Sorry for the delay in updating folks! Life in Cape Town as of late has been extremely relaxing. Living as a normal resident here instead of being a tourist has been really refreshing. I know the streets that I am walking and can understand how the community goes about its daily life.
Typically when I am sleeping in a new place, I tend to sleep talk and on the ever so rare occasion sleepwalk. It happened in Iowa and in Madison, but wore off after a couple weeks. The same has been happening here and has only just begun to happen less frequently, showing that I am getting comfortable with my surroundings. Good thing I have my own room right? I keep waking up thinking people from my house are sitting at my desk watching me… kind of creepy, but it never seems to startle me. I will update you on how my sleep talking is going later.
Classes have taken over my daily routine with Principles of Ecology at 11:00am every day except Friday. MWF I have History of South Africa prior to 1900 and a class about African Genocide. The tutorials (discussions) are pretty similar to those in Madison including the awkward silences when no one seems to want to discuss. I have been trying to be involved in discussion to try and make us Madisonians seem like pure academics. Yesterday I was nominated “class representative” in my South African history class. My friend decided that pointing his finger at me when the professor asked who would want to take the roll would be funny, and ha!, now I am Mr. Class Representative. Don’t congratulation me now; I will accept your graces when I return. Seriously though, I have no idea what a class representative does. I imagine I am just a middleman to all queries from students to professors. I did get a round of applause in class though, so maybe people were happy they weren’t in the position because it’s a shitty job…
Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I have been playing soccer. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have UCT club soccer for the “social” team up on the university astro fields. It is awesome being able to play on really nice fields. The social club is pretty chill with a practice on Tuesday and friendly fixtures on Thursdays with a braai afterwards. Next week will hopefully be our first match. I didn’t sign up for the club with anyone else, so it has been nice to meet a completely new group of people here that are from all around the world. On Wednesdays we have been playing soccer at a field across from the grocery store with people from the house and our Norwegian and Mexican friends from another house. We usually end up playing 10 vs. 10 without a goalie because local people end up joining the match, especially little kids still in uniform from primary school during the day.
I have made it into the city a couple times in the past week to do some market shopping for trinkets and cool, stereotypical African memorabilia. I recently bought a wooden elephant for my friend Meg Baptie (UW friend who specifically requested a wooden elephant) and a large South African flag that is hanging in my room now. I also haggled a canvas painting from R200 down to R60, which seems pretty cool, I think. The city is so hectic here when we get off the train. Last week we got into the city around 4pm right during rush hour. I felt like I was swimming against a river current trying to leave the train station. There are so many people that rely on public transport to make their way into surrounding suburbs.
This week has been yet another week of Champions League soccer, putting me undoubtedly at a table in Scrumpy Jacks with my fellow soccer hooligans. Go figure! Many thanks to my parents, Betsy, cousin Abi and Bonnie for the wonderful birthday cards and Barcelona soccer ball (Bonnie) that made their way through the realm of African mail service. Bonnie sent the soccer ball literally one month ago and it arrived finally on Tuesday.
Some people in the house brought DVDs with them so I have been snatching a few here and there to watch when I have some time off. I unfortunately started watching the first season of 24 and now I cannot stop watching! It is so good. Also, my housemate Zoe has the Sims 3 on her computer so I copied it and put it on mine, so now instead of wasting time on the internet, which is expensive, I can just live a second life on my computer. Reminds me of Dwight from The Office ☺
Heard some good news from my parents and siblings yesterday: My parents are coming to South Africa on April 24th and staying for two weeks, while my brother Sean and sister-in-law Maxine are coming for a week on the 26th! I cannot WAIT to show them around this wonderful place.
I haven’t been taking many pictures lately, but will have some after this weekend that I can put up on Monday.
Peace, friends.
Some animal just made a creepy noise outside. I think I will shut my window.
2/25/10
2/21/10
Pictures
The amphitheater at Kirstenbosch Gardens. The alpine valley of South Africa:
Jugal and I with a snake at the gardens:
Jugal, Jess and I at the Newlands field for the Vodacom Stormers rugby team:
On Friday we went into the city and walked around the parliament gardens. This is the oldest tree in Cape Town that was planted by the colonists. We actually climbed the second oldest tree and got yelled at (weird):
Some monuments at the parliament gardens with the usual Table Mountain in the background:
Jugal and I with a snake at the gardens:
Jugal, Jess and I at the Newlands field for the Vodacom Stormers rugby team:
On Friday we went into the city and walked around the parliament gardens. This is the oldest tree in Cape Town that was planted by the colonists. We actually climbed the second oldest tree and got yelled at (weird):
Some monuments at the parliament gardens with the usual Table Mountain in the background:
2/17/10
SHAWCO and Soccer
The past week or so has seen Cape Town turn into more than just a vacation spot for myself. It has been really nice to have a routine with classes and keep the weekends for spending money on cabs to get in or out of the city. My classes have been fairly interesting thus far! Almost everything taught so far I have learned before in Madison, but once we get into more case study situations with my history classes, they will be much more exciting! We actually had our first case study in my African genocide class today and I must say it was not the happiest of lectures I have been too, but nonetheless very interesting.
