My experience with Cross Cultural Solutions as a program has been pretty good so far. The food is nice, and includes traditional African meals such as maize and lamb, as well as more Americanized stuff for us tourists, like mac and cheese and pizza. The program also provides language lessons: you can choose Afrikaans or isiXhosa. I am taking Xhosa and it is very tricky. There are three different clicks in the language, in place of the letters “X”, “Q”, and “C”. So, “Xhosa” is pronounced with a lateral click at the start of the word- the sound is something like a “here kitty” tsk sound.I’ve been making the most of my free time to get out and explore the city. I went to one of the beaches, Clifton 4 last week and took in some sun and had dinner at a beachfront restaurant. We also went out to the waterfront another night, which was less fun because it was essentially a big mall, but I did get to eat an ostrich steak! Boy are things expensive here - look how much we spent on just five people!! (just kidding) 
For the weekend, our group took a tour of the Garden Rout
e, which is about a five hour drive from Cape Town. We stayed at a really cute hostel and had jam packed days. Saturday was zip lining, bungee jumping (guess who sat out of that one), and the elephant sanctuary. The elephants were really fun - the sanctuary had six rescues. The three we met were from Botswana and had been on their way to China to be circus performers when there was a hold-up with the needed paperwork, and the elephants were neglected in the meantime. At the sanctuary, they have lots of room to run around and do their thing. They are trained to "hold your hand" and walk with you, and they really do grip tightly. However, elephant snot is something I'll be avoiding in the future:)
For the weekend, our group took a tour of the Garden Rout
e, which is about a five hour drive from Cape Town. We stayed at a really cute hostel and had jam packed days. Saturday was zip lining, bungee jumping (guess who sat out of that one), and the elephant sanctuary. The elephants were really fun - the sanctuary had six rescues. The three we met were from Botswana and had been on their way to China to be circus performers when there was a hold-up with the needed paperwork, and the elephants were neglected in the meantime. At the sanctuary, they have lots of room to run around and do their thing. They are trained to "hold your hand" and walk with you, and they really do grip tightly. However, elephant snot is something I'll be avoiding in the future:) 
Sunday was spent at at an "animal sanctuary" that amazingly appeared exactly like a zoo. It was a disappointment for all of us, but they did have some cool animals, and one guy in our group went in to play with the baby tigers. After another adventurous meal of crocodile steak and ostrich liver pate, we were off for the long van ride back tot he home base. Bonus: I was almost able to finish "Kaffir Boy" this week
end - amazing book!
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