*Delayed blog from the Johannesburg airport*

Wow, what a crazy journey it has been! I am currently sitting in the Johannesburg airport, IN SOUTH AFRICA, but i can’t get onto the internet here, so I’ll post this entry as soon as I get internet access. I am almost there! It has been so crazy. I guess I’ll start at the top.

I left Winnipeg at 5, went to Calgary, and then flew from Calgary to Newark, New Jersey.  That all went very smoothly.  I then had a shuttle pick me up in Newark and take me to my hotel. That took about two hours, traffic was pretty bad, I had forgotten just how crazy New York driving is.  There are lanes on the road, but they aren’t really followed, you’ll often see 3 lines within 2 lanes, all kind of half in each lane.  I got to my hotel around 7:15, and it was already dark outside!  So that was disappointing, but I still decided to go out and walk around.  So I walked from my hotel at 77th St, to Times Square, which is around 42nd St.  It was good to stretch my legs after all the sitting.  The flash is something that I haven’t had the chance to fool around with on my new camera, so the pictures weren’t as good as I was hoping, but I think I got a few good ones! 

I was walking back to my hotel(the picture on the left), and figured I should probably get something to eat, since I’d only had a muffin since Calgary at 9 am! I made it back to my hotel room, and talked to my parents, it was nice to hear their voices, I didn’t realize how lonely it is to travel by yourself! I didn’t really sleep much that night, my hotel was right on the corner of Broadway, and the city was so loud! Around 1:30, it sounded like garbage trucks were picking up garbage! It quieted down around 4am, but I had to get up at 5:30, I got around 2 hours of sleep though.  I woke up at 5:30, as my shuttle was coming up at 6:30. I went to open my laptop to check my emails, and my laptop wouldn’t turn on. I tried unplugging it, plugging it back in, different outlets, pressing and holding the button, nothing. So I started freaking out, naturally - my laptop is only a month old too! Thankfully, I had my iPod Touch with me, so I went onto the internet with that, looked up Apple Support, tried some stuff, and managed to get it to turn on. Yay!! By that point, it was 6:15, and I thought, “I should double check what time my shuttle is coming.” Turns out it’s 6:20!!!!! OH no. So I’m quickly scrambling around, madly throwing stuff in a bag, and my phone rings. I pick it up thinking it’s the front desk saying my shuttle is here, but no, it’s my mom! Apparently the shuttle called my home phone, saying I wasn’t here and he didn’t want to wait for me. So I quickly raced into what is the world’s smallest elevator (seriously, I could hardly fit in it with my bags), got down there, and thankfully, he hadn’t left. When I got into the van, it said 6:19. Meaning he was early, so he couldn’t have left anyways! So that was a bit of a stressful morning, but it all worked out okay. I got to JFK airport at 7, and had a few hours before boarding, so I found a little corner with an outlet, and charged my laptop (except the plug wouldn’t stay in the outlet so I had to hold it in the whole time!) I got onto the plane, and wow, it’s huge! That was my longest flight, 13 hours from New York to Dubai.  I had never been on an international flight before, it’s so different/amazing!! When I got in my seat, there was a pillow, a blanket, headphones, and a little goodie bag (socks, eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste etc.) on it!  The meals were better than I was anticipating as well. I had pre-requested a vegetarian meal.  The first one was a pasta with cheese and asparagus, along with some salad, a bun, and some mousse with coconuts! The supper was a cheese wrap that was pretty gross, but then breakfast was good, scrambled eggs, a croissant, fresh fruit, and some yogurt. I also used the time to get caught up on my movies.  Legit that’s pretty much all I did. I slept for almost 2 hours, I had the window seat which I LOVE. I got to watch a beautiful sunrise this morning as we were flying over Kuwait.  And it was really cool to see Dubai as we were descending. So I love Dubai. That was the layover I was most concerned about, just because I wasn’t sure if there would be a language barrier, and it’s the most foreign for me.  But no, it was amazing! As I was getting off the plane, a nice man befriended me, he was from the US going to North Siloam to deliver school supplies. He helped me get through security, and then find my appropriate gate. So that was nice guy number one.  Then I had to go look for postcards for my collection, found 2 I wanted to get, but only had American money, so I went up to the till, and asked if I could pay with that. He asked if I had a $1 bill, and I said no, the $5 bill was the only one I had.  The guy in front of me was lingering around, and he asked me if I had enough money. I said, “I think so!” But he pulled out his wallet, took out $10 dirham bill (Dubai currency), and told me to take it. I said no it was okay, but he insisted, saying he wasn’t going to use it. I thanked him profusely, and then he even went so far as to ask the cashier if that would be enough. Seeing as my postcards came to $1.50 dirham (which I now know is about $0.40 US), the cashier said it was more than enough, so I got back $8.50 dirham! I looked around to give him back his change, but he was gone.  That was nice guy number two!! So then I had some leftover money to spend, as well as the US money I hadn’t used yet.  There was a huge junk food store, it was crazy. They had separate sections for Kit Kat, Toblerone, Mars etc. I thought it’d be cool to get something different, so I got a little peach can drink and some milk flavoured candies, but I haven’t had the chance to try them yet.  I wanted to keep the $5 dirham bill for a souvenir, so I was hoping that the three coins I had would be enough, but of course they have Arabic writing on them, so I have NO idea how much they’re worth. So I went up to the cashier and asked him if it was enough to get it, and he said it was (it came to $2.25 dirham, and each coin was worth 1 dirham) But he gave me back one full dirham, so that I would have enough money to get a drink or a chocolate bar if I wanted.  That was nice guy number three. :) Everyone was just so friendly! At this point, I was in love with Dubai, it was such a cool airport.  They even had a Ferrari kiosk in the airport! (I looked at stuff for Taylor, but it was all very expensive). Oh, speaking of Taylor, they had a toy store with a huge model car selection! Who would have thought? They had so many Lamborghinis and Ferraris, I was very tempted to get one for him.  And then I saw a really nice S2000 model... and I wanted to buy it, but I realized that it was fairly large, and probably wouldn’t be fun to carry around for the next number of months, so I held back. Anyways, I loved Dubai, so I decided I should use my leftover American money to buy something to keep from Dubai, because realistically, who knows if I’ll ever get back there again!  But I only had $5 US, and all the nice shirts and whatnot were a bit more than that, but I managed to find a nice basic hat (bright pink with a palm tree and the word Dubai on it) for 10 dirham, which turned out to be less than $3 US! Such a good deal. :) I’ve been wearing it ever since, which is good because my hair is looking pretty nasty by this point! I am so looking forward to sleeping in a bed tonight, and hopefully showering soon!!! I did have a hazy view of the world’s tallest building, it was in the distance, and was foggy, but I can see I’ve seen it! 