This past weekend we had SHAWCO training, which for me consisted of playing a pick-up soccer match on the rugby fields with other people who were doing the sports (soccer) SHAWCO group. Tomorrow is my first session that I will be attending so I will let you all know how it goes in due time. The afternoon consisted of another braai at on of our landlord’s friends’ house. Andrew lives with his two siblings in Nyanga Township about 10 miles from where we are here. It goes without saying that the food was phenomenal and the people were extremely nice. My favorite part of the afternoon was the 3v3 soccer tournament in the street outside his place. The goals were old school desks about 2x2 feet and we used a volleyball. One boundary was the fences of houses and the other a barbed wire fence enclosing a community center. My team, consisting of Shawn and Katie (housemates) were the second team to play against some guys from Nyanga. Again, it goes without saying that we got our butts handed to us but we faired the barrage of shots and ended up losing only 4 – 2. Win or lose, playing with the locals was exactly what I had been dreaming of doing before coming on this trip.
Sunday was a pretty chill day/afternoon as I watched movies all morning on my computer. Finally someone had the energy to round up some people and get taxis to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens under Table Mountain. There was an outdoor concert consisting of some local hits that was similar to Alpine Valley, for those of you who have been there, but underneath Table Mountain and in a beautiful forest. I could have spent the entire week there if I was able to. We relaxed all evening with crackers, cheese, humus, fruit, bread and wine. There was a snake farm there that was allowing people to put snakes on their shoulders. Jugal, a friend of mine, were lucky enough to get the snake on our shoulders after waiting in a line with a bunch of kids, ha.
This week the Champions League started in Europe. The Champions League, if you are unfamiliar, is an annual tournament consisting of the best club teams in Europe that play throughout the spring until the final, which is in Madrid this year. I went to my usual Scrumpy Jacks Pub to watch with many locals who I am slowly getting to know.
Yesterday I had tryouts for the men’s social team for the soccer club. I don’t know why they were really holding tryouts for the social team, but apparently we have weekly fixtures against other teams who come to UCT. We are also given kits (jerseys) and have weekly practices. It seems a little more intense than I hoped, but everyone else who was there was in the same boat as I, therefore were pretty chill about the whole process. Either way, playing soccer is going to be brilliant!
Speaking of soccer, I have to get going because every Wednesday a bunch of us from the house and surrounding houses meet at the park outside of the Kwikspar grocery store. After that, more Champions League! I think soccer is taking over my life… and it’s not even the World Cup yet!
Lovies,
ps: the photo uploader thingy isn't working right now so I will try to put pictures up asap!
This past weekend we had SHAWCO training, which for me consisted of playing a pick-up soccer match on the rugby fields with other people who were doing the sports (soccer) SHAWCO group. Tomorrow is my first session that I will be attending so I will let you all know how it goes in due time. The afternoon consisted of another braai at on of our landlord’s friends’ house. Andrew lives with his two siblings in Nyanga Township about 10 miles from where we are here. It goes without saying that the food was phenomenal and the people were extremely nice. My favorite part of the afternoon was the 3v3 soccer tournament in the street outside his place. The goals were old school desks about 2x2 feet and we used a volleyball. One boundary was the fences of houses and the other a barbed wire fence enclosing a community center. My team, consisting of Shawn and Katie (housemates) were the second team to play against some guys from Nyanga. Again, it goes without saying that we got our butts handed to us but we faired the barrage of shots and ended up losing only 4 – 2. Win or lose, playing with the locals was exactly what I had been dreaming of doing before coming on this trip.
Sunday was a pretty chill day/afternoon as I watched movies all morning on my computer. Finally someone had the energy to round up some people and get taxis to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens under Table Mountain. There was an outdoor concert consisting of some local hits that was similar to Alpine Valley, for those of you who have been there, but underneath Table Mountain and in a beautiful forest. I could have spent the entire week there if I was able to. We relaxed all evening with crackers, cheese, humus, fruit, bread and wine. There was a snake farm there that was allowing people to put snakes on their shoulders. Jugal, a friend of mine, were lucky enough to get the snake on our shoulders after waiting in a line with a bunch of kids, ha.
