Friday, August 10, 2007

Chapter One

First things first – I totally ripped the title of my blog off of a fellow exchange participant. But I like it, and I feel it might make a good trend for all Kummel participants.

[Background : Kummel’s a work-abroad program through work, and a few lucky participants get to leave their comfort zones, their families, their pets, and their regular jobs and travel to a Worldgroup office in another country for a brief stint there.]

My location? Johannesburg, South Africa. And I’m here until just before Christmas.

So – last Friday morning I tearfully got on a plane and headed to New York for the first leg of the flight. I had two WAY overweight full-size bags, a stuffed carry-on, and a guitar that I’ve never learned to play. Yes – an odd choice, and damned hard to fit in the overhead bin, but I figured I could pass a lot of long lonely nights learning to play it.

Hung out in JFK airport for a couple of hours fighting the urge to meet my sister, and just stay in New York for 5 months, then managed to get onto the South African Airlines flight to Johannesburg. It’s a whopping 18 hours – so I prepared myself for a long one. Managed to take in a few movies: 300, Spiderman 3 (ok – well I fell asleep at the end) and Fracture. Also managed to eat everything they put in front of me. Why, I don’t know. Really, all I did was sit for 18 hours, so why I needed that much food is beyond me – but I guess it gives you something to do. Plus, anytime they offer you more wine, and more cheese, you’d be crazy to say no.

Upon landing, my first night was really just a series of panic attacks.
Couldn’t find the guy picking me up at airport. Panic number one.
Managed to find him eventually, and get to my apartment in one piece.
As soon as he’d left, panic number two started: what the hell was I thinking – I can’t be in Johannesburg on my own for five months. It’s dangerous here, I’m lonely, I’m tired, and damnit, I don’t have any red wine. This is the worst thing I’ve ever done.
Panic three – pretty much like panic two. Repeat for panic four, five, etc.
Then I remembered that my friend and boss had given me a few letters to read in precisely this situation. I will spare you the details, but they were thoughtful, made me cry, and ultimately, made me feel better.


Needless to say – I made it through the night – my first night in Johannesburg.

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