That cliche "I've learned so much" blogpost...

So this will probably be one of my last blog posts. This friday, June 1st, I'll be Boston bound. I have two more exams left, mathematical programming on Wednesday and statistics on Thursday, and then one night to say goodbye to everyone.
I think I've changed a lot here, not that I can really notice it, but I notice that some of my friends here have drastically changed, and so it's likely I have as well. It's been an incredible experience and it has definitely changed my life. Meeting the people I've met, experiencing what I have, seeing all of South Africa, and facing the obstacles along the way have definitely changed my perspective and taught me a lot. My friend said "South Africa has a lot of problems, but it doesn't have apartheid. One thing I've learned since being here is sometime what you don't have is more important than what you do have." I really liked this, not because its 100% true, but because it is a good starting point to explain what it's like to be here. It's not important that you DON'T have the latest gadget, or that you dont have the coolest clothes, so it's not always what you don't have that's more important. It's about appreciating the good things. There is a lot of flaws in the government, and yes, it is a violent country, but it's important to focus on the good things. The economic status of SA is improving and there are less racial barriers. A lot of people are really happy here despite the bad things. It's important to realize all the good things around you. The beautiful landscape, the wonderful weather, the friendly faces, the divine food, and the opportunities given to us. It's important to want to change the unfortunate things, and very important to take action to change things, but if you dwell on it, it wont help anything.
One huge thing I've realized since being here is how freaking incredible my life is. I mean really, I dont mean to sound like I'm all high and mighty, but I have the best family in the entire world, better friends than I could ever imagine (shout out to my bids, even though I know you dont read this), and as much as I complain about UVM, it's a great place to be. I love South Africa, it will always hold a special place in my heart, and I do want to come back here, but I seriously cannot wait to be reunited with everyone back home.  So that's about it, I've gotta get back to studying. I'll probably write a long post on my way home. Thanks for reading, and for everyone back home, I'll see you soon!

Last Week of Classes

As winter is on its way in Cape Town, the semester is winding down and the journey back home is just around the corner. This week is the last week of classes; I can’t even believe it. I’m pretty much done with all my work and tests and now all I have to do is study for final exams and make sure everything on my “To Do In Cape Town” list is crossed off. It’s starting to get a little chilly here and rain more, which sadly means no more beach days. It’s funny because South Africans are all bundled up in Ugg boots, scarves, and wool coats, and I’m still rocking shorts and t-shirts. I mean, the temperature reaches about 70 everyday, which to me is shorts weather. I think everyone else is crazy. It drops a bit at night and a sweatshirt is needed, but that’s okay. Last week I spent all week studying, but after my two tests on Thursday it was an amazing weekend. On Friday Alyssa and I went to Green Point, which is the part of town where the world cup stadium is. She had an interview/meeting with the editor of a magazine dedicated to the Cape Town music scene. Of course the editor loved her and she landed a job AND an internship in Cape Town for the summer. I’ve never been so jealous. She totally deserves it though, she is an incredible writer and has great taste in music, liveinthenownow.tumblr.com. While she had her interview I walked around and got a dress for the dinner we had that night. I found the best little boutique with really cute clothes and great prices. It was the first time I had really gone shopping here. After we met up and walked around and got lunch and drinks and chatted. We then took a minibus to the city centre and walked home, which is about an hours long walk, but it was a beautiful day and we had good conversation so it went by pretty quickly. That night Interstudy had planned a farewell dinner for us at a nice restaurant in Stellenbosch. It was a really nice dinner and then I went to Long Street after to meet up with a few friends. Saturday I had a relaxing day that started at the best place ever, Old Biscuit Mill. Then we walked along Liesbeek River, which is near our flats, and then spent the afternoon bar-hopping and enjoying beers in the sun with my Zimbabwean friends. It was a great day, and ended with a night dancing at a local bar. Sunday I watched the final English Premier League games, which I wasn’t very into, but my friends were which made it fun. It was excited when Manchester City won though, it was an intense game. So it wasn’t an incredibly exciting weekend, but I got to do all of my favorite things in Cape Town.
    Over the next few weeks I’ll have some time off to explore a bit more. There is a small mountain/hill I still want to hike, an astronomical observatory I would like to visit, a walk along the shore I would like to take, and a few other things to knock off the list. I’ll keep you updated as I go.
    I can’t believe that my time here is almost done. Even though I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends, I’m not quite done with South Africa. I plan on coming back here sometime, hopefully for longer. This is by far the best place I have ever been.

Devil's Peak & Lion's Head

View of Devil's Peak on my walk to Campus

This past week has been a bit hectic, trying to finish all of my school work and do as many things in possible within the short month thats left of this semester. I realized that while being here I had only climbed one mountain. There are three big ones around Cape Town; Table Mountain, Lions Head, and Devil’s Peak. We hiked Table early on in the semester,  but that was the only one. Tuesday was Workers Day, meaning we had no class, so we took advantage of the day-off and hiked Devil’s Peak. Campus is sort of on the bottom of the mountain, so we just walked up past Rhodes Memorial. About of a third of the way up are old outpost sort of things, one called the block house, and the other named after a princess or queen, supposedly. It was pretty steep the whole time, more difficult at the bottom and scarier towards the top. Some parts we were literally hanging on by long grass. One wrong step, or slip on the muddy terrain, and we would have fallen to a rocky death. It was definitely worth it for the amazing views of the city.

This weekend was a full moon, but not just any full moon, it was the full moon that is closest to the Earth. Lion’s head has an incredible view of the sunset and moonrise, so a few of my friends, Rachael, Karina, Emily, and Jake, hiked that in the evening to see it. We brought a picnic dinner and wine to enjoy at the top. Lions head is more rock-climbing-ish than Table Mountain, but definitely not as treacherous as Devil’s. It took us only about an hour to climb up, and even though it was cloudy it was still very beauitful. On one side the last rays of sun were shining through a thick layer of clouds, and on the other side the heavy clouds spread on top of the Twelve Disciple Mountains,  creating a sort of eerie atmosphere.

We were the only ones up there, so we ate sort of quickly and headed down before it started raining. As it got darker the city lights became more vibrant.

I think thats the only interesting stuff that’s happened. I have a lot of work this week, so I spent most of the weekend studying and doing work except for a party we had for Cinco de Mayo. Africans don’t know what it is, so we had to show them what’s up. We did it right, but apparently the neighbors didn’t think so and they called the police. Nothing happened though, they left and the party continued.

I have two huge tests this thursday, and then friday is the Farewell Dinner for Interstudy. I can’t believe the semesters almost over. Next week is the last week of classes and then finals begin. I’ll probably spend some more time exploring after classes end. My big finals are the 30th and 31st, and I get on a plane June 1st. I’m not really ready to leave yet. I’ll have to come back someday soon.

Pirates and Hippos

This has been another incredible weekend. Friday was a public holiday here, Freedom Day. We explored the old zoo again, I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but its really neat, and walked up to Rhodes Memorial, which is above campus on Devil’s Peak. There’s a incredible view of the most beautiful city in the world from the monument. It was a great afternoon.

