Spring Break Adventures!

This past week I was free from the trials and tribulations of school (I know, I know, life in Cape Town is so tough) and was able to take a 10-day trip to Namibia! Two of my housemates, Mary and Katie, and I went on a driving tour through the country with a group called Acacia. The three of us really lucked out with our group members. They were all in their mid-20s and some of the most interesting and welcoming people I have ever met. Definitely want to try and keep in contact. Obviously since we were only there for 10 days, we had a TON to see. That being said, we didn’t stay in one place very long and did a lot of activities in each area. Needless to say, it was a jack-packed vacation. To make it easy on you guys, I’ve written an outline of what we did:

Day 1-2: Etosha National Park

Highlights – driving by a giraffe about 8 feet from our truck; watching two lions mate; sitting out next to the nighttime watering hole; seeing one elephant fall over into a watering hole and watching his peers help him—elephants use touch to communicate.

Day 3: Spitzkoppe

Highlights – sleeping on a rock under the best stars (one thing I didn’t think about that I noticed on this trip was that while I’m here I’m seeing a completely different sky. There is no big dipper, no nothing! It puts how far away I am from home into perspective); sleeping next to 100 million year old mountains; seeing 2,000-4,000 year old Bushmen (native Namibian people) paintings; hiking the mountains and seeing nothing for miles and miles and miles.

Mary and I on the Bushmen hike.

Day 4-5: Swakopmund

Highlights – getting locked out of our room and having to climb through the bathroom window to go to sleep; sandboarding (I went the fastest—72 kilometers per hour!); watching Twilight – Eclipse…for the second time…; sleeping in a comfy, hostel bed, fully equipped with pillow and down comforter (as opposed to sleeping on the ground).

Ready to go sandboarding!

On the dune!

Day 6: Seisreim

Highlights – hiking Dune 45 (a popular dune to climb) for sunrise; going on a desert walk with tour guide Frans who showed us the Baboon Spider and trees that have been dead for 900 years!

Dead trees.

Dune 45.

Day 7: Fish River Canyon

Highlights – eating lunch next to the second biggest canyon in the world—second only to our Grand Canyon; exploring the thermal hot springs at our campsite (and the pools that the hot springs heated, of course—pure heaven); night swimming in the indoor spas.

Day 8: Orange River

Highlights – relaxing and swimming in the river…all day; seeing green again (Namibia is all around pretty brown)!

Day 9: Trawal

Highlights – wine tasting—this was my first time wine tasting so it was nice to learn all the basics (sight, smell, and especially taste); our camp site was situated right above the vineyards so we had a beautiful view to wake up to on our last morning.

Day 10: Cape Town

Highlights – Township tour of Langa, our guide took us into one of the homes (called a Shabine) and showed us their traditional beer—a type of wood beer that they let ferment for only 3 days, so it is only about 3% alcohol, and is traditionally used only for special occasions—it was probably one of the weirder beers I’ve ever tasted, but good in its own right; eating at Mzolis (a restaurant [otherwise known as food, music, party, booze, chaos] in the township Gugulethu) and experiencing the most delectable, tasty chicken in the entire world. Told you I was gonna come back 50 pounds heavier…yikes!

The whole gang at Mzolis.

Tasting the mysterious beer!

On a random note, I had an embarrassing experience in class today. I walked in a couple minutes late—whoops!—and took my seat in our usual fold-up, movie-theatre-style chairs. After I situated my bad and notebook, I went to lean back and relax for a moment. Little did I know that someone truly spastic had removed the back of the chair and failed to notify me, causing the bottom of my seat to flip up and me to fall backwards on to the ground. As you can imagine, I landed in quite the compromising position with my legs in the air; but luckily, with the help from the stranger next to me, I scurried back up into the upright position as silently (and as embarrassed) as humanly possible. Hopefully no one saw, although I’m not sure how that would be possible…oh well, at least I’m giving us Americans a good name?

On another random note, this weekend I get to participate in a township homestay! I can truly say this is a once in a lifetime experience. I will get to live with a family in the Oceanview township from Friday to Sunday of this coming week and witness the continuing repercussions of apartheid. I’m definitely looking forward to this opportunity and going to take full advantage of it!

Until next time,

Erin

Guess who's back...back again.