The flight from Dubai to Johannesburg was good, I was able to sleep for quite a bit, which was a blessing.  I was on a window seat from New York to Dubai, which is amazing, but from Dubai to Johannesburg (which was another 8 hours), I was in the middle of a section of 4, I felt very constricted! But thankfully it went pretty fast, as I slept for about 4 hours I think! And now I’m in Johannesburg. I’m pretty sure I was swindled, but not too much I can do about it... I knew ahead of time that on my flight from Johannesburg-Cape Town I was only allowed to check one bag for free, and that I’d have to pay 40 pounds to check an extra bag. I went in to check my bags and they said I had to go to a different line to pay my fines, so the guy came out of the till and said he would help me, so he led me to a different line, and they said I would have to pay R1800  and to go upstairs. So the guy took me and said that I could pay him, because it would only be  because me and the guy from the other till had a deal where they help each other out.  I think they take the money for themselves and don’t process it.  I didn’t really have time to challenge it though, and there was a bit of a language barrier, and it was two guys who work there, so I didn’t really know what to do. He was leading me upstairs and said that I should pay him in the middle of this moving floor because there are no cameras there.... I only ended up paying him R80, like I said, super sketch but I didn’t know what else to do so I just went along with it! 

Anyways, I got to go board my last flight, I will soon be in CAPE TOWN!!!!!!!