South Africa! -I'll be back!

South Africa.

The most amazing place. I must go back! There are so many things to do and it is so gorgeous!

Day 1

So I decided to wake up for sunrise as we pulled into Cape Town. So glad I did that! Ugh, it was so beautiful.  I'll never forget that sight. The sun was just about to rise, the city was still asleep, and you just see this HUGE mountain called Table mountain behind this huge city.  You see big sky scrapers at the bottom of the mountain. It doesn't look real. The buildings look so misplaced! After snapping some pictures, eating breakfast and going through immigration I headed out to explore this place called Waterfront with a few girlfriends. Waterfront is awesome. It's like Disney World on the harbor without the rides (besides a beautiful ferris wheel). It's all restaurants and shops on the harbor, always with live music and little performances constantly going on.  I spent a lot time at Waterfront this week (it was conveniently very close to where we were docked.  We ate lunch (I had a croissant filled with berries and nutella :)) and met up with my friend Jackie's about to be roommate (a fellow gap year student who's going to Harvard and has an internship in Cape Town for the semester).  It was great learning about Cape Town from her.  I had an FDP (required field trip) at 2. It was for my popular music class so it was a Hip-hop trip. We went to a township (where lower class live in very close quarters). Sidenote: Cape Town has one of the largest if not the largest gap between poor and rich.  There is extreme poverty in Cape Town, but near the water where we were a lot of the time it was very upscale.  Anyways, for my FDP we went to some artist's garage, sat on crates and listened to him rap a couple songs to some background beats coming out of his laptop speakers. He told us all about life in the townships and hip-hop artists' lives.  We then went to a school/community space and watched middle school aged girls practice a dance routine on stage. They invited us to join them, so a couple of us hopped up on a stage, and tried to follow along. It was so much fun being on stage and dancing with the South Africans, who were very talented. A few other rappers performed for us impromptu, just for us, very informally.  We went back to the ship, where I found some friends.  We headed out to Long Street (a popular place with lots of restaurants and shops). I had some pizza and Hunter's (really good hard cider) and talked with friends. I then went to few different clubs along that street, met some Afrikaans (white South Africans who speak Afrikaans).  

 

Day 2

Andrea, Kendra and I went to The Old Bisquit Mill. This place is only opened on Saturdays. It was huge! There was every kind of food there you could imagine and it all looked SO delicious. I got a gyro and a Pomegranate smoothie, and the best iced coffee I've ever had.  It reminded me of the farmers market in Ithaca only wayyy bigger! There were tons of shops there too. We then hiked up Table Mountain! As we began our trek, this South African in his 30s named Brett asked if he could tag along.  He was really nice and it was great meeting a local and learning more about South Africa from him.  Hiking up Table Mountain was just incredible.  It took us a couple hours and was pretty steep and difficult, but it was very worth it.  The weather was beautiful (as was every single day! blue skies and sunny and low 80s I'd say every single day!!!) Experiencing the view as we hiked up Table Mountain was so incredible.  Indescribable!!! It was so peaceful up there too-so quiet. It was heaven like. We headed down the Cable Car and Brett took us to Cable Bay (a beach where there are a lot of cool restaurants and bars. We had some pita with hummus and I had a Spiced berry daquiri. We then headed back to the ship. I had another FDP for my music class.  This one was a Jazz Safari. We went back to a township and went into a living room of this musician who played really funky instruments. He played one-stringed instruments. A lot of the music he was playing seemed pretty strange but it was really interesting. He played the piano also.  They made us dinner-some Indian dish that was SO spicy.  He spoke of how much he adored his wife. It was so adorable. Then we headed to another musician's Aunt's house. (Zomi  Mdingi) is  a jazz singer who went to school for singing and is now competing in South African Idol! She had one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard! She had us join her in singing sometimes. I played the tambourine for a few songs. We got up and danced which was a blast!! Her uncle was dancing with me and was spinning me and such. So fun! I then headed back to the ship, and back out to Waterfront at this popular bar called Mitchells and found a bunch of friends and Brett! Finished the night off with some fries at McDonalds late at night. J

 

Day 3

I started out the day with a church service at Hillsong! 5 of us took a cab to the huge Hillsong United Church. It was such a great experience! The church is HUGE! There is one in London, Australia, South Africa and some in the states. The church had a café, place to buy books and had at least 3 levels. The church service was incredible. It looked like a rock concert. The music was loud, people were dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. I was overwhelmed. Just so awestruck. My eyes were actually wet. I was just filled with joy, astonishment happiness and comfort. They kept saying "Welcome Home." There were signs that said "Home" everywhere. I really did feel more at home than ever before. The message was awesome..delivered from this really entertaining guy from Britain.  I just loveddd being able to dance and be loud and enthusiastic with worship. It felt so right to me. Everyone was so happy to praise God and there were so many people worshipping. It was so incredible-I'll never forget that moment. I feel so blessed to be able to attend that service!

