Goodbye UCT

All is finished at the University of Cape Town! I had my last exam yesterday for my South African History class and two last week, which all went well (I think ☺). It really still hasn’t hit me yet that I have an entire month and a few days to travel and enjoy South Africa as I enjoyed it the first month here. Since school was pretty time consuming, I wasn’t able to do as much as I had originally when I got here, but now I have all the time in the world. I assume that the time is going to fly by though, so I want to take advantage of every last minute!

A couple weekends ago my roommates and I went to experience high tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel, which offers high tea every day from 2:00 till 6:00. We enjoyed a very nice afternoon/evening drinking all sorts of different teas and eating delicious finger food from he amazing buffet.

Last week we had our house formal at a local restaurant called Hello Sailor. We decided to have an entire night dedicated to the awesome people living in 197 Lower Main and all got dressed up. We chose the date last week because it was a day that people didn’t have finals the next day and everyone was able to join. The dinner was fantastic and we then made our way downtown to a bar/lounge/club called Hemisphere, which is on the top level of the Absa bank building. It gave an amazing view of the lit up city. Dancing with the roommates was fantastic as usual, but then it got even better. We were dancing and having a good time and all of a sudden, who else could it be, but Wayne Brady dancing next to us with some girls that he knew. It was AWESOME. He was a really nice guy apparently and some of the girls in the house got to ride back with his driver instead of taking a taxi.

I have been dominating the Green Market Square as of late and buying (too many) stereotypical African goods. I figure that many of them will become gifts but I will keep some for my wall at home. Soccer has cooled down after most leagues have finished in Europe and the Champions League is over. Next on the plate is the WORLD CUP. It is a nice calm before the storm, which is going to be pretty hectic around here. Every time I have been at the ticketing center going with other people, there has been a constant stream of people getting their tickets for games all around, so that is a good sign!

I can’t remember if I said this in my last post, but I have been planning on changing my ticket home to the end of June and it is now officially changed to the first of July! Once all of my roommates are gone, I figured it was going to be pretty sad around here, and I have plenty to do at home with the family at the cabin and my friends in Mahtomedi and in Madison. It will be a nice break before going back to class.

That’s all for now,
Ciao

Safari

The parents left on Sunday afternoon last weekend so life has gone back to normal here in Cape Town. My parents coming here was a wonderful break from most everything about school (much needed) but it also allowed me to enjoy some parts of the city and the countryside that I probably wouldn’t have seen without them. Once my brother and Maxine left for home, my parents moved to a self-catering place in Rondebosch near UCT. We were pretty relaxed being out of the city center and I actually ended up going to most of my classes last week. We managed to continue eating out, no surprise there, and spent some afternoons with my housemates. I can imagine my mom was happy to see how wonderful my housemates are; it made her much more calm about who I was with over in South Africa. I had a soccer match last Wednesday night, which my parents were able to come and watch despite the chilly evening weather. We unfortunately lost, but it was nice to have them watch my play!

Skillz that Killz FC

Last Friday we made our way out to Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, which is located about 2 ½ hours outside of Cape Town in the Karoo. Here we planned on staying the night and taking a couple safari drives. None of us really knew what we were getting into, and by the end of both of our drives, I don’t think our safari leader could have foreseen what the wild animals ended up doing. Our first drive was about 2 hours after arriving. We had a quick (rushed if I say so myself) lunch and didn’t even have time to digest before we piled into the jeep. My dad and I sat in the way back while my mom sat in front. There were two English couples in-between us all.

Our tent/cottages:

We first saw some zebras and wild kudu (which are similar to antelope), which to me are very fascinating! It always interests me to see animals on the other side of the world that are just so similar to those in the woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, although these were much larger. The trails we drove through were pretty hectic. My dad and I in the back of the jeep were bouncing up and down like a roller coaster, while my mom enjoyed the heat of the comfortable front seat, ha. We drove around a little more and ended up seeing a giraffe only when it was about 5 meters from the jeep. I don’t know how we missed a 20 ft animal running in front of us…

Zebra

Giraffe

Next we ended up seeing the entire family of elephants eating and making their way to a watering hole. This was one of the most extraordinary parts of the trip. It wasn’t the fact that all 14 elephants (babies and all) were together and only 20 meters from the jeep. It was the fact that a hippopotamus was in between the elephants and their watering hole. The hippo was out of water, which is quite rare apparently but was actually chased down by the matriarchal elephant into the woods! The elephant even made its trunk noise. The elephants made it to the watering hole, but not before the hippo decided to come back. Once again the hippo was chased, not only by the matriarchal elephant, but also by the entire family! The hippo jumped into the water with surprising speed for such a blubbery and fat animal. Our driver was shell-shocked, as were all of us in the jeep wondering if the animals were actually mechanical and the whole thing was a rigged show.

Almost all of the elephants in one shot (even the little babies!)

