That is my first view of the United States as a Permanent Resident and this was my last view of Melbourne  -

My move to America consisted of a flight from Melbourne to LA then I had to make the quick transfer to my flight from LA to NYC... with all of my belongings! So while you may be thinking that making the NY flight would be what I was most stressed about, truth is, I wasn't even thinking that. Before I could even get to the flight I had to 'become American'! The only difference from what I was used to is on the plane, I didn't have to fill in the Green Visa Waiver form. Just the US customs form. This was because by the time I got through immigration I would actually be a permanent resident so you get treated as such before you actually complete the process.

Being nearly last off the plane I had to lose my air legs quickly to try and get to immigration in an instant. This resulted in running on the moving walkways, running down the stairs - anything to get a few people ahead of the position I was stuck in. I ran under the portrait of George W that says 'Welcome to the United States of America' and I finally arrived at immigration queue. This was the first time I have ever encountered the queue for American citizens/residents was just as long as the 'Alien' queue. I promptly took my place, for the first time ever, in the American queue and waited. It was fast moving and before I knew it I was at the barrier with my yellow 'official business' envelope, chest x-rays and a big big smile.  When I got in the line originally, I spied a teenage boy with the exact same yellow envelope but he had since disappeared, so I let the immigration official do his thing. After wandering off, he came back to tell me I must go and collect my luggage (ugh here we go!) and then place it near the immigration office and sit in the waiting area. Argh! I panicked... my flight... my flight! Anyway I had to go through this no matter what, so I waited for what seemed like an eternity for my bags. The good thing is, with them being so heavy, good luck if someone wanted to take off with them! In fact, by the stage they could've taken them and I doubt I would have even cared!

I decided to go with two trolleys and line them up and throw these heavy cases on to them. What a ridiculous sight. Anyway I eventually looked like I was partaking in an episode of Supermarket Sweep. With one trolley full, I ran this over to the immigration office, threw the brakes on and dumped that one there before bolting back to the carousel to pick up the next trolley and run it over. By this time it was about 8.25am. I hadn't even been fingerprinted yet! The teenage boy with the yellow envelope emerged and sat nearby. His dad won a Green Card and was already in Texas and he was following. Before long, I was called over to get fingerprinted and to sign some official documentation and give them my final address for where they can send the Green Card. I was then told to sit back in the waiting spot. By this time it was 8.40 and boarding started for the NY flight at 8.15. I saw a Qantas staffer who saw my bags waiting that had the LAX-JFK tags already on them. As I couldn't leave the immigration area I yelled out "Ummm excuse me!!!" I explained I am on that silly flight and that I thought I was the last one who would be boarding and if I should just forget about making the connection. She was lovely and simply said "No! You have plenty of time.." To which all I thought was "Uh-huh whatever you say!". It was then, during what felt like the longest 3 minutes ever until I was called over again and given another stack of paperwork to take with me and another lovely immigration official came over an wanted to chat about having Irish ancestry and going to New York and other things that I couldn't really concentrate on because I had 5 massive suitcases to move and a whole airline terminal to navigate in all of say... 15 minutes!!

As I became an American there was as much fanfare as say.. what happens at Parliament station when Connex actually run on time. Zilch. It was now onto the next challenge. Suitcases and airport security. As I neared my bags-from-hell a lovely staffer from American Airlines came over and told me she would be escorting me to the plane. I actually think I hugged her!! She wheeled my other trolley, the customs man flagged me through and my bags were dumped/thrown/done away with at the connecting flights carousel. Good riddance to the bags!! She then pushed me through the terminal and when we got to the security checkpoints I was whisked to the business/first class line. It was about 9.00am by this time and there was still about ten people in front of me. I then recognised a girl from the Qantas flight who was in as much of a panic as I was. The American Airlines staffer calmed us both down as I was trying to take of my shoes, find my hard drive at the bottom of my backpack and get my laptop out - all whilst holding my passport and boarding pass and making sure I didn't lose any Green Card documentation.

I forgot to mention by this time I absolutely stink of long-haul travel smell, am dripping with sweat, my eyes are still swollen from all that crying (dry plane air does not help), my nose is red from blowing it too much and my hair is frizzed. Quite a sight indeed!!

