Good morning,
It is currently 6:00 am in Johannesburg. Oddly enough, it is the third day of my tour. It is a strange thing for me to be here, right now, writing this blog. I typically only write when I am on tour, but a few people asked me to try to put some thoughts together about this trip and I am going to try to accommodate.
The excitement for this trip began over a year ago. I was in the high school library chatting with Kate Payne, the librarian, and Angela Morando, one of our World Language teachers. Angela, as many of you know, is a veteran group leader for our international trips and she was telling Kate and I about this trip. Kate had been on safari before and was building the excitement level of the conversation. After just a little twist of my arm, I decided to enroll. It seems strange when I look back upon my year since then, but here I am...sitting in another hotel lobby. This time, however, it is the swank Protea Hotel Fire and Ice. (There is a photo shoot going on here, btw, 6am and everyone is dressed up and professional photographers are snapping shots).
This adventure didn't start here, though. It started in Boston, on Monday, at noon. Angela and I met up and were lucky enough to have day passes to the Delta Sky Club. We were treated to complimentary drinks and a small plate of food. Shortly after meeting up, I received a notification from another one of our travelers that she was at the gate and Angela and I decided to head there. Our flight to Atlanta was fine, not a lot of turbulence, and only about 2.5 hours long. We had a layover in Atlanta of about 2-3 hours, but the time, like us, flew.
The night before, Sunday night, was one filled with little sleep for me. I was too excited, I guess. I had a ton of thoughts jumping around in my head and I think I only got about three hours of sleep. I was worried that this might impact me on the fifteen hour flight that was ahead of us. In anticipation of that flight, I had visited my local doctor for some advice and a prescription, lol. On the flight, I opted for the fine chicken dinner. It was accompanied by couscous (I think). I watched a movie. I tried to sleep. It is amazing how medicine can help and, for the first time, on a flight, I slept. It wasn't the whole flight, but it was enough to get me by.
We landed in Johannesburg around 6pm. It was now the second day of our travels. We had a tough time getting through security as many of the customs people decided to take a break as our flight arrived, lol, but it wasn't too bad. Actually, Angela and I made it through quickly while the rest of our tour participants had to wait over 90 minutes to get through. We eventually met our tour director and got onto our bus.
The Protea Hotel is located at the Melrose Arch. I traveled 7,000 miles only to end up in Melrose, lol. Our dinner was served buffet style, but it was higher level foods. There were many different types of food available including a plethora of desserts. I will try to take some pictures tonight. After dinner, a couple of us decided to have a drink and get to know each other a bit.
It was really nice to unwind a little and get to know some of the people I will be sharing this experience with. There are teachers from across America here. The number of accents is astounding. I've already picked up some strategies that I can employ that will improve travel for kids later on, but more importantly, I am making friendships with people that I can bounce ideas off of for the foreseeable future. There is a tremendous value in that idea that I hadn't really thought about before.
And now, I find myself preparing for my first breakfast. Last night, I got only a few hours worth of sleep. My mind was once again racing. I thought about taking a pill to help me sleep, but I really don't like doing that type of stuff. Instead, I put on some ambient music and some headphones. The sleep didn't come, not because I'm nervous, but because I am excited. In a couple of hours, we tour the city of Johannesburg. We will see an Apartheid museum and we will see a neighborhood that will be drastically different than the posh hotel lobby I am currently sitting in. I may not have had enough sleep over the past few days, but that's okay. I will sleep when I get back.
For now, I am wide awake with enthusiasm. It is cool for me to be as excited about this trip as most of our kids our for their trips. I find myself in their shoes. As a group leader, I am constantly checking up on the kids, the itinerary, the weather, the meals, the tour director's instructions, etc...here, I am able to rest, relax, and take it all in. It is a nice change of pace.
I am not sure how frequent my posts will be, but I will certainly try to write daily.
Thanks for reading!!!
