That Time I Went to South Africa for the First Time

There is something to be said about the first time you experience something. This is the theory behind why time seems to fly faster as you get older. When you are young almost everything is a new experience so time goes slowly. When you are older you are repeating things you have already done so they time goes by quicker since you have been there and done that.

I hope I never forget my first arrival in South Africa. I looked out the window the whole decent into the airport. I was surprised to see farmland relatively close to the airport. Had we flown in from a different direction I may have seen townships which are very densely populated.

I have to say, getting off the plane was a little anti-climactic. I am not sure what I was expecting. I am sure in my mind the few weeks of anticipation created unrealistic expectations. O.R. Tambo Airport is a fairly big airport and there is a lot of walking to get to passport control. I am sure I was more excited to be in South Africa than the guy stamping my passport was to have me. At that point I'd had my passport since 2007 and had never used it. Little did I know at that point how many stamps I would end up getting.


After you stamp in you go to the baggage carousels. O.R. Tambo is one of the better airports in that they have free carts for your luggage. One mistake I made was using a money changer. These companies are right after you get your luggage. They charge huge fees and you are better off just getting money out of the ATM. My credit union uses the Visa System which charges 1% plus $3 for the ATM fee. the money changer was more than that with his fees.

After getting your luggage you walk what at the time I thought was a far distance (this gets back to what I discussed earlier, on my return I would wonder why I thought it was such a far distance, the reason is that I had never walked it before). At O.R. Tambo there is this big circular area where drivers meet incoming travelers. France was there with a piece of paper with my name on it. He was an awesome guy to be the first to interact with, super friendly and nice. We went to the parking lot and I discovered the first difference about South Africa: almost every place you go in the populated areas you have to pay for parking. Luckily I had some crisp bills because the ones France had did not work in the machine. Finally we got to his car and we were off to Sandton City which has a mall and the Southern Sun Hotel where I would be staying. It was late when I got in, and I was hungry. The hotel had a small pub that I had some sort of sandwich at. Then I went up and went to bed. 

Friday morning I slept as late as I could.

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