Megan's weekend: hard to believe

This weekend, some of my co-educators and I went on the Garden Route weekend trip! It was an amazing experience. I’m not usually an adventurous person, but it seems like all the incredible things to do in South Africa is turning me into one!

    

My favorite part of the weekend was Saturday. It was probably one of the best days of my whole life. We started out the day by going to an elephant sanctuary, where we walked with three elephants around a small lake, and then were able to feed and play with them. It was surreal being so close to an elephant, I almost didn’t believe I was there. Then, after we went canoeing which honestly wasn’t the most exciting, we went bungee jumping! On the highest commercial bungee bridge in the world! I wasn’t too nervous before, mostly because I didn’t allow myself to even think about it before hand. I only got scared when the guys on the platform shoved my toes over the edge and I could see almost 1,000 feet below me. It was terrifying. Then they counted down from three and I just jumped before I could think about what I was doing. I screamed my lungs out and felt like I was going to die for about 5 seconds, but it was the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done. I wanted to do another jump as soon as they pulled me up from the bottom. After everyone went, we went back to the hostel and had a braai dinner, and hung out on the beach and went night swimming in the Indian Ocean.

At the end of the day I didn’t even believe I had lived all that. While writing in my journal, I talked about how lucky and privileged I felt that I was able to go, and for relatively cheap compared to what it would cost in the US. I thought about how if you talked to me as a senior in high school, and told me that I was going to go to UConn, then go to South Africa, and on that day I would be playing with elephants and jumping off bridges, I would have told you that you were crazy. But there I was! I am even more grateful that I had diverted from my “great life plan” to be able to be here and experience such incredible days.