Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Class, Cricket Matches, and Surfing

In recent days of my adventure in Cape Town I've been confused, annoyed, happy, and satisfied. I'll start off by saying the University of Cape Town has some of the most nonchalant people working in their registration offices. Coming into the start of classes last week I was excited to take four classes that held my interest like never before. But to my surprise the admin had decided to change the times of the classes so that 3 out of my four classes we schedule for the SAME time. I was absolutely frustrated. With this occurrence I had to spend the next 3 days going here and going there, hearing I can't help you go here, the advisor for international students went on vacation so I had no help on campus. Thank God for my advisor back at UNCG, she helped me sort everything out. Nonetheless I spent the whole first week of classes cleaning up a mess that I didn't make. As my dad says this is my education and I have to deal with the hassles until its all completed.

Moving On, last Friday I went to my first ever cricket match. Now ladies and gentlemen, I'm just going to say Cricket is the most mind-numbing sport I ever seen. I'd rather watch Olympic Curling or Underwater basket weaving lol. Sure it's kind of similar to baseball but I promise it is completely different and for me to explain it right now would not do a world of good to your understanding. I did enjoy the experience but it'll probably be my last cricket match while I'm here next up I plan to go to a Rugby Game!!!

Lastly, I Spent all day on Saturday learning how to SURF!!! Now this is huge for me. Growing up in Wilmington, NC the beach life has always been apart of me. I could always swim, fish, boat, and many other water things but I never learned how to surf. Around noon on Saturday a few of my housemates and I joined the Surf Club for their free surfing event at Muizenberg Beach. We were fitted with wet suits (I got the coolest one -a HURLEY brand- which is the Nike of surfing) and given surf boards according to size. One of the keys to surfing is finding your balance and paddling as the wave approaches then hoping up, getting a good grip at the center of the board. Im sure that sounds hard and I probably could have explained it better but that process was definitely the easiest of them all. For the first 30min most of us struggled with the assumed easiest step- Paddling Out into the Ocean. I assumed that you simply just swim over top of the wave,,well that only got me slammed on my back and tossed towards the beach. The pros take the board and swim underneath the wave before it comes crashing down. As I graduated from the trial and error phase I concurred one of my many bucket list items. I rode about 7 or 8 strong waves and Honestly, I've never felt so in sync with the ocean. Truly tapped into my inner beach boy lol.

Through it all the week was a success. My classes are set, I'm checking off bucket list items, and growing stronger as a person everyday. This Wednesday marks my fourth week here, time has definitely flown by. Missing home but not home sick. Peace

Friday, February 11, 2011

South African Road Trip

Day 1-Tuesday Feb 8th

To get an early start, me and 4 of my housemates woke up  at 7am to begin an 8 hr drive eastward along the southern coast of South Africa. Our destination was Sedgefield which sat right beside Wilderness National Park. After battling to decide who would get the horrible seat of sitting in the middle of the backseat, we began our journey. The drive consisted of beautiful views of the South African coastline on the right and breathtaking scenery of the mountains to the left of us. It was a long ride but rather smooth do to the lack of traffic and the road conditions we're surprisingly good almost to the likeness of the highways back home. We settled in for the night at this hostel called AfroVibe lol (the logo had a pick over the O haha). The hostel sat right on a lagoon that lead directly into the Indian Ocean.  The dorm style rooms were pretty clean and we received great hospitality.  I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

Day 2-Wednesday Feb 9th

Eagered to begin a day of Awesome adeventures we gathered our things together at 6am. My housemates were adement about taking a swim in the Indian Ocean before leaving but It was entirely too early for me, so I just went to the rooftop of the hostel and enjoyed the sounds of the ocean.

We were scheduled to be at Willderness national park at 8am to begin a day of Kloofing, Absailing, and Canoeing. Once arriving at the park we were greeted by our tour guide named Steve who was born and raised in the area hailing from the koosa tribe. Steve was pretty cool he was americanized but still very into his people, he spoke over 7 different languages and kept  us laughing pretty much the whole day. To start our adventures we began with Kloofing. Kloof is an afrikaans word for clift. Now the process of kloofing was that we go down a river in between the nearby mountains and jump off of certain clifts into deep pools of water. The jumps ranged from 3meters to 12meters. I have a mild fear of heights so I didnt jump off anything higher than 6meters which was still pretty high lol. Equipped with wet suits and life jackets we hiked 40 minutes through the jungle... literally. Steve said watch out for leopards and baboons, I said God please dont let me see either lol. Once we got to the river it was cold yet refreshing. We would go through bouts of swimming and climbing over rocks and of course the best part jumping off of the clifts!!.After 4hrs and 4km journey the kloofing came to an end and we prepared for the next event of the day...Absailling!!!

Now absailling was definitely the most trying event for me. The way it worked was that we hiked up another mountain and came to a canyon opening that held a beautiful waterfall. The idea was to be attached to a rope and climb down into the cayon where at one point you are hanging in mid air where you will then slide down the rope into a canoe. I must admit I was stupid nervous doing this. It wasnt until I was almost into the canoe that I realized...man this would make a great photo haha. But nonetheless I enjoyed it but I'll probably never do it again...well maybe lol. And of course lastly we canoed back to shore where we were picked up.

Satified that I had down some pretty amazing outdoor adventures we brought the day to close by checking into another hostel called the Amakaya Backpackers. Now this hostel completely blow me away. It was
pretty much a very nice house that had a nice fire pit area for gatherings and a bar with a billiards table upstairs. And the owners brought us in like we were family, I must say it was easy for me to make myself comfortable.

Last Day- Thursday Feb 10th

On the last day of our trip we had one last feat to accomplish...well at least my housemates did. That was bungy jump from the largest bungy jump in the world with a fall of 216meters. Running for 200meters seemed long to me I couldnt imagine falling for that long. The whole morning they were like come on Sam jump with us...just do it man it'll be fun. I told them I woudnt jump for them or anybody, not even if they paid for it. If all of your friends jumped off of a bridge.. would you? HECK NOOOOO lol. But it was definitely an experience to see them do it. I just couldnt comprehend falling for sooo long it was crazy.


All in all the trip was excellent. I was reluctant to go at first but I am definitely glad I made the trip. I've always believed that Memories are made by doing not saying and this trip is definitely going into my memory's museum. And to top it all off the way back to cape town..we heard President Zuma give his live State of the Nation Address on the radio. It was just a mind-blowing experience that I would have paid a million dollars for.