We Made It To Africa (Finally)

So we started our journey at 5:30 Thursday morning when we met at the co-op to catch the bus to leave. We took the bus down to the city and rushed around JFK like stressed out lunatics. The plane to Johannesburg was around 14 and half hours long. As soon as we were in the air the flight attendants started feeding us food. Lunch was chicken mush with gravy, mashed potatoes, and hard green beans. Along with cake that tasted like it had honey applesauce as filler. I tried to sleep a little bit but it was difficult because I was sick from the airplane food and had to get up to go to the bathroom every twenty minutes. During the flight I watched two movies and played games on the TV screen. There was a cute baby in front of me who I played with for most of the flight as well, and that made the time go by quick.

Ok, so!!! Then we arrived at Johannesburg where we had to run to grab our luggage, re-check it in, go through customs and security again, then run back up to get on the next plane to get to Cape Town (all in an hour)! There were only a couple bumps in the road at the Johannesburg pit stop! My luggage was one of the last bags on the belt and took ten minutes after most of the group, so that was a little stressful. Also, the man at customs asked me why I wanted to go to South Africa to kill people (eeeek!!!!).  All of this was going on while I was feeling really sick! So I got on the airplane to Johannesburg and it was a two-hour flight. I was able to sleep for most of the ride. Once we arrived in Cape Town we grabbed our luggage and met Ben (our RA for the semester) and Reverend Rose. When we got outside it was freezing (the picture below is the view when we stepped out of the airport of Table Mountain)!!! At this point I still didn’t feel like I was in Africa, until the bus ride to our house.

On the way home we drove on the wrong (in my opinion) side of the road, definitely a little scary! On the ride we saw houses just like one would see in America on one side of the street and run down villages on the other side. We also saw kids playing on the highway and people selling avocados at robots (street lights). Once we got to the house we poked all around and then had some snacks while we chose our rooms. I was able to get a single room in the main house, it was once a double (so I really lucked out!!!!). The girls and I played pool for a little while and hung out around our beautiful house until dinnertime. After we unpacked we ate pizza (it had barbeque sauce instead of tomato sauce, not so good), garlic bread (cheese on a loaf of bread?) and salad, in the freezing cold. We then proceeded to go upstairs in our “living room” to have a meeting and eat milk (melk) tart (I am still unsure about this; its kind of like a runny snickerdoodle cheesecake). We ended the night with showers to try and warm up and writing our blogs/emails/journals etc. Tomorrow we are going to be able to explore the beautiful city of Cape Town and I am so excited! I am now off to bed dressed in slipper socks, flannel pajamas, with a long sleeve shirt underneath and four blankets (I definitely did not pack appropriately for this winter weather in Africa)!!!