Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Left: the pytthon we watched eat a mouse
Below: dancers from the Russian Ballet ( I forgot to mention I went ot that on Saturday night)
Left: The plane we took a ride in to skydive!
Below: Brooke and I getting suited up for skydiving!
Left: The Temple of Understanding where we also saw the Authentic Indian dancers perform
Hello from DURBAN!!!!!!
We just arrived home on Monday, after a wonderful birthday weekend and fantastic trip… minus a few things but that’s for later.
Thursday March 5th
On Thursday we arrived in Durban around 3:00 in the afternoon. From here we went directly to our backpacker, Surf N’ Dreams, which over the course of five days there was actually a nightmare! I will get to that soon. Anyways, after getting situated and unpacked we went to the Temple of Understanding, which was a place of worship for followers of the Hindu religion. We were given a private tour, and learned interesting tidbits about their ceremony rituals and facts about their religion and culture. We were then given a very special treat of having live Indian dancers perform for us at a restaurant called “Taste of India” where we sampled many different types of Indian food. I would definitely attend an Indian performance again, but will NEVER eat their food again. Yikes.
Friday March 6th BIRTHDAY DAY!!!
Let’s just start out by saying that I had a fantastic 21st birthday!!! At 6 am in the morning I went out to sea with 12 other members from my group to shadow a boat crew checking for sharks that were caught in the nets which protect the beaches from their attacks. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see one, and a few people were pretty sea sick, but it was still a fun experience. After that we joined our group again around nine and went to tour the city of Durban. One of the places we went was the Islam Mosque, which is the largest one in the Southern Hemisphere. Learning about their culture was fascinating to me, especially since our guide had been a Catholic priest but had converted to Islam. I thought that was very interesting. We then went through the markets of downtown Durban where I saw many people selling fresh fruit and veggies as well as numerous spices; one being a love potion haha. After the tour we had some free time to kill so my roommate Shannon and I went shopping and I bought my birthday suit for the evening, a charcoal satin dress. After a few hours of that, we decided to head back to the backpacker and get ready for the very eventful evening about to arrive! For my birthday diner all of the members from my group went to a Jazz concert where there was live music and of course beverages To say the least, my roommates, friends and myself had a wonderful night at the Jazz concert and a few bars after that!
Saturday March 7th
Today since I had already made it to 21, and would love to stay this age for an eternity, I tempted fate when I dove out of a plane in Durban and succeeded my first official tandem-skydive!!! This was originally planned for my birthday but fell through due to weather and other things. Of the 9 of us that went skydiving I was the very FIRST ONE to jump out of the plane! This experience I don’t think will be given justice on paper but I will try. Think of the most thrilling, adrenaline pumping activity you have ever done…..… it’s nothing like that! It is 100,000 X to the moon and back better and something that I think everyone should do in their lifetime! NO JOKE! If I could afford it as a hobby I‘m pretty sure I would skydive everyday for the rest of my life, (until the parachute failed to open anyway) no I’m kidding
I don’t even think I can tell you what I did for the rest of the day, because my body was in recovery mode from the adrenaline.
I can tell you this though… bad news. On Sunday morning I woke up to my roommates telling me that the boys (5 of the 10) were robbed in their sleep Saturday night. (This was the whole nightmare part of the backpacker, along with Cruella Devil who owned the place). Of the ten boys sleeping in the room, 5 of them were robbed of all their cash, a camera and a phone. The cash amounted to near $1000 US since they had all gone to the ATM’s to get money to pay people for skydiving. The owners of the backpacker took zero responsibility for the incident and actually tried to blame the boys for getting robbed at their accommodations! Absolutely nuts! The reason the boys were robbed and none of the girls were is because we slept in the house which was locked and the boys slept in the guest house which did have a lock on it but they never received a key for it, so it was open. Thank goodness no one was hurt.
