Foreign places are foreign

There's something weird about the way that all foreign places feel similar in certain ways. Maybe I just haven't been anywhere interesting yet, but the places I have been have a lot in common, like European brands, UHT milk, separate hot and cold taps, electric kettles, American brands with weird/wrong logos, etc.

Of course, Gaborone is unique and special in its own ways. For example, you can get apple/orange juice blend:


But I'm getting laughably ahead of myself. Long before we had even considered the possibility that apple juice and orange juice could be mixed together, we had to say our goodbyes:


and get our stuff (4 big suitcases, one carry on, one backpack, and one purse + Paul's stuff!) to JFK:


take one 15 hour flight and one 1 hour flight, split up by a miserable 5 hour layover in Johannesburg:

and suddenly we were here!


(That is Botswana out the plane window. Actually, it is probably South Africa.)

My first impression of Botswana was that it is a lot like Texas. It is full of red dirt, and it is pretty much flat. The air is hot and still. There are cacti. I felt right at home, and overall, it feels quite natural to be here. More to come but for now I am posting because the internet is slow here during the day (we share bandwith with the UPenn offices).