Vac!

Hi everybody!

This is just a quick post before I head off on my adventures during break next week. I am leaving very early Friday morning with 2 other students: Sarah and Rachael for a week of traveling and hopefully lots o' fun and memories! Just a quick description of what we have planned.

On Friday we are catching the Baz Bus from Cape Town and heading up the Garden Route from Friday-Tuesday. The Garden Route is a route along the south coast of the country/continent with tons of stops, most of which are tranquil beach towns and the like. We will be stopping at Mossel Bay, Knysna, Port Elizabeth, and Coffee Bay. The Baz Bus is a bus service designed for backpackers. We bought a 7-day hop-on, hop-off pass for the days that we are riding the Garden Route and the bus will drop us off and pick us up right in front of our hostels (www.bazbus.com, if you're interested. its a pretty cool service. the website also has a nice map so you can get an idea of where exactly we will be). On Tuesday we will ride to Durban, where we will be staying until Thursday. Alison's Italy roommate Jess is studying abroad in Durban and we have already been in contact- she's ready to hang out and show us around! I'm very excited to have a familiar face in Durban and thankful to have a temporary resident take us around to perhaps some of the less tourist-y places. Also, one of Sarah's friends has family in Durban who we may be joining for their Passover seder on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday we are catching a plane to Livingstone, Zambia to see Victoria Falls. Vic Falls is a popular destination in Southern Africa and is one o the Seven Wonders of the World! There are several other groups of CIEE kids who will also be in Vic Falls for the second half of Vac so hopefully we can meet up with them while we are there. One of the things we have planned to do in Livingstone is an elephant-back safari. Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped for that. Sunday we fly back to Cape Town, on the same day that Maren,Mom, and Grandma Non will also be arriving in Cape Town! Turns out we will be missing each other at the Jo'burg (where we all have layovers) and CT airports by only 2 hours or so--how crazy is that!? It will be a busy but exciting few weeks for me.

Well there it is! I will be sure to keep a detailed journal of our activities during the week and then write an epic blog entry upon my return, as well as take loads of pictures, of course. Have a wonderful week everybody!

Love, Mel