This week the Champions League started in Europe. The Champions League, if you are unfamiliar, is an annual tournament consisting of the best club teams in Europe that play throughout the spring until the final, which is in Madrid this year. I went to my usual Scrumpy Jacks Pub to watch with many locals who I am slowly getting to know.
Yesterday I had tryouts for the men’s social team for the soccer club. I don’t know why they were really holding tryouts for the social team, but apparently we have weekly fixtures against other teams who come to UCT. We are also given kits (jerseys) and have weekly practices. It seems a little more intense than I hoped, but everyone else who was there was in the same boat as I, therefore were pretty chill about the whole process. Either way, playing soccer is going to be brilliant!
Speaking of soccer, I have to get going because every Wednesday a bunch of us from the house and surrounding houses meet at the park outside of the Kwikspar grocery store. After that, more Champions League! I think soccer is taking over my life… and it’s not even the World Cup yet!
Lovies,
ps: the photo uploader thingy isn't working right now so I will try to put pictures up asap!
2/12/10
It's the little things
Hi folks. Just finished our first week of class here! I have a final class schedule thankfully; it only took two weeks… All of the classes are pretty interesting so far. I enjoy having professors who are from all over the world with their own unique accents. The accents are actually helping me comprehend the information a lot more because I have to work harder to understand them, thus making me think about what they said. I have to say though, I do enjoy the system Madison is on and how organized it actually is.
Yesterday after class at noon, I went with people from the house to Muizenburg beach to relax for the afternoon. I decided to rent a surfboard and am in love with surfing! I got up about 5 or 6 times having only really done it once before during surf camp in grade school. I suppose you could say I am a shredder hanging loose in Cape Town now. No big deal. I think we are going to try and go again this weekend because it is just so tubular.
Nothing much else has been happening lately. My 21st birthday was quite the evening I must say. All of my roommates treated me very well throughout the night. I will leave it at that though… Some tidbits about Cape Town thus far:
This city is filled with awkward walkers. I honestly think people try to walk directly at you and make you juke left or right when you are only a few feet from colliding. My hypothesis is that I am used to passing on the right because of how our roads are situated, and since it is opposite here, passing on the left might be more common. Nonetheless, I can’t get used to it and just have to prepare for awkward walking encounters.
If you know me at all, you know that I revive myself with chips and salsa, but this is not the case in South Africa anymore. Tortilla chips don’t exist, and I can’t seem to find my Sam’s Club sized salsa bins. Similarly, I also eat possibly two to three cans of black beans a week at home, but black beans are literally nowhere to be found. I miss my go-to beans and rice with tortilla chips.
Sticking to the subject of chips, or should I say “crisps,” I have yet to see a regular flavored chip here. South Africans are all about the sweet chili pepper, chutney, and barbeque flavored chips here. There also aren’t any gigantic bags of chips like I am used to at home. I suppose this might be a good thing.
They actually call it soccer here and not football. I was quite surprised and pleased to know that I wouldn’t get scolded for calling it soccer. World Cup fever is itching within everyone here. Some people are disappointed about the prices of tickets, but are still awfully excited.
Race is a very open topic and for some reasons more obvious than others, very apparent everywhere. It is normal to have a conversation about race and racism in South Africa at the bar with a person you only just met. It’s actually rather comforting knowing that it isn’t as much of a touchy subject as it is in America. People are realistic about the segregation that still exists and understand that talking about it is much better than avoiding it all together.
[insert transition]
Lady Gaga and stupid Ke$ha have made their way to the clubs in South Africa.
Some random photos that are blog worthy:
Cheers
Yesterday after class at noon, I went with people from the house to Muizenburg beach to relax for the afternoon. I decided to rent a surfboard and am in love with surfing! I got up about 5 or 6 times having only really done it once before during surf camp in grade school. I suppose you could say I am a shredder hanging loose in Cape Town now. No big deal. I think we are going to try and go again this weekend because it is just so tubular.
Nothing much else has been happening lately. My 21st birthday was quite the evening I must say. All of my roommates treated me very well throughout the night. I will leave it at that though… Some tidbits about Cape Town thus far:
This city is filled with awkward walkers. I honestly think people try to walk directly at you and make you juke left or right when you are only a few feet from colliding. My hypothesis is that I am used to passing on the right because of how our roads are situated, and since it is opposite here, passing on the left might be more common. Nonetheless, I can’t get used to it and just have to prepare for awkward walking encounters.
If you know me at all, you know that I revive myself with chips and salsa, but this is not the case in South Africa anymore. Tortilla chips don’t exist, and I can’t seem to find my Sam’s Club sized salsa bins. Similarly, I also eat possibly two to three cans of black beans a week at home, but black beans are literally nowhere to be found. I miss my go-to beans and rice with tortilla chips.
