London, Winchester, London, Johannesburg, Gaborone

The View from my window



Arrival on South African Airways.




Mama, Nan and Mandy in Winchester




High Street, in High Spirits

So the journey began...

Thanks to London's MASSIVE snowfall my lovely little vehicle was stuck in my driveway, problem #1.

Thanks to the school's being closed libraries were closed, keeping my essay from being written, problem #2a.

Thanks to my complete issue with procrastination my essay was unfinished, problem #2b.

Thanks to my inability to focus I remained unpacked, problem #3.


I was due to leave London Ontario Wednesday December 8th, after I finished class at 2:30pm, which was also after I had worked that morning from 5:30am-10am, a usual Wednesday for me. Thanks to living in the snow belt we were dumped with approx 4 ft of snow and due to that school had been closed all week long. My car had not been moved since Sunday night when I drove home from work, bad life choice. My car rendered stuck in the driveway, but more about that in a little. The school being closed caused more issues than just no class, it meant the libraries were not open, meaning I was going to be forced to work on my essay at home, something that is virtually impossible. Monday morning there was an insane amount of snow, but Ivey went on, meaning I was awake to help Elyse (the roomie) get out of the driveway with her car, school then got cancelled at 1030am, but not Ivey, they continued on.
I spent my morning not working on my essay that was due at noon, but shovelling, making breakfast, catching up on Brothers and Sisters and trekking over to 196 Huron to dig them a path so they could get out of their house without being waist deep in snow. While I was at 196 it was discussed that we go out that night considering we would all have had the day to complete any work that we wouldn't have normally had the time to do, great plan right? no.
I ended up spending the day doing ANYTHING BUT my essay, making a great roomie dinner, and deciding to go out, making my way to the girls house and then barely surviving the cab ride to the bar. Monday night Jacks never seems to fail and therefore Tuesday turned into a write off as well, I made it into work and then walked home thanks to the busses ceasing service at 3pm. To bed early on Tuesday because Wednesday mornings call for Starbucks at 530am. After a fairly uneventful work morning I was home to pack for my long journey which was ahead.
Janey was a big help in my packing efforts and Robert arrived just as I was finishing zipping up the 5th bag of stuff. The drive home went fairly smooth, no major issues, besides almost getting stuck once after leaving Kati's house.
Arriving in Mississauga made me miss the snow and London more than imaginable, it was completely bare, and that was depressing. Due to the fact it was completely ridiculous to bring my 5 bags with me to Africa Emma helped me re-pack and we ran some last minute errands before having to leave for the airport at about 9pm, 11:05pm flight.

Mamma bear and I got to the airport, and checked our bags only after the agent told me I didn’t look like I was ten, the fool couldn't do math and thought that being born in 1990 meant by 2010 I was 10 years old. bah! We walked to our gate and I bought a lovely book that was found in the self-help isle, and would help me deal with my issues. Once my essay was completed of course. We boarded the flight and found the luxury of full bed seats in first class, thank you father bear. I prepared myself for the 6 ish hour flight by arranging all of my essay research and lap top around be, but after dinner I somehow managed to fall asleep watching Eat Pray Love, which I didn’t find as amazing as everyone has been saying it is. I woke up and packed my life together as we were almost at our arrival in London England.
In London we claimed our luggage and went to purchase our "coach" (bus) tickets to Winchester, where we would be meeting my Aunty Mandy. after sleeping the entire hour and a half to Winchester we arrived and dropped our luggage in Mandy’s car then spent about 2 hours on High St. their shopping street, we met up with Mandy again at Starbucks, which was completely the same as ours, besides the teas being called different names, and they didn’t have the caramel brule latte, they features a toffee nut latte in stead. also, everyone seemed to use mugs and take the time to sit and enjoy their coffee, we then went to see Winchester Cathedral and the Ice Rink that they have in the courtyard. After the lovely afternoon we wound up back at Mandy’s where I locked myself in the bedroom and wrote about 300 words on the essay, not acceptable, I fell asleep too...whoops. We ate a traditional English dinner of fish and chips, or for the veggies pasties and chips, delish! dessert was coffee and sweets, also lovely, but during the conversation over dessert I started to dose off, so it was bed time for me.

