FCE Pool Party

This morning I studied for a little bit before heading to Huron Valley Swim Club for a pool party with my FCE group. It was a lot of fun to hang out and have some food and swim. We got a tour of the co-living community our instructor Dr. Greenstone lives in (and apparently was instrumental in the creation of the community fifteen years ago). It is a really cool, peaceful, and beautiful area! We also played some water volleyball and basketball in the pool and then played some of the awesome trampoline games at the pool. There was the trampoline basketball game and a trampoline game called space balls that was a lot of fun. It was also a workout. After hanging out for a bit we all went home and I drove two of my friends home and saw their places because one moved and one I still hadn't been too. When I got home I took a shower and now I'm getting ready to head to the computer lab at school so I can study in an area I focus better in. Yeah for studying on a beautiful weekend evening.

Welcome to M2 Year

Let the craziness begin! I began my second year of medical school on Monday, and boy has it been intense. We are starting with the cardiovascular sequence and they are definitely not easing us in this year. I was in class from 7am-5pm on Monday, 8am-4pm yesterday, and 8am-3:30pm today. Tomorrow is another 8am-4pm day, so needless to say I am pretty exhausted. There is a lot of information to learn and its going really fast. A few lectures have been easy to follow, but there are definitely a few that will require some intense re-studying because they were pretty confusing. I will be so happy when this sequence is over and we have less in class time!

Besides class I have caught up with my classmates during lunch and between lectures and spent some time with my sister at home. I also got the privilege of signing up for my required male GU physical exam session where we all get to learn the ever so exciting prostate exam. Not looking forward to that next month at all. I foresee a severe lack of social life for the next two and a half weeks. This is intense stuff! For now I'm just trying not to get too far behind (I'm already behind, it's impossible not to be with this schedule) so I can enjoy all of the things planned for this weekend! I have a pool party with my FCE group on Saturday that we've had planned since last April or May, and the Stanford new freshman send-off/alumni BBQ at Gallup Park on Sunday. Should be fun, and will be even more fun if I can get my act together and quiz early! Back to studying a bit before bed. Not getting a lot of sleep tonight either it looks like.

Made it to the Beach!

After four flights and many many hours of travel (almost 40!) I am finally at the beach in Aptos enjoying time with family and friends. I have walked on the beach and driven into Capitola and Santa Cruz and eaten delicious food made by Grandma. I have seen dolphins, seals, crabs, and many a sand dollar. Tomorrow is my birthday and life is good :)

Leaving Africa

This morning was my very last in Africa. It was sad, but also exciting to be going home. I definitely hope to come back here some day, and hopefully soon! I had breakfast with some people from my tour and then five of us went into Livingstone to do some last minute craft shopping. We took a cab and then I bought too many unnecessary things, but they are awesome and I am excited about all of them. I got some beautiful bowls, a seed bead and wire baobab tree, a picture, and some other little stuff to remember Zambia and Africa in general. Some of the venders even wanted to trade me goods for my hair tie, so I got one of my bowls for very cheap. 

After shopping we took a cab back to the campsite and I got the rest of my things together and found some cash to pay for my t-shirt that I bought for the tour (I had to borrow USD from the guy from Singapore and get some at the airport to pay him back). Everything worked out just fine. I say goodbye to everyone who was still at the campsite and then four of us took a cab to the airport.

The airport was super tiny and looked like a small warehouse. I got out some cash and changed it to USD to pay back my friend. I got through check in and security with out any issues, though it was a little chaotic. The place to Joburg was fine and I saw Victoria Falls from the plane. I was the only person in all of first class so I got excellent service! I had a delicious meal (dessert isn't in the picture) and was very comfortable. The flight was only about an hour and a half and we landed early. I got through passport control much easier than the last time I was here and it was quick. I picked up my bag from the airport storage and got all rechecked in for my next three flights. After checking in I wandered the airport for a while since I had a lot of time to kill. I got some cheap headphones and went through passport control after a while. 

