Spring Break Part 2

 Well, back to my story.  Once we left the Okavango Delta we were off to Planet Baobab, the campsite we’d be at for the night.  We hadn’t showered in about three days so we were all pumped at the idea of a shower.  It was funny how quickly I became used to the whole camping/no showering thing on this trip.  While I’ve never actually been camping before (aside from Indian Princesses with my dad when I was like 7), it’s not because I haven’t wanted to.  It’s just one of those opportunities that hasn’t presented itself to me until now.  And it has in a big way!  In a week I leave for Afrikaburn, Africa’s version of Burning Man.  I honestly have no idea what to expect of it, but I’m really excited and I’ve heard it’s absolutely awesome.  This is a different camping situation though.  While on my spring break trip we had food and everything provided for us, at Afrikaburn we have to bring all our own food, water, tent, etc.  It should be an adventure to say the least…. Ok I’m getting sidetracked!

We got to Planet Baobab around 3 in the afternoon and felt as though we’d basically stumbled upon heaven.  It was such a beautiful campsite!  Not to mention that there was a huge pool!  Pretty much the second we got off the truck half of us had already jumped in the pool.  Definition of refreshing.

We then proceeded to actually shower.  Despite the fact that the shower pressure was similar to a leaky faucet and the water was far below lukewarm, it was a really good shower.  I feel like I’ve been talking way too much about this shower so far in this post, but I guess it gets the point across that it was REALLY REALLY GREAT.

After our super good chicken dinner (shout out to Norman!) we headed to the bar.  In Botswana they use the Pula as a currency, which isn’t as good exchange rate wise.  I was a little behind the ball in preparing for this trip so I had forgotten to sign up to get Pula.  All the places we went were basically tourist destinations so the travel company we were with had told me that using rand wouldn’t be an issue.  But in using rand, it meant I got my change back in Pula.  It was a strange phenomenon.  So many currencies!!

Our whole group enjoyed a few Savannah Drys (a really tasty type of cider) and spent the night making friends with another travel group from the UK who was also at the bar. 

As I’m sure you can imagine, a group of about 40 American college students and about 20 British students at a hostel/campsite bar for a few hours can get a bit crazy.  By the end of the night, one of the guys from other group that we had met (and I promise I’m not just making this up, we actually didn’t participate in his shenanigans) was literally drinking a beer hanging upside down from the chandelier on the ceiling holding on with only his legs (which was made of various beer bottles).  The campsite management said that happens a lot apparently… Strange.  Anyway, it was absolutely hilarious.

The night may or may not have ended with about 30 of us skinny dipping in the pool at our campsite.  I won’t confirm if that did or did not happen.  But in the case that it did happen, it was extremely dark and the pool was also quite large.  In the case that it didn’t happen, we proceeded to go to bed at a decent hour so we would be rested and ready for another early morning.

When we did go to bed at a decent hour in order to be well rested, Ali, Hannah and I also had a hilarious intervention with Ty regarding the funny April Fools joke we played on him later in the trip (if you want details on this, you’ll also have to ask in person – but don’t worry!  If you ask I’ll definitely tell!).

We were up bright and early the next morning and on our way to Chobe National Park.  Chobe is known for the amount of elephants in the park and we sure got a taste of it on the drive there.  Multiple times we had to stop either to see an elephant on the side of the one-lane highway or because an elephant was legitimately in the road.  By the end of the trip, Jesse was referring to elephants as “Africa’s squirrels” because we had seen so many and they were everywhere.  It was actually a little sad!  I never thought I’d get to a point in my life where I could see a wild elephant and feel the excitement and magic was gone!  Seeing a wild elephant used to be as magical as Disneyland was when I was 4!  That sure changed.  (For the record, Disneyland still is exciting and magical as it was when I was 4 because I still can count the times I’ve been on two hands.  Elephants have far exceeded the 10 finger counting limit).

