Cecile's Journal

亲爱的日记：

我累死了呐 … 有可能有时差 … 什么，有可能？一定会有的啦…… 在飞机上睡了好久好久，久得我不知道有多久…… lol ……我也看了会儿电视， The Princess Diaries 。不过我记得好像第二部比第一部好看？ Whatever ……

我坐飞机的原因也不问问清楚？切…… 算了，不计较，就只说好了…… 我要到美丽的 AFRICA 去玩…… 耶！刚坐了 9 个小时的飞机，待会儿还要等 9 个小时（我、不、活、了！ 9 个小时后岂不是屁股要崩溃啦？！可怜天下屁股啊 ~ ）在坐 5 个小时的飞机，就会到肯尼亚了。耶！不过……屁股啊，可怜的屁股啊……你就忍一忍吧，哦！

去非洲还真够烦的，要去打针耶 T-T 因为要 prevent malaria~ 好贵呐…… 不过最烦的是要给表弟、妹、姐、哥和小姨和姨父搞签证……

屁股开始痛了呐……我要哭了……呐，我先走了，拜 !

2007.7.21
Dubai Airport
Sitting somewhere….

Dear Diary,

Today was fun in the morning, but totally boring in the afternoon.

This morning for breakfast we had buffet. You know, the food here in Nairobi, Kenya, is way oily! God…. Usually potatoes taste great (they are basically, like, my favorite food) but that oily, no way, Jose… ~>_<~ The fruit plate was good, though! Not oily at all…. lol… It's been such a long time since I've eaten fresh fruit, I don't remember when was the last time I ate some. In California? The fruit in Shanghai is all too sweet. They put some kind of medicine or something into it to make it look fresher and sweeter and whatever… you should have seen the pipsqueak's face (that's one of my cousins, but he doesn't have an english name and he's mean and horrible [hey!!!!] so that's what I call him) he thought it was too sour…. He looked hilarious!! I felt like rolling on the floor and laughing at him… exactly! ROFL….

After breakfast we had free time (yippee, anything we want to do, we can do! They even have a tennis court here!) and 绛洁 and I found a jogging track, and we walked FIVE kilometers, gosh our feet hurt (first my butt, now my feet? Next time it'll be my head…) but it felt great!

Then we went into the city, into Nairobi… To tell the truth, it sucks compared to Shanghai… but maybe it's not as bad as where my cousins live….. *sniff* But what can you expect from a poor african city? (well, it's not really poor, it's just that AFRICA itself is poor) and it didn't really help that it's SUNDAY and most shops were CLOSED. We did get some fruit, and mom said we're going to come back after 3 or so weeks to shop for souveniers…

We had lunch in Nairobi, real Kenyan food =^_^= The chicken was made African style, it tasted really nice! And the beef stew was really really yummy… or maybe it's just because I like beef stew? Dunno… The cabbage wasn't all that great though…. Or maybe it's just because I don't like to eat vegetables all that much either… -.-|||

We went to a park. My dad actually allowed me to drink fanta, something he never allowed me since a thousand years! Well…. Maybe I exaggerated a little too much….

Then we came home—I mean, hotel—and found out that the luggage still hadn't arrived, even though it was supposed to get here YESTERDAY… but it doesn't matter for me, I brought my luggage ONTO the PLANE! 幸灾乐祸 ing… 老爸没衣服换了 … 呵呵 ….( 被老爸 pia 飞 …)

And now there's nothing to do, just hang around, be bored, and wait for dinner time… *yawn*

So bye………

2007.8.22
hotel room
sometime before dinner

Dear Diary,

Today we've left Nairobi, and we're ate Lake Nakuru! You won't believe how many flamingoes there are here!

Well, we woke really early. To tell the truth I woke at FIVE and realized I really had to go to the bathroom…*sniff* unfortunately, in the process, I woke 绛洁 , my cousin and roommate for the trip… She has “panda eyes” now, lol…

Then I fell asleep again—to be woken at 7:30 by some little pipsqueak (who doesn't feel like living anymore, I HATE being waked in my sleep) who needed a pair of socks. I lent him one, MINE, and I'm sure when he returns them they will stink like hell…

Well, in the end, we dragged ourselved out of bed, packed up, and ate breakfast. Then what lay in front of us was a very long drive (actually, it was only 3 hours, but we had to first go into Nairobi and waited for who knows how long, from, like, 9 all the way to LUNCH TIME like at 11:30 or 12 or something) 3 hours, I guess you might say, after I took the plane for that long, should be a piece of cake. But, the plane is COMFORTABLE. Vital information. The roads here can't exactly be described as NICE AND SMOOTH. These roads, in other words, are HORRIBLE. It's worse than being sea sick, bumping in that car…. Not that I've ever BEEN seasick… lol… I was reading “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, the last book! It turned out SNAPE was a good guy in the end. Well, he was bad, at first, but then when good ole Voldemort killed Harry's family, Snape changed into a good guy. You know why? Because Snape LOVED HARRY'S MOM!!! Oh, my, gosh…. But does this have anything to do with the entry?

When we FINALLY got to Lake Nakuru, we ate lunch—it was 2 in the afternoon! Boy, was I HUNGRY. My poor, poor stomach (so first it's my butt, then my feet, then my stomach… what next?) and the driver (his name is Martin) took us on a game drive into the park…

There were so many animals! Wildebeest (are they UGLY) rhinos (even UGLIER) gazelle, impala (that's also a type of antelope, so they are the same family as gazelle) and giraffes!!! Those tall, tall, beautiful, angelic, honey-like (?!) animals…. And there were zebras. First time I realized that zebra's butts were so huge… *sniff* Their patterns made me dizzy… And there were the main attraction of Lake Nakuru: Flamingoes. From afar, all you can see is a sea of pink (a sea? Should be a lake…. But whatever); closer, pink dots; even closer, you realize that their beaks are black (*sniff* a scar on the face of… a flamingo?) but still, they're beautiful.

Having a pink color
Like the food they eat.
They take your breath away
Flamingoes.

Standing on their two long feet
They come in different types
One with red on their wings
One without.

Dipping their beaks
into the water.
Searching for fish,
No doubt.

There is probably
No bird more beautiful
Than the Flamingo.

As day became night, the temperature became colder. (god, why does everyone think that Africa is so freaking hot? It's totally the opposite: it's freaking COLD) and all of us stayed in the Safari Van. Not that it helped much, seeing that the van's top was raised, so we could stand up and see clearly… To pass the time, my cousins started to teach me their language (god does it sound horrible!!!!!) but I won't write it down here, it's still normal chinese characters, so there isn't any point…

And that's the end of my long and boring day (well, except for the animal bit) … It was pretty fun… but Dinner wasn't all that great, lol… Bye…

2007.7.23
hotel room.
After dinner
Lake Nakuru National Reserve (?)

Dear Diary,

Okay…… This morning we got up at 7:00 AM and went to eat breakfast at 7:30, finished around 8. Then we went to see the flamingoes again!

We say a leopard on the way there, it was beautiful, ferocious , yet but beautiful . We saw more impala, they were so slender and sweet, it took your breath away. Yet the most beautiful sight—and amazing—was the flamingoes.

They were all moving in the same direction, with the same speed. Martin, who's not only our driver but also our guide, told us it was because of the sun's light. Isn't that interesting?

Mom said we could get a prize if we could distinguish the two different breeds of flamingoes—I got it right, some have a red spot on their wings, some don't. I told mom, and she said correct. But when I told her I wanted a beaded belt, she said, others got it right too so you can't have it. 气死我了！不想给我买就直接说嘛，找借口是没用的！真是的！哼！所以我说，老妈，奖品我不、要、了 , 因为我要的东西你不肯给我买，所以只好不要了。说了，就不、理、她、了。

真是的，说要给奖品但又说不给我买，老妈她知不知道讲信用是什么吗？ “信用”两个字她还会写吗？哼哼哼哼哼哼哼哼哼！！！

后来，看完了，就准备到 Masai Mara 来了。路上花了足足六个小时，路又抖得要命。 三个小时用来听 ipod …… good thing I brought it ……看了一会儿书，睡了 about 2 个小时的觉，清醒得要命呐…… 但屁股痛死了，抖啊抖啊，成韬（ another cousin of mine ）怕死了，他有恐高症，呵呵……

路上看了不少动物，小羊可爱死了 !!! 还有 gazelle 和 impala …… 还有 jackal¸ 有点像混血的狼和狐狸，很卡哇依哦！还看到了马和牛等，数不清呢，多得像天上的星星一样 (?) 到了这里，已经是晚上了，电也没的 ~ 我晕！不过给了个手电筒，还好，还好……

吃饭后，睡觉觉……

晚安，累死了 !!

2007.7.24
Masai Mara
Sometime before bed

Dear Diary,

Did you know that lions are scared of giraffes? Can you believe it? But then again, the giraffe's kick is really powerful (imagine a lion flying through the air because it just got kicked by a giraffe! Rofl…) so lions tend to AVOID giraffes…

Right now it's 2:21 PM in Kenya. We went looking for animals this morning at around 8, meaning we got up at 7. Actually, we woke before 6 (it was 5:51, according to my iPod) thanks to the pipsqueak and his freakishly loud voice… I still remember the first sentence he said: “ 成韬，我要起来撒尿 ” excuse me but EWW!!!! And it isn't great to hear something like that first thing in the morning, when the sky hasn't even become light!! I mean, imagine if you were in the same situation. What would you feel like? I felt really, totally CROSS. Ugh….