The international terminal here is quite nice and has a lot of shopping. I looked around and got a few more things and then tried to get my VAT back from a few things I got in Cape Town. The guy was really mean and told me I couldn't get it back because I didn't have some stupid stamp. He at least gave me a form to get it back by mail later. Hopefully it works. Other than that I've basically just been killing time at. The airport, talking to mom and waiting to board. My flight leaves for London in an hour and a half! It's going to be a long one.

Super tiny Livingstone airport. Hard to believe this is an international airport!

This completes the ENTIRE entrance part of the airport with the previous picture.

After going through security you go outside.

And you pass the baggage. We checked them in just on the other side of the windows and they just bring them outside.

Victoria Falls from the airplane

Airplane meal from Livingstone to Johannesburg. Delicious dessert not pictured.

The Final Day (8/6/2013)

This morning began my last full day in Africa for my summer of 2013 adventure. We woke up incredibly  early, just before 5am, and packed up our camp in Botswana, ate some quick breakfast, and headed out. We left so early so we could easily get across the border into Zambia. We got checked out of Botswana pretty easily and then headed to the ferry across the the Zambia side of the river. The spot we ferry across is where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe all meet at the joining of the Chobe and Zambezi rivers. It was pretty cool to see all four countries and both rivers at one spot. Our driver was stealthy and got on the ferry ahead of all the trucks waiting there, which was great because the ferry only fits two trucks at a time and could have taken ages. We got across the river without issue and then literally ran to the passport control on the Zambian side in order to miss the queue.

We got all the passports and visas sorted out without much issue other than the fact that they had run out of visa stickers so they were writing receipt numbers on people's stamps since only one receipt was given when Justin brought all the passports in together. Luckily I already had my visa so I don't have to worry about anything, since I got mine back in May and I had gone with Justin to ensure they didn't stamp the blank page I saved to get back into South Africa so I can get home tomorrow. After passport control we got back on the truck and headed into Livingstone. 

We stopped briefly in Livingstone to get some money and then headed to see Victoria Falls. It is the dry season so the water coming over the falls is 50 times less than in the wet season, but it was still quite beautiful and impressive. If only I had more passport pages I would have gone to the Zimbabwe side to see the main part of the falls that is more impressive than the Zambian side right now. We were at the falls for about an hour and then went to our campsite at The Waterfront on the Zambezi River.

The campsite is quite nice, and there are a lot of people here from many tours as well as other travelers. The only problem here is that everything is so expensive, and I do not have enough time here. There are so many activities to do here from white water rafting that looks amazing to bungee jumping to elephant rides to microlites. Everything looked like so much fun, but since I didn't have much time all of the options went open to me. I couldn't decide what to do straight away, so I went and had lunch with everyone at the campsite's restaurant while I thought about it. After lunch I decided to go on the lion encounter so I went to the activities center and signed up.

The lion encounter was pretty cool, though kind of expensive. We got picked up at the campsite and en drove to a few other hotels and lodges to pick up more people for the encounter. The facilities were quite pretty and right on a different part of the river. We learned a few safety precautions and then headed out towards the area we would walk with the lions. We also learned about about ALERT, the conservation project the encounter is with. The project basically has four stages and aims to eventually introduce more lions into the various parks and game reserves in Africa since their populations have diminished. Stage one of the program is what we could take part in, where cubs breed in captivity whoare under  eighteen months old are walked in the bush to get used to it and develop some of their wild tendencies. We split up into two groups of nine, and after waiting for some wild elephants to go away, went to meet the lions. 

The lions with my group were brother and sister and were seven months old. They were so cute! I forgot their names but they were great. The male was much more lazy and camp than the female, but both were pretty laid back. The female stepped on my foot once, it was really funny. I got to pet both of the lion cubs both while they were laying down and while we were walking around in the bush. We walked and watched them and learned about them and it was really cool! There was a DVD that was made, but it was $40 so I didn't buy it. Maybe some other time when I have more money for things like that, but right now I'd rather spend my money on fun things since I got so many pictures of the lions anyways along with a video or two. Anyways, we walk around for a bit and also saw a few giraffes along the way and a couple of elephants (luckily in the distance because lions and elephants can create charging elephants and a not so predictable situation). We s the other groups lions pass briefly, and they were much bigger, about 16 months. Ours were definitely cuter I would say. When we got back I also s a hippo with a baby hippo across the river. It was pretty adorable.

