Saying goodbye

Well, the day has come for me to bid farewell to Cape Town. My room is completely bare and all of my stuff is entirely packed into one suitcase and a backpack, crazy! I don't think they will be overweight either. There's not much for me to say since I haven't really done much other than watch world cup games and enjoy being in Observatory.

Thank you everyone for reading my blog, which actually allowed me to remember the stuff that I did here as well. 197 Lower Main Road has been my home away from home and I will miss it dearly. I hope to come back to Cape Town again someday. I also want to continue living in places around the world. Traveling is one thing, but to spend a long time in another city is totally different. To have the craving to just watch a movie instead of going out to the town and finding new things to do really makes the place feel like home.

I am going out to eat for every meal today, since I have to get rid of the leftover rand I have. I plan on eating at Hello Sailor, which is right across the street from us. They have provided me and my roommates with so many delicious meals and good company.

This summer I plan on saving money (ya, right). I want to help my father build the new garage at the cabin for a week or two and get to Madison for at least one weekend before moving in. I am also going to the Boundary Waters with Bonnie, her Dad Randy and stepmom Terri. I cannot wait for all of this to happen, as it should keep my mind off of not being in Cape Town. I am extremely lucky to have so many friends from the house who also go to Madison. I will be able to hang out with them all next year.

I get home on Friday around 4:30pm Central time. I cannot wait to see my family and friends who have been so great with keeping in touch all semester!

Cheers, Cape Town. Until next time,

Love,
Sam

The World Cup

What a crazy couple weeks it has been in South Africa. The World Cup has completely enveloped my life here, as well as the departure of the entire house and many of my close friends from around the city.

The World Cup began in this country long before June 11th. When the country was drawn to host the 2010 World Cup, many infrastructure changes have seen the cities around South Africa update to host all 32 countries and its citizens travelling here. Since moving here there have been advertisements and countdowns on everything from television stations to shop’s windows. On the 10th of June, we went to the Cape Town “Grand Parade” FIFA fan park to get our bearings correct before coming the next day for the opening match. We all had USA flags on our backs and were quickly swarmed with people wanting pictures with us. Three different television stations from South Africa and France interviewed me. It was as we were celebrities, haha.

The opening day South Africa match crew:

June 11th, 2010 marks one of the most exciting days of my life. I really cannot express how I was feeling with the World Cup finally coming to South Africa and being able to watch Bafana Bafana play the opening match. We got the fan park five hours before game-time to make sure we could get in. It was a good decision because they closed the gates about 30 minutes after we were in because the park was at capacity. The afternoon involved a ton of live music, beer, friends and meeting people. When the game started, the country’s eyes were 100% fixed on the game. When Siphiwe Tshabalala opened up the scoring for South Africa, this entire country literally erupted. I have never screamed so loud in my life and thrown so much beer all over everyone around me (they were doing the same). Not only was it one of the most spectacular shots into the upper right shelf, it was South Africa, FIFA ranked 82nd in the world playing against a much more experienced Mexican side. The Mexico goal sucked, but the fact that SA got a point out of the days games was glorious enough for everyone here and allowed us to keep our spirits up until they played again.

Ari & I at the fan park with Table Mountain in the background:

That evening I walked with my friend Don to the France/Uruguay match at Green Point Stadium where we watched it live from the nosebleeds. Although the match was kind of a bore, it was so cool to see all of this big soccer names play in front of me. Soccer has finally turned into a real sport for me and not just an internet obsession. The next day was USA vs. England. What at day it was! We decided to watch the game at Scrumpy Jack’s instead of go the fan park because we wanted to be able to cautiously watch the game in a place we could call home. After a horrible mistake by Robert Greene, we got one point out of the game we were supposed to lose. A great night!

