"Fear is only temporary, regret is Forever"

The countdown is officially starting for the day when I return home ... 50 days (a little under 2 months)! I am completely stuck in the middle with how I am feeling - when I think about going home, I get excited, and when I think about leaving this place, I get sad. Nothing can describe the past 3 months I have had and the opportunities I keep receiving while I am here.

Two weeks ago, our school program brought us on a farm trip! A big group of us drove 3 hours and an hour of that was literally driving through the mountains. We stayed at a farmer's house and enjoyed some amazing South African hospitality! The woman would get offended if I declined her offer of tea and milk. At the farm, we fed their farm animals they had (all of these animals were rescued). They had donkey, springbok, kudu, baby lamb, baby goat, baby kudu, cow, and other animals that I don't know the names of. Funny story - when we were walking to the donkey, the farmer asked if any of us have seen a baby donkey before. We all said that we didn't, and we were surprised when we came across the baby donkey. He was laughing at our surprised faces and told us that it wasn't a baby donkey at all - donkeys don't have horns! It turns out that the donkey went to another part of the farm, scared this baby's mother away, and took the baby as its own! This baby now waits by the fence door when the donkey is away and runs up to the donkey when it returns, never leaving its side.

We also were able to milk their dairy cows. It's funny that I live in Minnesota, but the first time that I've milked a cow was in South Africa. We also were able to taste the milk straight from the utter, and it was probably the best milk I have ever had!

The thing I was looking forward to the most was feeding the baby lamb! If you know me and my crazy obsession for lamb, then you know that my life is now made. :)

After the lamb, we went to the sheep and sheered the wool off of the sheep - I couldn't get over how soft it was! Definitely stole some of that to take with me. We rode in the back of the farmer's jeep to try to get on top of a mountain, and it was the most fun I have ever had in the back of a truck! We came across some ostrich and we drove and chased them! I could not stop laughing at the sight of them running right in front of us! It was amazing being able to get away from the city and enjoy a nice relaxing, mountain lifestyle. 

This past weekend, I also did the unimaginable ... BUNGEE JUMPING!!! I went into this trip telling myself that I would NEVER go bungee jumping, not trusting to put my life into some bungee chords hands. After watching some of my friend's videos and hearing their stories, there was a tug inside me telling me that I NEED to do this. First of all, the bridge I would jump off of is the tallest bungee jumping bridge IN THE WORLD!!! I knew that I would regret not doing it. Second of all, I am such an adrenalin junkie, and everyone kept telling me that this is the ultimate adrenalin thrill - there is no feeling like it! Obviously, I cannot pass up that opportunity! Thirdly, I did some researching and found out that this company has a 100% safety guarantee! Whoa! That was a huge break-through. And lastly, bungee jumping in Africa has been on my bucket list for awhile, so this was an opportunity of a life time to cross that baby off!

Obviously, after thinking about it for awhile, it was inevitable that I needed to do this, and I signed me and 4 of my friends up with only notifying my mom!!! The day of our bungee jumping quickly arrived, and the nervous-excited feelings came over me! I honestly could not believe that I was going to be spending money on jumping off of a bridge! We arrived, and after some many nervous pee breaks, we went to the register and signed our lives away... They also gave us our bungee numbers!

We were then directed to put our harnesses on, and we were freaking out because they did not seem secure at all - how could this flimsy harness hold our bodies after free falling???

Our guide came up, explained the bungee procedures, and then started walking us towards the bridge. Walking to the bridge was exhilarating! We needed to walk 200 meters beside the bridge and the bottom of the walk-way was see-through, and it was crazy looking down 709 feet to the ground and looking to the sides of us into the ocean!

When we finally arrived to the middle of the bridge, I started getting extremely nervous! There was no turning back now. I found out that I was the 4th jumper to go, and I was directed to the getting ready station. Luckily, the crew was extremely friendly and there was music blasting the whole time, so I danced my nerves away! My friend, Aspen, was the 2nd jumper to go, and it was so nerve-racking watching her jump up to the side of the bridge, hearing the people yell "5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE!" and watching her jump and free-fall. I could see her whole jump from a big-screen TV and after seeing her safely dangle at the bottom, I felt better about the whole thing! If Aspen could do it, I could do it!

Before I knew it, I was next to jump and was getting my ankles tied up. It freaked me out knowing that a cord tied to my feet was going to hold me up, but I trusted that everything was going to be okay.

Then, I was escorted up, and I shuffled my way to the edge of the bridge...

"5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE!" and I was off! No words can describe the first 2 seconds ... I was jumping in mid-air and at that point, it did not feel like I was attached to anything. It was just me literally jumping off of a bridge and about to fall 709 feet to the bottom!

After that first shocked reaction, it literally felt like I was flying in the air zooming towards the ground! The most amazing feeling I have ever felt in my life.


Then after 5 seconds of free-falling (the longest 5 seconds ever), I felt the bungee cord tighten around my ankles, and I was bouncing and dangling in mid-air. The beauty around me was magnificent  - to one side of me was dense forest and the other side was the ocean. As I was dangling there, I started crying because it was honestly the most exhilarating, freaky thing I have ever done in my life!

 After they pulled me back up, I was on an adrenalin rush for the rest of the day!

Me and my friends could not believe what we have just done, and looking back on it now, it seems completely crazy! But I totally recommend doing this to everyone! There was a 60 year old man in our group that jumped for his birthday!!! He said it was one of the most amazing birthdays he has had.

"Fear is only temporary, Regret is FOREVER". This will now be my life motto - go out from now on never holding back because of something that you may fear. You never know what an amazing experience you would miss out on.

 xoxo Nicole

The trip of a lifetime!

This is the official blog that documents my mom and aunt's trip to South Africa!!! There are no words to describe the past week we have had, but I will try my best to describe what we experienced!

After counting down the days, my mom and aunt finally arrived to Port Elizabeth! The whole taxi ride to the airport I was on the verge of tears with excitement, and reconnecting with them was unbelievable … I never wanted to let them go! Being reunited with my mom was an amazing feeling - the fact of just being able to talk to her face to face instead of fighting the horrible internet at Annies or being able to give her the biggest hug was incredible. After catching up, having an experience with the ATM machine, and taking a shuttle back, we spent the night at an extremely nice B&B. We went to bed right away because they were both exhausted from 27 hours of travelling.


The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and the amazing couple who runs the B&B helped us book our safari and dinner and also gave us tips on what to do in Cape Town and along the Garden Route. That day I then took them on a tour of my typical day in Port Elizabeth - First, I took them to Annie's Cove where I live. We then walked to Cheshire and they saw where I volunteered. We even met a man in a wheelchair who was super excited because he was able to ride the bus!

After Cheshire, we walked to campus, and I showed them where my classes were and where I usually hang out. While we were on campus, Jill spotted a monkey, and we all got extremely excited. Then seconds later, dozens of monkeys appeared, and mom was in monkey heaven! She walked up to a group of monkeys, started talking to them, and one of them responded with a hiss! It showed its fangs at her and started charging her! She responded by yelling my name, but I could not help her because another monkey started charging me! Before we knew it, we were both screaming and running around in circles! We all could not stop laughing at that situation and seeing the other people on campus staring at us. It was definitely a highlight of our trip :)

After campus, we walked to Kaffeine which is where I weekly grab lunch and a milkshake, and it's a great place to go to after the beach. While walking there, we walked along the beach and noticed that there was a Billabong surf competition going on! It was really neat watching so many people surfing the big waves, especially since it was windy. After Kaffeine, we walked to Pick n Pay - the place where I buy my groceries. Yep, they wanted to see it all! We then walked back to our B&B, and it was fun having them realize how different this life style is - especially all of the walking we had to do! We ended up walking about 4 miles that day, which is what I normally walk every day. 

We then took a cab to one of my favorite restaurants in Port Elizabeth that overlooks the Indian Ocean. They could understand why it was my favorite - the food is amazing! They quickly realized how fresh the food is in South Africa and how the customer service is in restaurants - the waiters/waitresses like to take their time with the customers; they do not want us to feel rushed. Going out to eat in South Africa is more of a social event than it is to get food. It was also fun to be able to order wine with my mom :) It was also funny watching them try to figure out the bill, try to calculate the tip, and try to convert the Rand to American dollars to see how much they were actually spending. They could not get over how inexpensive going out to eat is here! After dinner, we met up with my South African friends, Lesley and Michael, and we enjoyed some amazing dessert.

The next day, we took a cab to the airport to rent a car. It was really funny watching my mom try to drive on the ride side of the car and on the left side of the road!! We started our long 8 hour drive along the Garden Route to Cape Town and ended up stopping half way in Plettenberg Bay. We stopped in Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. Monkeyland is a safe haven for monkeys, and we saw many different kinds of monkeys from all over Africa including Madagascar!

We continued our drive and during our drive, we passed by townships, a lot of people on the side of the street … mothers with babies, people by themselves, families, all desperately wanting to catch a ride … we even passed this man lying in the middle of the road! – it was really surprising and heartbreaking to see that the people around him were going on like normal and cars kept passing by … it seemed like it wasn’t even a big deal. That night, searched for a place to stay and were lucky to find another super nice B&B that had only one room available the night before Easter. This place had another amazing couple – we definitely got lucky with the places we stayed!

The next morning, we headed to a contemporary church and enjoyed a nice Easter church service. We were immediately welcomed with open arms, and we were even given coffee and hot cross buns. We then headed back on the road and finally arrived in Cape Town! So many people have been giving me a good word about Cape Town and told me that Cape Town is a “must”, and I could instantly see why. We were surrounded by mountains and had a beautiful view of the sea! The beauty just amazed me. We arrived at our apartment we were going to stay in the next few days and absolutely loved it! It had 3 comfortable single beds, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and we were right on top of shopping center! That night, we met up with my friend Ryann who was also staying with her mom and aunt in Cape Town, and we went to a nice fancy restaurant together to celebrate Easter. 

On Monday, we were all busy trying to figure out our schedule while we were in Cape Town and visited travel agents to find our best options. We were really excited with our tentative schedule. We then ate at a nice traditional South African restaurant called Moyo. This place was super cool! If you come during the day, they have a porch that has seats and tables made out of surfboards, and you are able to put your feet in the pool underneath you! Since it was at night, and it was raining, we ate inside, and we were able to enjoy the live entertainment. A woman came and painted our faces, and there were two guys playing the African piano, and they came and entertained us while we were also enjoying lamb chops and ostrich beef. We all could not believe how fresh the meat is here. 

On Tuesday, we went to local markets, and we found some great gifts for our family. We then prepared ourselves for the Township tour we were about to go on. This tour included visiting a museum, driving through 5 townships, stopping in one of the townships to see the inside of one of the buildings, stop at a local market, and visit traditional South African healers. We started at the District 6 museum where we learned all about the Group Areas Act. This Act, proposed in 1960, forcefully removed the Blacks from their areas of living and forced these families to move to the townships. But even before 1960, people were forced from their housing into the townships. They were then required to carry passes (called a "dumb pass") that had their pictures, names, whether they were Black or Coloured, and they were required to carry them on them at all times. On average, a policeman would check for their passes 5 times a day. If they did not carry their passes on them, then they would be beaten and abused and were not allowed to walk around Cape Town. After this museum, we went to the first township that was established in Cape Town in 1927. Our tour guide actually lived in this township. It was also neat first learning about the history of the forced removal of the Blacks and then seeing the true effects that had on them. We definitely could not prepare ourselves for what we were about to see - We learned that more than 1/3 of the 4 million people in Cape Town live in these townships. There is one township that has 1 million people alone! We could not get over how many people live in these conditions - it was an eye opener for all of us. It definitely showed us that South Africa's history is so fresh, and they still have a long way to go in making it right. 

In each township were shopping centers, schools, libraries, and police stations - each township was like its own city within Cape Town. Some of us were a little hesitant to go out of our vehicle because we did not know how the people living in the townships felt about us being here, but our tour guide explained that these people are not ashamed with where they live, and they are more than welcome to have us here because they want us to be educated with the true South Africa and go out and educate others. When we got out of our vehicle, we started walking around the township, and it was neat watching our tour guide interact with the people that lived there. We walked past many houses/shacks with garbage everywhere - our tour guide explained that they do not have a garbage facility which is why there is garbage even right outside their doors. 

We then came across this woman selling chicken feet, and our guide could not stop talking about how good they are. I immediately asked him if I could try one, and he was surprised but immediately said "of course!" The woman steaming the chicken legs was also surprised, but handed me one. When I asked how much, she replied with "50". Astounded by the price (50 rand is about $5), I asked my mom if she had a R50, but the woman could not stop laughing! It was actually 50 Rand cents (which is about 5 cents)! She actually ran away either from laughing so hard or from embarrassment. The chicken foot was actually really good - the only weird part was that I needed to spit out the toenails. I only enjoyed it for a short while because a little girl came up to me and asked for it, and I could not resist but give it to her. The look on her face was priceless! - she could not stop coming up to me and rubbing her hand on her stomach with a happy look on her face! It's crazy how a chicken foot can make that big of a difference to a little girl.

After walking through a township building and visiting traditional healers, we came across people standing in line waiting for a piece of cow head. A woman was standing there axing a whole cow head that was just beheaded that morning. Meat doesn't get more fresh than that! We then drove through many other townships and also stopped at this monument that was inside one of them. It was a monument that acknowledged a girl named Amy Biehl. Amy Biehl was a white American graduate of Stanford University and also an Anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa who was killed in 1993 by black Cape Town residents while a mob was shouting racial slurs. This was a year before apartheid ended in 1994.

When we ended our tour, we could not grasp what we have seen. We could not understand how so many people can live in those conditions when the rest of Cape Town is absolutely beautiful. It made me extremely angry at the history in South Africa and how it all started when these Blacks were forced to move from their homes and not a lot has changed since then. It also made us want to research and learn about it more. 

That night, we went to another traditional South African restaurant called Mama Afrika. I absolutely loved this place! There was live entertainment and the food was absolutely amazing - we had an ostrich kabob, alligator kabob, springbok, kudu, and venison sausage. We went to bed that night exhausted from our eye opening day. 

We woke up early the next morning with another jam packed day ahead of us! We took another tour that basically gave us a tour of all of Cape Town. We had amazing weather for it too - it was our first day without clouds and rain! We started out our tour by driving along the coast ... I cannot get over how beautiful it is here! We had an opportunity to go on a ferry and go to Seal Island. Here, there were hundreds of cape fur seals! We also drove to a place called Penguins colony. Here, there were dozens of African Penguins that made the beach their home. 

We then drove along the coast to go to Cape Point which is the most south-western point of all of Africa. On our way there, we saw signs that warned us not to feed or touch baboons. Our guide explained that there are many baboons in this part of South Africa, and they are extremely smart. They can smell food from miles away and will come hunting for it - his mom had a baboon in her kitchen a couple of days ago, just chilling and eating an apple. He also explained that baboons get a bad reputation that they are aggressive, but they are not aggressive to humans - they only want food. Right after he was done explaining all of this, we saw a lot of cars parked along the highway, and then we saw dozens of baboons! We stopped and checked it out! We then saw a big baboon come walking down the mountain towards us - our guide told us that this is the "big daddy". The baboon then walks across the highway, hops up on a car, and tries to open the door! It was locked, so he walked back to the rest of the group. 

Then, a family of two little girls, a mom and dad walked towards their car. Without them knowing it, the big daddy baboon came with following them. The mom walked towards the front of the car to admire the beautiful view, the dad stopped at the trunk, the two little girls opened the back door and went inside, and the baboon hopped in with them! We saw the dad freak out and frantically try to open the other back door but it was locked! All of a sudden, we heard a lot of popping noises, and the baboon came out of the car with a bag of apples in his mouth! My mom and I ran to the car, and the girl in the back was crying and the other screamed "the monkey took our apples!" It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen! We could not stop laughing at the whole situation!

We then continued our drive to Cape Point, and it was probably one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. 

We ended our day by taking a breath taking sunset cruise, riding a ferris wheel that overlooked some of Cape Town, and enjoying great food with people from our tour group. This was definitely one of our favorite days of the trip.

On Thursday, we started out our day by making our way up to Table Mountain. We took a cable car up, and the view on top of the Mountain was breath-taking.

We could see all of Cape Town from up here. After coming back down, we waited for Stef to pick us up, so I can go paragliding!!! I was extremely excited, but was about to pee my pants any minute! Before I knew it, I was running until my feet lifted off of the ground. Then I was soaring like the eagles! Stef showed my the birds beneath me and explained that he follows the birds and tries to fly like them because they know how to fly best. It literally felt like I was flying! Definitely one of the most fun things I have ever done!

For lunch that day, we ate at McDonald’s and realized that everything there tasted exactly the same as back home! After lunch, we caught a ferry to take us to Robben Island – the place where Nelson Mandela went to prison for 18 years. After learning about South African history and reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography “A Long Walk to Freedom”, I was super excited to visit this place. A tour guide showed us all around the island, and I was surprised to learn that 150 people still live on the island. Most of these people are people who work for the Robben Island Museum and people that take us on the tours. 

We saw where Nelson Mandela did hard manual labor and where his lung problems came from – for eight hours a day and five days a week, he would chip limestone and it’s the limestone dust that caused his lung problems. We then came to the prison and were handed to an ex-political prisoner who took us on a tour. We learned about how the prison worked and how there was segregation between the Blacks and Coloureds and how the Blacks were even treated more poorly in prisons. We then went to see the courtyard that Nelson Mandela would work out in and the place where he hid his book “A Long Walk to Freedom”. Finally, we saw his prison cell where he spent 18 years of his life. His prison cell was 2 meters by 3 meters, and he did not have a toilet, so he needed to use the same bucket for 18 years. We also learned that the political prisoners were only allowed 2 visits a year and were only allowed 2 letters a year. They were only allowed to shower on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday and if they missed showering those days, they were punished to solitary confinement.

 On Friday, we packed up our bags and left extremely early on the road so we could make our 5 hour car ride to Plettenberg Bay and ride the elephants! We were all sad to leave such a beautiful and amazing city, but we were looking forward to the elephants. We literally got to the Elephant Sanctuary with 5 minutes to spare! At the Elephant Sanctuary, we saw where the elephants slept, we walked with the elephants in the forest, we fed the elephants, and we were able to ride them!

We learned that elephants can weigh up to 7 tons, and they would need to sleep standing up or they would crush their lungs and die. Their brain weighed 5 kilograms and is the size of a basketball, and they can walk up to 40-42 kilometers per hour!

Walking hand in trunk with an elephant was a crazy experience! I would just look behind me and see this massive animal walking with me! Did you know that elephants make a low resonance sound that humans cannot hear, and they can communicate to each other up to 15 kilometers away? Also, did you know that the only enemy elephants have are humans and that they have 60,000 muscles in their trunk? It was really cool learning all about the elephants and made me realize what amazing animals they are!

My mom and I were the only ones that rode the elephants, and it was crazy! My mom was about to cry from happiness, she thought it was so cool! 

After the Elephant Sanctuary, we drove another 2 ½ hours and then finally made it back to Port Elizabeth. We ate at a local bar I go to and fell asleep early that night, so we would wake up early and go on a safari!!!