Then mom said that we should change tents—she wants me to sleep with dad! And she'll sleep with my roommate… but excuse me, NO!! Just never mind that my dad and I are different gender, but my dad snores like hell, he was snoring inside the tent next to ours, I COULD HEAR HIM SNORING!!! Excuse me, I don't want to sleep in the same tent as HIM, I'll be kept awake the whole night! Before when I slept with him, when I was, like, still a baby or something, I used to kick him everytime I woke because he snored! I don't want to get out of my sleeping bag just to give dad his well-earned kick—it will be freezing!

Anyway… The animals…… We saw LIONS today!! I sketched one… It was sleeping, but it still looked kind of fierce while it looked cute at the same time… How does it do that, be fierce and be in a sweet dream at the same time? My drawing of the lioness didn't look fierce, no matter how hard I tried T^T It only turned out to be cute *sniff*!!! You will not believe how frustrated I was!! But mom said it was good, and if I keep trying, I'm sure to succeed next time.

Fierce, yet gentle,
Beautiful, yet deadly,
Are they,
The golden animals
Called Lions.

Sleeping
They flick their tails
And twitch their ears
To get rid of irksome flies
They are gentle
And beautiful.

Hunting,
Chasing after prey,
Digging their jaws
Into the meat.
They are fierce
And deadly.

We also saw giraffes! They looked so gentle and sweet, like honey (?)… I drew two pictures of them… their eyes are really pretty, large eyes, but the most attractive (umm… attractive?!) were the eyelashes… You will not believe how long their eyelashes are! How can their eyelashes be so freaking long?!

My favorite animal is the elephant, however. I know they are huge and their skin is horrifying, but they are still very sweet… They baby elephant is so cute!!! And it's 信赖感 is touching… it keeps its hold on its mother, sometimes it frolicks around it's mother, and 它的样子超级可爱呐 !!! Lol…

I learned two new types of animals today: the Topi and Hartebeest. The hartebeest is a tan/red color, and they have long, narrow faces. Their horns are shaped like the bottom of a heart (bottom of a heart? That's a first…) Is that how they get their name? I wonder…

The topi is a darker shade than the hartebeest, a reddish brown color! It has violet patches on it's legs and face… doesn't that look weird? It's horns are horribly ugly though, like a goat's horns… *sniff sniff*

We also saw ostrich! It sure took me by surprise o find them here in Africa, I thought you could only see them in Australia! And the ones here are FREE, not like in Australia, cooped up in little cages without that much space—I love seeing animals free, in their own home—nature.

段凝砚 said that 驼背的鸟就是鸵鸟。 Later, when she started to 驼背 , her mom said, “ 不要驼背，否则就变鸵鸟了。 ” making everyone laugh. Mom said, “ 鸵鸟，就是脖子上没毛的 ~” lol…. it's true though, the ostrich has no feathers on it's neck, it's pink and looks… umm… raw?

We also saw zebras… are their stripes black on white or white on black? You can never tell… Zebras are hard (hard? Not just HARD, they are really…uhh… frustrating) to draw… they are like horses, but I was never able to draw horses properly… I think the outline was okay, though… well, according to my mom, all of my drawings are really good…. *sniff*

OK, gotta go! Write later, we've got to see the animals again! I wanna see the lions hunting!!!! Bye!

2007.7.25

Dear Diary,

Same day. Still July 25… we say a leopard eating a Thompson's gazelle! I used to think leopards were CUTE—not anymore, TOTALLY… 好狠毒呐 … but the facial expression of the leopard was totally innocent, 虽然狠毒，样子还蛮可爱的呐 … 怎么觉得我好象自相矛盾 … *sniff*

It was hilarious, so many cars were crowded around the leopard, and all it did was YAWN. It seemed to day, “Hey, I'm just eating my dinner, why are you so interested? Would you also like a bite?”

We also saw elephants, more elephants! The baby elephants are SO cute! One of them, the smallest, kept climbing onto it's slightly larger siblings, 真是超级超级可爱呐 !!!! And there was a larger elephant, obviously an adult, kept coming in front, as if to say, “Why only take pictures of them? What about me?” Jealous? Lol…. The smaller one is way cuter!

We saw a tree today, and it's fruits were shaped in a sausage. Therefore the tree is named SAUSAGE TREE!!!! *sniff*

Anyway, that's all for today… good night… *yawn*

2007.7.25
Before bedtime

Dear Diary,

Went for a game drive again today! Same routine: get up at 7, eat at 7:30, go at 8. Only today was different, because I woke up at 6:30 am. Sometime after that I heard this, du, du, du sound. You know, like the sound of a bomb? Yeah, that sound. And it freaked me out… -.-||| It was probably just an alarm clock though… *sniff* and at 6:57 dad woke us up—I mean, woke my ROOMMATE up, since I was already awake….

Today we saw a migration. There were so many gnu and zebras, they covered the hills. There seemed to be as many as the stars in the sky!

The gnu are ugly creatures, hairy… uglier than wildebeest, and that's saying A LOT. But their legs are very thin… even though they have four, how can those legs support such a huge, fat, hairy body?

The zebras look almost all the same, but if you look closely, none of them are the same. I read somewhere that a baby zebra memorizes it's mother's stripes, so it can tell it apart from the others. I wonder how it does that—if I had to memorise just ONE pattern, I would get a horrible headache… ~>_<~

We also saw baboons today! There were two baby ones—at least, we only SPOTTED two baby ones… their fur hadn't grown all out yet, and their butts were pink, unkike the grown baboons whose butts were gray… how come I even notice THAT?

And for the rest of the journey, I was asleep. Well, I did wake up at 6:30, thanks to… umm… dunno…. ^-^

And we're gonna go and visit a Masai villiage now!!!

2007.7.26

Dear Diary,

This afternoon, we visited a Masai villiage!!!

The first thing that took my attention were the flies. There were flies everywhere!!! They landed on the people, and they didn't care. The flies landed on the people's MOUTHS, and they acted as if the flies were FRIENDS!!! No wonder Africans get sick so easily. I mean, 70% of the world's AIDS live in Africa!!

Then I realized the reason for all the flies. The dirt is actually COW POOP! Ewww… and can you believe it? Some kids were barefoot!

Well, we got a guide. No, not Martin, but this Masai person. He showed us the “Men's Dance” and the “Women's Dance”. The men's dance was basically…. Jumping. *sniff* the pipsqueak went jumping too… he looked so hilarious, I would've started rolling on the floor with laughter if the “floor” wasn't COW POOP… Dad was about to go jumping too (Now, that would have seriously been a laugh) but the dance was FINISHED!!!! T-T Then the “Women's Dance”. Mom went too! But that dance was boring. All they did was sing and walk in a circle. But Mom sure looked out of place in there…

Then we went into the villiage. The guide said that the houses were made by the women, the fences by the men. Why do I think that the women's work is harder than the men's?

We watched a couple of Masai men make fire. It's cool! They used this special firewood. One is a long stick, and they kind of twist it on a piece of hard wood to make ashes. Then they put the ashes into some really, really, REALLY dry grass… and blow. They blow on it, and it becomes smoky and soon, fire appears! Isn't that cool?

Then our guide showed us into a house. There are three beds: one family bed, one for the babies, and one for visitors. One house can fit nine people, but they have to change a house every nine years, because of termites. Oh…. The guide also said that a man can have more than one wife—they trade the wife for ten cows. (WHAT?! A wife is only worth TEN COWS?!?! That is so… so…)

The guide told us that boys in his villiage hace to go hunt a lion at age 15. If they succeed, the lion's mane, teeth, and claws are their own… they make the mane into a hat, and the teeth, necklaces… which they sell… as for the claws, I don't remember…

The guide then brought us to a Masai school. We watched the kids play and met a teacher. He showed us a classroom, and we looked at their school books. They are so easy! But then again, I am supposed to be going to 8 th grade now, and the books we looked at were 3 rd of 4 th or something…. We met the school principal too, and he told us of his work. We donated 200 USD to the school—I hope the principal will use it for a good cause, and not just stuff it into his pocket!!!

2007.7.26

Dear Diary,

Today we started toward Ngorongoro Crater!

First we went to look for hippos and crocodiles. On the way, though, we saw lions… eating a wildebeest or something like that…

It's so unfair! Ther prey was caught by the lioness (that's the way in the lion's world) but the LION gets to eat first. Even if the lioness just wants one tiny bite, the lion will NOT let her!!! SO freaking selfish!!!

Then we went to the Mara River to look for hippos, and if lucky, crocodiles. We saw many hippos, but there isn't much to say, all you could see were a tiny bit of their heads…. As for crocodiles, they look like WOOD… unless they move… *sniff*

Then we were on our way toward Ngorongoro—or, in other words, TANZANIA… we drove for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY long….

