I promise I'll get around to blogging about Mozambique...
This past weekend was bomb. First of all, today was one of the most beautiful days we've had in Cape Town in a while. Lots of rain and gloomy days have unfortunately put a damper on moods, not to mention tons of useless homework. My tutor graded 4 ethics tests so far from last friday, no one passed yet!! How encouraging!! Anyways, I did some grocery shopping today, and went to some class. I just passed out in the driveway for close to 2 hours; sometimes the sun does that to ya.
1 o 'clock on Friday was a time I had been longing for since Monday. Once I finished my ethics test, I went with Ned and Robert to buy Rocking the Daisies tickets. Rocking the Daisies is a huge music festival an hour from Cape Town. It's a three day festival on the weekend of my birthday, so a bunch of friends are all goin' to celebrate; it should be a blast! We went to this really good place for lunch/dinner, where I got a really delicious, cheap pizza. Later on, we went out with a bunch more kids to one of my favorite night spots in Cape Town thus far. Zula has live music every Wednesday and Friday, so that's my main incentive to going. I had a lot of fun despite the fact that the band was not quite as good as the entertainment usually is.
Saturday, I woke up at 8 am to get on a bus to Hermanus to go sea kayaking with southern white whales (i think). It was by far one of the coolest things I've done in my life. Hermanus is the most adorable area; it's very touristy, but it has tons of shops, restaurants, and markets. It's so well known for the whale watching in the area, a whale festival is coming up there as well. I went out to breakfast when we first got there, because I wasn't heading for the sea until 1, since the groups ran in shifts. I went with my friend to this really cute hole in the wall place, where we got awesome food, and I got an ACTUAL chocolate milkshake. Every time I order a milkshake it is milk and whatever flavor of my choice mixed together to make something such as coffee milk. Milkshakes are very hard to come by, and all my friends here are sick of me talking about the appeal of Ashley's Ice Cream, ha. Before lunch, we went to this awesome bead store where I got a couple beads; a turtle and an elephant. I'm excited to turn them into jewelry. When it was finally time to go out in the kayaks, Ned and I shared a kayak. There was a guide that kayaked in front of us, yelling directions and pointing out spots and fun facts. We ended up having the best group that went out. We were kayaking literally like 10 feet next to these enormous whales. At one point, we were surrounded by 6 whales, and we weren't allowed to paddle anywhere because we would be paddling into a whale! The kayaking lasted for a little over an hour; it was truly amazing. After that, I got awesome gelato at this little place...good ice cream is very hard to come by in this country, as well as pizza. I am very passionate about ice cream...and pizza. The weather was also awesome all day, I forgot to mention that.
Hermanus was only about a half hour away from Gansbaai, which is where I went shark cage diving. I found out that these two areas are so well known for great whites that this is where a lot of the filming for Planet Earth and Discovery Channel shows take place.
On Saturday night, Danni's Dad was in town (just stopped into South Africa for a few days). He took me and 5 of our other friends out for a nice dinner in Camp's Bay, which is a really ritzy, touristy beach town in Cape Town. It was really nice to be treated to something, we were all on such a high from not having to pay for our dinner afterwards, ha. After dinner, we went to a local bar called Pig and Swizzle.
For the entire weekend I had been talking about how I wanted to do something awesome on Sunday, but I had no concrete plans. Sunday afternoon I hopped on the train with Rachel, Ned, and Maryann. We were going to go past Muzenburg, which is the beach we normally go to, to Kalk's Bay. Kalk's Bay is by far one of my favorite areas that I've found in Cape Town so far. I got ice cream and then we were walking down by the docks at the marina. Rachel suggested that we ask a fisherman to take us out for a ride on his boat, and we all complied in a kind of joking manner. The next thing we know, we made friends with Donald, and he took us out for a 2 hours boat ride. Ned had to convince his wife over the phone to let Donald take us out, because she was making fish for dinner. It all worked out tho. What was originaly going to be a little scenic boat ride, turned into a whale watching/ seal spotting expedition. We bought some beer before we got on the boat, and enjoyed are sunset cruise around the harbor. After we parted with Donald, Danni and her Dad met us in Kalk's Bay at this AWESOME restaurant for dinner. Rachel had been there before, and she wanted to make it the spot that we would go for my birthday dinner. It had such an awesome vibe, and was right on the water. The walls on the inside were covered in antiques. It was really unique; there were tons of chandeliers everywhere, and huge medieval candels on all the tables. I got an awesome chicken meal, and to start off I was very adventurous and ate mussles!! AND I ate a Chilli Pepper!! Dinner was awesome. Afterwards we did some Sunday drinking to top it off.
