We
got there sometime around the early afternoon and set up our tents, then waited
until it was dark, when Rhodes rolled in with their group of fifty-ish, the
first thirty or so of which that came out first were female. At this point,
though, most of us were really wiped from the 5+ hour trek to Dwesa and sitting
around on empty stomachs, so we were pretty focused on eating. Plus it’s pretty
tough to socialize when it’s pitch black. Oddly enough, the one group of people
a bunch of us talked with that night was a group of three American exchange
students we just happened to pick out of everyone else there. The next morning
we had breakfast and mingled a bit, then split into groups of 8-10, basically
made of a handful of Rhodes students/faculty and two Penn State students. My
partner and I went with a group of bookish-yet-friendly looking girls that were
right behind me for convenience’s sake, then we took off to the forest. We were
driven about twenty minutes into the forest, then stopped in a little grassland
opening in the forest. Basically what they had to do was collect, describe, and
later press (flattening them between newspaper and cardboard) thirty different
plant species, key word there being they.
Us Penn State people had no flippin idea what in the hell we were doing;
thankfully, as we later learned, we had equally low expectations from Neil, so
goofing off and not getting in their way (which is what most of us did) was
pretty much all we had to do. So Ken and I just walked around for what felt
like forever collecting cool looking plants along the road, then sat on our
asses watching our group sit and describe their own plants. It was easily the
most exciting part of the trip so far. A little later we went back and had
lunch, then went back to the conference center (an altogether too familiar
walk) to press the plants we (as in they) found. Thankfully I was able to meet
up with some equally “f-this” Penn Staters and we just sat in a back room and
joked around until we got bored enough and left. What’s annoying/convenient is
that we weren’t even being 100% lazy: there were so many people in that place
that trying to sit down and help would’ve been impossible. Plus I asked my
group if they needed help and they said no, which I took as my signal to do
what I wanted, which was nap. That night
we listened to a riveting botany lecture, socialized with the Rhodes people a
little more, and had another braai; kudos to the Rhodes people, they had some
amazing food.
The
next day was slightly more eventful. We were out in the forest again (way out there), though this time in the
legit forest as opposed to some grassland-forest combo. Ken and I were told by
our group members to go look for flowering plants, which seemed nonexistent in
that boring overgreen forest. Since we just walked by basically everything
green (which the girls behind us didn’t/couldn’t), we went really quickly
(comparatively), so it got pretty boring pretty quickly again. Eventually we
reconvened near where we started when it started to lightly drizzle; classic
Dwesa, raining at the most inopportune times. When we finally left the rain had
only picked up a little bit, staying consistent at a solid, wind-aided drizzle.
Sometime shortly after, however, Mother Nature decided to give us a giant
middle finger and unleash all the moisture in the world upon Dwesa. To be
honest, it probably wasn’t even raining all that hard, it just felt like it
with all that wind; we were all in the exposed bed of a pickup truck, so we had
to deal with not only the windy rain but the buttload of branches and spider
webs that just love to hit you, as if
for payback for all the spider webs we’ve accidentally walked through or the
branches we not-so-accidentally macheted. However miserable that 30-45 minute
wet n wild gallivant was, it was yet another oddly significant/memorable moments
that I probably won’t forget for a while, especially because we were the only
group that got caught out in the rain. After going on a group beach walk
instead of plant-pressing, we had yet another braai (best chicken kabobs I’ve
ever had; not sure how many that is, though) then went to bed. Just like that,
the weekend was over. The next morning we packed all our stuff up, had a rather
quick breakfast, and peaced out by giving an oddly informal wave goodbye to all
of the Rhodes students at once, some of whom were still in their tents.
Thankfully Facebook exists, since we’re trying to meet back up with some of
them when we’re near Grahamstown on our way back to Cape Town.
After
a long drive back to The Haven that consisted of me losing my iPod under/in the
seat (its exact location is complicated to explain), we all gorged ourselves at
lunch and showered to feel clean for the first time in days. Unpacking our
stuff and packing our stomachs at dinner followed shortly after, with the night
being capped off with Batman Begins.
By then it had started to rain, and all we could do was hope the weather didn’t
carry over to our rest day…which it did. I woke up and zombied to breakfast,
throwing my sunglasses on out of habit as I walked out the door. I was met with
clouds and a drizzle that clouded my sunglasses since I was too tired to take
them off. Thankfully the sun decided to peek out a little, so I figured a trip
to the beach was due. And of course by the time I get down there it’s cloudy
and rainy (not enough to be considered solid rain, but just enough to be
bothersome) again. I spent the rest of the day sleeping, watching Shawshank Redemption and TV shows with
other people, and reading the second Hunger Games book. Pretty much the easiest
day ever. The next day (what I call “Hangover Day” because you’re so used to
doing absolutely nothing from the rest day, then you’re thrown back into
actually doing work) was the beginning of the end per say: we have only three
weeks left, and two overarching projects to work on within our groups of three,
plus one group one for Neil’s class. I’ve kinda been dreading this for most of
the trip, not only because it’s a lot of intensive work, but also because it
means the program’s winding down [insert Snooki waaah].
After
our two-hour morning session, I finally finished the second Hunger Games book, quickly starting the
third after. I’d definitely suggest them to anyone looking for some quick
reads, though the whole love triangle plotline is getting annoying. Anyways, during
our evening session we just got to watch America:
A History of Us, a History Channel mini-series on the history of America.
We’re basically watching it to understand our own history so that we can better
understand South Africa’s…or something like that; I don’t even care why we’re watching it, just that we are
to begin with because I love American history. They even have the narrator from
24/7 to narrate it, which makes it that much better. The only thing I don’t
like is the number of unnecessary historical commentators (positions usually
held for people of high academic regard). Call me un-American, but I really
don’t need the elementary-level insight of Newt Gingrich, Michael Douglas,
Jimmy Wales, and (wait for it)…Donald Trump. Seriously? Good
thing this was made a couple years ago so we were spared a history lesson from
Herman Cain.
The
next day got increasingly better as the day went along. In the morning for our
two hour class, we sat through this interactive online sustainability class
that’s pretty boring to begin with and tends to drag on for what seems like
forever even though it was only the second time we did it. After lunch, though,
we got to go to drive/hike to this sick waterfall. If I ever figure out Dropbox
(which is tough with a limited amount of Internet) there’ll be tons of pictures
pretty soon. And to cap it all off, we watched District 9 after dinner; boy was that a good (and relevant to where
we’re at) movie.
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