When we got to the border of Tanzania and Kenya, it was already noon, and we had to 办签证 for like, one whole hour—filling out forms for everyone TWICE! And since my cousins didn't know english, we had to fill the forms out for them instead of them filling it out themselves—and my oldest cousin, who is SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD, can hardly read ONE word. I mean, gosh, last time she filled one out, she put herself as MALE!!!!!

We ate lunch on the border, lunchboxes… Yum………. POTATO CHIPS =^_^=

Then we found we couldn't go straight to Ngorongoro, but we had to camp at SEREGENTI for a night, because Ngorongoro was too far… ugh…

And for the journey I was basically: 1. Sleeping, 2. Listening to iPod. Very boring……..

When we got there, it was NINE PM or something… Our dinner mainly consisted of bread, soup (probably out of a can), and spaghetti bolognese…

When we went to sleep, it was FREEZING!! But I guess it was okay after you fell asleep… *sniff*

2007.7.27

Dear Diary,

Today we went from Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Crater… TODAY WAS EVEN MORE BORING THAN YESTERDAY!!!!!

Well, we woke at 8 o'clock AM or something… The tent is totally dirty, but oh well, can't be anymore dirty than my hair… (did I say? The roads in Kenya are dirt, and so when we drive over them, dust comes up… and settles everywhere, including my hair…) When we brushed our teeth, it turned out there was NO RUNNING WATER so we had to use DRINKING WATER, ugh… Wasting water? But oh well….

Breakfast was okay, I guess… but for milk, there was only milk powder! But you can't expect hot, fresh milk can you? Even though there are enough cows here for one a person in the WHOLE WORLD… I think… We had toast again… I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich, yum! The peanut butter is not like the kind you get in stores, you know, smooth and thick, but it was crunchier and thinner….

After breakfast, we waited for the people to pack up. It took the WHOLE MORNING for them!!! Ugh!!!! God!!! Time wasters…

And finally we were on our way to the wonderful NGORONGORO CRATER!!!

不过，等到到了的时候已经是晚上了。真是的，无聊死了。不过，晚饭是段凝砚的爸爸，姨父烧的，我当他的翻译人 （累死我了……）无聊…… campsite 里来了三个大象（小偷？）呐 ! 第一个来时还没去烧饭，照了好多照片哦！呵呵……第二个和第三个是一起来的，我们在烧饭的时候来的……一个偷水喝呢！那个偷水喝的大象一个牙没了，而且耳朵有个洞……好可怜 nya ……

吃了中国餐 , 鸡蛋番茄汤…… nya …… 好喝、好喝 !!

2007.7.28

Dear Diary…

Today we've gone into the crater…

Our campsite is on the rim of the crater… It's freezing in the morning, I got up at around 6:30! And watched the SUNRISE, it was really pretty!!!! The crater is 2885 meters ABOVE SEA LEVEL, no wonder it's FREEZING!!!!!

After a breakfast of peanut butter and honey sandwiches, we went down into the crater… from the rim to the bottom of the crater, or, in other words, the height of the crater, it is 610 meters. So we went from 2885 meters above sea level to 2215 meters above sea level… so it's warm down in the crater!

The crater is HUGE! It is 19.2 km in diameter!! And it's 304 square km in area!!!

We saw tons of animals…=^_^= First animal we saw—well, the first animal that made an impression on me: the vervet monkey. It's small, with a long tail, and it's not like baboons or anything, not clumsy or built really weirdly or with really red butts -.-” It's really cute, small, and looks like it was somewhat crafted by a professional… uhh… toy maker or something? Well, it's not really fluffy though, not with tufts of hair everywhere like a baboon… at a 厕所 place 女厕所里有好多“色猴” … 呵 … 全是公侯 … 我晕 … 不过很可爱哦！

我们看到了斑马 ……. 看到了一只小宝宝斑马在喝妈妈斑马的奶 ! 而且那个宝宝跟妈咪的大小还差不多呐 … 厉害 … 我狂晕 … *sniff*

Zebras

Zebras,
Black on white
Or is it
White on black?

Like a horse
From head to tail
Only the fur
is different.

Some are brown,
Some are black.
All have tails
But one, a tail it lacks.
(bitten off by a lion)

斑马 … 那里好多好多 ! On the crater floor there are 25000 prodominantly grazing animals!!! There are wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, buffalo, eland, kongoni (what the heck is that?!) and warthog etc.

There was one animal I saw that was totally cute, the Jackal… it's a doglike animal… well, actually… it's more of a mixture of a fox and a dog…. at least, that what it looked like, it had a really bushy tail! =^-^=

Also, there was a Kirk's dik-dik. They look like a really miniature Bambi… but the face looked a bit more like a bunny's, except for the color, lol…

The introductory magazine says there are bat eared foxes… I saw them in the animal book mom and dad brought (French, ugh, can't read it…) and they are white, miniature in size, with HUGE ears—the two put togethere are bigger than it's face! It looks a bit rodent like… but we didn't see them T-T they probably are hard to spot, they look really small…

The most 精彩 we saw were the LIONS!! They were sleeping in the grass—there were only two, one male (great mane!) and one feemale.

They looked so cute sleeping. Even though they are fierce and deadly while hunting and stuff…

We also saw elephants…

Elephants

2007.7.29

亲爱的日记本：

今天本来要直接到 Arusha ，那里是 Mt. Kilimanjaro 下面的城市。 不过我们在 Lake Manyara 就停了，有了在爬山前最后一个 game drive……

听说 Lake Manyara 有爬树的狮子呐 … 可惜没看到， 555… 不过看到的话会有些可怕吧 … 会跳下来到车子里来要我们么？反正来的话先吃小坏蛋 ! 他是个 “baby”…… 司机就这样说的 , 呵呵 ! 没讲错哦！

这里的动物怎么感觉都是机器人啊？不对不对，是机器动物啦 !! 听起来怪怪的 … 嘻嘻 ! 不过真的，一动也不动，要动的话也就动耳朵或嘴巴 …

我们看到了长颈鹿，不过这次比较 special…… 我们看到了两个宝宝长颈鹿（宝宝？有点 …. 那个 …exaggerate 了，好大耶 …… ）在玩 !! 用头来打对方的身体，很搞笑耶 !! 司机说打架时也是那样打的 … 为了讨一个老婆就牺牲那么多 braincell? *sniff* 呵呵 …

我们还看到了河马 , 不过 … 一个个像石头一样，动也不动，晒着太阳，不觉得热么？皮肤好像都要裂开来了 …

~

我们逛街 （这里居然能逛街，厉害哦）时看到了一种奇怪的香蕉 , 它是红色的呐 !! 不过味道跟黄色的香蕉一样，切 …

找 beaded 皮带中 ……. 找、不、到 !!!!!!!!! 55555555~!!!! Oh well, 反正妈妈说会在 Arusha 给我买，耶！

~

今天晚上 …. 吃饭 ing…

小坏蛋生气了，因为我们故意最后个他盛饭（不对，不是饭，是面条），所以他就乱摔东西（还好，还好，东西是塑料的，不是玻璃的或者瓷的）还有发脾气 … 最后晚饭也不吃。切，饿死算了，没人会想他的 !!! 臭 P baby~

没了，晚安！

2007.7.30

亲爱的日记本：

今天我们从 Lake Manyara 到了 Arusha, 在 Imapala Hotel 住哦！

老早老早就到那里了呐 … 刚好要吃 yummy 的中午饭 ! 吃了 Indian food… 吃了那个 … 那个 … 叫 … 哦，对了，叫 samosa 的，是三角形的，里面 stuffed with meat and vegetables… 有一点点 spicy… =^-^= 然后我要了 butter chicken… 我以为是鸡肉泡在黄油里，没想到还放了一堆的 spices ，不辣死我才怪 !! 5555! 喝了 n 杯水 …. 妈妈 … 这里的 cook 欺负我啊 …

吃了午饭后， 我们到城里买了爬山要用的东西： basically 衣服 …… 老妈给我买了一个 Hakuna Matata 的短袖黑衣服，可惜没有 collar ，不能穿到学校 … 算了，外面穿一个外套不就得了么？哼哼哼哼哼哼！（偶啥时开始学蚊子叫了？难听啊 … ）

还买了 scarf 哦！ 妈妈和绛洁的是白色了，我的是美丽的银色，段凝砚的是红色了，小姨的是蓝色的哦 … 呵呵，这样脸不会冻着，而且冬天时可以穿到学校去哦！耶！

今天晚上吃到了中国饭！绛洁，成韬，小坏蛋，段凝砚等都甭提有多高兴了呐 ! ！而且 chef 是中国人，给偶们弄了个糖醋排骨 段凝砚和小坏蛋抢 ing…

然后我们收拾东西，把不用带去爬山的东西拿出来，放到其他 bag 里 … 搞了半天，还要洗澡，累死人了 !!!

睡觉觉！否则明天就甭提要爬山了！！！

2007.7.31

亲爱的日记本：

今天我们要爬 Mt. Kilimanjaro 了！！！（偶要发疯了 … ）早上就出门了，中午到了山脚 … 吃午饭呐！ Lunchbox… *sniff* and to get into the freaking place we have to do a full 2 HOURS OF PAPERWORK!!! Ugh… but whatever…

今天那段路有 8 公里长，是森林哦！很多特殊的植物呐！ Almost 所有的树是“长胡子的”， in english it's called the “old man's beard”… lol… 搞笑 …

8 公里听起来很长，其实也只用了 3 个多小时就走完了 … 再说， 8 公里要说长的话，那明天就要到下来了，听说是 12 公里呢 !!