Speaking of the train, last weekend I went to Muzenberg with my friends Jamie and Taylor. The last time we took the train we bought our tickets on the train, so we were planning on doing this again. This time, like halfway through our train ride, we were asked for our tickets. When we told him that we were going to buy our tickets on the train like we did last time, he told us to get off the train. We weren't the only ones being removed from the train. We proceed outside where we're told that we either have to pay a 50 rand fine for not having tickets, which is ridiculous, or we would be taken to the cops to be arrested and pay a 500 rand fine. We were skeptical at first, because this was a blatant example of corruption within authority. We tried talking to who was essentially a security guard, explaining that last time we had bought our tickets on the train, and that we really weren't trying to get away without paying. She was hearing none of it. We asked to speak to the Cops, they wouldn't let us. In the mean time, the train has already left, so we're stranded in some random area where we have no idea where we are. The cops come over eventually and tell us just to pay the fine; they were carrying huge guns across their chests, really soothing. And, eventually we paid the fine. There were two south African high schoolers that were in the same situation and we ended up having to loan them money so they didn't get arrested. A bunch of little kids, maybe 5 and 6, got kicked off the train as well, and blatantly didn't have the money to pay for the "fine." We all knew that the fine was essentially the security guards money for a couple beers later on, but whatever. The kids ended up being extremely racist, and we had to stand and talk to them in Muzenberg, while their friend brought them the money they owed us. They talked about how UCT has gone downhill because of all the "darkies" that have invaded, who have no brains, just meat up there. Well, the race issue here is something I could go on about for the next 5 hours, but I won't.
I've been thinking about, and people keep mentioning how far along on our trip!! It's so weird to think that I'm halfway done with my abroad experience in SA. I'm really trying to make the best of every minute. I don't want to leave without having done all the things I want to do!! Anways, I think we're gonna have a bonfire at our house tonight, so I'm gonna go chill and maybe play some dominoes...Hope everyone is doing well
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
So I started writing this post like two weeks ago...for some perspective...
So, I've been bombarded with work and will continue to be until I leave for Mozambique on Thursday evening.
On a lighter note...this past weekend all of CIEE participated in a home stay in Ocean View, a colored township nearby. Many of the residents of Ocean View have lived there for their entire lives, along with their parents and grandparents. During the Apartheid era, many of these people lived in a beautiful beach front area called Simonstown. Eventually being forcefully removed from Simonstown, a majority moved to Ocean View, which was developed in 1972 (i think).
On Friday night, we took a bus to Ocean View Secondary School, where I was greeted by Henry and Natasha. The casual introduction was followed by, "you're not a vegetarian are you?!" and then, "what's your religion?!" I passed one of the tests! Tasha and Henry have pictures of Jesus in every room, and even a lovely clock with Jesus as the clock face! In their living room, there is an enormous...thing...hanging on the wall with the lord's prayer on it. They're die hard roman catholics, and the other CIEE student staying with me, Kaitlyn, passed BOTH tests because she is catholic as well. Haha, when Tasha introduced me to some people one time she said, "and this is michelle...her dad is catholic!"
Tasha and Henry have three kids; Cheslyn, 9, Chante, 12, and Kyle 17. Unfortunately Kyle was away for the weekend so I didn't get to meet him, but Chante and Cheslyn were entertaining enough to make up for the absence of one sibling. The family is very popular, therefore I met tons of Ocean View residents...friends and family alike! My first new friend was Father Ashley, the priest at their church. He might have provided a bottle of Wild Turkey American Honey Whiskey...we might have finished it. After we headed back to the house, we hung out there for a little bit before moving on to the gathering going on a couple streets up. This township is a more developed township, all of the homes have walls, running water, and electricity. Me and Kaitlyn shared a bed that didn't really have its own room, but it worked out well. On Saturday morning, we were woken by Henry blaring a hip hop song from a "well known cape town DJ." These were the lyrics..."WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP." Let's just say I've been a happier sleepy person before. We watched TV which is something I hadn't done in a couple of months. High School Musical II was the preferred movie, followed by Eurotrip, ha.
