First day in South Africa

(I actually wrote this a couple days ago...)
I am in the hotel in Johannesberg. Looks like a hotel. No monkeys yet :-) Just lots of IBMers. I got in really late last night and a few of us went out for burgers. The place we went was kind of funny because clearly during the week it's more like a cafe/pub -- but on a Friday night it was hopping. There was a loud DJ and it was a bit club-like, which was funny because all of us where exhausted from the trip and just wanted a quick bit. The food was good though and we had a laugh about the loud music.

Today we went to IBM's office here and met the senior guy for South Africa, Mark Harris along with a bunch of other people from IBM South Africa. Wonderful hosts (especially Claudia stone who rolled out a teeny tiny red carpet for me...thanks, Claudia!). We then went to the apartheid museum, which was very moving. And we drove by both Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's homes. Pretty neat. I'm off to dinner soon. But I'm still so exhausted from the trip, I think it'll be a few days before I start feeling normal.

Tomorrow we drive the 4 hours to Nelspruit, where we'll be staying for the next four weeks. The weather here is great -- like autumn temperatures and it was nice and sunny today. Chilly willy at night.

For the most part the people on this trip with me seem like good folks, though with any bunch of people you can expect that I'll have more in common with some than others.

Here are a few photos from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanmcc/sets/72157619911550165/