The Adventure Begins!

My morning started out with a last minute trip to AAA to get an International Drivers License. According to the internet they open at 8:00 am… when I arrived at 7:55 I was disappointed to find out they open at 8:30am. I had other errands to run so I figured I would just do them first. By 9:00 am I had gotten my International DL, gone to Wal-mart, and to Michael’s.

I spent the next 3 hours finishing up my packing, cleaning my room and getting ready. And it was off to the airport at noon!

I arrived in Washington without any issues. My friend Karin is spending a year in Lesotho so we planned our trips together so we could be together for the 17 hour flight from Washington to Johannesburg. I kept trying to call her because I thought she was supposed to arrive before me but it kept going straight to voicemail. Our flight was at 5:40pm, at 4:30 they started boarding… and I still hadn’t heard from Karin!

She finally called me at 4:40 to say that her flight from Chicago had been delayed an hour. I knew she was cutting it close but I think it took me about 30 minutes to get from my United flight to our gate, so I figured she would make it. She also told me that she got bumped from her seat on South Africa. We had called 2 times to make sure we had seats next to each other but she still got bumped.

I went to the counter to see if we could get seats next to each other (isle, window like we had reserved) and all they had was middle of the center… wah wah waahhh. I asked for us to be switched and then stared down the terminal waiting for her to emerge through the crowds… and finally she did!

We were literally the last 2 people to get on the plane. They “made” us gate check our rolling bags as they weighed to much to go in the over head bins. This was amazing… one less thing to worry about on the plane. Gate checking is the way to go!

Settled in for the 17 hour flight! 

Sure enough we were both in the middle of the center, but luckily each leg (the plane stops in Senegal) there was an empty seat on one side of us. I didn’t sleep much on the plane, I wanted to but our flight arrived in Johannesburg at 5:40pm and so I was hoping I would be exhausted when we landed.

Karin’s friend Justin picked us up from the airport. We met Nunu at our hostel around 7:30. It’s really nerve wrecking having to coordinate so many people without the use of cell phones… so praise God everything went off without a hitch. We watched movies till it was time for bed. Karin and I lay there like little girls giggling though out the night… We were both so tired but falling asleep was impossible. I think we both took a few naps, but it was the worst night of “sleep” ever!

Johannesburg was interesting. It wasn’t what I expected. I’m sure it was in part because of where we were. The hostel we stayed at has a driver they always use, her name is Cesar. She was telling us that the area we stayed in was like the melting pot of Johannesburg… Africans from all over move into this part of town. I guess I expected it to be more like America than it was. We went to the main street of this part of town to eat and so I could buy some shampoo and conditioner (as they were in my “lost” bag) and it’s back to school season. It was so funny to me that I was so far from home, but seeing such a familiar sight of mothers frantically running around a store with school list in hand scooping up backpacks and pencils. We did go to a mall and once we got inside it felt just like any suburb in the states… more stores than anyone could ever need, escalators, and a food court.

I’m not sure if it will ever work out for Karin and I to fly together but it was so nice to travel with a friend. I think my parents were less nervous this time around knowing that I was flying to Washington alone and then Karin would be by my side until she handed me off to Nunu who will take me the rest of the way to Pemba.