December 10

Where shall I even begin?

I guess the first exciting thing that happened last week was that I got seasick. Literally that might have been the worst feeling ever. The trip started off promising. Had a great group of people going out on the boat; Eva, Caitlin, Jackie, Jacob and I with Dan skippering. It was a lovely day-- perfect set up. I had the role of lookout (aka the easiest job). All I had to do was sit up top on the look out post and watch for sharks.

The downside to the lookout post is that the movement feels a lot rougher. I literally had my arms and legs wrapped around the pole and even when I started to feel sick I initially refused to come down. I was like a cat that climbed a tree and then needs a fireman to come rescue it. On the bright side we saw a little baby hammerhead and it was awesome.

Everyone else on the boat admitted they felt sick and after like an hour I hesitantly came down. I was convinced I was going to fall into the water as I eased my way down. I then proceeded to curl up in a ball and sit on the data sheets so I didn't get my butt wet. I felt like a bowl of gelatin.

Dan then announced that we were going to not tow aka not stay out another 1.5 hours and finally at like 6 pm we were back in port (we left at 2). As soon as Dan told them to lift the anchor up my body decided it was time to throw up. Good timing. Couldn't puke until we were about to end the trip. Argh.

Friday was an easy day with aquarium in the morning and a lecture in the afternoon. The lecture was with Ryan Johnson and involved science and the media. So he interviewed all of us about science-y topics and then we had to watch our interviews on the computer. Can I just say I HATE my voice? And I'm sorry that people have to listen to it. I also have more of an accent than I thought I did. It was one of the those times that I was thankful that I can actually speak in public and yay Ethertons.

This weekend we had quite the adventure. Eva, Jason, Jackie, Caitlin, Johan and I decided to road trip. Yes, there were six people in the car. It was cozy. Saturday we drove to Oudtshroon and went to the caves. I'm not necessarily terrified of caves but you know, I'm not a big fan. The tour started out fine with nice big rooms and open spaces. Then the "adventure" part began. We had to walk like 10 meters hunched over and nearly crawling. We had to crawl up this awful "chimney" and then we had to slide face first through the "post box." Also, I thought caves were supposed to be cool. Oh no, it was humid and I was just sweating. That was the worst part.

After this, we headed to our hostel that was a little outside of Plettenberg Bay. This was two hours or so away so it was dark by the time we got close. We had to call the hostel about 10 times to try to find it and eventually we found the road. A dirt road. No, no a mud road that our car began to drift around on and we all agreed we were clearly driving to our death.

We got to the place and to our pleasant surprise we had booked a room at what can only be described as a hippie commune. Everyone had tattoos and some had dreads and all were dressed like they had been backpacking for the last 10 years. They were really nice..... The rooms were clean. There was sign on the toilet warning of the water crisis and it was "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." There was also the option to work to pay for your food or for your stay. Certainly a taste of socialism. However, there was free wifi which was awesome.

Sunday we woke up and some people were planning on bungee jumping so we headed there. Eva, Jackie and Caitlin jumped. Jason and Johan did the bridge walk and went with them. I decided to save my hundred rand and sit and drink a coke light.

We then went back to the hostel with plans to hike. We had lunch and then we were off. Jason had his computer and he wanted to put it back in the car so Eva gave him the key. As Caitlin, Eva and I waited for him to come back Eva joked that he probably locked the key in the trunk.

Jason then returned and said he locked the key in the trunk. Not a joke. So we went to the reception desk at the hostel and the guy with dreads said that he or another guy would break in and get the key. It was Sunday and it's Africa so everything was closed and getting a locksmith would've been expensive.

So in the meantime we hiked down to the waterfall and it was lovely. We then came back to wait for our car to broken into. I was a little pessimistic about them being able to actually get in the car but I couldn't do anything about it so oh well.

The guy was able to break in, luckily and at about 7 pm we were back on the road, headed home. I figured my luck I would have 4:30 am chum today but I lucked out and had rec. So now, I'm just chilling.

Caitlin and I are supposed to go scuba diving tomorrow as well which should be fun. Hopefully the weather cooperates....