mind the gap.

(actually posted later on...)

Greetings from London! But first let me tell you about the flight.

On the 7 hour flight over to London, I sat next to an elderly man from Pakistan named Farrukh who apparently is the “Dr. Phil” of his community. Within the first 10 minutes of the plane ride these words came out of his mouth: “Here is the key thing about that area (south africa) ….do not put your bottom on the toilet seat.” The instant that was said I knew two things:
1. Hilarious. I can’t wait to tell SOMEONE about this.
2. Although thoughtful, he kind of has his facts wrong.
3. Dang it. This is 10 minutes into 7 hours.

He went on to explain the key to happiness in life and especially marriage which is apparently a key to a number of things because he kept on saying “This is the key…”. I started in on my “yeahs” and “oh, yeah…definitely’s”. I did feel like there might have been some openings for spiritual conversation, but whenever I mentioned anything he quickly changed the subject. After my therapy session, I watched an in-flight movie and then fell asleep. The rest was not so bad.

I always get anxious to look out the window whenever a plane is landing in a new place that I have never been. For instance…in St. John all you see is water right up until literally the wheels hit the ground. I was in the middle of the plane, so although I couldn’t stare out the window, I got really excited when I saw the land outside and I knew that I had 12 hours to kill ( I had a 12 hour layover). So, thus begins my solo journey into London. I think that “wandering without a purpose” would be the best way to describe the majority of my day. I didn’t get a map, I just got the free Underground map that you get at the airport. Mainly because things are extremely expensive and it cost a ton just to exchange currency. So I hit the streets and took lots of pictures, which will be up on the Flickr account on the right of this page. To be honest, the only things that I really recognized was the London Bridge and the Globe Theater. BUT, I did eat real London Fish and Chips for lunch and went to a tea place before I left.

I’m very tired, and sitting in the gate waiting to fly to South Africa now. I can’t wait to get there and find out what God has planned for the next six weeks! For now I’m out.

Oh, by the way….I’m not sure how heavy 13kgs is in pounds….but that’s how much the cameraBOX weighs and it felt like I was carrying around a business-like boulder on my shoulder the whole day.