Rose Garden and Taste of Cape Town

I wish I was better at updating my blog but this time I am only 2 weeks late so that isn't too bad. I am also writing this instead of a paper...oh procrastination. For the weekend of April 14-15, I went to the Stellenbosch market! It is about a hour train ride from where I live. We had to take two different train lines to get there. Stellenbosch is more inland and is where a lot of the vineyards are. It is an absolutely beautiful area. The market was very similar to Old Biscuit Mill (look at my older post) and it reminds me of Piccadilly Market in London. I got lemonade there!!! My body went into shock because it was the first time I have had it in about 3 months! and it was the real thing, hand squeezed! Also had some wonderful free samples of dried fruits, fudge, cheese, bread, and biltong(like beef jerky but better). On the way home, we saw a man get in a fight over a golf club. A man tried to bring on a golf club onto the train but a security guard said it was a weapon so they started yelling and making a scene about the golf club. The security broke the golf club in half! (must have been pretty cheap) We don't know the ending because we hopped on the train. This weekend (April 21-22) I went to the Rose Garden in Wynberg. I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of roses. There were at least 50 different breeds, they were all different shapes and colors. We were the only ones at the garden so it was very relaxing. They also had a cute little restaurant that was busy with people eating brunch. It had the most spectacular view of Table Mountain. We ended up walking back from Wynberg, which turned out to be a 7 mile walk!!! On sunday, Jenessa and I went to Taste of Cape Town, which was a swanky food festival. It cost R80 to enter (abt 10 USD) and then you paid rand for the "currency" that was used at the festival. It was great getting to try some dishes that were made by Cape Towns best chiefs and restaurants. There were also lots of venders selling sweets, wine, liquor, cheese and meats. We went to watch a cooking show and we participated by dipping the cookie into chocolate!!  I am the next Julia Childs!!!  

Girls Botswana have fun!

For spring break 2012 I went to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe!!! We left Saturday morning at 430 to fly to Jo'berg where we would pick up our big safari bus that would drive us around. It was named Armstrong and was a tank! Camping for ten days has given my a new appreciation for a warm shower and a soft bed and pillow! The first two days were consisted of lots of driving up into Botswana! Botswana has more cows then people!! They are everywhere! In Botswana there were lots of check points were we had to get off of Armstrong and clean off both pair of shoes so that we were not spreading any disease to the cattle. The EU buys their cattle from Botswana so Botswana has to regulate the meat very carefully.On our third day we stared our morning off at the Okavango Delta.  We loaded our stuff and ourselves into mikaros, which are carved out of wood and are similar to a canoe but much longer and has shorter sides. Our guide called herself Kenny and did a great job taking us around the delta. Later that day I got to try to stand and steer the mikaro. It is like paddle boarding but the pole touches the ground because you push off of it to get the boat to move. The next day we went on a early morning game walk and saw tons and tons of Zebras. That night our guides took us on a sunset "cruise" on the mikaros. Kenny picked some waterlilies and made them into necklaces for us! The sunset was spectacular! The only unfortunate about staying in the delta was that there were no bathrooms. aka you used a hole in the ground. The next day we went to Planet Baobab. A Baobab tree is in Lion King! The next day we were off to Chobe! Went on early morning game drive and saw lions eating a freshly killed Impala! That night we went on a sunset cruise and saw tons and tons and tons of elephants and hippos.  Even saw a 2 week old elephant! It was the size of a Great Dane. The next day we drove into Zambia and spent 3 days there! Victoria Falls was at its peak because of all the rain that was coming from upstream due to it being the rainy  season! I have never seen such a beautiful force of nature before! I went to an elephant safari and played with lions! I even flew over the falls in something called a micro flight! it had a propeller (ugh) We went into Zim. our last day so see the falls from the other side!

Waka Waka (This time for Africa)

So sorry I haven't posed in awhile but I've  been busy busy busy. I am actually worried I am going to leave Cape Town with things I didn't get to do that I wanted to do. Time is flying by!! I have already been here for 60 days and yet it seems like I arrived just yesterday. So here is a re-cap of the last 2 weeks: I volunteer in the township called Khayelitsha in a half-way community called the Ark. It is Christian based and it is for families and those recovering from drugs and/or alcohol. Sometimes I play soccer with the young boys and they are all star players!!!!!! The 7-10 years old play just as good or even better then most high schoolers back home do! They have incredible foot work. or I go to the young girls ward and we play dolls and read books. I met one girl called Cassandra and she is 10 and has a huge vocabulary and can read on a 9th grade level!!! All the children at the Ark are so well behaved and polite. Back home I see kids the same age being brats and yelling all the time while the kids at the ark for the most part seemed glad that we there to play and hang out with them.