If you can’t tell, there was a lot of driving involved on this trip.  Many days we’d get up before sunrise and wouldn’t get to our destination until the afternoon.  Obviously there were many different approaches to passing the time, but it was about this time that I discovered my favorite approach.  As most of you know, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a relaxing drive and some good music.  Although I wasn’t the one driving, it didn’t stop me from enjoying it!  The front windows on the truck were raised so if you were seated you couldn’t see in front of you.  At some point during the day while I was listening to my iPod I realized that literally everyone on the truck was sleeping except for me.  I proceeded to go to the front of the truck and stand at the front window.  Here I could see a perfect view of the area.  The front windows were also down so there was a perfect breeze blowing through the truck.  The combination of the beautiful (and desolate) scenery with my music, the silence of everyone else on the truck, and the wind blowing was incredible.  It was quite relaxing and actually really entertaining.  For all I know, this could be the last time I drive through Botswana and Zimbabwe.  It would have felt like such a waste to sleep the whole way!  For the rest of the trip, no one really questioned my strange habit of standing (sometimes with my head semi out the window like a dog) for hours at a time as I sang to my iPod.  It was one of my more Zen moments in life.

Other times, I resorted to sleeping - pretty much anywhere.  I enjoyed setting up my sleeping bag and sleeping on the ground, but for your viewing pleasure, here is me in the midst of a great nap:

One of the thrilling moments of the drive was when our truck popped a tire.  We pulled over for an early lunch where the five guys on the trip (Dudu, the driver, Norman, the chef, Ty, Jesse, and Anthony) all attempted to change the tire.  It was a great gender role moment.  All 15 girls helped make lunch while the guys unsuccessfully changed the tire.  Luckily there ere so many massive tires on the truck that it didn’t make too much of a difference for the rest of the drive.  Obviously we had to drive extremely slow, but the truck was still functioning good enough to get to our destination. 

After quickly dropping off our stuff at the campsite, we headed to the Chobe River where we went on a sunset game cruise.  It was SO COOL!  I don’t remember if I’ve said this before (I said almost the same thing of our game walks) but I never could have imagined that I’d be on a boat in Africa seeing animals.  Obviously a safari car is expected, but a sunset game cruise!?  Who’d have thought that’s even a thing?!  Not me.  That’s for sure.

I sort of assumed it’d be a bit of a joke.  I mean, if you’re on a boat there’s such a small range of visible land and in order to see animals that means they’ll need to be pretty close to the water’s edge.  In any other game drive I’d been to, it’s always in the middle of some dry, seemingly waterless desert.  However, I stand corrected.  We saw so many animals!

It’s shocking how close you could get to them!  We saw HUGE groups of hippos.  In one case I counted at least 17.  We saw giraffes, crocodiles, elephants, impala, and baboons.  The boats would drive right up to a herd of hippos in the middle of the water and the animals were virtually unphased.  It was surreal!  We watched the sunset over the river and enjoyed a beautiful evening.  It was so nice out!

By the time we were back to our truck, Dudu had already gotten the tire fixed.  I will never understand the fact that there was a place in the middle of Botswana where a truck like that could be taken to get a tire fixed.  Seriously.  How random is that?!

Dudu got us back to our campsite just in time for Norman’s amaaaaazing dinner of beef, pap, and gravy.  Pap is basically a white, fluffy concoction quite similar to mashed potatoes.  It’s a bit thicker in texture and is made from maize meal.  It’s extremely cheap to make so it’s really popular in a lot of areas of southern Africa.

After yet another rejuvenating shower and an enjoyable cup of tea, I headed to bed.  I was exhausted!

We had an optional game drive the next morning, but both Hannah and I decided not to go because we were going on another game drive in Zimbabwe (and we were trying to be frugal and not overkill the extra cost activities).  This was probably the best decision of the trip because for once we got to sleep in (until about 7am because we were so used to waking up early).  Once everyone else got back from the game drive and met up with the five of us who had just had a relaxing morning, we enjoyed a lovely breakfast from Norman (bacon was included) and we headed off.

We were on our way to Zimbabwe!  The border is known to take quite some time so luckily we entertained ourselves by playing games such as ninja, zoo, etc.  (Basically anything that you would have done to entertain yourself in 3^rd grade).  We probably waited almost two hours at the border – it was quite the ordeal!  Everyone has to get out of the truck and wait outside.  Instead of us going in individually though we were able to give our leader all of our passports and have her get our visa stamps. 

FINALLY we got through the border and continued our drive through Zimbabwe!  My next (and final) spring break post will talk all about the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, Victoria Falls, our day trip into Zambia, and the attack of the ants.  Some good stories await :)

A little bit of everything in Cape Town

This post is about a food-filled, fun-filled, friend-filled weekend (April 16-17 to be exact).  All you foodies (Swainer this one goes out to you) prepare to be jealous of my adventures! 

