D-Day

I woke up feeling a bit sad, a bit stressed and a bit excited. My suitcase is packed (oops, 2 kg overweight) and my friend Izzie brought me cinnamon-cupcakes for on the road to the airport. My elder sister Melissa met us at the airport and managed to pull us all from out melancholic moods. My parents, me, my sister and my little brother all squished ourselves into one of those passport booths to make a photograph. I don’t think any one of us has more than quarter of our faces on that picture, but I love it just the same.

My sister gave me an adorable ring with the face of a little fox before I had to go through security. My dad pulled us all into a hug and prayed for my safe journey. His voice wobbled a bit, which was pretty hard to hear without tearing up myself.

The security check went without a hitch and with one last big wave at my family, I was on my own. We’d cut it pretty close with the boarding time so I hurried to my terminal. My first flight was to Frankfurt with only an hour to wait before getting on my second flight, directly to Johannesburg. During the 10-hour flight I managed to watch two movies (“The Imitation Game” and “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”) and tried to sleep uncomfortably the rest of the time. The plane touched down in South Africa just before ten in the morning.

Took a picture with my phone :)