第一个住的地方是 Mandara Hut. 那里的 hut 好小，只能住 4 个人 … 三个床在地上，还有一个床被 fasten 在 wall 上 … 我睡上面（耶！）爸爸，妈妈，和那个臭 P 小孩睡下面呐！ 太好了，这样我不会被蚂蚁咬了， ugh ，我讨厌蚂蚁啦 … 爸爸妈妈小坏蛋都被咬了，幸灾乐祸 ing…

洗脸，刷牙时真麻烦， ugh… 而、且、好、冷、啊！啊！啊！

2007.8.1

P.S. 偶所说的“蚂蚁”其实是“火蚁”要小心点哦！

P.P.S. Mandara hut's altitude is 2700 m above sea level!!!

P.P.P.S. 对了，老妈给偶们买了巧克力！耶！好久没吃了 !!!

亲爱的日记本：

我们今天从 Mandara Hut 到了 Horombo… =^-^= 路程好长哦！哦！哦 ! T^T 11.7 公里呐！！！ Holy…. *sniff*

雾好大呐 … 不过样子很漂亮哦！好近的地方都看不清楚呐！很美哦！不过爬山时有点麻烦 … T^T

7:30 起了床，马虎的洗了一下脸（没办法，好好洗的话会冻死人的，没有热水，再说水也不够多 … ）那时候，太阳已经晒得很厉害了哦！（偶们从黄人变成黑人，呵呵）吃早饭喽！不是什么好东西呢 … toast, eggs, sausages… 还有 hot chocolate ， 还好！ 呵呵 …

开始爬山了哦！一开始还有一点森林，但树越来越少了，而且树干越来越细了，后来就变成了真正的草原了 …moorland… 也不只是草，也有小花木，可惜看不清楚，可恶的雾！！！反正下去的时候应该没有那么多雾，我们的预期应该不会那么差吧 …*sniff*

爬得真累，而且腿又有点疼痛 ….5555…. 我一直跟自己说：“只有一点了，加油！”但是过了一会儿还是没到，就又开始骂自己，切，还没到，怎么办，快不行了呐！！！ T^T

终于到了吃饭的地方，耶！！！我们可是走了 n 个小时才到的哦，累死我了，我都想哭了呐！！！

Lunch consisted of a chicken leg, a teeny muffin, orange juice, and a sandwich. Oh, and an egg, and a banana. GREAT lunch…

And I was LAST to get to the lunch place!!! 555… well, actually the little pipsqueak would've been last if he hadn't been CARRIED up there… ugh, the little cheater!! God, is he USELESS!! Well… I'm not that great either… but STILL!!!! Ugh… I am hating him more and more… Even though I'm last, I still got there on my OWN TWO FEET!!! And the freakin' little cheater is sick, he keeps throwing up… 自作自受 , if you ask me… but then the first time he threw up, it was because we forced him to eat avocadoes yesterday (that was because dad is sick, so we told him to eat all the oranges because they have vitamin C ( 小坏蛋 's face= 依依不舍 ) and we'll eat all the avocadoes. Ok, I'll admit, avocadoes aren't the best thing in the world (according to me), but I still ate one piece, but the pipsqueak stole an orange so we told him to eat TWO avocadoes, and he threw up. EWW… at least he didn't get any on me, or else I might have murdered him…)

Right, back to reality… no, we didn't eat lunch at Horombo, but at a lunch spot which was at 3300 meters above sea level. The pipsqueak was still throwing up all the time, so I got his chicken, yay, and NO, I don't feel sorry for the little pipsqueak… ~>_<~

After lunch: back on the Coca Cola route… Ugh… TIRING!!! This time, dad climbed with me, and I held his hand… someone said he'd carry me, but I was like, NO WAY!! 小坏蛋已经丢尽我们的面子了，不能再丢了 … right?

SO I got up to Horombo on my own feet… We were last, but I was happy, because even though I was tired and frustrated, I still managed to be persistent, and not let anyone carry me, unlike some little pipsqueak who was carried up there… right?

The altitude up there is at 3700 meters above sea level. It is HARD to breathe up there, since I am usually at, like, 0m above sea level (hello… I live in Shanghai?) So my lungs hurt. And I couldn't eat dinner, I barely stopped myself from throwing up! Altitude sickness? Dunno….

2007.8.2

Dear Diary,

I hardly slept last night! I couldn't, I could hardly breathe, and my stomach hurt… Last night a man (from England, I think?) came and gave the pipsqueak medicine (something he totally did not deserve…)

This morning I was kind of sick… I'm sure it's altitude sickness, ugh… at least we're going down today, phew, I couldn't manage much longer up her… well, anyway, I got sick today in the toilets… AND I couldn't find a way to flush the toilet, poor person who comes in after me… lol…. But too bad, and oh well…

Then I went back to our hut, but I went to the wrong one… ( 脸红 ing… Well, you can't tell them apart! Well… hardly…) and it was LOCKED (duh)… God, was I frustrated! And I was leaning on this huge rock… I saw 小姨 , she was trying to take a picture of a peak (probably not Uhuru Peak… Looks too far away… and too short…) and soon I saw my cousins! That was when they told me I went to the wrong hut… (uhh… well… nobody's perfect, right?) and they were taking pictures of each other…

The landscape was really pretty though… you could see a peak, covered in snow that looked as pure as an angel… but a hill blocked most of it, which made you want to try to climb the hill and look over the side (which my aunt tried to do… She got to a half and was too tired to go on..) while the “hill” towered over you, and seemed intimidating.

I watched them take pictures of each other… and clouds? But I guess I can't blame them; you can't find clouds like that in China… Shanghai, 就甭说了 , the sky in gray, ugly… and in the countryside where my cousins live, it's a little bit better (of course… is there anywhere in China whose skies are uglier than Shanghai's?) but I think it's almost as bad as Shanghai… blue skies are really rare…

Then mom and dad found us, and we went for breakfast… I couldn't swallow anything! Mom said, “if you don't eat anything you won't havethe strenght to go down the mountain.” But I couldn't help it, the food just wouldn't go down! They served toast, eggs, raw tomatoes and cucumbers (looks like they've run out of sausages!)… I was able to eat cold food (why, though? I wonder…) so I ate rather lots of it… and they also served oranges. My aunt told me to eat oranges, because it contained Vitamin C… and 段凝砚 told me to eat some salt, which really (unbelievably) did help! I felt much better after…

And then we were on our way down! I decided to stay with 段凝砚 , and walked down together, examining the flora (not much fauna, lol…)

There was one flower that I remember clearest: it was red, and from afar, it looked like a bird balancing on a stalk.. lol…

It's a lot easier walking down than going up—going up, it feels like… rock climbing, except it's hard to find footholds and you're climbing a cliff that never ends—but you can't sit down in rest, in fear you can't get up again… and you have to stretch yourself to the limit to get up! Going down is simpler, it's like walking on a hilly road—a few obstacles, but compared to going up: easy. It's like you did something and you get a certificate: you feel really great! The road is bumpy, and I nearly fell—twice. *sniff* oh well. Like I said, nobody's perfect… lol… Then we got down to Madara Hut at noon, and had lunch. Yum! Well… actually, it didn't taste that great, but since I didn't eat too much breakfast… well, you get what I mean… and it took us FOUR hours to get from Horombo to Mandara (actually, that seems remarkably short compared to the time taken from Mandara to Horombo…) and we got to Mandara at 2:00 pm, you'd be hungry too!

After lunch we went down from Mandara Hut to Marangu Gate. 段凝砚 and I were first, we laughed over the old man's beard… it's hilarious, if you think about it: trees? Growing old man-like beards? Hahahahahaha… We filled our bottle of water with fresh, spring water (FREEZING cold…) and went on.

At the end, I had to go to the bathroom (EVERYONE has to do nature calls once in a while, don't laugh at me!) so I started walking a lot faster. And faster and faster. So my feet were hurting like crazy, and I was scared my feet were bleeding (which they were, actually, I found out washing my feet at the hotel) then I slowed down a bit, and 段凝砚 caught up with me, so did my aunt and uncle, and 成韬 , so we were on our way together.

A native boy around my age then was trying to sell us something, what, I don't know, didn't hear well and didn't bother to look back at him, and uncle was just kept saying “no, no, no” (apparently he doesn't know anything else to say) but the boy just kept following us, and FINALLY, I lost my patience. “For god's sake, will you not keep following us, it's really annoying us you know?!” I basically screamed at him, and he stopped (FINALLY) and shouted “NO!” at the top of his lungs back at me. Okay, but what the heck? Whatever…

When we finally got to the gate, my feet were killing me, and (great, I hurried for nothing… T^T MY POOR FEET!!!) I didn't have to go to the bathroom anymore! GREAT!! I just walked my feet basically to death and FOR NOTHING!!! Ugh….

