Day 1

Sorry it has taken me so long to update this blog!  Wi-Fi isn’t working so the 16 of us have been sharing one computer at night.  I survived my long 18 hour flight to South Africa!  We had a very old plane, so it was a little disappointing not having a TV in our seats, but they served us a ton of food.  When we arrived in Johannesburg for our layover, we had to go through customs, claim our bags, re-check our bags, and go through security.. all within 2 hours!  If we had to do this in the US we definitely wouldn’t have made our flight, but security and customs in South Africa are completely different.  There were no forms to fill out, and when we were going through customs, all they asked was where we were coming from, or they just said “have a great day.”  Going through security was a breeze, I was able to walk through with my sneakers on, and I had liquids in my bag.  Once we arrived in Cape Town International Airport we were greeted by Corvell and Johnny, met up with the other group who were travelling in on another flight, and then piled into the vans and headed to McDonald’s.. the only place open past 10! J  After, we went to the beautiful Deo Gratia.. I felt like we were driving up to a house in the O.C.!  It’s a bed and breakfast located in a secluded area with a surrounding fence.  When we stepped out of the van, I immediately noticed how clear the sky was, and I realized that I was looking at stars that I have never seen before since we are in the southern hemisphere.  Corvell separated us into rooms, and as part of my wedding gift, I was given my own bedroom for the first four nights J  It’s going to be hard to give this up!

The next morning I awoke to birds and who knows what other animals outside of my bedroom window!  We all met in the kitchen for breakfast, and were introduced to the “Black Cat” and “Marmite.”  Black Cat was a really thick and crunch peanut butter (yum!), but marmite has to be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten.  It smelt like carosine and was super salty.. I only had a small bite and the salt was overwhelming! Our first day we went to two different malls, one of which is the Southern Hemisphere’s 3^rd largest mall… U.S. malls can’t even compare to these South African malls!  They’re huge and sell everything from clothes to groceries.  We all bought cell phones at the mall and exchanged our U.S. dollars for rand.  It has been very strange driving on the left side of the road.. whenever we are making a turn I think we’re going to get into an accident since in my mind, we would be turning onto oncoming traffic.  It’s also odd to see the driver on the right side and the passenger on the left. 

After we bought all of our necessities from the malls, we went to a facility that had cheetahs, and guess what?  I PET A CHEETAH!!!  I pet a 2 year old, 60kg cheetah named Choby, and he purred like a cat while I pet him.  I was amazed on how tame these cheetahs were, watching the trainer with Choby reminded me of how I would comfort my dog at home.  Overall it was a pretty amazing first day.. I mean how many people can say that they pet a cheetah? J