On the sea again...

So crazy Kath is making me write in this thing some more! Apparently I haven't written in it since Morocco! Anyway, after Morocco we went to Namibia, it is so beautiful there! As we were getting off the boat a group of girls were singing and dancing for us. They were part of an after school program that also did something with HIV/AIDS. They were so funny, we had a blast with them for a long time. They definitely live their lives to the fullest! They had left the morning they were coming around 2 and got in at 9. None of them acted even a little bit tired! I have great videos of them modeling and singing Beyonce. They are obsessed with Beyonce and Chris Brown...weird!
There really wasn't much to see in Walvis Bay because once again we docked at an industrial thingy. The first day we just walked around town and went to a restaurant called the Raft. It was a pretty cool, it was over the water and the food was awesome, but I was kind of waiting for the roof to cave in on us! It wasn't the nicest of restaurants, but I would take a roof caving in on me then eat the crappy food they give us on the ship. We didn't do much the rest of the day. Jess and Megan were doing a SAS trip called sea and sand dunes (they saw a dead whale on the beach, it was huge, and people were jumping on it like it was a trampoline I guess, sounds pretty awful to me)! Anyway the plans were to meet them later that night at a hotel and Kelsea and I were going to go to Swakpmund early and go kayaking. She had a long night the night before so decided she didn't want to go anymore, so I was left by myself. I decided to go to Swakpmund by myself and check into the hotel then go to the beach until the girls met me at the hotel! Luckily, as I was walking out I ran into 3 girls that were heading to Swakpmund as well. We walked around for a little bit, but we were really disappointed that hardly any stores were open and that they don't serve alcohol on Sundays. We ran into some of their friends and were supposed to meet them around 1 or something, but we were 25 min late and they weren't there! We spent about4 hours trying to figure out where they were staying. One of the girls was finally able to get ahold of people at the house and we kind of got directions...they just gave us some landmarks around their house and NO taxi driver knew where any of them were! We went back to my hotel, which was a bed and breakfast, for old people, and had no A/C and ants crawling all over the candy that the set out for us so it could melt and attract ants. Pretty smart eh? Anyway the lady at the hotel helped us figure it out and she called us a cab. MOM AND DAD--THIS IS WHEN YOU STOP READING...The hotel/B&B didn't take down any information, they didn't know my name and didn't take my credit card or anything, soooo I got my stuff and we went to the beach house =/ I e-mailed Megan and Jess first though to tell them what I was doing and what had happened, thank god they understood and said they would have done the same thing that I did. We went to dinner at a place that was about 10 min walking distance from the house. It was a hotel and apparently all of Asia decided to come to Namibia too, so we had to wait for them. We finally got in and all I wanted was a cheeseburger and they had them!!!! Well, the beef was disgusting! It was really sweet or something creepy. I let the boys eat it and I ate french fries, they seem to be the ONE thing every restaurant has,they have been my life saver. No but really... We walked back to the house hung out and had a few drinks. We saw this guy walking up and down the street with a night stick and we were a little creeped out. We didn't see him anymore so Kyle and I decided to leave and go to the water. Just as we got out the guy walked by again, stood still and just starred at us. We got soooo scared and when he walked again we ran back in the front and crawled through the doggy door, he saw us. He started looking in the gates of the house and he was so creepy! He finally went away after some of the guys got a flashlight and put it on him. He just stood there for awhile then finally turned around and didn't come back! I finally got to go to the water and we layed on the beach for an hour or so! I had a great time!! We were going to go sandboarding on Monday before the boat left but, Kelsea slit her head open on the board and had to take her to the hospital! She has a pretty badass gash right above her eye! We just went to the grocery store and got food and drinks and then went back to the boat, on-ship time was 6.

