merrychristmas!

so... my christmas eve wasnt the best ever, but i'm in a really nice campsite next to Oranje River and i'm coming to the end of my 7-month adventure, i dont think there's anything worth complaining about.

on my way back to Pretoria after this few weeks with (part of) the family here & i'm excited! i feel like i'm going home... ok, i am going home to Singapore soon, but i meant home to Pretoria. not Tuksdorp, nor Hatfield, but just a familiar area with (some of) my friends. ach. i should just cut the nonsense of explaining all this, when i go home, it'll be ten times worse because i'll have to clarify & explain every single thing. i should print out big cards with the routine answers: yes, South Africa was awesome; no, it was safe, i didnt get mugged; yes, i attended classes; yes, the people there were an experience; yes, travelled to Zimbabwe, Bostwana, Mozambique & Swaziland; yadayadayada...

i cannot believe 7 months have passed already!! in just 47.5 hours i'll be on a plane flying out of here! noOoo... and then <48hrs after that i'll be HOME in hot humid Singapore. eeks. not a good time for a panic attack either. ok. going to enjoy my 2nd last night here watching the stars!

extreme sports.

hectic but awesomely fun few days.

sandboarding - very awesome when u are whizzing down a steep sand dune at full speed, a bit less awesome when u have to trudge back up again at a speed of take-2-steps-up-slide-1-step-down. i regret not continuing with my twice-weekly runs. really fun stuff and i ended up with sand everywhere! nose, ears, mouth... did a few tumbles & absolute wipeouts too, not on purpose. 

kitesurfing the next day, for four hours. it was indescribable. and also very humbling. it highlighted just how powerless humans are in comparison to God's creation and physical laws of nature. being harnessed to a 7m-sq kite (a small one) and learning how to control it is very enlightening - physically and spiritually. when a gust of wind picks up the kite, it invariably picks me up (on land) as well & distance becomes somewhat inconsequential.

and on water, well, i've flown over the water a few times (i was a little too aggressive with the maneuvers and it doesnt go well with poor kite control), and i did a full somersault+twists in the water when i got dragged out of control. it was pretty scary at that point in time & i understand better how slow-motion works now. heh. basically, i flew out of the water, somehow landed face-first head-down, my head hit the sandy bottom underneath my legs (in the air), got my legs entangled with the kite lines before i got my head up, and my bearings straightened out! the few words that went through my mind: crap! ok, thats sand, where are my legs, which way is up? and before i knew it, i'd done a full somersault in the water. 

somersault in sand, check. somersault in water, check. i would very much like to leave out the somersault in air component. it would hurt less during the flip, but a lot more when landing. 

today, as a reward for managing to stand up on my board after 4 hours of kite-handling & body-dragging (its a legit term & pretty fun!), and of course, the somersaulting, i have 2 huge bruises on my ribs and terribly aching arms. (even changing gear was hard!) heh. it probably signals a lack of fitness and/or a loose screw somewhere in my brain. (: 

although i intend to fix that screw tomorrow, when i attempt to ride an ostrich and crawl through tiny holes in a network of caves. this is such a different SA from what i've experienced for the last 6 months! 

on a sidenote, my dad is driving me nuts, although my tolerance level has increased considerably. 2 more weeks to home. i heard this song at the restaurant after a particularly tiring conversation/argument, and i missed home. as in, tuksdorp-pretoria-SA home and macpherson-hector home. enjoy (:
MichaelBuble-Home (because i dont know how to insert vids) 

overrated.

but instead of ranting, i should probably just count. my. blessings.

even if right now, they seem like they can only be counted on one hand. 

so.. i am thankful that i get to see more of South Africa. (even if it is rather limited by paranoia & wishy-washy-ness & over-accommodation); i am thankful for the ally that i have in my brother (even if it does get rather annoying when he has no opinion on what to do, and overly strong opinions of church); i am thankful that i am not bald & am not at boiling point with my dad; and lastly, i am truly, truly thankful for the surprisingly great amount of patience that i have had thus far. it brings the concept of Christ's strength in my weakness to a very different application, one that i'd never have expected. 

