On the way to Tanzania

So I’m at Dulles airport now, waiting for my flight to Amsterdam and then on to Kilimanjaro. I arrived about an hour and a half ago and made it through security with no problems or issues. It was pretty hectic and I had to go through the scanner twice - my belt and my pen kept setting the alarm off. But the good news (I guess) is that my bags didn’t set anything off or need any extra searching. Considering all of the electronics I am carrying, I guess I got lucky. It is about 4:30 now and the plane is supposed to begin boarding in about an hour or so. I’ve been to the currency exchange here in the airport and have 24 Euros to my name in addition to the remaining US cash that I have. I would not recommend exchanging cash at the airport - the rates are pretty lousy and they charged an $8 service fee. I’ll exchange the rest of my cash in TZ once I get there. At the very least I have enough for a cup of coffee in Amsterdam - we’ll see.

Lucky me - there is free internet at Dulles through January 15th! Of course I don’t trust it a whole lot but at least it lets me update all of this.

Its been a long day - woke up a little before 5, left Selinsgrove about 9 and got here about 3:30. In between I met up with an old friend of mine from high school. He is letting me leave my car at his place while I’m gone, which saves me about $300 by my best estimate. So I figured the nice thing to do would be to take him to lunch (which I did, thank you very much Susquehanna University).

The drive down to Virginia was a snap - I went route 15 all the way and other than a little bit of construction and delay south of Harrisburg (natch) it was smooth sailing. Route 15 dumped me off in Leesburg, VA which was about 10 miles from my friend’s house which is about 5 miles from the airport. All in all it has been a pretty long day but not as stressful as it could have been.

My stress level surrounding the upcoming part of the trip is still pretty high. I’m not necessarily concerned about the upcoming flights (7 and a half hours to Amsterdam; 8 hours to Kilimanjaro) but I’m not crazy at all about sitting on a plane for so long. Add to that the time differences between here and there and I’m afraid things might get pretty kooky. I’m also a bit stressed about not knowing what to expect when I arrive. I guess the best thing to do is to play it by ear - I’ve prepped as much as I can and I’m glad I’m going. I’m also a bit stressed about leaving the family behind too however. I know they’ll be ok but I guess its just the principle of being gone for so long, and so far away.

Well anyway - I better get this posted before I lose any more battery power. I will update as I can - check the Twitter update on the left side of the blog. It might be easier for me to update my whereabouts that way.

BTW, my suitcase was 7 pounds overweight - mainly due to the extra school supplies and gifts I’m bringing. For those not in the know, 7 pounds overweight cost $100 at check-in. Thanks very much again, Susquehanna! :)