So as you can see I have been horrible at keeping all of you posted on what exactly I have been doing. It is hard to get to and stay on my computer when there is a whole new world and culture to explore. However here go’s a whole bunch of stuff that has been overwhelming my brain and body!
This past Thursday I was able to see the true beauty that South Africa possesses , and even with a somewhat ugly history the amount of beauty that this land has is completely intoxicating. Our city tour consisted traveling all around the coast and through the city. At times I could not help but compare this city to Argentina. There is the Boca neighborhood with vibrant beautiful colors, the metropolitan city area, and a diverse group of people that occupy all of the land. Our tour guide made the point that once the sun sets most of the city dies down due to the amount of crime that occurs in the evening.
After getting a broad city tour, we journeyed Cape Point and its surroundings. Here we saw baboons, penguins and ostriches (oh my!!). We also were able to hike up Cape Point and reach the south western most point of Africa. Not too many can say that they have reached close to the bottom of the world! While this was happening we experienced high winds, bits of sunshine and horizontal rain that smacked us all in the face!
We have been going and going since we have arrived and I have a love hate relationship with it. I feel like the point of traveling and going abroad is to truly immerse yourself in the culture that you visit. Seeing that the time here is so short I am happy that we are able to experience as much as we can, but I also want to get away from the going going going culture that we experience in the states.
On Friday we were able to go to RobinIland and see where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. Our tour guide was an ex-prisoner that also spent time in jail on the island. It was interesting, cause he said he was there primarily there as a means of healing and exposing the truth of the past in order to understand current society and the future. I really enjoy hearing first hand reflections because it really creates a reality that is unlike any I could Imagine.
Finally on Saturday we went on this kick ass Safari 2 hours from Cape Town. However I was highly disappointed when I found out that there would unfortunately be NO elephants there. That was because there were not enough trees and elephants would devastate the land if they were there. We did however see cheetahs, lions, giraffes, spring buck (national animal) and some other deer looking species. The one thing that I was not expecting was the sub-zero temperatures that we experienced. But if there is anything that studying abroad has taught me, it was to just roll with the punches and live life like it is, even if your body is freezing from the inside out! Also a little side note, we went out for a nice birthday dinner and I even tried ostrich as my main meal....pretty sweet!
Sorry for the short entry I am just trying to catch up on my thoughts and to top it off everything we are doing is really making it hard for me to filter everything that I am consumed with!!! Sometimes I wish that there could just be a little video camera to capture our late night table discussions that we have once we get back to our little humble abodes. Every night we engage is meaningful discussion about our trip and what we are here for and I am having trouble focusing on my computer to regurgitate all that we are living.....However I am loving everything more then you can imagine!
peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment