Day 1: June 24 - The journey begins

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Yesterday and today were spent traveling. Rather, they were spent waiting. There was a ton of waiting to be had... wait to check in, wait for security, wait for plane, wait for customs... yawn. Now, my traveling roommate Joanne and I are at the "day room" in London waiting to go back to the airport to catch our overnight flight to Johannesburg.

I didn't sleep on the 6+ hour (red-eye) flight from JFK last night, so I'm almost ready to pass out now. Two overnight plane rides in a row is pretty brutal - especially in economy class. Since we had about 10 hours to waste here, I've gone to the gym for a workout, and had lunch to try to stay awake. Hopefully this exhaustion will mean I'll be able to sleep on the 11-hour flight tonight. But I'm so excited about the trip that I can't imagine sleeping!

But all the waiting has given me a chance to think about the important things I need to pay attention to when I'm in Africa... for example, see if the water swirls in the opposite direction when flushing toilets.

Joanne seems very cool - a retired music teacher from Wisconsin. It's always a crap shoot with roommates, so I'm glad she's pretty laid back (and she claims she doesn't snore - bonus!) She told me that she packed her winter coat... uh oh. :-/ I think I'm going to freeze my tail off in the next few weeks on these early morning and late night safaris. I'm going to steal a blanket off the plane to keep with me. (I'll bring it back and leave it on the plane on the return flight... hopefully my teeth will stop chattering and I'll be able to feel my fingers again by then... but I'm not counting on being warm again until August...)
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