Finally in Cape Town and it’s been amazing so far. Marisa & Stus friend, Dave, kindly picked me up from the airport and we went straight to his family bri (BBQ) in Hermanus. I couldn’t believe the beautiful house on the beach and breathtaking views o f the ocean and coast. The weather was sunny and perfect. I could finally wear a tank top and jeans without sweating to death. I could get used to this! Another country, another warm welcome from a family I’ve never met before. It was perfect, and as we all know, it’s the people part of my traveling that I truly enjoy the most. I think the bar has been set pretty high at this point with the lovely views and gracious welcomes I received. :) Dave was nice enough to cook dinner that evening – Spaghetti. Yum! The most perfect comfort food. He gave me a little bit of history, some recommendations, and I was beginning to feel pretty acclimated. Cape Town is fantastic. Very different than what I pictured. I feel very comfortable here. I moved into my dorm yesterday (ok – maybe not 100% comfortable). ;) But it’s fine, and I get to put my things out of my suitcase for more than 2 days – Yeah! One downfall is that it’s getting a little chilly here and I’m not really prepared. I sent a lot of stuff home because it was not being used up to this point. Sort of kicking myself now..
Unfortunately, I don’t start my project until Friday. I was pretty bummed, but I guess it gives me a few days to learn the lay of the land, get settled, so I have plenty of energy for the kids. Some of the girls who have already started confirmed how amazing the kids are and what a great experience it is, but they also said they are exhausted every day. My first thought was “Perfect, I’ll hopefully be able to start getting some sleep.” I can’t wait to meet them!!
I can’t believe this trip has flown by so fast, it’s halfway over and I’m already here. I considered calling this post “The Sigh of Relief of Sarah”, as that was what I was feeling on my flight here. I have had the most amazing 2 ½ months traveling, seeing the world, experiencing things I could have never imagined. I had a blast meeting new people and meeting up with friends, but to be honest, I’m exhausted. I have been nonstop and on the go the whole time, with a few days here and there to really do nothing. I’m ready for a break and to be in one place for awhile and have a “home”. It has been so much fun documenting my story and sharing it with everyone, but when I started calling it my “homework”, I knew something wasn’t right. I enjoy it, especially since it gives me an opportunity to get my memories down while they are fresh in my mind, but I was trying to squeeze it in any free chance I had. Often the internet connections are terrible as well, which makes it really frustrating.
So I’m going silent, at least while I’m in South Africa. I think it’s really time for me to focus on myself and the kids I will be helping. I want to get back into my nutrition and fitness routine and get back on track. If I feel inspired to write, I will pick up the computer for sure. I will still have access to email and I also have a cell phone again, so I can be contacted either of those ways. Feel free. I love to get little notes and texts by suprise.
Thank you all so much for encouraging me to write and update you! It is extremely flattering and I really do enjoy it. I just need a break and some quality Sarah time! I will be in touch soon!! XOXO
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Shenanigans of SarChaRika
The Shenanigans of SarChaRika
Part of me wanted to name this the stupids of SarChaRika. For three really smart girls, we sure had our heads in the clouds quite a few times. But everything ended up ok and now we have quite a few funny stories to tell. Here is a recap of some of our sillier and stupid moments:
• Learning that raising your tone of voice with a little flirting will get you margaritas to go.
• Me thinking I lost my passport in Luang Prabang and getting my Visa for Vietnam for 2 days after we were supposed to arrive. Oopsy. Thankfully they let me know 2 days early.
• “There goes the kitty”
• Riding our bikes like a bunch of 12 year old school girls.
• Getting sprayed with hoses by 10 year olds.
• Almost being “Taken” 3 times.
• Making friends on the beach.
• “Are you twins?” Nope. Same same, but different.
• Why did the rooster cross the road?
• Moon pies
• Me arguing with the snack lady in Halong Bay. I refused to pay $15 for 3 snacks. She wouldn’t give me my money back.
• The creepy bar pictures on night club row
• The voicemail I left for Charity – which I still need to listen to.
• Did we just take out $10,000 from the ATM?
• Mr. Tohm at the Indochina. He’s tall!
• How many accidents do you have here? No accidents in Vietnam (as a biker runs right into the door as he opens it).
• Frogger/Looking Traumatized/Being Hanoiyed with Hanoiying.
• Spending an hour to find Bobby Chins to find out it had moved.
• Our crazy cab ride from the airport with the American.
• Seeing the tourist push the Cyclo driver.
• “We have a pool table, but no pool.”
• Spiderman
• It’s pork, but not pork.
• Long Duc Dong
• Riding the luggage cart at the airport
• Slipping the “Do not disturb” sign on my toe.