Once back from the lion encounter our group all met up for dinner and hanging out together since its our last night as one group before a few of us leave and the rest continue on other Acacia trips in a few days. I had a yummy pizza and a delicious banana split, but I wish I could have found anything a little more African for my last dinner. This place doesn't have African food though, so I will live. We hung out for a while before I got really tired and left to get ready for bed. I am now in my sleeping bag listening to the monkeys in the trees above us. Can't believe this is my last night in this beautiful continent! My time on this tour had been too short, but I'm excited to see everyone at home soon!

At Victoria Falls

The Falls

Awesome 7 month old lions

Chobe (8/5/2013)

Today I got up a little earlier than I needed to in order to enjoy Elephant Sands a bit before we headed to the northern border of Botswana. I wanted to use the Internet, but the generator went on yet, and therefore the Internet also wasn't on. Instead I enjoyed the sunrise and watched the pack of wild dogs that had come to the water hole after their kill for, the pervious night. There were also a lot of different birds including hornbills, so it was quite a lovely morning. After the sunrise I went to take down my tent and then went back to use the wifi really quickly before leaving. It's amazing how while camping I don't feel the need to use wifi constantly since I don't have access to it usually. It's quite nice sometimes, but I definitely don't know what is going on at home or anywhere in the world for that matter.

Once we left Elephant Sands we drove north towards the northern border. There wasn't too much too see, but we did come across a few kudus and some elephants along the drive. We got up to the Chobe National Park area by 11am and stopped at the grocery store to get food for lunch, dinner, and breakfast tomorrow. After the stop we made the quick drive to our campsite at the Thebe River Lodge in Kasane and had sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch we had some free time before meeting at 2:45pm to go on a river safari cruise on the Chobe river. The section that we were on separates Botswana from Namibia, so I have now at the very lest seen Namibia, haha. The cruise was really nice as the scenery was quite beautiful and there were a lot of animals. We saw a ton of elephants (I must admit those sightings have become so common that they aren't that exciting anymore), hippos, red lechwe (a type of antelope), water buck, giraffes, buffalo, various birds (including a very cool African fish eagle), crocodiles, baboons, and large lizards. Again, it's very likely that I forgot something we saw. We also watched the sunset over the Chobe and Namibia which was quite beautiful. 

After the cruise we went back to camp and a delicious chicken and mushroom bake was waiting for us at the campsite. We ate dinner and then heard about the program for tomorrow and then I took a much needed shower. After my shower I had makeshift s'mores with the ingredients I bought at the grocery store before lunch. I say makeshift because the marshmallows were called "yumallows" and were strawberry and vanilla flavor combined and there were so graham crackers so I used coconut tea biscuits. They were delicious anyways, so yum! After dessert we chatted for a bit and now it's time for bed. Can't believe tomorrow is already my last full day in Africa after such a long trip!

Sunrise at Elephant Sands

African wild dogs at the watering hole

Zazu!

Huge croc

Hippo

My tour group

Sunset on the Chobe River

Sunset on the Chobe River

Elephant Sands (8/4/2013)

This morning we woke up and had to pack our things into the new truck. I didn't hurry and when I got to the truck fund out that people had taken different lockers so I got screwed and got the shit locker on the ground behind the trash can. That sucks but there's nothing much I can do at this point and I will live for a few days. We had breakfast at the campsite (I just had a piece of toast with peanut butter) and then headed back out on the road towards Elephant Sands.

The bus ride was fine and our first day in the new truck. It's not that different from the old truck, but for some reason I miss the old truck. The roads in Botswana are definitely bumpier than the South African roads, though that could also be due to truck related differences. That we will never know. On the ride the scenery was fairly monotonous since the country is basically 85% covered in desert. We saw a lot of very short trees on sand and barely any villages at all over a good distance. We stopped once in the second biggest city in the country, Francistown, and got the groceries for dinner and then headed back on our way to Elephant Sands again. On the way we played cards which passed the time nicely. 