Sticking to the subject of chips, or should I say “crisps,” I have yet to see a regular flavored chip here. South Africans are all about the sweet chili pepper, chutney, and barbeque flavored chips here. There also aren’t any gigantic bags of chips like I am used to at home. I suppose this might be a good thing.
They actually call it soccer here and not football. I was quite surprised and pleased to know that I wouldn’t get scolded for calling it soccer. World Cup fever is itching within everyone here. Some people are disappointed about the prices of tickets, but are still awfully excited.
Race is a very open topic and for some reasons more obvious than others, very apparent everywhere. It is normal to have a conversation about race and racism in South Africa at the bar with a person you only just met. It’s actually rather comforting knowing that it isn’t as much of a touchy subject as it is in America. People are realistic about the segregation that still exists and understand that talking about it is much better than avoiding it all together.
[insert transition]
Lady Gaga and stupid Ke$ha have made their way to the clubs in South Africa.
Some random photos that are blog worthy:
Cheers
2/9/10
Mzoli's Meat
Hello everyone!
This weekend was pretty busy with a couple braais, getting ready for school to actually begin, and worrying/being excited about World Cup Tickets. Friday night, our friend Steven had a braai at his place. The whole house and more people went so it was really nice to be able to cook our own food outside in the company of many fabulous people. Friday afternoon many of us in the house heard back from FIFA that we had received our world cup tickets! I unfortunately didn’t get the England vs. Algeria match, but I still ended up with the France vs. Uruguay match which is the opening day of the World Cup and the first match in Green Point Stadium.
Saturday yet again brought us to another braai, but this one was definitely more local. The restaurant, called Mzoli’s, is located in a township outside of the city a bit. The braai was actually rated one of the best places in the world to order fresh cooked meat by Andrew Zimmerman (sp?) on the Travel Channel. Our landlord’s friend Andrew took us in a big van and we arrived to music, dancing, and of course loads of meat. We all had a big table set up for us when we arrived. I actually ended up trying the lamb, chicken, and sausage that was served to us and have to admit that it tasted pretty good! I don’t think it will be a deal breaker for my vegetarianism though. We were there for about 5 hours eating, talking, dancing and enjoying the weather and the change of scenery. I was surprised to see this extremely large restaurant that is pretty famous around the world, located in a township. It felt kind of awkward at first, but after being there for a little bit, I realized that we were getting the real deal when it came to South African cuisine and atmosphere. Later in the afternoon we got an unfortunate call from one of our roommates who was on the bike and wine tour with some of our other roommates. To our extreme surprise, our housemate Jessica was clipped by a train while biking and had to go to the hospital for skin graph surgery and for her horribly broken arm. We are all extremely grateful that she is alive and will be out of the hospital this afternoon. She is apparently the first ever person to survive getting hit by a train in the Western Cape. Her parents are getting here today to bring her back to the house from the Stellenbosch hospital so we are all excited to see her and hope she has a quick recovery. All of us were pretty tired after a long day out in the sun and being pretty worried about Jessica, we went home and had a relaxing evening. As Jessica would have wanted though, we didn’t lose our morale and kept the spirits high all weekend.
Pretty much me in a nutshell:
Dancer at Mzoli's, ah!:
Sunday was pretty chill all afternoon. I ended up going to bed at 8pm and waking up around 12:30 with my roommates to go watch the super bowl at the corner bar. The Corner Bar is our favorite spot for late-night samosas. They are honestly the best craving snack food ever with a shell similar to an egg roll stuffed with cheese, spinach, and onion. We had convinced the owner to keep the bar open for us until 5 in the morning so we could watch the game. Wow what a game though! Whodat think they goin’ beat dem Saints? I was pretty happy to see the Saints win, as was most everyone else at the bar. It makes the Vikings look good, and New Orleans could use a little good news now-a-days. After being there till 4:45am, I was literally sleep walking home with my roommates, ha.
Samosas!
Super Bowl at the Corner Bar:
Monday was our first real day of class and I had a lecture and three hour lab, so it wasn’t too bad. It is nice to get a routine finally going with classes. I still don’t really know what my third class is going to be, but I think I will be able to figure it out by tomorrow afternoon. I am planning on dropping African Music and taking another history course about South Africa. The language classes were super intense and I don’t want to be stressed because of classes this semester. I only had one class today, but went to the library and figured out how to print from computers and got my wireless internet set up on campus. Today was also the first day of the “first come, first serve” final ticket sales phase of the World Cup. I ended up applying for Italy vs. Paraguay at Green Point Stadium, and also applied for the USA vs. Slovenia game in Johannesburg. I figured I will give it a shot and try to make it out there if at all possible. To be able to see the USA play in the world cup would be pretty much the coolest thing I can imagine right now. I think I have World Cup fever going.
