My very first international experience. For a 9am flight to Abu Dhabi, I was at the airport at 6am. Wanted to make sure that nothing goes wrong, after all, these opportunities don't come by every second day. Checked in my luggage and had breakfast and walked around for some time. Finally it was boarding time and there I was in my seat with my inflatable pillow and stuff (this girl went shopping for this trip I tell you). It took I don't know how many hours to get to Abu Dhabi where I had to hang around for another 7 hours before my next flight to London Heathrow. Got to Abu Dhabi walked around and couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. Changed 500 South African Rands into Dirhams (figured it should be enough to entertain me for seven hours, boy was I wrong). I sat at a bar called Skyways for about an hour until I met Becky, an American, in the military and was on her way to Kuwait for her deployment. Let's just say we hit it off and one could've sworn we were the best of friends, took pictures, exchanged notes and shared just a few too many drinks. Couldn't have been that many because not one of us missed their flight.
There I was on my way to Heathrow. I must say that I think I am quite street smart though. I didnt get lost not even once. Got to Heathrow's passport control and I felt like I was applying for my visa all over again, they asked for my conference invitation letter, the programme etc. I collected my luggage and was off on a bus to Oxford. When I got off the bus, the first thing I did was to ask someone which direction I should go to Mansfield College, was not up for walking around for hours dragging a suitcase. What was said to be a ten minute walk to Mansfield took me about twenty five minutes. But hey, these Londoners walk everywhere so ofcourse they have mastered the 'art' of walking. So yay, I am there, ready to check into my room and guess what? "I am sorry ma'm but your room is not ready, you might want to come back after 2pm", REALLY? Left my luggage with the porters and went off. It was raining my shoes were wet so I got myself a new pair of shoes, what I would call the 'signature Oxford boot', everyone was wearing the same shoes! 
And so the week started. Tuesday the conference started and boy what a diverse group. The papers were brilliant, sadly though some not very well delivered due to acoustics that were'nt working very well for non-first language English speakers. I couldn't hear some of the presentations but one could tell that the work it covered was great, exciting and worth an audience. Apparently microphones are very expensive in Oxford hence we didn't have one. Never mind that each delegate paid about 258 pounds which is like over R3000! Nonetheless, the conference went on and I was anxious for my paper especially after hearing how philosophical people were, like trying to break the very word 'discourse' into pieces and all the discourses one can draw on when talking about the word discourse, does that even make sense? My turn came, I presented and apparently I did a great job. I was glad to be done and felt more relaxed. We had to celebrate so we went to Kings Arms.
There is something about being South African that just draws people around one. It's like a 'magnet' effect. I had fun and the people were nice, tried out a few 'traditional' beers, had great food and made good friends.
For my short stay there I must say my travel was too long, but worth every minute. The last session took place and people were getting ready to go. Lucky me still had another day to spend in Oxford and had a nice plan, visited the Museum, Historic Libraries, the Castle and did some shopping. Last day came and I was ready for the road. Now there is something about customs that I don't understand, when you enter a country they will ask you for papers to prove your stay and tickets to show that you are returning on the day you said you will. But when you leave it gets worse. At Heathrow I had to take off my shoes, my belt, empty my hand luggage and have them scan each and every piece of something that was in that bag. The same thing happened when I got to Abu Dhabi, emptied my hand luggage, took off my shoes and belt and had to repack. Having ckecked my luggage in from Heathrow to Joburg made my journey easier I thought. All in all the conference was great, the delegates were great and coming back home was great, only to find that my luggage had been stuck in Abu Dhabi for some reason with all my keys and stuff, so I squatted.
Now there is one thing I forgot to mention in all of this. I met a guy, gorgeous guy named Robert. Now Robert is the first white guy I have ever been attracted to and it didn't help that he is gay and married. He took me on walks, took pictures of me and showed me around since he is from London he knew exactly where to go. He took me on a very long walk along their river, parks etc, and anyone could've mistaken this to be one of those first date walks. I tell you had he not been gay, he might just have been my very first white boyfriend. Now Robert is married so it is all good and well. 
Back in the office, now I have to get back into 'working mode' and all I can think about is .....take a guess. By the way I am only talking about a pair of shoes I saw....!
Had a great experience and thanks to the University of South Africa for making it happen!
