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.