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