Outside of the Stadium:

Don & I at our seats in Green Point Stadium:

Scrumpy Jacks friends Nyani and Cia with Anthony and I and some girl I don't know. The night of the USA vs. England match:

Me, Taryn, Ariana and Amanda after the USA tying England:

The next few days involved a lot of soccer watching at home or at other pubs. On the 15th a few of us guys from the house went on a road trip starting at 3:00am in the morning to Port Elizabeth. We had tickets for the Portugal vs. Ivory Coast game that was at 5:00pm and made it there around 1:00pm. We had a nice hostel that was totally outfitted for the world cup and gave us good directions to the game down on the waterfront. Nelson Mandela Stadium was a great venue to watch the game at. The evening was pretty chilly, but we managed to stay warm and keep our spirits up even though the game ended in a 0-0 draw. I am happy to have watched a lot of soccer before so I can appreciate a 0-0 game, but feel bad for other people who are expecting some amazing goals and a close match.

Scrumpy Jacks of course:

We left Port Elizabeth the next morning and made a 7-hour trip up to Bloemfontein. We stayed at one of our friend’s cousin’s house in the city. It was cool to stay at a place that we wouldn’t be able to find online with a person who knew Bloemfontein. Tutu was his name, and we spent the evening with his friends at another person’s apartment watching the Bafana game, which unfortunately didn’t end in their favor. We then went to a bar in the surrounding township that we definitely wouldn’t have gone to without these guys. We were by far the only white people there, but people greeted us and were really interested to talk and hear our story! I had a blast, as did the other guys, and really appreciate Tutu’s hospitality.

Our Nissan Tiida kept us moving for the World Cup:

Nelson Mandela Stadium, Port Elizabeth:

We left for Johannesburg pretty early the next morning for our final destination and final World Cup match. We arrived in the city and picked up our friend Jacob at the airport where we found another pub (go figure) and watched the Argentina game. We left the airport to our hostel with some random guy who drove us in his Mercedes (awesome.). We found our hostel quite easily and were really excited when we walked in because it seemed to be an awesome place to spend a couple days for the World Cup. We unfortunately were relocated to one of the hostels’ satellite bunks, which had a shuttle running to and forth every 30 minutes. We weren’t too disappointed at our move since our place had a TV and some warm showers. The only bad part about the satellite hostel was its location. It happened to be on a random grid in Johannesburg that was shutting down its electricity randomly throughout the day. We were a little irritated to say the least.

The next day brought the greatest sporting event I have ever been to; The USA vs. Slovenia at Ellis Park Stadium. Ellis Park was the venue where South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup that people would recognize from Invictus. It was really cool knowing that we were in a place of history! Our seats were in the second row at one of the corners! The USA went down 0-2 in the first half, which was not very hopeful in any respect. The moods were dim, but we still tried to enjoy the game. The second half started in the best way possible. Landon Donovan scored a wonderful goal from a tight angle, blasting the ball into the upper net. The stadium completely erupted with screams and flags and scarves. When the second goal came, was really the determining point in my life where I knew how loud and high pitched my voice could get. I, without a doubt, sounded like a little schoolgirl screaming after the second goal went in. It was one of the most glorious celebrations I have ever experienced. The 3rd “what should have been a goal” was taken away (and I have it on camera), but we shouldn’t have gone down by two goals in the first place. After the game, we were so tired from cheering and singing all day that we crashed pretty hard at the hostel afterwards.

Stephen & I in our seats for the USA vs. Slovenia match:

Our plane brought us back to Cape Town the next morning. It was very nice to get home after being gone for only 4 days. Going to lots of different cities in South Africa has made me really appreciate Cape Town. It is a city entirely different from the rest. It has everything and everyone. The pace is a little quicker here, and people are far more accommodating and willing to help travelers around. I say this fully knowing that there are great people in all of the cities, but Cape Town is my home right now and I won’t be able to think any city is better than the Mother City.