The chase begins

Finally the hippo just jumped into the water

Our jeep during our cocktail hour safari stop

Happy elephants

We ended the evening drive with a nice drink (beer for me, g&t’s for the parents) on the front of the jeep overlooking the beautiful sunset sky in the Karoo. We didn’t have any luck finding the white lions that were supposedly in the park that night. Once back, my parents and I spent a nice evening eating dinner and drinking wine. I had an entire tent/cottage place to myself, which was very unfortunate because it was literally made for people on honeymoons or anniversaries. I still took advantage of the bathtub nonetheless. The next morning was an early wake-up around 6:30 am to make our game drive around 7:30 after breakfast. This drive included an even more insane coupling of wild animals at the same time. We first set out to find the white lions, which are not albino but are just genetically recessive and still the same species as normal lions. We were lucky to find them down the river valley not only within 10 meters of the jeep, but one of them was eating a recent zebra catch! There were two males that were brothers lounging in the morning sun. It was really cold actually since the desert has next to no heat capacity, all of the heat is directly from the sun, not the ground whatsoever. We were provided with nice warm water bottles to keep our legs warm though, haha. The lions were beautiful animals and seemed very calm for recently dominating a zebra.

Both lions, the one of the left is chomping away

One of the two brothers

A couple of white rhinos

Lion facing the rhinos

We then moved on to find some white rhinoceros. We eventually saw about 6 of them off in the distance and after about a half our trying to get closer, they were only about 15 meters from the jeep! The rhinos are actually very weird looking animals. They seem very prehistoric in their nature and their physiology. Apparently they have horrible eyesight, which wasn’t surprising to hear after seeing their eyes. They are just little nubby dots on their huge bodies. We followed the rhinos to a watering hole and then saw one of the white lions again! We drove away and ended up tailing the lion right back to the watering hole where the rhinos were. The encounter was very defensive by the rhinos, which all slowly moved toward the lion, who quickly rounded them and made it to the watering hole. It wasn’t long until the rhinos went back and the lion retreated since he wasn’t going to take on 5 or 6 giant horns. Our driver again was totally amazed at the sight! We saw more oryx, kudu, springbok and zebra along our way back. All in all, it was a successful first African safari for my parents and I.

The whole having the entire cottage to myself made me miss Bonnie quite a lot, but I will be seeing her soon! My ticket home is officially changed to leave Cape Town on the 1st of July and I will be home on the 2nd in time for a relaxing 4th of July at the cabin in Wisconsin. Classes finished yesterday at UCT and now final exams begin next week. All three of my exams are worth 50% of my grade, which is really scary, but hopefully I will do well! After finals my plans begin to be very crazy. I am going to Durban for a long weekend and then driving to Namibia with some of my roommates. I then begin the most exciting week of my life with three world cup games in three different cities! I have France/Uruguay on the 11th of June in Cape Town; Ivory Coast/Portugal on the 15th in Port Elizabeth; and end it all with the USA/Slovenia match in Johannesburg on the 18th.

My three tickets!

Much studying to do, therefore I am going to watch a movie.
Much love to you all!

Family

It has been a very busy week since my family got here last Monday. We have been spending loads of time exploring the town and enjoying being with each other in Cape Town. The food has been phenomenal. I don't think I have actually been hungry before each of our meals since we have been eating quite a lot of good food. We started off the week with some days just exploring the city and seeing what the city center had to offer. We managed to get Table Mountain, Bo Kaap (malaysian neighborhood), Green Point, and Camps Bay done in the first full day. The next few days were spontaneous but ended up being busy with more and more things to do. Over the weekend we managed to do the Cape Peninsula tour all morning and afternoon and ate dinner at Cape to Cuba in Kalk Bay on the False Bay side of the cape. Sunday was spent driving through Stellenbosch winelands doing tastings and staying at one of the most romantic farmsteads I have ever seen. It was outfitted with loads of old comfortable furniture from the eighteen hundreds. We all had our own rooms, including myself with the previous master bedroom and an extremely large bathroom with a bath tub that I took full advantage of. All in all, it has been very fun having my family here to finally see where I have been these past three months. Sean and Max left on Monday afternoon but my parents are staying here through the weekend in a place in Rondebosch (close to UCT). I have been trying to balance out school work with family, but mostly family has been a priority. This week should be relaxing with my mom and dad since they are planning on doing stuff during the day while I am at class and we will get together once I am done.

This coming weekend we are going on a Safari out in the Karoo, which should be a blast! I will be happy to finally take my stereotypical African safari, ha. Here are some photos from the past week. Not a whole lot of time to expand on what we did since I am exhausted and about to fall asleep. I will do this another time...

On Chapman's Peak Drive overlooking Hout Bay and the Sentinal Mountain

Sean and I on our way up to the Cape Point lighthouse

At the Cape of Good Hope, 3 months later with my family!