The weekend started with a goal: to explore things in Cape Town.  There were no set plans or agenda, just a desire to see new things.  Hannah and I decided to wake up early to get this adventure going.  We started with a stop at Old Biscuit Mill aka Food Lover’s Paradise.  About ten minutes away from where I live, this Saturday food market is unreal.  Local food vendors set up shop and it’s literally just a day of amazing food.  It’s a must-do in Cape Town.

Since we were up so early, we found in necessary to get omelettes.  They were quite tasty!  

We spent an hour or so browsing around (while enjoying some yummy food samples), then decided we wanted to go into the city!  At this point, Ali and Jesse had both called us wanting to meet up.  After killing some time browsing in the vintage/trendy clothing shops nearby, we all got together.  Neither Ali nor Jesse had eaten breakfast and Hannah was in search of some art museum, so we proceeded to walk around the area known as Woodstock.  Unfortunately, the art gallery was closed, but fortunately, we found a cute and yummy restaurant called Superette.  (Disclaimer: Hannah and I had basically eaten at 8:30 and by this time it was about 11 so it was totally valid for us to be hungry again.  I think…)  We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast – I got yogurt, fruit, and muesli of course – and we decided to carry on with our day.  By the way, I was really into the ceiling decoration!  Mom, you'll love this.

The area of Woodstock we were in was so cool!  It’s sort of the trendy, creative area of the city so there are really neat coffee shops and boutiquey stores.  In attempts to be frugal/active humans, we decided to walk into the city.  It was probably about a 20 minute walk.  

What started off as a chilly morning quickly became pretty hot.  My decision to wear dark pants and a long sleeved shirt was not ideal.  Luckily, we stopped at a market where Ali bought a green maxi dress.  She let me wear it for the rest of the day in order to spare me from my poor clothing choice.

We took a historical "pit stop" on our way into the city and decided to go on a tour of the Castle of Good Hope, a fort built by the Dutch East India Company during Cape Town's colonization.  The touring areas were limited, but it was interesting to learn about the landmark and how it was used.  It looked like they were setting up for a wedding later that day!

At this point, we decided to head down to the V&A Waterfront where we'd heard of yet another really great food market.  (Somehow I manage to befriend foodies everywhere I go!)  Hannah really wanted a bubble tea and this place is known for them.  Meanwhile, I discovered potentially the best frozen yogurt I've ever had.  Quite the find.

The day really consisted of a lot of walking so by this time it was about 4:30.  We had heard Cape Town Carnival was going on later in the evening, so Hannah and I decided to hang out near the waterfront until it started.  We had about 3 hours to kill so we walked around a mall and did other productive things such as purchase headlamps for our upcoming spring break camping trip.  The carnival was really neat!  I'm still a little confused as to what exactly inspired it, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  There was tons of live music, colorful floats, and parade dancers.  All ages were involved - both in the crowd and in the actual parade.  These are pictures of my favorite floats and costumes of the night!

We'd walked roughly 6 km, had eaten four different meal/snacks (oh yea, Hannah and I got sushi before the parade started), had been to two different food markets, a historical castle, and a festive parade.  I'd say that was a pretty eventful Saturday!

Sunday was just as spontaneous as Saturday.  After spending the afternoon by the pool, Fallon asked if some of us wanted to join her at a restaurant where we'd be seeing a friend of hers' band play.  I got ready within about 15 minutes (shower and all) and we made it to the train stop just in time.  A 30 minute train ride later and we were literally standing on the water's edge.  The train goes along the coast and the ride is stunning!  The restaurant entrance is legitimately right next to the train tracks, too!  The place we were at was called Brass Bell.  These pictures don't even begin to do it justice, but they help give some sort of idea!  I loved when water would come spilling over the wall in the back - it was like a mini waterfall in the ocean!  This is Fallon and Franny, two of my roommates!

These are my friends Jen, Hannah, and Fallon.

The music was great and the setting was beautiful.  I can't wait to go back!

The REAL Africa - Part 1

You know the Africa you see in movies?  The Africa with wild animals, women walking with jugs on their heads, and groups of people living in thatched huts?  Well that’s not Cape Town.  Or most of what I’ve seen of South Africa for that matter.  I know Papa thinks I’m going to come home with a bone in my nose, but we all know that’s not the African experience I’m having.  Although it might let Papa down a bit, even after spending time in Botswana and Zimbabwe, I still don’t think I’ll encounter any nose piercings via bone.  I’m sure you’re all extremely surprised.  I have, however, entered what I think is my idea of the REAL Africa.