At night a bunch of us went to a soccer game at the Green Point Stadium. Cape Town Ajax (pronounced Ahax, I think its portuguese) played the Orlando Pirates (Johannesburg). In case you don’t know, Green Point Stadium is the World Cup stadium, which was really cool to see. There was 14 of us going, but somehow we only had 12 tickets, which we didn’t notice until we were on the way. So when we got there everyone was confused about what to do, so I ran off and asked everyone (really, I pretty much asked every person I saw) if they were selling tickets. Most people were looking for tickets and I started to think that it might be a lost cause, when I finally found 2. I fought someone for them, not physically, but argued a bit, and got the tickets. They were in the 2nd row and seemed like pretty good seats, so my friend Ally and I took them. Getting in the stadium was interesting, there were really long lines to get our tickets scanned, and when we got to the front it was just a big pack of people. Of course, at that moment security decided to not let people in for some unknown reason, and the crowd was getting antsy, it was about 2 minutes from kickoff and we were right at the front. All of a sudden people had a brilliant idea to start pushing, which didn’t help. It wasn’t as bad on our side, but next to us was pretty bad with a pack of guys shoving the whole crowd right against the gates, security responded by refusing to let people in until a line was formed, which of course wasn’t happening, and they continued to push. It looked incredibly painful. Eventually security gave in before people got hurt and we got in right after kick-off. Ally and I were opposite the rest of the crew, but had amazing seats. We ended up being surrounded by Pirates fans, we decided to root for them. It’s not like we had team loyalty anyways. We were in an intense section, and stood on our seats the whole time, dancing and singing the cheers with the crowd. None of the cheers were in English so we had no idea what we were saying, but we went along with it and the crowd loved us, when we left all the people around us shook our hands.  The game ended in a tie, but it was such an amazing night.

Early saturday morning we left for an overnight getaway with most of our program. A few  people stayed behind to go to Afrikaburn, which is similar to Burning Man. We drove for about 3 hours until we got a township called Touwsrivier. It’s a very poor, colored, Afrikaans town, and we were volunteering at the school for children up to the 5th grade. The school was one room, there was 5 teachers, and over 100 children. We separated into groups, my group, Ally, Cali, most of the guys, and I built a jungle gym, and the rest helped paint and decorate. There weren’t really instructions on how to build it, so we figured it out as we went, and finished most of it in about 4 hours. It was difficult but a lot of fun. I like to think I was helpful, thanks to my Dad for teaching me everything I know about building stuff.

    After a nice afternoon braii we got back on the road and continued to our destination- Aquila Game Reserve. I was very impressed when we arrived. Alix and I shared a cute chalet, with our own bathroom equipped with an outdoor shower, and an indoor and outdoor fireplace. We got settled and then went on a sunset game drive.It was three hours long, and we saw elephants, rhinos, hippopotami, lions, giraffes, zebras, springbok, ostrich, cape buffalo, wildebeast and some sort of deer/goat things that I can’t remember the name of. It was amazing, and we stopped halfway through and got champagne to watch the sunset. We got back to the game reserve just in time for an amazing buffet dinner and a nice to enjoy good company and the amazing nature we were in. We woke up early the next morning to go for another game drive. It was still dark when I woke, and as I walked outside I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever witnessed. The pink sky was stretching from behind the mountains and the crescent moon was setting behind another set of mountains. That alone was worth getting up so early. Only about half of us got up for this game drive so it was much quieter. We saw all the same animals except for no elephants, and an addition of cheetahs. The cheetahs were rescued for some reason, and were kept in a smaller area, which was sort of cheating. It was really neat though, they were feeding at the time and we got to see them destroy a huge leg of an animal. There is a video I will try to get a hold of. The lions were also interesting, they were playing together, and we witnessed the dominant male have his way with the female lions 4 times. apparently they do it around 30 times a day. It only took him about 30 seconds, he roared pretty loudly after and went to sleep.
    After the game drive we spent the rest of the day relaxing before driving home.

    Moral of the story: I’m never leaving Africa.

Roadtrip lessons, and a short rant on race

So my previous blog post concentrated on the events of my road trip, and that was only half of the experience. One of the reasons it was the best week of my life was because of everything I learned.
    Everything from the planning of the trip to the writing of the blog was a learning experience. One of the highlights is things about the people of South Africa, especially  interactions between cultures.
    I haven’t had too much of an opportunity to learn about the Afrikaans part of South Africa. I do have a few friends that are Afrikaans, but I haven’t spent a considerable amount of time with them, let alone spend time with the family. Christian is very Afrikaans, so much so that he speaks English to only us. The language is very Germanic and the culture seems somewhat traditional, yet closed. Although the people have been very nice, I have noticed they are more reserved when meeting other people.

I am not really a history buff (obviously) but I know that there was a huge clash between Afrikaans and blacks in the apartheid era. I know that racism still exists, and I have seen some of it, but I haven’t been exposed to the culture differences, which can be a clash in itself.

Disclosure: I’m not saying that any of the people who I will be quoting are racist, but they do have preconceived notions about people based on their culture. I’m not saying that this is their fault, they may have been raised this way, and I’m not saying it’s right. This is a tricky topic to write about. I’m merely stating what I see and hear and how I interpret it. Don’t hold any of this against me. I am not trying to start an argument or discussion (so please dont), I’m only blogging. Don’t like it? Don’t read it.

    The farm in Cradock that we stayed at was a very Afrikaans family, and the farm had been in their family for 5 generations, Bredell taking over in just a few years. The family lived in a huge old farm house, but it wasn’t the only house on the property. There were atleast 3 others, which were for the farm workers and their families. They were considerably smaller, probably only 2-3 rooms in each, were behind the barn, and right next to each other. Also, within the house there was a kitchen, and then sort of like a kitchen off to the back, where the maids/housecleaners/help did the dishes and did all the cooking, even though there was a sink and stove in the real kitchen, it was more for decoration. They told me how well they treat their workers, who have stuck with them for almost 20 years. To me it was still a huge divide, and seemed so odd. The workers, who were Black,  were very much below the Michau family as far as socio-economic status goes, however they seemed to do more work and be more in-tune with the farm than the family. It was somewhat eerie, although the house and farm and family were all lovely. I could not see how the workers were treated great, they lived on the farm, probably had very little freedom, and were totally bound to the property, how could they leave? It’s not like they could sell their house. It was almost like they were inherently forced to stay.
    Another thing I noticed was some of the comments made-once again I’m not saying that any of these people are racist, I can’t make those assumptions or speak for them. These are merely observations and interesting things that were said to me by various people throughout the trip.
There seems to be a stereotype, which in the Transkei might not be too far from the truth, that the Xhosa and Zulu cuture is somewhat barbaric. I heard comments that they don’t understand what it’s like to be civilized, and their culture is so different that it’s impossible to truly integrate. There were stories told about how odd people felt when they first when into a black family’s home and it was actually nice;they weren’t sure what to do and actually just left. Coming from a white, usually Afrikaans background, where they probably grew up with parents with these views and it was transferred through generations; without the exposure to the diversity, how would they know any better? Things were said like “these people dont know any better,” which bothered me a little bit. It’s not my place to argue, but I felt uncomfortable. I have no problem with race, and yes, there are differences in culture, but its not right to assume that every person is dangerous, stupid, barbaric, and criminal. And yes, that did seem exactly how some people perceive it. For example, here’s a short story.
    We were at a club in Claremont, which a few towns over, and is a very white area. The club got shut down because of some under-aged girl, and so we walked down the street to go to a place called Tin Roof, but the line was too long. Across the street was another bar, and it looked decent so we walked over with some of our South African friends, and one of them said, “There was a stabbing here last week, but don’t worry they’re only letting white people in tonight.” I stopped in my tracks, grabbed my friend, and got in a cab to go home. Sure there was a stabbing, could have happened anywhere, likely a gang thing. It doesn’t necessarily mean the club is dangerous, This Is Africa, not Cape Cod. Yes, it was unsettling, but I didn’t like the fact that it was so racially centered, like only blacks are criminals. It really irked me.
    To be honest, I didn’t feel particularly safe if some areas, but because of the poverty, not the race, and I feel like that can be easily confused. As an American tourist, it is very obvious that I am better off than many people, and can be an easy target.

