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Arriving

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Once we landed in South Africa, I felt a new level of excitement. I was eager to see the palm trees and analyze the demographics of the country-- Post-Mandela. Remember when I said I did curbside check-in? Well, I asked this dude if my bags would get lost and he said no. I was in a hurry, so I trusted him and gave him a $3 tip that he hounded me for. Turns out... My bags were left in Amsterdam, so I had to pick them up the next day. This changed my whole mood, which made me look bad to my program coordinator and the other staff. I tried to stay positive but it was really hard because I wasn't sure if I would ever receive my bag. Eventually, I cheered up. We were met by a driver who took us to the campus. The campus is HUGE. We all chose our rooms and immediately planned to go out even though it was midnight and we traveled for hours. We went to "The Barn" on campus. Its a club with a bar and food station. My first impression was that we had made a bad decision because...
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Traveling

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 Traveling to South Africa was an effort in itself. We received our plane tickets just days before our scheduled departure date. The first left from Baltimore, which was convenient for the student who lived in Maryland. I, however, had to leave Richmond at 3 a.m. in order to arrive at the airport by 7 a.m. Navigating through the airport alone was pretty frustrating but went smoothly after I did curbside check-in and made my way through TSA security. We left Baltimore at 11 a.m., only to go to JFK airport to wait 4 hours for our next flight. While in New York, we sat and talked as a group which allowed me to warm up to the idea of living with my teammates for four weeks. Alex & I also took pictures while at the airport. The second flight left New York around 5 p.m. We arrived in Amsterdam around 6 a.m. We explored the airport and found an interactive game provided by McDonald's. The McDonald's in Amsterdam had croissants and other foreign add-ons. We waited until 10 a.m. t...
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