I suppose since it is my birthday we are going to get dinner somewhere tonight. We’re going to save the whole “21st Birthday Night” for the weekend. I haven’t really done anything exciting yet though. There is nothing too special about being 21 in South Africa, ha. Facebook messages have been nice coming from people back home. Thanks a lot! ☺
Until next time
This weekend was pretty busy with a couple braais, getting ready for school to actually begin, and worrying/being excited about World Cup Tickets. Friday night, our friend Steven had a braai at his place. The whole house and more people went so it was really nice to be able to cook our own food outside in the company of many fabulous people. Friday afternoon many of us in the house heard back from FIFA that we had received our world cup tickets! I unfortunately didn’t get the England vs. Algeria match, but I still ended up with the France vs. Uruguay match which is the opening day of the World Cup and the first match in Green Point Stadium.
Saturday yet again brought us to another braai, but this one was definitely more local. The restaurant, called Mzoli’s, is located in a township outside of the city a bit. The braai was actually rated one of the best places in the world to order fresh cooked meat by Andrew Zimmerman (sp?) on the Travel Channel. Our landlord’s friend Andrew took us in a big van and we arrived to music, dancing, and of course loads of meat. We all had a big table set up for us when we arrived. I actually ended up trying the lamb, chicken, and sausage that was served to us and have to admit that it tasted pretty good! I don’t think it will be a deal breaker for my vegetarianism though. We were there for about 5 hours eating, talking, dancing and enjoying the weather and the change of scenery. I was surprised to see this extremely large restaurant that is pretty famous around the world, located in a township. It felt kind of awkward at first, but after being there for a little bit, I realized that we were getting the real deal when it came to South African cuisine and atmosphere. Later in the afternoon we got an unfortunate call from one of our roommates who was on the bike and wine tour with some of our other roommates. To our extreme surprise, our housemate Jessica was clipped by a train while biking and had to go to the hospital for skin graph surgery and for her horribly broken arm. We are all extremely grateful that she is alive and will be out of the hospital this afternoon. She is apparently the first ever person to survive getting hit by a train in the Western Cape. Her parents are getting here today to bring her back to the house from the Stellenbosch hospital so we are all excited to see her and hope she has a quick recovery. All of us were pretty tired after a long day out in the sun and being pretty worried about Jessica, we went home and had a relaxing evening. As Jessica would have wanted though, we didn’t lose our morale and kept the spirits high all weekend.
Pretty much me in a nutshell:
Dancer at Mzoli's, ah!:
Sunday was pretty chill all afternoon. I ended up going to bed at 8pm and waking up around 12:30 with my roommates to go watch the super bowl at the corner bar. The Corner Bar is our favorite spot for late-night samosas. They are honestly the best craving snack food ever with a shell similar to an egg roll stuffed with cheese, spinach, and onion. We had convinced the owner to keep the bar open for us until 5 in the morning so we could watch the game. Wow what a game though! Whodat think they goin’ beat dem Saints? I was pretty happy to see the Saints win, as was most everyone else at the bar. It makes the Vikings look good, and New Orleans could use a little good news now-a-days. After being there till 4:45am, I was literally sleep walking home with my roommates, ha.
Samosas!
Super Bowl at the Corner Bar:
Monday was our first real day of class and I had a lecture and three hour lab, so it wasn’t too bad. It is nice to get a routine finally going with classes. I still don’t really know what my third class is going to be, but I think I will be able to figure it out by tomorrow afternoon. I am planning on dropping African Music and taking another history course about South Africa. The language classes were super intense and I don’t want to be stressed because of classes this semester. I only had one class today, but went to the library and figured out how to print from computers and got my wireless internet set up on campus. Today was also the first day of the “first come, first serve” final ticket sales phase of the World Cup. I ended up applying for Italy vs. Paraguay at Green Point Stadium, and also applied for the USA vs. Slovenia game in Johannesburg. I figured I will give it a shot and try to make it out there if at all possible. To be able to see the USA play in the world cup would be pretty much the coolest thing I can imagine right now. I think I have World Cup fever going.
I suppose since it is my birthday we are going to get dinner somewhere tonight. We’re going to save the whole “21st Birthday Night” for the weekend. I haven’t really done anything exciting yet though. There is nothing too special about being 21 in South Africa, ha. Facebook messages have been nice coming from people back home. Thanks a lot! ☺
Until next time
2/5/10
Sharks and Wine?
