Staff Appreciation

With just a month left until the season of giving, it's good to see people already getting into the spirit of things. And by that I don't mean the Christmas decorations that were up since August, but the little things that people are doing to help others.

At Rhodes, I live in a residence (mine is Allan Gray House) and together with a few other houses we form a hall, in my case Drostdy Hall. Every year, as a way of showing our appreciation for the catering and cleaning staff in our hall, we give each person a food hamper just in time for the festive season. To collect the food, we compile a list of food needed and each house competes to collect the most food.

This year, the house that collected the most food was Allan Gray, which made me really proud as it's always good to see people rally together to do something nice for someone else (and also because I'm super competitive!) 

We handed over the food to the staff and had tea and cake with them, which was delightful because it gave us a chance to serve them for a change. It made me happy to know that I live in a hall filled with so much love, generosity and kindness.

Here are just a few of the buckets of assorted food items collected, as well as some of our staff members. Thank you so much to my friend Cath who took the photos and captured the happy faces and the spirit of the day. 

Ode to bacon and boyfriends

I like bacon. I like avo. I like pizzas. I like the Rat and Parrot. I like bacovian pizzas from the Rat.

But most of all, I like getting a surprise bacovian pizza from the boyfriend with a message on the box that's cheesier than the pizza inside.

How not to dress like an Indian

This week is the last week of lectures, and also the busiest time for students frantically trying to finish and hand in all outstanding work. In the midst of all this, some friends and I got together and declared today "Indian Day" because two of us are indian. We ate curry and samoosas, burned incense and listened to music in a language we could not understand but sang along to anyway. Our interpretations of indian clothes was a little silly but hey, sometimes doing something silly is the most fun.

Hannah

Darsha

Cath

And meeee!

And if your friend jumps off a bridge, do you also jump?

3... 2... 1... bungee!

The moment those words were said and I jumped off the Bloukrans Bridge was possibly the scariest moment in my life.

I decided this year to go bungee jumping as it was one of those things people always say has to be on your bucket list. After much planning, I finally went the day after my 21st birthday. That wasn’t the best idea because the night of my birthday I went out and had a considerable amount to drink (as one does when one celebrates a birthday at Rhodes). The morning of the jump, I felt sick. No prizes for guessing why. We set off at 6am and after having no sleep at all I felt like death. I wasn’t at all scared of jumping off Bloukrans, despite the fact that it is the largest bridge in Africa and the highest commercial bridge bungee in the world. My biggest fear was that while soaring through the air I would rather spectacularly throw up (yes, you really needed to imagine that).

We arrived an hour early and were given the option to jump immediately. What the hell, I thought, we may as well. To get to the middle of the bridge to jump, we had to walk the length of half the bridge on a walkway that allowed you to see below. At this point I started feeling dizzy and had to keep telling myself to not look down. But I never listen to anything, not even myself, and so I continuously looked down as I walked and proceeded to scare the shit out of myself.

After what felt like the longest, most torturous walk, we reached the middle of the bridge where we were briefed on the jump. Out of the group of six, I was the second person to jump. Despite the huge smile on my face, I was at this point rather nervous. While being strapped to the harness I asked a million questions, all of which were rather embarrassingly caught on video. “Are you sure this is safe? Can this rope be broken? What happens if the part tied around my ankle slips off?” Of course I knew this wouldn’t be allowed if it wasn’t safe, but I had watched many videos of failed bungee jumps beforehand to get the excitement flowing and now they were coming back to me.

Finally, I was taken to the edge of the bridge to jump and I finally got a glimpse of the view down. Holy mother of beans, it was the scariest sight. I kept saying no, I can't do this, but at that point it was too late to back out.

Before I knew it they had counted down and I jumped. For the first few seconds I completely let go and screamed. With my long black hair trailing behind me and my screams echoing in the distance, I must have resembled a banshee.

I cannot describe the thrill and the complete ecstasy of that jump. I felt incredibly free. It was so good to let go and know that despite the fear and the appearance of danger I was still safe. And the best part of it all? I didn’t throw up.

"Fear is temporary. Regret is forever"

Most moments with Darsha are crazy but this has to be the best of them all.

Sunrise at the Monument

#3 of my Anti-Bucket List - check!

This month I celebrated my 21st birthday, and managed to get down to checking some things off my anti-bucket list. On the morning of my birthday we drove to the Monument to watch the sun rise and enjoyed a champagne breakfast. It was an incredibly beautiful morning and being able to spend it with some of my best friends made it all the more special. I've always wanted to enjoy something as simple as a sun rise and it really was worth waking up at 4:30am.

Coffee making cheats

Number 10 on my bucket list was "learn how to make decent coffee" because as most people have (unfortunately) experienced, my coffee making skills are rather weak. Of the many random things my mom mailed to me for my birthday, I received a Nespresso machine. I will now claim I know how to make coffee and then let this nifty little machine do it for me. 

Just a little something to remember...