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The good news is that I won't have to listen to that silly blackberry chirp at me at 6am after today.

The bad news is that means this is my last day in Joberg.

Yesterday Racheal mentioned that Friday would be a T-shirt day (all attendees got a T-shirt with the AMC logo) so I know I can 'dress down' this morning.  Good thing, too, because I'm starting to feel a bit tired today.

I jump into the shower -- this will be the last time I will be able to see the water go down the drain in a clockwise fashion.  The funny things we choose to remember about places, eh?

After dressing, I start throwing things into my suitcase so I don't have to worry about it later on today.  Thank goodness for dresses made of 'travel knit' -- the best thing since sliced bread!

Today I am the student, not the teacher.  I get to sit back and participate in the workshop that Sue France has for us.  It should be fun and interesting, all at the same time.

I head downstairs to the restaurant to meet Sue for breakfast.  I read through my emails and discover that New York City has been in the throes of another blizzard for the past day or two.  Hopefully that won't impact my being able to return.

Before Sue arrives, and as I am sitting at the breakfast table, an employee from the hotel (hospitality) is making her rounds of the tables, greeting everyone.  She comes to my table and says hello and good morning.  On instinct, I say hello in English.  I looked up at her and said "No, I'm sorry.  I want to say dumela."  Her eyes light up immediately.  She says "I must give you a hug because you have learned my language!"  I stood up in the restaurant and she hugged me!  Just for taking the time to learn her language and address her in her language.  Made my eyes a bit misty.

Sue arrives for breakfast and I immediately notice that there is a difference in attitude this morning.  And I realize that the difference is with me, not Sue.  Today I am not the teacher.  Sue is still in 'teacher mode' but I've already moved into student mode.  Very interesting.

We finish breakfast and meet Racheal at the front desk for our quick ride to the Hilton.

All the attendees are dressed very casually today.  Racheal did say that Fridays tend to be more casual in South Africa.  Everyone is wearing the dark blue short-sleeved T-shirt that they received from AMC International.

The tables are set up in a very large "U" shape, around the room, rather than the original classroom style we'd had for the past two days.  Sue is going to have us breaking up in groups and be more interactive with each other.  She has quite a few handouts for everyone.  I've taken copies of a few of them but not all of them.  I will have to buy her book in order to get all of the handouts.  She has a very comprehensive program that she uses when she goes into companies to teach their PAs (personal assistants) and EAs (executive assistants).

Everything that she is saying I've heard someone else say before.  It is good when concepts that you've learned elsewhere are reinforced by other people.  I guess it means that we are all right or all wrong!  I'd prefer to think that we are all right and on the same page.

I need to leave the workshop early because I am meeting up with Tanya.  We were originally supposed to go to dinner Wednesday night but her car failed and the chapter-at-large was being chartered/installed.  So we're going to meet up for lunch today instead.   It is good to spend quality time with Tanya, as it was good to spend quality time with the Joberg IAAP members.  I will be very sad when my plane takes off later this evening.  Very sad indeed.

Although I knew that the greater New York metropolitan area was suffering through some inclement weather, I didn't know how bad it was.  I checked my email and found out just how bad.  Blizzard!  And here in Joberg, it is very sunny and very warm.  I put in a call to Racheal, asking her to check with the airport to see if there are any cancellations or delays regarding my flight to New York.  She calls me back -- since the storm is now winding down and because I am landing Saturday morning at 8am, my flight will go as scheduled.

Sue returns to the hotel as I am going through my check-out at the front desk.  The car will be here to take me to OR Tambo at 4pm so that I can make my 8pm (local time) flight.  She and I chat for a while longer until the driver shows up.  Oh so soon.

My bags are put into the car and I am off to the airport.

This time, the trip down the highway, on the "wrong" side of the street, is less disturbing for me.  I finally noticed that there are no massive billboards along the highways in South Africa.  They seem to put all their highway advertisements in the median area between the outbound and inbound lanes of traffic.  That has the added advantage of producing much smaller signs.  I like that alot.  That's one thing that I don't like about billboards in the States -- some of them are so massive that they completely obliterate the view.

And for those of you who really hate the phony tree cell phone towers -- they have those here in South Africa, too.  Only here they really do look more like fake trees than in the States.

Some things are the same, no matter where in the world you are, I guess.

I get to the airport and a porter in a red vest helps me with my luggage.  I fully expected him to just help me with my bag until I got to the check-in point.  He stayed with me all the way to the gate when he not able to continue because he is not a ticketed flyer.  Regardless of whether he was working for tips only or had a salary and the tips were extra, I gave him a very handsome tip for making sure that I got from the car to my gate without any mishap.  A guardian angel in a red vest!

I found my gate very easily and sat, waiting for my departure.  A gentleman sits down across from me.  He is from the South Africa Tourism Bureau.  He asks me a series of questions -- did I enjoy my time in SA? was I there for business or pleasure? would I return?  You know, the usual Tourism Bureau questions.  I generally don't "do" these kinds of surveys but I certainly had plenty of time on my hands, so why not.

The time was fast approaching for boarding so the security officers had us all line up for a final security check.  This included a pat-down by security officers.  There was a man who was patting down the male passengers and a woman who was patting down the female passengers.  So when it came my turn to be frisked (as it were), I walked up to the woman and said "dumela."  She smiled at me.  When I stepped over to the desk to have my documents looked at for the last time and my papers and bags were returned to me, I looked at the gentleman and said "ciyabomba" (forgive me for my spelling on this one!) which means "thank you".  He smiled.

The plane is finally ready for passengers and we all begin the journey to our seats.  There are far more people on this outbound flight than were on my inbound flight so I can't stretch across a row of four seats to get a good night's sleep.  That's ok.  I'll sleep when I get home.

We make a stop in Dakar to change flight crews and pick up more passengers.  It is 2am local time.  I keep thinking would I be at an airport for a 2am flight?  Ew.  Probably not.

During this final leg of the journey home, I look out the window and notice that the sun is slowly rising in the east.  As we travel homeward to New York, the sun is racing us across the Atlantic.  Needless to say, the sun arrives first.  We land at 8am local time.

I look out the window and am completely amazed at the amount of snow that is still on the runways at JFK.  I can only imagine what awaits me at home!

The journey is complete.  I am back home -- very tired but very excited to have made such a journey.

Thank you for accompanying me on this trip!