 After the service I went..SKYDIVING! Probably the coolest things I've ever done. There were 11 of us that went.  There was only 1 plane going up and 3 people went at a time so it took hoursss, but it was totally worth it! I was in the first group to go up. For some strange reason I wasn't the tiniest bit nervous. I thought going up in the plane I would start to feel some nerves, and especially when they open the door and you're legs are hanging over the edge. But there was not a single butterfly in my stomach. Crazy right? I'm personally a little weirded out. Since when did I become a wild child adventurous free spirit? Maybe it has to do with my roommate-that's basically the way to describe her. I really have been as stress free and worry free as I've ever been. On this voyage you HAVE to be flexible or you're just not going to have fun or be liked. Having Julie as a roommate is really cool though. And honestly none of the people I hang out with are high strung and stressed or worried. The people that surround you really have a big impact on you. I hope I stay this way..I think I will. It's so awesome not worrying, and just going with the flow. Sometimes you have to force yourself to go with the flow, but its so worth it. You learn a lot from it. And how much better things work out that way and how much happier you are when you let yourself be ok with everything. You can only be as happy as you let yourself.

 Ok, back to skydiving. So the guy I dove with was named Blake. He was awesome. He tried to scare me but it didn't work. He's done 5,000 dives before, so that definitely helped me not freak out. I chatted with him the whole way up in this ghetto, tiny plane. 6 of us squeezed in and sat on the floor of the plane. The view was absolutely gorgeous. It was about a 20 minutes plane ride before we jumped. I was the second one to jump. For some reason I didn't even get nervous when the first girl went. I don't get it-I freak out when I give presentations in class but when I jump out of a plane 9,000 feet above ground I've never felt more comfortable. No exaggeration! I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. So when we jumped out of the plane my first thought as I was flying through the air was "I don't want this to end!!!" It was the most amazing feeling. Your stomach doesn't drop at all like in a roller coaster. It was just the coolest feeling. I can't describe it. We free fell for 35 seconds and then the parachute jerked us up, and we were floating. The first thing I said was, "I'm becoming a professional sky diver." Haha, probably not..but I have to skydive any opportunity I get if I have the money. Everyone has gotta do it. I got to steer the parachute. We landed gracefully and slowly and it was all over in a total of about 3.5 minutes. I got a video of it, so I'll have to show you all when I get home.

 That night we went to Camps Bay again and I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. We got there just in time. The sun had just set on the beach. While the rest of our crew went to the bar, Ariel, Andrea and I could not pull ourselves away from the gorgeous sunset, so we took a couple pictures, then sat on the beach until it was dark. The moon was so bright and the reflection on the water was so pretty. We then went to a nice restaurant where we had amazing pizza and wine as we watched the reflection on the moon on the water on the beach.

 Afterwards we walked around and explored a couple clubs for a bit. Our friends befriended an Italian guy who had a crazy house overlooking the city. We all went to his house, which looked like something out of a magazine. The view was ridiculous! We could see our ship docked. The guy that lived there played the guitar and got me to improvise (singing). That was pretty cool-something I'd never done before.

 One awesome day, I'll never forget!

Day 4

On Day 4 and 5 I went on a wine tour and safari. It was a blast! We got to our first winery at 10:30AM. After the first winery we went to a restaurant for lunch. We then went to two other wineries. All of the wineries were absolutely gorgeous! My neighbor, Eshley and I bonded. She's a sweetheart. It's so fun constantly getting to know wonderful people. After we finished with the wineries we drove to a hotel for the night. The drive was awesome. The sights were unreal. The mountains are just so huge and magnificent. The beautiful green wine gardens are everywhere.  At the hotel there was wifi so I got to call my parents and skype with Julianne, Manda and Hilary!!! I was so happy! It was so wonderful talking to them and hearing their voices! This was the first time I heard a voice from home and saw a face since I left in January! There was a BBQ for us and afterwards we had fun at an outdoor bar just for us for the night. The stars were beautiful that night. There were soooo many stars! So about 10 of us climbed up through the emergency exit of the roof of the bus and lay down on the roof of the bus as we stargazed.

 

Day 5

We headed to the Aquila Lodge in the morning for the Safari. I didn't know what to expect, but man was I blown away! I felt like I was in the middle of the Lion King. We're in this vehicle trucking in the middle of nature. Huge, huge mountains all around. Nothing but nature and animals. No buildings, or other vehicles. It was so awesome. And there was so much land. So much space! It was unreal! We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, spingbok (South Africa's national animal), giraffes, zebras, ostriches, cheetahs, lions and other animals I forget the name.  My favorite was the lions! We saw 3 (1 boy and 2 girls) by a rock sleeping and then later we saw 2 others (1 boy and 1 girl)! We were so close! We were about 10 feet away from them! There wasn't a cage and our vehicle was open. The vehicle stopped for a few minutes so we could look and take pictures. They looked at us for a bit then went back to sleep. The boy lion looked at me in the eyes for a while! I got a sweet picture..I'll post it! At one point they let us get out of the vehicle where there were zebras, ostriches, and springbok. So we're chilling with them in the wild..no fences or anything! So surreal! A moment I'll never forget!

