Greetings from Cape Town!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I made it safe and sound. After a delay out of SFO and little mix up at LAX, I got to my connecting gate in the midst of boarding. I had just finished up some of my last phone goodbyes which left me a little subdued. On the jetway, I noticed a woman struggling with her heavy bag so I offered to carry it to her seat (also a way to distract myself that I was turning off my phone for the last time in a long time). She didn't speak English and upon arrival to row 45, she instead said thank you with a kiss on my cheek. It turned out that the kiss wasn't my only reward; across the aisle from my assigned seat, there was a man with 5 seats to himself. I slid over and we each were able to lie down (the benefits of being 5'4" is that I can lie down in only 2 seats and be comfortable). After reading only the first 7 pages of my book I realized I didn't stand a chance to staying up and succumbed. I almost felt guilty as I probably slept for 8 of the 11 hours flight. At Heathrow, I got into the British Airways club, and ate some good food, showered, and felt surprisingly refreshed.
While taxing to the runway, I also saw an old British Airways Concorde jet parked; only 16 Concordes were ever built for production and there one sat alongside a hangar! Sleep was not coming as easily on my third flight even after I tried some Tylenol PM paired with South African wine but I was able to get deep into my great rock climbing book (thank you Tim).
We approached Cape Town just as the sun was rising and I was welcomed with a beautiful view of the mountains and coast (first picture). After a quick shower at the hotel, I met up with my team and we walked a couple blocks to the client site, where I'm writing this now. It's Tuesday afternoon here (9 hours ahead of PST) and luckily the jet lag hasn't hit me yet at all. I'm sure it'll catch up with me but for now I can't stop smiling that I'm actually here. The second picture is of the view from my hotel room (which is the same view I have outside the window from our team's working room). Life is good!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I made it safe and sound. After a delay out of SFO and little mix up at LAX, I got to my connecting gate in the midst of boarding. I had just finished up some of my last phone goodbyes which left me a little subdued. On the jetway, I noticed a woman struggling with her heavy bag so I offered to carry it to her seat (also a way to distract myself that I was turning off my phone for the last time in a long time). She didn't speak English and upon arrival to row 45, she instead said thank you with a kiss on my cheek. It turned out that the kiss wasn't my only reward; across the aisle from my assigned seat, there was a man with 5 seats to himself. I slid over and we each were able to lie down (the benefits of being 5'4" is that I can lie down in only 2 seats and be comfortable). After reading only the first 7 pages of my book I realized I didn't stand a chance to staying up and succumbed. I almost felt guilty as I probably slept for 8 of the 11 hours flight. At Heathrow, I got into the British Airways club, and ate some good food, showered, and felt surprisingly refreshed.
While taxing to the runway, I also saw an old British Airways Concorde jet parked; only 16 Concordes were ever built for production and there one sat alongside a hangar! Sleep was not coming as easily on my third flight even after I tried some Tylenol PM paired with South African wine but I was able to get deep into my great rock climbing book (thank you Tim).
We approached Cape Town just as the sun was rising and I was welcomed with a beautiful view of the mountains and coast (first picture). After a quick shower at the hotel, I met up with my team and we walked a couple blocks to the client site, where I'm writing this now. It's Tuesday afternoon here (9 hours ahead of PST) and luckily the jet lag hasn't hit me yet at all. I'm sure it'll catch up with me but for now I can't stop smiling that I'm actually here. The second picture is of the view from my hotel room (which is the same view I have outside the window from our team's working room). Life is good!