We got through security and ran to the gate. Where I stood still. They hadn't even BOARDED the flight yet. There were what seemed like 100 people just milling around in the lounge! Eeeek! I was telling the other random panic girl how absolutely disgusting I felt - to which she pulled out a packed of Wet Ones and we proceeded to have a 'plane shower' there in the lounge. It bought back so many memories of backpacking and I forgot how awesome you can feel by simply wiping your arms and back with a Wet Ones wipe. Simple things in life and all that...  :)

After about 10 minutes we were boarding the flight and I got the row directly behind business class with... no-one in between. GOOD TIMES INDEED!!! I was so excited... literally jumping up and down in the seat. It was then that I realised I hadn't even checked if my passport had been stamped properly or anything like that. When I looked at the passport I realised in an instant - all the hard work of the past 18 or so months was OVER. I was IN!! Yeahhhhh!! But too bad I had no-one to talk about this with. We were sitting at the gate for a while when through the PA, over comes the Captain in his official tone... "We're going to be sitting here for a while...."  I could handle that, I thought. Until he blurted the next sentence. "..we could be sitting here for... the next three hours."

But... but... but... I have only slept for two hours maximum! I need a shower! I can't sit in plane seats  any longer. And more importantly... I was being met at the apartment in New York at 7pm. I would NEVER make it in time!!

The wait at LAX ended up being 2.5 hours. They moved us out to the 'outback' area of LAX where I have been a couple of times before, but never for this long. This was my view for 2.5 hours.

The staff were lovely and bought around juice and water and put the entertainment system but I was sick of looking at a tiny screen and my long-haul fatigue and emotionally fragile state was not being helped at all by this situation.  Knowing I had no way of contacting the people in New York who were meeting me at the apartment (even though I gave full flight details I thought the chances of them actually checking if the flight was on time was slim to none) was really stressing me out. Compounded by the fact I was wondering if my many cases made it from that dodgy conveyor belt to the actual plane etc etc. I spent the whole time at LAX basically stressing out due to being extremely over-tired and extremely over-sensitive!

When we started our taxi to the runway I somehow fell into the deepest sleep and missed take off and all the bits and pieces after that and woke up with the food cart halfway down the plane when the whole time I was starving. I was so hungry I even forgot to take a photo of the meal but it  was absolutely disgusting and I left nearly all of it on the tray... which alone tells you how bad it was. It really wasn't worth running the length of the plane for.

I tried to watch the rest of Gone With The Wind but I was so overtired I had some more on/off sleep and before I knew it we were going through the-longest-descent-in-the-history-of-aviation to be ready to land at JFK. We made up time and I ended up at the luggage carousel by about 7.15! Now came challenge number 758,382 of this journey so far. My cases. A trolley. A taxi and whether-or-not they would... fit!

I actually forgot to mention that on that flight, I had the most obnoxious woman behind me who was served way too much wine during the flight and who also happened to befriend me at the carousel.  As typical as all the situations on this journey, both her bags and mine were last out. She was yelling about this party in NY that she just HAD to get to, how she only had one change of clothes - you know the kind of thing I just loved listening too after way too little sleep and way too much stress and being very much in need of a shower. While trying to act like I didn't know her, I decided to do things a little differently to LA and attempt to stack all five bags on the ONE trolley as well as my carry-on. Believe it or not - it worked. Another girl helped me lift them up and I was able to wheel them slowly out of the terminal with five different comments being given by strangers about over-packing. Thanks folks.

The taxi ranks at JFK are very orderly, well organised and efficient and as soon as the marshall saw my stack of cases he ushered me over to the side while other people hopped into there cabs and eventually one cab pulled over for me. 3 cases in the back, one in the seat with me and one in the front passenger seat. It worked!! And before I knew it we were out of JFK and on the Van Wyck Expressway which is the harshest reality check of "YES! YOU ARE IN NEW YORK!!!"

I, like I am sure many people who arrive at JFK and take a cab, just held on for dear life while we negotiated the back streets of Queens and lucky for me, my photographic memory of Google Maps worked a treat as I was able to direct him straight to my apartment! :)

It was now... 8.10pm and I had fingers, toes and suitcase straps crossed that the apartment people were there to meet me as it was dark and storms were on the horizon. Argh!