I am officially in Kenya! I said some very sad goodbyes to family early Sunday morning before catching my flight back to DC. I had the rest of the day to pack for the semester and to spend time with friends. It was great to get to see everyone one last time and it reminded me, as always, how lucky I am to have such amazing friends.
The next day, my lovely big and little picked me up to drive me to the airport. We stopped for lunch on the way to celebrate McCall’s birthday and then headed off to Dulles. After some more heartfelt goodbyes and the obligatory pictures I boarded my plane to Amsterdam.
The flight was 7 hours but time actually passed relatively quickly. I slept for some of it and watched a movie and listened to music for the rest. The food they served was actually quite delicious and I had a very adorable older woman next to me who saved me some breakfast for when I woke up from a nap. In Schipol I met up with two other girls from my program and we grabbed some Starbucks in the airport. It turns out a bunch of other people from the program were also on the next flight from Amsterdam so we managed to meet up with them and chat a bit before boarding. Everyone seems very nice and I am so excited to get to know them all better over the next few days and then over the course of the program.
The flight to Nairobi was a little longer than the first and I think it seemed longer due to a mix of trying to stay awake for most of it and anticipation for finally arriving in Kenya. When we finally arrived we got our visas, picked up our bags (no one’s got lost!) and went through customs.
AU abroad met us with a bus and we finally got to meet some of the staff members. They dropped us off at our apartment complex, which even in the dark looked really nice! We randomly created apartment groups, mostly just based on where we were sitting in the bus. I am rooming with McKinnon, Maddi, and Shreya. Our apartment is lovely; it has a nice living room, a huge kitchen and laundry room and three bedrooms (pics in the next blog post). McKinnon and I have our own rooms and Maddie and Shreya are sharing one. I spent the next couple hours unpacking everything and hanging up all the pictures I had brought from home. When I was finally done with everything it was already almost 1am so off to bed to try to avoid jet lag tomorrow!
The next day, my lovely big and little picked me up to drive me to the airport. We stopped for lunch on the way to celebrate McCall’s birthday and then headed off to Dulles. After some more heartfelt goodbyes and the obligatory pictures I boarded my plane to Amsterdam.
The flight was 7 hours but time actually passed relatively quickly. I slept for some of it and watched a movie and listened to music for the rest. The food they served was actually quite delicious and I had a very adorable older woman next to me who saved me some breakfast for when I woke up from a nap. In Schipol I met up with two other girls from my program and we grabbed some Starbucks in the airport. It turns out a bunch of other people from the program were also on the next flight from Amsterdam so we managed to meet up with them and chat a bit before boarding. Everyone seems very nice and I am so excited to get to know them all better over the next few days and then over the course of the program.
The flight to Nairobi was a little longer than the first and I think it seemed longer due to a mix of trying to stay awake for most of it and anticipation for finally arriving in Kenya. When we finally arrived we got our visas, picked up our bags (no one’s got lost!) and went through customs.
AU abroad met us with a bus and we finally got to meet some of the staff members. They dropped us off at our apartment complex, which even in the dark looked really nice! We randomly created apartment groups, mostly just based on where we were sitting in the bus. I am rooming with McKinnon, Maddi, and Shreya. Our apartment is lovely; it has a nice living room, a huge kitchen and laundry room and three bedrooms (pics in the next blog post). McKinnon and I have our own rooms and Maddie and Shreya are sharing one. I spent the next couple hours unpacking everything and hanging up all the pictures I had brought from home. When I was finally done with everything it was already almost 1am so off to bed to try to avoid jet lag tomorrow!