Arrived safely in South Africa!

I am currently in a very nice hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, about 20 minutes away from the airport... after 36 hours of traveling through many time zones! Quick update on our adventures thus far:

We took off a little more than an hour late from SeaTac on our first flight, headed to London. I slept for maybe a total of one hour on that flight, arriving in the UK around noon London time, so 4 am PST. We decided to leave the airport and do a bit of sightseeing and spend the day in London out and about, since our connecting flight wasn't scheduled to board until 7 pm. Not everyone wanted to go out, fearing they might not have enough time to get out, sight-see, and return to the airport at Heathrow in time. After a bit of researching prices for train fares to get into London (and getting the in of another country's stamp imprinted in teh pages of my passport), we decided to take the slightly more expensive Express lin for 9 pounds (about $18 USD), because it took only 20 min., as opposed to the Underground (the term Brist use for the metro or subway train), which would cost just 4 pounds. ($8 USD)., but in that case would take about 80-90 min to reach downtown London. So in our group, we took the Express to Paddington station through Sussex Gardens and to Hyde Park, bordering the Kensington Gardens and the Long Waters body of water. We walked for about a half hour along the pathway, PASSING A NEAT PARK AND ONTO THE rOTTEN rOAD (LOVELY NAME, RIGHT?) THAT GOES ALONG THE piCCADILLY cIRCUS. wE SAW cONSTITUTION hILL, THE wELLINGton Arch (whoops... I am typing from my journal and just realized that the caps lock had been on accidentally!). We saw Buckingham Palance, went to a pub to warm up because it was about 3 degrees Celcius, or around 38F out! Afterwards, we jotted up to see Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, speed walked through Parliament Square, and then took the Underground line back to Paddington Station to just barely miss the 4:40 and take the 5:03 back to Heathrow. it was a lovely day well spent in London.

The second flight was 11.5 hours, and I didn't sleep more than 2-3 broken hours on this one, so I am a bit fatigued but ready to go climb Table Mountain in a bit here! So this is all for now! More observations and reflections to come soon, hopefully! Basically, I am here safely and will sleep well tonight!!!