A great weekend

This has been a really great weekend. It started out pretty lousy because I've been pretty homesick/Denversick for the last couple weeks, but it definitely got better.

Yesterday a friend and I were grabbing coffee when we bumped into a guy from one of her classes. It was his birthday and his parents were in town, so he invited us to their family dinner. Of course, my friend and I were super excited because A) family dinners = good food (which we don't get a lot of) and B) we both really miss families so the thought of being around a family for the night sounded awesome! The night was so great. The food was incredible and it was so fun to spend time with him, his friends, and his parents. I especially enjoyed talking with his parents. They were both so nice and we talked for a good hour. They talked about the change in South Africa from apartheid to now, which was super interesting to hear from a first-person perspective. They are from Johannesburg and they told my friend and I that if we ever wanted to come up we are more than welcome to stay with them. I really hope that it works out, because that'd be so great!

Then this morning I got up really early to go hiking at the Cumberland Nature Reserve with the Mountain Club. There were 7 of us, and we had such a good time. The reserve was absolutely stunning and the hike was really great. We did a huge loop all the way down into the gorge, to a waterfall, and then back up. On the way out of the reserve we drove down a road and watched impala and zebras roaming in the wild. It was so cool! It really made me realize that I'm really in Africa.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to the Salvation Army again. I know that I'm going to be so tired! I'm learning a lot from the experience but it's a real reality check. I'm glad that I'm doing it because it shows me a completely different side of the country from the one that I see everyday at the university.