December 4, 2008 {Dulles - Johannesburg}

Flight from Dulles to Johannesburg, South Africa ...

We lost a day now. We've been in flight for 13 hours from Dulles. Two more hours to Johannesburg, South Africa!

We safely landed in Dulles. I called my parents and talked to them. It was so good to hear their voices. We found a restaurant in the airport to get some non-plane food. Will I care to remember the food? (I like to ask myself these questions when I journal about things like food I ate or who I sat by on the plane). Chicken and brie sandwich with green apples and fries. When our food arrived, we realized we had less then 10 minutes to board our next plane. We quickly packed up our meals in To Go containers and made our way to Get B22 (another thing I write about in my journals and wonder if I'll care later about which gate we boarded our plane).

When we got to our gate, we learned they had started boarding 45 minutes before. Oops. We were the last people to board the plane. Yep ... it was waiting for us. Good thing we made it! Once we found our seats, I called Jay to hear his voice one last time before arriving in Africa.

I took an Ambien during the flight and slept like a CHAMP! I even used the sleeping-mask (eye covers) that South African Airlines give each traveler. Might be my new thing!

The flight has been nice, but very, very long. The crew is nice as well. Looking forward to seeing what Durban is like. Saw a documentary on Durban during the flight -- seems nice. When I was done watching the documentary, a man on the plane told me that Durban is rugged and dangerous. We shall see. Looking forward to changing out of my clothes. Still have done nothing about my memory verse (one of my jobs at the camp we're going to lead). I keep telling myself, "I'll work on it during the NEXT flight." :)

Here is a video Natalie took of me. I'm explaining the COOLNESS of seeing our own plane take off on the screen in our headrest. We quickly have to sign-off when one of the flight attendants tells us we need to switch off our camera and turn out our lights.

Great. First we're late to board the plane, then we get in trouble ... all before take off.

Classic.