Old.. very old.. Trip to Cape Point and Boulder's Beach

Me and Jayden at Cape Point on a rock on the beach.

I have been waiting for Jayden to give me some pictures of this trip for ages. This trip happened so long ago, that I really don’t remember it that well. We went to Cape Point and Boulder’s Beach. First we went to Cape Point; Jayden and I hiked all the way to the lighthouse there, then hiked all the way down to the beach. I had a sinus infection at the time, so it was hard to breath, but I was determined to see and do all that I could while there.

There were many baboons there, and the park rangers had sling shots and had to chase them away. The baboons were crafty too. In the past, they had gotten into the store there. Also, while we were there, one of them got in the car with this man who was on the phone. You couldn’t eat any food outside or anything, otherwise they’d come up and steal it. The waves at the beach were treacherous. One of our drivers told us a story about a guy on a family trip who had recently drowned there. Those were REAL waves. After Cape Point, we went to Boulder’s Beach and ate. After eating, we went to see penguins. Penguins are not as cute in person as they are on television. They stink, and they make an annoying sound. They weren’t really interesting, so I decided to swim instead.

Only a few people decided to swim, which amazed me, because I know more than a few people had their bathing suits on underneath their clothes. Jayden somehow talked me into jumping off this rock into the water. I been telling EVERYONE since I got here "I don't know how to swim. I just know how to stay alive in the water." The water was too cold to just slowly get into, so I had to jump. It was scary. I freaked out. The water was FREEZING. And, the waves were coming in; I wasn't used to waves while swimming. I'm used to swimming in a pool. Then, some sea weed wrapped around my leg. I freaked out! I started pushing Jayden's head under the water because the rock was too slippery to hold on to. I had to hold on to something. Hahaha.. sorry Jayden! I mean, I was really tripping.

This is at Boulder's Beach. Just look at me. I was so scared! That rock was cutting me up too!

I'm glad I did it though, because after that, I got in the water again and became more comfortable with the ocean.

Afterwards, we were supposed to stop at a winery, but I mean, once you've seen one winery, you've seen them all. So, some people decided to go on back home, including me. I also wasn't in the best of moods...

To make it even worse, my stuff was locked up in Maggie's room, who had decided she wanted to go to the winery. So, I had to wait, wet and cold, for her to get back. Then, when she got back, she couldn't find the keys to her room, so I had to wait even longer. It was a complete mess. It was just one of those extreme days that start off promising, but end horribly.

I had fun though, and I learned a lot about other people that day.

Us taking a "jumping on the beach" photo at Cape Point.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (September 26th)

My program got the opportunity to meet Desmond Tutu (click his name if you do not know who he is) the same week we got back from the Garden Route. Although, I was still very exhausted from Spring Break, and not exactly looking forward to getting up before sunrise on a Friday morning, I could not miss the opportunity to meet Desmond Tutu. Desmond Tutu is the first Black Archbishop of the Anglican Church of South Africa and a human rights activist who became famous for his fight against Apartheid. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts too. I cannot even describe all the things he has done, and how important he has been to South Africa and the world.

It was a dark, wet morning. It was really storming. I barely got out of bed (I had to get up at 4:00am!), but I did it somehow and headed to the bus. We drove to Capetown to St. George’s Cathedral to attend a Eucharist service with Tutu acting as the priest. Now, I have never attended church services other than Baptist ones, so I was a little nervous. I was not sure if I would be going against any of my own beliefs. But, God is God. There are people who are Baptist that would do me wrong… so, why miss praising God with a man who has risked his life to do God’s work?

I had joked earlier, “Man… for getting up this early, Desmond Tutu better be giving me communion or something!” I was really tired. I would have hated to wake up so early and just see Tutu for five minutes. I was like, “He better shake my hand or something!” Hahaha… Yall know how I am! It was great though.. like… DESMOND TUTU SERIOUSLY GAVE ME COMMUNION! He gave us all communion.

He led us all in prayers and read passages from the Bible. The service was very different from the ones I am used to having at church. I’m used to shouting, singing, clapping, and words seemingly coming from the heart. This service was more scripted. Like, we had to read from this prayer book. Tutu would say his part, and then we would respond. It was a little too mechanical for my taste, but I still felt God’s love. I hate to belittle Tutu, because he’s done so much in his life, but HE’S SO CUTE! He’s really short, old, and hilarious. He was making jokes the entire service. He also gave us all communion. Communion was different than what I’m used to. A lady and a man helped Tutu give out communion. I think he put the wafer in my hand, I put it in my mouth, then stepped to the left to a woman who had a cup of REAL WINE (like.. I got a little tipsy afterwards… you know I’m a light weight.) and I sipped from it. I also had to cross my heart with my hands like the Catholics do. I was a little apprehensive of drinking out of the same cup as strangers, including the ones on my trip (some of them are seriously nasty), but I just thought “God will protect me,” and I drank from the cup anyway.

