Day 42 (10-07-10)

I had a SAS trip all day today: Cycling in the Winelands. At 9am, I met the bus at the bottom of the gangway for the drive out to Franschhoek in the Cape Valley. I can’t give very many details about the drive there (aside from the fact that we passed Ratanga Junction amusement park on the way and it really made me want to ride roller coasters) because I slept for the majority of the journey. But we arrived an hour or so later and had an opportunity to walk through the town for a bit. Shopping for postcards and crafts ensued. After 45 minutes of walking the streets in awesome 60ish-degree, misty weather, we found our bikes by the side of the road and embarked on a 12-mile ride. Riding along the shoulder of a main road was not the most ideal location for us (especially when tractor trailers would speed past and create large currents of air that threatened to push us into gutter), but it was a beautiful ride. I don’t even know the last time I went for a bike ride, so that in itself was great. And the scenery certainly didn’t hurt. The backside of Table Mountain loomed in the distance and a layer of fog hung over the endless vineyards lining the highway. It was so relaxing to cruise through the countryside on a bicycle… it makes me wish I had actually invested in a bike when I lived in Boulder. Oh well, live and learn.

We ended up at a winery called Solms. Here, we learned about the winemaking process and we were able to walk the grounds of the vineyard. But then we got to the important part: lunch and wine tasting. Each of us received a large wooden platter with 6 quarter-full glasses of wine and 6 different small entrees. There were two appetizers, two main courses, and two desserts, each paired with a wine that would complement the individual flavors. I’m not much of a wine person, but I actually really enjoyed one of the two whites. The two reds were tolerable, but the dessert wine was just not my thing. I’m not a wine connoisseur by any means, so I can’t tell you why I didn’t enjoy it, but it seemed really bitter. Maybe it was really sweet. Is that contradictory? It is, isn’t it? See, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Whatever. The food was incredible though. Crab meat, mussels, springbok meatball, springbok meat soup, a cheese sampler, and some sort of chocolate tapioca pudding. The pudding wasn’t my favorite, but the rest was delicious. And, fortunately for me, I was sitting near the end of the table next to the tour guides and the bus driver. Why would this make me fortunate? They were working, so they couldn’t drink their wine! Those of us at the end of the table grabbed an extra glass of our favorite, and continued on with the meal. When it was time to leave, we all boarded the bus and realized that there was a microphone in the front for the tour guide. And do you know what happens when you put 20 tipsy college students (and professors, including the comedy/singing professors) together on a bus with a microphone? Disney Karaoke. It was a fun time. After a short bus ride, we arrived in Stellenbosch, the most well known town along the wine route. We didn’t have much time left for sightseeing because some of the professors on the trip had to be back at the ship by 5pm for other things, but it was a nice little town to walk through. Another nap on the bus ensued, and we were back on the MV right at 5 o’clock.

Dinner time… where else? Mitchell’s. More awesome food and a little bit of drinking. I had one of those fish bowls by myself… I’m not an alcoholic, I promise. I thought I was sharing it with the table, but everyone else just ordered their own drinks. Whoops. Tomorrow is our last day here… But I don’t want to leave! There’s still so much to see and do! Oy.

Day 43 (10-08-10)

More Shopping and internet this morning. I found a painting that I was looking for by a South African artist named Mgadi. I told former SASer friends that I could pick up some things for them that they might have missed last time around, but that’s proven to be a futile task much of the time. This painting was the first real success story I’ve had in that department, so I’m pretty excited about it. And of course, when I went to try and book my India plans, my card was still not working. Interesting. I suppose I’ll figure it out in the next week of two. Quay 4 for lunch… I’m not usually this much of a creature of habit, especially in port. But the food is just so good! Postcard writing/people watching consumed a pretty large chunk of time in my afternoon today, and I followed it up with some sushi with Jacob and Krystal. And now I have literally zero Rand left. Hooray for spending all of my money! That just means I withdrew the correct amount from the ATM. But of course, we wanted Melissa’s one last time. So Krystal used her remaining Rand to buy us some hot chocolate and were back with 30 minutes to spare before on-ship time. I’m usually back on board with a couple hours left, but we just wanted to stay out as long as possible here. Oh Cape Town, you never seem to disappoint. Unfortunately, back on the ship I now have no motivation to do anything. So after some catching up with friends, it’s time for an early night’s sleep. Like… 9 or 10pm. Yeah.

Day 44 (10-09-10)

So I slept for about 14 hours. Aaaaand now I’m just tired. Today is a Reading Day, so we don’t have any classes. Which is rather fortunate. Especially for Global Studies. Our Global professor (Peter Sanchez) has been having eye problems recently, and apparently they reached a breaking point in South Africa. He somehow managed to get a detached retina in one of his eyes, and he’s still in Cape Town recovering from a series of emergency surgeries. As such, our classes have to be reshuffled until we get to Mauritius or India… whenever he’s able to rejoin us and continue teaching. His wife is also a professor on the ship and she teaches 3 classes, so her absence is affecting the ship as well. It’s a mess, but he’s supposed to make a full recovery, and that’s all that matters.