This “spring Break” (although it’s still summer here) trip began at 4am 2 Fridays ago.  Well technically 3am because that’s when I woke up to start the trip.  My bag was packed and I was ready to go – sleeping bag and all.  (See Dad, I told you I’d manage locating my sleeping bag on time!)  Although I’d gone to sleep a bit after 2am (I was hanging out with Michael, Hannah, and some others then came home to a snuggle party with Franny and Jen), I managed to get up at 3 for a shower and a muesli breakfast with Hannah.  We met our bus across the street, hopped on, and after a few more stops arrived at the Cape Town airport.  We were taking Kalula airlines, which my marketing professor refers to regularly.  That was sort of cool, except I slept the whole way thankfully, so sadly for my marketing research, I didn’t get to observe all of Kalula’s unique features.  Maybe next time. 

We arrived in Johannesburg, grabbed our stuff and headed out to our “home” for the next week and a half.  It’s the coolest truck ever!  We all had our own lockers, there’s food storage, mats, tents, big open windows for high quality air ventilation (who needs air conditioning, really?).  Basically anything you’d ever need while camping was in this truck.  We had a driver named Dudu and a chef named Norman.  I think this was pretty high quality camping.

I’m not sure if it’s good or bad that I didn’t know how far we were going to drive that first day.  We started at 9am and didn’t get to camp until about 9pm.  Granted, there were quite a few bathroom breaks and a lunch stop.  Unfortunately around noon I started feeling sick.  One thing led to another and I had a really bad stomach bug that quickly made the bumpy, windy truck ride a bit rougher.  I didn’t want to be “that girl” who was sick and in a bad mood the first day so I did a decent job of keeping my misery to myself.  Highlights of the illness include:

-The non-flushing toilet at the South African side of the border

-Throwing up into a weave at the Botswana side of the border (if you don’t know what a weave is I highly suggest you watch the movie Good Hair, but if that isn’t accessible you can always just Google what a weave is)

-Hugging the trashcan on the floor in the back of the truck for the last hour of the drive to camp

-Getting my tent set up for me

-Throwing up at camp after dark while wearing my headlamp so it featured as a spotlight for all to see how much fun I was having

Not going to lie – it was rough.

Luckily, I had a few bites of white rice before bed so I could take Tylenol PM to ease my fever and get some sleep.  In the morning I felt much better and was ready to start the trip.  We had breakfast at our campsite: some yogurt, tea, cereal, toast and peanut butter.  Side note: the only milk we had the whole trip was whole milk.  It was paradise once I got home to finally have a bowl of cereal without a side of cream in it.  It became a running joke between Hannah and I because it was such a “first world problems” moment.  Anyway, I took my malaria medicine and some motion sickness medicine juuust in case and we were off.

Somehow we failed again to understand that we were in for yet another almost full day of driving.  We made a lunch stop on the side of the road and had some tasty Norman (our chef) sandwiches.  I became a huge fan of Sweet Chili Sauce on this break by the way.

While we were eating, we enjoyed the view – dirt, grass, donkeys, and sheep.  After some time, a few locals on donkeys came up to us and attempted to communicate.  We had a brief book from the travel company that had words translated from English to Setswana, but we failed to approach these correctly, resulting in endless laughter from both us and our new friends.  Overall, it was just a hilarious situation because of the language barrier.  We said nothing but laughed with each other for about 10 minutes over our attempts to pronounce Setswana words.  The Botswanian guys loved it.  It was basically the ultimate example of laughter being a universal language.

After this we reloaded onto the bus, made one stop for refreshments in Maun and arrived at our campsite.  Here we had a scrumptious spaghetti dinner and the first shower of the trip – epic.  We hung out at the bar, enjoyed a beer, and all sat around singing while Ty played his guitar.

Side note: our truck consisted of 18 American students.  Three of which were guys.  Of those guys, one was on the trip with his girlfriend, another (Jesse) is gay, and the other Ty is straight and single.  You can just imagine how ridiculous of a dynamic this was throughout the trip.  It was an awesome group of people and everyone got along great.  Also our leader, Kristen, was the coolest ever.  She’s from Germany.  We love her endlessly.

Back to the story.