After the safar,i which lasted about 3 hours, we stopped at a fast food place, I stocked up on snacks for the ship (you starve, because they only serve you 3 meals and you have to buy all snacks), and we headed back to the ship.

I then headed out to Waterfront again with Cale (from Saratoga Springs!), and Natasha, both whom I met on the safari, and we had dinner at this fancy restaurant! Everything is cheap in Cape Town..so the price of drinks and dinner and appetizers at this fancy restaurant is about the same price as an Applebees dinner at home!) I had an espresso martini at the bar while we waited for our table. I had one of the best dinners I've ever had. I had a springbok! –what I saw earlier on the safari! It was better than steak! We enjoyed our dinner with wine, overlooking the harbor and ferris wheel while the sun set..it was just perfect! Then we headed to Mitchells (bar) and met some locals. We headed over to Caprice (club) on Camps Bay beach again, where the cab driver was playing gospel music J Then we went back to Mitchells, and finally headed back to the ship. Very sad to see the last night in Cape Town come to an end!

Day 6

I signed up for a Semester at Sea trip called Operation Hunger. Operation Hunger is an organization that works towards helping children with hunger and nutrition.  There we helped a few ladies cook dinner for the children (possibly their only meal of the day). The women cook everyday for these children. I cut and peeled potatoes for an hour with them in a tiny kitchen. Later on the kids came with their bowls, plates, tuperware, anything they had. We weighed the children, measured their height and the circumference of their upperarms. Then they were fed the meal we made. We contributed money to their meal, so as a special treat they got chicken that day. We had to leave after only spending a couple minutes with the kids, which bummed me out because I wanted to play with them. A couple 12/13ish year old girls asked what my name was and started talking with me but then we had to go. Driving through these townships was really sad. The biggest houses are the size of my room at school. A lot of the houses are built out of tin pieces and are incredibly small. I don't know what they do in the winter. These shacks were everywhere. When we left with our huge bus, all of the children along the streets waved to us. The children's faces would light up and they would all have the biggest smiles. They would start running after the bus sometimes. One of my favorite parts was waving to everyone that I passed, young and old. They all returned a smile and a wave.

Then we boarded the ship to leave Cape Town. I was so sad to leave Cape Town. This was the most sad I've ever been leaving a port! I fell in love with Cape Town-we all did! It's so so so beautiful and just so fun. So much to do! I really want to go back someday! 

I went on the upper decks and watched us pull away from port. It's such a beautiful city, as it's surrounded by mountains. I couldn't pull myself away. I did a toast with friends and then headed down to the 5^th deck (I think my favorite place on the ship). And watched us sail away from Cape Town for about an hour and a half, by myself, spending time with God and reflecting on the blessed week I just had in the beautiful country of South Africa. Table Mountain was lit up, and other mountains away from the city could be seen against the night sky. The sky was so clear, you could see all of the stars, and the moon was so bright, reflecting beautifully on the ocean. This is a sight I'll always remember and cherish. It was hard to pull myself away from it after 2 hours, but I had never been so sleep deprived in my life! I slept for 14 hours that night! I realized that the accumulation of sleep I had the week in Cape Town wasn't much more than 14!

Since I've been back on the ship the waters have been so rough! I can't be in my room unless I'm sleeping or I'll get seasick. Of course we all had a midterm today-good timing! And I have midterms the next 2 days too! Today was the first day that it's been cloudy since I can remember. It had to have been at least 3 weeks or so. We were so fortunate to have the most amazing weather in South Africa. Not a cloud in the sky the whole time! There's a big storm brewing coming down between Madagascar and Africa that could turn into a typhoon I guess (at least the rumors say). We're going slower because of it (and its still crazy rocky) and they made a sad announcement today. They announced that we wouldn't be able to go to Mauritius because we won't make it there in time and would then be late to India.  We're all pretty bummed. We were supposed to arrive the day after tomorrow and we were only going to be in Mauritius for one day. Now we stop in Mauritius for gas and get to look at it from the ship. Bummer! We'll be on the ship for 11 days straight now. Hopefully the rocky seas get better-it makes studying difficult, especially when you can't find a quiet place. My room is ridiculous-The waves are so intense that half the time huge gushes of water splash across my window, and you feel like you're airborne in your bed a lot of the time. Once in a while there will be a huge THUD when you crash onto a big wave. Makes life nothing but boring! 

Really can't complain! I keep thinking about South Africa, and it makes me so happy. It was one wonderful, wonderful week. I feel so very blessed! Can't wait to go back someday!