lion park

A few days after my mom had left me in South Africa to continue with the second half of my study abroad journey, I found myself in an apartment building that was strangely empty, as it was spring break from studying at UCT and all of my friends had gone on spring break trips to impressive places like Victoria Falls in Zambia, and scuba diving with dolphins in Mozambique.

I had gone on a four day long safari with my mom and her friend from college, then we had returned to Cape Town, exploring the city, taking a wine tour, etc. But my mom had eventually had to leave, and with a few days still before everyone returned from spring break, I binge-watched Fuller House under the warm but sandy comforter on my tiny South African single bed, eating Pringles and fried rice from my favorite Thai restaurant, and going surfing each day in the late afternoon.

In a way it was a really nice vacation, though it quickly got to be more lonely than entertaining. My computer did a weird twitch sometimes and had to restart, but other than that my days were simple. It’s amazing how we can get used to living a life within such a small area so quickly, and so it was pretty surprising to me how easily I found myself agreeing to go to Johannesburg with one of my friends the very next week, to spend a few days with a friend of her brother’s who had picked up and moved there from New Jersey to work for some soccer nonprofit for eight months.

We got drunk the night before, slept maybe an hour or two, then left for an early flight carrying hastily packed bags filled with random articles of clothing. It wasn’t yet eight in the morning and yet when we got to the airport, we both went quickly to KFC (KFC is inordinately better in pretty much any country outside of the USA) and ordered fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I had never felt like more of a mess, but also more of an adult than I did that morning.

Although, doing things with my friend Gianna always seemed to feel that way—things typically would fall together in a way that wasn’t entirely by chance, but the amount of luck still would make you feel as though you deserved everything you were given. But anyway, we finally ended up at her brother’s friend (Jacob)’s apartment, tired, thirsty, in need of wifi and glad to be somewhere as a final destination.

The first day wasn’t really very eventful, but there was a certain kind of magic attached to Jacob—he seemed so cool and both put together and messily young that I trusted him immediately. Even now, the memory of him comes to me as striking. I really didn’t want anything more than for him to like me, just in the most general sense.

One of the most fun days of my life was the second day Gianna and I spent with Jacob. We went to a lion park a few minutes away from Jacob’s house, and, ready to spend money, paid for a package that included an interaction with tiny cubs, young lions, a cheetah, and random other safari animals like a baby giraffe and some meerkats. Not entirely the most ethical place, I guess, but it is absolutely one of the top things I have ever done. It felt like Gianna, Jacob and I were a tiny clique, getting our pictures taken with animals, basking in the sunshine, and all clearly having exactly the same level of enjoyment in the afternoon. I never wanted it to end, but of course it did.