The First Blog!

How to start telling about this experience...from the beginning I suppose. The last three/four days have been so busy that I haven't taken the time to sit down and write about it. Not having a decent internet signal at our house hasn't helped too much either. Regardless, I will do my best to summarize the events of the past couple days and let everyone know what I am up to.

May 25th and 26th: Travel and Arrival
There's not too much to tell about the traveling, as I slept for the majority of the plane rides. We met at Minneapolis airport around 7:00, following a long night of celebration and farewells. I didn't get too much sleep, expecting some good naps on the plane, and I was not disappointed. I slept through the entire trip to New York, after which we layed over for a few hours. We then boarded our long flight on South African Airlines, which stopped in Dakar, Senegal for refueling after 7 hours in the air and then proceeded to Johannesburg, South Africa, which included another 7 or 8 hours of travel. In Johannesburg, we switched to a smaller plane and traveled to our final destination in Cape Town.

Pictures of the various airplanes at JFK airport
the closest wing/logo is for South Africa Airlines

The journey went a lot quicker than I expected, which was probably due to the huge amount of time I spent sleeping throughout the traveling. I would say that the longest stretch of time was the layover in New York, during which time we spent money on overpriced food and meandered around aimlessly among duty free and book stores. After boarding the South Africa Airlines plane in New York, I promptly fell asleep and awoke primarily for meals and drinks when they we served, consumed them, and returned to my moderately uncomfortable, back twisting sleep. I'd like to note the quality of the SA Airline food, which was both tasty and filling. It was a huge relief to arrive in Johannesburg and get up and walk around. My feet were definitely swelled, and my shoes fit a lot tighter than before leaving New York.

In Johannesburg, we had our first experience being ripped off by locals, as porters quickly realized our American naivety, scooped up our luggage, and herded us to the domestic flights gate. Granted that they certainly sped up our travel to the departure gate, which included multiple hallways and escalators in order to be reached, we tipped them way too much money, which I found out later from a couple native to Cape Town that I had met in New York. Regardless, things went smoothly, and we arrived at the terminal for our plane early. The flight to Cape Town went quickly compared with the mammoth traveling we had already accomplished, and it was exciting to finally arrive at our final destination. Aaron picked us up from the airport along with our Interstudy program coordinators, and we were bussed to our houses in Mowbray, which is a suburb of Cape Town near the university we will/have been taking classes at. It was too dark to see too much of the city during the drive, but the house I am staying in is incredible. The kitchen is beautiful, and the bathroom has a massive shower. I am thoroughly satisfied with the living arrangements and am excited to enjoy the excellent provisions over the next couple weeks.