friday night, me and 8 other hopefuls started our fall break adventure with a 20 hour bus ride to zambia. the bus was late, the men in the parking lot kept harassing us, and the local gas station was out of coke light. we should've known it was going to be a long trip!
we had to get out several times to step on a spongey-square soaked with chemicals or something, it supposedly helps stop the spread of foot and mouth disease, i didn't really know or understand?
we were about 200 km from our final destination, victoria falls, when.............. the bus flippin broke down. we sat in the zambian afternoon heat for 3 hours waiting for a new bus, which turned out to be entirely too small for the 30 some people getting dropped off in livingstone. womp womp.
but we made it!!!!! our hostel was awesome, it had an amazing pool+hot tub combo plus tons of giant, squishy pillows all over the place, perfect for a quick nap or a good read. that night we went out to dinner and i had HUMMUS, it was a lovely reunion, and reminded me of my everyday lunch at good ol' valpo. (it was so good i ended up going back to the same restaurant later in the week!)
sunday morning we woke up early and went white water rafting down the zambezi, the river that the falls fall into. it was INTENSE! the hike down alone was an adventure, climbing over jagged, slippery rocks on a steep incline. our rafts flipped in the rapids various times, and it was so much fun! we got to go swimming in the river, and it was a gorgeous deep jade color. our raft guide asked us to refer to him as babyface, so we decided to call ourselves team babyface usa - we were AWESOME. we had an entire day of rafting, rapids 1-24, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks. ;)
monday we did a walking tour of the falls. we were walking on rocks that are normally completely covered in water during rainy season. we got to look over the edge into the gorge - yikes, a long way down! we even got to swim in the water, and jump into the "devil's swimming pool" -- a natural pool right at the edge of the falls. we literally jumped in, 5 feet from the edge, cannonball style. when our guide first did it, i'm pretty sure we all freaked out and thought the next time we were going to see him was when he was going over the falls. we got to hang over the edge of the falls, and it was incredible. i even did it upside down which actually made my heart skip a beat out of fright! it was SO COOL.
monday evening we went on a sunset cruise on the zambezi, and it was beautiful. i had my first hippo sighting!! (seriously happiest moment possibly of my life). hippos have always been my favorite animal, i even wrote a story about them in 8th grade with two of my best friends. we met a lot of really interesting people on the boat, people who decided to take years off of work and just explore and travel the world. I WANT THIS LIFE. we even had our white water rafting guides on the cruise with us, they were like our friends for the week :) i also decided that aussies are seriously the coolest people in the world, and pledged to visit there asap.
tuesday we ventured into BOTSWANA. we had to ride a ferry in, and it was at the cool junction where namibia, zambia, zimbabwe, and botswana met. it reminded me of the 4 corners in the us of a. anywho, in botswana, we went to chobe national game park. we got to do a traditional safari in a range rover, it was definitely way cooler than driving around in our cge combies all day. we saw a TON OF ELEPHANTS, really close too. there were over 30,000 in the park alone! they were splashing in the water and swimming. we even saw a dead one- and it smelled FUNKY. that doesn't even do it justice (mom- it reminded me of the time our garage freezer broke and the turkey in it went bad, and we tried cleaning it out by tying long socks over our faces. HAHA).
we then got to go on a river safari, which totally made the trip worth it. i was literally less than 10 feet from elephants! AND MORE HIPPOS! it was a joyous occasion. the chobe is really beautiful, and actually green, which was a nice change from dry etosha.
wednesday morning we woke up early and traveled to the zimbabwe side of the falls. i really enjoyed the zimbabwean side because you could actually see the falls, where as on the zambia side you can really only hang off of them. :) there were so many rainbows and lots of mist, it almost felt like rain! and it looked like a rainforest, lots of exotic looking plants and flowers. so beautiful!
we caught a bus at noon and made it back to windhoek at 8 am on thursday morning. it was so good to be back in windhoek after such a long 3 weeks. it felt like home. :)
the rest of my fall break has been spent watching sex and the city on dvd, reading book 3 of the twilight saga, facebooking hardXcore, playing freecell, and .... doing homework. :) kind of. :) it rained for the first time yesterday and all of us were playing outside, and then jumped in the pool! it reminded me so much of "lemmings to the sea!" at camp pendalouan (but what doesn't bring me back to those sweet summer days on big blue?) i went and saw a movie for the first time in theaters since i've been here, and of course i wouldn't waste such a momentous occasion on anything but HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3. it was amazing, they had salt&vinegar toppings for the popcorn, and i couldn't be more convinced that zac efron needs to be in my arms.
and now i'm on to the final stretch, only 5 weeks left in namibia and 6 til i set foot in good old o'hare once again. i can definitely not deny my homesickness any longer, i cannot wait to see my family, my new dog, my friends, my wife, my boo, the christopher center, chipotle, el charro, etc. i'm hoping in these next few weeks i can slow down a bit, make the moments last forever, dance in the sweet african rain, embrace the warmth of the sun... and hopefully not get too stressed out over projects and homework. :)
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