Goodbye South Africa

Last weekend was a flurry of goodbyes to Cape Town, shopping, partying, and days on the beach (though not in the water because the Atlantic there is basically the Antarctic Ocean). It was quite difficult to say 'bye to Cape Town, a city I have after 4 months come to consider another home.

On Tuesday morning, after our free weekend, the whole group was bused to Hermanus, a pretty beach town about 2 hours from CT, known for the "best land-based whale watching in the world!" Of course, the whales are not currently around, so we saw jack shit. We did spend a fair amount on time on beach, and actually swimming in water as this was the Indian Ocean.






We also had some pretty corny "de-orientation" sessions about the issues of re-entry etc... Bascially you all should be very sensitive and eager to hear about my experience :-P All is all though it was great to spend the last four days just with our group. On Friday after a nice lunch on a wine farm, we drove to airport and said goodbye to our Academic directors and to the kids who were staying around CT for the holidays.




Anyway, I'll gloss over the 22hrs inside an airplane, which basically consisted of watching many many crappy movies and downing several mini bottles of wine. So after a grand total of about 32hours of traveling, I got back to the USA yesterday morning! And even though I'm slightly traumatized by the bloody cold, I am happy to be home, back up at my country house, with my family, my dog, and our new kitten. I am planning on sequestering myself here for a couple of days to unpack and readjust, but I will definitely be back in the city and ready to party on Monday evening.
Hope to see you all very soon! Happy Holidays,
Kisses,

Eve

Final days eAfrika

Wow the semester has certainly sped by... I can't believe I only have 10 days left in South Africa! However I have been trying to make the most of my time left, which has actually been helped by the fact that my mother is down here visiting. I met up with her in Joburg last Saturday, and we spent the weekend in Zimbabwe. We saw Victoria Falls and did a little safari/touring of Zim. Needless to say that the trip was great. The falls are amazing, particularly the aerial view we got from our helicopter ride(!)

We got back eKapa on Monday evening (I'm staying with her at the hotel), and I spent Tuesday showing her around... A long walk around the city (and some shopping along the way) and a visit to my family in Langa. Yesterday was pretty exciting bc I managed to convince my mom to join me in an activity I've wanted to do for a long time: cage diving with great white sharks. Oh yes, I was in a cage, in the Indian Ocean, with my mother, and great white sharks. Unfortunately, I got horribly sea sick (which never happens to me, but the sea was quite rough where we were anchored) but I just stuck it out. I even puked while I was in the cage :( Anyway it was really cool, and not scary at all. We saw about 8 different great white sharks, varying in size from 2.5-4 meters (juvenile size)... The best view was from the boat, and I only saw two sharks through the murky water while I was in the cage. The sharks were actually quite shy and didn't usually hang around for too long--except for this one huge female who kept sneaking up and stealing the bait. Despite losing about 5 pounds over the side of the boat, it was totally worth it. (Check out shark pics.)


Today is my mother's last day in Cape Town, and also the day that my massive ISP is due. Obviously this trip has been planned for a while so I actually finished the mega-research project last week, a whole week early. Yes, all 65 pages of it. (*pause for applause*) Thank you, thank you. Anyway I'm just finishing up some proof-reading now (clearly) and then I have to print it and get it bound.
So off to finish my work, and then hopefully have some time by the hotel pool before our big celebratory dinner tonight ;)
Love to all... and I guess I'll be seeing a lot of you in about 10 days!

The intrepid, adventurous, shark-diving E.V.E