Traveling Around The World

Not Africa. Yet.

I used to think Africa was pretty much the farthest place away from home. As in most teenagers their senior year of high school: "Mom I am moving as far away as I can for college. Like, Africa!" ... But instead I made the great pilgrimage to Missouri for my higher education. As it turns out, Ile Saint-Paul is actually the farthest point on earth from my hometown. The Island is about 2.3 square miles and is apparently an important breeding site for sea birds. Fascinating. Click here to find the farthest place in the world from you. It is mostly likely somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean, but get creative and pick a body of land somewhere close.

The point is, I don't think I've ever been this far away from the grand old Midwest. And my what a journey it was to get here! I left Monday at 4:00 pm from Chicago on an 8 hour plane ride to Madrid. Although there is never enough leg room on planes, especially for a leggy thing like me, I had the window seat and I was able to lay back, relax and enjoy Reese Witherspoon's cinematic masterpiece  This Means War. Obviously I'm joking, even Chelsea Handler couldn't help that horrible movie, but I did get a few hours of much needed shut eye.

Signs are helpful, if you can read them.

 I landed in Madrid with an 8 hour layover and a metro map in hand, ready to explore the streets of a country I've never been to where I didn't speak a word of Spanish (Je parle Francais!). Okay, I mean I know "gracias" but I CANNOT roll my R's. Things were not looking good for me. Determined, I took my carry on bag, found the locker storage area, fed a locker money machine with Euros I took out at the ATM, realized the machine didn't take 20s, bought something in the gift shop, took my change and fed the machine a 5, received a token, gave the token to a lady who gave me a key and took my name and passport, had my bags x-rayed again, inserted the key into the locker, put the token in the backside of the locker once it opened(?) put my bags inside, turned the key to lock it and managed to not lose the key in 3 hours. It was a very complicated process to to hold my bag for a few hours.

And then there was the metro. I had looked at a map of the metro before arriving and generally knew what lines I needed to take to get to Puerta Del Sol and Plaza Mayor. The metro runs out of the airport on line 8, so I bought my tickets and rode that until I switched and got off at Mar De Cristal. I then took line 4 for a few stops, then got off at Goya, and rode line 2 to the Sol station. It was a little confusing at first, but I found that if you looked like you knew what you were doing and generally followed where most people were going, you'd end up in the right place (or close) - translation: I got very very lucky. You know how directionally challenged I am.

Fun times on the Metro.

I finally got to Sol stop and stepped out into the glorious Spanish sunshine! Since it was around 9:30 am there, not too much was going on but I got to see a lot of the sites I had read about, including that bear statute and the Royal Palace. It was a beautiful day and I took a lot of pictures. I grabbed a quick coca-cola light and a cute tank top and beaded necklace from a small, very cute boutique and basked in the sunlight for awhile until I made myself get back on the metro to the airport. I probably could have stayed longer, since getting though security and arriving at my gate took all of 30 minutes, but since MULTIPLE family members/friends scared me and told me I'd miss my flight I headed back early.

And then I started to crash (me not the plane). I had been up for about a day at this point, running around streets of foreign counties and slept maybe 3 hours on a cramped, international flight the night before. I slept almost the whole time on my next flight where I awoke to a rainy, dreary, cold looking London. It was perfect- everything I imagined and more. Although I need to get some fish and chips on my way back though in six weeks. Everything in the London airport was shiny, expensive looking and very Olympic-y. I loved it.

My Madrid boutique purchases.

Then I boarded my ELEVEN hour flight to Cape Town. It was long, but Britsh Airways has little tvs in the seat in front of you I was able to watch all my shows on demand! How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, 2 Broke Girls, The Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, Community - it was like I was still in America! But due to my constant tv watching, not much sleep occurred. Also kudos to British Airways for the dinner and personal bottle of mini-wine they served me. The pasta I had was delicious and I felt like I should've had to pay for it in a restaurant or something. The "omelet" they served me the next morning, not so much.

 AND then I finally landed in Cape Town! Probably why you're reading this blog in the first place (if you're still reading at this point). I got off the plane, went through customs no problem, was overjoyed to find my checked bag on the carousel I left in Chicago, and found my taxi driver the law school had set up to pick me up. Seriously how has nothing majorly gone wrong on this trip at all so far? Our Taxi driver Boogie Steve took me and another student to our hotel, where we're staying for one day until our apartments are ready to move into tomorrow. I tipped him way too much but I'm still trying to figure out this whole African money deal. It is 8 Rand for every 1 US dollar. So the ATMS that give out "100s" are actually about $12.50. You can see how this would be hard for me because you know homegirl can't do math. Ironically I was chosen to count out the bills from everyone's dinner tonight. Fun times.

The hotel was 150 Rand a night - less than $20 bucks but it is very cute and in a very nice area. Food here is also very reasonable for the quality you get. The mall area across from our hotel has a lot of high end fashion stores, a grocery, modern appliance stores and cafes and coffee shops. It is all very cute! I looked around at a few stores (and didn't buy anything MOM) except for an electoral adaptor since the outlets are different here. It's still weird when you're buying something and the total is 56 Rand - you have a slight panic attack thinking they're dollars, but really it's about 7 bucks. It's going to take awhile to get used to.

I found my law school friends later and we all went to dinner at a fancier, romantic candle-light italian place where I had an arugula salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado, big hunks of cheese with olive oil seasoned dressing - it was delicious. I also ordered the tortellini but didn't even eat half (hello leftovers!). The total for 9 people was 1200 - we took a picture of the receipt because it looked like so much! But between appetizers, salads, pastas, and drinks, $16 bucks a person isn't bad - we were probably there eating and talking for 2 hours. Afterwards a few of us got drinks at a restaurant/dance club called Cabana. I had a mojito and other than being mostly ice, it was delicious! Although most of us are Mizzou Law students, it was fun to meet students who go to other schools and other people in section 2 who I didn't know so well before this trip. We officially move into our permanent apartments tomorrow - I'll keep you updated with more pictures from my actual destination to come!