The bird has flown
I am writing from my seat on Delta International Flight 34. Right now we're somewhere of coast of Africa, Southwest of Liberia, and entering the Gulf of Africa. It's something like 8 AM, and I was able to see the sun rise this morning from the airplane window while we were over Guinea. Our flight had to make a stop in Dakar, Senegal (the westernmost african city). It was pretty neat flying in to Dakar. It's this peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean, and is quite the change from the dark, lonely ocean at 6 am. Right now we're on the second 8-hour leg to Johannesburg, South Africa and after my second cup of weak airline coffee, I feel ready to take on the world. Or take another nap. I will say, however, that realizing I was flying over Africa, in a completely different part of the world this morning was kind of a humbling experience. Maybe even inspirational....deep.... I needed some moving background music and a montage.
There were no problems with my flights getting on the way here, although the rest of my group (one professor and two graduate students) couldn't quite say the same thing. They were supposed to only be 1 hr behind me from Tallahassee to Atlanta. When I realized that we we started boarding our flight to Dakar at 3:05 and I still had no signs of them, I began to get a little worried. Apparently, the plane was overloaded with too much luggage (which I blamed my friend Jun for with his 50lb bag), and so they were delayed in getting off the ground. So, they didn't land in Atlanta until 3:20, but were able to make it on the plane. Coincidentally, Jun and Jiyoung (the two grad students) had seats both directly next to me and in front of me.
For now, I think I may read some more of my book. Time difference in Durban is +7 hrs from EST (I'm one hour ahead of Berlin, Travis!). We arrive ~8 pm Durban local time. Yippee, 25 hrs of travel! More soon from the R/V Roger Revelle, on the other side of the world.
-Austin
Friday, February 1, 2008