Arrival

Guess who made it to Swaziland?

Yes, I'll admit it looked bleak there for a while. And it only took, like, 40 hours or something like that. But I'm here, in one piece :)
So I don't wanna provide a play-by-play of the whole adventure, but here's the basics -

We departed from Tucson at around six flew to LAX in the dark. When we got to the airport I literally hopped off the plane. Check that off my bucket list (although I wasn't wearing a cardigan...)

We had a brief layover in LA but had to take a shuttle to get to another airline, so we had to go through security at LAX all over again. Yuck.

Left LA and flew to Munich, still at night. I slept through most of the flight, although I watched "Despicable Me" at the beginning (adorable). We arrived in Munich at about five in the afternoon, and it was dark out. Apparently there was about three hours of sunlight on the eleven-hour plane ride, but I slept through it.

From Munich we departed to Joburg for another eleven-hour flight, and about nine of those hours were AT NIGHT. And when we landed it was Wednesday.

So, to recap - Leave Tucson Monday night, fly through almost perpetual darkness, and land in Johannesburg Wednesday morning. I feel so.. cheated. And disoriented. And confused. And sluggish.

Once we landed in Joburg we rented a car and drove to Swaziland - this was, perhaps, the most terrifying leg of my journey. Because a) we had no idea where we were going (dad didn't print directions to the hotel) and b) driving is on the opposite side of the road. And we had to deal with all this while severely jetlagged. It was a trip riddled with "Left side, dad." But we fortunately made it to the hotel in Swaziland, which is where I'm writing this (internetz are slowwww)

OK, so bee tee dubs.. SD is gorgeous. Very hill-y, lots of green and trees and exotic-looking plants - think of all the best things about Pennsylvania, Tucson, and Ireland (or what I assume Ireland to look like) and you have Swaziland. At least, that's what we saw on the way in. Really pretty stuff.

So I guess that's kind of a play-by-play.. sorry about that.

Tomorrow we go to the school (just to check in - I don't move in till next week), get me a phone, and explore a little. I'll post some pictures in the coming days - sorry I don't have any this time around, but honestly, the pictures of me sitting in the Munich airport wearing an impressive frown are just no fun. When I get one of me riding an elephant then I'll show you :)

Love y'all,
Eli