After a 5 hour battle through the subway of NY I made it to my hotel (could not have done it without Stephen- also a wonderful chance for a last goodbye) and met up with the rest of the group for our first round of orientation. There was a big sigh of relief when I saw that my roommate had packed EXACTLY as much luggage as me, and we did some getting to know you activities which typically devolved into just chatting, but either way, mission accomplished. There are 13 of us flying from NY to Windhoek together and we're meeting our last fellow teacher there. It seems like a really good group, as is expected everyone is interesting and friendly. They range from the oldest members of our group who are a married couple with grandkids to the Business Major from CU who decided he doesn't like business and has been teaching abroad for 5 years to my roommate who was a social work major and graduated at the same time as me.
No one slept much last night since nerves kept everyone awake but it sounds like that didn't help any of us sleep on our 15 hour flight to South Africa. Fortunately there were good movies (I find it amusing that I watched G.I Joe while the heavily tattooed 18 year old boy next to me watched Miss Congeniality) and getting through security in NY was awesome because I helped translate for one of the TSA guys and got put in the express/ First Class lane.
We arrived in Johannesburg to be shuttled back and forth within customs (no one knew if we had to get our bags first or just go through a passport check) and ended up missing our flight to Windhoek so we're all camped out at the terminal waiting another 6 hours to take off again and trying not to fall asleep since it's 11 AM even though it feels like 3...
ANYWAY this is getting long. But the point is, I'm in Africa safe thus far, like the people and need sleep.
Bye for now,
Tina
