I now have a loaner laptop and have uploaded the South Africa photos to flickr (see link on right). They are as annotated as they’re going to get for now!
A few more comments about South Africa:
The other safari group had an interesting experience with an elephant who wanted to go through the camp (why? to get to the other side!) one evening around 9pm. The elephant was pacing back and forth just outside camp, so the guide sent everyone to bed and the elephant lumbered through camp and on his way. In the morning when the group went to drive out of camp, a tree had been pushed down over the road, totally blocking their way out. The elephant taught them a lesson about making him wait! So don’t ever keep an elephant waiting.
Other animals we saw: jannit, kingfishers, many hawks. We saw many white rhinos but no black rhinos (the latter is much more rare). We also saw a BIG snake trail across the dusty road one morning. BIG, I say!
On ship, we are now 9 hours ahead of the East Coast. The latest rumors are that our stay in Hawaii has been extended (false); we are sailing into a hurricane (false); everyone has to stay inside the ship when we pass through the Panama Canal (false). Who knows how some of these rumors get started.
Another rumor that started on Monday morning was that Global Studies was canceled. In fact we had a surprise lifeboat drill during classtime, so this rumor was technically true. We are to dress in long pants and shirt, hat, close-toed shoes, and dorky orange lifejackets. Most people got it right except one young woman in our muster area who showed up in leopard-print slippers. This breach was discovered only just before the captain came by to review the troops. The offender was quickly sent to the back row (usually reserved for men: yes, women and children really DO go first) and we collectively held our breath as Captain Roman came by, smiling but with his eyes riveted on the footware. Thank goodness, he missed the infraction. I’m not sure who gets in more trouble, the offending party or the crew in charge of mustering us; and fortunately we didn’t find out!
We dock in Mauritius tomorrow morning. It looks to be a lovely place, very small and lush, and we expect to eat some good Indian food. More in a few days!
March 2, 2008 at 3:57 am |
Hi Melinda,
Tonight I was dancing in a show with a Pakistani man who was bornin Mauritius. He’s a yoga instructor and a very good, funny dancer. In the show, I wear a GW Bush mask and he punches me out when I try to steal a huge ballwith a worldmapon it (symbolically representing The World, I guess) Anyway, he said he had a very nice first 6 years of his life in Mauritius and would love to go back. Do post some pictures!
March 24, 2008 at 1:14 am |
thats for sure, guy