all over the place

Feb 22, 2007

Struggled getting out of bed for global this morning we should get a day of rest after each country to physically and mentally prepare for 9 straight days of classes. In global today though the professor who is some how my extended family explained his comment about how blacks are the reason the US doesn’t have the highest HDI in the world, it sort of makes sense but they comment was definitely wrongly phrased. The courses this time also just have so much tension in them, which I feel is unnecessary in my Politics and Memory course we were talking about religion in brazil currently and about how the African descendants are so proud that they have held on to it, and people started just arguing there is a girl in the class who grew up in Ethiopia and she kept on referring to Africa as if it were a country and everyone residing in Africa was the same, And she went off on a bunch of other tangents also, then this other guy informed her that their were about 53 countries in African and we should acknowledge that and I thought that was a great point, then the tension sort of simmered down but this girl is also in my Global Environmental Politics course she’s just too much of a handful. Then in my other class Development Local to Global Perspectives we are talking about these tribes in Africa and other things, and one kid commented about how he feels most peoples lives in the states have no meaning and what is the need for extreme wealth and he covered a bunch of other points, then this other kid I call Bono threw back at him that these tribes are considered to have a low quality of life and they are so uncivilized which well both of them have different points of view but I just don’t understand that if these people are happy why we feel we have to attempt to change their life and make it “better” or to our standards. Mexicans and Nigerians are the happiest people in the world so shouldn’t we be learning from them. Anyways, it just interesting watching people speak in class about these issues and the people that do speak more than others speak as if they should be professing that class and occasionally cut off the professor, just interesting, in business classes these things don’t happen, we just fight to stay awake and leave classing completely confused. The stupid evening announcements came on and we have to advance our clocks an hour tonight and the next three nights, not alright with me I would so much rather do three hours one night and be in pain for one day instead of three.

Feb 23, 2007,
Struggled threw classes, was late for global cause I forgot to advance my clock but went to bed at 2000 hrs last night so I was up earlier than usual so I wasn’t very late only 15 minutes and when your grandfather is the professor I can get away with more. Classes weren’t too bad today no tension being flown across the room, just they all seem the same with a little different flare. Had another nice day by the pool for a while, figured out the whole shipboard account ordeal, just wish the lady could have had her story straight both times so that I wouldn’t have been so confused and thinking other things etc. oh communication issues. Then went to my family dinner, which I have five sisters, which is kinda interesting, and they seem pretty cool I tried not to thing about Dan Christies monotoneness, but he and his wife seem nice, and it should be alright. They are retired now, they have six kids well he does she is his second wife, this is his sixth voyage, and he as four adopted children and two natural, he does things in six’s apparently. One of my sisters knows brad fyffe just a side note.

Feb 24, 2007

I believe it was around 0800 hrs this morning they crew went threw the hallways banging down doors and drumming which kinda woke me up, but I just rolled over, then slept in till about 1000 hrs, didn’t get the fish guts poured on me and kiss the fish and or the captains ring and the captain was dressed in green, I meant too but didn’t, and I didn’t shave my head either, their were so many girls that shaved their heads or rocked the hawk, some look good some don’t, its kinda entertaining, I give them credit, I did get some good footage though, Did get to watch a lot of head shavings though, and a lot of it got donated to locks of love, and then just enjoyed our day off chillin by the pool relaxing to carnaval music still and some 80s jams, then tonight we had a BBQ which was amzing, burgers, and hot dogs, and ribs, and jello, and ice cream, and all things great for you basically. Then their was a pub night tonight but their was a weak turnout so I bailed early to read an atlas, and do some research on the phillipines, and apparently they aren’t pub nights anymore but after-hours everynight, I don’t know, I cant keep up with the changing of names and shenanigans, and then some people wanted to know why I was researching the Philippines and I told them about my surf resort and they made fun and asked me all these questions so I said nope your not invited anymore.

Feb 25, 2007

Another day of classes I wish they would just get more exciting the only professor who is a good public speaker is my global environmental politics class and it is really interesting. I mean they are all good just get slow when you have nine days of straight classes. Then a week to Mauritius then another week to India, then it speeds up thankfully then its bam bam bam until Japan then the journey home. I am working on my Field Journal for my world history 1400-1914 course, which is interesting which I guess would be the appropriate term, and in brazil they gave us these wish things or something like that and you cant take them off you have to wait for them to fall off and its taking forever apparently it takes up too three years someone said. Off to the journaling.