• Deep Thoughts by Charity Gonzalez. “I always think I’m going to tan because I’m Mexican, but then I don’t”
• Charity in the Now
• Playing “Golf”
• The Lover
• Don’t be lazy, be crazy.
• Erika’s white bikini
• Charity giving up on golf and bolting to the pool cannonball style.
• Stupid human pool tricks.
• Bom Chika Wah Wah
• Sarah is like a bobble head – looking in every which direction.
• “Charity, are you itchy?”
• Myers Briggs and Charity’s rule defining
• Extra Special Friendly Person
• Perfecting our chopstick skills thanks to our teacher Erika. Charity refused to let go once she got it.
• Russians, South Africans, shots of tequila and rave music.
Part of me wanted to name this the stupids of SarChaRika. For three really smart girls, we sure had our heads in the clouds quite a few times. But everything ended up ok and now we have quite a few funny stories to tell. Here is a recap of some of our sillier and stupid moments:
• Learning that raising your tone of voice with a little flirting will get you margaritas to go.
•You can use “Same Same but Different” for a whole lot of things.
• Me thinking I lost my passport in Luang Prabang and getting my Visa for Vietnam for 2 days after we were supposed to arrive. Oopsy. Thankfully they let me know 2 days early.
• “There goes the kitty”
• Riding our bikes like a bunch of 12 year old school girls.
• Getting sprayed with hoses by 10 year olds.
• Almost being “Taken” 3 times.
• Making friends on the beach.
• “Are you twins?” Nope. Same same, but different.
• Why did the rooster cross the road?
• Moon pies
• Me arguing with the snack lady in Halong Bay. I refused to pay $15 for 3 snacks. She wouldn’t give me my money back.
• The creepy bar pictures on night club row
• The voicemail I left for Charity – which I still need to listen to.
• Did we just take out $10,000 from the ATM?
• Mr. Tohm at the Indochina. He’s tall!
• How many accidents do you have here? No accidents in Vietnam (as a biker runs right into the door as he opens it).
• Frogger/Looking Traumatized/Being Hanoiyed with Hanoiying.
• Spending an hour to find Bobby Chins to find out it had moved.
• Our crazy cab ride from the airport with the American.
• Seeing the tourist push the Cyclo driver.
• “We have a pool table, but no pool.”
• Spiderman
• It’s pork, but not pork.
• Long Duc Dong
• Riding the luggage cart at the airport
• Slipping the “Do not disturb” sign on my toe.
• Deep Thoughts by Charity Gonzalez. “I always think I’m going to tan because I’m Mexican, but then I don’t”
• Charity in the Now
• Playing “Golf”
• The Lover
• Don’t be lazy, be crazy.
• Erika’s white bikini
• Charity giving up on golf and bolting to the pool cannonball style.
• Stupid human pool tricks.
• Bom Chika Wah Wah
• Sarah is like a bobble head – looking in every which direction.
• “Charity, are you itchy?”
• Myers Briggs and Charity’s rule defining
• Extra Special Friendly Person
• Perfecting our chopstick skills thanks to our teacher Erika. Charity refused to let go once she got it.
• Russians, South Africans, shots of tequila and rave music.
The Saigon of Sarah
Good Morning, Vietnam! Despite the things I had heard, Saigon was actually pretty cool for a big city. MUCH BETTER than Hanoiying anyway…We had the whole day to explore until Erika had to head to the airport to catch her flight home. I actually was on a mission to take care of a few last errands before heading to Cape Town, one of them being to find a decent place to finally get my hair cut (after 2 ½ months in the sun and sand, I needed it big time).
We were up bright and early and went straight to the War Remnants Museum. Eeks! Talk about depressing and so rough to see. Originally called the War Crimes Museum, it’s a comprehensive collection of weapons, photos, planes, tanks, and documents of the Vietnam wars with the French and Americans. It was extremely eye opening (I vaguely remember much about what I had learned in school about the war), but also extremely controversial, giving a very skued side of the story and it’s funny; they call it the American War. I know there are two sides to all stories and Vietnam was far from innocent, but it was very hard to read all the articles and sickening to view all the photos of what our country and military were capable of. My main question was “why so much violence”? Even if we were getting attacked, there was still no need to use the force we did and the disgusting acts of torture. I can’t even fathom how it must feel for the thousands of Vietnam vets that visit it each year.
