Cape Town's Date & Time

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Saturday (3/6) and Sunday (3/7) Interstudy Overnight Excursion!






All right, I am super behind on keeping up to date with my life. It has been an intense week of school with me needing to prepare for my week hiatus from the academic world while my family is here meanwhile I have been preparing for my spring break in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe (I leave the same day my family leaves for home). So I have been busy. Trust me, I am not complaining, my life is extraordinary and I have so much to look forward to in the upcoming weeks.

So where did I leave off… Saturday (3/6)

Interstudy set us up for an awesome weekend!!! We started our day off super early so we could make a 3-hour drive to the Aquila Game Reserve, where we would be spending Saturday night and part of the day Sunday. We had an evening game drive arranged for that night, so we spent the entire day doing community service in the town. I was assigned to work with the program “Caring and Sharing, a school for the disabled.” The program worked with disabled children (mainly orphans) in the local area. The program ran out of a one class room school house, so while half of us played with the children, the other half cleaned and painted the inside of the building (the bottom with black chalk board paint and the top purple). It was ridiculously hot out, like 111 degrees Fahrenheit. I didn’t even know places really got that hot. So, while the day was extremely fun and emotionally rewarding, I was physically spent by the time we loaded the buses and headed back to the reserve for a nighttime safari.
I was pretty drained, but jumping into a 16-person land rover and heading into the savannah does something to a person… Also, the bottles of champagne being passed around also may have pumped some life into my blood. The park has all the Big 5: leapords, elephants, lions, rhinos, and water buffalo. I saw a variety of the Big 4 (no elephants for me) and a plethora of other animals, like springbok (my new favorite animal in the entire world), zebras, giraffes, ostriches (seriously, Dr. Seuss must have gotten his inspiration from the bizarre creatures), and hippos. The game ride was beautiful, especially with the sun setting in the backdrop.
When we arrived back to our hotel, they had prepared a giant braii for us. We had been quite active in the heat all day, so I was ready to veg out, DID I mention there was a dessert bar! The night ended with a drum session around the fire and a few drinks. It was a great re-bonding moment for the members of Interstudy. We were all able to relax in the outdoors and really enjoy each other (and ourselves).

Sunday (3/7)
We were once again loading the giant land rovers by 6AM to do a sunrise game drive. It was a little rough of a wake up, but once the first animal citing began, I was excited to be awake (regardless of the lack of sleep from the night before). The drive ended by 9 and we immediately made our way to the breakfast bar for some food and coffee! By ten I had scrambled back to my suite for a mid morning nap.
Once rejuvenated, I made my way for a day at the pool. The sun was really intense but I was able to get a great chunk of the book “The Lost World” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes’ maker) while making frequent dips into the pool.
Our drive home was miserable. The air-conditioning had broken and a 3-hour bus ride in such extreme heats is mentally unbearable. I tried my best to listen to some John Mayer and relax, but I became obsessive with how unbearable the heat was. Needless to say, the weekend was great, but I happily arrived home.

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