OMG I'M UPDATING

OH, my gosh, i am the worse blog owner ever. I can't believe it has been so long since I've updated this thing. Seriously, my apologies to anyone who checked this and saw nothing new. My b, it will never happen again. In my defense, I did go 10 days without internet, but that’s still not a very good excuse.

So I guess I should pick up from where I left off...Pretty much I spent the first week of September buried in papers and homework. It was the equivalent of mid-term week, which is never very much fun no matter what country you're in. But hey, it didn't really matter because i had spring break to look forward to, which turned out to be the coolest week EVER.

For anyone who didn't know ( I cant remember if I mentioned it) for spring break I went on a tour that started in Jo'berg and ended at Victoria Falls, which is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. If you don't have a map (haha) that means we flew to Jo'berg, and then drove up through Botswana and the panhandle of Namibia, and ended in Livingstone, Zambia. I can't even try to summarize all the bizarre and insane things I saw and did, but I will try via some high-low.

Highs:
-I actually enjoyed camping. I don't really know how that happened. I guess a lifetime of abuse via family vacations has finally paid off. Thanks dad.
- Meeting some cool people from all over the world who were on the tour with us. It was awesome to meet some South Africans not from Cape Town, and just talk to so many people from so many different places with such cool stories.
- The fact that I got to go visit countries that hardly anyone gets to see, and how realizing how lucky that makes me. To put it simply.
- my passport looks way cooler now.
- Going white water rafting in Zambia, which was INSANE. We totally flipped and I flew like 10 feet out of the boat. Good thing I can swim.
- Seeing animals, such as elephants and hippos and crocs, INSANELY close. Which was kind of scary and totally ridiculous.
-Victoria Falls wins for nature-y beautiful thing I have ever seen. Its one of the 8 wonders of the world, and I totally get why. Go there.

..i could really go on forever but that would be boring for everyone, so instead i will put up some pics.

Me flying a plane over the Okavengo Delta in Botswana...or just sneaking in the cockpit after we landed..
Sunset in Chobe National Park, Botswana


Vic Falls, Zim side...


Swingin' in Zimbabwe...


Seconds before this croc decided he didn't like having his personal space invaded and dove back into the water right next to our boat...At which point everyone screamed and fell into the aisle..I got mud sprayed all over me..ask to see the video when I get back it's hilarious


heck yes monkey...this guy hung around our campsite in Namibia...he bit me but it was cool.



I dunno I just thought this was funny...


The only low I can think of happened on the last day. We had a flight at 1 45 but we wanted to go into Zimbabwe early in the morning to see the falls, because they have a better view from that side. So we made it through the border, but on the way back we get help up on the Zim side because of a huge line. SO, on the bridge that connects Zimbabwe and Zambia, we were all in a very big rush and I was getting stressed out. In my moment of anger, I happened to look up and make eye contact with a mommy baboon and her baby. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Apparantly i threatened her, because she proceeded to pick up speed and like crawl/walk right over to me. At that point I yelled and started like walking really fast away but not running. I looked back and that baboon was totally on my tail. So then I started looking around for help but everyone was just laughing at me. Eventually, she started following someone else and I made it to border control. But I was definitely almost beat up by a monkey in Zambia. moral of the story is don't piss off baboons when there is no one around to save you from their wrath.

Ok, it's time for me to sleep. Once again, I'm sorry I've been neglecting the blog for so long. It will never happen again. Expect a post in the near future, because I definitely have some more stories.

much love from the western cape
Ellen