Then we waited for the others to come down. We waited for 绛洁 for seven minutes, and the rest, nine minutes. Boring wait… sat there and groaned (my poor, poor feet)… When I stood up, I could hardly do it. It hurts so badly, I felt as if all the rivers and waterfalls were flowing tears—they were crying for my feet. It was like I could cry enough tears to flood the world…

We went onto the car, and it brought us back to Arush—we got down the mountain to the gate at 5:30 pm, and we got to the hotel at 8:30 pm.

The hotel's owner is chinese, and everything is from China! Well, according to this boss named Richard—he's the boss of some Safari company whose partners with Planet Safari. I think. But whatever…

The FOOD, however (and sadly), was not Chinese. I don't remember much, just that the beef was HARD… god my jaws hurt!

2007.8.3

Dear Diary,

Today we woke really late. Well, we WENT to BED freaking late, too, so don't blame us!!!

Breakfast was like dinner, basically. Not great. Well, I had sweet cornflakes (sorry, don't remember what it's called) and milk. And… nothing else. VERY BORING… *sniff*

We're changing hotels. We changed to a lodge…

The rooms are funny, here at this new lodge. They each have a NAME instead of a number, and the “names” are actually the names of the countries in Africa. For example, 绛洁 and my room was called Kenya (lucky us, we get the neighboring country)… Mom and dad's was Libya, the boys' was Egypt (aww… I'd liked to have that one…) and 段凝砚 's was Mawenzi (where the heck is that?!) lol…

We washed our clothes today… I washed most of my dirty clothes, except one of my favorite (has a logo “never give up” in the front, which was hopeless because the picture was totally peeling off so I'm gonna throw it away) and hung them off trees (they were an INTERESTING sight…)

And mom got out my 黑头 on my nose. It's so clean now, It feels a bit abnormal, lol…

Then we went into town. We walked and walked. At first I wanted a coconut, but dad said we can get as many coconuts as we want in Mombasa, the city we're going to tomorrow. 期待中 … 是期待城市呐，还是期待着喝新鲜椰子汁呐 ? Rofl…

We had dinner in town too! And mom actually ordered Fanta for us, which is basically a 奇迹 … yay… and she ordered 3 types! Pineapple, passion, and orange. Pineapple and orange were great! I didn't try passion though…

We saw TONS of wedding processions on our way to dinner, and heard about a thousand more. WHAT day is today anyway?!

Our dinner: we waited for it for… ahh… around two hours or more, I believe… and I am not kidding, it's true. When it FINALLY came, we realized the fish was HUGE, and two tiny 羊肉串 s… And guess what: The HUGE fish is ONE serving, and the 羊肉串 are each a serving. 我狂晕掉 … we laughed over it for I don't know how long!!! Lol… no, rofl….

The dinner was good though, we also had FIVE plates of lamb, it was great! And it was hilarious to see the adults eating the huge fish, the fish were probably bigger than their faces… *sniff* imagine if one of them falls forward and SMACK! Lol…

2007.8.4

Dear Diary,

We came to Mombasa today! Beaches EVERYWHERE… lol…

We woke at around 8:30 AM, I think….

And after we packed (we nearly lost our key) we got onto the minivan. 好破的车子啊 … and Vroom! We were on our way.

We went straight towards Kenya, of course, we were in Tanzania, remember? So we got to Kenya at around noon, and we had to 办签证 all over again. (Reminder: When I get back to China, I don't want to see another form for about a month or two!!!! T^T) We're staying in Kenya, supposedly, for 6 more days, according to mom. It didn't take as long as last time because we're used to filling in forms now, and it took a few minutes—well, maybe twenty or so J —to finish and then we got onto a different minivan ( 还是照样破啦 …) and Vroom! We were on our way again, toward Mombasa. The car took us to a city called Voi. V-O-I. Interesting name… *sniff*

There, at a bus station, mom/dad (dunno which one of them) bought us cookies. We changed (yet again!) another minivan (they all look the same now, I've seen so many of them: dirty, ugly, pretty small, and really broken down) and we stopped at a place for lunch.

GREAT lunch. NOT. Just that yellow rice (you know, the rich with all the spices) and a tomato soup with a great piece of potato in the middle. Although the soup and potato was okay… *sniff*

And we boarded the minivan (ALL ABOARD!!) wand was on the way to Mombasa. Overall, a very boring journey…

When we got to Mombasa, it was already night-time. Well… late in the afternoon, anyway… And guess what? The door to the minivan GOT STUCK!! We were TRAPPED INSIDE the freaking minivan!! What a HORRIBLE car, the worst I've ever been in… In the end we had to climb to the front and get out through the driver's door… NOT very pleasant (I repeat: NOT very pleasant!!!) although it was pretty funny to see dad trying to clamour out the door, rofl…

The we had dinner. We had a choice, wholefish (some weird kind of fish, I guess) and chicken. I decided on fish with gravy, and with some kind of african crepe… mom forgot what the name was, let alone me…

And we had a little walk on the BEACH, a great BEACH, but it was night and I couldn't see what the color of the sand was (don't think I'm crazy, in Afghanistan, I believe it was Afghanistan, anyway, there's a desert whose sand is red or something)… But what I DID see were CRABS!!! You could see them because they reflected the moonlight, and there were dots every way you turned—those dots mark where the crabs where. There were so many, it looked as if it was CHRISTMAS or something for the crabs, and they all come out and have a good time….

2007.8.5

P.S. Can't wait to start crab hunting!! Tomorrow… Too bad I didn't bring my swimsuit… It's too small, anyway, ugh…

Dear Diary,

Today we woke at around eight, and we hurried at washing. After all, today was crab-hunting and seashell-hunting day! Of course, you've got to thank some little pipsqueak coming to wake us all up…

We went down into the restaurant for breakfast. Usual thing: sausages, baked beans, toast, eggs. Sausages are okay for once, but if you have the EVERY SINGLE DAY, you think about them differently. I mean, they can give you cancer! It's like they're little devils (lol… imagine them in a devil suit…) and they can't wit for you to fall at their hands… *sniff* -.-||| that just doesn't look right…. Anyway, I don't want to eat another sausage for the next, dunno, three months of something after this vacation.

Right, I forgot… 段凝砚 is sick. She got sick because she ate meat and drank cold water at the same time (how is that supposed to make one sick? I do that all the time) and now she can hardly eat anything, she eats and then throws it back up again…

Back to reality. After breakfast (we saw auntie and asked her about 段凝砚 ) we went down to the beach. The sand is a beautiful white, and is very fine, as if it was filtered and made by machinery or something… Only the beach was peppered with holes—crab holes.
We found a rather large crab hole, and started to dig. We dug out a small crab, it was SO cute!!! It was tiny in size ( 休想吃它 ) and it's color was a silvery-white.

In the end, we couldn't find any crabs, so we buried the pipsqueak alive! And it took him a long time to get out, lol… serve him right…

Later dad came onto the beach and told us he was going into town, and he asked us if we wanted to go too. To make a long story short: we did. We rushed to our rooms—but 绛洁 and I found that the KEY WAS LOST!!!

We went to the receptionist and she lent us another key. I got an empty bottle and put the crab we caught into it. The little crab is SO SO SO SO SO cute!!! Lol…

我们到城里去，先到了火车站，因为明天准备坐火车回到内罗毕。然后，我们去给段凝砚买药。是一个中国来的医生，他给了妈咪一盒药，叫我们回去给她，要是还是不行的话，明天带段凝砚来看看 …

我们走着，走着，就来到了一个中国饭店，吃中国餐（ you should have seen the ecstatic looks on my cousins' faces… ）。我们点了饺子：虾仁饺子，蔬菜饺子，和鸡肉饺子。不过吃起来，味道一样，或者差不多啦 …. 无聊 … 我们还喝了混沌汤，不过那个混沌汤里的“混沌”其实跟那个饺子一样的啦，不好喝啦 … *sniff*

吃完饭（吃了很多不同的炒饭：蔬菜和鸡肉）我们本来还想逛一会儿街，但是因为要给段凝砚他们送饭（我们给他们买了盒饭）所以我、绛洁、成韬、和某个没用的家伙先回去了（不公平啦！！！）。

妈咪给我们弄了一辆三轮车（其实也是出租车）告诉了司机 Nyali Beach Holiday Resort, and we got on. The seat was tiny! We squeezed ourselves on… lol… Nearly felt like throwing the pipsqueak off, he took up a lot of space… the stupid little pipsqueak, ugh…

The driver told mommy he know the road, but it turned out, he was an idiot. He DIDN'T know, and he stopped THREE times at gas stations to ask the way. I didn't even feel like giving him the money! Ugh…

Well, we gave the food and medicine to Aunt and ran down to the beach—again. This time we went swimming! 成韬 gave me his shirt to wear (because I was wearing white, which would go TRANSPARENT) and I was trying to teach them how to swim… lol, it was hilarious…

绛洁 was scared to go in the water—she's SCARED of water. When we FINALLY got her in (we basically had to DRAG her in) she wouldn't put her head INTO the water! Hopeless… *sniff*

The water is salty, of course, but it's a lot better than the Dead Sea, it's basically nothing. Okay… that was pointless to say… ANYTHING is better than the DEAD SEA!!! Anyway… back to reality… If you still have water dripping from your hair or something, and you open your eyes, it HURTS. It feels like there are thousands of bees, or needles, that are stinging (poking) your eyes… and if you open your mouth (which I strongly advise one not to do) it's really salty, really salty, and you can't get the taste out from your mouth…

We tried teaching 绛洁 to float. But she was such a freaking scaredy-cat, I finally lost my patience (which is pretty hard to find me doing, losing my patience on a relative)… “如果那么怕的话，那么就别出门了，因为有可能会撞车什么的，但是如果呆在家里，也有可能会有炸弹什么的，那么干脆救不活算了 !!! ” I said. That FINALLY convinced her. She put her head in the water… and guess for how long. It was REALLY long… THREE WHOLE SECONDS, wow, how impressive…. Ugh, useless…

Then Aunt and the others came along. They caught a few crabs, but they were tiny. But bigger than the one we caught in the morning, so those aren't cute anymore… *sniff* lol… Aunt took some pictures of us, 我在仰泳 … Mom came soon, and then she went with Aunt to buy crabs… I think… whatever…

We finally got out of the sea (mom made us, and we were shivering anyway) and we went back to the hotel—to jump into the pool.

