This has probably been the longest day ever so far, and it's currently noon while I am writing this. Started out the morning at 6 AM in the Dirty Jers with a terrible cup of hotel coffee and proceeded to catch my 9 AM flight no problem. No problem means 20 minutes max through security even with my over packed book bag...although I did notice that basically everyone else trying to get through was setting off the metal detector and getting searched. So it would seem that luck was pulling me through (my seat turned out to be a window seat with no one sitting next to me) but of course that's too good to be true. Plane was delayed 15 minutes to de-ice it…ok. Meanwhile little Indian boy behind me decided that he wasn’t liking sitting and then proceeded to shriek at ear shattering levels for the first hour. Wonderful. And to top it off, the in-flight little entertainment rig was busted…for my seat only. Yeah that was the first flight, though I did learn that Iron Maiden makes for an interesting game of Pokemon as I was forced to bust out the old game boy hahaha.
So after the six and a half hour flight we arrived in London a half hour late, which meant that I had to quickly trek to my connecting flight. Unwittingly went through security again (for which I had to down 2 litres of water from the Nalg I filled after the Newark security) and made it on the plane 5 minutes before take off. The flight took about eight hours and forty-five minutes and went fairly smoothly (oh and for reference we landed around 7 AM London time which was 2 AM Eastern) . PS if you’ve never flown a long trip on a British airline, do it. The attendants saying “Cheers” “Luv” and “Cup of tea?” makes it worth it even if the food isn’t much to be praised. So now I’m in Nairobi hanging out at a hotel till tomorrow when the rest of my group arrives. Oh, one bit of advice if you are ever alone in Nairobi…don’t walk by an open market. For one, heads automatically turn in your direction for standing out, but anyone who has anything to sell will immediately become your best friend and WILL NOT leave your side and DO NOT like no for an answer.
SO taking a nice stroll along the road just looking at sites like the International Conference Center and their Parliament is not possible without 30 people coming up to you. I even had taxis randomly pulling over asking if I wanted a ride when there were people behind me flagging them down. Very interesting cultural aspect. So basically to the workers of Nairobi white man=money. Even if he is a broke college student like myself. So thirty minutes of being hassled to buy crap was enough to drive me back into the hotel, turn on the tv and watch Arsenal somehow pull off a victory with 10 men. Yup. Took some pictures and they'll be up on the book of faces eventually...I don't feel like dismantling my luggage to find the chord. More to come later.
Oh and one last note, the roads around here are nuts. They drive on the opposite side (like in London) but it's almost as if there are no traffic laws whatsoever. Traffic lights might as well be nonexistant as people just blow through red lights anyways. And to make matters worse pedestrians cross where ever and when ever they want...even across busy five lane highways. Yeah...I'd rack up so many points if I was driving over here. Probably not a good thing. Did I mention there are random herds of cattle that chill in the roads? Yup. Oh and I'm dead tired so I apologize for the lack of continuity and lack of proper grammar.