We stopped literally on the side of the road to make lunch, which was interesting, but where else would we have stopped? We made sandwiches and a rice and tuna salad (no mayo thank goodness) and ate while standing around on the road with barely a car in sight. There were some local children hanging out at the spot we stopped and we gave them our left over food to eat. Also, the four-ish year old was terrified of us and starting crying. Shocker. That must be the age, 3 to 4 years old. They are so often scared. After lunch it was only a little over an uproar to the campsite, and we continued our card games to pass time.

Arriving at Elephant Sands was quite spectacular, as there is a water hole right next to the main portion of the campground where elephants actually come hang out most of the day. When we arrived there were at least five, but a couple left while we were pitching our tents. We came back to the water hole when camp was all set up and watched the elephants drinking. It was so cool to be so crazy close to wild elephants. After watching them for a while it was time to leave on the bush braai that nine of us had decided to do. The braai is an African barbecue and it sounded really fun, plus we were to look for animals on the way there and the way back.

The way out to the spot for our braai we didn't see too much. We saw a lot of tracks of the hyena, giraffe, oryx, elephant, etc, showing us the animals existed in the area, but the animals themselves proved elusive. We saw a bunch of birds and learned about some bushes and the guide was really trying to make up for the lack of animal sightings. We ended up seeing one small antelope and a few elephants together, but elephants have become a not so exciting sighting as they are literally everywhere. We got to the braai spot and set up under an amazing barren tree and the guide and cook starting making our meal.

We hung out while the meal was made and chatted and enjoyed being in the bush. The meal ended up being an amazing one, with T-bone steak, potatoes, vegetables, and salad. It sounds quite basic typed out, but it was quite delicious. We ate in the dark around the campfire and it was amazing. The coals were even just a local root we had scavenged and they made wonderful coals that burned quite nicely. I was really cool. We hung out for a while until everyone was done eating and then set off for the short nighttime game drive back to camp. 

The nighttime game drive I was really excited for because it was finally an opportunity to see some nocturnal animals. Unfortunately again all we saw was one small antelope. Kind of a bummer, but game drives are a gamble and we can't tie the animals to trees for easy viewing. That would be no more exciting than a zoo. When we got back we were incredibly disappointed to hear that we had missed some really exciting commotion at the camp and the people who didn't pay to go on the braai ended up with a cooler animal experience than we had had (not hard to top our two antelope). Apparently a pack of seven African wild dogs (also known as African painted dogs) had killed a kudu which had literally ran through the campground bar and reception. There were also around thirty (!) elephants at the water hole at this time. It was a long and drug out battle and they watched the whole thing, even though it was quite sad. At least the guide told us to get back in e truck and we went to see the wild dogs eating the carcass of the kudu in the bush so we got to see the whole pack. It was really cool! I'm also kind of glad I didn't have to see an animal die, but the video our driver took made the battle look like a pretty once in a lifetime experience. The kudu even jumped over the pool! It was nuts. She would run into the water hole and try to escape when the dogs were being chased away by the elephants who were protecting their baby, but she was so tired there was never a chance. African wild dogs are the best hunters around, and they are 97% successful (lions for comparison are something like 48% successful). 

After seeing the video I watched the three elephants in the water hole for a bit before getting ready for bed. While putting on my pajamas I knocked a mole or something with my fingernail and my back started bleeding a lot, but I got a bandaid and all is well. That's about all for today!

Elephants at the watering hole

So cute!

Awesome tree in the bush

Bush braai with the solo travelers

African wild dogs devour a kudu

On to Botswana

Today was just a travel day as we left Hotel Numbi campground to set off for Botswana. We got all of our things from the original safari truck since it needed to be fixed and we loaded up a trailer that was to be towed behind our mini bus that w would take to the border. The mini bus was comfortable, but I couldn't see out the window and it wasn't conducive to chatting so I got really bored and a little car sick. I ended up sleeping a lot on the journey, which was weird, but I couldn't keep myself awake at all. The trip was quicker that it would have been had we been in the safari truck which was a plus at least. We stopped a few times along the way for bathroom breaks and to get some snacks and it was an okay, but long journey in general.

