"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and fear." -Orson Welles
We left JFK on Monday around 5 pm and landed in Jo'burg on Tuesday around 5 pm. Altogether, the flight was about 17 hours. The flight itself wasn’t too horrible - no major delays or turbulence. I didn’t get much sleep during the first leg to Dakar thanks to a very loud couple from Utah sitting behind me. They kept sitting and standing, adjusting their luggage in the overhead bins, knocking the back of my seat; in other words, they did not do much to negate the stereotype of American tourists. Thankfully, they must have taken some sleeping pills during the second leg because they were passed out – and by the transitive property, so was I.
In between my naps and the in-flight movies, I managed to get a little reading done – including an interesting article in The New Yorker about Machiavelli whose work we discussed in class right before my departure (See? History IS relevant! ;-) ). I also had a nice chat with some of the people in our group, including our leader Dr. Paul Houston, who is the former head of the American Association of School Administrators. It's an interesting mix of people, and I am definitely the youngest one by a good 20 or 30 years.
After our arrival, our activities included exchanging money and getting dinner at the hotel. The Euro continues to put the U.S. Dollar to shame ($1 = 8 Rand; 1 Euro = 14 Rand), and the British pound is even stronger (1 pound = 18 Rand). Tomorrow promises to be a little more exciting with a trip to Pretoria to visit the Dept. of Education and a tour of Soweto.
*The photo is our hotel pool. Not too shabby.
1 comment:
Sounds like an eventful flight! I am glad that you made it safely. Any good movies on on the plane?
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