Saying goodbye…and again…

A quick breakfast and I’m off to take my boyfriend to the airport. (Maybe he would like to tell you about how the loooong trip home went.)

He <3's SA!

 Then Tamara and I headed to Gateway to satisfy any last minute urges to spurge.  Then it was time to take my dear German friend to the airport…lots of laughs, reminiscing and ultimately sad goodbyes. Then I had to make the Durban – Margate trip once again…

Some more SA <3 (we designed these shirts together, I have one too!)

Oh boy… that trip home was brutal… first of all, leaving a place I wasn't quite ready to leave yet, saying goodbye to all my new friends, and facing a long brutal trip. Luckily I had a 9 hour stop in Johannesburg where our buddy Karabo was kind enough to come pick me up and deal with me for 9 hours (Thanks Bo!). After that short excursion I had the long 11 hour flight back to London, where I enjoyed another 8 hours layover, which led to another 8.5 hour flight, which led to another 3 hour layover in Chicago (which is super annoying because I live less than a two hour drive from Chicago), and then a 30 minute flight to good old freezing cold Milwaukee where I was greeted by my parents. To make the whole trip even more annoying my bags were searched again, where my girlfriend was sure to pack me with enough bra’s and underwear to make it sufficiently awkward again.

Another fun time was that on my way in I had to talk to the immigration people in South Africa who asked two questions and seemed to learn enough and let me in. On the way back however, in Chicago I had to go through American immigration officers, they didn’t seem as impressed with me. I spoke to a couple people around me in line, each coming from different places, they skated right through the line no problems, I get to the desk and the guy feels the need to ask me every question in the book. Apparently my own country didn’t even want me back… after a few irritated answers to a variety of stupid questions he backed off and let me in. Lesson learned though, immigration officers are unlike my girlfriend in the respect that they do NOT appreciate my sarcastic humor.

All of that said, this was the trip of a lifetime, I will remember the places, activities, and mainly the people forever. I hope that this was merely my first of many trips to this fantastic land, and as I told everyone, be careful how well you treat me, if you keep this up I will keep coming back, ask Robyn about that… she met me and was nice once and now she is stuck with me and can’t seem to shake me J On a very serious note I appreciate everything and hope I was able to give you as many smiles and laughs as you provided me. Words cannot express how amazing it was, and how amazing it feels to have experienced what I have, Thank you to everyone who was in anyway involved!