Home base:

The city is completely draped in South African flags:

The World Cup is running steady right now and I have been watching the games pretty closely. The USA going out the other night was not the happiest moment of my life, but at least it was to Ghana, the last African team in the tournament. I am the last original person in the house now. Everyone else has gone home and left me behind ☹. I spent the weekend at a braai in Nyanga (township) and driving to Simon's Town and around Chapman's Peak Drive one last time on Sunday. New people have been moving in, but the house (and the city in this case) will never be the same without all of the lovely, beautiful people I spent so much time with. I plan on keeping busy these last few days to try and make myself content with leaving my home in South Africa. It will be tough to leave, but I know that I am going home to the family and friends that make my life so great. I will try and update one last time before I leave.

Sible, Me, Lin Li and Mason (friend from home):

At Andrew and Ivy's braai:

My last South African sunset from Camps Bay:

Much love to everyone,
I will be home soon enough,

Namibia

Well, well, well. I have made it home from Namibia in one piece! Before I go into details, I just want to say that Namibia was by far my favorite trip I have taken in South Africa thus far. Everything worked out smoothly with our car and accommodations throughout the country, which made the trip far more relaxed than it could have been. The first day we managed to make it 6 hours north to Springbok, South Africa where we stayed at a nice backpacker/hostel for the night. We splurged on a good meal that night at a steakhouse/seafood a la carte restaurant. It is a much different lifestyle in rural South Africa. The World Cup fever hasn’t really reached these areas since rugby is still the number one sport. Afrikaners typically live in the town, which represents a totally different White community than in the city.

The next morning we left early and crossed into Namibia with ease. Nothing but the hood of the car was checked and we were asked if we had anybody in the trunk, which we didn’t, but we could have easily smuggled a few people through, haha. The Orange River is what marks the border between South Africa and Namibia. I have learned a lot about the Orange River and what it represented as a border for the frontier farmers from the Cape Colony. We crossed it and it actually had water flowing, which is weird to see here since most rivers are seasonal and pretty dry right now. The ecology of Namibia changed pretty quickly from grassland/shrubs of South Africa, to sandy/dirt/shrub. The entire time we drove, we couldn’t comprehend how vast the country was. Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world. This was entirely noticeable while we drove and wouldn’t see any person for hours other than cars. Even the towns that we drove through were so deserted and kind of lonely feeling, including one of the largest cities in Namibia. We drove all the way to Ai-Ais, an area where there are hot springs near the Fish River. There isn’t much to say about the hot springs, other than the fact that they were hot! They typically stay about 65 degrees Celsius.

An example of how vast this country is:

The five of us on the Fish River:

From Ai-Ais we made our way to the famous Fish River Canyon. The canyon is the second largest erosion canyon in the world with the Grand Canyon representing the largest. I have never been to the Grand Canyon, so this seemed huge! It was so cool looking down the vertical rock faces and throwing rocks off the sides, trying to keep your eye on them and watch them explode at the bottom. There wasn’t much to do in the canyon other than look out across the vast area and see how it snakes its way south to the Orange River. We left and made our way across to the town of Keetmanshoop.

Overlooking the Fish River Canyon:

Fish River Canyon again:

In Keetmanshoop, we stayed at Betties Beds, a nice Afrikaner couple who allowed all five of us to sleep in the same room for only the price of one room. They seemed really nice at first, and we eventually realized that they were so nice to us more or less because we were white. The Afrikaner man literally told us that he was happy to see white kids instead of black people come to their door, and continued to explain that “White is wonderful.” It was an interesting conversation, hearing blatant racism come from this person. We didn’t want to get him riled up about race, so we just kept nodding our heads and looking at each other in disbelief. Other than that, Bettie was a really nice lady who provided a nice place to sleep the night. We left Keetmanshoop early in hopes to make it to Sossusvlei by the afternoon.

Sossusvlei is a National Park that reaches the eastern shore of Namibia that is home to the world’s largest sand dunes. We made it to the campsite in the park around 3:00pm and then drove into the desert in search of a dune to climb. What we witnessed and were doing is just not possible to explain in words. The dunes are some of the most magnificent natural things I have ever seen in the world. We stayed on top of Dune 45 (for some reason a popular dune) for the sunset with bottles of wine and just the warm desert sun mixed with the chilly night, making for one of the most phenomenal nights of my life. It was just so hard to comprehend what we were sitting on was entirely sand. The sand is incredibly red and soft. Considering how warm it was as well, it made for a nice place to lay and watch the sunset. We drove back to the campsite and hung out at the park bar for a bit before an early bed time so we could wake up the next morning for sunrise.