Well that quickly changed from culture to race, but was sort of a mix, and kind of a rant.

Other things I learned on my roadtrip:
    I will never stop exploring the world. There is just so much to see!
    You only live only, be spontaneous. The best things are always spontaneous. I’ll explain that one when I get home.
    I think I’m actually growing up, and I can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s nice to be independent, productive, and look forward to the future, but part of me, a large part of me, wants to stay 20 forever. I don’t even need to turn 21, thats okay.

Die Boer Maak a Plan

Here is the story of my Easter Break. There is one rule: If you’re are really interested, read the whole thing. If you aren’t then don’t even start.

Before I begin I will warn you that I will go into intense detail, as this was possibly the most incredible week of my life. I’m partially just writing this just to remember it all, everything was so amazing, I’m still in awe. This blog wont even do it justice.


Alyssa, Alicia and I started planning our road trip about a month ago. I spent hours researching backpackers and all the best spots in each city, and reserved beds in all the nicest backpackers. We spoke to our friend who said he had friends that worked for a car rental company and said he could get us a cheap one, and to just let him know after we booked everything else. This was pretty far into the planning, so about a week before the trip. We booked everything else and then found out his friend was on leave for the month and he could no longer help us with a car. We called every car rental company in Cape Town and there were no automatic cars available. Instead of panicking, we decided to pack up and go anyway, figuring we could just change the trip a little and find a car outside of Cape Town, where there are less Americans (we are the only ones who prefer automatics).


On Saturday morning we packed our bags and went to the train station, we needed to get out of Cape Town in order for our adventure to begin, and Stellenbosch was the perfect destination. It is a college town on the skirts of Cape Town, about an hours train ride away. It is surrounded by vineyards and wineries, and is home to South Africa’s most famous wines. We explored the town at night, which was a little emptier than usual due to school break, and stayed a small hostel called the Stumble Inn. In the morning we went on a wine tour that was offered with the hostel, which brought us to tastings at 4 different wineries and a cute, casual restaurant for lunch in between. It was just the three of us and a young, friendly German couple on the tour. Eike and Carina were graduate students exploring South Africa on holiday.

Each winery was a little different. The first one was Tokara, it was artsy and had a sort of business casual feel to it. The tasting room was big and open and show-cased all their best wines. We learned the basics of tasting and got to try 5 different wines. I can’t really say which was the best, we didn’t take notes, we are just trying to gain an appreciation for wine. Alyssa really liked the dessert wine, which tasted almost like a fruit syrup. It probably would have been good poured over ice cream. The next winery was the second oldest in the country, and was more casual, and almost seemed French. We tasted the wines outside at a table that was already set up for us with 5 wines to taste. We took our time enjoying each wine and the beautiful background of the gardens and vineyards layered before the immense mountains. Afterwards we drove to a Greek restaurant in the French part of the Afrikaans part of Cape Town. Talk about multicultural. We had a delicious lunch and, of course, a refreshing glass of white wine. Our third vineyard was a little further away, and was called Dieu Donne, meaning a gift from God. We tasted the wines in a small garden amidst the grapevines. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been. The final destination was one of the most popular wineries in South Africa, called Fairview, where we got to taste 6 wines and several different cheeses. We got a taste of a specific wine in some sort of fancy tasting room full of barrels and barrels of wine, and then went to the wine bars to chose the rest of our wines. After we got to taste various cheeses also made by Fairview. I think we really made a dent in the cheese samples, we went for like 4 or 5 rounds of cheese. My favorite was a Chalaka spiced goats cheese or of course the classic blue, although they also had a fantastic brie.
    After getting our fill of wine and cheese, we went back to the backpackers and napped in the sun, until we were interrupted with a phone call from our friend Christian. He had decided that he thinks our trip might be fun, and if it’s not too late he would like to join us. We weren’t that far away, and he had a car which made things easier, so as you might have guessed, he picked us up the next morning and the four of us headed East.
    We decided that Port Elizabeth might a little too ambitious of a drive for one day, and he had a friend from school with a farm outside the city, in a town called Cradock. We had no idea what to expect from this farm, but he spoke to his friend, Breddell, and his friends mother on the phone the night before, and they were excited to have us as guests. When we first started driving it was still dark out, but it was worth waking up that early to see not just one, but many sunrises.
    Since Cape Town is so mountainous, the sun would come up over one mountain, but would still be behind so many others, so as we drove through it was magestic series of pink sunrises over the rolling green mountains.
    Once out of Cape Town it was a very long drive through the Karoo, which means ‘land of thirst,’ And that’s exactly what it is, miles and miles (kilometers and kilometers) of dry, barren land, with the occasional pack of sheep or goats. We started to realize that it wouldn’t have been a good idea to drive alone as soon as we had to stop for gas. Everyone spoke Afrikaans, we would have immediately been targeted as American Tourists. Christians native tongue is Afrikaans, so everything went smoothly, but the three of us were already having communication troubles with the gas station attendants.

We got to the farm around 4, which was just enough time for a tour while it was still light out. We were kind of expecting a small, cute farm, with maybe a few animals. We realized we were wrong when there was a sign for the farm and the dirt driveway was longer than the street we live on in Cape Town. The place was enormous, and the house was closer to a palace. We were greeted by Mrs. Michau, three energetic small dogs, one of the daughters, and her friends who also happened to be American. We brought flowers for Mrs. Michau, and she welcomed us warmly to her home. It was hands-down the most beautiful house I have ever seen. The front yard leading up the stoop/patio had an adorable wading pool across from the tennis courts enclosed by ivy covered fences, and colorful and fragrant flower beds lined the walkway and patio. The patio had a set of very comfortable couches around a fireplace and a few tables for outdoor meals or just to hang out and relax. Inside the house was old and rustic, yet very well-kept and decorated elegantly. We were showed to our room, which faced the front of the house and a had a beautiful view of the gardens and mountains. The kitchen was very homey, with a huge old wooden table, that didn’t have chairs around it, so I can’t imagine it was used much. I understood why when I saw the dining room. It looked like something out of a movie. It was long and extended into a formal sitting room, that looked rarely used. There were shelf sort of china cabinets things along the walls with perfectly shined silver platters and serving dishes. I swear everything in the house was an antique. The bathrooms were also older looking, although very well-kept and clean, and had antique bathtubs and faucets. It was so elegant and beautiful I felt like I was in the presence of royalty. Christian, whose nickname is Bottel (Bottle), and Breddell gave us a tour of the farm, which was full of sheep and goats and an emu. The sheep were farmed for wool, and they had a barn full of piles of wool since the sheep had recently been sheered. The land was enormous, and there were also horses, which I think were on a different camp of property. Behind the house and barns were houses for all the families of the farm and house workers. Most of the families had been there for 15-20 years. Apparently they also used to have a springbok on the farm but it was killed by a lynx. We all went outside to the patio couches to enjoy homemade organic iced tea and homemade jerky, made from an animal hunted by one of the family members. We chatted and got to know each other while Mrs. Michau prepared dinner. Mr. Michau came out to say hi, the family doesn’t often speak English, and I think they felt awkward speaking English to each other. Occasionally, mid conversation, it would just switch to Afrikaans, almost without them realizing it. We would sort of just start talking to each other or zone out to the beautiful landscape. We had a late dinner, but it was well worth the wait. I think it was venison, although I’m not exactly sure what type of animal, I just know it was also hunted by the family. It was served with a lentil and rice type thing and a side salad and was very delicious. It was a formal dinner with all ten of us around the dining room table. Mrs. Michau was very motherly and as we discussed our plans with her she and her husband gave us many suggestions of where to go and whats not worth it, which was very helpful. After dinner we had a relaxing night swapping stories in the living room and went to sleep early so we could get to our next destination, East London, at a reasonable hour.
    In the morning we enjoyed real coffee on the patio in the sunshine while planning the route to East London. We had a traditional South African breakfast of pap, or mealy-meal, with milk, butter, and sugar. It’s a bit like oatmeal only made of corn. Kind of interesting to get used to but very delicious. We packed up, said our goodbyes, and got on the road around 10:30 with the Michau family waving goodbye in the background.
    Before heading to East London we stopped in Grahamstown which is a historical college town a little north of Port Elizabeth. It is home to Rhodes University and is a cute town full of old buildings and churches. We stopped to walk around, and like Stellenbosch it was a little quiet with the school being on vacation. We walked up to Rhodes University and walked around the campus, which Alyssa and Alicia said was similar to their home universities, Lehigh and Bates, respectively. There were fountains and gardens and was pretty small. After we found a small cafe to have a light lunch before hitting the road again.
    The drive to East London was beautiful, with vast sheep, cow and game farms with rolling mountains in the background. We made it East London mid-afternoon, and it took us a minute to find our backpackers. We had made reservations at a place called Santa Paloma Guest Farm. I had looked at all the backpackers in a book and the description seemed really interesting. Lucky for us, the description didn’t even compare to what we got. It was on a side street right off the highway, so we expected a small farm. We came to the gate and once inside we were immediately greeted by a pack of zebras right by the driveway.

