Skukuza part 2

Aaaaahhh craziness! I can’t believe I come home so soon!!! Anyway stories about work:

Insect collections

I am so happy it’s done! It was a bit of pain towards the end. Especially since we thought our first box (which had all of our work in it) went MIA, found the day after we turned it in though >:( Anyway it was hectic.

IP2

So it’s just me and Kyle this time around. The field work was a little crazy because it was freaking HOT and you know all the hippos and working in a male leopard’s territory and all that jazz! I was wearing shorts so my legs look like I stuck them in a blender or you know trekked through kms of knife sharp grass, which I did. It was hard work but it wasn’t so bad. Surprisingly I actually didn’t feel the heat so much. I think Singapore made me less of a weather-wimp. The first few days of writing were hectic because Kyle had a bad fever and was out of commission. It was a total struggle bus! But I made it through and work isn’t so bad hahaha. We’re polishing it up right now and I’m pretty hopeful. It actually is starting to look pretty good. I am happy we worked in a group of two because I got to do a lot m ore of the work and thus learn more.

Fun stuff/Day off;

We started the morning by waking up really early and driving of Elephant Whisperers. We meet these lovely elephants and one of them was almost double the size of the others! His name was Tembo and he was my favorite! We got to touch them and learn all about them. We also got to take some pretty awesome pictures with Tembo. I look so delighted! After we finished up there we went for breakfast and I had delish French toast and the best bacon I have had since I left the states. Seriously blissful start to the day! The pics from today are gonna be the best pics of my life not just cause of the awesome settings but because I look so truly happy.

Speaking of true happiness 2 words:

BRIDGE JUMPING

Soooo awesome!!!

We thought we weren’t gonna get to go because the first place we went to was closed. It looked for a bit like the remainder of the day was gonna be a dud, with us just driving around doing nothing. But then we found another place with bridge jumping. We drove over to the bridge and well it was a normal bridge with cars on it and everything. We were SUPER sketched out when we saw these two guys jut tying a rope to the safety rail. But it turned out to be really legit (ie the rope on the rail was just a signal rope we were attached to permanent stuff). So Kyle and I volunteer to go first. Kyle actually goes first and as he jumps part of me was Fuuuuuuuuuuuu…..

Then I was up. The man strapped me into my harness attached me to the ropes and over the railing I climbed. Poised at 30m above a river I braced my toes on the small ledge while he talked me through then next 30 seconds.

“Now on the count of three you jump, ya?”

“Ok got it.”

“Alright”he said. (My thoughts while he talks will follow in italics.)

“3” Oh my God! What kind of retard does this?

“2”  Well me for one.*shrugs*

“1”

                                Jump!

And I jumped. Mind you my jump was lovely according to my friends and the video. I didn’t fall off the bridge, have a false start or hesitate. I crouched and pushed off with the full force of both my legs, and then fell back with my arms out and my legs straight. I was also hollering like a hooligan, which took the grace out of it I’m sure. I stopped yelling when the harness caught the rope and I stopped falling and started swinging. Then I stared whooping again. I believe a transcript of what I was saying would have gone something like this:

WOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!!! YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

BEST THING EVER!!!!!!

YEAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!

I had calmed down by the time I was getting close to ground and waited patiently enjoying the swinging as the nice man at the bottom of gorge stopped me.

It was LEGEN-wait for it---------------------------------------------------DARY!  Hahahaha

Then I watched the rest of my friends jump. Not everybody was as willing to jump of a bridge as I was though. Some people freaked out big time, but in the end we all jumped and we all loved it! I’m trying to round up a group of people to go to the first place (its waaay bigger) on our last day off.  I loved it!!! I can’t wait to go bridge jumping again! I hope I talk some my friends at school into going!

Skukuza part 2

Aaaaahhh craziness! I can’t believe I come home so soon!!! Anyway stories about work:

Insect collections

I am so happy it’s done! It was a bit of pain towards the end. Especially since we thought our first box (which had all of our work in it) went MIA, found the day after we turned it in though >:( Anyway it was hectic.

IP2

So it’s just me and Kyle this time around. The field work was a little crazy because it was freaking HOT and you know all the hippos and working in a male leopard’s territory and all that jazz! I was wearing shorts so my legs look like I stuck them in a blender or you know trekked through kms of knife sharp grass, which I did. It was hard work but it wasn’t so bad. Surprisingly I actually didn’t feel the heat so much. I think Singapore made me less of a weather-wimp. The first few days of writing were hectic because Kyle had a bad fever and was out of commission. It was a total struggle bus! But I made it through and work isn’t so bad hahaha. We’re polishing it up right now and I’m pretty hopeful. It actually is starting to look pretty good. I am happy we worked in a group of two because I got to do a lot m ore of the work and thus learn more.