Wow, its been over a month since my last post. I've clearly been slacking in the blogging department and I'm embarrassed. Anyways sorry about that! Lots of fun stuff was taking up my blogging time and, unfortunately, lots of work too. I know my Dad will be happy to hear that! :) But anyways, here are some highlights from the past couple weeks:

Visiting an elephant farm in Knysna and feeding the elephants. They’re actually really beautiful creatures up close – who knew!

Touring “Monkeyland”—a monkey reservation on the Garden Route that works towards re-acclimating trained monkeys into the wild.

The Old Biscuit Mill—a Saturday market with some of the most amazing food you’ve ever tasted! My personal fav so far is the steak sandwich. Definitely getting the eggs benedict next time, yum! Below is a waffle loaded with bananas, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and caramel sauce. Wouldn't be surprised if I came back 50 pounds heavier from Africa.

Going to Camps Bay—a beach in Cape Town. It’s a great place to go for the day and to go out at night! We hit up a restaurant for half-price sushi and cocktails – an unbeatable combination. Outside our restaurant there was a man tightrope walking, riding a bike, and lighting himself on fire all at the same time. It was pretty random, but awesome.

Witnessing a soccer game at the famous World Cup stadium in Cape Town. People (read: everyone) always ask me if I was in Cape Town for the World Cup. Unfortunately I have to say no, but maybe now I can pretend a little…

Oh Cape Town, how I love you! This is just a picture of a random South African sky. I mean really, who gets to see this kind of stuff on a daily basis? I'm counting my blessings, for sure.

Love you and miss you all so much more than you could ever imagine.

Bungee Jumping!

So this weekend was a long weekend for Women’s Day so 8 friends and I decided to do the Garden Route. Of course, one cannot travel along the Garden Route without stopping in Plettenberg Bay and jumping off the highest bungee jump in the world! In case you didn’t know, I am deathly afraid of heights so this was not the most exciting thing for me. However, I still felt the need to conquer this fear. After all, you probably only get one chance to jump off the highest bungee bridge in the world, so I had to take it.

Sunday morning was the fateful day. We lucked out with the weather—not a cloud in the sky. Once we arrived and I saw the bridge we were jumping off of I deeply considered sprinting off in the opposite direction and hiding out until everyone else had jumped. Alas, I stuck my ground, bought my ticket, and got into my harness. To get to the platform where you jump, everyone has to hike across this long, extremely thin, metal-grated bridge so next thing I know I’m walking across the scariest bridge I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

The bridge is the same height as the jump (so 216 meters, which translates to about 710 feet) and because the bottom is grated, I could see everything I was about to jump into. Everything that I was about to jump into = a huge canyon forest. Needless to say I started crying immediately.

Once our group got to the jumping platform, the DJs started playing techno, which finally distracted me and made me stop crying. Then, before I know it, the first girl is getting ready to jump. They bring her to the edge, count down from 5, tell her to go, and she’s gone!! I’ve never seen such a strange sight, but it did make me feel a lot better because she was raving about the experience once they pulled her up to the platform.

Soon enough it’s my turn (I’m second to last in the lineup), and again, I’m crying. My friend Emily was sitting next to me and she asked me a question: “Do you believe in God?” I said yes and she told me that God had created all the beauty around us and that we were going to jump into it. And while we did, He would be holding us all the way. The way she put it made me feel so lucky that I could experience His work so that gave me some courage to carry on. Next, they strap up my ankles in ropes and lead me to the edge of the platform. I honestly have never been so scared in my entire life. In my mind, jumping off a bridge equals suicide so I had no idea how I was going to bring myself to jump.

“5-4-3-2-1 Bungeeeeeeee!” My mind is blank and with a slight nudge from the workers, I just fall. I find myself soaring above the most gorgeous canyon I’ve ever seen. Okay, soaring is the nice way to put it—in reality, I was plummeting to my death. There were definitely some choice words coming out of the mouth of Erin Corr at that moment. But luckily the freefall only lasts about 5 seconds so there was really no time to truly freak out. Once I felt the tension of the rope, I knew I was safe and could “relax.”

The view of the green trees in the canyon and the river below me was all I could see and the sound of the waves and the ocean was all I could hear. It was the most serene and peaceful experience. An almost spiritual one. After about a minute of hanging head first, 300 ft. above the ground, I am rescued by one of the workers who holds me as we are pulled up to the top.

I’m sorry that post was so long, but that was definitely the most exciting, terrifying, and beautiful thing I’ve ever done so I felt the need to share all the gory details.

Love you guys.

The view of the canyon.

The view of the ocean (behind the platform).