We continued driving down the long dirt driveway and came to a few small houses surrounded by woods and a large field. There was only one car in the lot, so we parked and walked up to a young friendly girl who we learned was Nadia, one of the owners. She showed us to our room, which was the nicest room we have ever had at a hostel. It only had 4 beds, perfect for us, they weren’t bunk beds, and we had our own bathroom and shower. The front was a panel of windows looking out onto the yard. We settled in and while Alyssa and Alicia went for a run, Christian and I chatted with the owners, played with their puppy, Lucy, and took a dip in the pool. This was the beginning to my favorite night of the entire trip. While taking a dip in the infinity pool, sipping a Black Label, the sun was going down behind the mountains and a pack of zebras came right beside the pool to graze. Behind the zebras a pack of impala had been grazing since we had arrived, and the entire scene was magical. We tried to capture pictures, but they didn’t turn out good and pictures wouldn’t do it justice anyways. We relaxed by the pool and enjoyed the nature until the other girls got back from the run and we got ready for dinner. Nadia had prepared dinner for us, chicken with rice and vegetables, with ice cream for dessert. The family sat and ate with us on the deck, and we chatted about the farm. It turns out the parents bought the farm to fix up, retire to, and gave it as a business to their children (Nadia and her brother, Ruann). They showed us pictures of what it had been like, I think it was a cow farm, and it had been incredibly run down, with trenches in the cement floor where the cows had walked through in the milking room. They had turned that room into a living area, with couches and tables, and on the side was the tack for the 4 horses they had there. Connected was an enormous kitchen, which could be used by the visitors and was where Nadia had cooked our meal. Adjacent was a quaint room with a small bar surrounded by trophies of game that the father had killed. He displayed the head of the first of each species he had hunted, which didn’t bother me, although I can see how some people might find it haunting. Athough totally open to the stoop, the room was very cozy with a huge fireplace and a waterbuck hyde placed as a rug. The old 4 car garage was turned into the guest rooms, obviously with bathrooms added on, and the house was renovated and is where the parents resided.

    After dinner we sat around the fire, enjoyed sherry provided by Ruann, and chatted about everything from rugby and drinking to science and religion. (And no, I’m not kidding, thats actually what we discussed. It was a fabulous conversation). After the fire died down we retired to our peaceful room.

    In the morning we woke up early and went a walk around the trails of the reserve, with Lucy leading the way. We don’t know the pasts and ended up having to wade through a few rivers, but it was worth seeing wildebeast, more impala, zebras, and waterbuck. The wildebeast were huge. We then changed and went into town, to meet our friend Athi for breakfast. We picked her up from her house, which was enormous and beautiful. It was very modern, and seemed like it would be similar to house in California; it had a pool sort of in the center of the house, with everything opening up to the outside, and large spacious rooms. We just went to Wimpy for breakfast, which a popular chain breakfast restaurant in South Africa.

    From there we headed to Coffee Bay, which was about 4 hours North. It was a trecherous drive, although very beautiful, with potholes that were more like ditches. In order to dodge them we had to swerve all around the road. On top of that there were children playing chicken, random animals, and crazy minibus drivers. We decided that it should be a video game, we gave out points for dodging random things, subtracting points for hitting things (the only things we hit were potholes). It was also very interesting because the Wild Coast is very primitive. It wasn’t just that it was poor, it was under developed, like a completely different world. The main road that we were on was the only road, and there were no other cars. The homes were all circular and a light aqua or teal color, made of clay with straw roofs. There were no walkways leading up to the homes, and the ladies carried things on their heads as if by magic. Not even just small things, like long sticks, probably longer than they were tall, just like 10 of them somehow balanced on their head. The sheep and goats roaming around were marked with paint or dye to make them distinct to their owner. I’m not really sure if these people used money, it seemed more of a self-sustainable community.

    We were very afraid of getting a flat tire from one of the potholes. Not only would we probably be pretty useless at changing a tire (remind me to have my dad teach me that),  but I think if he stopped we could have possibly gotten everything we had with us stolen. There weren’t other cars and the area is known for being ruthless with crime.  Along the way we were following a car for a long period of time. There aren’t many side street (correction: there aren’t ANY side streets) and after seeing similar homes and landscape for a while, I dozed off to a nice slumber, I woke up about an hour later and within two minutes and minibus coming the other way crashed head-on with the car in front of us. The small sedan went flying in the air, landing upside-down on the side of the road, totally destroyed. The minibus was a bit damaged, the windshield was smashed as well as a front corner. The horn was blaring and the 20 odd occupants started exiting the van, a few bleeding, but all okay. We all kind of freaked out, unsure of what to do. We were in the middle of nowhere, we couldn’t stop, we would be bombarded by people asking for rides, food, or anything else. Somehow, there happened to be an ambulance nearby. We slowed as we maneuvared around the crash,  trying to see if there was any movement coming from inside the car. The driver of the minibus had run down to the car and we drove at a snails pace still freaking out until we heard the ambulance coming. Then we knew we had to leave, there would be no point in staying and it would just be dangerous. It was quite the wake up call, had we been ahead of that car it would have been us.  I didn’t nap for the rest of the trip.

