I had to go to Canada...

I left with my dad for the Bradley airport to get on my flight to Dallas, TX. While standing in line a woman from American Airlines announced that the flight to Dallas was cancelled. Immediately tears began to pour down my face. I could not believe that there was not a cloud in the sky in CT, but that it was snowing in Texas. I was given a 1-800 phone number to call to try to find a different flight. After spending an hour and a half on the phone with a man the best he could come up with was a flight that left the next day. I was devastated because I needed to be in LA by 11:50p.m. to meet up with my group flight. I booked the Friday flight but wasn’t ready to give up. My dad ran up and down the terminal and stopped at Air Canada. After a lot of questions and persuading he was able to get me on a flight to LA. Unfortunately, it meant that I had to stop in Toronto, Canada. But that was my only option so I took it. Another woman who was supposed to be on the flight to Dallas also ended up traveling through Canada with me. A couple hours later I was on a small plane with one seat on each side, and a total of ten people. Once we arrived in Canada I had to get my bags, and go through customs. The woman and I helped each other find our way around the huge airport.This process was long and bizarre. At one point I was asked to put my hands in my pockets and then they got swabbed. I also had to let the security swab my backpack and my laptop computer. Once through I grabbed a slice of pizza and waited for my flight to LA. The flight to LA was about 5 hrs. I was originally supposed to arrive in LA with 5 hrs to get to the terminal for my flight to Sydney. I ended up with less than an hour to get my bags, find the terminal, and get one the plane. The LA airport had no signs, and even though I asked for help I got nothing special. I ended up running back and forth 4 times carrying over 100lbs worth of luggage, sweating, and crying trying to find the Quantas terminal. I was so tired and stressed out that it was all just so overwhelming. I eventually found Quantas and while I was waiting for them to print out my ticket I was crying as 8 people were staring at me. I ended up being escorted to the gate because I was running so late. Within several minutes I finally boarded the plane to Sydney. I was such a huge plane, it even had a second floor. I ended up in the middle seat between 2 girls who were going to Australia as well. The flight was a total of 14 ½ hours. We were served dinner, and breakfast both which were pretty good. I slept somewhat but never for an extended period of time. Over 36 hours of traveling later I arrived in Sydney at around 9:30 in the morning. This certainly was the traveling experience of a lifetime!