When we got to the border we got our South Africa exit stamps and waited a bit for the minibus situation to be worked out because the permit they had was for the other truck and so they had to pay a fine. We eventually were ready to go and walked across the border into Botswana where we went through immigration on the other side and got another stamp. My passport is getting really full, I hope I have enough space to get home (I should)! Once across the border we walked to the campsite and put all of our things into the conference room at the campsite. 

Once at the campsite we all hung out on the porch for a while until dinner was ready and then we hada great buffet dinner at the campgrounds. The food was yummy, but not the most amazing meal ever. We then hung out around the fire for a bit and chatted. The new truck arrived around 9pm and we were mostly too tired to pitch the tents, so seven of us decided to sleep in the conference room. Now were getting ready for bed!

Kruger National Park

Today was a very early wakeup call as my alarm went off at 5:10am. We had a simple breakfast and then got in our safari 4x4s for a day of game driving in Kruger National Park in the northeast section of South Africa. Kruger National Park is an enormous park that spans three countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique) and is home to many species of wildlife, including the Big Five. I began the day having already seen four of the Big Five including elephant, rhino, buffalo, and lion and I only needed to see a leopard to complete it. Unfortunately we never were able to find a leopard but at least we saw a bunch of other cool animals!

We began the day by driving to the gate of the park where we checked in and entered. Our guide had asked us what we wanted to see during the day and we told him all of the rare animals we wanted to see like the leopard, the honey badger, a pangolin, african wild dogs, hyenas, etc. He told us we were trying to make life hard for him, but laughed about it. We were pretty sure we wouldn't see most of those things, but we could dream right. He basically said we were very unlikely to spot most and he hadn't even seen all of those animals before.

Our first animal spotting was a giraffe with her baby right near the road. It was very cute, but the light was low and it was on the other side of the 4x4 so I wasn't able to get a very good picture. They were really cute though, especially the baby. We then spotted a herd of elephants right near the road and they were awesome. Little did we know that elephant sighting would be far from a rarity for the rest of the day. We continued to drive on and the next thing we knew we came across a pack of four to six african wild dogs! It was so cool and actually quite unexpected due to the fact that there are only about 200 of them and Kruger is roughly the size of Wales! We were very excited!

After those first three sightings I can't tell you the exact order that we saw the rest of the animals for the day, but we saw a ton. There were many animals that I had seen previously in Uganda, and some new ones as well. I saw my first zebras, wildebeest, impala, kudu, vulture, parrot, and hornbill, as well as waterbuck, duiker, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, buffalo, and elephants. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting a few animals that I saw as well, especially some of the bird species we saw today.

We stopped at a resort-ish place inside the park for a breakfast snack and rest and after lunch was when we heard on the radio that a pride of lions had been spotted. We turned around and drove the 16km to the place they were seen in order to see the pride of lions. They were a bit far from the road, but at least we saw one big cat! I'm still a little sad we didn't see any other large predator, but I will live. The only bad thing about seeing the lions was that it made us do a second loop around park of the park we had already seen instead of seeing a new portion along the river. Anyways after the lions we went on our way to the lunch spot, stopping for a few animals along the way including a huge elephant that crossed the street between both of the 4x4 vehicles our group was in.

Lunch was at a picnic area within the park and we had chicken drumsticks that our tour guide had cooked for us in the morning. They were good, but the rest of the meal had mayonnaise so once again I had a bit of an unbalanced meal. At least the chicken was good and I had an apple in my backpack. After lunch we set off in the direction of the gate we would exit from, seeing a few more animals along the way, especially impala, giraffes, and elephants. We encountered a large herd of elephants with a baby who were trying to cross the road and a stupid man in a blue truck got in their way. The elephants looked kind of pissed and started looking like they might do something to his car, but he backed up and nothing happened. I kind of wish I had seen something go down (so long as nobody got hurt). It was a pretty cool experience. We also stopped at the place where the famous YouTube video "Battle at Kruger" happened. It was cool to see the location and you should watch the video if you haven't already seen it because it is amazing. 

After the area of the battle we headed on our way out. We were driving along a road and spotted the rarest of our sightings all day, the elusive honey badger! It was ridiculously cool and we were so excited. We got to see the full viciousness of the animal as it literally ripped apart a terrapin and we could see and hear it crunching on the shell and eating its meat. It was nuts and such an amazing thing to have seen. Our guide had never even seen a honey badger before and was also really excited. We never ever thought we would actually see one. After the honey badger we really just saw one more elephant before exiting the park and driving back to the campsite.