    Anyways, on a lighter note, we arrived at coffee bay about two hours later.  We were staying in a place called Sugarloaf backpackers, and I’m not gonna lie, we were a bit sketched out when we first arrived. I guess we expected it to be a little more populated, but the town was right by the huts, and the backpackers was enclosed by chain-link fence. Christian seemed a bit tense, and we were just curious. It was definitely a bit sketchy from the outside,  but inside there were children running around and puppies, friendly staff, a welcoming fire,  fully stocked bar, and a beautiful view of the beach. After settling down we took a walk to the beach, which we had to cross a river to get to. On the way back the river broke one of my favourite flip-flops (Rest in peace) . But anyways, the beach was gorgeous. The water was warm and the waves crashed again the cliff up ahead. We walked along until we found a nice log to use as a bench, where stopped to chat and enjoy the moment. After about 20 minutes a young boy came up to us and started singing the National Anthem, only he missed the Afrikaans part, which was a bit awkward. It was obvious he wanted money, his clothes were torn and ill-fitting, and he was eyes Alicia’s purse the whole time. We weren’t about to give him money, so we tried everything to get him away. We were perfectly polite, told him he sang well, and after many awkward silences we finally just asked him to leave. This is especially where having a guy comes in handy.  He wouldn’t leave after being asked many times, and was still fixaed on Alicia’s purse. Christian stood up in an intimidating manner and said “John, it’s time you walk away,” and he ran away like a scared little puppy. We hated that that was what had to happen, but it did. It was also pretty epic and we were quoting that for a while.  The moment was kind of ruined and we headed back to the backpackers. On the way back we got asked twice if we wanted to buy dagga (marijuana) or mushrooms. We politely declined and decided we would just hang out in the backpackers for the night.  It was actually a very nice evening; the backpackers cooked a very delicious traditional meal, and we sat around the fire and chatted with people from all over.  There was a boy from Canada, that was a full-time student at UCT and was really good friends with my friend (small world), a few America study abroad students, some travellers from Norway, and a bunch of South Africans. One of the locals was friendly with the owner, and was allowed to sit around the fire with us. He was a Xhosa speaker, and his English was very spotty,  which made it very interesting. At first people seemed to be a little sketched out by him, and I heard someone saying that they thought he was tripping. I’m not sure if that was true or not but after a while I started to pay attention  to what he was saying, which was very hard to follow, but I understood after a bit, and realized the serious communication barrier. We had our legs dangled over the wall of the fire pit and there were sparks flying everywhere, and when they hit our legs it would burn. He was trying to tell people to watch out for that, and that Alicia was smart for wearing pants. Alicia thought he was saying she looked like a scuba diver. I understood where she was coming from, but I also felt bad that he was having such a hard time getting his point across. He was actually just trying to be nice and people thought he was on shrooms. He very well may have been, but what he was saying was totally normal. I’ll talk more about that in another post. I learned a lot culturally and that’s a separate topic.
    In the morning we woke up early to try to see Hole in the Wall before leaving, but unfortunately it started to rain and it would be impossible to make it there with his car in the rain. It was only about 15 kilometres away, but the road was so bad it took up to an hour in good weather. We left to try to get to Durban in time.

    It was an incredibly long drive, and we got stuck in roadwork for atleast 30 minutes. When there is roadwork on a highway there is literally no way around it, so they make the area a one way lane, and have the cars on one side wait while the others go. This wait can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, this one was supposed to be around 30, and so we got out and stretched. The guys in a pickup a few cars ahead of us cracked a few beers. It wasn’t a bad idea, we were there for a very long time.
    We stopped for a seafood dinner in Port Shepstone and got delicious baked Hake at a restaurant right on the ocean. Unfortunately it was getting dark, and driving is very unsafe at night, so we decided to stay the night at a place called the Spot Backpackers. We pretty much passed out as soon as we got there, and it wasn’t the nicest place, although it was right on the ocean.
    We were only an hour from Durban, we got to enjoy the gorgeous drive there. We were between the coast and the mountains, and we knew Durban would be a winner. 

    We got there around 10, and were planning to stop for some breakfast and then go to a market before hitting the beach and boardwalk. We got to the place we had planned for breakfast and quickly realized it’s not where we wanted to be, it didn’t exactly seem safe or welcoming, so we skipped it and headed to the market, which was even worse. The city streets of Durban were dirty, with trash everywhere and probably twice as many homeless as Cape Town. We didn’t get out of the car as we drove past the run down market and decided we should just stick to the safe, touristy area of the boardwalk. It was a very good decision. The boardwalk was beautiful, it was called the Golden mile, and was 4 miles of beaches, pools, piers, bars, hotels, restaurants, and ice cream shops. We were pretty hungry, so after a few minutes of walking and absorbing the environment we went to a restaurant right on the boardwalk for a nice lunch. We all ordered cocktails and delicious meals. Unfortunately Christian was the only one who received his drink on time, and the three of ours didn’t come until after the meal was finished. We’re pretty sure he was just ignoring us because we are American, so we pulled the classic American move, and Alicia told them we weren’t paying for our drinks. It didn’t fully work but we got the price reduced to like half off. We then continued to go to walk the boardwalk, where we found beautiful sandcastles, a surf competition, and a nice beach where we could finally do some tanning. We all fell asleep on the beach and fortunately didn’t get sunburnt, although we were covered with black sand for the rest of the afternoon.

    We woke up a bit late, but still wanted to make it to UShaka marine world, where we could dive with sharks. It wasn’t the same as diving in the ocean, which I’ll be doing next weekend, but it was still pretty cool. Alyssa has already done it in the ocean and didn’t enjoy it, so she took pictures. It was interesting because we were in an aquarium, so we had an audience.
    We explored the aquarium after, it’s supposed to be one of the best aquariums in the world, and then headed to our backpackers to get settled in. The backpackers was huge. It was called Tekweni, and there had to have been atleast 10 rooms, ours slept 14, and it was fully booked for the night. We changed, had a few drinks at the bar, and went out to get dinner.   
   We were set on getting bunny chow, or bunnies as we call them, which is what Durban is known for. It’s essentially just a loaf of bread hollowed out with curry in the middle, with the bread that was removed placed on top. It sort of looks like a bunny’s tail, which is our theory behind the name. They came to be back in apartheid, when coloreds and blacks weren’t allowed in the same restaurants as whites, but they were still allowed to purchase the food so this was sort of a curry-to-go. They were great, although definitely the spiciest Indian food I’ve ever had. Christian wasn’t really keen on spicy food so we sort of felt bad.
    Afterwards we walked along the street and stopped in a few bars for drinks and chatted, enjoying the last night of our trip. We saw some Americans we had seen in Coffee Bay, and they joined us at a bar called Chill (it was a very chilled atmosphere).
    The next morning we got up early and headed to the airport where we said goodbye to Christian, since he was driving back through the Free State to see some friends, and got on the plane. It’s sad that it’s over, it was an amazing experience that I got to share with friends that I’m sure I’ll have for a lifetime. This will be a story I will tell my children’s children. Best week of my life. I knew the blog wouldn’t do it justice, thanks for reading anyways.


Oh and if you were just reading to find out what "die boer maak a plan" means, it's Afrikaans for "the farmer makes a plan", which was our theme. Hope you enjoyed reading, I'll be posting again soon to discuss some of the cultural discoveries.

Alma Cafe etc.. a little late

So I wrote this post last week, however I guess it never got posted, so here goes. There will be another post within the next few days documenting my spring break trip. It might be lengthy, prepare yourself.


So last weekend was a blast. Friday night Alyssa, Alicia, and I went to this little venue nearby called Alma Cafe to see some live music. It’s just two roads over, and under the tracks, and I would have never expected what we found. I think it used to be a  general store, it was small and there was a counter with random goods behind it like food staples and cigarettes, and the small room was set up cafeteria style with tables and chairs, with a small stage in front. The bands playing were The Lentil Collective and Tombstone Pete, which were displayed on a chalkboard next to the stage. We walked in mid-set and all the seats were taken so we stood in the back. It almost felt like I had gone back in time a few decades. We were offered drinks and food from the waitress, who knew Alyssa, and were greeted by a man who I believe is the owners son. Lentil Collective was playing, and the genre is folk-tronica. It’s hard to imagine, but it was really good. The audience was mixed ages, from college students through senior citizens. Most people had gotten dinner or wine, but instead of talking or eating over the music, everyone was silent and respected the band. They were really talented, there were 3 band members, two young and very different, one a hippy the other a hipster, and an older man singing, who slightly resembled a scarecrow (in all the best ways). They played all originals, and although there wasn’t room for dancing the whole audience was moving in their seats to the rhythm. Tombstone Pete played after and I can’t even describe the music. Check it out for yourself. And if you would like to know more about the Cape Town Music scene, Alyssa has a fantastic blog about it.
LiveInTheNowNow.tmblr.com (it may be changing to wordpress soon, ill keep you updated.)

