Kyla Kiester - Team Member:  …and we finally made it to Melbourne.  Add 2 hours for Julie and Natasha who came from Iowa City.  Flights to Chicago and then LA were uneventful, but the long journey across the ocean proved to be a bit problematic.  Good news was that our 6 week old A380 was huge and awesome, and a very smooth and comfortable ride.  It held 450 passengers and we all had our own TV with over 500 movies/TV shows to choose from.  (and free alcohol)  About 1.5 hours past Hawaii the captain told us we had to turn around and backtrack due to a medical emergency on board.  The young female was quickly taken off the plane (rumor has it there was an ovarian cyst issue) but because Hawaii had never had an A380 visit their airport before, refueling was a new and difficult experience.  The 45 minute stop turned into 2-3 hours.  This long delay resulted in the pilots exceeding their flight time maximum allowance, and they were not allowed to take us all the way to Melbourne.  Although they appealed to the aviation gods, they were denied and were forced to take us only to Sydney.  Total flight time from LA to Sydney: 19 hours.  Once in Sydney there was additional confusion but maybe 3 hours later we all finally boarded another airplane which took us the additional 1 hour to Melbourne.  We were exhausted but happy to be at our final destination.  So far our Australian hosts have been overly generous and kind, and we were taken to a delicious dinner and put up in amazing apartments for the night.  We all feel much better after a good night’s sleep and are ready for the month ahead!!