We got to my family's friends' house and there were other American kids there, like 3 or 4 families. We started watching the Olympics, which was cool, since I haven't been able to watch them at all since they've started. I wish we coulda done a little better than table tennis, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Then, to my pleasant surprise we started playing dominos!!! I'm going to pause to give a shout out to grandma freer right here. :) The only thing was, after I talked up my dominos game a little, we started playing a version of dominos that I was not so good at after all, ha. It was fun, I learned a new way which I will someday teach you grandma, don't you worry. We all played, and chatted and sipped on the whiskey until the bottle was gone, forcing Henry to grab an American and run to get some beer. In this township, there are no liquor licenses. Therefore, there aren't liquor stores. People go to the back doors of particular houses, using a special knock in order to buy booze.
The next morning, we went to a soup kitchen to cook for the poor/homeless. We chopped up veggies for a couple of hours, and then spent the rest of the time playing fun games like musical chairs. Chante got peed on by Adriana, her cousin. She had to walk around in a comforter for...a while. Let me just say that I've never had so much coffee in such a short amount of time. I must have had atleast 30 cups of coffee this weekend; everytime you finish a cup, another one is offered. We served the people stew and soup, and after that we packed up to leave the soup kitchen. Henry took us on a scenic drive around Ocean View, we drove through the mountains, watching the sunset out of his pick up truck. He also pointed out the last refugee camp in the area, and we talked about that for a bit. We drove through an ostrich farm, and saw some camels. Next time, Henry is going to take me to ride a camel!
That night we went back to the soup kitchen to have what was almost like a braai, except the food that was made was cooked over a fire in pots. I forget the name of the gathering tho...There were a bunch of families that I had met the night before there, and a bunch of CIEE kids. The Ocean View residents think boxed wine is a hilarious concept; they call it the "magical silver bag" or something like that. We ate really good curry that night (everyone loves curry in Ocean View). On the way home, two of our friends from CIEE were going out to a bar with some of the kids in their host family, and wanted me and Kaitlyn to come too. Henry had a little too much to drink, and Tasha was not keen on the idea of us going out. To make a long story short, we got lectured by them, in a very nice way, about the differences between educated kids and uneducated kids are...among other things. One of their nieces, who is 17, had a baby last year, and their other niece is pregnant right now. It's just such a different culture, and it was really interesting to get input from other people are topics like that.
The next day was the day we were leaving. We were again woken up very early, and went to church of course. It was similar to a catholic service in the US, except the music was more fun and gospel-like, and it was much less formal than catholic mass' that I've been to before. Again, it was funny just because I'm not Catholic, and that was so weird to them for some reason. After church, Jeremy, a friend of the family, and...a guy that does something with the church, I actually have no idea what his position is, took me and Kaitlyn to give communion to all of the sick people that couldn't make it to church. Kaitlyn read from the Bible, haha, I passed up the opportunity. That was very interesting, we went to some very poor areas, and visited some extremely sick people.
After church, we had people over the house for a delicious lunch, and Tasha's sister came over with her husband. It was really fun to meet her; she was hilarious. My mom knitted me a scarf, and Cheslyn bought me a bracelet with a matching necklace and ring! It was a cute little gift. The family really wants us to come back and visit them, which I hopefully will get time to do since it's only a train ride away.
So, I've been bombarded with work and will continue to be until I leave for Mozambique on Thursday evening.
On a lighter note...this past weekend all of CIEE participated in a home stay in Ocean View, a colored township nearby. Many of the residents of Ocean View have lived there for their entire lives, along with their parents and grandparents. During the Apartheid era, many of these people lived in a beautiful beach front area called Simonstown. Eventually being forcefully removed from Simonstown, a majority moved to Ocean View, which was developed in 1972 (i think).
On Friday night, we took a bus to Ocean View Secondary School, where I was greeted by Henry and Natasha. The casual introduction was followed by, "you're not a vegetarian are you?!" and then, "what's your religion?!" I passed one of the tests! Tasha and Henry have pictures of Jesus in every room, and even a lovely clock with Jesus as the clock face! In their living room, there is an enormous...thing...hanging on the wall with the lord's prayer on it. They're die hard roman catholics, and the other CIEE student staying with me, Kaitlyn, passed BOTH tests because she is catholic as well. Haha, when Tasha introduced me to some people one time she said, "and this is michelle...her dad is catholic!"