After the show we chatted with the bands and other music lovers outside the cafe for over an hour. We made a few friends who live on a farm in the Northern Suburbs, which I hear is absolutely beautiful.
Anyways, on saturday we had a cultural dinner with interstudy, which we started preparing at 9 am. It felt sort of like thanksgiving. Mack, one of the R.A.’s, had a few of his friends from different cultures in South Africa help cook the dinner. We all got to pitch in and the food was incredible. I dont know the names of everything but there was a fried dough type thing that went with mince, a beef stew that went with steamed bread, Chakalak which is like a bean/carrot/curry type thing, chicken liver, fried chicken, chicken stew type thing, a spinach thing, and so much more. Obviously very descriptive. I’ll find a picture to post. For desert there was a pudding thing and chocolate cake. It was like heaven.
Sunday there was a study abroad soccer tournament between 3 different programs. Unfortunately I had study but I hear we one a game.
This week has been really hectic, I had a test monday and two today. The one on monday went really well, the ones today not so much. School is intense here and the test taking process kinda sucks. On top of everything I also have a 10 page project due after break, so it would be nice to get it done by tomorrow.

Minibuses

So this is something I don’t think I’ve really discussed yet, but definitely something worth sharing. I’m about to share with you all the wonders of transportation in Cape Town.
There are multiple forms of transportation: car, bus, taxi, moped, train, and minibus.

There are not many big cars here, for the most part they are all sedans, wagons, and bugs, with the occasional jeep or terrain vehicle. There are lots of mopeds and motorcycles, and I have seen 3 motorcycle crashes to date. One was pretty bad, one the guy got up and yelled at the car, and I couldn’t really see what was going on with the other. We take cabs or taxis when we go someplace far or specific. There are two types of taxi’s, the ones that are licensed and legit and run meters, and the ones that are not. If there is a lot of us we will call a legitimate taxi to come get us, otherwise we will walk to the 7-11(which is not related to the 7-11’s in the U.S.) at the top of our street where there is a taxi stand. These are basically cars with a taxi sign on top, sometimes the taxi sign falls off. We tell them where we want to go and what we want to pay and if they try to charge more we walk away and find someone who will charge that price. It’s usually 20-50 rand depending on how far we go, which is about 3-7 dollars. Sometimes the cars are a bit dodgy, but we go in groups and its okay. 

I haven’t taken the train very much, occasionally to the beach. Its cheap, 15 rand(2$), and definitely and experience. We buy first class tickets, since its safer, and we live right by the tracks so its only a short walk. The downside to the train is that it is unsafe to take after dark. I don’t know what happens but I know not to take it. One time when we were on our way back from the beach a homeless man, or atleast I presume he was homeless, saw that we were American and put on a show for us. He was wearing short jean shorts and a tiny t-shirt and a baseball cap that said Jagger on it. He sang and danced and swung from the bars of the train trying to impress us, and this lasted for about 20 minutes. It caused quite a scene actually, he really liked America and American music and it was very apparent.

My favorite type of transportation is the minibuses, and they are the main point of this post. Minibuses are a whole new breed of transportation, I have never seen anything quite like them. As soon as you get to Cape Town you notice it. Everywhere you go on the Main Road you hear men yelling “Wynberg!! Wynberg!!” or “Cape Town! Mowbray! Cape Town!” over and over and over. All day and all night. There are sticking their heads out of the windows of minibuses or the bus is pulled over and they are on the sidewalk trying to recruit riders. It doesn’t matter if you are walking the opposite direction, they will ask you atleast twice if you want to go to Wynberg(or Cape Town, depending on the direction they are driving. ). Even if you say no its likely they will ask again, just in case. The buses are slightly larger than minivans, and probably legally sit 11 or 12 people besides the driver. I have been in some that have sat over 20 people and the caller is still yelling to get people. You can tell when its full when the caller is sitting out of the window. There is usually just a driver and a caller and the passengers, and the caller sits in back and opens the door, collects money, and does all the yelling. When you do want to take a minibus they are very convenient and easy to find. You just stand on the side of the road and there will be one within two minutes. You take it in the general direction of where you want to go, give them 6 Rand, and tell them when you want to get out. Personally I think its really interesting that since there isn’t a subway that is sort of the legitimate form of local public transportation. Its efficient, inexpensive, and gets you where you need to go. Its known for being unsafe at night and I’ve heard horror stories of being robbed and held at gunpoint, so I wont test it. One dusk comes the whole world changes. As my dad always says, nothing good happens after 2 am. Its not exactly true, but you definitely don’t test it here. But anyways, there is always an interesting mix of people on the bus and you are practically sitting on top of each other. Sometimes they play inappropriate rap music regardless of the elderly women on the bus. These buses are definitely not legal, and I’m sure many of the drivers aren’t licensed to drive them. But its cool, This is Africa.

March 21st and All of its Glory

So today is a big day, and the reasons are fourfold. First off its human rights day in South Africa which is in honor of those who fought for a just and democratic society. It’s a bigger holiday than I expected, there is no class and all the public buildings and banks are closed. The second and third reasons are that it is my half birthday, and that today marks the two month anniversary of coming to Cape Town. Finally, this morning I woke up to an email from the U.S. Bureau of Education saying I was chosen to be a recipient  of the Gilman Scholarship. This scholarship is for study abroad students who demonstrate academic merit, financial need, and promise to do a project within their community relative to their experience abroad. I applied for the scholarship last fall and was put on the wait-list, and in january I was told that the wait period was over and I wouldn’t be receiving the award. I’m not quite sure what happened in between January and now, but I’m so grateful for whatever transpired.

    The idea for this blog actually began with the application for the scholarship. The project I had promised to do is to write about my experience, including the cultural differences and challenges I face along with my day to day activities. Also I will be writing an article summarizing my experience abroad and discussing the culture, politics, hardships, and lifestyle in South Africa, specifically Cape Town. This article will be featured in the Holliston Reporter (thanks Grandpa), and will be sent in to other local newspapers just for kicks. The goal of all of this is to increase international education and encourage students to study abroad, and also inform people of what it is like in South Africa. When I was choosing this program I got countless warnings about how dangerous, unwelcoming, and poverty-struck the country was along with a million other reasons not to study here. Although it's somewhat true, there is so much more to South Africa and I hope to open people's mind and broaden  their knowledge of the country and culture. This is most incredible place I have ever been and I am more amazed everyday. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

     I’m really surprised about this opportunity and my blog has varied quite a bit from the original intention, but I’ll get it back on track. If you would like to know more about the scholarship or my project the website for the scholarship is www.iie.org/gilman and I'd be happy to email a copy of the project plans I had sent in for the scholarship

Thanks everyone for reading, I’m excited that this blog is so popular and is now a huge part of my time abroad.

oh, and P.S.  I will be purchasing a camera shortly so I can start to post more pictures. I have so much to show you :)

Happy St. Patricks Day!

What a weekend, we had a blast celebrating the holiday. It’s not really a big deal here, and I even spoke to a few people who didn’t know about it. Luckily we know how to celebrate, as does the Irish bar downtown. It was a busy week last week so we deserved it. On Saturday we went to Old Biscuit Mill as usual and got amazing sangria, and then back at the flats we got a keg and played a bunch of drinking games, and taught some to our friends, and finished the night at Dubliners.
On Sunday we went to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and got a tour of the gardens. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t listen to much of what the tour guide said, but he was funny, and the flowers were beautiful. There were so many different trees, flowers, and plants, along with some enormous spiders. It was the perfect day for it too, sunny and beautiful, as usual. Afterwards there was the concert that I mentioned last week. It was better than expected. Freshly Ground is such a good band, the lead singer has a beautiful voice, and the band was very talented and different. It was a great show and I’d Like, which is the song I posted and is my favorite, was even more incredible live, it gave me goosebumps.

