Thrill Seeking and Other Musings

Finally, I have found a moment to sit down and update you all on my life since I returned from vac. As you might be able to guess from my lack of posting, life has been pretty hectic around here. For the first time in my career at UCT, I actually had work to do. It has been strange writing for classes other than English; Sociology papers require serious amounts of background research, which I am not accustomed to, so they took me some time to complete. Luckily, the pile-on has finally come to an end, and I am able to enjoy Cape Town again!

I have done so many new things over the past few weeks, that I cannot possibly describe them all here. For the most part, my activities have required that I push myself beyond my typically established boundaries. It almost feels as if my experience on Kilimanjaro has caused me to actively seek other transformative experiences. For example, last weekend some friends and I drove out to Kleinsbaai (about 2.5 hours from Cape Town) so that we could go shark cage diving. Having a shark within 5 feet of my face was truly a unique experience, one that I hope never to have again, but that I will surely never forget. I am not interested in putting myself in any real danger, but I am looking to test my own limits, if only for a brief moment. What makes Cape Town so special is that it allows for these milestone experiences in that it has so many diverse activities to offer at a reasonable price (well, for those of us with stronger currencies than the rand, of course).

Now that I am fully integrated into student life at UCT, I am meeting more people (mostly South Africans) who are shaping my experience here. As a result, though, it is becoming somewhat difficult for me to maintain the close relationships that I have established with the other Americans that are here with me. I try to diversify the experiences I have and the people I have them with as much as possible, but it feels so much more real and worthwhile to spend my time in South Africa with people that live here. Seeing that we are from such different places, we are able to share so much with each other. After all, I have the rest of my life to surround myself with Americans (unless, of course, I live abroad, which, after living here is not entirely out of the question!).

Another difficulty I have been encountering lately is the feeling that end of my time in Cape Town is approaching too quickly. While I have been trying very hard not to think too far ahead to next semester in Paris, I cannot help but consider about how hard it will be to make the transition away from Cape Town to Paris, a city that is so vastly different. While I am so amped to spend a semester in Paris where I can use my French skills, I cannot deny the fact that the idea of staying in Cape Town for the entire year has crossed my mind on a number of occasions. Every time that I have some amazing new experience (which is every day), I remember how quickly time is passing here and how much I never want to leave. This may sound cliche, but it is so hard to believe that I only have one month left of school. Luckily, I will have the opportunity to stay in southern Africa and travel a bit after the semester ends, which I hope will make my transition away from Cape Town easier for me. I must force myself to remember how nice it will be to come back to the States for a month or so, and how much I have to look forward to next semester in Paris.

Tomorrow is Heritage Day (a day devoted to celebrating the many histories of the South African people), so there is no varsity. In order to take advantage of the extra free time, as well as the nice weather that we are just beginning to experience, some friends and I are going on a road trip to the mountainous area northeast of Cape Town. Looking forward to another weekend filled with new adventures...

Please keep me updated on your lives back in the States (or wherever you may be). Thinking of you all!

A Physical and Emotional Adventure to the Top of the World

As you can surmise by the fact that I am writing this post, I have returned from Tanzania and Mt. Kilimanjaro alive and well. Despite a serious sunburn/windburn that continues to linger on my face, I made it back to Cape Town on Sunday evening somehow feeling refreshed after the most exhausting week of my life. Perhaps I felt invigorated by the constant praise and congratulatory sentiment that I, along with the two others that climbed with me, met from others upon arriving back in South Africa. As I am constantly reminded by those around me how intense my experience on the mountain must have been, I cannot help but mull over the unforgettable memories this once-in-a-lifetime (assuming that I won't climb Kili again) experience has bestowed upon me. While the details of each day of the climb are not worth describing here, it is important that I note the level of excitement I felt throughout the beginning of the climb as the summit attempt approached. I was able to think about the prospect of reaching the summit constantly during the first few days of the climb, as they were not too physically taxing. All of the anticipation that built up inside me over these four days, however, caused my emotions to become completely out-of-whack in my state of delirium when I finally arrived at Uhuru Peak (5985m), the tallest point on the African continent.

Unfortunately, I cannot articulate precisely the emotions I felt while atop the mountain as the altitude and ridiculously cold weather (-23 degrees Celsius with a windchill) blurred my ability to remember much of what happened while I was there. Whatever these emotions were must have been quite overwhelming, though, because they have been consuming my thoughts ever since I began descending from the summit that day. It is hard for me to grasp the fact that I managed to arrive at a destination (the summit) that cannot and will not be reached by even a small majority of the world. To be more specific, according to the certificate that I received at the end of the climb, only 43,553 people have successfully reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro since this time last year. I can now say that I am among those people, which, in retrospect, is worth all of the physical and emotional stress that I endured during the climb.

While the beginning of the climb did not challenge me physically to the extent that I had anticipated, Day 5 (the day of the summit attempt) pushed me far beyond my comfort threshold to the point of exhaustion, dehydration, and delirium. In order to arrive at the summit, I needed some kind of motivation other than the joy of finally achieving my ultimate goal of conquering Kili. This motivation came in the form of a blind Turkish man who we constantly ran into throughout the climb. Learning of his personal goal of climbing the highest peak on every continent provided me with the physical and emotional boost that I craved. As a result, he became a hero in my eyes, as well as in the those of the others climbing with me. To me, he epitomizes the phrase that I repeated in my head over and over again as I ascended and descended the mountain: "It's not your aptitude, but your attitude, that determines your altitude." While I am far from a seasoned mountain climber, I have successfully climbed the highest peak in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in the world as a result of a positive attitude and a will to achieve my goal of overcoming the physical and emotional hardships that I encountered en route to the top of the world.

The above description does not even scratch the surface of my overall experience on the mountain. Check out my pictures to follow my 6-day experience from Machame Gate up to Uhuru Peak and down to Mweka Gate (with stops along the way, of course!):

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbrisk01/MtKilimanjaro#

While I devoted this post t my Kilimanjaro climb , there is so much to say about my trip to Johannesburg and Soweto beforehand. Look forward to that in my next post!