Tasha and Henry have three kids; Cheslyn, 9, Chante, 12, and Kyle 17. Unfortunately Kyle was away for the weekend so I didn't get to meet him, but Chante and Cheslyn were entertaining enough to make up for the absence of one sibling. The family is very popular, therefore I met tons of Ocean View residents...friends and family alike! My first new friend was Father Ashley, the priest at their church. He might have provided a bottle of Wild Turkey American Honey Whiskey...we might have finished it. After we headed back to the house, we hung out there for a little bit before moving on to the gathering going on a couple streets up. This township is a more developed township, all of the homes have walls, running water, and electricity. Me and Kaitlyn shared a bed that didn't really have its own room, but it worked out well. On Saturday morning, we were woken by Henry blaring a hip hop song from a "well known cape town DJ." These were the lyrics..."WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP." Let's just say I've been a happier sleepy person before. We watched TV which is something I hadn't done in a couple of months. High School Musical II was the preferred movie, followed by Eurotrip, ha.
We got to my family's friends' house and there were other American kids there, like 3 or 4 families. We started watching the Olympics, which was cool, since I haven't been able to watch them at all since they've started. I wish we coulda done a little better than table tennis, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Then, to my pleasant surprise we started playing dominos!!! I'm going to pause to give a shout out to grandma freer right here. :) The only thing was, after I talked up my dominos game a little, we started playing a version of dominos that I was not so good at after all, ha. It was fun, I learned a new way which I will someday teach you grandma, don't you worry. We all played, and chatted and sipped on the whiskey until the bottle was gone, forcing Henry to grab an American and run to get some beer. In this township, there are no liquor licenses. Therefore, there aren't liquor stores. People go to the back doors of particular houses, using a special knock in order to buy booze.
The next morning, we went to a soup kitchen to cook for the poor/homeless. We chopped up veggies for a couple of hours, and then spent the rest of the time playing fun games like musical chairs. Chante got peed on by Adriana, her cousin. She had to walk around in a comforter for...a while. Let me just say that I've never had so much coffee in such a short amount of time. I must have had atleast 30 cups of coffee this weekend; everytime you finish a cup, another one is offered. We served the people stew and soup, and after that we packed up to leave the soup kitchen. Henry took us on a scenic drive around Ocean View, we drove through the mountains, watching the sunset out of his pick up truck. He also pointed out the last refugee camp in the area, and we talked about that for a bit. We drove through an ostrich farm, and saw some camels. Next time, Henry is going to take me to ride a camel!
That night we went back to the soup kitchen to have what was almost like a braai, except the food that was made was cooked over a fire in pots. I forget the name of the gathering tho...There were a bunch of families that I had met the night before there, and a bunch of CIEE kids. The Ocean View residents think boxed wine is a hilarious concept; they call it the "magical silver bag" or something like that. We ate really good curry that night (everyone loves curry in Ocean View). On the way home, two of our friends from CIEE were going out to a bar with some of the kids in their host family, and wanted me and Kaitlyn to come too. Henry had a little too much to drink, and Tasha was not keen on the idea of us going out. To make a long story short, we got lectured by them, in a very nice way, about the differences between educated kids and uneducated kids are...among other things. One of their nieces, who is 17, had a baby last year, and their other niece is pregnant right now. It's just such a different culture, and it was really interesting to get input from other people are topics like that.
The next day was the day we were leaving. We were again woken up very early, and went to church of course. It was similar to a catholic service in the US, except the music was more fun and gospel-like, and it was much less formal than catholic mass' that I've been to before. Again, it was funny just because I'm not Catholic, and that was so weird to them for some reason. After church, Jeremy, a friend of the family, and...a guy that does something with the church, I actually have no idea what his position is, took me and Kaitlyn to give communion to all of the sick people that couldn't make it to church. Kaitlyn read from the Bible, haha, I passed up the opportunity. That was very interesting, we went to some very poor areas, and visited some extremely sick people.
After church, we had people over the house for a delicious lunch, and Tasha's sister came over with her husband. It was really fun to meet her; she was hilarious. My mom knitted me a scarf, and Cheslyn bought me a bracelet with a matching necklace and ring! It was a cute little gift. The family really wants us to come back and visit them, which I hopefully will get time to do since it's only a train ride away.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Yesterday, I went to the beach for the first swimsuit day since I've arrived in Cape Town. Although I would have been much more comfortable if it was 10 degrees warmer, it was very pleasant. We went to the beach in Muzenburg which is beautifully surrounded by mountains on three sides. It's so easy to get to so when it gets warmer I feel like I'll be frequenting that area. The train station, which is in walking distance from my house takes you directly there. Literally you step off the train and onto sand, very convenient! The train was 11 rand round trip, the cheapest form of transportation I've found yet. The train isn't always safe tho, unless you're traveling in a group, and you can never take it after dark. Some people went surfing...it was 100 rand for board/wetsuit rental. I thought about going but I want to take a lesson and these peeps already knew how to surf and were just goin' for it. I'll go next time for sure.
