Home is Home

We are back in the U.S. We arrived Sunday afternoon in Chicago and with customs, the train, and taxi, we didn't get home until 9pm. We met a guy on our flight from Cape Town to London who was returning from a one week trip for his London MBA program with about 60 students. We were discussing what we liked and did not like, what we missed, etc. I mentioned how some people ask why I like the US so much. I don't like that question. It is implying that I think the US is better than everywhere else which is not exactly true. But for being away for so long, you just start to miss things that you are used to. But then the guy said it best, "Home is Home." Nothing more needing to be said.

Anyways, here is a video that I was unable to post do to slow internet connections.

Rocky Horror Show

Last night we all went out to the Fugard Theater and saw the Rocky Horror Show. Our friend Alex has never heard of it before, and he is from Transylvania! We all enjoyed it.

Week 9

This is our last week- we leave on Saturday.
Things I am looking forward to:

1. My own bed
2. Being able to drive
3. Driving on the "right" side of the road
4. Self check-out lanes
5. Warmth (again remember it is winter here), along with centralized heating/air
6. Better variety of foods to buy
7. An oven/stove that does not burn everything
8. Going out to eat and being done in an hour- hour half
9. Unlimited internet connection

Take a moment to think about how many things you take for granted. What would you miss if you were in a different country?

Week 8

Went to dinner Saturday night to Marco's African Restaurant. It was a nice place but again, just the event of going out to eat with more than 6 people just becomes too long of an ordeal and I no longer want to take part in it. We left around 6:45 pm for a 7 pm reservation, and we did not get home until 11:25 pm. Because part of our group was late (arrived around 8:15) I did not get my dinner until 9:30. Hasn't anyone ever heard that it is bad to have a big meal that late at night? Two people in our group chose to order the unique items as appetizers. Fried caterpillars anyone? How about a boiled sheep's head? Yuck.

12 days until we leave, but who's counting right?

Nelson Mandela Day

Today, July 18th, is Nelson Mandela Day. It is a day to give back to the community in any way you can. My thought is for you to share this post and encourage everyone you know to join Be The Match. They are always in need of more donors, especially those whom are of African descent. I joined Be the Match a few years ago when a coworker of mine had two boys that both needed a bone marrow transplant. It was very easy to sign up. They send you cotton swabs to your home, you swab the inside of your cheeks and send it back. It is that simple.

In 2013, Be The Match:

	Helped 6,300 patients receive a marrow transplant
	Grew the Be The Match Registry® by 539,000 new potential donors—44% with diverse ancestry
	Provided $3.2 million in patient assistance to 1,800 families
	Advanced research with 254 studies under way
	Added 20,800 new umbilical cord blood units
	Engaged volunteers: a total of 104,630 hours = a value of more than $2.5 million
	Reached a total of 61,000 marrow transplants since 1987

Week 7

20 days until we leave. Yes I am counting down. Today Mitch and I decided to rent a car to get home from Chicago O'Hare when we return. It was the only way to get home at a decent hour. We took the train here, but will miss the train on the way back.

Our flight arrives at 12:45 pm then we will need to go through customs. Next train for South Bend leaves at 1:35 pm from Millennium station, and it takes around an hour or so to take the metro lines to Millennium station so therefore we will miss the train. The next train doesn't leave until 4:43 pm and we would not arrive until 8:14 pm and then still need to take a taxi to get from the South Bend airport to home. I really do not want to get home at 9 pm and have to teach the next morning. So we are renting a car instead.

The other option is to take the Coach USA bus from the airport to Notre Dame but that will cost $82 total and we would not get to South Bend until 7:20 pm. Again not a preferable option.

Here is this weeks forecast.

Fairy Glen- July 3/4

We left Thursday, July 3rd for Worcester, South Africa which is around an hour or so away. It was actually along the same path that we took way back in early June when we went to the wine fest in Robertson. We drive through the mountains and a 4km tunnel through the mountain to get there. We arrive a little early but our room was ready. We were actually the only people staying the night but they said that they were not as busy in the winter. They had three safaris booked the next day however.

We are given a map and informed how to locate our chalet. The lady informs us that we would be going through some automatic gates and to make sure we stay on the paved road while driving. So Mitch and I hop back in the car and proceed to drive to the chalet. After a few minutes passing the first gate we notice something to our left and slow down. Rhinos! Nothing between us either, and then we drive a little bit farther down and see Zebra's to our right. We pass through another set of gates and then see Lion's to our right. Now we understand the gates. They don't want the lions to eat all of the animals I guess... and of course their customers. We turn through one more set of gates and see our chalet. We look around and then head back outside, noting that the only thing between us and all of the animals is an electric fence.

About two hours after arriving we go on a "nature walk" with Andrew, our ranger. Mitch and I never really figured out the point of this as we drove to this location where we got out and walked to what looked like a damn but were then told we couldn't walk all the way up. But we did see some more baboons while we were out. When we got back he helped us start a fire and then we got ready for supper.

The next day we went to the main lodge and had breakfast then went out on the safari. It was nice because there was only one other couple with us so we got to stay at each location longer and ask questions. All of the animals roam free on this property except for the lions in which they have six. Two males and four females. Each male is in a separate area with two of the females. They had been fed the night before and morning of so they were all content. We were only able to go inside one of the lion areas because the ranger informed us with the second set of lions, the female who was trying to hide from us would most likely attack us. He said she would probably jump right into the jeep. She definitely had the stalker mode on while we were walking around the area. The ranger also said if we had a child the lion would have come right up to us.

Anyways, now for the story of the rhinos. "Lady" and "Higgins" are their names and back in December 2011 poachers over sedated them and took their horns all the way down to the growth plate. Their horns will never grow back and they are still in recovery. Here is a video about the two rhinos.  Supposedly Lady was pregnant at the time this happened as well. They are also the only two Rhinos known to survive such an attack.

 The elephants were cool to see but hard to track down. At one point the one elephant turned toward us, then started walking toward us to the point where our driver drove off, afraid it might have been pissed off and would charge after us. The only thing we did not see were giraffes as the climate isn't quite right for them. He said they don't live this far south.