[continued...]

Now, I have plenty of time, a fast computer, and no battery left in my camera. Pictures later, maybe tomorrow. I'll just have to tell more stories.

We spent a day hiking around Tsodilo Hills. These "mountains" are religious sites for the indigenous bushmen, who have decorated them with paintings of wildlife dating back almost 2,000 years. The rest of the rock was painted with leeched minerals that naturally created beautiful waterfalls of pink, orange, white down the face of the mountain. The rock was granite...beautiful flakes, lovely cracks, if only I could climb it...

Then we headed to Moremi Game Reserve, only stopping once along the way to fix the truck and play silly games along the side of the road. (Vegetable-off, anyone?) We set up camp at at site called Xakanaxa. Pronounce that. Actually, pronunciations I've heard range from "[click]akana[click]" (correct) to "Kakanaka" (lazy).

"If you hear a noise at night, don't shine your headtorch out the tent, you might scare an animal into running away backwards. And if it's a hippo, your neighbor might not be too happy."

Yep, we were in the bush.

One night, a hyena stole all our vegetables and cheese.

About 2 full days were spent driving around looking for animals. We happened upon two lionesses eating a buffalo. Cool. I then coined the phrase "belly full of buffalo". It's fun to say.

Wake-up: 5:30AM. Breakfast of cereal, tea, coffee. 6AM, drive around looking for animals. 12PM, stop. It's too hot to drive around. Make lunch. Eat lunch. 2PM, siesta. 4PM, more game drive. 6PM, stop at lake, sit on truck, drink beer, watch sunset. 7PM, cook dinner, play Mafia, sleep. Repeat as necessary.

I could get to like this lifestyle.

They tried to show us how boring and tedious and unglamorous research could be by driving us around for hours and making us count impala and name trees. I didn't quite learn that lesson. I thought it was fun.

One night, someone shined a flashlight down by the water and discovered an enormous baby hippo. About 10 meters from the campfire. There was a crocodile next to it. During the night, a hyena broke into one of the trucks and stole most of the veggies and all the cheese. We were really in the bush.

One on drive, we saw a black mamba. It's cool to be a few meters away from certain, almost instantaneous, death.

There have also been several practices for Botswana's national Ultimate Frisbee team this week. Now, I think I'm a pretty competent frisbee player. (I can also do an awesome dive-catch-fall-thing.)

Now we're back at Sedia (the place with the swimming pool and bar). We have one week to figure out what the hell to do for ISP. This evening I'm meeting a potential advisor for drinks (on her invitation). Yay research.

We also have to finish some assignments this week. I think I've reached a new low in essay writing. I wrote a really crappy essay on the role of women in Botswana. Seriously. The first sentence is: "The role of women is something that varies dramatically between different places in the world, sometimes even within one country." On that page, I use the word "different" four times.

I've really been enjoying writing everything by hand, though. I think I secretly wish I could recopy my essays with a quill pen and a bottle of red ink, in Gothic.

Last night was the series finale of Big Brother: Africa 2. The TV channel had been playing it non-stop, 24/7, for about three months. I wonder what they'll do now. Richard won the $100,000. I don't think he deserves it. He's an asshole.

Also, my iPod headphones broke. And by that, I mean they broke back in Otse and are finally beyond the point of duct tape repair.

I really want to share my pictures now, but it'll have to wait. I'll summarize the photos: eagle, Shorobe, cave paintings, birds, birds, birds, lions, birds, grass, sunset, hippos.