Day 1 of the Okavango Delta:

We left our campsite early in the morning.  We were told we had to fit everything into a backpack and carry our sleeping bag along.  With our limited belongings (everything else was locked in our truck, which was named Kurt), we boarded an open truck to start our journey to the Delta. 

The drive was two hours long.   The first hour we passed a few villages and small towns.  Everyone was so friendly as we went by, going out of his or her way to wave at us and shoot us a smile.  In South Africa, I’d like to think I fit in relatively well.  There’s less racial disparity in the sense that there are numerous races and a tangible amount of whites that I can pretend I fit in with.  In Botswana, however, we were clearly tourists who didn’t belong.  They never made us feel that way, but it was easy to see that we were out of any relatable territory.

The second half of the drive included us “off roading” in our dual truck/water open vehicle.  There were more than a few times that I thought the log bridges we crossed in our truck wouldn’t hold our weight and we’d go diving into the river below.  Luckily, the bridges were much more stable than they appeared.  Our group was split into two trucks, the first of which was a little too big for its britches apparently.  In attempts to go through water, it got stuck and we had to take a pit stop for our truck to tow it out.

Finally, we arrived at the water’s edge of the Okavango Delta.  Over a dozen mkoros were waiting for us.  It was so surreal!  None of us really had any idea what to expect, but I can definitely say whatever I had thought we were going to was not nearly as cool as this was!

I was in a mkoro with Hannah as our poler, Richard, pushed us from behind.  Our destination was an island on which we’d be camping on for the next three days.

I wish I could describe the ride adequately enough, but there are really no words to explain the excitement, tranquility, and adventure of what it was like.  Lily pads and high reeds surrounded us.  It was scorching hot even though it was about 9 in the morning.  We also had some locals in the river with us.  Our good old friends, the hippos.  One of the more unnerving/unreal things about these mkoro rides was the poler’s ability to avoid the hippos and keep us safe.

After a peaceful two-hour trip, we finally arrived at our campsite where we set up our tents and ate lunch.  For purposes of this trip, we had to fit four people to a tent, which comfortably fits about two normal sized people (three small people can comfortably fit).  The first two nights, Hannah and I had shared a tent, but once we realized we had to join up, Ty and Ali joined in as well.  So basically, it was us three girls and the tallest person on the trip sleeping in a 2-3-man tent.  Some would say this was a bold endeavor, but we ended up having so much fun tenting together in the Delta that we were the only group to keep our 4-man tent for the rest of the trip.

We named our tent O-Tent II and were basically the hooligans of the trip.  We were always the last to go to bed and although we tried I know we weren’t as quiet as we thought we were.  We participated in fun tent bonding activities throughout the trip.  Some of which were planned, others weren’t.  We also tried to keep things exciting by utilizing the tent space differently every night.  We tried sleeping diagonally, vertically, horizontally, etc.  Although it probably doesn’t sound all that humorous, we got a good laugh every night by taking turns being the “designer” who would creatively organizing our sleeping bags to a new sleeping arrangement before we returned from dinner.  On the last night, we thought we’d be really ambitious and conquer an O-Tent II Bucket List.  Unfortunately, we didn’t finish everything, but I will comment on my favorite activities:

1)    Worm fights: this is when you put sleeping bags over your head and do exactly what it sounds like – FIGHT!  Obviously it was kind of a joke because really, we were being children so it didn’t get that intense.

2)    Share “tent talk secrets”

3)    Talk about highs and lows of the trip

4)    Take a human pyramid selfie: four people, one tent, trying to make a human pyramid and then take a picture of it.  I repeat, we were hooligans.

Ali, Hannah, and I also played the ultimate prank on Ty for April Fools Day.  It would sound strange and debatably inappropriate to try to explain on my blog, but if you want to hear about it just ask and I’ll tell you all about how we got our whole bus in on it.  Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Anyway, back to the Delta.  During our stay on the Delta, we were accompanied by the polers who basically doubled as our local tour guides.  There was literally no civilization on this island so when I say tour guide I’m using it in a different sense of the word.  They led us on game walks, took us to see elephants right outside our campsite, went fishing with us, and taught us fun activities such as how to maneuver a mkoro.

