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April 04, 2005
Home Sweet...UWC...
After a rather eventful fall break excursion along the Garden Route, I have finally arrived back at my trusty dorm room on the UWC campus. I'll give you the day-by-day walkthrough of the journey, because I have too much to say to embark in an unorderly fashion...
First of all, Easter Sunday was nice: I woke up before the crack of dawn and headed to the north-east corner of campus to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely amazing with lots of orange and pink and blue and gold and yellow and the like. It's not the first South African sunrise I've seen, and it probably won't be the last, because we're heading into winter and the days are getting shorter. By the way, due to the Daylight Savings Time in the United States and the lack thereof in South Africa, the time difference between us is now 6 hours instead of 7.
Tuesday, March 29: We spent almost the entire day driving today. The description we got on the itinerary lists all of the places we drove through. However, I can't imagine that you all are sitting at your computers anxiously awaiting a list of places you probably can't pronounce anyway, so suffice it to say that we drove past lots and lots of really pretty scenery. We spent the night at the Tube 'n Axe Backpackers, which was a neat little place with rather bland and not-too-efficiently-prepared food.
Wednesday, March 30: Today I went on a six and a half hour, 25 kilometer hike with Niki and Professor Pinto. Niki took some pictures and wrote lots and lots about it, so feel free to wander over to her site and check it out. I was doing okay, but my adventurous (and apparently ageless) professor impressed me with her ability to complete the hike with relatively little complaining. The funny thing was that I saw the hike was so long when I first got the map, but it didn't really occur to me that we would actually hike the whole thing. All I can say is, LOTS and LOTS of bonding time... It was a really good day, and we had quite a few laughs that I'm not likely to forget anytime soon.
Thursday, March 31: We spent the bulk of another day driving, except this time we doubled back and were driving east instead of west. We finally ended up at a farm owned by my Professor Moodie's brother. I shared a cottage with Niki and Crystal and Frances, which was very cozy and made me rather sad to leave to come back to the University. Again, Niki took lots of pictures, and a lot of what she talks about was part of my experience as well.
Friday, April 1: No, I did not partake in any April Fool's jokes today, although I must say that I was expecting many more pranks from my fellow students. The weather was rather rainy and gloomy, so I naturally spent the morning on a dairy farm after breakfast. It was actually really interesting to visit a South African dairy farm and compare it to those that I've been to back in the States. Needless to say, the farms were very comparable. I met some interesting Afrikaner farmers and saw some really cool baby cows, so the journey was well worth it. I just hung around the cottage in the afternoon, playing some games with my cottage-mates and suffered another Scrabble defeat at the hands of my professor...
Saturday, April 2: Bright sunlight greeted my eyes as I awoke this morning, and I had a rather busy day trying to do everything that I couldn't do in the rain yesterday. We hiked around a nature reserve in the morning and spent the (rather cold) afternoon on the beach. Again, I was with Niki, so you can go to her journal to see some pictures of the stuff we saw. Alas, no swimming in the Indian Ocean for me, but it was nice to get down to the coast and enjoy time amongst the sand and the waves nonetheless.
Sunday, April 3: Today deserves it's own whole post, but since I'm really pressed for time, I'll give you highlights now and expand on the day upon request. This morning I went for a hike in the woods with the professor who grew up on the farm, his wife, and two other students (Emily and Leanne). We were going to take a leisurely walk to some nearby tree ferns and then head back to the center of the farm for lunch. We walked to the tree ferns, oohed and ahhed, and continued on the path further to see if there was a view at the top of the hill. Professor Moodie's wife, Meredith, sat down eventaully and told us to continue, because she wasn't feeling as energetic as the rest of us. About a minute later, Emily decided to stop hiking as well, because she was walking barefoot through the forest and was in quite a bit of pain. Thus, Leanne and Dunbar and I said that we would be back downthe trail within 15 minutes or so, as we just wanted to see if there was any sort of a view once we got out of the forest. We made it to the top and out, but the grass was too high to really see anything. On our way back down, we totally missed the trail, and found ourselves wandering through trees and aloe plants and thorn bushes. For the first 10 minutes or so, Leanne and I were somewhat amused, convinced that Dunbar would be able to find the path soon. Almost three hours later, dirtier and adorned with many more scrapes than we had when we entered the forest, we came upon the stream that we knew would lead us somewhere familiar. This was the third happiest moment of my entire life. We then followed the stream for a while, wading through in bare feet and tring not to stumble on the slippery, painful rocks, and then continued to the top of a grassy hill to come upon a vehicle path. This was the second happiest moment of my entire life. Once we knew that we could definitely find our way back to civilization, Leanne and I became much more talkative and started skipping down the road towards the entrance to the trail, rather concerned that Meredith might have taken the truck back to the farm in our three hour absence. Finally, we came around the corner and saw two vehicles, complete with a small welcoming committee! I can't remember if I've ever been so happy in my life. At some points during the hike, Leanne and I were definitely rather scared. It was a bad situation: we were completely lost in the forest with no cell phone, no water, no extra clothing, and a (somewhat aging) professor who wasn't really sure where we were going. Needless to say, I was very relieved to get back on the bus to head back to campus.
So here I am again, only slightly worse for the wear and with lots of stories I'll have to tell for many years to come. By the way, I got a package over break from Dad and Beth full of lots of yummy chocolate chip cookies! I've definitely made a dent in those already... And Grama Jean sent me another card, which racks her tally up to three! I hope that all of you know how excited I get when I hear that I have mail here: you definitely highlight my day (or week, if it's a package :-P). Keep in touch!
Posted by rgutwin at April 4, 2005 10:30 AM
Comments
Glad you're back Becca and that you had such a great break! Although there were varying degrees of relaxation involved it sounds as though it was refreshing in that you were able to totally disengage from school and studying.
Your grandparents are back from the wilds of Florida and we handed off the sea monsters to them yesterday - phew! They are STILL alive and much bigger than when we got them.
Take care and good luck transitioning back to academic life ...
Posted by: Beth at April 4, 2005 12:30 PM
You sure do lead an exciting life. The three high points of your life in one day! It makes me wonder what will happen tomorrow.
And everyone should click on those links. There is a lovely picture of Becca with a chameleon in particular. This is a Public Service Announcement.
And this scruffy dog with the ticks, did you happen to have an avacado around to kick with it, or perhaps it was a coconut, or... what was it again? And whatever it was, did you attempt to engage this dog in such a game? I suppose not.
Posted by: Diana at April 4, 2005 04:06 PM
I'm a little dazed to have "lost" my daughter, only to find that she's found (??;-).
NB: While I would love to claim 50% of the credit for the cookie idea, I can't. I would like to claim 10% but I can't. I can claim - oh - 0% of the idea.
Did I mention that Beth is very kind and generous?
One more fact that needs to be recorded: The monsters are bigger due to my constant vigilance and dedication to their well being (aside from the extremely rare incident(s) where important work- or leisure-related items precluded my attending to their needs).
Posted by: Paul Gutwin at April 4, 2005 09:18 PM