Leaving on a jet plane…

Greetings all!  Here is a little update on my travels so far.  My wonderful Mom and Dad came to Madison, helped me with last minute preparations and took me to the airport to say goodbye.  My flight from Madison to Chicago went super smoothly and I arrived in Chicago in record time! J  If only normal travel to Chicago was that quick and traffic, toll and crazy driver free!  After a brief layover, some bottled water and a bagel sandwich later I was off to London!  Unfortunately shortly after takeoff we experienced some mechanical difficulties which forced us to turn around back to Chicago to get the plane serviced.  It set our flight back about 1 ½ hours but once we were back in the air I completely crashed.  I think all of the preparation leading up to this trip came full circle and I slept like a baby.  It has been almost 14 years since I’ve flown an international flight as long as that but I must say I am super happy about the upgrades…no dogs or chain smoking allowed in the cabin and you get to pick the movie you want to watch…no small TV’s for 30 people to watch from far away even though I slept and didn’t watch any!  J  They even got my vegetarian meal request.  Go American Airlines!  This definitely is an upgrade from a few years back when my scuba group got stranded in San Juan and they lost my brand new dive gear only to have it returned damaged,

As we approached London we were in a holding pattern until a gate became available which took another 30-45 minutes.   This was only slightly concerning because I had been emailing with other volunteers who also had layovers in London and we were planning on meeting up upon our arrivals.  Since none of us had working cell phones we were just planning on meeting at the restaurant Wagamama and knew our expected arrival times as well as descriptors of what we would be wearing or have on us.  Sadly I was not the woman with a flower in my hair…instead I used the line…”I’ll be the one with the camouflage Jansport backpack and Vera Bradley bag.” 

Upon finally arriving I truly got a better understanding of how large Heathrow International Airport really is.   It’s a very nice airport that is huge and spread out so much that you have to take shuttle buses to get to terminals and gates.  I walked crazy long hallways in Terminal 3 to get to a shuttle bus that transferred us to Terminal 5.  At this point I made the realization that the bus driver was driving on the wrong side of the street at the same time as a few other Americans standing next to me and we all began laughing.  It almost made me feel a little dizzy…perhaps because I was going through a tunnel in a bus on the opposite side of the road than I am used to.  Once I arrived at Terminal 5, I proceeded to security checkpoints (“padded down” would be a nice term by a very strict female security officer…they sure are thorough) and realized by this time that I was easily 3+ hours later than expected.  I went to the restaurant anyways…took a look around for a face I might have seen once in a picture and maybe someone in a track suit…(I know limited possibilities right?) and headed to the help desk.  Just as I was having her paged…Becky found me!  I was so excited that in Melissa fashion…I hugged her!  It was so nice finally see one of the people I am volunteering with and be able to get to know each other in the airport versus sitting alone for the remainder of the layover.  We were trying to meet up with another person who was out of another Terminal and realized that there would be no way she would be allowed to enter our Terminal and then began looking for  the 4^th person.  Just as we started paging Laurel we saw her walk by in her Cross Cultural Solutions t-shirt and we quickly flagged her over! J 

We spent some time getting to know each other and eventually went to eat at Wagamama Restaurant (Thanks for the suggestion Meaghan!) which was a super yummy noodle restaurant.  Becky is from South Carolina and is a physical therapist who specializes in neurological disorders and will be working with children affected by Cerebral Palsy.  Laurel is from California, researching grad school and will be volunteering with the elderly.  I know we are going to have a great time together and we all seem to want to take in as much as possible while we are in Cape Town.

There was also Salsa dancers and a band playing in a duty free shop advertising there Havana Club alcohol.  It was a great marketing campaign having the band playing music, dancers, a great display and big TV screens playing different images and they even grabbed travelers walking by and started to teach them how to salsa dance.  How fun!  It made me want to go dancing in Havana!!  Becky and I took also took a complimentary Mojito shot from them as we embark on this rewarding adventure! 

Becky and Laurel have already left for Cape Town and I am on the next flight.  This has been a long layover and I am beginning to feel like Tom Hanks in Terminal.  I promise not to eat ketchup packets!