Wednesday many of us took on the so-called “shark Mecca” of the world. We left Cape Town for a two-hour drive to Gansbaai where we signed up for shark diving through the White Shark Projects shark diving company. After a much-needed continental breakfast, we put on our lifejackets and took a very rocky 15-minute boat ride out to into the bay off of Dyer Island, which has a large seal population. Since it is breeding season for the seals, there are many great white sharks hunting the waters. The water was “chummed” with fish oil and guts from tuna, and the “baitman” was ready with his head of tuna to be thrown to lure the sharks in. We were told that it could take up to two hours for sharks to arrive but within 10 minutes, we had two great white sharks circling the boat. Four of my friends and myself were the first ones into the five-person cage. We had our wetsuits on and goggles to view the sharks underwater. While in the cage, we would have our heads above water and held onto the lid. Once the spotter saw the shark take the bait and come close to the cage, he would yell, “DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!” We would submerge ourselves and grab onto the front of the cage with our faces pressed as far forward and within seconds, see one of the largest creatures on the planet swiftly glide by. Before being in the water, the boat was very rocky and the atmosphere was quite hectic, but once underwater and seeing these beautiful creatures, it was surprisingly peaceful and quite calming. The shark lengths ranged from two to 3.5 meters (7ft to 12ft), which was incredibly large compared to the aquarium sharks we saw earlier in the week. There were many seasick people after a while but it actually seemed to bring more sharks to the area with “natural chum,” if you will. Over the course of the day, we saw nine great white sharks in all. Seeing them from the top of the boat was very cool, as you could kind of figure out their patterns in how they approached the bait and reacted to the people in the water. They didn’t notice one bit that humans were in the water, since there was bloody tuna head floating near us. I felt very safe and 100% recommend shark diving to anyone if they have the chance!
White Shark catching the bait in front of the cage:
Thursday was another full contact day with our “Bikes n’ Wine” tour in the Stelenbosh wine lands of the cape. The train took about an hour and half after transferring through the city center but upon arrival, you knew you were in the rural wine lands of Cape Town. Complete with scenic landscapes, barrels of wine and of course, the standard, beautiful little African children, the wine lands were remarkable. Our route consisted of three wineries (one brandy and one for lunch as well) and a nice watering hole to take a swim before the end. I must say, biking after the brandy stop was definitely not the easiest thing. Once we low-geared a large hill though, all of us were ready for more tasting, ha. I really enjoyed the mountain biking portion of the trip as well. We actually need mountain bikes, as we were crossing many rough paths and bridges that a road bike would not be able to handle. We arrived home around 7pm and were completely wiped out. I went to bed pretty early after skyping for a bit. Which, by the way, has been really nice to hear many people’s voices from back home and from other countries. Thanks for talking ☺ it was also Will’s (Simmer) birthday yesterday (Only 5 ½ more months my friend, haha). Wish him a happy birthday if you haven’t! When we all got back yesterday, those of us who were waiting for world cup tickets were finally graced with FIFA's love. I got tickets to the France/Uruguay opening match at Green Point Stadium, Cape Town! I didn't manage tickets to the England/Algeria match, but I am going to try again on Feb. 9th for first come, first serve final tickets. Hopefully I can give myself a good birthday present.
Glass of red over a rolling creek:
Hardcore at the top of the hill:
Today was the “first day of class.” I quote that because the first day of class is only packed with people who have no clue whatsoever of what is going on at the university. Naturally, I was part of this group of people who were to go to class as if it were Tuesday. My first class (at 11am) was Principles of Ecology, which should be interesting. Unfortunately though, they rescheduled our five-day fieldwork camping trip over spring break. I was planning on doing a trip with people to Botswana and Victoria Falls, but now I must do some research for class. I will still have five days after this trip, so I might try and find some people here to do the Garden Route around South Africa, which is a 4-8 day driving route that covers much of scenic South Africa. It also covers the Bloukrans Bridge bungee jump. Classes were pretty unnecessary today, since the professors didn’t even show up to most of them. It was more for people to figure out where their classes were located. In order to find out what building and room the classes were in, you had to go to the department of that class and check a paper list on the walls, which usually led you to a random classroom on the other side of campus for the class you were already ten minutes late for. Good thing it’s the weekend now!
Tomorrow we are going to a township to eat a big braai. Apparently they have the best cooked meat in the world. How exciting… It should be rather interesting though!
Goodbye for now,
On the move, Table Mountain way off in the distance:
Ps: I miss LOST.
