It was only last Monday, January 7th, when I finished preparing for a 33+ hour journey and an entire year away from my Canadian homeland. Garett drove me to the airport that evening, and I managed to meet some members of my family (Brock, Kelsey, Mom and Nick) there as well. It hadn't quite sunk in, that I wasn't going to see everyone for so long. Not sure what to feel, I ended up feeling nothing. Mostly I just wanted to be on my way, since I had been preparing to go for about 3 months prior.
An excerpt from my journal reads, "It's hard saying goodbye to people I love when the reality of my travels haven't quite sunk in. I just hope I didn't come off as cold-hearted. Hugged my crying mother while trying to understand what the big fuss was about. I understood that it's a mother's love and I'll also probably cry when I realize I will have never gone this long without seeing her."
Haven't cried over my family, yet. I don't intend to, and the way things are going, I'm not sure I will. I'll miss them, but I'm completely happy where I am. This is all just a part of the lifestyle I've chosen. Besides, people live away from their family all the time - even if they're in the same country!
The boyfriend is a different story, but I'll just keep that to myself for now ;)
Moving along...
The flights/layovers were awesome. It helped that Karen and Miranda (my fellow researchers) were only 1 person away from me, in the same row, from Calgary to London. I didn't even know they would be on my flight! It was a pleasant surprise. Once we all got to the Heathrow Airport, we managed to meet up with Jon (another fellow researcher), who bought us drinks. I had slept so well on the flight that the layover was quite enjoyable. Jon, Karen, and Miranda continued onto Johannesburg via South African Airlines while I caught a British Airways flight on my own. I slept most of that 11-hr flight, which was nice.
Landing in Johannesburg was stressful and exciting for myself since the gates closed for my connecting flight to Port Elizabeth at 11:00am. I landed at about 9:40am, took until about 10:20 to get through passport control and then I had to pick up my baggage. Took me a while to figure out where to check my baggage in again, go through security and find my departure gate. I made it to the gate just as they started to board (about 10:40). I had plenty of time left to spare, but it was quite stressful considering I had no idea where to go and I hadn't had a proper night's sleep (bed and pillow) since Sunday night. By this time, it was Tuesday morning (local time).
The last flight was very short and easy. In fact, the airplane was practically empty. I arrived to the Port Elizabeth and was reunited with the others. From there, we were picked up by Derek (who had been living at our destination home for months and months already) and drove ~3 hours north to where we now live, on the Asante Sana Game reserve.
I think this post was really boring, but I felt inclined to document the journey anyways. There are some exciting stories to share already, but I'll save them for additional posts to prevent myself from losing your attention.
Until next time...
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