Dunes, that's about all I can say about this:

Embracing Dune 45 (notice the new Sossusvlei desert hat):

Looking out from the top of Dune 45 with the Sossusvlei pan behind us and in front of us:

Thoroughly enjoying the sunset and the sauvignon blanc:

The five of us in the red of the sunset on Dune 45:

Sunset from the top of Dune 45:

We woke up around 5:00am to make sure we could get into the park when it opened at 5:30am and then to the dunes for sunrise around 6:30am. We unknowingly continued driving off of the paved road, which quickly turned into deep sand that our two-wheel drive car couldn’t handle and got completely stuck. This didn’t stop us though. We ditched the car and continued on foot up a random sand dune to just enjoy the sunrise and worry about the car after. The sunrise was so peaceful, looking over the Sossusvlei pan, which carries water underneath the ground and has seasonal rivers running through it when it rains. The color of the dunes in the morning sun was unreal. All in all, the vibes of Namibia thus far were all good. And good vibes are what really make a place enjoyable. We left the national park but not before we ran into the girls from our house that had left a day after us. They were just arriving at Sossusvlei while we were leaving. At this point, I was jealous of them because they were going to see the sunset and sunrise, which was over for us. Sossusvlei was an incredible place to say the least.

Waiting for the sun to rise on the dunes, it was a chilly morning:

Almost there:

A beautiful picture:

We drove pretty far back towards the border most of the day during the hotter parts of the day. Instead of camping at a campsite, we ended up parking on the side of the road. It literally was only 20 feet from the main artery of the Namibian road system, which was by the way only a two-lane highway without shoulders. The next largest road in Namibia was a nice gravel road, losing all paved goodness entirely. And then the next type of road in the road hierarchy was complete rubbish, making for an uncomfortable ride. We woke up to the sound of a semi honking as it drove by quite a few times through the night so we didn’t get as much sleep as we hoped for, but hey, it was free! We drove to the Orange River the next morning in hopes to find some sort of canoeing adventure place.

The second biggest type of road in Namibia:

Sunrise the morning after camping on the side of the freeway. The largest freeway in Namibia is that small Wisconsin highway behind the car:

What we found far exceeded our expectations for canoeing. We managed a solid breakfast and a 2-hour canoe down river for a really reasonable price considering we were at some big adventure lodge. The canoeing ended our wonderful trip in Namibia, which went 100% according to plan. We actually didn’t have a plan at all and winged the entire trip. I suppose that works out better sometimes. After canoeing we drove all the way back to Cape Town, which was about 8 hours away. We saw a bunch of beautiful rainbows along the way through the rainy and sunny evening in northern South Africa. Other than the fact that we only had four CDs to listen to for 5 days, our trip to Namibia was a complete success!

Getting my canoe on down the Orange River with a kayak paddle:

A good way to enter South Africa:

A farewell to Namibia sunset as we drove back to Cape Town:

Only two more days until the World Cup! The city is completely encompassed in World Cup fever. Today I went downtown with Dan and Stephen to buy a Bafana bafana jersey and a vuvuzela. The vuvuzelas are the trumpet-horns that represent a large part of African soccer. Though they are pretty annoying when watching TV, we have mostly tuned them out and embraced the sound. This entire World Cup is going to be so much better if people just embrace what is going on around them, which is what was happening today. Some storeowners were a little annoyed by all of the vuvus, but I just told them to go along with it instead of worrying. How chill of me, right? The entire country has been a party since getting back from Namibia. I cannot imagine how amazing this place is going to be on Friday. ON FRIDAY! I remember almost a year and a half ago when I realized that the World Cup was going to be in South Africa at the time I was looking to study abroad. At the time it seemed so unrealistic to come here. Now, it is a complete reality and is only two days away. I am excited myself, but even more excited for South Africa and Africa as a whole. The continent seems to be tuned in on South Africa and is doing everything it can to present the world with an unforgettable first World Cup on African soil. I have no doubt in my mind that the amazing people in this country will show everyone how wonderful a place it is here.

