I'm Falling

When spending time abroad, one usually tries to fit in as many activities as possible in their limited time and not miss out on anything. And South Africa has so much to offer. You really need to create a proper plan of what you want to see and do. But you also need to stay spontaneous. That's how it happens that on a regular Monday evening in a bar, you suddenly agree to plans for Wednesday, which are not always just dinner invitations. In my case, it was an invitation to SKYDIVING!!!!! I spontaneously found out that some other internationals wanted to do it and without really knowing what it is, I agreed. And it was absolutely awesome, amazing, mind-blowing! I think the pictures speak for themselves. :D

I really recommend everyone to do it! You crawl into a tiny plane and fly for about 20 minutes to a height of 3000m. Then the door opens and you and the instructor you fall with slide to the edge and then you just go. You free fall for 20 seconds, which felt so much longer to me. And then at some point the parachute opens, which I completely forgot about at that moment. I somehow thought I could freely fall all the way to the ground :D And then you fly down with the parachute for another 5 minutes. And when you're on the ground, you just want to go up again immediately. Working as an instructor and jumping 8 times a day is really a great life. The rest of the day was actually quite boring :D But it didn't have to be, because when you already had such an adrenaline rush in the morning, that's enough.

the small plane

So that was on March 29th. Basically my birthday present to my sister, but also for me. :D

Other than that, there were of course plenty of braais and some really great hikes, where I'm slowly getting fitter.

that's a view

Because as an international you're always busy, you naturally have a lot of contact with other internationals. And new ones are constantly arriving, or old ones are leaving again. Basically, there's a farewell braai about every other week. The person leaving gets a South Africa flag, on which everyone signs, and a farewell photo, so a tradition has formed here. It's cool how quickly you find contacts here who really become like a second family. You always meet someone for lunch, or in the evenings, or when you need a break from work. And then you plan the next weekend, or talk about the last one and find out where else you need to go and what else you need to do. The list just keeps getting longer! At some point, I'll have to start crossing things off.

Not only is it popular to do sports yourself here, but also to watch sports. Especially rugby. The university here has its own team, and when they're playing, everyone has to go to the stadium and cheer. Although you can't really call it cheering. You sit with your people, drink a cold beer, talk about everything possible, and when the Maties, that's the name of our team, score, everyone jumps up from their seats and does the victory dance and sings some song that definitely mentions "Stellenbosch legend", but I haven't quite understood it yet. Very funny affair. 

Fortunately, the Maties won both games I watched. So the atmosphere afterwards was even better. Of course, the internationals don't really know the exact rules, which makes watching the actual game a bit more difficult, but not any less fun. As it should be, there are also mascots running around in weird costumes on the field and a few cheerleaders performing occasionally. I've never been to a sports event in a stadium in Germany, so now I can check that off here as well. And I have to say, I would do it again and again.

It's getting colder here now unfortunately. That's why me and some others are planning to do the Garden Route next week. If we're doing it, it's now or never! But we haven't really planned much yet. But actually, all you need is a car and the rest will just fall into place.

For this Easter weekend, we're going to a farm in the mountains. Two German master students are working there as part of their project work and they can also take some people with them now. So we have to take advantage of that. J I'm definitely curious to see what awaits me there.