The rest of the day was nonstop for me. After the museum we had a nice lunch at this great little café Charity found in her travel book. We shared a few dishes, including a peanut butter, bacon, cheese, and tomato Panini. Sounds gross but it was to die for! I then headed to the nicest hotel in town, the Park Hyatt, to see if they had any hair appointments available. I was in luck because it was 2pm and they were able to take me at 3pm. Even better, the price was half what I would pay in Chicago! Having an hour to kill, one can only guess what I wanted to do. I headed to the concierge and asked if there were any shops in the area I could run to before my appointment. As I finished my sentence, this beautiful, fit, stylish woman came up to me and with her British accent, she offers to help me. She had been living with her husband (a high end furniture designer) in Saigon for 10 years. She was into fashion and personal styling and mentioned her clients included top executives. She told me how she knew what it was like for a young girl like me to want to be sent in the right direction when it comes to shopping. Her driver came and picked us up, dropped us a few blocks away and she showed me this great shop that I wouldn’t have recognized otherwise. All the clothes were hand embroidered and were gorgeous. She showed me a few pieces she just loved, gave me her contact info and directions to another one of her favorites, and she was off. Just like that. What are the chances? My own personal shopper in Saigon. Come to find out later that everyone knows Saigon Sally. Ha!
My hair turned out ok. They guy sort of went a little scissor happy on me. Let’s just say it hasn’t been this short in awhile. It’s growing on me (no pun intended), not the fact that it’s a couple of inches shorter, but more because it is so much healthier now. Message, nails, hair done all in the same week, I was all set to begin the next part of my journey.
Charity, Erika and I had one last drink that night to send Erika off. I can’t believe how fast the time went. It feels like just yesterday that Erika and I were planning for the trip and now she’s gone. Charity and I were ready to hit the town. We called the contact Duc from Hoi An had set us up with, we met him out at the Park Hyatt bar, which was so swank. We met some other people at the bar and headed dancing – something that I couldn’t wait to do one more time before I left. We had so much fun, but it didn’t make for a very nice 30 hours of traveling to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a 12 hour layover and then another 10 hour flight to Cape Town. HEADACHE!
We were up bright and early and went straight to the War Remnants Museum. Eeks! Talk about depressing and so rough to see. Originally called the War Crimes Museum, it’s a comprehensive collection of weapons, photos, planes, tanks, and documents of the Vietnam wars with the French and Americans. It was extremely eye opening (I vaguely remember much about what I had learned in school about the war), but also extremely controversial, giving a very skued side of the story and it’s funny; they call it the American War. I know there are two sides to all stories and Vietnam was far from innocent, but it was very hard to read all the articles and sickening to view all the photos of what our country and military were capable of. My main question was “why so much violence”? Even if we were getting attacked, there was still no need to use the force we did and the disgusting acts of torture. I can’t even fathom how it must feel for the thousands of Vietnam vets that visit it each year.
The rest of the day was nonstop for me. After the museum we had a nice lunch at this great little café Charity found in her travel book. We shared a few dishes, including a peanut butter, bacon, cheese, and tomato Panini. Sounds gross but it was to die for! I then headed to the nicest hotel in town, the Park Hyatt, to see if they had any hair appointments available. I was in luck because it was 2pm and they were able to take me at 3pm. Even better, the price was half what I would pay in Chicago! Having an hour to kill, one can only guess what I wanted to do. I headed to the concierge and asked if there were any shops in the area I could run to before my appointment. As I finished my sentence, this beautiful, fit, stylish woman came up to me and with her British accent, she offers to help me. She had been living with her husband (a high end furniture designer) in Saigon for 10 years. She was into fashion and personal styling and mentioned her clients included top executives. She told me how she knew what it was like for a young girl like me to want to be sent in the right direction when it comes to shopping. Her driver came and picked us up, dropped us a few blocks away and she showed me this great shop that I wouldn’t have recognized otherwise. All the clothes were hand embroidered and were gorgeous. She showed me a few pieces she just loved, gave me her contact info and directions to another one of her favorites, and she was off. Just like that. What are the chances? My own personal shopper in Saigon. Come to find out later that everyone knows Saigon Sally. Ha!
My hair turned out ok. They guy sort of went a little scissor happy on me. Let’s just say it hasn’t been this short in awhile. It’s growing on me (no pun intended), not the fact that it’s a couple of inches shorter, but more because it is so much healthier now. Message, nails, hair done all in the same week, I was all set to begin the next part of my journey.
Charity, Erika and I had one last drink that night to send Erika off. I can’t believe how fast the time went. It feels like just yesterday that Erika and I were planning for the trip and now she’s gone. Charity and I were ready to hit the town. We called the contact Duc from Hoi An had set us up with, we met him out at the Park Hyatt bar, which was so swank. We met some other people at the bar and headed dancing – something that I couldn’t wait to do one more time before I left. We had so much fun, but it didn’t make for a very nice 30 hours of traveling to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a 12 hour layover and then another 10 hour flight to Cape Town. HEADACHE!
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