Alicia and I before Freshly Ground

This week will be long, its known as Crunch week at UCT and I’ll be spending most of the time in the library. As much as I’d like to play at the beach all week I have two tests next week, a term project due before break, and a few assignments to catch up on. Unfortunately school comes first.

Busy Week

    Hi everyone, glad you’re all enjoying my blog. I’m surprised how many views I’ve gotten. I’ll try to post regularly. Feel free to email or comment if you have any questions or specific things you want me to talk about.
     School has been really busy, I’m on campus from early morning until around 4 or 5 everyday and I usually have a few hours of homework. I have two exams this week and a project that I need to get done before Easter break so I pretty much studied all weekend. I’m also still working on getting an internship for the summer so that’s time consuming. I feel like I shouldn’t be doing so much work since I’m abroad and I should be seeing and doing things, but I do need to get good grades.
    I go out on weekend nights, and am making more African friends. A bunch of my American friends went to Simons Town for the weekend but Alicia (one of my roommates), Alyssa (a very good friend), and I were among the few that stayed behind and we had a nice weekend. Friday night was our friend Charles’ birthday and we saw him out at this bar called Dubliners so that was a fun night. It’s one of my favorite bars and has three bars within it, all with different vibes. Downstairs is a live band in the front and then a more relaxed quieter bar in the back, and upstairs has a dj and is more like a club. The music is great and they play a lot of classics and songs we know. We’re usually right up front by the band and sang into the mic this weekend. I’m a terrible singer so I don’t think everyone in the bar necessarily enjoyed it.
    Yesterday I got a lot of work done, I had about 150 pages to read for my sociology class (which I really don’t enjoy), and so afterwards Alicia, Alyssa, and I went to a mexican restaurant called Fat Cactus. The food was delicious and it had a great atmosphere. It had a bit of an American feel to it and is close to one of the UCT residence halls so it’s very popular with students. Afterwards we went to our friend Athi’s apartment and then went to a local pub where we met up with some of our friends who work at the Cafe I frequent. It was kind of an early night and today I’m back to doing homework. I think a big difference between studying abroad here as opposed to Europe is the amount of school work. It’s actually very real and kind of difficult, we don’t just automatically pass, we have to try and keep up with all the work.

View from campus during the day

View from campus at night

    I do enjoy school though, I’m making lots of South African and Zimbabwean friends. I’m also getting very tan in between classes. Thursdays on campus are a lot of fun, there is a party type thing on the jammie steps and a bar, club, or company sets up a dj stand and plays music and has dancing competitions for bar tabs and other things. It’s pretty popular, the steps get packed with students and it gets us ready for the weekend.
    Everyone keeps saying its going to get cold soon, I’m not sure I believe them. It’s still going to be in the 80’s and 90’s all week. I plan on doing my work while at the pool.
    This friday my roommate Alix’s boyfriend is coming to visit for 10 days, which will be fun. And this weekend we might go a music festival saturday and we're taking a tour of Kirstenbosch botanical gardens on sunday and there is a concert there that night. The band Freshly Ground is playing and they’re really good. They play the song in the video I posted, which is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.
    I have to get back to homework, but feel free to let me know if there’s anything I’m forgetting to talk about. I’d love ideas of blogging topics.

Saturday, School, and Coffee

It’s been a while, sorry for the wait. We’re going into the fourth week of classes, I can’t believe how fast this semester is going.
    Things have been good. Actually let me rephrase that, things are incredible, I’m still loving it just as much as the first week here. School is a bit of a drag, I really wish I could just explore and sit on the beach all day. Who knew you’d actually have to study at study abroad?
Since school started its been pretty busy. It was really hard to schedule my classes and took me an extra week, so it’s been switched around a bit since I last wrote. The upper level math class is an ‘experimental course’ and was actually very much based on chemical engineering, which I have no experience in. I dropped it and added two classes, a mathematical computer programming course and a sociology course on crime and deviance. The programming class seems really easy and basic. I already have experience with Matlab so it’ll be a nice refresher. To be honest I’m totally uninterested in the crime and deviance course, but I pretend. I figured pretending might keep me more focused. One of my good friends Ally is in the class which motivates me to actually attend lectures and do the reading. I’ll get credit for it, and I hope the tests wont be too difficult but I’m just not a humanities person so the motivation and interest just isn’t there. Plus its my last class in the afternoon, so it seems very easy to just ditch and go downtown or to the beach. I know this makes it seem like I never go, but I really do, I just wish I didn’t have to.

    Last weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to Old Biscuit Mill, which I think I’ve mentioned before, but in case I haven’t, its amazing. It’s a market that’s only open on Saturday’s and has absolutely everything under the sun. They sell a lot of really cute clothes, and I’ve looked around a bit, but haven’t gotten anything yet. The best part about it, in my opinion, is the food, free samples, and almost real iced coffee. First, let me describe some of the food. If I had a camera I would take pictures of all of it. So the first time I got an omelet from the omelet guys, and it had feta, cheddar, mozzarella, smoked salmon, rocket(spinach), and tomatoes. It was absolutely amazing. That was when Chris was here and we also got some bomb organic Roibos tea,  with mint and lemon in it. It was so good we went back for seconds. Also, since Chris and I know how to work a room with free samples, we went house. Every stand has samples, from dried fruits, nuts, sausage, honey, olives and everything olive related, meats, cheeses, smoothies, lemonade, breads, humus, and last but certainly not least pesto. We pretty much put the pesto lady out of business. She had about 12 flavors of pesto, so we tried each one a few times. The second time I got a falafel, which was amazing, but I think Charlie, the falafel man at UVM, might be a little better. They put more in the falafel here, including eggplant, cabbage, and beets, but it was layered so it wasn’t all together. I know you were all dying to hear about my falafel experience.
Now onto the important stuff: Coffee. There is a serious problem here, worse than poverty, AIDS, and racial tension (Just kidding). They have no idea what coffee is. My morning coffee is instant, sad but true. I have a never-dying love for a good iced coffee, and when I first tried to order it I was asked what kind of ice cream I wanted in it. I went for the next best thing which was an Iced Americano, which is supposed to be expresso and water, but they’re silly and put milk in it. Then there’s a coffee crush, which is like a Coffee Coolata. All I want is cold coffee poured over ice. I even tried Mcdonalds and they were even further off, they put chocolate and whipped cream on it. The hot coffee is pretty much all instant unless its an Americano, which is NOT coffee. I like them, but I want a nice Ethopian Yirgecheffe, or perhaps a French Dark Roast, hot, black, and freshly brewed. I think that I should open up a cafe here, and introduce and mainstream brewed coffee. Anyways, at the Old Biscuit Mill there is a cafe called Espresso Lab, and the line is crazy long, but it was worth it. I got an Iced Americano, but it was the most delicious espresso I’ve ever had. They put the espresso in a shaker with ice and shook it for so long, so instead of the espresso being poured into water, the espresso melted the ice and I think it made a huge difference. It was divine.
    So to continue the story of my saturday we went to the Pride Festival & Parade in Cape Town. It was at a suburb called Green Point, and was a ton of fun. It was similar to the P-Town parade, but the parade was a lot smaller and there were less transvestites and I think less gays. It wasn’t as wild. I think it’s somewhat of a big deal to have a pride festival at all in South Africa. Although Cape Town and UCT is accepting, I’m pretty sure the rest of the country isn’t as keen on the idea. Afterwards we went to a Rugby game, which was so much fun. We had really good seats and I was suprised on how big the stadium was. I would say about the size of Fenway, maybe a tiny bit smaller. I’ve watched rugby before so I kind of knew what was going on, but I don’t know all the rules and I think it was the first time a lot of my friends had seen rugby. During half time I went to get a beer at the bar and learned that there is no drinking in the seats, only in the bar. So it’s basically a room full of people chugging beers, which must be much more unsafe and rowdier than drinking in the stands, so I don’t really understand why thats a rule. Afterwards I went out to the local bar and hung out with some of my friends from SA and Zim. It was a fun end to a great day.

