a lot of things

I have always been criticized for being unable to summarize, most of you that know me have most likely discovered any story I tell is going to be a long one. I have struggled to keep these blog posts as short as I can, but so much of what I experience is new - the recent history of this country has impacted every aspect of current society and it is hard to understand to what extent this is true unless you live here. I have been trying to give a bit of a context to bridge this gap, and hopefully I have succeeded to some extent. Over the past few weeks I have been traveling all over South Africa, and despite the risk of failing miserably, I am going to try and summarize the different stops along the way with just the right amount of context:
(1) Durban- My friend Kate and I took an extended weekend trip to Durban, a city about a 2 hour flight down the east coast from Cape Town. Unlike Cape Town, the black population is Zulu and not Xhosa and the majority of the population is actually Indian. Durban has a warmer, more humid climate and we were excited for the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. We stayed with Kate's friends that had an apartment on the beach, it was a perfect location. Durban is much more industrial than Cape Town, and the city life is much more bustling. We had a beach day, and aquarium day, a perusing day and got a decent taste of the night life. I even managed to learn how to stand up on a surf board! Overall, we both decided that Cape Town was a much more beautiful city and we were happy to return home.
(2) Spring Break- After returning from Durban I had less than a week to finish an overwhelming amount of work before spring break. I got it done, and on Saturday morning at 6am all 30 IES Abroad students headed for the Cape Town airport. We spent one night at a backpackers lodge about an hour away from the park and then had a 2 day long Safari spending 2 nights in little huts at a camp on the grounds. We then traveled to Soweto, the largest black township in all of South Africa and the home to the famous 1976 Soweto Uprising. We stayed 2 nights in a backpackers in the township, taking a 4 hour biking tour one day and having time to explore nearby Johannesburg the next. The trip was absolutely amazing. Waking up to begin our Safari at 5am each day and spending all day searching the bush for animals was awesome; I saw cheetahs, a leopard, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, hippos, lions, impalas, monkeys, mongooses, crocodiles etc. etc. As soon as I get pictures online I will make sure to post a link to the album - I got some great shots that I can't wait to decorate my room with next year. The animals were beautiful, the weather was great and it was a blast. On the way to Soweto we stopped at several different points in the Drakensburg Mountain range and saw grand waterfalls, mountains and the largest growing canyon. Staying in Soweto was quite the moving experience and we learned a lot to add to our growing understanding of South African history. Everything from our accommodations, the bike riding, playing soccer with children all afternoon, venturing to Jo-burg...everything was perfect.
Check out the story behind Lebo's Backpackers here: http://www.sowetobackpackers.com/

Now I am back home and ready to slow down my pace a little. Since IES planned the entire spring break trip, we had very limited responsibility the whole time but we were definitely kept busy. Spring break does not end for another 4 days, however, and we plan on making the most of it. Tomorrow I am going to an amusement park about 25 minutes away for the day, and this weekend a few of us are road-tripping to a music festival! I am still loving it here, spring break was a much needed break from school work and I feel like I will go into second term with a much lighter mind than how I ended the first. We have all also discussed how happy we are to be living in Cape Town of all cities, nothing compares to the diverse array of awesomeness that is Cape Town.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, I had an amazing 21st in Kruger Park with all my friends; we had an extremely lucky animal siting day, had a fun lunch and celebrated that night as well. I got to see a cheetah sprint across a road, jump in a tree, snatch a monkey, and run off! Much better than a night on the town in Easton, PA.
Pictures soon, miss you all.