Plettenburg Bay and Grahamstown

I'm back online! Internet in Stellenbosch was uber pricey, and then upon arriving in Grahamstown we found no better prices. However, we found a place with decent night time rates, so here I am! And thank goodness too, I felt so far away and disconnected from the rest of the world.

ok so RECAP! (and for your sake, Chris, I'll try to be a bit more concise this time!)

So we finished up building with Habitat for Humanity in Mfuleni, the township outside of Stellenbosch. I have reflections on my experience and interaction with poverty, but I'll transfer them from my journal to the web sometime later, so keep your eyes open. Anyway, we bid a nearly tearful goodbye to our Northern Irish friends and embarked for a long drive to Plettenburg bay where we would spend a day before going on to Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival.

I think I've been endowed with superhero like abilities when it comes to sleeping during travel. I slept almost the entire flight to africa, and it seems nearly every car trip as well.

I woke up after about 4 hours when we reached a gas station for lunch. Not only was there a gas station, restaurant, and playground, but a petting zoo as well. Africa is surreal sometimes.

Plettenburg bay was beautiful. The day we had there was a free day so we went about various activities. A few students chose to sea kayak with dolphins, since we were right on the coast, and some sought more of a thrill. Mom, I'm appologizing right now for my decision to join the latter group, I'm not sure what got into me. You might not want to look at the pictures...

This is me, jumping off the highest bungy jump in the world. the highest IN THE WORLD. I couldn't help myself.

This is us! plus a few random people from Ireland (we told them how much we love the Irish) and South Korea.

That was the most terrifying/exhilerating experience ever! Free falling, though it's only for about 5 seconds, is the scariest feeling. I was screaming my lungs out thinking, how the heck did I get mid-air? Is the cord ever going to catch me?

Sooo after bungy jumping, a few of us hiked down to the beach. It was beautiful, but already cold outside (it was about 4 pm) and everyone was wearing sweatshirts. Josh and I however, emboldened by our bridge jumping experience, were determined to test out the waters of South Africa, the Indian Ocean, the closest water to ANTARCTICA I've ever jumped in! And in we went! and then OUT we went. That water was absolutely freezing!

Then we had class that night, wrote some essays, did some reading.

Next day we drove to

GRAHAMSTOWN

So here we are, all up to date! We arrived in Gtown on friday , checked into our rooms (single dorm rooms at Rhodes University - a beautiful English campus. And oh it's so very nice to have a room to myself!) and dived right into the arts festival with a theatre performance of the play "Cissie." Saturday we scoped out the market. Talk about overwhelming! The whole city is buzzing with merchants sellling every African artifact you could ever want, and a pair of nikes to boot! Then we attended a Jazz performance and an extremely upsetting movie premier about a poor, incestuous, Afrikaner family. Today we saw an amazing ballet of Romeo and Juliet (OLIVIA!).

And I've got so much homework to do, so I'll leave it at that for now, but I love you all, and am looking forward to either seeing you in a couple weeks, or hearing from you soon!