Feb 26, 27, 28, March 1, 2007

Today we woke up to the speaker blaring about an apartheid that would take place for 24 hrs. So that meant that if you did not shave your head on Neptune day you were not allowed to use public bathrooms, be seen on the seventh deck, eat in the garden lounge dinning room sixth deck, or use the computers in the computer lab, so to stand up for our rights we held a protest at dinner outside the garden lounge protesting our rights, and it got exciting, the archbishop showed up, I mean it wasn’t real they could not discipline us really but It was an interesting exercise. It was frustrating when I had to go to the bathroom during class and I had to go all the way back to my cabin cause I couldn’t use the public restrooms. So it was a fun day I guess. Then finished reading things fall apart by Achebe and wrote my four page on it. That took till 6 am so it was a short nights sleep before global the next day where the archbishop spoke, on all different topics covering South Africa which was really interesting. Then spent the rest of the day recovering from no sleep made it threw my 1045 hrs class where basically ruled the discussion about our book. So it was a good day then took a good ole nap, and went to bed early and we have been advancing the clocks way to much lately it has just been killing my sleep we had to advance that night and then again tonight, and today the archbishop spoke again in class, this time he was being asked questions from a panel who asked questions compiled by the students. It was awesome to hear him speak and see how he felt and looked and such things. Im really excited for south Africa hopefully I get up before we dock, some super high official like the president is apparently doing the diplomatic briefing tomorrow should be exciting.

March 2, 2007

So got up early 6 am that’s early to watch the sunrise over capetown which was awesome as we sailed into port. So the premier of western cape or something like that did the diplomatic briefing and then we were cleared and allowed to disembark around 11 or so, got a group together and headed to long street, we cruised up and down their for a while and at lunch at naked, it was interesting had a wrap of sorts, then we found a antique store with like war items and that sorts of stuff from all over, the owner was super entertaining learned a lot from him actually we were their for two hours or so, we learned lots of history, politics, all kinds of good stuff, he sold the producers of blood diamond a lot of apparel for the film. I purchased a 1930 South African three pents, coin, thingy, it was only 15 rand clint would say it was a good deal. I wanted to buy this shield but it was too expensive and the only thing he had in the store with real blood stains on it was a sword and I cant bring that on the ship so I was bummed out and a lot of the good items were NFS aka not for sale, like the neon orange one piece not sure what army wears that but he said he wears it occasionally, (a lie doubt). Then we hit up a skate shop, where we met some guy who does urban art and Djs, and stuff and gave us the low down of things to do. We were on the hunt for a skateboard which we never found. And conversions are hard cause 7 isnt divisible by much and is just too technical. Then headed back to the ship via the cab, bus, van, whatever they call um, and learned a lot about transportation issues, and parking and such from a guy in the car with us. Basically a very educational day make friends with locals. Had dinner at the ship and relaxed until heading out to long street for some nite life action. Had a late nite bite to eat at Mama Africa, then made our way up too cool runnings, but canceled that due to lines, and then I left those friends to meet up with other friends, that were in fiction, which was awesome, great music awesome people, just extremely hot, and kinda small but awesome, ran into our dj friends from the skate shop earlier, talked to them for a little while, its basically impossible to get away from sasers to we ran into a ton of them. Ended our great night out around 2 to head back to the ship so that we could get an early/descent start to the day tomorrow.

