The Plan

Because my mom asked. Probably so that she can freak out if there's a natural disaster, Somali pirate activity, or any other worrisome event within 500 miles of our location throughout the seven weeks we're abroad. (P.S. I love you, Ma). Also this brings up another point: I'm sharing this blog with my parents, so it should be relatively tame (as tame as sbaaaaafrica can be?), so feel free to share with anyone else who might be interested (or who is bored as work. Which is probably the more likely of the two).

Our itinerary:

May 25th -- Overnight flight from DC to London. We have ~12 hour layover in London, so we're hoping to be able to get out into the city, see 1.5 sights, drink half a warm beer, and make it back in time for our next flight.

May 26th -- Overnight flight to Nairobi, Kenya. Brian's friend Eric is being generous enough to pick us up from the airport and take us to the camp where he works. Where apparently we're going to be able to camp and rock climb. I've never been rock climbing before, so I'm very excited. Also, who goes rock climbing for the first time ever in Kenya? This kid. Hopefully two red eye flights don't make me a safety hazard.

May 27th-June 15th -- We'll be splitting our time between Nairobi and Kampala, Uganda. This part of the trip is the most sketchy plan-wise, so it's good that we're doing it first? In Nairobi, other than hanging out with Eric when he's able, we don't have any certain plans in place, so it looks like we'll just see what the winds take us to. We'll be working with the Missionaries of the Poor in Kampala June 6th-12th, and then hanging out/throwing down with my buddy Stu that weekend when he gets back from his brief assignment in Madagascar (a couple month contract with the UN or something crazy like that. He's kinda a big deal). I'm extremely excited for both of those two Ugandan experiences and anticipate that they will be completely and utterly diametrically opposed in nature.

June 15-June 24 -- Johannesburg. We fly to Johannesburg out of Nairobi (and via Addis Ababa. Insane, I know) on the 15th. We have a few games pretty close together in Joburg, so it should be an intense (and awesome), soccer-filled 10 days:
-Argentina v Korea: 17 June -- we're meeting Manuel, my undergrad thesis adviser for beers "before, during, and after" this game [his words, not mine] and I think it'll be pretty insane to see him in a foreign country. At a World Cup game. In Africa. Plus if you know anything about soccer, you know that Messi is unbelievable so we're excited to see him play.
-Slovenia v. USA: 18 June -- USA! USA! My mom also got us US jerseys to sport (not matching, don't worry), so we'll look pretty swell. I'm hoping to talk Brian into face painting as well.
- Brazil v Cote d'Ivoire: 20 June -- from the perspective of a soccer player, I think there is going to be no greater joy than watching the greatest soccer players in Brazil play the beautiful game. It's going to be sight to behold. I absolutely can not wait.
-Ghana v Germany: 23 June -- should be another great game. And we have good seats for this one. My sister Kelly will be in Germany for the summer, so I'm hoping she'll be able to sit in a bar in Munich and point out her sister on the TV to the Germans she knows.

We then take an overnight bus to Port Elizabeth (on the southern coast of South Africa) for a Round of 16 game (June 26). That's the first round after group play, so obviously we don't know who will be playing. But I'm pretty sure an elimination game in the World Cup can only be spectacular.

We then take an overnight bus back to Joburg as we have another Round of 16 game there on June 28 (yes, we have great lives). Then ANOTHER overnight bus back to Port Elizabeth for our quarterfinal game on July 2nd. I can't even put into words what I anticipate these experiences to be like.

July 4th-9th: We'll take yet another overnight bus (seeing a trend yet?) to Cape Town, where we don't have any games, but is a place we didn't want to miss out on. Other than taking in the World Cup fever some more, I'm hoping to catch the sight of some South African penguins. (Not a myth, google that ish. Insane. -ly awesome.)

July 9th: We then head back to Joburg where we stay until flying back to DC on the 13th. That will be the weekend of the final, so the city should be an incredibly fun place to be. We'll be staying at the same hostel we have for our first couple of visits in Joburg, so hopefully we'll be old hats at having a great time by that point in the trip.

July 14th: We arrive back at Dulles where I anticipate I will sleep for about 20 hours straight. Yes, at Dulles.

Although we've now been planning this trip for a couple of months, it's finally becoming real. (For real real, not for play play as we say back in the motherland) We made some international wire transfers today to pay for our bus tickets and picked up our malaria prophalaxis from the pharmacy. For some reason, those two things really drove it home that we're going. to. Africa.

This weekend will be spent packing, moving out of my DC house (and into a storage unit), buying a lot of sunscreen, and trying to soak up the last few days of DC chillin'.

Stay tuned.

-S