January 6th, 2009. Departure day!

On January 6th, the excited group of UW-L travelers met at the International Minneapolis Airport. Our flight was schedulded for take off at 3:15 PM, and luckily, everyone was not only ontime but most were very early and ended up hanging out in the airport for about three hours before we boarded. We flew over with Northwest Airlines; the flight went very well. Fortunately, the group was bunched together during the flight so we had a nice eight hours to start to get to know one another better. We landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands at approximately 6 AM local time. Most of the group decided to sleep at the airport during our layover time, which was about three hours. Some of the group had gotten enough sleep on the plane and cultured themselves by walking around the modern airport. Soon enough, our second flight was taking off and we were on our way to Tanzania! Like the first flight, this one was also about eight hours long. While soaring through the clouds, we were able to see the tips of the Alps Mountains, which was breath-taking! Shortly after a few more naps, we were finally arriving in our destination of Arusha, Tanzania, AFRICA! We were warmly recieved with a welcome from some of Samson's friends and family. All of us then loaded into one fairly large bus, and headed to The Impala, our first hotel. By this time, it was about midnight. After eating an amazing meal, the group was quick to get to bed and get some real, comfortable sleep.