Johannesburg

We flew out of JFK airport on Monday, I got there a lot earlier than necessary, so early that I had to wait a few hours to check in, but it ended up being fine. My excessive luggage all checked, and I met up with Laura and Debra, and we flew out at 5ish. Unfortunately the plane tv's didn't work on the first half of the flight (before Dakar) but the dinner was good, and they served us wine and we got real silverware, as opposed to plasticware. I couldn't sleep much on the flight, but luckily after our stopover where they disinfect the plane and fix things, they repaired the tv's and we could watch movies for the remaining 8 hours of flight. When we landed in Johannesburg, it was about 5 the next day, and Debra's aunt picked us up and took us back to their house for a barbecue.

The neighhborhoods in Joburg are a lot different from the ones at home. To get to their house, you have to drive through two security gates, and all the houses are walled in and have electric fences and 8 foot walls around their yards because the crime is so great. Which is kind of scary. Theres also a lot of poverty which is apparant from the shacks on the sides of the roads and people wandering down the side of the highway. And of course, the signs are all in km and other metric forms of measurement.

The first night there, we met lots of Debra's family, who were all nice, and that was fun. We went shopping at a mall the next day, and a flea market, and I got lots of souveniers, stuff for the roommates and the family mostly so far. And I bought my dress for formal at a designer store at the mall for young South African clothing designer labels, for 380 rand (about 38 dollars) and its gorgeous, which is exciting. So thats pretty sweet. The next night we went out to dinner with her aunt and uncle and cousin and ate some delicious food.

We went out after to a bar called the Keg with Debra's cousin Douglas, and made lots of friends, and had our first South African adventures. The next day we woke up late, and went to the Lion and Rhino park, which was exciting. We got to pet a cheetah, and see rhino's and lots of zebras and ostriches. Afterward we went to her grandparents house for dinner and ate lamb and other foods I hadn't really tried before. The food is kind of getting to me, but we flew to Cape Town this afternoon, after a slight flight delay, and everyone else on IQP just arrived. Pictures to come when I download them onto my computer.