A Van, Two flights, A bus and an Elevator

Our journey started at 2:45 Thursday morning, we woke up, took a quick shower and headed out in my grandparents big sea green conversion van. We were at JFK by 6:30 and lined up behind a group of about 25 people wearing convention badges. Over the next half hour or so while we were waiting to check in more and more delegates began to show up. They were all pretty envious of the fact that we lived so close to the departure city, most of the others had flights overnight to catch the one this morning. 10:30 came and we got on the plane.
15 hours. 15 long hours. 4 filled with turbulence. Lots of people got sick. The flight attendants got sick. Most of us couldn’t sleep. My mom had a hard time. Even with the rocky weather it was one of the best flights I’ve ever been on. The food was really good (we got three meals) and the staff was super helpful. There were about 25 movies to watch and music and TV shows. For an amazing hour I listened to the new Dave Matthews CD while playing another passenger in Chess. Time well spent.
When we got off the plane in Johannesberg it was 8:00 there time, 1:00 at home. We sailed thru customs and met some brothers and sisters and checked in for our flight to Durban. Three hours and one subway sandwich later we were headed out again. I have to admit; I really didn’t want to get on the plane. Because of the bad weather on the first flight we were confined to our seats and couldn’t walk around. My legs were achy and swollen. It was quite a sad sight, and I’m now convinced I have a blood clot (I’ll keep you posted on its progress =)). The plane ride was really smooth though and we got here with no problems. All of our bags made it out quickly, local brothers met us again and we hopped on the bus. Everyone is really nice and easygoing. We have 33 people on our bus and our bus captain is a really jolly fellow from Texas.
The hotel is in the heart of the city, and it’s really nice. The travel company is here to help us and answer all of our questions and the staff is super helpful. Katie keeps saying everyone’s accent is “so beautiful”. We got to the hotel at 3:00 our time. So, we were traveling about 28 hours all together. We leave in the morning for our Safari. It’s going to be AMAZING!
One little funny nugget for you- when we got to the hotel we had to wait in line to check in. Then we had to wait in line for the elevator. When Katie and I finally got on the elevator we got off on the 1st floor instead of the 15th floor (don’t ask me why it’s still a mystery to us both). Then we had to wait for another elevator and finally caught one, but were trapped in the back by an older couple who we were behind in the check in line. When we got to our floor we were so trapped by the luggage that I narrowly escaped through the doors but Katie was caught away. I tried in vain to pry the elevator doors open with my pointer finger while she stuck her foot out to stop the doors from closing. The older couple was oblivious to the commotion while a couple from Kansas witnessed my panic. She survived.
Thanks everyone for checking in!