March 3, 2007

Got up around 1030 hrs and just chilled for a little had lunch on the ship, its pouring rain outside, so table mountains, out so we just headed to the waterfront area, and into the mall to find something to do, since maneuvering outside isn’t an option. So we decided to see a movie, and since we are in Africa we decided to watch Blood Diamond since it had relevance to our location. So bought tickets for that but had some time to kill so I headed off to go camera shopping, since Chamando has advanced stages of cancer, I decided to get a new one, but name stays Chamandeux, I guess its French now, so im excited about that, and then just wandered threw shops and just watching people its crazy how their whole lifestyle is left based where ours is right based, their escalators are left, they walk up the stairs on the left, in general they are left. Then met back up with friends to see Blood Diamond, which was super super intense, and extremely action packed it was also cool to observe the reactions by the crowd in the theater about different lines and parts of the movie. Awesome movie though, then we headed outside to the waterfront, and had fish and chips for a lunch dinner meal, then everyone headed back to the ship but I cruised further around the waterfront, over to the other end, made some phone calls, took some pics, oriented myself, just enjoyed wandering aimlessly then made my way back to the ship around 830 or so. Hung out with the roommate for a while and just chilled in the room till about ten then I was going to head to long street and meet up with people but it is still downpouring so I opted out of that the only reason long street was happening tonight was their was a street festival and everything was outside and I really didn’t want to stand out in the rain with a bunch of drunk people, so I went looking for something to do and some how ended back up at the movies it seems when I venture off alone at night I end up at the movies, it was so nice to be on my own not have anyone to worry about just do whatever the hell I want, so I decided on The Last King of Scotland, which I thought Blood Diamond was intense, this was insane, I mean hanging people from the ceiling with hooks, but it was a very well put together film. I knew parts of the history, didn’t know about the book that it was based on, but some how in Africa I ended up watching two movies about Africa, im glad I opted for the movie it was time well spent, where I think I would have been miserable and bored on long st. it was nice to just have a low key night, by myself, I just thought about it and I have been constantly surrounded by people for the last month, none stop, from 800 on the ship to the four million in brazil. Then while walking back to the MV I saw two kids dragging another kid, who was definitely not doing to well. Glad I wasn’t him or his friends that’s for sure. That reminds me apparently yesterday some SASer chick went and drank fish bowls whatever those are with some people and made it back to the ship and up the gangway all those stairs and then passed out at the top and code blued, and had her stomach pumped in an ambulance, sounds like fun huh. So I am really hoping that it clears up tomorrow so much to do but so limited by the rain, cant table mtn. Or lions head cant wait to safari though, we better have good weather for that its fricken summer whats up with the rain . If the weather doesn’t permit other activities I think I am headed for the district six museum, hopefully robben island if its not sold out or delayed due to weather. Just gonna play it all by ear. Really excited about my new camera, its so nice to not get frustrated every time I try to use it. Also cant wait to get my tax refunds on it 14% what are we in Iceland or something. I swear everyday I see new people working on the ship. I am up on the pool deck right now and have never seen these 5 guys cleaning the grill and mopping the deck before. I guess they could be new, off to bed now I know I haven’t been getting enough sleep when my right eye twitches its not very comfortable and or a good sign. So definitely just stabbed my right thumb while trying to open my battery package not with a knife no the stupid sharp plastic broke the flesh and went nicely into the tip of my thumb right above the nail nasty little buggar.

March 4, 2007

So the early start became a medium start cause the weather was till iffy out but we didn’t let it stop us. Went to buy tickets for Robben island it was sold out till Tuesday so we got tickets for Thursday morning at 800 hrs. then came back to the ship met up with mike and mike and went to tourist information to find something to do on a Sunday since most things are closed. The lady their was the most unhelpful person ever, told us there is absolutely nothing to do on Sunday. Helpful. So we decided hell were gong to simons town to see the jackass penguins so we found a guy to give us a ride but he couldn’t so he called his friend to take us so peter waited until joseph showed up, and so joseph ending up being Desmond Tutus personal driver but since he was in Joberg visiting his ill cousin while we are in cape town Joseph had time to drive us, so he treated us well took us to a bunch of cool places on the way to simons town which is about 45 minutes from capetown on the water. So it was an awesome ride. We stopped on the way to see a little fish market and then at a scenic lookout, then we got to simons town, and just cruised threw the national park and saw the jackass penguins, doing all kinds of crazy shenanigans, they really aren’t the friendliest animals, and they have been around for about 6 million years, a little side note I was watching a show on coyotes the other day and apparently after all things have died off coyotes will still be around, so imagine earth with cockroaches, and coyotes, sounds great right. Then we started our migration back to capetown, we had to call peter to tell him that we didn’t need a ride back he was planning on picking us up cause the tourist info lady said that their were no trains but their was a train every hour instead of every half, she was just trying to get our money, so we made the half hour walk to the train station way in the beginning of town, and made friends with this guy from ohio, he told us about the train while we were looking at penguins, he just got done teaching English in china, and so he flew to south Africa has been her for 3 weeks, and then is going to germany after this before he heads back to ohio. He had one of the narliest beards I have seen, he looked like he walked out of the 1930s, it was pretty intense. Oh and on the train it was a nice ride, but it squeeeeeeeeeeeled the entire way back im just glad we made it back, we rode first class which was 12 rand, about $1.25 for an hour and half ride, and it was alright I guess third class is just wooden benches lined against the walls, he it works somewhere to sit right. It wasn’t a very busy train cause its Sunday I suppose. Then once we got back to cape town we headed to the royal sushi restaurant for some awesome sushi had a rainbow roll with all kinds of awesome things for 100 rand, ate enough for a life time too. It was nice having a meal that had some real flavor to it. Its up at 4 am tomorrow to leave for the safari.

