The Week of Many Firsts

This past week was such a busy, and eventful, week! A group of us were constantly doing things and had adventures every single night for the past 11 nights. Of course, now I'm incredibly tired, but it was so worth it! Some highlights from this past week were all the pool parties we went to, visiting Midgard Country Estates with the besties, having drinks and saying goodbye to Theo at the Hilton Rooftop, and visiting SWAKOPMUND.

This past Saturday, our ladies got invited to a pool party at a friend's house. We later learned that in Namibia, a pool party basically means there is a pool at the house of the party; no one really swims. A couple of us decided to change that and went in the water! It was so refreshing and a couple little kids joined us too. It was a blast swimming with (and teaching) the kids to swim around the pool.

On Sunday, Theo, Carly, Eslie, Kalie, and I drove out to the Midgard Country Estate for the day to relax, swim, and get some sun. Midgard is kind of like a resort outside of Windhoek that has numerous pools, giant chess, German bowling, and many more things. It was so nice to get away for awhile and relax with some amazing friends. Kalie and Carly brought their water guns so we definitely became kids again spraying each other around the pool. While swimming, we noticed that a troop of baboons had come onto the grass below us. Seeing so many baboons, including some babies, was awesome! Later on we saw a group of warthogs with their babies too in the same area. It was so eye opening to see such different animals in an area that reminded me of home. We stayed at Midgard until about 7pm when we had to drive back to Windhoek. Since it was twilight, many animals were coming out and nearing the road we were on. During this daytrip, we saw hartebeest, baboons, oryx, dick dicks, guinea fowl, warthog, water bucks, kudu, porcupines, blue wildebeest, rabbits, jackals, and spring balk. The best animals we saw, though, were giraffes!!! As we were driving down the road, I saw two giraffes by the side of the road so we stopped the car. While we were looking at those two, we later discovered a whole group of giraffes! There were nine total. There was a game fence separating us from the giraffes, but we were able to get about 10 meters away from them. We were even able to hear them BREATHE! It was, by far, one of the best experiences of this trip.

The giraffes at sunset!

On Wednesday, the four of us girls with Theo and Drayton went to the Hilton Rooftop Bar as a kind of going away party for Theo. He goes to university in Cape Town and was at the Emona hostels for an internship. When we visit Cape Town, he'll have to show us all around. J The view from the Hilton was absolutely gorgeous. It was in the main area of Windoek so we were able to see all of downtown and beyond. After the Hilton, Theo took us to Andy's, a local German bar. We learned some awesome German drinking chants and had lots of fun in our last night. We ended the night at Lover's Hill, the lookout over all of Windhoek. We've been here about 3 or 4 times and it never gets old. The views are breathtaking. I would love to see it during the day time.

Between Thursday and Sunday, our group left for Swakopmund, a sleepy little German beach town. This little vacation was a much needed time for us to reboot and relax before our semester officially starts. Our house we stayed at was a block away from the beach and the ocean air was so salty. It reminded me a lot of Santa Barbara and made me miss home a bit, but it was very nice to have that ocean as a reminder of home. On Friday, we went on a boat cruise around Walvis Bay right outside of Swakopmund. We saw giant white pelicans, cormorants, seal, and some heavyside dolphins. Some seals have been tamed so they are able to climb onto the boat and hang out with the passengers. Nanie, one of the teenage seals, climbed on and hung out with us for awhile. It was awesome! A couple hours into the tour, we had lunch with sherry, champagne, and oysters. I have never had oysters before and these were fantastic. Namibia has many oyster farms and they are all very successful because of the temperature of the water. For example, it takes some oysters about 2-3 years to grow to their full size, whereas it only takes 8-10 months in Namibia.

Nanie, the cute seal. We all were in love with her!

On Saturday, seven of us went to Ground Rush Adventures where we did SKYDIVING! It was the best experience ever! I didn't tell my parents until after I landed (you're welcome lol) because they definitely wouldn't have been able to sleep until they knew I was alive. Anyway, after we signed our life away on the dotted line, they drove us out to the desert as we were all freaking out. Kalie and I were partners so once we had our Top Gun jumpsuits on we climbed into the plane and got an awesome scenic tour of Swakopmund before jumping. Jumping out of the plane was such a crazy feeling. My instructor flipped us out as we free fell so I could see everything. I'm pretty sure he went deaf because I screamed so much. Free falling was the best part as you felt weightless and could see everything. As we landed, we came in super fast. We skidded to a stop for about 10 meters. Even though it was a tad pricey, I want to do it again so badly! I think I might be addicted now.

SKYDIVING!

After skydiving, four of us went to the ocean and got to swim. The water currents are very strong in Swakopmund so they recommend you only swim in the cove. The cove was very calm and had lots of people swimming. We met some cool people on the diving platform in the middle of the cove and had fun doing tricks and jumping off the platform. Kalie and I were by the platform when we saw a couple jellyfish floating nearby so we decided to get out. Right as we were leaving the ocean, I saw a seal head pop out of the water so the rest of us had to go explore. The seal was very friendly and we got super close to it. When we come back to Swakopmund in March, we'll have to go swimming there again. This week has been a blast and I'm excited to go visit northern Namibia this next week!