After the beach we went to get some food at this really cute cafe right on the water. Something I've noticed about eating out in Cape Town is the lack of good service. Often words are misunderstood and orders come out not quite right. We had the best waitress ever and I had really good lasagna! Lots of meat was in it, I like meat. Then, we took the train home. Successful day.
I just got out of class for the day, and I just had some soup before I go to volunteer for a couple hours.
On Saturday there was a huge rugby game here. We played New Zealand and lost, but CIEE took us to a local restaurant/bar, and we got some free drink vouchers and a ton of free food. It was pretty cool. The whole city was drinking all day on Saturday. There were carloads of people smashing beer bottles all over the city streets. Comparable to St. Patrick's Day.
On Thursday night, I went to this awesome little live music joint called Zula. There was a live band and an opening act, who was amazing. This guy played like 20 different harmonicas, even covered a couple Radiohead songs. He was truly mesmerizing; everyone was just staring at this man for his 45 minute set.
Gotta go for now
After the beach we went to get some food at this really cute cafe right on the water. Something I've noticed about eating out in Cape Town is the lack of good service. Often words are misunderstood and orders come out not quite right. We had the best waitress ever and I had really good lasagna! Lots of meat was in it, I like meat. Then, we took the train home. Successful day.
I just got out of class for the day, and I just had some soup before I go to volunteer for a couple hours.
On Saturday there was a huge rugby game here. We played New Zealand and lost, but CIEE took us to a local restaurant/bar, and we got some free drink vouchers and a ton of free food. It was pretty cool. The whole city was drinking all day on Saturday. There were carloads of people smashing beer bottles all over the city streets. Comparable to St. Patrick's Day.
On Thursday night, I went to this awesome little live music joint called Zula. There was a live band and an opening act, who was amazing. This guy played like 20 different harmonicas, even covered a couple Radiohead songs. He was truly mesmerizing; everyone was just staring at this man for his 45 minute set.
Gotta go for now
Monday, August 4, 2008
Shark cage diving etc.
Yesterday, I went shark cage diving!! At 4:45 am my alarm went off, and I met 4 friends downstairs. At 5 we were picked up by a large van, that was to take us to meet the sharks. Unfortunately, we were the first group to be picked up, so we had to pick up 5 or so more groups before even heading in the right direction. We arrived at our destination around 8 am. I downed like 2 cups of coffee and 8 croissants before getting onto our boat. We were warned that the water would be rough because of the intense winds, but nobody expected THAT much roughness. A boy that lives in my house was signed up to go through a different program, but his trip had been cancelled due to the wind. Literally, half the people on the boat threw up before the end of our journey. We were also given pills before boarding to reduce sea sickness. I was fine, no sickness for me. Although, I was wearing about 10 layers and was still shivering the whole time.
We saw the first great white shark after about an hour of sitting and waiting. The first group of divers, 7, were getting into wet suits, ready to get in the water when the captain starts telling everyone to sit down. There was a huge commotion and we all returned to our seats and tried our best not to get into anyones way. It turns out another boat, similar to ours, was in trouble. A big wave came and knocked out both their engines and 3 passengers had gotten head injuries!! We had to rescue them!!!!! We took off in the opposite direction at a very speedy pace. For a while, the crew on our boat was tossing the other boat a rope while they were caught in some rapids between two islands, and some rocks. The water was rough. Finally, our boats were able to connect with a piece of rope so we could tow the other boat. As we towed, the rope broke and snapped back, hitting a crew member on the other boat in the eye!! It was wild. Eventually, another boat came and helped. In the end, I guess they were the heroes.
Everyone was a little bit curious about whether or not we were even going to get to cage dive after all this, I heard someone ask a crew member about it, and his response was. "THIS IS ABOUT SAVING LIVES HERE!!!!!!" Pretty intense. We did get to cage dive after all...and it was awesome. Some of my friends weren't feeling too well on the boat , but we were the second group to get in the water. We put on full body wetsuits and we all got in a cage that was attached to our boat. The man throwing the bait would tell us when to go down and which direction to go to. We didn't use oxygen because the bubbles scare the sharks away. I was on the end of the cage and the shark was trying really hard to be my friend. We made eye contact and at one point he was about a foot from my face. The trip was very much worth it; I had a great time.