March 5, 6, 7, 8, 2007

So it did not have to deal with getting up early this morning for the safari cause I never went to bed I didn’t want to risk missing my safari, so I watched some sand lot and cool runnings once or twice, and then hung out with some people in the computer lab who were doing some drunk emailing, and then we boarded the bus and set off for the airport for our 2 hour flight to Durban. I of course don’t remember the flight to Durban I crashed hard once I sat down on the plane. Once in Durban we went on a little city tour, we learned how kwazulu natal got is name and if you are zulu you just refer to it as kwazulu or land of the zulu and if you are pro government basically you call it kwazulu natal. During the worst city tour ever we went to a parking lot for 20 minutes then they took us too a shopping area with lots of tourist like shops didn’t find really anything I really want an ostrich egg but I have to find the right one. So after the city tour we had to go back to the airport to meet the transportation that was going to take us to the game reserve which is 96,000 hectares and is about a 3 hrs drive from Durban. It was nice we got a good nap in too rest up for the game drives. All the way along the drive to the reserve we passed miles and miles of sugar cane that just was all you could see for miles as well as what looked to be tree farms, of cook pines and iron woods as far as I could tell as well as in towns smaller parcels like a few acres had sugar cane on them I am guessing for personal/town uses. Not sure what they would call them here. Also we passed threw many towns that had lots of speed bumps to slow you down for the school children, I noticed that they were all in the same uniform, and that the majority of them had books in their hands while one child had 4 or 5 books with her. The schools that I could see seemed relatively well put together and a descent learning environment from the outside atleast. According to our city tour guide, he is frustrated with the government because of the raise in cost for children to attend school, he said it has gone up close to 100 times what it cost when he went to school. He just thinks the government should be aiding with education more. I also asked about the water rights and where the water came from for all of the sugar cane and my driver said that the city and towns water was different than the water that the sugar plantations use, which was interesting because the area was suffering from a drought I believe, but they had no problem irrigating all the sugar, also it seemed that they must have deforested the area to grow the sugar but I didn’t seem that their was a lot of deforestation going on for sugar expansion. A lot of the towns that we drove threw while approaching the reserve we part of the Zulu nation which is ruled by the King of Zulu who has 28 wives and takes a new one every year, and I guess their was some controversy because the one he took this year was from Mozambique which is very rare, there is also a parade where female virgins march once a year with a reed in the air in hopes of being chosen as the kings next wife. They are inspected to prove their legitimacy. Also in the Zulu nation the king has absolute power and rule and they are separated from the South African government but not, they said if the king wanted someone killed he could order him killed and expect it done, and that what he says goes even if it contradicts South African law, which I support it helps their culture and community strive just as long as the king doesn’t use his power and take advantage of it. As soon as we entered the reserve we saw two rhinos off in the distance. And it was a good start to three days of bushness. We spent about 2 hrs on a sort of game drive on our way to camp. We saw the rhinos, zebras, giraffe, kulu, wilderbeast, water buffalo, impala, nyala, etc. We finally got to camp after two hours of so and it was almost close to sunset. It was really hot today. We got their figured out sleeping arrangements each tent slept 8 people, and apparently their were not enough beds for all of us in the regular tents, so 4 of us had to sleep in mama cooks tent. Which was fine, I guess a lot of people were freaking out due to ants in their tents, have they never seen ants before, they weren’t even biting kind, So then we had dinner, prepare by momma cook, our guide looks like a hyena meets the croc hunter and he likes to give nicknames to everyone so we called him stinger derived from sting ray. It was appropriate I guess no one has given him a nickname before, he has done safaris with jlo and Stephen Spielberg. It was a beautiful night and a full moon, so it was a nice night sky the moon hindered start gazing but it was still awesome chillin by the fire and being out of the city. Crashed early since I didn’t get any sleep the nite before and we had a long day of it shall we say, and because we were getting up at 5 am for a game drive. In the morning we were woken up to rain about 430 not in the tent and since rain is so rare this time of year I guess the first rain in 3 months or something like that, so we put the game drive off cause the animals would all be in hiding anyways until about 7 or so the rain ended about 530 or so, definitely didn’t have a problem going back to sleep. Got up for breakfast after the rain, had some cereal and coffee and some other things. Headed out for our game drive new sightings were a leopard spotted tortoise, and a whole heard of water buffalo staring us down from the side of the road, as well as a massive heard of wilder beast. It was a typical game drive, didn’t see too much because they were all still hiding cause it was cool, and they were drinking water from the rain that remained on leaves of bushes and trees. Then we headed back to Sontuli Camp for a talk from some Zulu guy cant recall his name but he works with the tracking of wild dogs and he told us about how they were close to extinction and are still endangered I believe. We learned about their hunting strategies, and he goes into the communities surrounding the reserve to educate them and let them know that they should not fear them, the reserve is fenced with an electric fence but occasionally it goes down for often than they would like because of poachers. He also talked about how quick they can travel and it gets challenging to track them and know where they are at times. It started to drizzle alittle again so we went under this tent that was set up but the rain came threw the sides, whatever doesn’t matter we are in the bush nothing really matters, and apparently last night someone left the tap on after showering or something and we lost 5000 liters of water. One why was someone showering we are camping on a safari in the bush, there is no need to be clean, and two that’s a lot of water, and so we didn’t have any running water for the day cause they had to pump more, not that it affected me at all. One quote was “I cant sleep unless I shower” ya then why would you sign up to spend three days in a tent. Anyways then we had something crazy for lunch that mama cook whipped up, they describe then we eat it and I am never sure if it is really what they say it is but I go with it. As long as it fills me up. It was nice I made a friend who is a zoology major so they were able to inform me with all kinds of crazy facts about animals. We then had naptime after lunch and the wild dog talk, but for some reason I didn’t nap I figured no need for napping im only in the bush for 3 days. So