"Oh, I just got back from South Africa."

I know, I know - I've been slightly MIA the past couple of months. Please, allow me to explain...

The beginning of May was infused with final exams (for FIVE classes, mind you) and the relocation of my entire office to multiple buildings. Two days after my last final, I left for a two week vacation to South Africa. Upon my return, I was sick for a week and then had to get acclimated (read: unpack) to my "new" office which is, in essence, a cubicle. (Thank God I'm only here for 2 months.)

Now that my suitcase is finally unpacked and my routine is once again somewhat normal, I can now tell you about my wonderful vacation to South Africa!

Except that I really don't know how to describe it. It is truly indescribable!

Adam, Kristi, and I hit all of the touristy hot spots:
- Lion Park outside of Johannesburg -- feeding giraffes and watching lions feed
- a 3 day all inclusive safari in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve (my personal favorite)
- a drive to/through/along The Garden Route
- riding elephants in Addo at a sanctuary through the mountains, with views of giraffes, zebra, and wildebeest
- visiting the infamous surf town of Jeffrey's Bay (J-Bay, to the locals)
- bungee jumping from Bloukrans Bridge in Tsitsikamma National Park -- Note: at 216 meters, this is the highest commercial bungee jump in the world! (Miraculously, my mother was not too concerned about me doing this.)
- stopping at the Southernmost Tip of Africa, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet
- Gansbaai for cage diving with great white sharks (Mom was, however, eager to hear about this. She was actually excited for me to do this! Maybe she was on medication that day...)
- Franschoek & Stellenbosh for a few (ok, a dozen) winery tours and tastings
- Cape Town -- Table Mountain/Lion's Head/cable car ride, Cosy Bay, Boulder's Beach, V&A Waterfront
- and a few other random and miscellaneous stops at wherever the wind blew us

This was, hands down, the vacation of a lifetime. I can't choose one vacation over another as being my favorite because I feel that each vacation I've taken has lent itself to completely different adventures. We met some wonderful people along our journey and had amazing experiences that brought us together as even closer friends than we were before.

I am just so so so thankful that I have the support and resources to take such amazing vacations!

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip. (If you want to see more, check out my Facebook or email me for a link.) Enjoy!

I'm alive!

(Great, now I'm going to have that song in my head...)

I just realized that it's been almost 6 weeks since I have updated all of my fabulous readers! I do apologize for the delay.

A brief synopsis of my life as of late:

The end of April and beginning of May marked the end of the Spring 2011 semester which meant papers, projects, presentations, and final exams for the academic side of my life. This, along with the fact that I had to prepare not only my office but my entire building for a close/renovation for the summer (aka the professional side of my life), left me a basket case. Throw in a visit from my best friend Megan and then a little two week holiday (and related planning) to South Africa and there you have my absence explained!

Many, many people have asked me for pictures from SA. The thing that they don't realize is that I just returned to the States on Sunday evening. Give a sister some time to shower and grocery shop, geeze!

Once I have had time to catch my breath, I promise that I will post more blogs and update you on my SA travels, both in picture and word form.

The Hairpin

The Hairpin is a hilarious blog that a coworker and I stumbled upon one day when we were bored. It provides endless hours of entertainment and various means of procrastination.

I recently stumbled across this post and had to share with everyone, since you all know of my love for penguins. And food.



I'm not so much a fan of olives but I know that tons of other people are so I may just have to make these treats for my next social event. If anything it'll be a great conversation starter.

"So, were any actual penguins harmed in the making of this treat?"

P.S. - Did I mention that I get to see penguins in South Africa?!?!?? Iamsoexcited!!!!! :D

Entertainment Suggestions Needed

As you all know, I will be traveling to South Africa in a few weeks. I have started my search for various forms of electronic entertainment now in an effort to have a complete collection come flight time.

I'm trying not to carry a lot of things with me on the plane so I'm limiting my books to two: a travel book and a word search. Everything else will be on my laptop or Kindle.

Please send me any suggestions for songs, Kindle books, iTunes shows/podcasts/movies, etc.

Color Me Excited!

I have just spent an enormous amount of money on a plane ticket.... to South Africa!

I may have mentioned this trip in passing, very briefly, in the past. Now that plane tickets are purchased, I can finally speak freely of this vacation. I will be traveling with Kristi and my good friend Adam halfway around the world to seek out some amazing adventures over the course of 2.5 weeks.

I cannot be more excited to get out of this country! I've had the travel bug for a while, as I have not left the country since October 2009. If I don't leave the country at least once a year, I go nuts!

Here's to hoping that this trip will quench my thirst until my next trip to France and Belgium in 2012 :)

I'M FREE!

FINALS ARE OVER!

I am so giddily excited that I just don't know what to do with myself!

Actually, that's a lie. I know exactly what I'm going to do - READ!

I have put my "for fun" reading life on hold since late August so that I could devote all of my time to my studies. I submitted my last final - an online exam and project - last night around 7 p.m. I went home and immediately started reading Tucker Max's Assholes Finish First. I figured that I would lightly delve back into the world of pleasure reading by starting with this book.

After this book, I plan to finally finish Eat, Pray, Love and then move on to Nelson Mandela's A Long Walk to Freedom. EPL has been half read since August; Mandela is going to be a tough and lengthy read. At some point, I also need to do research for my vacation to South Africa in June. (More details about that in another post.)

Even after classes are done, there is still so much to do!

attack of the whales

I like to tell people that I'm a marine biologist. Because really, that's what I got my degree in at university. I just leave out the fact that I'm not a practicing marine biologist.

Naturally, all of the news stories regarding whales and sharks recently has been front page news in my life.

A humpback whale was spotted in Ocean City, MD back in June. I find this odd.



A southern right whale was recently seen breaching and landed on a sailboat off the coast of South Africa. Now that is really weird.



I hope they have good insurance.