White Shark catching the bait in front of the cage:
Thursday was another full contact day with our “Bikes n’ Wine” tour in the Stelenbosh wine lands of the cape. The train took about an hour and half after transferring through the city center but upon arrival, you knew you were in the rural wine lands of Cape Town. Complete with scenic landscapes, barrels of wine and of course, the standard, beautiful little African children, the wine lands were remarkable. Our route consisted of three wineries (one brandy and one for lunch as well) and a nice watering hole to take a swim before the end. I must say, biking after the brandy stop was definitely not the easiest thing. Once we low-geared a large hill though, all of us were ready for more tasting, ha. I really enjoyed the mountain biking portion of the trip as well. We actually need mountain bikes, as we were crossing many rough paths and bridges that a road bike would not be able to handle. We arrived home around 7pm and were completely wiped out. I went to bed pretty early after skyping for a bit. Which, by the way, has been really nice to hear many people’s voices from back home and from other countries. Thanks for talking ☺ it was also Will’s (Simmer) birthday yesterday (Only 5 ½ more months my friend, haha). Wish him a happy birthday if you haven’t! When we all got back yesterday, those of us who were waiting for world cup tickets were finally graced with FIFA's love. I got tickets to the France/Uruguay opening match at Green Point Stadium, Cape Town! I didn't manage tickets to the England/Algeria match, but I am going to try again on Feb. 9th for first come, first serve final tickets. Hopefully I can give myself a good birthday present.
Glass of red over a rolling creek:
Hardcore at the top of the hill:
Today was the “first day of class.” I quote that because the first day of class is only packed with people who have no clue whatsoever of what is going on at the university. Naturally, I was part of this group of people who were to go to class as if it were Tuesday. My first class (at 11am) was Principles of Ecology, which should be interesting. Unfortunately though, they rescheduled our five-day fieldwork camping trip over spring break. I was planning on doing a trip with people to Botswana and Victoria Falls, but now I must do some research for class. I will still have five days after this trip, so I might try and find some people here to do the Garden Route around South Africa, which is a 4-8 day driving route that covers much of scenic South Africa. It also covers the Bloukrans Bridge bungee jump. Classes were pretty unnecessary today, since the professors didn’t even show up to most of them. It was more for people to figure out where their classes were located. In order to find out what building and room the classes were in, you had to go to the department of that class and check a paper list on the walls, which usually led you to a random classroom on the other side of campus for the class you were already ten minutes late for. Good thing it’s the weekend now!
Tomorrow we are going to a township to eat a big braai. Apparently they have the best cooked meat in the world. How exciting… It should be rather interesting though!
Goodbye for now,
On the move, Table Mountain way off in the distance:
Ps: I miss LOST.
2/2/10
Tourist.
Howzit?!
Sunday, a few guys and I went to the waterfront to take on the Cape Town Aquarium. It was a pretty legitimate collection of some weird creatures. The spider crabs were the most surprising to me. They were probably about two feet wide and were creepy crawling things. After we walked to the recently completed Green Point Stadium and tried to bribe some security guards to let us in and give us a tour. That was a no-go, but they did say they would take our cameras to get pictures of the inside and bring them back. I wasn't really feeling like giving my camera away though, so I suppose we will have to wait for the tours to begin to see the inside. The afternoon found us at a pub to watch the Manchester United vs. Arsenal match with some soccer fans, as well as the Africa Cup of Nations final with Ghana vs. Egypt. There were some pretty avid soccer fans that made it a pretty awesome atmosphere. We have just been doing so much that I am having trouble remembering what we did later in the day.
Green Point Stadium from the main gate entrances:
Yesterday a few of us took the Jammie bus to campus early to get our student ID cards. After standing in line for nothing short of three hours, we finally received them! The pictures of us were in the least, obnoxious, as you will see in the picture below. That’s what standing in line for three hours will do to you though, ha. The day was pretty slow from there on out. The most exciting even: shaving. I broke down and bought an electric razor after realizing my face was probably pretty uninviting. After that liberating fiasco, I watched Shawshank Redemption (my love). Yeserday evening four of us from the house played a little pick up soccer in a field nearby with a couple youngster local kids and some other people who wanted to join. Their names were Juston and Caleb. They were walking the same way home with us after playing and we invited them inside to have some water. They stood at the door and as you can imagine, giving little kids water at the front door will attract some others who want water as well. We had to close down shop almost immediately before things got out of hand.
UCT ID:
I recently got home from a day trip to Robben Island off of the Western Cape. The magnificence of Nelson Mandela and the fellow anti-apartheid political prisoners could be seen everywhere on the tour. Our tour guide was actually a prisoner in the past and was extremely gracious to answer some pretty personal questions about his 13 years of being in the maximum security prison where political prisoners were held. After the rocky ferry ride back to the Waterfront, Sarah, Erin, Jess, Katie, Shawn and I decided to get a nice meal in the waterfront area. For only about 20 dollars a person, we were served the most glorious assortment of pastas, seafood, and appetizers you could imagine. We also got dessert and two bottles of wine! It was nice to be a little “touristy” for a day.
