Welcome to Johannesburg

Hello! After a few long days, we’re on WiFi and settled in to our orientation site in Johannesburg! Horray! Almost immediately I noticed how nice the people were. They’re always smiling and using manners. I hope it isn’t just because we were in tourist areas! The flight was a ridiculous 15 hours but the food was good and scenery was nice. We flew into a HUGE West African thunderstorm. It was surreal. The lightning even clung to the wing, I didn’t even think it did that! A highlight was the sunrise over Namibia.

Culturally, the place is just fun. Everyone speaks English…if you speak English. To each other, it can be any different language, whether you’ve heard of it or not. The whole place reminds me a lot of England, as if they moved it to Africa. Colo(u)r, lifts, driving on the left, it’s all fun to see. We Americans are here with 5 other AFS groups, from Italy, Belgium, Spain, Mexico, and Switzerland. So, now there’s even more languages I’m hearing around the hotel.

All the locals have been glued to the Oscar Pistorious trial, which was in the process of reaching a verdict almost immediately as we got here in Pretoria (only like a few miles away).

Anyway, another day awaits for orientation. Tomorrow I’m scheduled to fly to Cape Town and meet my host family at long last!

Andrew

Departure Day

Today’s the day! I leave for Johannesburg today at 11am from New York. It’s about 9 right now, and the excitement is building! The plane (and airport) is huuuge. And it’s my new home for about 15 hours.

This morning I had my last American breakfast, a bagel sandwich and a waffle. With coffee! I hope the coffee is quality in Cape Town. I mean, it should be. It’s more local to the region than it would be in the swamp that is Maryland.

Next post will be from Africa!
See you all then!

Andrew

New York

Greetings!

I woke up at 4:30 EST this morning to make my way to Baltimore-Washington Int’l (BWI) for my short flight to New York. Saying goodbye to my friends and family was harder than I’d expected but I’m happy for their support. I only began to get visibly emotional on the plane, when I saw Maryland fade off in the distance. I mean, that’s my home! And I’m not going to see it again for a year! The bay, Baltimore, O’s, Ravens, all of that. 😦 it really made me appreciate my hometown. But anyway, I’ve moved on in the hours since. I’m at my hotel in New York now awaiting the last orientation to start, and then tomorrow morning we set off for South Africa, at long last!

Andrew

The Days Are Numbered

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve updated– a few months, actually– but I’m still around and very much going abroad. In fact, I board my plane to New York (the site of the final US orientation) on Tuesday the 9th! Then, I leave Wednesday the 10th and arrive in Johannesburg on the 11th. Geez, I remember when it seemed like it’d take forever to get here. And now I have less than 4 days left in the country. I’m really gonna miss my friends and family, but I know what I signed up for. In the meantime, I just look forward to making the most of my time remaining here all while looking forward to living in Cape Town (a city I’ve wanted to go to for a few years now). 

 

Anyway, expect to hear more as the days/months go by.

-Andrew

Pre-Departure Orientation!

Today (June 24, 2014) begins the week-long orientation for the YES Abroad exchange scholarship. I get to go meet all of my friends from the IPSE interviews back in March so I’m excited for that! Not to mention the free food 😀

New Passport!

Today I had to hit up the post office to renew my passport. It was pretty exciting, since that book will run my life for 10 months starting this September! I haven’t gotten one since 2009, and it expired a month ago. I’m just glad I could update the picture.. >.> Long hair was a big mistake of mine. Still eagerly awaiting more details from AFS!

Hello!

Hey visitors! This is where I’ll be posting updates on my student exchange year in South Africa, (hopefully) along with my Facebook page here. For now, I’m not scheduled to leave until the week of September 8th, so for the next few months this might be a little dormant. Stay tuned!