We were all so hot on the first day so we thought it’d be a good idea to go swimming.  I mean, we were surrounded by water, so who wouldn’t go swimming on a sunny day like that?  Answer: all the polers.  They showed us a watering hole that was too shallow for hippos to go into so we took it upon ourselves to enjoy the warm water with a game of duck-duck-goose Delta-style.  The polers were clearly much wiser than us because within about 10 minutes, I felt something small and slimy attached to my knee.  Not knowing what it was, I freaked out and we all laughed a lot.  It didn’t seem alarming enough to get out of the water (even though I was convinced it was a leech), so we all continued playing our game.  Within 5 more minutes, three more girls had been attacked and we quickly gathered that these were, in fact, leeches.  (By the way, I'm the one below on the left side that is high-fiving an imaginary person.  Not too sure what I was doing here.)

You should have seen us make a B-line to the water’s edge.  It was actually hilarious and the polers were cracking up while watching us push each other out of the way to get to dry-leech-free land.  Jokingly, I was a bit bitter that no one believed me when I cried leech the first time!  One particularly funny leech incident occurred when a leech attached under Megan’s bathing suit top.  No one really knew the right way to approach that and it was just overall hilarious.

Recovered from our attack by leeches, we headed back to the campsite.  Ty, Hannah, Ali, and I were a bit confused at a new addition to the tree above our tent.  It seemed that the polers had hung some sort of “animal innards” to dry on the branch.  As Ty said, it was very curious.  The innards remained for the rest of the trip, but were all gone by the time we left.  I assume the innards were part of a meal for the polers at some point.  (The innards are both in the bag and hanging on the right side. The lighting in the picture makes it difficult to see.)

One of the most important things they told us about our campsite is that we were literally on an island with elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinos, you name it.  We had to be extremely cautious not to leave the site without a poler with us in case of wild animals.  I kid you not.  That will probably the only time I have to make sure there are no lions near my local “bathroom” hole.  That being said, there were some really cool animal encounters!  On the first day, two of the polers pulled us away from camp about a five-minute walk to see some elephants under a tree!  If you look really closely, you can see the elephant under the tree.

At dusk, we went on our first “game walk” and saw quite a few more elephants.  I still cannot believe that we walked around to see animals.  Whenever I think safari, I think of a safari truck or even boat tour, but never would I have imagined that we were questing for animals on foot!  They also gave us the escape mechanisms/routes to get away from each of the animals we were looking for.  For example, if you’re outrunning an elephant, don’t climb a tree because they’ll knock it down.  That’s a safety preparedness drill I never thought I’d have…

We got to the camp right before dark, just in time for dinner.  We quickly realized we were getting attacked by bugs even with our excessive amounts of mosquito spray so the night ended “early” and we headed back to our respective tents.  I put early in quotes because it ended early for everyone else.  Naturally, O-tent II took it upon ourselves to stay up much later than everyone else.

The next morning came bright and early.  Well, it was actually not that bright seeing as how it was still dark.  Regardless, it came early.  We had a cup of tea and Hannah and I had a few too many rusks than was socially acceptable to hold us over (I’d guess between four and five).  Rusks are sort of like biscotti-esque biscuits people eat with tea.  It was going to be a few hours until the real breakfast so we decided to load up. 

We took a short mkoro trip to a neighboring island to go on yet another game walk.  Luckily, we strategically avoided the hippos on the way.  This was my favorite game walk of the trip.  (To clarify, I have a favorite game walk, drive, and cruise.  Three separate means of encountering animals).  We were able to get so close to zebras!!!  I’ve also decided zebras are my new favorite animal because they are SO COOL.  First, they’re not aggressive/mean/dangerous (well as little as possible for being a wild animal).  They are pretty much super exotic horses – who wouldn’t be into that?!  We literally spent 45 minutes playing a “game of chess” with the zebras.  We’d move closer, they’d move farther, we’d move again, they’d stay, then they’d move.  It was actually really interesting watching them asses whether or not we were predators or not.

Also on this walk we saw baboons, buffalo horns, impala, and warthogs.  We returned to our campsite for a fabulous Norman-made breakfast of eggs and bacon.  Ali and I spent the morning tanning in a mkoro and before we knew it, it was time for lunch.  Hannah and I went on a fishing excursion with some polers later as well.  It was a nice and relaxing day.  We learned our lesson the day before and decided not to swim.

