28 hours...and I'm finally here!

January 6, 2008
My journey to Cape Town:

Flight #1: Sea-Tac to Dulles (DC)

So I took off Friday morning at 745 AM from Sea-Tac for a flight to DC. The good news: the flight wasnt full so I got a whole row to myself. The Bad news: it was so turbulent the entire time that they literally never turned of the fasten seat belt sign. Did I mention I get motion sick?! Good think I was exhaused and took lorazapam, so I managed to sleep through most of it.

Flight #2: Dulles to Johannesburg

Layover in DC was uneventful- I took another lorazapam and then read a few chapters in my book. Upon boarding, I realized that I forgot how big planes can be. I was in row 63, and there was definitely at least 30 or 40 more rows behind me. Unfortunitely, the plan was full- and not just full FULL OF CHILDREN. The next 17 hours were spent alternately watching movies, wanting to throw babies overboard, and sleeping while I could. I did manage to watch 5 movies on the plane: Ratatouille, Transformers, No Reservations, The Ex, and something else that for the life of me I cant remember the name of. I took my contacts out on the plane (yay me!) but somehow during the course of the flight woke up with pink eye. (Exciting picture to come: I promise!) The man I was sitting next to was quite kind, and helped me manouver my luggage after we got of the plane and did customs. Just listening to most of the white people waiting for their luggage in Johannesburg was a little disgusting though. Few random quotes: "Make sure to open your stuff up here, you know how these people are with their sticky fingers" "Honey, pick up one of those forms for stolen items, just in case we notice our things are missing when we get home" etc. etc. The opposite of the plane happened to- all the big Afrikaaner guys pushed me out of the way and then wouldn't help me lift up my bags. I kinda forgot how sexist the South African culture was too....its all coming back to me.

Flight #3: Joberg to Cape Town

So, by the time I'm out of customs in Joberg, I'm about 25 hours into my journey here. And just because the world loves me so much, in Joberg after customs if you are continuing on you have to physically walk all your luggage over to the terminal and wait in line, and re-check it, and get new boarding cards, go through security again. So I pushed my heavy little cart about a mile (ok, maybe it was more like 1/2 a mile...but it was long!) to the domestic terminal and went through all of that again. Then, I just headed straight for my gate and waited for the Cape Town flight. For those of you wondering what someone looks like 26 hours into their journey with pink eye, here ya go:

gorgeous, huh?! Anyway, got on my flight to Cape Town and met a wonderful couple from here whom I chatted with most of the flight. Arrived in CPT, picked up luggage, and low and behold there's no one to pick me up from the airport. I waited about 15 mins (Moss is known for running late) before I lost my patience and just grabbed a cab. Good thing I know where I'm goin around here!

So I settled in last night. Rebecca got us our awesome room:

with our aweseme private bathroom:

...and I devoured my first piece of lemon meringue pie already:

Now its off to start my day! I think i'm going to wander around the neighborhood and see whats changed, and then I think Rebecca and I are going to go shopping, and pick up a few things we forgot. Its a rainy day today (so rare for Cape Town this time if year!!!) so it'll be a good one to stay in doors and rest up. Classes start tomorrow at 8am!