Cliff Jumping and Chundering

Yooo readers!

Sorry it's been awhile since my last posting. And sorry to disappoint you again, but I didn't take any pictures at Rockin' the Daisies because one of my friend's camera got stolen and I didn't want to risk it. However, the festival was really fun, musicians from all over the world were there. It was kind of like Coachella, but more worldly and African. I'll see if I can get pictures from some of my friends to post so you can see the decorations and art and stuff.

As for my adventures recently, I've had a few. First I would like to share with you this event I went to called Trolly Races. Basically, a bunch of UCT students organize themselves in teams and use grocery carts to build "trollies." They then race down this very, very steep hill (which was littered with broken glass) wearing ridiculous costumes and acting rather drunk. It was pretty ridiculous. What I didn't know when we got there, but found out rather quickly, is that there is an added component to this: vomit. Or rather, "chunder," which is what South Africans call it. A big part of the competition, teams must vomit on each other and other team mates. They drink food coloring so as to have colorful vomit and "mark their territory." As a self-proclamed "vomit-a-phobe" this was pretty not fun and disgusting for me. Anyway, I didn't take pictures of the puke cause that's gross, but I did take pictures of people racing and my friend who participated as a member of the American team. Take a look.

Onto more important things.... This weekend a bunch of my friends and I went on an awesome hike to this place called crystal pools. Basically, there a bunch of beautiful "pools" with huge waterfalls and cliffs to jump off of. The mountains are right by the beach (only in South Africa), so we went down to the beach to explore first. Here are some pictures of the beach

Next we went on about an hour hike to the first pool, which is were I jumped. Here is a picture:

And THAT little dot in the picture below, about 1/4 of the way down from the top is ME! I still can't believe I jumped. It was about a 30 foot jump and most definitely the scariest thing I have ever experienced. It was totally safe (not to worry readers; ahem, mom), but still... there's something about jumping off of a 30 foot cliff into water that goes against every bodily instinct.

After recovering from my jump (which consisted of a lot of screaming and shaking), we got dressed and walked to the second pool. This one was much bigger and there was NO way I was going to jump again. A lot of my friends did jump though, despite the fact that they were advised not to.

Instead of jumping, a bunch of us just swam around the pool, went to the waterfall and goofed around there, caught some rays and just enjoyed how beautiful it was. I even found some wild lilies, which I don't think I've seen in the wild before, but have decided they are my favorite flower. Here is a picture:

That's all I have for you now. It is officially the last week of classes here which is so weird! I still have about a month here, but it's surreal that it's almost coming to an end. We have a break after classes until finals start and I will be traveling to Namibia so check back later for cool updates.

Tosiens (bye in Africaans),

Julia