we chilled on the deck where we ate dinner and such, and looked for animals roaming down to the stream no action really minus an impala and a wilder beast of water buffalo we couldn’t tell they were too far away. Then around 6 oclock we went on a bush walk, which was about a kilometer to “pride rock” and we spent an hour their asking any questions that we wanted, Samaro talked about the Zulu then Stinger talked, about how the cheetah, leopards, and lions hunt, as well as the hyenas and we saw some hyena droppings, which are very white from all the calcium they have in their diet because they eat bones so much cause they are scavengers. After our bush talk and time on pride rock we returned to camp and mama cook had dinner ready. While eating dinner we had a hyena come within about 2 meters of the deck where we were eating, it scampered off quickly. Then after dinner we chilled for a little while and waited for our open-air night drive safari vehicles to arrive. We got the sickest tour guide Dunkin made Crocodile Dundee look like an amateur. First we head off see some awesome game, then about10 min in there is this 3 meter python slithering across the road and we figure we would just slow down to see it, but Dunkin gets out picks it up and brings it over to hang out in our vehicle for a little, apparently African Rat Pythons are not venomous and so after we played with it he set it down then another vehicle pulls up behind us and he picks it back up and that is when the python was not having it and it strikes him in the neck. Super sick and he just brushes it off like it was a mosquito bite that’s what described it as at least. Then we proceeded with our game drive. Then about five minutes later we ran into a hyena off to our left that was knowing down on a rib cage and spine of something undetermined, and for about 15 minutes this hyena just chilled eating their dinner and they could have cared less that we were staring at them. Got some great footage, then we headed on Jason had the spot light on our side and we were spotting things up a storm. We saw a white tailed mongoose and a lesser spotted jetty and tons of NAFI (not another fricken impala) wilder beasts and all the other animlas, still no elephants, lions, cheetahs, or leopards. We thought we saw a few all the time but our sightings never amounted to anything. It was almost easier to spot things at night because their eyes reflected from the spot light but we had a hard time identifying what they were but Dunkin had no problem, we would just be spotting something and we would have seen it and known what it was by the time we told him where it was. And the information that he spewed to us was kinda overwhelming just tons and tons of information, about hunting and all kinds of stuff. So the night drive was a success lots of fun some new animal sightings. Once we were back at camp we got a fire going and Dunkin told us stories of how animals hunt and the way they all help each other out or signal each other to warn each other. We got up at 5 today to head out on our game drive on our way out of Sontuli on our way to the airport. It sucks that we have to leave, I was just settling in, and getting to know most of the SASers on the trip with me. Our trip leader was starting to get a little overbearing. So we did a two hour game drive on the way out of the reserve. We saw giraffes up close and personal within minutes of leaving camp, and we saw all kinds of the same animals, and we got to see three rhinos just chillin right next to the road, and they hung their for about 10 minutes, it was insane one of their horns had to be atleast three or four feet long. That could really do some damage in a fight. Then we departed the reserve and made our way past the miles and miles of sugar cane back to the Durban airport. Caught or flight back to cape town. Then took the bus back to the MV. Once back on the ship me Jason chris kyle paul anna, and some other girl left to go hike table mountain. We got their a little after 530 or so, within 15 minutes the girl whose name I don’t know decided to turn around, then about another 30 minutes of rock climbing up these faces paul decided that this wasn’t safe and that he should turn around, it was definitely safe, so anna turned back with him so that he didn’t have to go alone. So it is now down to me kyle chris and Jason, and we rock climbed up the face for another hour until we where almost to the top but the sun was setting and we decided to stop and watch the sun set, and we had to hike back down anyways cause the cable car wasn’t open that day due to rain. So we stopped and watched the sun set over the ocean while the table cloth was falling over our heads, the table cloth is what they call the clouds that sit on top of table mountain. So once the sun set we set off on our trek back down the rock faces of table mountain. We ran into some gofers that smiled at Jason and he thought that were going to attack I thought that they were hilarious, I am not sure if they were even real gofers not even sure what those look like but hey sounds good, I called them badgers but I don’t know what those look like either. So we are now on our way down the rock cliffs, which are much easier to go down than they were up, but about 30 minutes after we left the sunset spot its definitely dark now, I mean we can see enough and we weren’t really worried cause we had light from the city as well as the fact that the full moon would rise in a few hours if we really got stuck, so we are making our way down and loose our trail, I told my story of almost dieing in Kilauea ike, after getting lost, so we were cautious and we all were ok with being lost so we just went down, we could see where we were going we just had to get their. So an hour later we are stuck, we are so close but we are now at a cliff face that we cant go down, and so we sat their for about 15 minutes contemplating what to do and we decided that the best idea was to head back up and look for the trail, we knew where it generally was and where we were we could see this tree and we knew we weren’t supposed to be by this tree so we headed back up. About 20 minutes of climbing back up and we found our trail and flew on down since we could tell where we were going. So we made it down in no time now, but we had one problem it was about 930 or so and their was no form of transportation to get back so we saw one of the workers leaving and caught a ride in the back of his truck back to the ship, I have to say climbing table mountain has been the best time so far, I mean all are awesome, but we were extremely entertaining. Was exhausted after the hike went out for about 30 minutes after getting back to the ship and rinsing off four days of dirt, and then went to bed to rest up for my 7 am wake up for robben island. The trip to robben island was interesting. We had a tour guide I wrote a whole paper on it. Our guide was a political prisoner who was in there from 86 to 90. Then after robben island I did some town cruising and mailed some things and did errands, which I never have, then lost my sunglasses somehow during our last hour in capetown, so all I can say is someone is pimped out thanks to my stupidity. A loss for me one great step for mankind. So then we got on the ship but we didn’t depart until 630 at night on the 9th. Cause we bunkered and we couldn’t get to the bunker when we were supposed to because of high winds so we were delayed but it doesn’t effect our arrival in port Louis cause we will just make up time at sea.

