one week in...

Hi from South Africa! Sorry I've been bad about updating my blog for the past little bit, but I thought it more appropriate to spend the past week just being with James and enjoying the little time we had together. And it was so amazing! Here are some highlights to start out (I don't have a ton of time... but I'll continue to update as I can get to internet cafes)

My flight from NZ to SA -

Absolutely insane.

First of all, the restrictions for how much baggage we were allowed were very poorly communicated. I was 9 kilos over (which, at $70 per kilo, would have cost me $600 something to pay the excess baggage fee), and had to leave quite a few things behind. With no time to spare, an airline employee walked us to the front of security and got us, sweating and shaking from fear of missing our flight, to our gate on time!

The next part of the adventure was getting to the Johannesburg airport. After the 14 hour flight, as we started to make our descent, the pilot told us that the weather was too bad to land and we had to just go back up and circle around for a while. He tried again about 20 minutes later, and as we got below the cloud cover, it was pouring rain and extremely windy. There was so much turbulence, and then all of a sudden our plane hit a big pocket of air and got really jolted. People were in midair, everyone screamed, and people started crying. Then, the same thing happened again, and the chorus of vomit started to ripple through the cabin. A little girl two rows behind me screamed, "Mommy, I don't want to die!!" At this point, I am in full brace position, heart beating out of my chest, praying with everything I have that I (and the girl 2 rows behind me) won't die on this plane and that we will land safely. About a minute later (the longest minute of my life), we landed and cheers of relief and joy erupted from the passengers. Quite an experience.

The adventure wasn't over yet! After we had waited in the South African Airlines line for 30 minutes, we found out at 6:15PM that our tickets had been mysteriously exchanged for a flight on British Airways at 6PM. We then ran through the terminal, got in the line for British Airways, and luckily, that flight had been delayed, so we could still make it. Once we got to the gate, there was an announcement that the flight was "indefinitely delayed", so I went to go get a bottle of water. As I was walking to the store to get my water, I noticed an incredibly handsome bearded man running through the airport in a white Miami vice-esque blazer and cowboy boots. Could it be? Yes, it was James, running to catch his flight. Dumbfounded, I yelled out to him. He saw me, screamed in disbelief, and, in full sprint, clotheslined me/picked me up and carried me about 10 steps with him, kissed me, and said he'd see me in Cape Town. Quite the dramatic reunion.

Our plane did finally leave, after changing gates and aircraft, and two hours later, we arrived in Cape Town where James was waiting for us. James and I had a proper reunion, got our rental car and navigated our way to the hotel, arriving at about 1AM, 4 hours after we had expected to check in. Better late than never.

Day 1:

We woke up at 10AM, so upset because we thought we had missed breakfast. As I thumbed through the hotel info booklet, I realized that breakfast didn't end until half-past, so I rushed James out the door so we could get some food. And did we EVER get some food. The buffet breakfast at the Protea was AMAZING! They had bacon, sausage, potato wedges, a chef to prepare your eggs, yogurt, cereal, all kinds of fruit, all kinds of breads/rolls/danishes... fresh fruit juices... it was amazing! James' favorite part was the "chef's special" that changed each day and thus was a fun surprise to look forward to every morning. I've put up some pictures of our hotels in my album, so please have a look!

After the feast, we did some walking down Long St. (the really touristy, famous street in Cape Town), walked through some markets, and down through the government gardens. There are some photos up of this in my albums so make sure you check them out! We even saw an albino squirrel. After a few hours of wandering, we made it back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with the Lamonts, a couple that go to All Saints with us, and their children. We ate at the restaurant in their hotel, which was really amazing and we had such a good time seeing some familiar faces and getting to know the Lamonts better. Crazy that we can travel halfway around the globe and still know someone. Small world!

album (in case you forgot): http://picasaweb.google.com/chelsea.alanna.nielsen/

More to come....

where has the time gone?

guys, I can't believe I am less than a week away from flying to Cape Town. It feels so surreal at this point. I haven't started packing (procrastination...much like my first round of packing if you will recall), I haven't bought any of the things I need... luckily James & I have his mom who was so kind to reserve a car & hotel for us, so I do have a place to stay when I get there... but that's about it!

it became VERY real last night at our "Love Feast" (what they call the celebration at the end of lecture phase) that we really are getting ready to move on to the next portion of the trip. I was on the dinner prep team, and somehow I got voted to be the person in charge of the cooking - a feast for 30 people - - 3 legs of lamb, 5 whole chickens, sweet potato casserole from scratch, roasted potatoes and onions, roasted pumpkin, salad with fresh veggies, apple crisp, strawberries. Not a small task. Not to mention our oven is sooo old and not effective... Insane! I cut myself twice, have 4 blisters on my hands (from peeling the sweet potatoes), and was SO exhausted by the time 630 rolled around (after 4 hours of cooking)! Everyone was asking me questions left and right and I had to manage everything. At the end, they all thanked me a thousand times and said I was so good, not snapping at anyone, not getting stressed, just keeping everything flowing. Which is good because on the inside I was getting nervous about the time and everything coming together. Let's just say its hard to cook for 30 when you have to wait for one dish to be cooked so you can use that pan for the next dish. All in all, it was REALLY fun, and I loved being in charge of something like that (I secretly like being the go-to person I think - - it was fun)

anyway, i don't have a whole lot of time to write - we're doing a lot of outreach prep this week and won't have time to come get on the internet... but hopefully once james & I get to Cape Town, we'll do some updating together !

love and miss everyone very much...

sulphur city

Just wanted to update you guys about last weekend!

We had such a great weekend - -

On Saturday, we went to Bethell Beach, a really pretty black sand beach about 40 minutes from the city. Afterward, we were invited to a cookout at the home of the pastor who has allowed us to have our classes in his church for the past 11 weeks. He and his wife barbecued for us and we had such a good time just h

anging out and relaxing. It was a great day!

On Sunday, nine of us rented a van and took a trip to Rotorua, a city about 3 hours away, known for crazy outdoor activities and natural hot springs. Hot springs = geothermal activity -= sulfur = the city smells like rotten eggs. You get used to it pretty quickly though.

A few people (not me) went Zorbing - this crazy thing where you get inside a huge plastic ball filled with a bit of water and get rolled down a hill. Later in the day, we went to a natural hot spring that was recommended to us. I was expecting to pay to get in, have a building to change in, etc. but to my surprise, we drove down a dirt road, got out and walked into the woods, and there it was! Basically just a stream

in the woods. Except that it was like a hot tub! There was a small waterfall and a little reservoir where we got in. It was so hot we could only stay in for about 20 minutes before we were all boiling.