Over the last several days or so I've been trying to figure out what I should title my blog, I even went so far as to think I was going to some how relate it to the Lion King (but seriously, that almost happened). All of a sudden it hit me: South Africa, standard. This is a phrase that has been repeated numerous times over the last three weeks, not only by myself but by my fellow travelers. Drive around a corner and find yourself staring at beautiful mountains, standard. Eat one of the most amazing meals of your life, standard. Wake up and look out your hostel window and realize you're on the edge of an enchanting forest, standard. Have elephants standing five feet away from you, standard.

Juxtapositions of mountains and lagoons, vineyard chalets and township shacks, elephants and neighborhood cats, black and white, rich and poor, the history of centuries of oppression and the fresh start of a newly united state...all parts of a country whose complexities are further underlined by its paradoxes, and whose richness I am just beginning to taste...

South Africa, standard.