21 is soooo overrated

Two days after South Africa was my 22nd birthday! I actually do feel old now, especially since my roommate will be turning 20 in two weeks. So for my birthday, Lauren got me a huge ice cream cake and it was delicious! As you can see from the picture it was bigger than me (also look at my dimple on my chin, oh so cute!). We celebrated with dinner, drinks, and some gifts. The day after my birthday I got another cake from the librarian ladies, and it was also ice cream….. So yummmmy! I had a great birthday! Thanks to everyone for the cards, money, and gifts!!!

Akuna Mattatta.....it means no worries

South Africa is over and my mom is now gone, sigh. But I had such an amazing time. The day after the Safari, my mom and I took a town ship tour. In one town ship, Langa, the population was 100,000 and in another the population was 1 million. I couldn’t believe that many people lived in little shacks with roofs made out of tin and trash bags.

We visited a spirit healer and that was quite interesting. There were herbs everywhere and also bones of dead animals hanging from the ceiling. Kinda gross…

After that we went to a kindergarten class that had children from ages 0 to 5. I promise to you that the place was smaller than my Cedarbrook apartment and amazingly it held 60 children. We spent about 15 minutes with the kids and this was my favorite part about visiting the town ship. They sang for us and also loved looking at their picture after we took pictures of them. A little boy who was only 1 came up to me and put his arms up to me because he wanted me to pick him up. I held him and played with him and every time I tried to put him down or when the teacher tried to take him away he would start to bawl, it was so sad. Another little girl was really affectionate with my mom and kept playing with her hair. These kids were yearning for affection, I felt so sorry for them.

Later that day, my mom and I took a tour out to the wine lands which was about 45 minutes north east of Cape Town. It was absolutely gorgeous there and we tried wines from two wineries. Both my mom and I wanted to buy some but since she cant being it on the plane and I cant bring it on the ship, we didn’t. They were really delicious though.

That night, I went out with Lauren, Peter, and Paul to Long Street, which is the popular street in Cape Town with all the clubs and bars. As usual it was full of drunken laughter. Peter, Paul, and I practiced our skydiving faces for the next day.

On the last day at 1pm Cape Town time, I jumped out of a plane. Ahhh, I was so scared, but am so happppy that I did it. It was amazing; I can’t wait to do it again some day. At first I was a little nervous about the place we were at, but the place we jumped out of is where Prince Harry jumped out of as well. The guy who jumped out with Paul also tandem’d with Prince Harry, so it kind of reassured me a little more. Peter, Paul, and I were in the same plane with our tandem guys and they were all trying to freak me out. We we’re squeezed into this tiny plane for about 20 minutes which was the worst. We jumped out at 9,000…. I was the first to jump out and Peter took a video of me while I jumped out and the video is hilarious because I am freaking out. I also have a video of me while jumping and I pretty much screamed the entire time. My mom has both the videos and I plan to put it on youtube when I get a chance so hopefully you guys will get to see it. Sky diving was definitely worth it though. Unfortunately, I couldn’t convince my mom to do it with me.

After sky diving my mom and I shopped and relaxed on the ship before she had to catch her flight. We had dinner on the ship and took some pictures. I will always remember this as the birthday I spent a week in South Africa with my mom.

Jungle Book

Our Safari in Africa is at its end and we are now back in Cape Town. Early Saturday morning we took a plane to Johannesburg and then a hot 4 hour bus drive east of Jo’burg to a small town called Nelspruit. My mom and I stayed at this backpackers hostel called Funky Monkey for the night and it was a cute hippy looking place and was comfortable after traveling all day long. At Funky Monkey we met a girl who was working in a township nearby. She was here for the Peace Corps and has been there for about a year a half. Ironically, she’s from a town near Pittsburgh where my old roommate Adrian is from, and she actually knew her. Small world right?

The next morning, Sunday, we got picked up at 5am and took an hour drive to the Kruger National Park. Right when we arrived, we hopped into a Safari truck with 5 German girls and 2 guys from Italy and took a 3 hour game drive. This was our best game drive of our trip because we saw so many animals, including giraffes, zebras, and elephants. After this game drive we had breakfast, went out for another game drive, came back and chilled by the pool, had lunch, went for another game drive, then came back and had dinner. This was pretty much our schedule the next day also. The entire trip we did 7 game drives and fortunately we were able to see the BIG 5, which includes the elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and buffalo. Personally I liked the giraffes because of their long curly eyelashes and also the impalas, hence the Chevy Impala. These antelope/deer looking animals are very pretty. Their skin looks so soft and smooth and they leap very high. I’ve included some pictures of my favorite animals. I also enjoyed the baboons even though they are naughty and mischievous. While we were out on a game drive, a baboon went into one of the German girl’s tent, went into her bag and opened a bag of cookies. Also on the second day while my mom and I were by the pool, a bunch of baboons came into the area and were digging through all the trash cans for food. And…during a game drive we stopped to take pictures of the baboons and they were throwing nuts at our truck. Our tour guide, JJ, informed us that they can be very dangerous.

We camped out for two nights at this camp site, Pretoriuskop, which was right in the middle of the Kruger Park. Not only were baboons in our camp, but also impalas and different types of birds. On Tuesday morning, after our last game drive, we took the same route back, a bus ride to Jo’burg then a flight to Cape Town. We came back to the ship where I made my mom work out with me; we had dinner on the ship, and are now at her hotel resting up for our last two days in Cape Town. Tomorrow we plan to visit a township, which is a euphuism for ghetto/projects, then to the wine lands, and our last day I am plan to go skydiving!! Cross your fingers I don’t chicken out!
PS: Thanks for the mail Grandma Dina and Brook!

In Cape Town

We docked into the Cape Town port around 6am on Friday morning, March 2nd, but we didn’t disembark until 11:30am. My mom was allowed to come onto the ship for the diplomatic briefing where the premier of South Africa spoke for about 30 minutes. Once this was over, we had lunch on the ship, and then did some sightseeing around Cape Town. Unlike our previous ports (Puerto Rico & Brazil), the port in Cape Town is right on the waterfront where there are many shops, restaurants, and bars; right in the middle of everything. My mom and I took a Hop On-Hop Off double decker bus tour of the city. Even though I’m in Africa right now, Cape Town does not seem like it at all. It is so modern here, I feel like I’m in a cleaner version of San Francisco, minus the trolleys and hills. This is off the subject, but I would just like to say that I am so proud of my sister because she just got accepted to the University of San Fran! Alright, back to Cape Town…. on this bus tour we could hop off the bus and get back on later so we stopped at Table Mountain. These are what these pictures above are from. We took a cable up to the mountain and as you can see, there was such a great view of the city. Later that night, a bunch of sassers and I experienced the nightlife at a club called Opium. Through the savvy of my friend Shelly we didn’t pay cover charge and overall had a lot of fun! After the club I met my mom at her hotel because we had a flight to Jo’burg at 6am!!!!!!

My new cell phone number....

I got my global cell! It is an Estonia number so you will need to get an international calling card to call me, but while on land you should all be able to get a hold of me. The number is 372-5317-2311