You know that pool is freaking deep!!! I went in from the deep side, the others, I told them to go in from the shallow side… none of them can swim, idiots…

We splashed along for a while, and then a pool attendant came. He told us that next time we come we have to wear bathing suits, it's a rule. And then we saw the rule board—and guess what. THERE WERE PRICES ON THERE!!!! That was when I totally freaked out. It was really really expensive!! Ugh… I felt like I was falling through a huge black whole that was really really deep—and I flew back up again after the pool attendant told us we didn't need to pay if we were staying at the resort. Which we were, of course… *thinking: ugh, what was it worth falling down that hole?!*

Then, after splashing around for another while (that first pool attendant left), a second one came and said it was closing time. So we got out, shivering like crazy, and ran back to our rooms to take a hot shower.

We washed our clothes—well, that's what WE did, dunno about the boys—and hung around in our room. Later, when the sky was becoming dark, we met up and went onto the beach again—for crab-hunting.

There weren't as many crabs as there were last night, but there were still A LOT. Yesterday, it was like there were as many as the stars in the sky; today, there were more than… uhh… the shoes women own put together? I know that's over a million or something…

We had fun catching crabs… my cousins taught me how. When they come at you you've got to kick them, and step on their feet. Then when you've got them captured, it's safe to pick them up.

We caught tons of crabs, more than we could count. I wasn't sure whether they were all alive— 成韬 steps hard . Well, he IS heavy… lol…

In the end, when the bag was getting seriously heavy, we went back to our rooms. Well, dad made us do it! The boys took the crabs.

Later, after washing our feet and such, we went to the guy's room. They were PLAYING with the CRABS. Excuse me, but is there something wrong with their minds? How are CRABS so fascinatingly fun?! And they were laughing like crazy… *sniff* 脑子有毛病 …

Sadly, half the crabs we caught were DEAD, thanks to SOMEBODY by the name of 成韬 who stepped too hard when “stepping”… never mind the fact that he is freaking tall and heavy, but when he STEPS, he literally STOMPS. Like… like… like a giant. Yeah… *sniff* poor crabs!

Then we had dinner… Since I chose fish last night, I decided on chicken tonight… I won't go into details about CHICKEN though, one because it's boring, two because I can't remember it anyway… *sniff* well it wasn't that great, I mean, the fish last night tasted better…

After dinner, pipsqueak, 绛洁 and 成韬 went to set the crabs free (that's why I said, poor crabs! Earlier…) While I went back to my room and hung around… watched a bit of TV… They have channels that they don't have in China! Duh… but they have CNN (boring…) and Cartoon Network? ~>_<~ *sniff* whatever…

2007.8.6

亲爱的日记本：

今天起床起得好晚呐 … 不过也不能说很晚？算了 … 反正是八九点钟了啦 … 其实是某位小坏蛋把我们叫醒的，说快点，然后又可以去抓螃蟹 … 狂晕，他爱上螃蟹了？那么喜欢干嘛 …

今天就要离开 Mombasa 啦！不过是下午四五点才走，还可以玩一会儿 …

我们去了 Nyali Beach Holiday Resort 旁边的一个地方，听起来蛮近的，不过去那里真是比麻烦还要麻烦呐 …

现在沙滩上走一大段，不一会儿就到了一个像 cliff 的地方（没那么高吧！汗 … ）全部都是石头，看哪里，哪里就有石头，而且是有很多洞的石头 … 是火山石吗？就是那种，会在水上漂浮的石头，那种火山爆发时出现的石头 …

其实早上的时候是不知道这种石头的样子，因为早上的时候是涨潮的时候！！ 我可怜的衣服啊！啊！啊！

海水好高啊！啊！啊！而且一浪一浪的涌上来 … 好可怕哦 …

The water kept coming up in waves, higher and higher. The rocks were slippery after the water 冲上来，很滑很滑；我摔跤了！而且摔得好痛啊 … 屁股也痛，手也痛（ I used my hand to break the fall, duh ） T^T 这可是在石头上摔的，高低不平的石头耶 … 虽然听说是世界上最“ soft ”的石头，而且有很多洞 … 但毕竟还是石头嘛，很痛的！！！

在过去的路程我摔了两次跤 … 其实不是 2 次跤，是一次摔跤，一次撞头 — 我保证我肯定变笨了点了 … T^T

到了地方，我的脾气极差极差，然后（ guess what? It's really… stupid… ）我就向我的一双掉进水里、还没干的裤子出气 … *sniff* 后果嘛，就是：裤子上全是沙子，拍也拍不掉，因为裤子是湿的嘛 …

我们把鞋子和袜子脱了，放在吃饭的地方（是一个很破很旧很可爱的茅草屋，呵呵）然后下去到水边去玩去！

到了沙滩上，就发现了：有很多很多的 clams ！潮水涌了上来，下去后就会有很多很多的 clams 出现，不过很快就又钻到沙子里面了。

我们因此就决定了，今天我们就把它们挖出来，中午可以吃他们了！我们看着潮水涌上来，下去后忙跑到 clam 的旁边，在它钻到沙子里去之前把它捡起来。就这样找着找着 … 已开始比较有耐心，但后来觉得我们找的太、慢、了，有点不耐烦了。想想也是哦，我们可是有九个人呐，按照这种速度是肯定不会够的 … 我们终于决定，脏点就脏点吧，一定要挖个够！我们发现了，在 clams 钻到沙子里去的地方总是留下一个小小的洞，比螃蟹洞小很多很多。知道这一点，我们就开始挖了。

挖呀，挖呀！果然，我们不一会儿就挖出了好多好多。从岸边到吃饭的茅草屋来回跑，送货。挖的时候总觉得还不够，还不够，但是送货时看到了挖出来的蛤蜊堆在一起，真的认为很多耶！堆在一起，都成了一座小山呐 … *sniff* 爸爸妈妈看着我们，大概满脸黑线了呢 … 呵呵，可惜啊，他们没把我们“活泼”的样子拍下来（狂汗 … ）

该吃中午饭了，才停下“手上的活”。我们一个一个跑得又累，手又挖的酸，其实，让我们停下来，心里还是有点开心的感觉 — 当然，脸上的表情是那种“为什么要停下来，我们还要挖呐！”嘴上也在埋怨，但是手和脚（和心）是开心得要命的！呵呵 …

今天终于喝到椰子汁了！是真正的椰子哦！在中国喝不到，在中国的时候好怀念呢 … 呵呵 … 不过在 Mombasa 喝的和在 Arusha （那里也喝过，只是忘了记下来而已啦 … 呵呵，原谅我哦！）喝的感觉不一样，是因为这里的比较新鲜吗？ 反正感觉味道好一些，甜一些不过也同时酸一些，也有点辣的感觉 … 反正就是不一样嘛，而且我从没喝过这么好喝的椰子汁哦！我喝了整整三个 — 替老妈老爸也喝了！哈哈 … 其实也没买一人一个，只买了六个而已，不过小坏蛋，绛洁，成韬都没喝（其实是说：不想喝）呵呵 … 还有段凝砚，她只喝了几口 — 在 Arusha ，小姨是逼她喝下去的，哭了 … 在这里，她说味道好了些，所以自己情愿地喝了，不过只喝了几口就说不想喝了 …

我们吃了螃蟹耶！它的名字叫 rock crab… 石头螃蟹？ *sniff* 很大耶！可是比我们抓的要大四倍多吧（没量过，只是靠感觉而已）吃的真的津津有味哦 … 在中国吃的螃蟹脚都很小，嚼嚼也就算了 … 但是在这里，若是嚼嚼就算了，那也实在太可惜了，浪费的可是真正的好、肉、啊！啊！啊！这边的螃蟹脚可是比中国的要大 n+1 倍哦！哦！哦！里面的肉有一种特殊的、甜滋滋的味道，这种味道就是中国螃蟹缺少的味儿哦！

吃完螃蟹（螃蟹其实是一人一个，但是很多脚都掉下来了，所以有些人吃的少，有些人吃得多，我、爸爸、妈妈吃的最多）在喝蛤蜊汤 … 但是蛤蜊里面太多沙子了，所以不是很好吃 … 失败啊 … 反正我们大家都吃饱了，不吃蛤蜊也没关系，对不对？呵呵 …