CBC News quote: "Racial and ethnic tension always lurks ominous in the air, an unspoken prospect in the background. Now as everyone drives around with flags flying from their cars, it is being blown away in fevered World Cup breeze."

From Times Live: "South African workers cheer in support of the south African soccer team, also known as Bafana Bafana, in a nationwide call of support for South Africans to cheer on their team in Cape Town for the upcoming 2010 World Cup June 9, 2010."

Ayoba Afrika!

The World Cup is here.

Durban

Hey all!

We got home from Durban early yesterday morning. The trip was great in the end, but started off kind of weak. Right off the bat Durban was not very fun because our backpacker (hostel) owners were not very welcoming to us arriving. This set us off on the wrong track for the next half day because taxis were bringing us to the wrong places, the weather was not nearly as sunny and warm as we expected, and our disappointing dinner of chinese food didn't even compare to Asian Supermarket on Lower Main Road here in Observatory. Fortunately, the next day was really warm and sunny, so we managed to make our way to the beach. There I swam in the Indian Ocean for the first time in my life! It was a beautiful ocean that was way warmer than the atlantic has been. We also spent some time in the Suncoast Casino where my luck didn't fare me well unfortunately. This didn't deter me from the better time we were having in the city though. We managed to get some good food that night. The next day we spent some time at an Indian market, which was no different than the markets in Cape Town with the thousands of reproduced "African" things that are more than likely mass produced in some huge factory in China.

Sea turtle at the aquarium:

The best photo of the Durban World Cup stadium. It totally overpowered the city (which was good). It is also a new stadium, similar to Green Point:

Durban was a fun city, but not nearly as entertaining as Cape Town has been. The population is much different than Cape Town with only 7% white and a huge Indian population. Durban is the city with the largest Indian population in the world outside of India, which had a huge influence on the cuisine. Race relations in the city seemed to be far less progressive than Cape Town. We asked many people where we should go out to bars and restaurants and we were pretty much told to stay in the neighborhood we were in instead of going downtown because we were white. It was far different than Cape Town in this respect, where race, although hugely apparent and influential, doesn't impede on peoples' interactions with each other. All in all, Durban really just made us all appreciate Cape Town much more.

A massive oil rig leaving Port Natal (Durban):

Lately the house has had a totally different vibe than it did during school. Everyone is finished with their exams and some people are even packing to either go home or move to different places. It is sad, but also exciting. The world cup is coming up so quickly. It feels weird with the house seeming like it is almost over when we haven't even hit the biggest part of being in South Africa yet. It will be a bittersweet goodbye to all of my friends in the house and around the city. We have been taking minibuses to the city quite frequently as of late in order to do everything we want to downtown. We hit up the old Dutch castle from 1652 (fort) that once stood on the shore line before more land was added to extend the city. We also have been walking through the Company Gardens a lot, which originally provided produce for passing Dutch East India Company (VOC) trade ships; hence the garden part of the Company Gardens and the Company part of the Company Gardens. Amazing how things work like that.

A rose in the Company Garden rose section with Table Mountain behind:

Some baby ducks that were trying to make it into a fountain.. cute stuff:

Tomorrow morning a few of my roommates and I are driving up to Namibia for a 6 day trip to the Namib dessert. I cannot wait to see the dunes and the extensive dessert! We are planning on camping most nights in the chilly dessert nights, but I am sure we will find ourselves in a backpackers a couple of nights. Almost our entire house is driving up to Namibia but all at different times. We leave tomorrow morning, the girls leave Saturday morning and some other people leave on Saturday evening. The drive is long to the border (about 9 or 10 hours) and then the drive to Sossusvlei where the dunes are is another 8 or so hours. Good thing we all get along then right?

