I MADE IT!

October 20, 2010

Yesterday and into today I have received some amazing gifts for my travels! Friends have been so generous making me travel survival kits filled with magazines, treats, hand sanitizer, coffee, journals, books to borrow, an amazing camera, and so much more! I am so thankful and fortunate to have received so much! THANK YOU!

I left Detroit Metro this afternoon and was sent off by my mom, grandma and Patrick.  I couldn’t fight the tears, but someone made me cry first….

I managed to stuff what I hope will serve me well the next two months in SA.  I have two suitcases.  One weighs 34 lbs and the other 55 lbs.  (What kind of math story problems can you make out of this? Any ideas Mrs. Bassett’s class?)

Luckily, I was not charged for having a bag over 50 lbs since the smaller one weighed so much less.  I also have a purse and big Vera carry-on thanks to the Bowman Family! :) That bag must weigh 50 lbs by itself! Needless to say, my arms will be sore by my arrival. 

No pictures to include of traveling in the Detroit airport or the endless conversations April, Nichole, and I had.  We are just TOO excited, and right now these flights seem like cake for what’s ahead! We can’t wait to just get there.  None of us are sitting next to one another on the plane to Atlanta but Nichole is in my row.  I am concerned that we won’t make our connecting flight to SA since we left 30 minutes after our departure time. YIKES!

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October 20, 2010

We made it to ATL and right during boarding for Johannesburg (JHB)! The flight was long but provided many movies/TV shows for viewing. There was literally something for everyone to watch.  The ride was very long and I slept a lot. They served three meals on the plane that actually weren’t too bad! I had one cup of complimentary grape juice YUM! They also had a map of the plane flying over and the route we were taking…I think we traveled some 9,000 miles from ATL to Johannesburg!

Plane View on my Flight from ATL to JHB   

                                                  Window view over some part of Africa

October 21, 2010

Once we arrived in JHB we had to go through immigration, get our luggage and re-check our luggage for the next flight. Since Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth (PE) is a domestic flight I had to pay for overweight and too much baggage. Go figure. 

This picture is for Patrick! Crazy big plane! 

We boarded our final plane to Port Elizabeth (PE) and left around 7:40 PM.  I arrived around 9:20 PM and all my luggage made it! YAY! , I was happy it all just got there! April and Nichole took a shuttle to Grahamstown which is a little over an hour of a drive from PE.  They arrived safely there too! Jeanine, who I am living with, picked me up last night, drove me home along the sea shore and I settled in the flat on the back of their property.

                                           South African Airways (SAA) Proudly Serves

                                                               Coca-Cola for Jason! 

Once I got here, I was welcomed by three COST students Brooke, Megan and Mike.  Mike carried my suitcase to my flat, of those people I mentioned above none of them live in my flat.  Eight total COST student’s are staying at the Botha’s.  They have two four-bedroom flats complete with one bathroom, kitchen and lounge.  Anna, Lindsey and I share a flat with a boy from South Africa.  Anna and Lindsey are all GVSU students with a psych/special ed. major. I don’t know much about the boy that lives with us because he left early this morning to visit home. He also has a car here.

My Desk

                                                   My bed

Wardrobe

                                                My bedroom
    

There is a draught here right now so we have to take really fast showers and try not to waste water.  We are supposed to keep our showers to 3 minutes.  We are also not to drink the water because it isn’t really treated the way we do in the States and is recycled from sewage and not necessarily to our US standards. EWW!

Note in the Bathroom

                                                                         Bathroom

We also have a small washing machine for our clothes but no dryer to cut down on electricity.  All our clothes will be hung out to dry on a clothesline by our flat! The washer is the white machine on the bottom left of the kitchen picture.

Kitchen

                                                                              Lounge 

Jeanine will drive us to and from school everyday.  We are going to leave around 6:50 am and I believe we get around 1 PM for a school day! Not bad! We start Monday the 25^th.

October 22, 2010

Today we went to the Pick and Pay, which is the local grocery store.  Anna, Lindsey and I bought some items together but were rushed to leave so Jeanine could send the nanny home.  Jeanine has twins, one boy and one girl.  We were also able to purchase some adaptors so we can plug all our stuff in!

The Internet doesn’t work very well but I am more than happy to try and Skype.  This BLOG has not been very user friendly in that I cannot receive comments from you!! If you have any questions or want to share something

 email me at: kellygodmar@gmail.com or

 Skype at: kellygodmar

Well it’s Friday and the weekend so we are going to try and fit in some adventures of our own this weekend! We shall see!

Thanks for following, I will post more soon!

Love,

Ms. G