Around 5pm, we left for a sunset mkoro ride along the Delta.  It was absolutely stunning.  All the sunsets in Botswana are like watercolor paintings.  The sky turns shades of purple, pink, and orange.  It is incredible.  It's actually pretty similar to a California sunset.  This night also marked the first night of Passover.  There were at least eight people on my trip who are Jewish so they had a makeshift Passover Seder back at the campsite.  It was pretty cool.  I’ve sort of seen a real Passover at GW, so it was interesting seeing Passover: Botswana edition.

After Norman’s incredible dinner of lamp chops, baked potatoes, and tomato-ey gravy we gathered around the fire for a performance from our polers.  They sang and danced to a few Setswana songs.  Our favorite was the one they sang in English that was reminiscing on our trip.  We decided we’d offer them a cultural experience as well, so Ty pulled out his guitar and we attempted to find a song we all knew the words to.  The winners were Party in the USA (later rewritten as Party in the Delta), Our Song by Taylor Swift, Hey Ya by Outkast, and Jumper.  I’m not sure if that’s a cultural red flag that these were the songs we all knew the words to, but regardless we all had so much fun dancing and singing.  After another late night O-tent II talk, we went to bed on our last night in the Delta.

The morning brought our last sunrise game walk.  We packed up the mkoros and took the trip back to our good old truck, Kurt.  Although we were all excited to shower and use a real bathroom, we definitely were going to miss the Delta.  It’s funny how easily it was to get used to doing absolutely nothing with our days.  We did a lot of sitting around and talking, played a lot of icebreaker games, and also did a fair amount of exploring.  Not once did I miss my phone or feel the need to check Facebook.  It was probably the most simple, relatively speaking, part of the trip, but it was also one of my favorites.  I cannot imagine every being able to do something like that again in my life.  I mean, I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but when will I ever be able to camp on a random island in the Delta with a bunch of people I just met, avoid wild animals on my trips to the bathroom, spontaneously get attacked by leeches in what is more or less hippo-infested water, or relax on a mkoro while watching the sunset?  Most likely never again.

PS: Spring break posts are coming in waves.  More to come!!

PSS: My school advisor, Jeremy, asked me to write a "guest blog post" for the blog he keeps for his students!  I was very honored to have been asked to write it :) If you want to check it out, just click below!
Guest Blog Post

Tea, Rugby, and a bit of history

Yes, this post is about three or four weeks late.  I’m just going to stop acknowledging that all my posts are late at this point…  This lovely post is all about my fun weekend escapades around Cape Town!  Although I live here and go to school here, it’s similar to DC (but not as bad) in the sense that I actually have a life here so it’s not always the easiest thing to be a tourist for a whole weekend.  Also, there are constantly so many things that are organized for me so I don’t always get the opportunity to make plans of my own.

This weekend started Saturday morning with a nice little jaunt to the Mount Nelson Hotel where Ali, Hannah, and I began the day with high tea!  As most people who know me know, I love wearing dresses, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to whip one out.  The Mount Nelson Hotel is in the city between Kloof and Long Street.  It’s a beautiful hotel – a luscious green gem in a not-so-green city.

I have three things to thank for my interest in high tea: Gigi, college exams, and South Africa’s cultural addiction to tea.  A few years ago, Gigi (my grandma) had a tea party for my friends and I during our spring break.  We had tasty tea, yummy tea sandwiches, and a great time.  Since then, I’ve been a fan of tea parties (although I can’t say I’ve had many).  I love how relaxing it is to enjoy a cup of tea with someone.  It’s the type of activity that has a culture of its own: sophisticated, natural, relaxing, and healthy – a combination of overall great things. 

As a non-coffee drinker, tea has a special place in my heart.  While some students prefer coffee, sweets, and Red Bull to study, I’d take a cup of green tea any day.  Lastly, South Africans love their tea.  They are known for their Rooibos tea, which is my personal favorite (in fact, I’m at a café right now drinking a cup).  Tea drinking is cultural in the sense that anyone can sit down, take a break from the day and simply enjoy a nice conversation over a tasty cup of tea – I’m into it.

So, that’s just what Ali, Hannah, and I did.  We had a scrumptious tea feast and enjoyed a lovely summer morning in the sun.

After our relaxing morning, we headed over to Long Street to walk around for a bit.  Long Street is one of the most popular places to go out at night, so it’s neat being there during the day and seeing what it’s really like.  There’s nothing like a morning tea party and some casual shopping around to make a girl happy!

