July 30: Home

I got out of Dulles airport a little after 5 on Friday afternoon after spending about 35 hours in transit. The jet lag from gaining six hours has been horrible and I’ve only been sleeping until between 3 and 5 every morning, leading to very little productivity and a lot of sitting around being exhausted.

On Thursday, Univen provided a driver to take me and my roommate plus a UVA professor who had been working with another team the five hours to Johannesburg. He entertained us the entire way with interesting information about the landmarks and stories of how he used to drive armoured vehicles in Joburg and was hijacked multiple times by men with guns. According to him, the police would wait at least an hour before venturing to the scene of the shootout and robbery to avoid encountering the criminals.

It was surprisingly easy to get through the security at O.R. Tambo for our 8:15 p.m. flight (though not so easy getting through the awesome stores without spending money) and we got into London an hour earlier than our 6:55 a.m. arrival time. The flight from Dulles to London came in late, presumably because of some storms Dulles had, so our flight was pushed back from 12:15 to 1:30 and we had plenty of time to waste in our terminal. There was no Starbucks within my security area, unfortunately, but there was another coffee shop that offered white mochas and it was the best cup of a coffee beverage I’ve ever had. It's wonderful that I can use a credit card in another country so I didn't have to worry about exchanging dollars or rand for pounds just to get a cup of coffee. We were there the morning the Olympics started, so there were a lot of Olympics staff members and stores selling very expensive memorabilia that I considered getting just because it’s British. I think if the airport really wanted to take advantage of their Britishness, they’d set up a Harry Potter store next to the one selling Will and Kate wedding photos and little bears wearing guard uniforms. The flight back to Dulles and getting through customs were uneventful and all of my peri-peri sauce made it back unbroken.

I take the MCAT on Saturday and then pack to go back to school, so my summer adventures are over, though I'll continue to work on my manuscript for a few months. Thanks to everyone who kept up with my travels and for the comments and support – it helped me feel connected while I was so far away.

I’ll probably post some pictures and videos on here again once I sort through them all.