On to the better part of this, (if there is one). On Sunday evening, as a group of Bennies and Johnnies, the 25 of us who were unaffected by the tragic evening put together an auction to try and make up the money for the boys. To do this each person on the trip picked one thing they would do ex: cook, buy drinks, surprise boxes etc. We ended up raising over $100 dollars for each of them! As for my personal contribution to this whole thing…. I chose to auction off someone being able to dress me up in any way they desired for class on the following Tuesday, needless to say it’s not the following Tuesday yet, but I will definitely let you guys know how embarrassing it is after it happens! A lapse of judgment when I let the boys actually win that one…….
That’s all for now, love you!
We just arrived home on Monday, after a wonderful birthday weekend and fantastic trip… minus a few things but that’s for later.
Thursday March 5th
On Thursday we arrived in Durban around 3:00 in the afternoon. From here we went directly to our backpacker, Surf N’ Dreams, which over the course of five days there was actually a nightmare! I will get to that soon. Anyways, after getting situated and unpacked we went to the Temple of Understanding, which was a place of worship for followers of the Hindu religion. We were given a private tour, and learned interesting tidbits about their ceremony rituals and facts about their religion and culture. We were then given a very special treat of having live Indian dancers perform for us at a restaurant called “Taste of India” where we sampled many different types of Indian food. I would definitely attend an Indian performance again, but will NEVER eat their food again. Yikes.
Friday March 6th BIRTHDAY DAY!!!
Let’s just start out by saying that I had a fantastic 21st birthday!!! At 6 am in the morning I went out to sea with 12 other members from my group to shadow a boat crew checking for sharks that were caught in the nets which protect the beaches from their attacks. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see one, and a few people were pretty sea sick, but it was still a fun experience. After that we joined our group again around nine and went to tour the city of Durban. One of the places we went was the Islam Mosque, which is the largest one in the Southern Hemisphere. Learning about their culture was fascinating to me, especially since our guide had been a Catholic priest but had converted to Islam. I thought that was very interesting. We then went through the markets of downtown Durban where I saw many people selling fresh fruit and veggies as well as numerous spices; one being a love potion haha. After the tour we had some free time to kill so my roommate Shannon and I went shopping and I bought my birthday suit for the evening, a charcoal satin dress. After a few hours of that, we decided to head back to the backpacker and get ready for the very eventful evening about to arrive! For my birthday diner all of the members from my group went to a Jazz concert where there was live music and of course beverages To say the least, my roommates, friends and myself had a wonderful night at the Jazz concert and a few bars after that!
Saturday March 7th
Today since I had already made it to 21, and would love to stay this age for an eternity, I tempted fate when I dove out of a plane in Durban and succeeded my first official tandem-skydive!!! This was originally planned for my birthday but fell through due to weather and other things. Of the 9 of us that went skydiving I was the very FIRST ONE to jump out of the plane! This experience I don’t think will be given justice on paper but I will try. Think of the most thrilling, adrenaline pumping activity you have ever done…..… it’s nothing like that! It is 100,000 X to the moon and back better and something that I think everyone should do in their lifetime! NO JOKE! If I could afford it as a hobby I‘m pretty sure I would skydive everyday for the rest of my life, (until the parachute failed to open anyway) no I’m kidding
I don’t even think I can tell you what I did for the rest of the day, because my body was in recovery mode from the adrenaline.
I can tell you this though… bad news. On Sunday morning I woke up to my roommates telling me that the boys (5 of the 10) were robbed in their sleep Saturday night. (This was the whole nightmare part of the backpacker, along with Cruella Devil who owned the place). Of the ten boys sleeping in the room, 5 of them were robbed of all their cash, a camera and a phone. The cash amounted to near $1000 US since they had all gone to the ATM’s to get money to pay people for skydiving. The owners of the backpacker took zero responsibility for the incident and actually tried to blame the boys for getting robbed at their accommodations! Absolutely nuts! The reason the boys were robbed and none of the girls were is because we slept in the house which was locked and the boys slept in the guest house which did have a lock on it but they never received a key for it, so it was open. Thank goodness no one was hurt.