    Sunday was relaxing, I spent most of the day doing work and internship applications. I’ve applied to so many, but the ones I really want are the most competitive. Ideally I would get a position on an REU (research experience for undergrads) team. Hundreds apply, and about 4-12 are chosen for each project. They are all over the country and I keep applying but I can’t guarantee I’ll get one. It’s also a very timely process so I’ve spent a lot of time in the cafe using their internet. The cafe I go to here is called Cocoa Wah Wah, and its about the same distance away as Zia or Henderson’s, which are my two favorite cafe’s in the States, but is a different feel. It’s bigger and less homey than Henderson’s, but there’s a couch that I usually get. I’m also a little biased since I worked at both Henderson’s and Zia and spend more time at Henderson’s than my apartment in Vermont.

We’re also currently planning spring break, which is actually Easter Holiday, since its fall here. I think two of my good friends, Alicia and Alyssa, are going to go backpacking up the wild coast, which is on the east coast of South Africa. We would go from Port Elizabeth to Durban, and there’s a lot of wildlife, culture, and beautiful beaches in between. Some people are going to Botwana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, or Namibia, but I don’t think I’m done exploring SA yet.

Anywho, I gotta get some homework done. I’ll write more often, promise. It’ll probably also help keep them shorter, maybe. Hope you enjoyed my coffee rant.

Cheers

First Week at UCT

So I officially started classes at University of Cape Town last monday. It’s nice to get back in a routine, but I did enjoy all the time I had to explore the city. Registration for classes was a little annoying, its all done manually, on paper, and in person, which is very different from the online registration that I am used to. Two of the classes I was registered for didn’t actually exist. I was told that could happen, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen to me, for two of my classes. After that it pretty much took me all week to figure out my schedule. The scheduling is also different here. Some classes are everyday and others just a few, but there’s not set blocked schedules like at UVM, where every Monday class is also on Wednesday and Friday, and Tuesday classes on Thursday. Here it seems to be pretty random. Also most classes have tutorials, which are like a work period or lab that is at a different time than the class.
There’s only a few higher level math classes that are this semester that I can take, since most of them are full year courses. I am taking Numerical Methods, which will be challenging but fun. Its three days a week at 8 AM, and there’s a tutorial for 3 hours Friday afternoons, which is very unfortunate. I am taking a Xhosa class, which is a South African language, and it is everyday, with an additional hour tutorial and hour language lab. I wont get any direct credits for it but I think it’ll be really interesting to learn it. I am also taking a statistics for business class which will count toward my minor.  It’s Monday through Thursday with an optional tutorial on friday. My professors seem great so far, the lectures are pretty big which is new to me, so I don’t really get to know the professors. I did get to chat with my statistics professor, he’s very awkward but a really nice guy. He was born in California but is South African. The campus is very international and very diverse. There seems to be people from every nationality and culture. I have met people from Norway, Holland, Portugal, and all over Africa who come to UCT for their outstanding academics. It is also a very attractive campus and it’s a lot of fun to sit on campus and people watch. There are steps in the middle of campus called the Jammie stairs and its packed with students hanging out in between classes chatting with friends, doing homework, eating lunch, or just enjoying the view of the city below with a parade of students walking past.
Students are also really friendly here, and its easy to strike up a conversation with anyone around you. I have noticed though that the white South Africans are a little less friendly than most of the other cultures and races. I’m not sure why this is but others have noticed it too. I have met some nice white South Africans, so there are definitely exceptions. It was a long week, but I’m sure the semester will fly by, even though I wish it wouldn’t. We ended the week with an amazing hike up Table Mountain. It was strenuous and hot, but the view from the top was incredible. It’s actually one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. We were all exhausted so after our naps we went to a bar in Observatory, which is an area popular with students. It’s not as safe as Rosebank or Rondebosch, which is where I live and UCT is, respectively, but it was a lot of fun. Today we tried to go shopping in the city, but forgot that everywhere is closed on Sundays, so we just got milkshakes and walked around the Company Gardens, which was beautiful.
 I think school could be a little difficult here, and I plan on doing well, but I am also here to explore and experience the country, so I’ll have to find a nice balance.

How's this for a 10 minute tan?

Sobonana! (See you!)

Home Stay

So last weekend was the night of my home stay in a nearby township. I was staying in a home with one of my best friends, Alyssa, but I was still pretty nervous and wasn’t sure what to expect. I was advised to go in with no expectations and I did my best. When we got to the home I was totally relieved, our host mama was the nicest woman and we spent the afternoon playing with her granddaughter, Gudani,  and other children in the neighborhood and talking to her daughter, Gladyss.  Gudani and her friend, Alicia, were the sweetest little girls. We went to the park with them and played games and then went back and kicked a soccer ball around with some of the older kids. Everyone was really sweet and loved talking to us. They enjoyed having us around many people came up just to introduce themselves and say hi. The homes were small and obviously not well off, but for the most part people seemed happy and everyone was really open with each other, almost like one big family. The house we stayed in a nice TV and cable, but didn’t have hot water, a kitchen table, or even a sink in the bathroom. Which made brushing our teeth interesting, we had to ask how and where to do it and ended up using a mug. For an appetizer that evening we had chicken feet, which were not that bad, and were seasoned nicely. They tasted just like chicken but the fact that they were feet freaked me out a bit. I was the only one to eat it though. For dinner we had a traditional dinner of  a rice/corn type thing, chicken, carrots, and a gravy. It was delicious but nothing out of the ordinary. At night we chatted a bit and went to bed sort of early, we were pretty tired from playing with the kids all day and had to wake up early for church.
The next morning we started our day with porridge, which I thought would be gross so I put about 5 spoonfuls of sugar in it, and then it was bearable. I scarfed it down pretty fast so I wouldn’t think about what I was eating. Definitely wasn’t my favorite. We then walked to meet the other Americans and went to the church in the neighborhood. I’m not sure what I expected for the service, but I sure didn’t get that. There was a band on stage that played songs sung in Xhosa and a few in english and everyone seemed to know all the words and even dances. All the kids stood on the side by the stage dancing to the music. It was actually very good, and almost made us move a bit. The pastor was white, but mostly everyone else wasn’t. It was a really good service and he got really into his examples and stories. It almost didn’t feel like church, except for when we prayed. Instead of getting on our knees we lifted our arms.  After the service there was tea, coffee, and cookies served and everyone chatted in the lobby.
Afterwards we went to Mzoli’s, which is a restaurant type venue that is known for their incredible meat. It’s actually all they do. All drinks, bread, or any other food must be brought in except for meat and pap. Chris and a few kids who didn’t do the home stay met us there. Our meat was preordered and after a few minutes a huge bucket, bigger than a horsefeed bucket, was placed in front of us, overflowing with sausage, lamb, steak & chicken. We were given metal bowls similar to dogbowls to share between two of us and we dug in with our fingers, finishing the bucket. Some people were asking for napkins, but Chris and I were used to chicken fridays, so it just came natural. It was some of the best meat I had ever had and by the end Chris and I had an entire bowl full of bones. It was a really cool atmosphere though, there was a DJ so a bunch of us got up to dance. I really enjoyed it and will definitely go back again.