About 2 weekends ago, I went to a naked bike race in downtown Cape Town that was part of a protest that was pushing for the use of less petrol. The lady in charge said that it was illegal to be completely naked (most people wore crazy outfits that showed as much skin as possible) There were some people who were butt-naked and I thought that must be extremely uncomfortable to bike that way. Later that day we visited Old Biscuit Mill and I had a delicious sandwich that will hold the standards for the rest of the sandwiches that I eat in my life. 2 kinds of pesto, hummus, falafel, pickles, crusty loaf of bread. That afternoon we climbed Lion's Head to watch the sunset and to climb back down by the full moonlight! The climb up took about an hour and half and we had to use chains and hand/footholds to get up some parts of the climb. Watching the sunset into the Atlantic Ocean was pretty spectacular because at home its impossible to see that. Then seeing all the lights of Cape Town and the surrounding areas light up was insane!! One moment it was dark and the next it was like a switch was flipped and the whole valley side was lit up. Well the moon didn't rise right away and when it did it was blocked by Table Mountain for a little while. But once we saw it, WOW WOW WOW WOW, it was breathtaking. It was HUGE, and it lit up Table Mountain so that you could see the outline, pretty spooky at the same time. Even with the help of the full moon the climb down took much longer and we all lost our footing a couple of times. But we all made it down with minimal cuts and bruises.  
All the fun activities have to happen on the weekend because UCT is a tough school. I have most of my classes every single day and then our lectures break out into groups of 10 or so and that group meets on another day where we have readings that we have to do and then discuss. We have been getting some of our grades back and the grading scale here is a tad different then at home. A 75-100 B 61- 74 C 50-60 and 0-49 is a F.

Stormers Vs. Sharks

So I decided to make cookies last week and discovered that my cookie sheet was too long and wide for our oven so the oven door was cracked while the cookies baked. Surprisingly the cookies turned out fantastic!! They were gooey on the inside while crispy on the outside! The reality of school has finally set in :( I like the whole study abroad part just minus the study part hahaha. On Saturday I hiked Table Mountain with some friends, it was more of vertical climb. It was sunny at the base but it was cloudy at the peak. We were trying to climb Devil's Peak but once we got up into the clouds we could not tell were our path went so we just followed it and we ended up on Minor's Peak. I don't know why they call it Minor's Peak, it was a extremely tough climb!! At one point we were climbing up the side of the mountain going from rock to rock. But the clouds started to clear off and the view of Cape Town was beautiful. We ended up hiking for 6 hours!! We walked into Cape Town from UCT!!!!! The PRIDE pradae and festival was going on so we thought we would drop by and see what was going on. I have never seen so many men with 6 packs walking around in sparkly, glitterly, colorful speedos in my life. That night we went to see the Stormers (Cape Town) versus the Sharks (Durban) in rugby. Rugby is a man's sport and puts football to shame!! It is A. full of manly men, B. they don't stop every 30 secs like in football, C. they don't wear tons of padding and D. they get tackled and keep on playing!! The Stormers ended up winning!!!(YAY) Then on Sunday, some of us road the train to Kalk Bay. On the train ride there were lots of children dancing for money and I can honestly say that dancing on a moving train is a talent. Kalk Bay is a cute town on the water that has tons of really cool hippie-like shops and antique shops. Not to mention they had ice cream cones that were dipped in chocolate or caramel. delish!!

OceanView

I have been in South Africa for over one month now (which I can't believe) and each day is just as exciting as the last! On Monday we went to the township called Mitchel's Plain (its outside of Cape Town) and met up a group of people that were being forced out of their houses and had no idea where they were going to go. We brought food to them, talked with them and played with their kids. There were lots of Rastafarian's there and I found it extremely interesting to learn about them and their religion. At home when we think Rastafarian, we think of someone from Jamaica with dreads who smokes a ton of weed, and that is so far from the truth. They showed me in the Bible where it says not to shave your hair (hence the dreads, it is a way to have hair that is hygienic when you can't shave it). We are keeping in contact with them so we can come visit them in their new homes and hang out and help them. On Wednedsay I went into Cape Town with some friends and we took swing classes and a dance studio called Que Pasa. Dancing may not be my thing. I love watching people dance BUT I think I should stick to the watching and not the dancing. I sure do have 2 left feet and they both stepped on my dance partners feet...........lots of times. But then on Thursday I joined UCT's Ballroom Dance club and made even more of a fool on myself. Managed to trip over my partner.awkwarddddd. But I am hoping that with each time I go I will make giant strides in improving.  This weekend, our program, CIEE, planed a homestay for us in the township Oceanview. Oceanview is a colored township and I made my family chocolate chip cookies. They don't have chocolate chip cookies in the stores here, so I took a chocolate bar and chopped it up into pieces. yum yum! Friday evening we met our families. Abby and I were placed with Natalie and Marcel. They had the two cutest/precious children I have ever met. Keyanna and Corde. I hope the spelling of the names is correct or close to it. Keyanna was 5 and Corde was 3. What was really special was that Natalie's sister lived next door and was also hosting students and her mother lived up the block and was also hosting students. So on Saturday, all 3 families got together and cooked, eat and drank. I felt like I was back home in Marvin.  I found that I became very attached to the family and it was only over a 3 day period. In 3 days I had fallen in love with this family and had to hold back tears when we said our goodbyes. But it was only goodbye for the time being because we are all going to go back in visit some time in March we hope for the Navy festival. 