It appears that everyone had the same idea as I did… No one is around on the ship today; they’re all sleeping. We all bummed around and relaxed all day. These days are the best. We can just talk to each other about everything we’ve done and everything we’re going to do. And we try to forget that 40+ days have passed already. Sigh. And then we watched Saving Private Ryan! Seriously, who doesn’t like Saving Private Ryan? Nobody. But it gets better. What did I do AFTER watching Saving Private Ryan? Settlers! Great way to end the day. But tomorrow we have to get back to reality. Figures.

Day 45 (10-10-10)

Are you serious? We had all day off yesterday. All. Day. And today we don’t have Global Studies class because of the professor situation. Which means that there’s no reason for any of us to be awake before 10am! OH WAIT. Muster Drill. What? What?! Why would you wake us up at 9am on our morning off to do a lifeboat drill?! We could’ve done it at ANY point yesterday. Come on now… we’re spoiled college students; we need our beauty rest. Speaking of beauty, we watched American Beauty today. Love that movie. Oh and I’d update you on what we did in class today, but I have no idea. It’s not important. What IS important is what happened tonight.

Okay. CRAZY thunderstorm. Hands down the coolest outdoor event I’ve ever witnessed on the MV or on the ocean in general. Remember that scene at the end of Pirate of the Caribbean 3 when the ships are going around in circles through the maelstrom and it’s utter madness? Well it was like that, but more realistic. Because it was real. The ship was bucking like crazy. It was the windiest I’ve ever felt on the ship. The spray from the water kept flying off the ship and smacking us in the face as we stood on the back of the 7th deck, forced against the railing in the wind. The waves were huge and kept knocking us back and forth. But the best part was the storm itself. It wasn’t actually raining; we were just getting wet from the ocean spray. But the lightning was incredible. There would be lightning that lit up the entire sky in all directions, illuminating the clouds and the massive waves. And then it would go pitch black again, and streaks would appear all over the place. And the thunder immediately followed, without delay. We endured the storm for 20 or 30 minutes until SAS staff members came outside and forcibly removed us from the back deck for our own safety. THAT’S how you know it was cool. When faculty members scream at you to vacate the outside deck during a lightning storm… you’re having a good time. Man I hope this happens again. But now that I’ve been blasted by salt water for an extended period of time, I feel like I need a shower. But that was seriously the coolest weather event I’ve ever experienced. On par with watching a tornado form in Kansas. No. Cooler than that. Being in the middle of the ocean on a bucking bronco of a cruise ship during a lightning storm is greater than driving a Dodge Intrepid through a rainstorm as a tornado forms a mile away.

Only SAS. 

Day 46 (10-11-10)

Environmental Science midterm… not bad. Splurged at the pool bad and bought a double cheeseburger for the first time. Oh man… that’s a Gateway Cheeseburger. Much like a Gateway Drug, this cheeseburger will only lead to more cheeseburgers. Ruh roh.

Watched Taken tonight. So funny. I mean, it’s not supposed to be funny. But the dialogue and some of the editing was just awful. Not to mention the completely ludicrous plot. Liam Neeson, you are the man. 

Day 47 (10-12-10)

Marketing midterm… what’s up with all the midterms recently? Sheesh. And I splurged on ice cream at the pool bar. Seriously… I blame the Gateway Cheeseburger. The floodgates are officially open. OH. Best. News. Ever. Giggles has season 5 of Criminal Minds on her computer?! This is perfect! Time to watch the only episodes of that show that I’ve ever missed. And when we get to Vietnam, part of season 6 will hopefully be available bootleg style. There’s inevitably going to be a cliffhanger at the end of 5, and I know I won’t want to wait until I’m back in PA to watch it.

Day 48 (10-13-10)

We’re in Mauritius tomorrow?! I was getting used to the 7-day trips at sea between ports. And now that we only have 5 days, it makes the voyage seem that much shorter. I can’t even imagine how it’ll be during the month across Asia. Well, I can. But I don’t want to think about that right now.

We had our cultural and logistical pre-ports for Mauritius tonight. There wasn’t much of a cultural aspect to it. The professor and administrative staff basically acknowledged that no one knows anything about this country, and we’re pretty much only going there to break up the trip across the Indian Ocean. They told us about the beaches and drinks that will be available for us to indulge in… and then told us to have fun on “Spring Break.” Nice. At least they realize that we’re all just looking to kick back and enjoy paradise for a day or two. It was very light-hearted, which isn’t something that I’ve come to expect from SAS pre-ports.

After pre-port: more Criminal Minds. Man I love this show. But at the rate we’re whipping through them, we’re going to be done with the season in a couple days. And then I guess we’ll have to find something else to occupy our attention. Oh well. Goodnight MV Explorer…