Pi Day. Tau Time. MIT results are available. Here it’s already March 14th 1:28am. I am asleep because I have to get up at 5:30am.
At 5:30am my alarms rings. I get up and feel dizzy. My first thought is to check my results, but I postpone it to after the shower, because I don’t feel quite ready for it just yet .
5:42am I took a fast shower and woke up Khalfan who was sleeping on the couch. Now I am in my room. I take my phone, open chrome and go to the “decisions.mit.edu” website. The log in area appears and a warning that after logging in, I will immediately see my results. I hesitate for a second. But I am ready for any result. I have been thinking about this for weeks, now I just want certainty.
5:46am I log in. I have not been accepted. Well… I expected that, seeing that they only take around two or three applicants from Germany. Even though I put a lot of effort in this application, I do not see this as a failure. When I started this whole application process, I had no idea what I was doing. It was so different from any other application I had written so far. But not only did I learn more about the whole application process, it also made me think a lot about myself, my dreams and ambitions and helped me to get a better understanding of myself. Therefore, even if I was not accepted, I see this as a personal success.
I don’t have much time to think about this. At 6:00 Khalfan and me are picked up to drive to Kizimkazi with some other friends. The sun is rising and creates a beautiful atmosphere as we drive out of Stone Town. On our way we pick up Kathi and Tina in Jambiani and arrive in Kizimkazi at around 8:30. The air is still fresh (27 Degrees) from the night. In the palm trees above us little yellow birds are chirping while we choose our snorkeling gear. We are going to swim with some dolphins. Hopefully.
Our boat driver carries the motor and the fuel to the small boat, which is just big enough for us seven. We board and drive off into the calm and bright blue sea, while “Beautiful – Snoop Dogg” is blasting over my speaker. Our captain keeps checking his phone for the location of the dolphins and after a short time we find a group of around 7 dolphins that is already being chased by three other boats. We are ready and waiting in our snorkeling gear and jump in the water as soon our boat comes to a halt.
We see the dolphins dive down to avoid the snorkelers; however I spot one baby dolphin turning on his back and playfully and curiously looking at me. We get back on the boat, wait until we see their fins come up again and repeat this a few times. While all the boats follow the big group, we are the only ones to follow the mother with the baby dolphin, who decided to separate from the big group to have some family time. Before we go back on land we decide to go in one more time. This time I jump in first and find myself face to face with the two dolphins. I swim about half a meter next to them for a few seconds. The mother mostly ignores me but the young dolphin is super curious and approaches me over and over. It’s a beautiful moment and I get out of the water with a huge smile on my face.
Afterwards we go snorkeling in a small coral reef and then drive back to the beach. At around 11am we are served lunch: freshly caught fish, chips, rice and a sauce.
After eating we get back to our car and drive to the Jozani national park, which is famous for the different kinds of monkeys that live there. When we approach the park we can see them jump around in the trees besides the road and as we get out of our car we are surrounded by little monkeys curiously looking at us.
A guide is already waiting for us and shows us around the park while telling us about the monkeys, plants and history of the park. We end our tour in a mangrove forest, which is surprising me since the park is quite far from the ocean, but the guide explains that the mangroves get the saltwater through a river that brings in the water from the ocean during high tide and flows the other way during low tide. Right now it’s low tide and there are loads of big and small reddish crabs on the muddy floor or hiding in big holes. In the water we see some trumpet fish. The guide explains that the mangroves are an ideal breeding ground because the roots protect the small fish from big predators. Only when they are grown up they follow the river to the ocean.
We drive back home, and finish the day with a sunset in the Travelers Café, after which we have a brief dinner at Lukmaan and then go to the Tatu bar to celebrate the last evening of Tina and Kathi who are leaving tomorrow. However all bars and clubs shut down and turn off the music after midnight, and we end up going to the beach with a small speaker and enjoy the rest of the night there.
Experience Zanzibar 