Once back at Hotel Numbi campground we relaxed a bit and started cooking dinner. We watched a group come perform some cultural dance and song around the campfire and then ate a traditional meal that reminded me a lot of Ugandan meals, but this was probably better. We had made a posho like dish that was probably more like a mix of posho and polenta, African spinach with a peanut butter sauce, fried cabbage, and beef with tomatoes and onions. It was so delicious! I ate my entire meal and was so satisfied. I also packed up tonight since we are changing safari vehicles tomorrow due to the trouble the vehicle has had. Tomorrow it is off to Botswana and we have a full day of travel. I had a wonderful had and I'm excited to see a new country soon!

Sunrise over Kruger

Beautiful view of Kruger

African wild dogs!

Vulture

Parrots!

Impala

Hippo with terrapins on its back

Zazu! (hornbill)

Zebra and giraffe

More giraffes

Me at Kruger

Cool bird

Elephant!

Lions! (hard to see, I know)

Wildebeest

So many elephants in the road

Zebra crossing

Elephant crossing

The site of "Battle at Kruger"; watch the 2007 YouTube below

Southern ground hornbill

Honey badger!!

And The Tour Begins

This morning the whole group ate breakfast at MoAfrika Lodge and then we packed up the safari van with all our things and got ready to set out on our tour. We made it to the petrol station just a few minutes from the lodge and then found out the clutch hadn't been properly adjusted so we had to go to the nearby shop to get it fixed before we could proceed. We spent some time there and while there I had to go to the bathroom. The man who worked there took me to someone's house next door and we had to walk by three horses and three pitbulls to get there. It was super awkward but at least they had a toilet! After the work on the car was finished we set off on our journey towards Kruger.

The safari van is quite large and I am sitting in the back with eight people at two tables. I unfortunately am in a backwards facing seat, but it's okay I didn't get too nauseous, just a little bit. We made it about an hour out of Johannesburg before pulling over with another mechanical problem that didn't sound too great. Apparently when the clutch was fixed the line to the brake fluid was disconnected and the mechanics forgot to reconnect it so we lost all of our brake fluid. Kind of important. We ended up spending quite some time sitting on the side of the road there. It was quite a site, but there was a ton of space and we set up chairs and sat in a large circle together. It was actually not too bad. The truck was eventually fixed and we were on our way again! I have been so lucky with travel drama, haven't I?

After driving for a bit we stopped to get some lunch at a really nice gas station. There was a good selection of food and other things. I had a chicken burger and I asked if there was mayonnaise on it and they said no, but it did have mayonnaise so I could only eat the top half of the bun, but it was fine. Whew, that was a long and terrible sentence. There were also rhinos, antelope, zebras, and ostriches behind the station which was weird but interesting. The bathroom there was also amazing! After lunch we got back on the truck to drive the rest of the way to our campsite and the Hotel Numbi, stopping just one more quick time for people to buys drinks and other odd items them may have needed. 

We got to our campsite just after dark and set up the tents. It was actually quite easy to set up and I am sharing a tent with a girl from Cape Town. I can't really pronounce her name, but I will figure it out eventually since we are roommates for the next six nights. I took a shower after setting up the tent, and oh my goodness the showers here are amazing! They a tiled with glass doors, super clean, great water pressure and temperature. Way better than I expected when I signed up for this (and when I was in Uganda going to the game parks and whatnot with the bug infested bathrooms). We had a pasta dinner all together around the fire and talked about tomorrow's game drive in Kruger National Park. It should be a great time! The group is really fun and all is well in South Africa :) I haven't taken my computer out today so my pictures aren't uploaded, but hopefully I will have wifi along the way. Otherwise I will be home in a week with all my pictures! Also, the reception I am sitting in to get wifi is beautiful. Wow.

As a side note, my phone battery is officially the worst and mow dying at 75%. Thank goodness it at least semi lasted through Uganda and Cape Town. I will likely not have a phone this week due to that.

The safari truck on the side of the road