Happy Jackass Penguin in Simon's Town (That's what they are called because they sound like donkeys)

Wine at the first tasting in Stellenbosch

Wine tasting at Hidden Valley Winery

Khoi pond at the Hawksmoore House in Stellenbosch. Ya, we stayed here for a night. No big deal...

That's all I have for now, folks. I will try to update again soon!

Papers...

I have been really busy lately. Mostly with papers and assignments for class unfortunately, but I have been making sure to take time away from schoolwork (like that is difficult in Cape Town). The weather has definitely changed to fall weather, at least fall in South Africa, but there is a little more rain and wind with colder evenings. Soccer has been picking up even more with no less than two games a weekend and two practices during the week. I am really enjoying playing with mostly guys from South Africa. They are really nice and always interested in hearing about America.

UCT 3rds:


Last weekend I went hiking with some roommates on Table Mountain! It was a beautiful day without many clouds so we were able to see the surrounding area. We didn’t make it to the very top part of the mountain but were on the table part around the twelve apostles. We took a path up the mountain that was marked as “closed” because of a landslide that happened a while ago. We managed to stick to the trail, which was a mostly a rock staircase. The top was a little windy but the sun kept us warm and we had lunch overlooking Camps Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It was a phenomenal view! We made our way down another path and enjoyed a nice evening out with friends.



Camps Bay below:


My parents were originally going to arrive tonight but because of the volcano in Iceland they changed their tickets to Monday evening. My brother and sister-in-law are arriving Monday early evening so I am planning on meeting them downtown at the hotel and there we will pleasantly wait for my parents to land in Cape Town! This past week has felt really weird because I am getting to see my parents and I have been working on a lot of homework and papers so it feels like finals week. Finals week usually means going home, so I guess I feel like I am going home soon, but that isn’t the case, ha. We are planning on dong a lot while here but I will keep up a day-to-day blog so you guys can keep up.

SHAWCO started up again after the month I had off because of spring break and stuff. The schools had break also and then Easter weekend screwed around with the schedule, so it has been a while since I have been with my little soccer players. Lately SHAWCO has been more like babysitting than it is actually teaching the kids. They already know more than I do about soccer (at least play it better) and the field we are in hasn’t been mowed in years so playing is quite difficult. There is a little area where the grass isn’t growing and is mostly dirt so we tend to play there. The kids usually get in fights with each other or only want to shoot on goal instead of passing around. It has been interesting though, learning about the kids and hearing about their day-to-day lives in the townships. I cannot complain.

SHAWCO Kayelitsha Soccer Team (don't mind the little kid giving the finger...)


Today was one of the most enjoyable days I have had in Cape Town in a while. Firstly, I played a soccer match at 11:00am with the UCT 3rd Team. The game resulted in a draw but I don’t really care because all I want to do is play! Then me and 7 of my housemates went to a show called “STOMP” which is an international show that was in Cape Town for the week. It is a music/beat show using normal, everyday objects to make the sounds. It was really amazing some of the stuff they did. We had a blast! After the show we took taxis from downtown to the V&A waterfront where we enjoyed a relaxing evening in the harbor and had a fantastic meal with some quality tap beer. We also made a spontaneous pit stop at a soccer shop in the V&A mall where I happened to buy a new USA FIFA 2010 World Cup jersey! I am in love with it, to say the least.

I will be working on papers tomorrow and Monday all day so I don’t have much to do when my family is here. Hopefully that actually happens so I don’t have to work on my paper instead of spending some quality time with them!

That’s all for now

Ps: I resubmitted my paper that I got a 0% on and ended up getting a 73%! That is equivalent to an “A” here so I am really, really happy.

Amanda (Shashmanda), Ariana and I

Soccer and Birthdays

This week has been pretty hectic with papers being due and getting back exams and other papers. I ended up getting a 0%, yes Z-E-R-O, on my history paper for not putting page numbers on my footnotes. Plagiarism is a huge problem here I guess and every paper requires a plagiarism declaration stating that you have not plagiarized. I have the chance to resubmit the paper on Friday for a re-grade, so hopefully I can get a better grade than zero. Ugh. Sometimes I suppose I miss Madison. Last night was Larken's birthday so there was a big guacamole party here with a bunch of Mexican food! It was a lot of fun but I don't think my stomach likes me too much anymore. I was a little full...

I handed in a 17 page research paper for my Ecology class today, too! It was really great feeling getting that thing out of my mind. Hopefully I will do well on that one since the class actually matters for my majors back at home (anything beats a 0% I guess!). Even with homework and getting grades I have been pretty relaxed. It is too nice here to be stressed with great weather and fantastic people.

This coming weekend I have a couple more soccer matches and plan on climbing Table Mountain with some people! I am really excited to finally get up to the top! I have more papers to start tonight and throughout next week since I want to get them done before my parents and Sean and Max get here. It will be nice to have them done and be able to spend some quality time with the family. That's pretty much my life in Cape Town right now, I will update more later!

Here's a few photos from Sunday night: