Overdue notice, please bill the fines to my parents, thanks

I’m excited to be writing this blog post! Everything has been happening all at once in classic student fashion. On days when I’m not out of the house exploring I’m trying, rather unsuccessfully, to write papers and do homework. I have a huge assignment due Wednesday but I’m a firm believer in mental health days, study dance breaks, and dark chocolate. To fill you in…

Fall break here was a whirlwind adventure. I spent the first half at a camp with my ecology class in the West Coast National Park. The area is chock full of ostriches. I’d never seen an ostrich out in the wild—it’s not something you really think about seeing—but they were so fun to see because they poke up over the bushes, very awkwardly, like they’re trying to hide but want to see if you’re coming. The camp was one of my favorite experiences in SA—I met so many fun people and got to unashamedly be the science nerd I really am inside. 60 of us students spent five nights bunking in converted stables in the park, about 2 hours north of Cape Town on the Atlantic Ocean. We’d wake up super early in the mornings and go out in small groups with professors to spend the day in the field doing research. In the afternoon we’d send someone to town for beer, and then at night we’d chow on fresh fish, make bonfires, play ultimate frisbee, bait the resident porcupine with peanut butter and cabbage, tell stories, drink boxed wine, spot shooting stars. Then we’d wake up and do it all over again. The projects were neat because the data we collected will actually be published some time. I spent a day collecting mussels and anemones from tide pools, a day tramping around in the bush identifying plants, a day counting snails on the beach, and a day on a boat in the lagoon catching sharks. We’d pull these guys on board, measure them, take genetics samples, tag them, give them antibiotics to stain their growth rings and send them back. I ended up bringing three sharks in and doing the work all myself! Talk about hands-on learning..

I arrived home at 1 pm from camp that Wednesday, showered, ate, repacked and woke up again the next morning at 4 am for my flight to Johannesburg and my tour to Kruger. I went by myself which was actually quite nice. There was another American UCT student there with her family so they bought me lunch and let me hang out with them so I wasn’t super lonely. Kruger was phenomenal. I did have a pretty generous zoom on the camera I borrowed, but still. To be in a park the size of Israel without fences in between you, the animals, the other animals—just things surviving as they have for thousands of years. From an ecological standpoint it’s so incredible. At one point we came upon a fresh lion kill. The lions weren’t there, but the vultures were digging in, so excited to finish it off. Someone kept referencing everything back to Lion King, which was strangely applicable. The whole circle of life motif…

Things have kept happening since then—jazz, birthdays, political events, jazz..but it will have to wait. So will my paper it looks like… Hey, well, you know what they say…hakuna matata :)

Trekking through the lagoon and netting sand sharks, sole and all sorts of cool critters

Byron and his baby.

Our botany professor chain-smoked while we discussed the Western Cape's fyn bos biome and how it's dependent on fire for reproduction. hmm. this plant eshibits root-suckering if anyone's curious..