I will update when we return on the 9th! Bye for now everyone..

Goodbye UCT

All is finished at the University of Cape Town! I had my last exam yesterday for my South African History class and two last week, which all went well (I think ☺). It really still hasn’t hit me yet that I have an entire month and a few days to travel and enjoy South Africa as I enjoyed it the first month here. Since school was pretty time consuming, I wasn’t able to do as much as I had originally when I got here, but now I have all the time in the world. I assume that the time is going to fly by though, so I want to take advantage of every last minute!

A couple weekends ago my roommates and I went to experience high tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel, which offers high tea every day from 2:00 till 6:00. We enjoyed a very nice afternoon/evening drinking all sorts of different teas and eating delicious finger food from he amazing buffet.

Last week we had our house formal at a local restaurant called Hello Sailor. We decided to have an entire night dedicated to the awesome people living in 197 Lower Main and all got dressed up. We chose the date last week because it was a day that people didn’t have finals the next day and everyone was able to join. The dinner was fantastic and we then made our way downtown to a bar/lounge/club called Hemisphere, which is on the top level of the Absa bank building. It gave an amazing view of the lit up city. Dancing with the roommates was fantastic as usual, but then it got even better. We were dancing and having a good time and all of a sudden, who else could it be, but Wayne Brady dancing next to us with some girls that he knew. It was AWESOME. He was a really nice guy apparently and some of the girls in the house got to ride back with his driver instead of taking a taxi.

I have been dominating the Green Market Square as of late and buying (too many) stereotypical African goods. I figure that many of them will become gifts but I will keep some for my wall at home. Soccer has cooled down after most leagues have finished in Europe and the Champions League is over. Next on the plate is the WORLD CUP. It is a nice calm before the storm, which is going to be pretty hectic around here. Every time I have been at the ticketing center going with other people, there has been a constant stream of people getting their tickets for games all around, so that is a good sign!

I can’t remember if I said this in my last post, but I have been planning on changing my ticket home to the end of June and it is now officially changed to the first of July! Once all of my roommates are gone, I figured it was going to be pretty sad around here, and I have plenty to do at home with the family at the cabin and my friends in Mahtomedi and in Madison. It will be a nice break before going back to class.

That’s all for now,
Ciao

Safari

The parents left on Sunday afternoon last weekend so life has gone back to normal here in Cape Town. My parents coming here was a wonderful break from most everything about school (much needed) but it also allowed me to enjoy some parts of the city and the countryside that I probably wouldn’t have seen without them. Once my brother and Maxine left for home, my parents moved to a self-catering place in Rondebosch near UCT. We were pretty relaxed being out of the city center and I actually ended up going to most of my classes last week. We managed to continue eating out, no surprise there, and spent some afternoons with my housemates. I can imagine my mom was happy to see how wonderful my housemates are; it made her much more calm about who I was with over in South Africa. I had a soccer match last Wednesday night, which my parents were able to come and watch despite the chilly evening weather. We unfortunately lost, but it was nice to have them watch my play!

Skillz that Killz FC

Last Friday we made our way out to Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, which is located about 2 ½ hours outside of Cape Town in the Karoo. Here we planned on staying the night and taking a couple safari drives. None of us really knew what we were getting into, and by the end of both of our drives, I don’t think our safari leader could have foreseen what the wild animals ended up doing. Our first drive was about 2 hours after arriving. We had a quick (rushed if I say so myself) lunch and didn’t even have time to digest before we piled into the jeep. My dad and I sat in the way back while my mom sat in front. There were two English couples in-between us all.