On to the better part of this, (if there is one). On Sunday evening, as a group of Bennies and Johnnies, the 25 of us who were unaffected by the tragic evening put together an auction to try and make up the money for the boys. To do this each person on the trip picked one thing they would do ex: cook, buy drinks, surprise boxes etc. We ended up raising over $100 dollars for each of them! As for my personal contribution to this whole thing…. I chose to auction off someone being able to dress me up in any way they desired for class on the following Tuesday, needless to say it’s not the following Tuesday yet, but I will definitely let you guys know how embarrassing it is after it happens! A lapse of judgment when I let the boys actually win that one…….
That’s all for now, love you!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Knysna and Plattenberg Bay
Hey guys!
This weekend was my second weekend to travel and 5 members of my group decided that we were going to go to Knysna and Plattenberg bay which are stops about 3 hours away on the garden route along the coast! Initially when we went there we were planning on doing a night hike and staying in a hut "as authentic as you can get down here" however, when we got to Knysna we realized that the hike would take two days, and we didn't have that kind of time with everything else we wanted to do. Instead we decided to book a hostel to sleep in for the evening, and paid 150 rand to go on a cruise around a gorgeous lagoon in Knysna. It was a little cold when the sun went down but the sights were beautiful. AFterwards we decided to go to a famous oyster tavern and have dinner. I tried an oyster but that is definately not something I will eat again! Then the next morning we made our way to Plattenberg Bay, and on our way stopped in a place called Harkerville and did a 9 km hike ( around 6 miles). That was really nice to get some exercise in! After that we decided to grab some lunch and head to Monkeyland. I was not to excited about this at first ( I thoguht it would be like a zoo) but when we get there, there were monkeys everywhere jsut walking around all around you. Luckily they didn't try to steal my purse or anything becasue they are known to do that! We finally got home aroound 8 on friday night, which was jsut in time to get enough sleep for our early scuba diving excursion in the morning!
Saturday
I finished my scuba diving training sessions and now am certified to dive up to 18m!! woohoo! Lucky for me, on our first dive we saw a ragged tooth shark!!! It was about 6 feet long and very fat! I can't believe I was actuaaly 10 feet from a shark without a cage! So cool! After that our scuba diving instructor took us out for a few drinks to celebrate!
Sunday was very uneventful since I have two papers due this week. But I will have lots to blog about after this upcoming weekend when we go to Durban!!!
Miss and love you all!
This weekend was my second weekend to travel and 5 members of my group decided that we were going to go to Knysna and Plattenberg bay which are stops about 3 hours away on the garden route along the coast! Initially when we went there we were planning on doing a night hike and staying in a hut "as authentic as you can get down here" however, when we got to Knysna we realized that the hike would take two days, and we didn't have that kind of time with everything else we wanted to do. Instead we decided to book a hostel to sleep in for the evening, and paid 150 rand to go on a cruise around a gorgeous lagoon in Knysna. It was a little cold when the sun went down but the sights were beautiful. AFterwards we decided to go to a famous oyster tavern and have dinner. I tried an oyster but that is definately not something I will eat again! Then the next morning we made our way to Plattenberg Bay, and on our way stopped in a place called Harkerville and did a 9 km hike ( around 6 miles). That was really nice to get some exercise in! After that we decided to grab some lunch and head to Monkeyland. I was not to excited about this at first ( I thoguht it would be like a zoo) but when we get there, there were monkeys everywhere jsut walking around all around you. Luckily they didn't try to steal my purse or anything becasue they are known to do that! We finally got home aroound 8 on friday night, which was jsut in time to get enough sleep for our early scuba diving excursion in the morning!
Saturday
I finished my scuba diving training sessions and now am certified to dive up to 18m!! woohoo! Lucky for me, on our first dive we saw a ragged tooth shark!!! It was about 6 feet long and very fat! I can't believe I was actuaaly 10 feet from a shark without a cage! So cool! After that our scuba diving instructor took us out for a few drinks to celebrate!
Sunday was very uneventful since I have two papers due this week. But I will have lots to blog about after this upcoming weekend when we go to Durban!!!
Miss and love you all!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Weekend of Feb 21st.