On Saturday morning, I was bursting with excitement because we were about to go on something I have always dreamed about but something that always seemed unrealistic – go on a true African safari! We started out going to Addo Elephant Park which is a National Park that contains hundreds of elephants and is one of the only parks that you are able to see the Big 5 if you are lucky. The Big 5 are the elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, and leopard. Our tour guide’s goal was to only find the elephants for us and then hopefully see buffalo if we were lucky. Within five minutes of driving, we saw a lot of cars parked and then saw we saw them!!! The elephants were cooling down in a mud bath, but there was a hill that was hiding them. Then, the momma elephant left the mud bath, and the rest followed. I ended up counting 42 elephants and that was excluding the babies…and there were a lot of babies!!! It was so cool! We drove more down the road, and our tour guide was awesome because he knew exactly where their path is and where they were going. We literally parked in a spot where the elephants crossed the road right in front of us! We then followed them to their watering hole where they take a nice cool drink and cool off. After learning all about the elephants the previous day, it was really neat to see them in their natural habitat. Seeing all of these elephants was purely amazing!!! 

We then left Addo Elephant Park and headed down the road to Schotia Private Game Reserve. Schotia is a privately owned game reserve that is family owned for the past 200 years. Our tour guide has been doing tours here for the past 11 years, so he knew exactly where to find the animals and was also extremely knowledgeable with all of the animals we saw. Within 10 minutes of driving inside the gates, we came across a lion pride! There were two, 2 year old lionesses and 6, 21 month old cubs. Gah – they are the most beautiful animals I have ever seen! We did not see the male lion there, but we were destined to find him by the end of our tour. That day, we also saw kudu, warthog, zebra, jackal, heron, blue crane, impala, giraffe, hippo, crocodile, wildebeest and more. There was a part of the safari where someone was able to go and sit in the front of the vehicle on top of a pillow, so of course I volunteered … and it was amazing! I was able to see everything before anyone else could, and I would be right by animals in the wild. We were driving, and all of a sudden we were driving right towards 2 rhino!!! We stopped the vehicle as the rhino were eating and our safari guide whispered “Nicole, if the rhino come too close, slide back towards the front view window” … welp, the rhino did actually come pretty close, but they then turned away and started walking in the opposite direction.

 We then drove back to the place where we saw the lions just in case the big papa was there. We get to the lions, and they were playing and becoming extremely frisky. The sun was setting, it became extremely dark, we started driving away, and then we hear this extremely low moaning sound. I turn around and sure enough, there was the big daddy! We drove back and watched as the lion was lying on the ground near the road. We waited long enough and then he started to roar! Such a great finale to the end of our safari and our trip!

We then ate with the other people on the safari around the campfire, and I could not get over the fact that I just went on an African safari. It was one of the best days.

On Sunday, I took them to Port Elizabeth’s local flee market along the beach, and we enjoyed the beautiful weather we were having. We also spent the day relaxing and reminiscing our whole trip – we could not believe how much we have done in the short amount of time we were together. Our highlights of the trip were seeing the monkeys on campus, taking in the breath-taking views from our all day tour and on Table Mountain, witnessing the baboons, and just enjoying our time together. Later that day, my mom looked at hers and Jill’s plane tickets to check and see if they would be sitting together – that’s when she noticed that they were both scheduled for different days! Flabbergasted, we spent the night calling and driving to the airport to try to get it straightened out, but there was no hope for us – my mom would need to leave on Monday and Jill would need to leave on Tuesday.

Monday morning came sooner than I expected, and I was not ready to say goodbye to my mom. We hugged each other as much as we could that day, and I was at a loss of what to say. I knew if I would start talking, I would start crying and would not be able to stop. We drove together to the airport and shared dessert together. As we were eating dessert, we observed an older couple saying goodbye to their grown son. There were tears streaming down all of their faces … my mom and I then look at each other and we both lose it! Who knew saying goodbye would be harder the second time?! We gave each other one last embrace and before we knew it, I was watching her walk through the security line and go out of sight.

Having my mom and aunt here was such a blessing. It was great to be able to escape from my every day life for a bit and go explore this amazing country with them! I am so glad that they had this opportunity of a lifetime!!!

Peace and blessings