Wine, Sharks, Bartering, Crows….final week…time of my life

So since I have really been struggling with coming up with words to explain last week this week is going to get put into one big blog…sorry!

So Saturday was our day to the wine lands to become wine connoisseurs! I think we were all excited for free wine and a big history lesson about South Africa! I have always wanted to know more about wine in general and hey why not in South Africa! Per usual…the scenery was amazing (pictures will come later) and it was an amazing time! We all learned a lot about wines and more importantly about wines of South Africa. We went to 2 places for wine tasting and history. The first place was my favorite…mainly because of Victor our wine man! He was just a jolly man who knew his wine and was always cracking jokes. It was really fun and interesting but I had other things on my mind as well. WE WERE GOING SHARK DIVING THE NEXT DAY!

I couldn’t have been more excited for shark diving and really no matter how much I talk this up you all HAVE to see our video because words really don’t do this justice! There were 7 of us that went and got picked up bright and early at 530am Sunday morning. I was upset at first that we had to miss church but it was so worth it! We had a 2 hour ride to the coast before some breakfast and the boat ride out to shark alley! This is the place that all the shark documentaries are filmed for any big nature show/channel! My nerves were strung by the time we finally got there after a 45 minute boat ride. We ended up about 80km away from the most southern tip of Africa and in the general vicinity where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet! Our set up included: 1 wet suit, 1 weight belt, 1 pair of goggles, and 1 3-meter shark proof-esc cage! All I can really say is the wet suits were extremely tight but wow did they keep you warm in the water! Instead of trying to explain how big these sharks were ill try and put up some pictures either now or when I get back to the states and maybe even some videos I took while in the cage under the water! The basic set up was 5-6 people in the cage and then you have like a foot of the cake above the water for your head and you would grab some air and then duck down and watch the sharks. All I can really say is that I could have EASILY grabbed one a few times! Also, one of the sharks definitely grabbed a hold of a corner of our cage and shook and wow….3 feet away from a shark with a mouth wide open full of jagged teeth….crazy!...really though just ask and say “It’s da big one, its da big one!”

Another big part of this week was dropping Rand grand at green market square which is a big flea market kind of. I was really excited to work on my bartering skills but after a little bit I started to feel bad. I was dropping the price and therefore these people are making less, especially when it was a difference of like 40 rand…or 5 bucks. I ended up getting a bunch of really cool things at the market but I can’t really say yet because some are gifts but all in all it was a good time. Even more than buying things I really just enjoyed the small talk with the sellers. I kept introducing myself as HHP’s cousin. HHP aka Hip Hop Pantsula is a big rapper in South Africa. So far I’ve been told by about 10-15 people that I could be his cousin or something…only thing is…he’s black and I’m white…no biggie though! But we would really have like 10-15 minute conversations with these people and they were always hilarious to me because they would try and sell you literally anything. I am a college student….do I REALLY need a table cloth with the big 5 from Africa on it!? I really don’t think so! Oh and I almost forgot! I went to a Counting Crows concert on Tuesday! Random huh? Well some of the people on the trip are huge fans and I am a fan of live music so hey…why not! It ended up being at the largest casino in the western cape of South Africa and wow this place was like going to vegas….complete with a ice skating rink in it! We ended up getting there pretty early so we got front row right on the rail! Again, everybody in South Africa has been really welcoming! We met a bunch of people around us and they were all really fun minus making fun of us for being American…in a nice joking way. The one thing I have not liked about here is that NO ONE DANCES! Literally it doesn’t matter what type of music it is, but nobody dances so we all kind of stood out even more but hey…its South Africa right? Well…the concert was amazing and just another thing I can cross off the to do in life list…concert in another country. After the concert we were waiting for our ride back home so I decided to throw some rand on some table games. All the black jack tables were all 50 rand minimum and weren’t really open so I played roulette for the first time in my life. I was pretty pumped because it was a real wheel and ball! I ended up winning 200 rand betting quads with either 10 or 20 rand! I realize I won like 30 USD but still…it was really fun!

All in all I have had a hard time with this week because always in the back of my mind I’m thinking about Guguletu and everything I saw there. It really has been a struggle to enjoy the experience, yet to never forget the people that taught me the most on this trip!

I will most likely make another entry either tonight after the braai or tomorrow before we leave for the airport….we’ll see!

Oh also…its my 21st birthday….and im in South Africa…what more can you ask for…so again…thank you to everyone that has helped me get to this point I really cant thank you all enough!

One Love Always,
TJ