Our tent/cottages:

We first saw some zebras and wild kudu (which are similar to antelope), which to me are very fascinating! It always interests me to see animals on the other side of the world that are just so similar to those in the woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, although these were much larger. The trails we drove through were pretty hectic. My dad and I in the back of the jeep were bouncing up and down like a roller coaster, while my mom enjoyed the heat of the comfortable front seat, ha. We drove around a little more and ended up seeing a giraffe only when it was about 5 meters from the jeep. I don’t know how we missed a 20 ft animal running in front of us…

Zebra

Giraffe

Next we ended up seeing the entire family of elephants eating and making their way to a watering hole. This was one of the most extraordinary parts of the trip. It wasn’t the fact that all 14 elephants (babies and all) were together and only 20 meters from the jeep. It was the fact that a hippopotamus was in between the elephants and their watering hole. The hippo was out of water, which is quite rare apparently but was actually chased down by the matriarchal elephant into the woods! The elephant even made its trunk noise. The elephants made it to the watering hole, but not before the hippo decided to come back. Once again the hippo was chased, not only by the matriarchal elephant, but also by the entire family! The hippo jumped into the water with surprising speed for such a blubbery and fat animal. Our driver was shell-shocked, as were all of us in the jeep wondering if the animals were actually mechanical and the whole thing was a rigged show.

Almost all of the elephants in one shot (even the little babies!)

The chase begins

Finally the hippo just jumped into the water

Our jeep during our cocktail hour safari stop

Happy elephants

We ended the evening drive with a nice drink (beer for me, g&t’s for the parents) on the front of the jeep overlooking the beautiful sunset sky in the Karoo. We didn’t have any luck finding the white lions that were supposedly in the park that night. Once back, my parents and I spent a nice evening eating dinner and drinking wine. I had an entire tent/cottage place to myself, which was very unfortunate because it was literally made for people on honeymoons or anniversaries. I still took advantage of the bathtub nonetheless. The next morning was an early wake-up around 6:30 am to make our game drive around 7:30 after breakfast. This drive included an even more insane coupling of wild animals at the same time. We first set out to find the white lions, which are not albino but are just genetically recessive and still the same species as normal lions. We were lucky to find them down the river valley not only within 10 meters of the jeep, but one of them was eating a recent zebra catch! There were two males that were brothers lounging in the morning sun. It was really cold actually since the desert has next to no heat capacity, all of the heat is directly from the sun, not the ground whatsoever. We were provided with nice warm water bottles to keep our legs warm though, haha. The lions were beautiful animals and seemed very calm for recently dominating a zebra.

Both lions, the one of the left is chomping away

One of the two brothers

A couple of white rhinos

Lion facing the rhinos

We then moved on to find some white rhinoceros. We eventually saw about 6 of them off in the distance and after about a half our trying to get closer, they were only about 15 meters from the jeep! The rhinos are actually very weird looking animals. They seem very prehistoric in their nature and their physiology. Apparently they have horrible eyesight, which wasn’t surprising to hear after seeing their eyes. They are just little nubby dots on their huge bodies. We followed the rhinos to a watering hole and then saw one of the white lions again! We drove away and ended up tailing the lion right back to the watering hole where the rhinos were. The encounter was very defensive by the rhinos, which all slowly moved toward the lion, who quickly rounded them and made it to the watering hole. It wasn’t long until the rhinos went back and the lion retreated since he wasn’t going to take on 5 or 6 giant horns. Our driver again was totally amazed at the sight! We saw more oryx, kudu, springbok and zebra along our way back. All in all, it was a successful first African safari for my parents and I.

The whole having the entire cottage to myself made me miss Bonnie quite a lot, but I will be seeing her soon! My ticket home is officially changed to leave Cape Town on the 1st of July and I will be home on the 2nd in time for a relaxing 4th of July at the cabin in Wisconsin. Classes finished yesterday at UCT and now final exams begin next week. All three of my exams are worth 50% of my grade, which is really scary, but hopefully I will do well! After finals my plans begin to be very crazy. I am going to Durban for a long weekend and then driving to Namibia with some of my roommates. I then begin the most exciting week of my life with three world cup games in three different cities! I have France/Uruguay on the 11th of June in Cape Town; Ivory Coast/Portugal on the 15th in Port Elizabeth; and end it all with the USA/Slovenia match in Johannesburg on the 18th.

My three tickets!

Much studying to do, therefore I am going to watch a movie.
Much love to you all!