March 9, 10, 11, 12, 2007

So we have officially departed cape town, and we are staying along the coast and we are actually still on the coast and it is now the 11th. We were staying about a mile offshore cause of rough seas, and weather conditions, so its kinda cool getting to see the entire coast line of south Africa. Had a descent birthday slept in till 130 in the afternoon, then got up and chilled by the pool for a little before studying for the two tests I have the next the twelth. Had a family dinner, it was good, they didn’t know it was my birthday but that’s alright. Didn’t want to say anything cause that would only get awkward. Continued studying on the 11th, then took the two tests which actually went alright, glad to just get them over with, one was in world history 1400-1914 and we have covered that entire time period already, and the second was in global environmental politics, which only took about 25 min glad it was short just hope I did alright. Then after that went and attempted to study for my global test which was the next day but not much studying actually happened. Just was glad to be done with the previous tests and gave the brain a little break after not much sleep while in south Africa and then not much sleep recently preparing for the tests.

March 13, 2007

Took the global test this morning, got an 86 before the curve not really sure how that worked out considering I studied for about 18 minutes. Just glad it went well a lot of the question were bogus, but I did master the map question you ask my where any country in Africa is and I have got it mastered. We had cultural preport tonight cant wait to get to port louis I think my plans are too go find a village somewhere in the mountains and hang out their for a few days, everyone is planning on going to the beach, so it might be a SAS free excursion. We had a birthday dinner tonight, for me, mike (roommate), allie, mary, and Lindsey. We all have birthday mines being the first and lindseys the last on the 20th so we figured a cake and celebration was in order. I even got pimped out in my white coat for dinner.

random pics taken so far