Robben Island

This Friday we went to Cliffton 4  beach after classes. The water is so freakin COLD!!! I put my feet in the water and the water was so cold that it too my breath away!! So needless to say I did not spend too much time in the water. I thought I was in Grand Cayman because the water was crystal clear, little to no waves and palm trees surrounding us but there were so differences such as the water being COLD and we were surrounded by mountains. The only unfortunate thing was that as windy as it is here, it blew sand all over us!!! We did not rent chairs so we just laid down our towels and got pelted by sand. I still have sand in my hair, scalp, fingernails, ears and just about everywhere else. Saturday me and some friends went into Cape Town to Green Market Square. Green Market Square is stall after stall after stall of souvenirs that you can haggle and buy. They had bags, dresses, bracelets, African masks, earings, shoes, figurines of animals, paintings, etc... Anything that you could think of, they had it at this market. We also walked into the Flower Market and saw BEAUTIFUL bouquets of flowers. Later that night we had a braai (kind of like having a cookout or BBQ back home) and then some of us took a mini-cab to Cliffton 4 for a concert. They played 60's,70's and 80's American music. It was a blast. There were tons of families and all the kids had glow-sticks and I was really envious of them. After the concert we stayed at the beach and looked up at the stars and I even saw a shooting star!!! Sunday we went to Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela was held in prison. We took a 25 min boat ride out to Robben Island. The tour of the rooms where the political prisoners (political and criminal prisoners were kept separate) were held were given by ex-prisoners. I found this to be shocking because how could you work somewhere that once tortured you and striped you off all your rights and your family? I think that part of it has to do with forgiveness and out of despair rises hope. 

Fire Drill

First week of classes down!!!! Sorry that I am a week behind on posting but we lost internet for the weekend and then I have  been going non-stop all weekend but here was last week. I have most of my class 3 to 5 times a week unlike at home where I either have them 2-3 times a week. We also have tutorials (discussion groups) that happen once a week also so we spend a lot of time in the classroom. My schedule is classes from 9-3, which leaves the afternoon open to do whatever I am feeling like doing. The walk from Forest Hill is like ascending Mt. Everest! The first 5 mins are flat/downhill but the last 15 mins are a vertical climb. The day that climbing those steps is easy will be the day that I know I am in the best shape of my life!!! But at the same time, Table Mountain is the in the background, so just being in awe of it helps the walk considerably.  I am taking Sex, Love and Taboo in the African Languages (by far my favorite class), Afrikaans (I should have stuck with Spanish), SA history up to 1900 and the Odyssey. In all of my classes we will have different professors teaching us throughout the semester. I am excited to get different perspectives and teaching styles on the same subject. In Afrikaans, we have one teacher for Tuesday and Wednesday and another teacher on Thursday and Friday. This is wonderful because we get to hear two different ways to pronounce words by native speakers but at the same time they didn’t really communicate about how much we covered in just 2 days and started on a harder lesson that we weren’t ready for. BUT I think my favorite thing that happened was the firedrill at 5am Wednesday night. I woke up to sirens and thought it was a fire truck driving by or something like that so I fall back to sleep. A couple of minutes later, I hear banging on our apartment door and a guy yelling something. Half asleep I think to myself, Oh dear God I am going to die; we are having a riot/rally/attack. But then I hear someone yelling FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!!!!!!!! Now I think you have got to be kidding me; there can be no way we are on fire. Then we hear FIRE DRILL FIRE FIRE DRILL. I feel like they should have been saying that the whole time instead of just fire.  So me and my flat mates all go outside to the courtyard and wait in line with all the other students who live in the D block. Granted there are Blocks A-E so it took a while to find ours. Then we stood outside for about 15 mins while everyone else awoke from their slumbers and came outside. Then we waited in a line and told a girl with a clipboard our room # and name and she checked us off and let us go back to bed, 30 mins later. It was the most intense firedrill I have ever been in. The thing I was wondering about was if there is a real fire what alarm goes off because the alarm we heard was being hand cranked my a student in charge of the fire drill??? We didn’t hear any internal alarm!! 