South African flag flying high at the front of Robben Island maximum security prison:
Jess and I on Robben Island looking back at Table Mountain and the mainland of the Western Cape:
I was curious about the recently created South African flag that was redesigned under the new government during the elections in 1994. Since the flag is really cool, I wanted to know more about the symbolism. So here's your history lesson for the day. The main aspect of the flag is the converging "Y" shape, to signify the convergence of many different elements throughout South Africa into one path towards unity as a common goal. The colors are those that were on the previous flag, but also largely used in the Dutch flag and the United Kingdom's flag, which were the two colonial powers of South Africa. I am planning on getting a flag to give my room some personality. (Bell rings, class is out).
I just watched a wildebeest get completely mauled by an alligator. It was probably the most epic thing ever. Gosh, these Planet Earth DVDs are wonderful. Tomorrow brings shark diving and swimming. Here goes nothing…
Ps: I apologize in advance for my blogging to get less frequent and not as epic starting next week when class begins. This whole “study” part of the being abroad is so far, nonexistent.
Cheers
Sunday, a few guys and I went to the waterfront to take on the Cape Town Aquarium. It was a pretty legitimate collection of some weird creatures. The spider crabs were the most surprising to me. They were probably about two feet wide and were creepy crawling things. After we walked to the recently completed Green Point Stadium and tried to bribe some security guards to let us in and give us a tour. That was a no-go, but they did say they would take our cameras to get pictures of the inside and bring them back. I wasn't really feeling like giving my camera away though, so I suppose we will have to wait for the tours to begin to see the inside. The afternoon found us at a pub to watch the Manchester United vs. Arsenal match with some soccer fans, as well as the Africa Cup of Nations final with Ghana vs. Egypt. There were some pretty avid soccer fans that made it a pretty awesome atmosphere. We have just been doing so much that I am having trouble remembering what we did later in the day.
Green Point Stadium from the main gate entrances:
Yesterday a few of us took the Jammie bus to campus early to get our student ID cards. After standing in line for nothing short of three hours, we finally received them! The pictures of us were in the least, obnoxious, as you will see in the picture below. That’s what standing in line for three hours will do to you though, ha. The day was pretty slow from there on out. The most exciting even: shaving. I broke down and bought an electric razor after realizing my face was probably pretty uninviting. After that liberating fiasco, I watched Shawshank Redemption (my love). Yeserday evening four of us from the house played a little pick up soccer in a field nearby with a couple youngster local kids and some other people who wanted to join. Their names were Juston and Caleb. They were walking the same way home with us after playing and we invited them inside to have some water. They stood at the door and as you can imagine, giving little kids water at the front door will attract some others who want water as well. We had to close down shop almost immediately before things got out of hand.
UCT ID:
I recently got home from a day trip to Robben Island off of the Western Cape. The magnificence of Nelson Mandela and the fellow anti-apartheid political prisoners could be seen everywhere on the tour. Our tour guide was actually a prisoner in the past and was extremely gracious to answer some pretty personal questions about his 13 years of being in the maximum security prison where political prisoners were held. After the rocky ferry ride back to the Waterfront, Sarah, Erin, Jess, Katie, Shawn and I decided to get a nice meal in the waterfront area. For only about 20 dollars a person, we were served the most glorious assortment of pastas, seafood, and appetizers you could imagine. We also got dessert and two bottles of wine! It was nice to be a little “touristy” for a day.
South African flag flying high at the front of Robben Island maximum security prison:
Jess and I on Robben Island looking back at Table Mountain and the mainland of the Western Cape:
I was curious about the recently created South African flag that was redesigned under the new government during the elections in 1994. Since the flag is really cool, I wanted to know more about the symbolism. So here's your history lesson for the day. The main aspect of the flag is the converging "Y" shape, to signify the convergence of many different elements throughout South Africa into one path towards unity as a common goal. The colors are those that were on the previous flag, but also largely used in the Dutch flag and the United Kingdom's flag, which were the two colonial powers of South Africa. I am planning on getting a flag to give my room some personality. (Bell rings, class is out).
I just watched a wildebeest get completely mauled by an alligator. It was probably the most epic thing ever. Gosh, these Planet Earth DVDs are wonderful. Tomorrow brings shark diving and swimming. Here goes nothing…
Ps: I apologize in advance for my blogging to get less frequent and not as epic starting next week when class begins. This whole “study” part of the being abroad is so far, nonexistent.
Cheers
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