After Namibia was South Africa and we had a day in between each of the ports. We got into South Africa a little late because the fog their is out of control. I was supposed to go on a school visit that started at 9 and we didn't get in until 10. I was really upset because I didn't think I was going to be able to go but after customs cleared the boat we were able to get off right away and head to the high school. The high school was SO beautiful (well the outside anyway)!! The way there day works is going 2 hours then they get a 30 min break then 2 hours of class and 30 min break and 2 more hours! I am really jealous! This was public school but didn't get a lot of money from the government, maybe it was private I don't know. Anyway everyone, no matter where you go to school has to pay! The principle said it ended up costing around $6,000 for the year and that doesn't include lunch or the uniforms. He said that basically if your family didn't have the money you could still go to school. They could get their uniforms at a used uniform shop they had at the school. Everyday they have an assembly about where they belong in the community. It wasn't just that but I can't think of the word now. It was really interesting, they had a speaker on the stage and all the kids sat on the floor. They got papers and they had to rate themselves on a piece of paper and add it up. The whole message of the meeting that day was knowing that not everyone is going to be famous and good at sports, everyone will be different at everything but that is what a community needs and should consist of. We were able to go into the classrooms later, I went into a math room. They have a really big discipline problem in the school, mostly from the boys, surprise surprise. None of the students would listen to the teacher and just wanted to talk to us. The teacher finally said they could so we basically got to mingle with them for an hour. When they asked where I was from and I said America they were all like woooow. Then a couple minutes later one girl turned around to the other girl and said how different do you think our lives would be if we lived in America? It really shocked me that they wanted out of Africa so bad. Cape Town was amazing and reminded me of the US. But I guess I don't know their life stories so who am I to judge? They kept asking me if I saw celebrities all the time and if I knew any of them. They wanted my name so they could add me as a friend on facebook! They all know about Obama and could probably talk about him for days, sadly, I probably do not know as much about our government and Obama as them. They all said they wanted to see snow and live some where that it snowed and I reassured them that it SUCKS. I told them to go visit some place for a day and you will be over it! As we were leaving the classroom I went to thank the teacher for letting me come in the room and she said it was actually really good, I think they learned more from you today and they are already tell me about what they learned from us. I felt like I was really cool or something. Ok, this is really long, but we went shopping that afteroon when I got back and then went to Long St. which is the longest street in South Africa and it is just lined with bars. You would not believe how cheap stuff is here! A bottle of beer is only $1, if that much! We also did these shots called Spring Boks that were amazing and I am telling myself that it was very cultural shot =) We also took "blow job"shots which reminded me of my crazy mom and her crazy friends on the party bus! Mom felt so cool that she heard of a blow job! When we were leaving the bars, probably around 2:30, the streets were just lined with beggers. Little kids out in the middle on the night shaking cups in everyone's face. Some could not have been older than 5 and were walking by themselves! It was insane. They warned us not to give any money to them because they usually don't get to keep it, their parents send them out to do the begging and then take the money for themselves. Walsh gave a kid maybe 1 RAN, around USD 10 cents. The kid kept asking for more and more and then hung on to him and wouldn't get off for him to get into the taxi! security had to come and drag him off of Walsh! OH YEAH..so at the beginning of the night we were at a bar called Jo Burg and it was super sketch so we left and I was standing outside talking to Carl and I turn around to this guy jacking some girl in the face. I don't know how she didn't end up with a broken jaw because he nailedddd her! Security all came over and LET THE GUY GO!!!! Once again, a country that has zero respect for women! Ok, we got back to the boat and our taxi driver had just moved to South Africa from Zimbabwe with his whole family. Things are so shitty in Zimbabwe right now and South Africa is getting flooded with all the leaving. They have elections on April 2nd and everyone is praying that he is kicked out and they can start over. For a loaf of bread, they pay 3 billion dollars! They are into the highest numbers ever and they keep increasing. (if you can't tell already i LOVED South Africa and can't stop talking about it =() The 2nd day Brittany went to an aquarium which was really cool. You can actually go shark diving there and I was totally down but you have to like know what your doing or something, lame. That afternoon we got passes on the city tour bus and road it for a few hours seeing everything. We then went to check in to the hotel, it was amazing! We had free internet, hints why I put pictures up! We went to dinner and I had a damn good steak! It hit the spot! I wanted to get the sauce they used to bring home for dad but they didn't have anything that was sealed and we can't bring anything on the boat unsealed. On the 3rd day we were booked to do a township tour and go to Robben's Island. We left our B&B at 7 am, yeah missed the whole 2nd B part. We were supposed to meet them at 8 and we got their around 7:45, we waited until 10:00 before we finally decided they stood us up. We got another pass for the buses but took a different route because they offer tours in townships as well. The lady helping us insisted that we go to table mountain today because it was so clear out. We took a cable car to the top and it was pretty cool, not really my cup of tea but whatev. We got back on the bus and had to go about an hour and a half to get to the township. We started talking to this couple that were on their anniversary and were from Seattle! They were both really cool, they had kids around our age but they didn't like their daughter I don't think. This was also the first time I heard "Toto we're not in Kansas anymore." Really?? That is like 1996 Kansas jokes. Oh the township, I am going to do a seperate entry for this because it was that incredible. Britt and I went to dinner that night and decided we would be good and try the native food. We got Spring Bok, Ostrich, and some kind of flat bread they make over a stone fire. We only ordered appetizers and didn't realize that it was all shaved meat. We were a little disappointed because it wasn't a huge hunk of something gross. On the 2nd to last day Kelsea and I went to the District 6 museum. It was interesting but I was expecting more than that. I bought 2 books and from the museum so maybe I can learn or something. That afternoon Brittany and I went to our hotel on Long St. It was called Granddaddy's! It was really really nice and we got to watch English TV and it was MTV, I don't even like MTV. I really really wanted to go to seal island and Robben's island but the tickets were sold out for Robben's island and will ditched me on the whole seal island thing. I really hate him. On Sunday Jess didn't wake up in time for her FDP and couldn't meet them anywhere so her I and I decided to go to the vineyards and the cape of good hope. We hired a taxi driver for the day and she was awesome! I think you learn the most from people not books. I really don't learn anything in class because what we learn about isn't even 1/4 of what people are actually going through. Anyway, she took us to the vineyards and we walked around and then did a wine tasting, it only cost $1.50! We then got back in our Benz (most spoiled girls ever) and headed to the cape of good hope. We saw tons of penguins and we really thought they were fake at first because they didn't move at all!! And then I tried to touch one....it almost ate my hand off. But I got a really sweet pic of it going down. Needless to say, I had an AMAZING time here and would come back in a heartbeat!

We are now headed to Mauritius for a day. We have 4 sea days and then Mauritius for a day and then on the sea for another 5 days straight. We are staying on the boat 10 days straight. Ugh. We have our sea Olympics the day after Mauritius and I am stoked! We are separated by floors and all have different "sea"names. We are the Baltic Sea, our color is black, and we are the ninja's!! Jess and I are both doing flip cup and then wheelbarrow racing and 3 legged racing too! Well I am about to throw up every where, for some reason it is really rough today, and I wrote way too much for my own good. But I will put up the stuff on the township now! Loves!!! And you guys should really probably e-mail me. You think that I would be having so much fun and what not, butttt on the boat we sit around and do nothing!!! Yeah mom, we aren't going to study when we are bored...But I like to get e-mails and I just get in a wonderful mood! =)