We’d had our fill of “girl” activities, so it was now time for us to get our fill of “guy” activities.  (Although I will throw in a little side note that while going for morning high tea is not exactly a manly activity, per say, men here do love tea just as much as any woman!  I think that’s interesting because tea at home definitely has a more feminine connotation than coffee does at home.  Just a thought.)  It only seemed natural to go to a rugby game that afternoon to get a well rounded Saturday.

The rugby stadium is a fifteen-minute walk from my apartment at the Newlands Stadium.  Though I had no idea what was going on (I didn’t make enough time to read Rugby for Dummies before the game), it was really cool to see a game.  Franny and I thought it was hilarious how some of their formations involved “cheerleading stunts” and “booty slapping.”  I’m sure that’s super offensive and incorrect, but when you don’t know what’s going on, it was the easiest comparison to find.  But actually, the game is super aggressive and if someone gets hurt the playing continues.  There’s no mercy!  I reckon I could get into rugby if I consistently watched games with someone who could explain what’s going on to me.  For now, I think I’ll stick to football.

One thing that should be noted though: the cheerleaders.  I'll also inform you that every time the Stormers scored, the cheerleaders tore off their skirts to expose the back of their "leotards" where it said DHL (the sponsor) on their behinds... It was strange.

Sunday consisted of a whole different activity, which I had been looking forward to ever since my last trip to Cape Town!  We were going to Robben Island for the day to see the prison and the epic cell of Nelson Mandela's.  While I normally don't go into things with many expectations, I made the mistake of having really high expectations for this.  I should have been a little less confident that this would be one of the most moving historical tours I'd ever have.  It pains me to say it, but I was actually pretty let down by the tour.

I will admit that part of it was simply because of the disorganization and chaos of going with 75+ CIEE students.  Transporting a group that large from apartments to the waterfront to boats that take us to an island and back is no easy task.  It took us 2-3 hours from the time we left our apartments in the morning to actually arrive at Robben Island (let's just say the quick boats they usually use were out of use for the day so we went on a leisurely cruise to get there).  What normally is an hour and a half round trip tour (add in about 45 minutes more for transport time from where we live to the waterfront), occupied the hours between 7:30 am and 4:00 pm.  Basically it was a looooong day to see very little.  

Once we got to the island, the tour consisted of a walking and a driving segment.  Our tour guide was actually a former prisoner!  It was interesting to hear him talk about his time spent there although I wish I had come with more questions to ask him.

I cannot discredit the fact that this was and is an extremely historical site with so much importance.  I just really wish the tour was set up in a more educational way.  I'm used to tours being "spoon-fed" to me as if I'm in a museum and that's basically what I was expecting.  There were no pictures, informational areas, or anything that could lend a little more insight into the island and what occurred there and the tour was not exactly designed to give a plethora of information.  I felt like I wanted to ask so much but I didn't even know where to start because I wasn't prompted by the information our tour guide was giving.  The prison also has basically been cleared out so it's a ton of empty rooms.  In the back of my mind I think I was expecting an Alcatraz type of tour with even more history behind it.  I feel like we got a walking tour through a few empty prison buildings.  I did get to see Mandela's cell though.  While I'll be honest in saying that it wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be (see picture below), it would be a crime to be here for six months and not see it.  Although I can't say it was the most exciting Sunday of my life, I'm happy I had the opportunity to go and see what Robben Island is all about!

IN OTHER NEWS, Desmond Tutu’s grandson bought my friends and I drinks tonight at a restaurant!  I’m not even kidding.  It was so cool!!  This random guy asked if he could join our table and although we reluctantly agreed, him and his friend turned out to be so cool!  After awhile, it casually came up in conversation that he was Archbishop Desmond Tutu's grandson...  Like seriously, this is not real life!!  My friends and I also potentially might be invited tomorrow to A) go to a popular restaurant in a township with them B) have tea/lunch/something of the sort with Desmond Tutu himself...  We'll see if that actually happens, but regardless we got the offer, which is cool enough!  Also, Hannah and I came back and googled everything they told us to see if they were making this up, but there is no way they could have made up everything they said.  This was the real deal.  In case you were wondering, DT's grandson is a pro golfer, apparently a really good one too.  Desmond's son is named Trevor and his son (the guy we were with) is named Lizo.  Even if we don't get to hang out with our new friends tomorrow and go on adventures, it was still outrageously cool.  Lizo and Jabu, thanks for the ciders!