Old Biscuit Mill

On Friday night UCT RAG held Big Bash. UCT RAG is a club of students who raise money for SHAWCO which is an organization that the Students Health and Welfare Centres Organisation, is a student-run, non-profit community outreach organisation based at UCT. The Big Bash was a lot of African DJ's spinning some tunes so students could dance to. The campaign was drinking for the children!!!! Smirnoff Ice was one of the sponsors and the $$$ went to SHAWCO.  

So Saturday morning we decided to go to the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock (abt a 15 min walk from Forest Hill). Old Biscuit Mill is a market where they have booths set up with fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese, breads, sweets, etc..... Then they have a section where you can buy meals, I had a nutella banana crepe (the best thing I have ever tasted). They had sandwiches that looked like they  had fallen from heaven, they had pizza's, omelets, hummus, coffee, just about anything you could wish or want. They also had cute little shops where you could buy scarves, headbands, ear rings, clothing, bags etc..... I am going every Saturday morning!!!!

The Garden Route........Cool Bananas

The Garden Route was 3 nights and 4 days of FUN!!!!!! The eastern cape of SA has a very very similar climate to Greece, and by that I mean that its very dry with lots of shrubs and mountains that arise from the sea. Our first stop was at a private game reserve. We saw 4 of the Big 5 (Lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, and water buffalo. We saw a cheetah that was literally 2 feet away from us feeding on a half eaten Springbok!!  Then we went to our hostel that was on the beach in Mossel Bay. The sunset there was amazing, especially because it was over the Indian Ocean!! I felt like I was back in the time the dinosaurs because of the type of plants that were growing on the mountains that were practically acting as sand dunes.  The next day we canoed in the Wilderness National Park and saw a water fall.   Then we went to Tsitsikamma park and hiked all around the park and went on  suspension bridges that shook liked crazy!!! We stayed overnight in the forest and had dinner at a place that was dedicated to Elvis!!!! It was so weird eating at a place in the middle of SA that was all about Elvis!!!! Our 3 day was full adventure!! We bungee jumped off the highest birdge in the world!! 216 meters!!!! It was an out of body experience and next time I do it I am going to jump backwards!! I felt safe the whole entire time and you honestly don't have too much time to think about anything because it all happens so fast!! Later that day we went to Elephant Experience and walked hand-in-trunk with elephants that had been rescued. Lot of them were from Botswana. Our last day we went to an Ostrich farm and that is when I decided that they were the STUPIDEST creatures that God created. They may run faster then the speed of light but they are just so awkward!! i got to hug and feed them but there was no way I was going to hop on its back and ride it!!! Then we went to Cango Caves and went exploring through the caves and go to go through tunnels that caused us to craw on our stomachs and slide on our backs!! 

Muizenburg

So today we took the train to Muizenburg to go to the beach! We bought a "first class" ticket because we hoped into a first class car and got harassed by the ticket lady. She was yelling at us in IsiXhosa so therefore we had no idea what was going on. The beach at Muizenburg was prettier then any place I have ever see, including postcards and Nat Geo magazines. The water was clear and cold and their were mountains surrounding us. The water was packed with people trying to surf, it reminded me of Endless Summer. When we first got in the water there was a black flag up with a white shark in it so we figured that was okay and then later on in the day the flag was red with a white shark in it. We found out later that the red meant that a shark was VERY likely. That is exactly what i want to hear!!! The train ride back was an experience I will never forget. We rode third class back to Rosebank and the whole time the doors are open, which was really quite a blessing because there is no AC and it was hot as hell on the train with some many bodies pressed up on you. 

sooooooooooo many steps

                                                     View from Table Mountain 

Cape Point, the Southern most tip of Africa

I can finally blog!!!! It has taken 2 weeks to get internet and I am not too sure how stable it will be!! Cape Town has to be one the prettiest places on this earth, there are mountains that jut right out of the ocean!! It will be hard to try to put 2 weeks into one post so i will just put in the importance stuff. Yesterday we went Great White Shark cage diving, which is my biggest fear in the whole world coming true! When we climbed into the cage in the 10 degree Celsius water I felt like I was on shark week!! One of the great white's that we saw did the famous jump a little bit out of the water and open and then snap his mouth shut!! (I was trembling at this point) Couple of days ago I greatly underestimated the strength of the South African sun in the summer......The cool wind lulled me into a false sense of security. University of Cape Town (UCT) is located on Table Mountain and it is HILLY!!!! There are more steps on this campus in all of Wilmington times 100000000000000. and if you are not walking up steps then you are walking up a vertical incline! but it is great for running!!