The next morning, Friday the 10th, I got up had some coffee, wrote another 300-500 words on the essay and then packed up again to catch the "coach" back to Heathrow. Mom and I made sure to leave enough time for the flight, maybe too much time, 4 hours, oh well, I read a mag and we had a sandwich which reminded me of Belgium, mozza tomato and pesto. After waiting all that time we finally got seats on our flight and had to book it through security, I took my time after the xray machine and sat down to put on my boots and re pack my bag where as Shirley (mother) awkwardly put her boots on while standing and packed her bag in the air, I looked at her to make sure she knew where I was although as I got up from finishing packing she was obviously NO WHERE in sight. I started to walk towards the shops, then decided going to the gate was the wise idea, as I was walking to the gate an announcement came on to say that final boarding for my flight was occurring! that is when the running and stress came in, I then realised to get to my gate I had to take an underground transport thing, fathers help was needed. I made the long distance call to basically cry to him saying she lost me and I didn’t know what to do, should I get on the flight? Not get on the flight? What to do? he said go to the gate don’t get on it without her, a man beside me in the subway thing told me it would be fine and she would be there (insert Yas and Vic here, this is where all I wanted to do was have a panic attack, but clearly this man couldn't handle it, I needed you both). I got to the gate, low and behold there was Shirley waving at me. I was furious and therefore rude to the gate agent, I apologize to him now, that was rude of me. I yelled a little bit at her and then we got to our seats, together, with no plug so that I could work on my essay. This TEN HOUR flight to South Africa was going to be all movies and sleep, after dinner I put on a movie of which I can’t recall and ended up falling asleep, I awoke once in the night to Shirley telling me if I went back in the cabin they would give me cookies, I was asleep, why does she think I wanted cookies? I then awoke way too early with about 2.5 hours left of the flight and watched Killers, not a horrible movie.

We got off the plane in SA and claimed our bags then wandered around the terminal to find out where we checked in for the next flight, after waiting for an hour and a half on the ground we got seats and made our way to the gate where everyone stood in a line for about 15 mins with no movement, finally boarding the flight and finding out it was only 33 mins I obviously fell asleep as usual. 33 minute nap later we were in Gaborone Botswana, 32 degree weather, in my boots, leggings and sweater, HOT.

Bags claimed customs cleared and family found, finally here.

Uncle Collin and my Cousin Jene and her son Hayden met us at the airport we then drove back to their house and spent the afternoon playing with Hayden and doing some essay writing, also, having a nap. Then waking up and more essay writing as well as socializing with the family, Collin and Jane having returned from their work xmas parties now.

side note, Elyse and I were told that in Africa they celebrate Kwanza, that’s what the woman in Michael's told us, she was wrong, Kwanza is in fact an American Celebration of the African Americans and it runs for a week starting on December 26th.

After spending a significant amount of time procrastinating I came upstairs and finished up the body of my essay, only leaving the intro and conclusion. This morning I was awoken by mother telling me I had 40 mins to shower and we were going to the airport, my answer was, no. I decided I was staying here and conquering my essay, which I successfully did, YAY, it was also somewhat rainy this morning so it’s not like I missed out on any great weather, where as now that it is like 4 or 5 pm its perfect weather to sit outside and read.

Which is what I am about to do, learn how to change my ways and rid myself of procrastination.

Hopefully tomorrow is more interesting; I think were going on a mini safari or something at some point this week?

We're here in Gaborone until Wednesday or Thursday, then we head to Johannesburg to stay with Aunty Hayley before moving to a hotel before the wedding on Sunday.

side note, I have reassessed my packing this morning, and it doesn't look like I was that smart, we'll see how the week goes I guess?

Best of luck on upcoming exams, and for the ones that have already been completed I’m sure they went amazingly!


Xo