Version 2.0

Welcome to Smarter Than the Average Bearnot 2.0! It's not often that we have chances to start over again, but my arrival in Africa marks the official rebirth of this small slice of the internet. All of my writing preceding my departure has been a nice warm up – laying the groundwork for Things To Come.

A tremendous thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to call, write, IM, blog, facebook, and skype me to wish me the best of luck. I hope that I have the opportunity to have half the adventure that many of you expect, and I will certainly do my best to keep sharing my thoughts and experiences along the way. I will also do my best to write each of you back directly, but I’m not sure how much access I’m going to have to the internet when I first arrive.

The trip to Durban was nearly 30 hours long with stops in London and Johannesburg (referred to as Jo’burg in SA) along the way. In that time I was able to make it through a book (The Pickup, Nadine Gordimer), issues of two of my absolute favorite magazines (Scientific American Mind and Wired), and page through my two SA guidebooks (Lonely Planet and Rough Guide). I sacrificed all of my Wednesday, January 24, 2007 to the deities of travel, hopefully in return for a fantastic trip, which would be more than a fair trade in my eyes.

Now I am absolutely exhausted, but not allowed to go to sleep for fear of exacerbating my jet lag. I think I will get a chance to head down to the nearby web café tomorrow. Then I can post this entry, some early pictures, and maybe even let you know a little bit about my first 24 hours in SA. I already know that it’s going to be incredibly difficult for me to process events as they occur, but it seems like an interesting endeavor – at least until I start working officially next Monday morning.

Good night,
b