I suddenly noticed how unbelievably long the line had gotten in the meantime. We checked in and headed to our gate, which was way too small considering the amount of people who were going to board the plane. I found a seat and eventually began talking to my neighbors- a couple in their 60s from Australia. They were returning home from one of many trips that had done in their lifetime to America. They were both so friendly and quite interested in my travel plans. I chatted with them until it was time to board. As we boarded we were in complete awe of the sheer size of the plane. Not only was it a double decker, but it had 3 aisles- 3 seats on the outer ones and 4 seats in the center. HUGE! Every 15 rows or so there was either a station for flight attendents to prepare food or 4 bathrooms. Each seat came with its own pillow, blanket, headphones, eye mask and best of all, a touch screen TV! As everyone settled into their seats, I noticed the seats across from me in the center aisle were free. I was told by a flight attendent that I could move there once the 'fasten seatbelt' sign had been turned off following take-off. I sprawled out and as I was beginning to enjoy the extra space, I realized my stupid TV screen would freeze. I had the flight attendent in my area restart it 3 times before I just moved over another seat. Luckily that one had no malfunctions. The TV thing was a life saver: it had recent movies, older movies, TV episodes, documentaries, radio, music, and games. It came in handy to say the least. I slept maybe only 2 hours total of the 15-16 hour flight. We were served breakfast about 4 hours into the flight- an asparagus omelet with cooked mushrooms and tomatoes. After more sleeping and messing around with the TV, we were served dinner a few hours before arrival. I chose to have poached Mahi Mahi with potatoes and broccoli. It wasn't too bad! Really, the whole flight wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. By the time we touched down in Sydney, it was 8 p.m. on the 7th. So strange to think we had left L.A. at 8 a.m. on the 6th! We said goodbye to Josie and Brendan and went to the information desk to buy shuttle tickets. The shuttle was extremely cramped and even though it was night-time, it was so humid and warm. The shuttle drove us through the busy nightlife of Sydney to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza. Candice, Ali and I shared a room. Just as we were getting to bed, Candice screamed because she had seen a cockroach. We thought we may have seen another one too but were too tired to hunt for them so we just collapsed into bed.