Day 71: London Calling

And we've made it to London, now safely ensconced in the American Airlines lounge, sipping on bloody marys and looking out on the gray morning skies.  The first leg of the trip home -- 10hrs from Johannesburg to Heathrow -- got off to something of a hectic start (lost reservations, confusion about charges, etc) that took about two hours to unravel but the rest of the trip went smoothly.



The original plan had of course been to post something nice and thoughtful on Day 70, matching the title of this blog with a thoughtful -- nay, inspiring -- reflection on our time and experiences.  Well, of course that didn't happen.  Day 70 was hectic.  We had spent the previous few days carefully balancing dinners with colleagues and hurried packing.

One great highlight was a trip to Carnivore with two of our more awesome coworkers.  The restaurant specializes in serving up meats in stunning amounts and varieties.  Like an African version of the Brazilian steak houses, waiters wander around with cutlasses full of meat; we feasted on beef, lamb, pork, crocodile, impala (Jess: "adorable mini-deer"), kudu (Jess: "majestic giant deer"), and chicken.  (Jess kept insisting that the cuter the animal, the better it tastes - it's possible she just enjoyed watching the young intern class cringe.  That said, my sister has asked that I keep Jess away from the family dog.)  Needless to say, the dinner was incredible.

By Friday morning at 6:30a we had completely filled the car with suitcases and thrift store donations, turned in our apartment keys, and headed off to the office to finish up our projects.  By 1, we had returned the car and unloaded the donations.  Left with nothing more than a pile of bags and our PowerPoint presentations, the fact we were utterly key-less and ending our African adventure began to sink home.  The office had a wonderful champagne toast to send us off and a small group escorted us to the train station.  It's sad to leave behind such a great group of people.

This blog has been a fun project!  It started off as a way to keep our friends and families updated and to centralize all of our stories and pictures in one place.  We've really enjoyed having the chance to share our 10 weeks in Africa with you, and can't sufficiently express our gratitude for your support, comments, and encouragement.  While there will likely be a few more posts (I'm anticipating at least one "guess what crawled into our bags while we were packing!" story), it seems fitting to start opening the chapter of our Los Angeles adventure now.