I'm in South Africa!!!

I made it to Johannesburg in one piece. Now I just have to get to the airport tomorrow morning and get to Cape Town, and then I’ll be with people I know.

I got to Newark Airport and checked in and found that I was flying through Dakar. Where’s Dakar??? I found out that it is in Senegal. So, I flew to Atlanta, where I waited for four hours and saw…. A Qdoba!!! So now I know what one is. Obviously I took a picture. Just as I was sitting down on the plane in Atlanta, I got a call from Jess Howie, who just wanted to wish me a happy trip. That made me happy. I had cast on a new sock, so I started working on that and let me tell you, this new yarn I have knits up really fast. I had been pretty calm so far (about once every hour and a half, I would say to myself, “what am I doing going to South Africa alone?”), but when we started pulling away from the gate, I finally got excited. My heart started racing a little. Then we sat for another twenty minutes before take-off, so I went back to my knitting.

7 Hours later, we landed in Senegal, but weren’t allowed to get off the plane. We had to stay in our seats while they brought more food on, but they we got to stand up while they searched the entire plane (evidentially this is normal). I’m talking, under every cushion, in every pocket, etc. I spent some time listening to conversations around me. There were a dozen my age-ish Mormon guys, all in suits, on their way to do a two year stint of mission work in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. In front of me, there was a couple who are from a church in Port Elizabeth, and were in the States because there church wants to help out in New Orleans. Wow.
After about an hour, we left Dakar. When we landed it had been dark so it wasn’t very exciting, but when we took off, Dawn was just breaking and by the time we were in the air, I could see that coast. It dawned on me that I was at the edge of Africa. I slept for a lot of that flight (which was 8 hours), but I also knitted a lot. By the time we landed, I had finished turning the heel and so now I just have to knit the foot, and then the toe.

When we landed in South Africa I was excited but also anxious. I kept thinking about Jen telling me that she threw up as soon as her plane landed in Italy. I managed to get through the airport, and to the shuttle without being kidnapped. Just as JuJu said, lots of guys told me they were taxi drivers, and the guy that pushed my luggage cart asked for “reds.” I followed JuJu’s advice and went with the green Rands. It freaked me out when I got in the shuttle, because I forgot that the drivers sit on the right side here.

Anyway, I’m at the hotel, where they have literally 7 sport channels, at least 5 news channels, an E-like channel, a movie channel, and cartoon network. I’m going to go eat soon, and then go to sleep.

I’ll be in Cape Town tomorrow!!!