Hanging Out - Shopping!

Good morning!  Actually is it just 1:30 am back home.  Very weird, seven hour time difference!

Well, it never did get much beyond rainy yesterday, but we made ti work out just fine.  After breakfast (a full breakfast which is included with the cost of the hotel), I solved the problem of electricity to stay online, for which I am very thankful.  From there, we took a cab down to the Waterfront.

About the cab, it cost us 35 Rand to get there and 45 Rand to get back - either one didn't know the most shortest route or meters run differently.  I must get the name of the first company.  This one was called by the hotel staff whereas to return, we were at the mercy of whoever was sitting there waiting for an opportunity.  There were five of us for the ride and that is the total ride cost.  Just to give you an idea, it is about 7-8 rand American dollar so both ways, cost us just about a dollar each.  Pretty nice for door to door service, especially when it rains.

At the Waterfront, there is a very western-style mall (I wonder if you are from South Africa and travel to the US if you say that there is a very South African style mall?).  It was huge and had everything you might imagine.   The one thing that made me laugh was that there was a Woolworth's!  This was not your mother's Woolworth's (nor mine!).  This was like a JCPenney.  I was able to get a nice jacket to deal with the drizzly weather.  Weird to see the prices be 299.00.  That converts to about $25 dollars.  

I don't really notice too much difference between me and my classmates, despite the 20+ year difference except that they have SO much more energy.  I haven't walked a mall for 4 hours in I don't know how long.  I was worn out and they didn't even go back to their rooms before heading back out to an Internet Cafe (I access the net in the lobby of the hotel.  So glad I brought my laptop and don't always have to go outside in this weather.)  I skipped dinner as we didn't have lunch until late, while they had dinner downstairs and shared a bottle of wine.  Oh, to be young again . . . actually, no thanks.

On today's agenda, we have orientation at 10:00 and have a private city tour for the afternoon.  I am looking forward to that as, with the way these cabs go, I can't figure out the city at all.  I guess that is the way my mom feels when she says that every time we go someplace, I go a different way!  Sorry mom.

It is cold and rainy again this morning.  I am pretty easy with it all, but some of my classmates are very frustrated. Kind of interesting to watch.  If you think about it pray for the three classmates whose luggage didn't make it.  It is interesting to see how each of them handle it - one girl, Christine, just takes it all in stride and is kind of fun about it.  I so appreciate that example.

About that Plane Ride . . .

Traveling here went really well.  I left out of Tallahassee on time and made my connection in Atlanta without incident.  From there I went to JFK in NYC.  I was astonished that they didn't have wireless Internet throughout the airport.  Can you imagine that Tallahassee Regional is ahead of JFK International?  Who'd have thunk it!

So I am in JFK for what seems to be hours (because I got there at noon for a 3:35 flight).  Finally I found one person who was on the trip with FSU.  I found it odd that I am naturally so ignorant to what people do;  I kind of looked at everyone who appeared to be 20-something and wondered if they were with my group as I couldn't imagine why others would be going to South Africa!  Such a narrow view.

About 30 minutes before the flight we found each other; there were 12 of us on that flight.  It was fun to be able to start to get excited with others who had the same anticipation.  Then there was "the flight".  We flew from JFK to Dakar, Senegal.  We arrived at 4:00 am local time which was midnight our time.  Our departure time from there was to be 5:40, but they didn't let us off the place.  Instead, we watched as the security came in and made sure that every bag in the cabin belonged to one of us.  Then they searched the plane.  I mean they searched the plane.  I had no idea that all those seats were really just Velcro-ed together and could be pulled apart.  So hear we are, in the middle of the night, watching these people searching up and under and in all of our seats.  It was quite fascinating.  

My western arrogance clearly came into play as I wondered why they would do this.  After all, the security in the US was thorough and didn't allow anything dangerous on the plane.  Didn't they trust us?  It finally dawned on me that other countries don't trust us any more than we trust them.  Okay, I admit, I'm slow, but it was the middle of the night!

The next thing that was odd is that after they closed the doors, they announced that the government of South Africa required the the plane personnel provide two empty cans of bug spray.  Apparently the government of South Africa wants to be sure that flying insects don't hop the flight from Senegal to South Africa.  So, the flight attendants walked up and down the isles spraying this bug spray so that we had empty cans to present when we arrived in South Africa.

It was a little disconcerting when we were taking off from from Dakar, they announced that our time in the air would by eight hours and twelve minutes.  Did you hear that - over eight hours.  Keep in mind that it was that long to get to that point.  There was a collective moan at that point.  

Amazing, I slept probably 7 of the 8 hours.  I love Lunesta!  Sleeping so much makes an 8 hour flight quite manageable.  The sleep was also aided by the fact that I discovered that if I lifted the arm rest almost all the way up, that I could put my pillow on it and it really was pretty comfortable.  Only took me about 12 hours in the air that day to figure that out!  Again, I am not to quick to some things.

So we made it.  I am glad that I have three weeks here before I have to do that again.  I suspect that by that time, I'll be ready to get home which will make it tolerable.