This weekend I went on my first two dives for my scuba certification! It was pretty awesome, and ofcourse I saw lots of fish, but I am looking forward to our next two open water dives even more! The whole claustrophobic thing doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but I did have one freak out when I was out in the ocean. We had to do this skill where if your goggles fill with water you have to blow through your nose and the air will push the water out, but I completely forget how I should do it, and went right up to the surface. oh well though, that's what the practice is for and now I feel much more comfortable with all of my skills that I will need for diving. We also have to take a test either tonight or later this week and then we will be finishing our last two dives this coming saturday! I think a few of us are going to plan an open water shark dive as well! This weekend our group also had our own first braai ( a BBQ) where a guy in our group ( boris) cooked an amazing dinner for us! I think our group is pretty into the bonding activites still, which is nice.
Jill Stry: No there is no pinching when I meet new people, but I think I will have to bring that one in as an american tradition after having some G-rum :)
Judi: Don't forget to tell joey all of the new words, I'll post them again: I did forget a few though.
Robot: stoplight
Swimming costume: swimsuit
Combi: taxi
Braai: BBQ
also everybody "fetches" everything down here. If you were going to get something you say i'm going to fetch my phone, or whatever it is.
Also every guy down here is called bro, when being refered to by anopther guy.
And last but not least, if you really want to do something you say "I'm keen to .... do whatever it is. haha
cheers everyone, which is also the common farewell down here!
love you all!
This weekend I went on my first two dives for my scuba certification! It was pretty awesome, and ofcourse I saw lots of fish, but I am looking forward to our next two open water dives even more! The whole claustrophobic thing doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but I did have one freak out when I was out in the ocean. We had to do this skill where if your goggles fill with water you have to blow through your nose and the air will push the water out, but I completely forget how I should do it, and went right up to the surface. oh well though, that's what the practice is for and now I feel much more comfortable with all of my skills that I will need for diving. We also have to take a test either tonight or later this week and then we will be finishing our last two dives this coming saturday! I think a few of us are going to plan an open water shark dive as well! This weekend our group also had our own first braai ( a BBQ) where a guy in our group ( boris) cooked an amazing dinner for us! I think our group is pretty into the bonding activites still, which is nice.
Jill Stry: No there is no pinching when I meet new people, but I think I will have to bring that one in as an american tradition after having some G-rum :)
Judi: Don't forget to tell joey all of the new words, I'll post them again: I did forget a few though.
Robot: stoplight
Swimming costume: swimsuit
Combi: taxi
Braai: BBQ
also everybody "fetches" everything down here. If you were going to get something you say i'm going to fetch my phone, or whatever it is.
Also every guy down here is called bro, when being refered to by anopther guy.
And last but not least, if you really want to do something you say "I'm keen to .... do whatever it is. haha
cheers everyone, which is also the common farewell down here!
love you all!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Feb 14th. Jeffery’s Bay
Today I went surfing in Jeffery’s Bay which is about 45 minutes East of PE. It is the second best place in the world to go surfing!! And as much as I would like to say I was surfing in Jeffery’s bay well let’s just say I was attempting…. I got up about two times but not for very long. The weather wasn’t so great either; it was raining and very windy! Did I mention how windy it is down here? It’s worse than Chicago, THE WINDY CITY! I kid you not. We decided to end our day a little early and planned a group dinner to a place called Waldskippers, which had sand on the floor and a bonfire in the middle, very authentic. I chose to have oxtail for dinner; yes it is the actually tail of the ox. It was prepared in a stew and chopped up into pieces and put on rice. It was delicious and a very tender piece of meat. We also had chicken and fish pate which is the liver of each (they were separated). Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately I did not know what it was at the time and it tasted all right, but as soon as I found out I couldn’t even look at it. Ha!!
Feb 15th Addo and Scotia Game Parks
Hey there! I just got back from the Addo Elephant Park and the Scotia game reserve! I have never seen so many wild animals in my life! At the Addo elephant Park, we were lucky enough to see 2 elephants while we were there. One was about 10 meters from the bus! We also were able to see a few warthogs, Kudu and water buffalo as well (The water buffalo and elephant are two of the big five animals here is South Africa, so that was pretty awesome). Afterwards we went on a 4 hour Safari in jeeps in the Scotia game reserve. The animals in the park are wild, however it is called a reserve because the land is protected. It was raining all day, but that didn’t stop many of the animals from wandering around. We saw a huge male lion (big 5) only 30 meters from our jeep and we also saw impala and springbok (types of antelope), zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, rhinos ( part of the big 5 as well), hippos, crocodiles and one of the coolest things for me was seeing all of the carcasses from previous lion kills! After the safari we were served a meal of Kudu which is one of the largest types of deer (close in size to an elk) which was very tasty! We then left and arrived home around 10pm, where I fell asleep right away after all of the action from the day!
Feb 16th.
Today was my first day of Volunteering. I was paired with a little two year old girl named Esti. If there is anything that I have learned from this trip it is that the stereotype of a child with AIDS is completely false. These children are just like any other child who Is unaffected. They are playful, healthy, funny, and do all of the things any other child would do. I feel very guilty for having this previous assumption, but am very happy that I was wrong. The children at the haven are so wonderful and I can’t wait for the rest of the semester with them. On the other hand, I am still getting over my fear of contracting Aids, but in reality it is much harder for that to happen than you think.
Hope all is well back home! I’ll keep you updated after my next excursion this coming week to a few caves!!
Today I went surfing in Jeffery’s Bay which is about 45 minutes East of PE. It is the second best place in the world to go surfing!! And as much as I would like to say I was surfing in Jeffery’s bay well let’s just say I was attempting…. I got up about two times but not for very long. The weather wasn’t so great either; it was raining and very windy! Did I mention how windy it is down here? It’s worse than Chicago, THE WINDY CITY! I kid you not. We decided to end our day a little early and planned a group dinner to a place called Waldskippers, which had sand on the floor and a bonfire in the middle, very authentic. I chose to have oxtail for dinner; yes it is the actually tail of the ox. It was prepared in a stew and chopped up into pieces and put on rice. It was delicious and a very tender piece of meat. We also had chicken and fish pate which is the liver of each (they were separated). Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately I did not know what it was at the time and it tasted all right, but as soon as I found out I couldn’t even look at it. Ha!!
Feb 15th Addo and Scotia Game Parks
Hey there! I just got back from the Addo Elephant Park and the Scotia game reserve! I have never seen so many wild animals in my life! At the Addo elephant Park, we were lucky enough to see 2 elephants while we were there. One was about 10 meters from the bus! We also were able to see a few warthogs, Kudu and water buffalo as well (The water buffalo and elephant are two of the big five animals here is South Africa, so that was pretty awesome). Afterwards we went on a 4 hour Safari in jeeps in the Scotia game reserve. The animals in the park are wild, however it is called a reserve because the land is protected. It was raining all day, but that didn’t stop many of the animals from wandering around. We saw a huge male lion (big 5) only 30 meters from our jeep and we also saw impala and springbok (types of antelope), zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, rhinos ( part of the big 5 as well), hippos, crocodiles and one of the coolest things for me was seeing all of the carcasses from previous lion kills! After the safari we were served a meal of Kudu which is one of the largest types of deer (close in size to an elk) which was very tasty! We then left and arrived home around 10pm, where I fell asleep right away after all of the action from the day!
Feb 16th.
Today was my first day of Volunteering. I was paired with a little two year old girl named Esti. If there is anything that I have learned from this trip it is that the stereotype of a child with AIDS is completely false. These children are just like any other child who Is unaffected. They are playful, healthy, funny, and do all of the things any other child would do. I feel very guilty for having this previous assumption, but am very happy that I was wrong. The children at the haven are so wonderful and I can’t wait for the rest of the semester with them. On the other hand, I am still getting over my fear of contracting Aids, but in reality it is much harder for that to happen than you think.
Hope all is well back home! I’ll keep you updated after my next excursion this coming week to a few caves!!
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