Fun stuff/Day off;

We started the morning by waking up really early and driving of Elephant Whisperers. We meet these lovely elephants and one of them was almost double the size of the others! His name was Tembo and he was my favorite! We got to touch them and learn all about them. We also got to take some pretty awesome pictures with Tembo. I look so delighted! After we finished up there we went for breakfast and I had delish French toast and the best bacon I have had since I left the states. Seriously blissful start to the day! The pics from today are gonna be the best pics of my life not just cause of the awesome settings but because I look so truly happy.

Speaking of true happiness 2 words:

BRIDGE JUMPING

Soooo awesome!!!

We thought we weren’t gonna get to go because the first place we went to was closed. It looked for a bit like the remainder of the day was gonna be a dud, with us just driving around doing nothing. But then we found another place with bridge jumping. We drove over to the bridge and well it was a normal bridge with cars on it and everything. We were SUPER sketched out when we saw these two guys jut tying a rope to the safety rail. But it turned out to be really legit (ie the rope on the rail was just a signal rope we were attached to permanent stuff). So Kyle and I volunteer to go first. Kyle actually goes first and as he jumps part of me was Fuuuuuuuuuuuu…..

Then I was up. The man strapped me into my harness attached me to the ropes and over the railing I climbed. Poised at 30m above a river I braced my toes on the small ledge while he talked me through then next 30 seconds.

“Now on the count of three you jump, ya?”

“Ok got it.”

“Alright”he said. (My thoughts while he talks will follow in italics.)

“3” Oh my God! What kind of retard does this?

“2”  Well me for one.*shrugs*

“1”

                                Jump!

And I jumped. Mind you my jump was lovely according to my friends and the video. I didn’t fall off the bridge, have a false start or hesitate. I crouched and pushed off with the full force of both my legs, and then fell back with my arms out and my legs straight. I was also hollering like a hooligan, which took the grace out of it I’m sure. I stopped yelling when the harness caught the rope and I stopped falling and started swinging. Then I stared whooping again. I believe a transcript of what I was saying would have gone something like this:

WOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!!! YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

BEST THING EVER!!!!!!

YEAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!

I had calmed down by the time I was getting close to ground and waited patiently enjoying the swinging as the nice man at the bottom of gorge stopped me.

It was LEGEN-wait for it---------------------------------------------------DARY!  Hahahaha

Then I watched the rest of my friends jump. Not everybody was as willing to jump of a bridge as I was though. Some people freaked out big time, but in the end we all jumped and we all loved it! I’m trying to round up a group of people to go to the first place (its waaay bigger) on our last day off.  I loved it!!! I can’t wait to go bridge jumping again! I hope I talk some my friends at school into going!

Western Cape

It was really lovely and I got a lot of sleep. Not much else to report… oh I henna-ed a bunch of people (myself included) and designed the T-shirt for our group, and did some art for a cool assignment so lots of art J Also got hooked on a new thief type show. Thank for the Leverage Keith… yeah other than all quiet…

Dev Hoop:

Just working hard mostly. My FFP was on Dung Beetles and Marcus our prof was supper cool and funny. The high light was actually on the day when I worked with the other FFP group in the tide pools. Lawrence wrangled an octopus!!!! He literally just grabbed it out of the water and we all got to hold it!!!! That was cool.

On our day off we went to the southernmost point of Africa, and saw both the Indian and Atlantic Ocean. It was a really fun, in a more hospitable beach we played around in the water. It was a lot of fun. I even learned a little bit of surfing (ie how to catch a wave, but not how to stand). My legs are little banged up (I actually scratched a hole in the skin!!!)  but appear to be healing nicely. 

We have also doing this thing called pillow talk. It is where we sit around and chat about all sorts of things before bed. I have lost so much sleep to pillow talk!!!!

I blame the lack of sleep for the cold I feel coming…. I don’t wanna be sick!!!!

Anyway I can’t believe how soon I will be coming home!!!!! Part of me can’t wait to get back but at the same time I know that after about a month of being home I’m gonna have itching foot and wanna get on the move again. Well we’ll see what happens. I plan to go abroad next summer also (either Europe or Costa Rica).