And we wait…..

We made it through security and are waiting for our flight.

Introducing you to AWE 2017 cohort (from the left) are Jessica, Ashley, Maddie, Megan, Nikki, David & Lenka. Rocky decided to join us for the duration of the course.

This is Maddie here,
today is the day! The day that I and six other DAL students begin our journey to South Africa with our instructors, Sarah and Janine. After a 4 hour drive from New Brunswick to the Halifax Airport, I hugged my family one last time and waited with Ashley for the rest of our crew. Once happily re-united, we proceeded our way through checkout for our 11:45pm flight.

Where have we been, well from Halifax we landed in London Heathrow around 9:30am. Most students did well, others not so much but they will remain, nothing drastic just a little travel sickness. After the 5 hour flight we were all tired but still held it together. Surprisingly, it felt like we were still in Canada. Other than the British accents, Harry Potter themed store and some other British stores we may as well have been at the Toronto Airport. After we had some lunch our group regained our high spirits. We explored a bit of the airport or took turns sleeping in the ‘comfortable’ chairs. Nine hours was a long layover, so we took the opportunity to rest, write in our field journals and get to know each other better.

We were relieved when the time finally came to take our flight to Johannesburg. Once seated we either slept, binge watched movies or read. It was an uneventful flight with little turbulence and everyone felt tired but good after the 12 hours flight. I was sitting in the middle group of seats with Jessica, David and Ashley. The windows only showed the wings of the plane, so even when we were over Africa I couldn’t see anything. I literally had my first view of South Africa as we got off the plane and walked into the airport. “We’re…in AFRICA!!!” we all whispered excitedly to each other. We were ecstatic. A bunch of exhausted students with wide smiles was Africa’s first impression of us.
Maddie Empey

In front: Sarah, Megan & Nikki
Behind them are: Ashley, David and I (Maddie).      

Harry Potter store in Heathrow.