10th July 2016 - The Arrival

Today was finally the day! After sooo much waiting and so much anticipation, the day of the arrival in South Africa had finally come.

At 3 p.m., I left for Munich Airport with my parents, my sister, and my friend, where my journey began. We arrived at 6:10 p.m. and had enough time to check in and have dinner together.

Within 15 minutes, everything was done: I went through passport control, passed the security area, and found my gate immediately. That gave me 35 minutes to relax before boarding the plane.

My seat on the plane was (almost) perfect! I was lucky to sit right after the business class, so I had enough legroom. The food (dinner and breakfast) was very good too! The only problem was the family sitting next to me with two small children, which made it a bit difficult to sleep. Plus, it was cold.

After exactly 10 hours of flight, I landed in Johannesburg at 7:05 a.m., the next morning. At first, it seemed like I could calmly catch my connecting flight because I had 2 hours.

But everything turned out differently! The line at passport control would have cost me at least 3 hours. At 8:30 a.m. (boarding at 9:35 a.m.), I started to get nervous and started asking people in the front to not miss my flight. I met a man who told me to go all the way to the front and tell the lady there my boarding time. Luckily, she let me go to the next available counter!

After everything went well there, the search for my suitcase started. I found it at the very last baggage carousel with bags from 3 other flights. I ran to drop it off at the re-check-in and luckily, despite the long queue, I went directly to it. Now I just had to go through the control on the 2nd floor and then to the gate. The control was done within a few minutes and I thought 'Well, Gate D1 is right here'. -No. The lady at check-in gave me the wrong gate number and it turned out that I had to go to Gate D7! That's when the rush started. I arrived at the correct gate just in time for boarding. Everyone was there. -Except for the plane!

When I arrived in East London at 11:55 a.m., I was relieved that my suitcase was there and I was overjoyed to greet my host family! -Now I could breathe and just enjoy.

The drive home was relaxed and not too long - I just have to get used to driving on the left. The weather was fantastic, we had sunshine and it was hot (mind you, it's winter in South Africa!). When I arrived at my new home, I unpacked my suitcase and handed over all the many gifts I had brought from Germany.

My host family and I then went shopping and got something to eat because I didn't have anything except clothes, and I hadn't eaten anything since 5 a.m.

My first day in South Africa ended with watching the movie 'Finding Dory' after a lot of stress.