Date: May 10-11
Location: Up in the Air
Today was the day...I would be getting on a plane to spend a month in Kenya to study public health. I left Connecticut around 4:30 on a PeterPan bus with my two suitcases in tow and my infamous pink bag. The group was mostly there when I arrived at 7. I had met many of these people prior to the trip through the information sessions that our professor had but I was still nervous. After checking my bags I hung around waiting for that person that always seemed to brighten my day not wanting to say goodbye but needing to see them before I departed. As usual the line for TSA was huge but I actually got through really fast. Boarding the British Airways, words could not describe the look of shock on my face; it was as if I had never traveled before. The plane had little cubicles for all the first and business class passengers. The second surprise was seeing that the plane had an upstairs...WOW!!! It reminded me of the movie flight plan. Each seat had their own TV. I slept the whole flight while attempting to watch movies.
We landed in Heathrow and had to take a shuttle bus and a mini train to where our connecting flight was. Unfortunately we had little over an hour to connect and the group had somehow split when connecting to the shuttle. We reached another security where we had to show our passports and they had to scan all our hand luggage again. By the time we got through we were informed that the gate for our flight would be closing. On our way to the gate we stopped to let the Airline know that some of us was still behind. We arrived at the gate at 110:16 for a 10:20 flight; it was really hectic! Some people were panicking about where the professor was since he was behind to later find out he flew first class because the lady at the desk bumped his ticket when she discovered he was from Northeastern as she had graduated from there. I was mostly awake on this flight since I slept all pf the other one. My stomach began to feel sick which I think was due to all the food they provided that my stomach was not use to and the timing I ate. We landed in Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 8:56 pm. It was surreal! I am in Kenya...on the continent of Africa. While walking through the airport we saw a mosque/prayer which I thought was cool. Both my bags were there, I grabbed them and waited. We were lead to a coaster where two guys started hoisting our bags on top of the bus and securing them.
Once we go to the hotel we selected roommates. I was odd man out but I ended up rooming with Carlo one of the assistants on the trip (who never actually stayed there). The hotel staff helped to lug our suitcases to our rooms. The hotel had a pool and a 24 hour restaurant. I was in room 310. The rooms were unlike anywhere I had stayed before; it was like an apartment. It had: a fully furnished kitchenette, a huge bathroom, a huge room with two beds and a closet, the living room had two couches with a television and a dining area. So far so good! Karibu Kenya!
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