To Los Angeles

So I spent most of today travelling/waiting, and finally arrived in L.A., I leave to Japan tomorrow, but I got hold of some internet in my hotel room, and thought I should expand on the day's events.
I woke up at 3:30 this morning, to catch my flight from san antonio at 6:00. this was my first time flying all by myself, so it was a little scary, but not too bad. I had a 3 hour layover in Salt Lake city, but when I arrived I didn't know which gate I was in, so I went to buy breakfast, and then sat down to eat it at a random gate. I was furiously texting my dad to find out at which gate I was supposed to be, and found out that it was at the other end of the airport... at least I had 3 hours to get there...
My flight from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles wasn't bad, but after I arrived, I had to wait in baggage claim for an hour and a half for my friend Shiori's flight to arrive, so we could take the shuttle to the hotel together. We then had to wait about 15 minutes for a shuttle, and when we got on the shuttle, the only other person there was another SYAer (Kodi). We were all happy to have found each other! When we arrived at the hotel, we met yet another SYAer (Brendan) in the lobby, who helped us with our luggage. I have two large suit cases, a carry-on suitcase, and a backpack, so my luggage was not easy to maneuver. After meeting my fellow SYAers, I promptly made a complete fool of myself. I was tripping over myself, and having trouble with my luggage. The handle of my large suitcase ended up breaking, and a panic attack ensued. Luckily, I have made very nice friends already, who helped me to sort the whole thing out. We went to find food, and after walking for about 15-30 minutes, we ended up at a burger king that was very close to our hotel... (we made a large circle). After eating we came back to the hotel, and they helped me to sort out my luggage situation. We actually had to completely remove the handle, and then buy a luggage strap from the hotel shop. I'm rooming with a girl that I had already met on facebook, which I am very happy about, she's really nice, and really cool, also, she's a SHINee fan :)
We had a meeting that started at 7:00, but we could arrive at 6:00. The three people I had been with since I arrived at the hotel and I went down to the room at about 6:30, but no one was there, so we sat in some couches on the way to the room in the Lobby. More and more SYAers came down, and sat with us at the couches, and we eventually decided that it was silly to not move into the room. After we got to the room, no one was sitting, and one of the people in my original group asked me to sit with her and another girl, so we sat down, and then no one wanted to sit away from the group. So even though there were only 3 chairs at each table, and it was a very large room, everyone ended up pulling up chairs around our table. Our resident director, Mika Fukutomi, and the SYA president Woody Halsey came and asked us to introduce ourselves, then they each gave speeches, followed by some Q&A. Shiori and I had come up with a list of questions earlier in the day when we were just sitting around, so she asked all of them. After that was done, Fukutomi sensei asked us to wait until tomorrow to find out our host families, which was met with a groan from everyone, so she agreed to give them to us tonight, but warned that a few had not been printed. Guess whose wasn't printed yet.... yeah, so now I'm sitting in my room waiting for her to come by with my host family info. I will update when I find out.
It was quite a hectic day, but probably nothing compared to tomorrow's 12 hour flight followed by a 6 hour bus ride... wooo.....

Update 1: So my roomie and I just decided to go down to the lobby and get some dinner because we realized we hadn't eaten since lunch, and were hungry. While we were down there, we saw fukutomi sensei on a computer working on some host family stuff. Also, we ran into Hyden, and he told us that we would have to get our own breakfast in the morning, thankfully I couldn't finish my dinner.

Update 2: Just thought I should add a little bit of how I'm feeling in here. so everything seems so unreal to me right now! For one thing, it's weird that all of these people that I have gotten to know online are now real people! and for another, it just doesn't seem like this is real! it's all so weird, and I don't feel scared or nervous at all, I feel like I'm dreaming. I feel like if I know something about my host family things will seem more real, but I don't know if that is really how it will work out... In any case, I really want tomorrow's flight to be over, and I would like to be in Japan already!

Advice: I already have some advice for anyone who wants to do SYA or some other study abroad program in the future. for one thing, make sure your luggage is sturdy, especially the handle, also, pack lightly, (or as I was told to phrase it "don't torture your luggage") it may seem impossible to pack lightly for 9 months, but I already know I over packed, that's why I can't wait for all of this travelling to be over!

Update 3: So it's morning now, and I found my host family info shoved under the door of my room. There isn't much, but this is it.
Host family Profile: A very active and supportive mother with two grown kids.
Name: Kimi- Age: 50's- Mother- work: bank and tennis club- Interests, Hobbies, other: Used to teach Kumon. Friend of our Japanese teacher Mizutani Sensei.
Son- 26
Daughter- 23