Barefoot

Prologue

It's dark. Except for me, only three other people are awake. We have been in the air for almost 10 hours now. The plane shakes. I pull out my farewell book. I designed it myself over a few days in November. All of my friends and family wrote messages in it over the last two months, and I am finally allowed to read it, now that I am on the plane on my way to Singapore. I waited for the girls sitting next to me to fall asleep so I would have some privacy.

I open the book and silently read through most of the texts. I will save the one that my best friend wrote for later. I know that if I would read it now, I would not be able to control my emotions.

-8 hours later-

We entered the plane from Singapore to Sydney two hours ago, after we had a 4-hour-stay in Singapore. Right now, everyone gets their food. I dont even know anymore it this is breakfast, lunch, or dinner. All the skipping through the different time zones confuses me so much. Additionally, my phone doesn't adjust the time to the zone we're in right now. So I never know what time it is.

-6 hours later-

Finally, we arrived in Sydney. Here, it's 7 a.m. My next flight is in 4 hours. The last flight for some time. Fortunately, the flight to Melbourne is only around 1 to 1.5 hours long.

-7 hours later-

I am standing in front of the door. It's a pretty little red house, one floor. The person who picked me up from the airport and drove me her knocks on the door. I can hear the dogs barking and running through the hallway. We wait for a couple of minutes, ehen the door swings open, revealing a short, sweet looking woman and the two dogs. I am not able to hold my emotions. The woman standing in the doorframe will be my hostmom for the next 10 months. A tear manages to escape my eye, slowly rolling down my cheek. Not many seconds later, it's followed by a few more. I am happy and exhausted. I finally arrived.