吃完午饭就往回走了，要回旅馆拿东西，让后要回内罗毕了！是坐火车哦！这里的火车还没做过呢！！我们回去的时候，潮水老早就下去了 …

潮水下去了，我们走在什么东西上也看得很清楚了。我们是走在岩石上，就是前面所说的火山石（搞不懂，旁边好像没什么山嘛！可能是因为旁边是海？石头是飘浮过来的吗？偶汗 … 哦哦哦，刚刚得知，其实是礁石，不是火山石，我就说嘛 … ）光着脚走在石头上，就甭说有多痛痛痛啦！很痛很痛耶 …

我们边走边忍痛，低着头，骂着石头 … 我们走到了一半时就看到很多“石洞” … 其实比较象山洞了啦 … 是被海水冲啊，冲啊的冲出了一个大“山洞”，里面有很多贝壳。结果我和早已忍受不了了而穿上鞋的绛洁一起捡贝壳。我捡到了很多很多的哦！段凝砚也在一边，和我们一起捡贝壳，很好玩哦！只是太太太痛了些 … 我们还找到了很多小螃蟹，是那种把贝壳当家的 … 叫什么？偶忘记了 … 抱歉抱歉！呵呵 … 绛洁捡到的时候，会把螃蟹迎出来“扔掉”，贝壳嘛，当然留着咯！好可怜的螃蟹，失去了家 … 不过没关系没关系，他们很容易就会找到新家哦！

我们捡到的贝壳很多很多，多得拿！不！下！了！最后我们把贝壳都“托付”给绛洁了 … 反正她的口袋多得是……

我们捡够后（脚痛得都快麻了）就一边往旅馆的方向走，一边看着地忍痛、找贝壳。不久就遇到了几个当地人。他们看到绛洁在那里找贝壳，问我她在那里找什么。我就回答了，然后有一个女的也找了起来，找到了一个，送给了绛洁 — 刚好是绛洁很喜欢的形状的贝壳呐！所以就甭提绛洁有多高兴了！她说了谢谢，我听得都快笑出来了，因为绛洁的英语非常非常地不准哦！呵呵……

最后我们终于回到了旅馆，在那里洗了一下脚，然后就在那里等车来。等车到了（还是很破的车……偶汗）， luggage 放在车上，我们就往火车站走。我们很快就到了呐！我们被安排成四个人一个房间，我，绛洁，爸爸和妈咪一间；成韬，小姨，姨父和段凝砚一间；小坏蛋嘛（幸灾乐祸 ing ……呵呵…）是和不认识的，外国的人一间，哈哈哈哈！活该，谁叫他那么坏，又那么没用呢？

火车应该是晚上 7 ： 00 才开，我们上火车整理了一下东西，选择睡的地方。我和绛洁睡下面，爸爸和妈妈睡上面（恐怖 ing ，爸爸不会太重让后整个床掉下来压死我吧…… T^T ）然后（因为太暗了，不好写日记）就在包厢里无聊 ing ……爸爸和妈妈都下车了，他们去给我们买点心了。

他们买了很好吃的东西耶；是一种有很多层的饼干（千层饼？怀疑 ing ……名字应该不是吧），买了六包，两包大的，四包小了——小的是原味（香草了啦！），大的是巧克力味。爸爸当时拿着一大堆饼干时，我们几个孩子眼睛一个一个都发亮…嘴巴最馋的小坏蛋第一个下车，去要饼干——当时是七点多了，我们都饿得肚子扁掉掉了（火车晚开了）……

当然，爸爸没给他。小坏蛋当时是说：“我饿了。给我。”之类的话呐！！凭什么爸爸要听小坏蛋的啊，真是的，小坏蛋你求啊，我要你求求求求求求死你，或者饿饿饿饿饿饿饿死你！哈哈哈哈哈！

我们也都下去了，段凝砚试着说：“姨父，我饿了…… * 一副可怜的表情，好搞笑，哈哈哈哈 * ”爸爸也没给哦，爸爸好小气哦（虽然他自己也没吃）当时我们都这么想的。

妈妈告诉段凝砚，要好好说，不能说的像是在命令人（指小坏蛋）似的。段凝砚好像不太肯哦！看来，只能本小姐出场喽！

我：爸爸，可不可以给我一块饼干啊

爸爸：先忍一会儿吧，哦

我：哦

妈妈：呵呵，爸爸宠小坏蛋，我就宠段凝砚

我： 555 （假装的）……爸爸宠小坏蛋，妈妈宠段凝砚，没人宠我，我好可怜（恐怖的话啊啊啊啊！怎么有点……）

妈妈：我也宠西西，凡是女孩子我都宠

爸爸：我也宠西西，我最最最宠西西了，不管男女，凡是乖的我都宠 （矣？变得妈妈和爸爸斗嘴了？哈哈哈）

我（暗笑：呵呵呵呵！你！上！当！了！）：爸爸最宠我啊！那！还！不！快 ! 快 ! 快！给！我！吃！的！！！我！饿！死！了！

爸爸：好好好！我给我给不就得了！

一人发一个……不过不够耶，小坏蛋没有……管不着了

呵呵，计划成功！多谢妈咪把那样的“主题”拉了上来……帮表哥，表姐，表妹弄到了吃的，他！们！也！不！谢！谢！我！啊！啊！啊！气死我了！以后不帮了！哼哼哼哼哼哼哼！看你们下次怎么办！

绛洁拿到后就打开了，像分点给小坏蛋，但是小坏蛋不要。切，真是的，他就算饿死自己也不会求人家的，管面子？但是管什么面子嘛，他是被抗上山的，面子老早就丢没了，哪里来的面子好管啊？怪人……

终于，火车开了。当然，我们早就又做在包厢里发呆了……

开了没多久，就要吃饭了。有一个 chef 拿着铃铛（ dinner bell? Lol ）来了，然后我们就跟着他到了吃饭的地方，是在有包厢的车子前面的两个车子。（句子好变扭耶）

For dinner, first came soup. Canned, duh… of course… I don't remember what the soup was, except it think it had tomatoes? It was red, anyway…

The man course was chicken and rice. We all had plenty of that, of course, chicken is good! Well, depends on how many days straight you've been eating it…

Wait… I forgot to mention our “seating plan”. At first it was according to rooms, with the pipsqueak all by himself, but later, his sister took “pity” of him (PITY?!) and sat with him, as well as two friendly strangers. Now… Fast forward…

The chicken was pretty good, as for food on a train. I mean, I doubt the food on a train can get any better than the food on an airplane, right? But this seemed pretty nice, but still, probably not fresh (yeah, right, like you're gonna be able to get fresh chicken on a train, 做梦吧 …)

After chicken, we had fruit salad, just as usual. What the heck is with Africans? I mean, all Africans seem to give the same thing to foreigners: soup (canned but good, lol), chicken/beef, and fruit salad. Ugh…

Then on our way back I totally got the goosebumps. What is with this train ~>_<~ ?! I mean, they give lights to the first half of the first class people, then it's totally dark after. No lights. Nil. Nada. Big fat egg.

Because it was dark out—and I mean TOTALLY dark, no lights at all, and moonlight tonight sucks—and there were NO LIGHTS AT ALL, you couldn't see where you were going, therefore I got totally freaked out of my wits. Including the fact that my flashlight wasn't with me…

But thanks to the two friendly strangers I mentioned earlier, we were able to get back to the correct room… phew…. Thanks!

And we washed our faces and whatever in the sink that was in our room. Thank god they at least have running water… Then we got out our sleeping bags and went to sleep (sand, sand, sand everywhere from Mombasa and that pair of pants? Ugh, itchy!!!)

2007.8.7

Dear Diary,

Great. Really, really great. Thanks to the WONDERFUL beaches of Mombasa, I have now got freaking SAND all over my sleeping bag! Well, at least my pants are dry now so I got MOST of the sand off them or else I would have really blown up… SAND! SAND! SAND EVERYWHERE!!

