A year ago I made one of the biggest decisions in my life, firstly, to give up being a part of what might have been the best Soccer World Cup in history (and on top of that in my home country) and secondly, to give up my job and everything I knew (including the R50 000 I had in the bank) all to embark on a 4 month trip to the USA and live a dream that I had had since I could first remember.
Up until then the only traveling I had done was around Southern Africa...so basically Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Lesotho (don't judge...it's still a country!). When I was 18 my sister bought me a ticket to London to spend 2 weeks with her over Christmas and New Years...unfortunately I apparently looked a bit dodgy or nervous so they drilled me with questions in immigration and basically denied me entry into the UK. Harsh, hey? Wouldn't anyone look nervous after they've just flown their FIRST INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT to a COUNTRY THEY'VE NEVER BEEN TO?????? Of course I looked nervous...Heathrow is the size of my damn home town!!!
Anyway, needless to say I had to wait another 9 years until I got to travel overseas again...and this time I was going to the one place I wanted to see...AMERICA *cue dramatic sound effect...like a gong...I like the sound of a gong* I can't really explain what I was feeling on the morning of my flight...I think my brain was so confused as to what I was feeling...excited, nervous, scared...that it just decided to not feel anything at all! It was the calmest day of my life and I found it quite amusing to watch everyone else panic as if they were the ones getting on that plane. I had a great send off and even when I was sitting in this gigantic plane taking off into the night sky...it still hadn't sunk in that the next morning I would be in New York City!
I’m not a fan of long distance flights. I know this was only the second one I had ever been on but still…I doubt it gets any better (unless you fly first class or something). The thing is…there’s always that person that moans about everything and just generally puts everyone in a mood…and then there’s the fact that no matter how empty the plane is…you WILL get the two kids who sit behind you and kick your chair throughout the whole damn flight…and lets not forget that there is NO COMFORTABLE position to sleep in on a plane…EVER!! You spend 19 hours breathing the same circulating oxygen as everyone else and eventually feel like you’ve just come back from a Tri-varsity weekend or something of the same I’m-so-exhausted-and-feel-like-crap-and-smell-even-worse-and-need-a-serious-shower-and-oh-my-word-is-that-fur-growing-on-my-teeth feeling. To top it off your last meal is breakfast and you could swear your sausage almost got up and walked off the plate at the sight of the scrambled egg swimming in…I actually don’t know what…but why can’t they just give you a bowl of Milo cereal or something??
Anyway…the point is…that a long distance flight means that you’re heading to a far away destination…so by the time you look out the window, and in my case, have a view of one of the most magnificent skylines in the world…the flight seems worth it…and the fact that you smell like someone else’s feet and can’t move your neck to the left and haven’t breathed fresh air for 2 days doesn’t matter…you know why? Because you just landed in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!
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