July 6

Today we hung out at the house and started packing. It took us awhile to really get started because we had to do laundry and separate everything that was going with us for two weeks from what we would leave at Elna’s. In addition, we packed my nice REI rolling duffle with all our souvenirs that Alex will take back to the states with him.

Alex spent a good portion of the day registering for classes and organizing our transportation to Cape Town. We have decided to bus from Joburg to Kimberely and Kimberely to Cape Town and then we will take the Shoshaloza train back to Joburg from Cape Town. I booked us at Cape Town Backpackers for our 4 nights in Cape Town, which I believe is where my mother and I stayed in 2007. So off from Joburg on the 19th at 10am, arrive in Kimberley in the afternoon, have dinner, then see the sights all on the 20th, and catch another bus that night taking us onwards to Cape Town. We’ll depart Cape Town on the 25th, taking a 24 hr train trip back to Joburg so we can have one more day in Gauteng before we fly onwards.

At 8 pm we order Italian take-away from across the street and went to Garth’s friends house to watch the semi-final match between Uruguay and the Netherlands. I think Alex enjoyed it because David, Garth’s friend, knew enough about soccer to have a conversation about players and teams with him, which Alex doesn’t get when he watches the games with me.

Last minute packing tomorrow and then were off to Zimbabwe.