so i am back in contact after 4 days of living in the mountains (ultra poor internet connection), and am now at coffee bay along the Wild Coast of SA. (: it is indeed wild. and it is beautiful. but, no thanks to the type of travel companions i have, the 3 approaches by weed & pot dealers + the hippie atmosphere/lifestyle + rain&cold = we leave this awesome place after just 1 night here. in favor of a tourist spot further south. my hopes of going cliff-jumping (jumping 14metres off a cliff, into the sea), have thus jumped off the cliff of expectations & have been dashed to pieces..... maybe, there still might be a teeny ounce of hope that i get to do that further south, but, for now, it looks like that activity is put off until my next adventure in the world. 

back to coffee bay, i'm at a backpackers that is situated at the foot of a cliff, right next to a river mouth that flows into the sea. its quiet, its full of character and its also, a very temporary abode. ok, so my contact lens has rolled somewhere into my eye for the umpteenth time today. that means i am blind in one eye until i get it out & it also means that maybe i should stop conversing with my blog and whoever reads this & get some sleep. i think its the lack of proper conversation for the last week or so thats causing this verbal diarrhea. 

goodnight world. i will be back with more nonsensical updates pretty soon, i expect.  

update

alive and well.
losing a bit of hair over the parent and the situations he gets us in, but other than that. safe. & rather enjoying the trip. (: a bit of excitement here and there as well. like a very unexpected night in the car, stranded at a remote border post high in the misty mountains of swaziland, ocean safaris, corrupt cops and etc.
tomorrow, its into the drakensberg for some biking and hiking. and maybe into lesotho as well.

africa is, well, africa.
and i'm loving it,
even with the nonsense of my fellow travellers. (:

stop time, STOP!!

wow. its been a heck of a week.
there's actually so much i've seen, heard, done & learnt that i dont think i could ever write it all down. even if i wanted to. need to keep these memories fresh & assign key words to them so that i can actually remember all that happens. i dont even know where to start when i blog!
it feels like its been a major week. well, i guess in terms of learning & thinking, it has been. because, honestly, i have not been doing much. i like it this way though.. well, then again, who doesnt? i've spent the last few days in spurts of seclusion and company. both of which, i've enjoyed immensely. which is not always the case especially when it comes to people. good times.
i've also been taking stock of my 4+ months here because, its sinking in that we are all leaving too soon. 2 of the group have left already. and i have only a month of school (and exams!) left in this city...would be awesome to be able to stay until february like what isa is doing. but, life as an nus student beckons once more.
there is so much more to say, but i dont know where i should start.
like, spring break recap and all the other things happening, but i will end this post with a question that, to me, sums up the people-aspect of springbreak quite accurately. L: "so, what type of chinese is she? japan chinese or asia chinese?" (i am not kidding! HAHA. this still cracks me up.)

random, disjointed thoughts.

some very random thoughts from today.

- the housemate is back. and our house (the rest of us), is in mourning. ok, i exaggerate. she's not all that bad, really. just that she's got a few not-communal-friendly habits. like, not flushing the loo and helping herself to other people's food. and i should probably stop entertaining these thoughts..... these few months came with quite a few personalities. i.will.learn.

- i have exactly 65 days left before i leave SA.

- should probably study. i've got another test tomorrow afternoon. and bigggg deadlines coming up. not really that much different from NUS deadlines, but i feel a lot less stressed because, i'm not clawing desperately at marks for that elusive A-grade.

- it struck me today that i havent eaten out much at nice restaurants here. but i have time to catch up on that.

- the rand is appreciating against the sing dollar. or rather, the USD has depreciated against the rand, and because the sing dollar is pegged to a basket of currencies (of which includes the USD). i would be getting less rand for my dollar if not for the fact that my mom does things to the extreme. i.e. when i asked her to transfer 1k, she transferred a whole lot more, so now, i dont have to worry about exchange rates & when to pay my housing bills. funny how things work out sometimes eh?

- i want to see a shooting star!!! (random spurt of conversation overflow)

a-picture-a-day. i've yet to catch up with all the pre-Tuks pictures. & this is just a funny one for today.

another random picture of the day, just because.

dont you just love the demanding face of this baby! and her parents are such awesome people-personalities too! (:  ok, i think this post was random enough. photos of babies & failed (but funny) jumpshots, and of things ranging from economics to astrology.. its probably about time to resume my studying.