The platform.

The bridge from hell.

My first dive!

Getting ready to jump!

Getting tied in! I look a lot happier than I felt...

In front of the canyon.

The view from the top of the bridge!!

Back on the ground, safe and sound!

So happy to be rescued.

The fall, part 3.

The fall, part 2.

The fall, part 1.

Feeling like a freshman

My first week of classes went by so fast! I really like them all actually. I'm taking History of Southern Africa in the 20th Century, Psychology of Religion, Social Psychology, and African Dance. They're all pretty interesting and each teacher is awesome in their own way. I thought my African Dance class would be my easy class, but boy was I wrong. The past two classes we've learned a ridiculous amount of steps and in my last class he told us we haven't even danced yet--uh oh. We also have theory for an hour on Thursdays so needless to say, its harder than I expected, but still really cool.

My first day of school was so intimidating, but now I feel like I know the campus and people a lot better. While standing in line waiting for the jammie (the bus that takes us up to upper campus) on my first day I couldn't have felt like more of a loser. I stuck out like a sore thumb among all the cool local South Africans, or at least I thought I did. Come to think of it maybe it was just the guy commenting on "all the Americans" that made me feel so awkward...Either way I felt like I did freshman year and it wasn't a great feeling. After that day though I became so much more comfortable and started seeing familiar faces on campus. I also realized how nice everyone is once you get to know them! Its so cool walking around between classes and realizing how unique everyone is who goes to this school. Everyone comes from such different backgrounds and it is a mix of so many different cultures. I feel like I can learn a lot from the people here.

Since my last post I have hiked (more like scaled...) Lion's Head, gone to the aquarium, shopped at Green Market Square, took a weekend trip to Stellenbosch, went to a rugby game, and visited Robben Island. Lion's Head was the most beautiful view I have ever seen. We had a 360 degree view of downtown Cape Town, Camps Bay, and many more gorgeous locations by the ocean. My friends and I are definitely going to return at sunset to enjoy some wine and cheese at the top :) The aquarium was a lot of fun, but similar to most other aquariums. They had a pretty cool shark tank and a penguin feeding! Green Market Square is an outside flea market in downtown that has amazing knick-knacks, jewelry, tapestries, paintings, bowls and spoons, etc. at pretty good prices! Of course I had to leave with a couple souvenir necklaces. Stellenbosch was a lot of fun as well! Unfortunately we were only there for a night, but staying in a hostel was still a great experience and in two weeks CIEE is taking us back there for some wine tasting. The rugby game was a lot of fun, but to be honest I had no idea what was going on. We won though! Robben Island was obviously so moving and so cool to see. The tour from the former political prisoner was my favorite part. He was so candid and open about his experiences in the prison, which was hard to hear but at the same time very eye-opening.

Rachel and Mary outside of our hostel in Stellenbosch.

View of downtown Cape Town from the top of Lion's Head.

Me sitting on the top of Lion's Head.

A huge eel at the aquarium!

Some goodies at Green Market Square.

Mary, Me, and Alli on the boat ride back from Robben Island. Thats Brooks on the top he accidentally jumped into the picture.

Our tour guide at Robben Island.

Nelson Mandela's cell where he was imprisoned for 27 years.

Sorry that was so much writing! Miss and love you all.

Hikes and Beaches

So far the weather here in Cape Town has been unbeatable! There's no way this is really their winter. If it is I'm moving here ASAP. A couple days ago four friends and I decided to take advantage of the sun and go on a hike up the side of Table Mountain. We hiked to this place called the memorial and then even higher to a lookout called the box house. Although it was a definite trek, the view made it worth it. At the top there was a more than 180 degree view of all of Cape Town!

Me standing over the city, looking out over the ocean!

Mary, Emmy, Alli, Me, and Rachel.

I'm obsessed with the trees here. They are so unique.

The Memorial.

Alli, Emmy, Rachel, and Me.

The next day it was still beautiful weather so a group of girls from my house took the train up to Muizenberg beach. All the locals thought we were crazy for going to the beach in winter, but we didn't mind. Clearly we had the right idea because about 15 CIEE kids ended up at the same beach! I definitely want to go back there once the water warms up and try some surfing!

Two kids from the program (Austin and Colin) going surfing.

The whole CIEE bunch!
A view of the beach and the waves.

View of the beach in the other direction.

My favorite part of the beach - colorful shacks (I think they were changing rooms) that lined the entirety of Muizenberg!