Day 1 and 2 - June 24th and 25th

Surprisingly, the fourteen-hour plane ride was not as bad as we had all expected. Really, tooling around the airports was more annoying for me. My day started out early, getting up and making sure everything was packed. We drove me down to O'Hare and I got there around eleven or so. Getting my ticket and through security was surprisingly quick, so I had plenty of time to sit around the airport before my 1:05 flight. That flight was nice and short and I slept through most of it.

The Atlanta airport was not as confusing as my mother had made it out to be. I found my next terminal pretty quick, meaning I had about four hours to kill before my 8:05 flight out. I spent some time on the free wireless and eating, but the real entertainment was trying to get some of my money changed into rand (South African currency). I tried the exchange counter nearest my terminal and after a half an hour wait was told “oh, no, the OTHER counter does rand”. So I walked across the terminal and waited another half an hour only to be told “no, the other person here does rand, and he's out to dinner.”

So at this point I got some food and sat around before returning an hour later and making my way through the line a third time, only to be told, “no, we sold out of rand”. Ugh.

After finally meeting up with everyone else in the terminal and getting my passport check and rescuing a little girl who got her knee stuck climbing between the seats (ever get your head stuck in a stair railing? It was kind of like that), we were finally ready to board the flight.

I just gotta say, I love big planes. Not only to they just feel roomier, but they tend to have nicer amenities. We didn't get sweet little beds like first class, but we all had individual TVs set into the seat in front of us, on which we could pick and watch anything that we wanted. I got in some How I Met Your Mother and a bit of Supernatural before they rebooted the system and I lost my audio. I used all my available IT skills to try and fix it (including going into some of the games, which froze the system and made it reboot), but nothing worked. Finally, I just went to sleep. I can't tell you how long I slept because I don't look at clocks while on planes (it helps with jet lag), but after a long and uncomfortable rest I tried my TV again and it worked! So I got to watch some Chuck, which is a pretty sweet show I've decided.

So finally, nearly fifteen hours after take off, we arrived in Johannesburg. The airport was somewhat of a let down, being that it was pretty similar to American airports and near everything was in English. We made our way through customs, got our luggage (everything accounted for!), changed our money at a better rate than they had in America (take THAT, Atlanta), and prepared to rent some cars.

Well, three hours and one stolen cell phone later, we were ready to leave the airport and finally be on our way to the inn. Luckily that was just a cheap cell phone we'd picked up for use in South Africa, and not one of our personal phones. Driving was definitely an adventure, but luckily it was late enough that there was very little traffic. I got to use my awesome navigating skills and my new map.

I do have to say, while we may have had headaches from the airport and car rental place, they were fixed by our lodging. We're staying in a sort of bed and breakfast (technically a “guest house”) with amazing rooms and a wonderful host couple, David and Gladys, and four adorable dachshunds. Really, this is one of the nicest places I've ever stayed in, and it was a welcome sight.

Thus ends our first six hours in South Africa... if they are any indication, we are in for an interesting trip!