我八点钟醒的，然后洗脸等候就去吃饭了。

早饭嘛，在非洲哪里都一样：面包，香肠，鸡蛋。不管是肯尼亚还是坦桑尼亚，不管是非洲那一个比较穷的城市（ Egypt: Tips for the Horse! ）给外国人的早餐一直都是那三样东西。我发誓，回到中国后，不吃三个月的香肠了！也不吃一个月的 beef stew 了！吃的不仅仅是腻，而是快快快腻腻腻腻腻死了！！

吃完后就回房间了。现在倒是不恐怖了——是白天啦，笨蛋啊我……

回房间后就补日记。无不无聊啊？！

我们中午才回到了内罗毕（其实应该是十点钟到的……不过晚了，切，烂火车）。有一个司机来接我们了，然后到了 Planet Safari 的 office 去了。妈妈下去了……干什么呐，偶是不知道了，呵呵……那个司机带我们去吃午饭——呵呵，终于看到了不是 beef stew 的东西喽！不过在那之前…

妈咪跟一个人大胖子人吵架了……因为妈妈说那个胖子的 service 实在太太太烂了（ I can only assume that the 大胖子 is the manager or something of Planet Safari, but whatever ）吵得很火耶……

我们吃了汉堡包耶！是 cheeseburger 呐，但是不是很好吃（能吃到就已经不错了啦）还是麦当劳的比较好吃哦！

吃完后（某人老妈吵完后）我们上了车（另一个哦）啊……不对不对，我们换成了两辆车，两个司机——不过有一个司机是认得路的，另一个是堂堂正正的路痴……呵呵……我可是没运用夸张手法哦！我第一次见到路痴耶……

我们从吃完饭之后一直开，一直开（某人要变得好胖也，呜呜呜呜呜……）好晚才到，在车上无聊死了，没事干…… T^T

差不多九点才到 campsite 的，是一个很 dusty 很 dusty 的，很多很多灰尘的 campsite 呐（偶可怜的头发呐…… T0T ）

饭嘛，是喝了一个鸡蛋番茄黄瓜汤……和一些面包。反正今天也没活动多久（ unless you count the bump-bump-bumping over the bumpy roads ）所以也没饿到哪里去……还好。问题是：没！有！灯！啊！手电筒嘛……老爸的借给人家了，可恶的小坏蛋的那个丢了（真是的，没想到有人比我还要丢三落四呐，呵呵……）也就是说，我和爸爸一起用……换个方法说，我得把偶的给爸爸，我和绛洁没得用……害怕啊！啊！啊！人家怕！黑！啊！啊！啊！

2007.8.8

亲爱的日记本：

今天看动物去喽！ Amboseli 的动物好好玩的说……我们在 Amboseli 主要看到了是卡瓦伊得小象哦！

那个司机（认路的那个）带了我们到一个上面有很多水草的小湖，那里的象可是超级超级多耶！

我们看到了大象下水的样子——那里也有一头小象一开始犹豫了好久才下去了，是害怕吗？ *sniff* 不知道水到底有多深耶……

这时，看到大象，是在远处看见的。因为太远了，拍照拍起来没近处好看……妈咪让司机到了湖的另一边去（就是对面了啦！！）

司机就绕了过去……到了一个 lodge 里去了，又出来了？最后，到了，也近了好多呢。我们观察大象吃草的样子……他们很聪明的说，他们吃水草的时候，先用鼻子拿起一大把，但是因为是水草嘛，所以下面有很多泥巴啦……但是他们很聪明地把泥巴甩掉一些，而且吃得时候只吃上面干净的一部分……

回到又 dusty 又脏的 campsite 去了！这里挂了一个牛骨头（头部），昨天晚上看到了时候样子很可怕，下了一跳，“啊啊啊啊啊啊！！！”叫了一声，把其他人也一起下了一跳，哦哈哈哈哈……

我们吃了早饭之后，有一个 Masai 人来了，他来卖牙刷了！其实那些“牙刷”是木棍子了，很好玩呢，能把牙齿弄得白白的……我们买了十根，给了他 50 Kenya shillings ；但是那个人数错了，只数出了 9 个，所以他又去砍树枝，那种树其实就是我们 campsite 旁边的树耶，我们都笑死了，那种树枝自己一砍就能砍到，我们还花了 50 块钱买到了！

后来爸爸和小姨都去砍树枝了，鬼鬼祟祟的，很搞笑耶！每两分钟都要回一次头，真实暴笑耶！

差不多四点钟的时候（爸爸砍树枝砍累了，包里也放不下了）我们把东西收拾好了，然后又去看动物了……

还是照样看大象小象，只是这一次也多了一头河马……这个河马在岸边一动也不动耶， It just stays there, head down, eating grass, but other than its ears, it hardly moves at all… (but it's still FREAKING HARD TO DRAW!!!!!) It's fat and looks a bit like a gigantic stuffed toy, lol… it's pretty small, so it also looks pretty cute =^-^=

And as usual, we saw the elephants again, but same as this morning, so I won't repeat…

After watching the elephants eat (do they eat for the whole day? Don't they get bored? ~>_<~) we went back to the campsite…

Dinner!! 小姨 made a campfire! And we “toasted” bread over it…. I got freaked out at first, because my hair was down and I was afraid my hair would catch fire (my dad didn't help by saying that it was possible… ugh, nice way of comforting me…) or my hands would get burned or something… well, I never play with fire like the pipsqueak or my aunt, right? I'm a good little girl… -.-||| In the end, I finally got the “bravery” to go up to the fire…. -.-” anyway, passing over that…

For dinner we had wonderful chinese food!!! Well, chinese food isn't really that wonderful, but after eating N days of sausages and beef stew, chinese food sounds pretty good… We had onions (haven't seen onions in how many days!! I love onions!!!), a bit of beef, and soup again. And bread. Duh, didn't I just say we were toasting bread?

After dinner, we fooled (???) around the campfire again for a while, and then went to bed…

2007.8.9

Dear Diary,

Today we've gone back to Nairobi!

This morning we woke up at Amboseli (of course, It's not like we fly around when we're asleep!) and went off for another little (last) game drive… but before that, there was a little…. Conflict….

The campsite people had given us tents and stuff, so we were gonna give them some tips for helping us, since they “enabled us to get to sleep before midnight”, according to mom…. But the people of Planet Safari, in other words, our drivers and cooks, said that's wrong, THEY should get the money! So in the end, instead of just giving tips to the campsite people, we warned the Planet Safari people and not only gave tips but also a “letter of gratitude” to the campsite manager…

Our last game drive was pretty boring…. We just went to see the elephants again *sniff* is that all we've done at Amboseli? Stare at elephants and see how they eat? Whatever…

Then we were on our way back to Nairobi. Very boring…. We just drove, and drove, and drove. Well, we did stop at a small place for lunch, currently can't recall the name…. And the food? Duhh…. Normal tourist food: beef, fish, rice, potatoes, cabbage. Whatever. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK TO CHINA and eat NORMAL, GOOD food!!! Nor can I wait to go back to china and run straight to McDonalds to have a NORMAL cheeseburger, lol…

We got stuck in a really major traffic jam when we were entering Nairobi. You will not believe how jammed it was, there were cars everywhere, no matter which way you turned, and they were packed so tightly an ant couldn't have gotten through… 标准的人山人海， only instead of 人 it's 车……车山车海？ lol…

When we finally got in, through the jam and into Nairobi ,there came along another problem. It just happened to be that our driver was the 路痴 person——he LIVES in Nairobi and he doesn't even know the way around! He didn't know how to go to our hotel, Windsor Hotel Resort and Golf Club or whatever it was called….

After U-turning for I don't know how many times, we finally got to Windsor. Guess what, when we piled out of the car, I FORGOT MY SOUVENIER!!! It was expensive too, $5 each or something (that isn't really SO expensive, but it is in Kenya and it's about ￥ 40 or something in China, so there!) it was a pair of african combs, really nice J I was going to give one to a friend (dunno which one) AND NOW BOTH ARE GONE!!! ~>_<~

When we got to our rooms, first thing I did was get a nice, hot shower, and get all the annoying dust and dirt and whatever else is in my tangled hair all out! I mean, ¾ of my time was used just brushing my freaking hair! And it HURT, well, of course, when was the last time I brushed my hair? 2 weeks ago? Whatever….

2007.8.10

Dear diary,

Today we're going back to China!

And we had to go through all that freaking traffic I described yesterday to get to the airport…. Well it took us about… uh…. Like, one hour or something to get to the airport, and then we found out that because mom had changed our flight before (when we were coming) so the flight BACK got cancelled…. Luckily there were just enough seats for us to go to Dubai, so we went there first (8 seats, mom's going to… somewhere, Germany or France or somewhere but whatever) and then we're going to worry about the flight from Dubai to Shanghai later….

So after all that hassle, we checked in and got all our bags in, we started hurrying to the plane, since we were already kind of a little bit late….but the plane didn't leave without us, thank god.

On the plane I sat next to 段凝砚 , so we were playing games against each other! It was fun, 俄罗斯方块 is boring at first but then if there's nothing else to play it gets pretty fun! And 绛洁 was on my other side, so we were trying to see who was best at it….

When we got to Dubai (we were exhausted, lol) we hurried to see if there would be enough seats for us… and YAY, lucky us, yes there were seats, just enough (crowded plane!) and so we all got into the airport with tickets.

TWO hours, before the plane flies! The plane flies at two in the morning….. sleepy me… And so dad and the rest of us went shopping… for souveniers (kind of). I bought a bag of Hershey's Kisses, my favorite! I just like the shape, actually, I don't really care about the chocolate, they all taste around the same anyway… And I saw these back to school booths! I saw a diary that had a lock, and I really liked it, but DAD WOULDN'T LET ME GET IT!!! He said he will get one for me back in Shanghai, but to tell the truth, even though a lot of things are “Made in China”, but at the same time those things aren't even SOLD in China! Ugh….

Well, we got on the plane, and this time I sat next to dad. I played 俄罗斯方块 against him… but HE WON… ugh…. 偶不服啊啊啊啊！ And I watched Shrek III about a million times, I don't remember, I just kept watching it until I fell asleep *sniff* The ogre babies are so cute! Lol…

And finally, back to Shanghai…. Never thought I'd miss the polluted city of Shanghai so much, but I actually did (I did? 偶汗 …) and 段凝砚 's family left immediately….

2007.8.11 (actually, 2007.8.12 in Shanghai…)