After the service, we all got a picture with him and a few people sought out their own private pictures and time with Tutu. At the end of the trip, I was so happy that I had gone. When we returned to campus, that racist chick from the “drama” post came up to me and was like, “We need to talk.” I saw it coming from A MILE AWAY.. Literally.. a mile. She was staring at me and my friends the entire service, and she was eyeing me when I got on the bus. I saw her waiting around outside before I got off the bus, and I just knew she was waiting for me. I had expected it. People like her seize opportunities like that; if they’re unhappy, they want you to be too. "Misery loves company" as they say. Anyway, I completely ignored her (and I still am to this day). I was just like, “You should have wanted to talk to me BEFORE you started talking about me to other people. Simple. I don’t care what you said, you shouldn’t have said anything at all.” The sad thing is, I had GREAT day. Like, seriously. It was so cool; I feel like I learned something from Tutu. Like, although you know there is so much wrong and hate going on in the world, you can still laugh and enjoy yourself without feeling guilty at the end of the day about loving your life, yourself, and God. His laughter made me feel so good. Plus, I finally got to go to church. I needed it. But, she was too busy looking at us and probably thinking about how she was going to “confront” me to really take in the experience. And, that is a shame.

Cedarberg Mountains

We went on another weekend trip. This time to the Cedarberg Moutains! Once again, I had to run to catch the bus, but this time, the bus was late. So, I ran for no reason! The Cedarberg Mountains are located about 3 hours north of Stellenbosch. We spent about an hour of driving on a bumpy, dirt road too. It was fun though. The ride there was beautiful.

There were tall mountains and lush green fields, but the Cedarberg Mountains themselves look nothing like that! The Cedarberg Mountains look like something from Mars to me! Rocky... red... and jagged. They were beautiful in their own way though.

When we got there, we stayed in lodges/cabins. The rooms were freezing, but luckily I got the cabin that the caterers cooked out of, so the kitchen kept my room a little warm. After dinner, we played games.... "Truth or Dare", "Fingers/I have never ever...," and "Suck and Blow." My favorite game was "Suck and Blow" where you take a playing card, and suck in air to hold it to your mouth. You have to pass the card to the person next to you by only using your mouth. Of course, if you drop the card, you sometimes end up kissing the person. I know it sounds gross and like a quick way to pass around oral herpes.. BUT, it was really fun!

Halley and Noel passing the card around. And, after we finally got 1 card completely around the circle.. we felt really accomplished!

The next morning, we went for a hike up Wolfberg Cracks. I took the advanced hike, which went inside the mountains. It was really fun! Inside the mountain, we got to see really cool rock formations, and we had to squeeze between cracks. It was really hard at times. At one point, I had to push myself up in an awkward position against a rock, and then once I was squeezed in-between the rock and the wall, I had to completely shift my body into a another position. It took a few hours to get to the top, but once we got there, it was well worth it. I felt like I had accomplished something.

After we returned to the cabin, we were exhausted. I took a 30 minute nap before dinner, ate dinner, took another nap, talked about old television shows, and then went to sleep for good. The next day, we went to a winery and tasted wines. Wine in South Africa is really important. The wines at this particular estate were really robust. I prefer a semi-sweet or desert wine.The wines were pretty nasty to me, but I learned a lot about wines.

After this, it had begun to pour down raining. It was also still freezing outside. But, we still took one last trip to some caves in the area. One cave was used years ago by the government officials who implemented Apartheid to have secret meetings. Some of them had done like hundreds of other people and signed their names on the walls. No one actually knows for sure what they talked about there, but if they had to go all the way to a cave to talk about it, it must have been pretty awful. The next cave we visited contained art work from hundreds of years ago and is considered proof of some of the earliest human life.

It looks like some people and some elephants. They don't know exactly how old it is, because it's so old that the paint is actually embedded into the rock. It cannot be washed off nor can good samples be taken from it. It was just cool being next to something so old. I felt apart of a bigger picture you know? A "circle of life" or something.

For more Cedarberg pictures, click here!

i will retire to capetown.

We went on a tour of Capetown, South Africa last weekend. Capetown is the most well known city in South Africa and is about thirty minutes away from Stellenbosch where I live. CAPETOWN IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE I'VE EVER BEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! I almost cried, because it was just so beautiful. I found myself thinking, "Why do I deserve to see such beauty?"

The city is craddled between mountains and the ocean. It's just beautiful. To think, I almost missed the tour too. I was late, as usual, to meeting the bus. As I approached the meeting spot, the buses were LITTERALY pulling off. I had to run and flag down the bus. If I would have tied my shoe string on the way there, I would have gotten left. That's how close I was to getting left. But, I made it.

Our first stop was at the Capetown Gardens. When we got there, there were two little girls performing in front of the gardens for money. They were really good dancers and really cute. Their shirts said something about an anti-rape organization. I recorded it with my camera!

The garden itself was not that exciting. There were crazy squirrels just like at Vanderbilt, and I even saw two fat rats hanging out with the squirrels. The overall beauty of Capetown shined through though. Next, we went to Signal Point. From Signal Point, you can see all of Capetown. There was a guy selling icecream there (and you know I had to get some!) and people parasailing in the sky over the ocean. I happened to get a picture of one person parasailing. It looks fun!

After Signal Point, we went to some beach, which the tour guide said was "one of the most sought after beaches in South Africa." This is where I had to really take some time out to myself to count my blessings. It was really just breathtaking.

After this, we went to a mall and back to Stellenbosch. It was just a great day. I know that I will be living in Capetown someday. If you want to see more pictures of Capetown, click here!