On Saturday, CIEE took us to a vineyard called the Nelson Estate in Stellenbosch. It was beautiful and we got a small tour and then got to taste 5 or 6 wines. The owner also came out and talked to us about a project that he has been working on to redistribute land to colored people in South Africa, since the majority of it is owned by white people. We also got a delicious lunch. After that we went to this other place in Stellenbosch where there was a rehabilitation center for cheetahs. I saw lotsa cheetahs they were cute and cuddly. We also got face paintings!!
This afternoon I am hopefully going to this township that I might volunteer at. It's pretty intense and time consuming, which is the only reason I might not do it. You also have to teach a class of 30 kids all by yourself...I'm not sure how good I'd be at that.
Tomorrow is my friend Danni's birthday, it's gonna be real fun, and we're having a huge party at our house on Friday night.
On this past Friday night, my friend Stephen had made a South African friend on campus and invited us to his friend's party that night. We went, and it was a blast. I met a ton of new people and they had multiple bon fires and an ice luge. I might even go rock climbing at a climbing gym with one peep that I met at the party tonight. We'll see!
Bye friends
We saw the first great white shark after about an hour of sitting and waiting. The first group of divers, 7, were getting into wet suits, ready to get in the water when the captain starts telling everyone to sit down. There was a huge commotion and we all returned to our seats and tried our best not to get into anyones way. It turns out another boat, similar to ours, was in trouble. A big wave came and knocked out both their engines and 3 passengers had gotten head injuries!! We had to rescue them!!!!! We took off in the opposite direction at a very speedy pace. For a while, the crew on our boat was tossing the other boat a rope while they were caught in some rapids between two islands, and some rocks. The water was rough. Finally, our boats were able to connect with a piece of rope so we could tow the other boat. As we towed, the rope broke and snapped back, hitting a crew member on the other boat in the eye!! It was wild. Eventually, another boat came and helped. In the end, I guess they were the heroes.
Everyone was a little bit curious about whether or not we were even going to get to cage dive after all this, I heard someone ask a crew member about it, and his response was. "THIS IS ABOUT SAVING LIVES HERE!!!!!!" Pretty intense. We did get to cage dive after all...and it was awesome. Some of my friends weren't feeling too well on the boat , but we were the second group to get in the water. We put on full body wetsuits and we all got in a cage that was attached to our boat. The man throwing the bait would tell us when to go down and which direction to go to. We didn't use oxygen because the bubbles scare the sharks away. I was on the end of the cage and the shark was trying really hard to be my friend. We made eye contact and at one point he was about a foot from my face. The trip was very much worth it; I had a great time.
On Saturday, CIEE took us to a vineyard called the Nelson Estate in Stellenbosch. It was beautiful and we got a small tour and then got to taste 5 or 6 wines. The owner also came out and talked to us about a project that he has been working on to redistribute land to colored people in South Africa, since the majority of it is owned by white people. We also got a delicious lunch. After that we went to this other place in Stellenbosch where there was a rehabilitation center for cheetahs. I saw lotsa cheetahs they were cute and cuddly. We also got face paintings!!
This afternoon I am hopefully going to this township that I might volunteer at. It's pretty intense and time consuming, which is the only reason I might not do it. You also have to teach a class of 30 kids all by yourself...I'm not sure how good I'd be at that.
Tomorrow is my friend Danni's birthday, it's gonna be real fun, and we're having a huge party at our house on Friday night.
On this past Friday night, my friend Stephen had made a South African friend on campus and invited us to his friend's party that night. We went, and it was a blast. I met a ton of new people and they had multiple bon fires and an ice luge. I might even go rock climbing at a climbing gym with one peep that I met at the party tonight. We'll see!
Bye friends
Monday, July 28, 2008
O Geez
Hey friends. Haven't been up to much the last couple of days. I made it to the beach on Thursday in Camps Bay. It was really fun; that was the first time I had used the mini bus taxis without some kind of supervision from Thapz or someone from South Africa. It worked out well though. I took lots of photos which I will put on my flickr soon. The waves were enormous, and the water was sooo blue. There was a boardwalk along the beach that we walked up and down, and then went out for a snack and some drinks at this cute cafe. We also celebrated my friend Rachel's birthday that night, which was a blast. We went out to this awesome place called Rafiki's for dinner...where our waitress proceeded to come out with us after the meal.
Currently, I'm sitting in the computer lab on UCT campus. It was not easy to be able to sit in this computer lab though. I have a tutorial at 3 and was trying to send an email to figure out where it was in the library, when I was told that you are not allowed to use email in the library. It was my school email! So now I'm in a certain computer lab that I'm allowed to use...so odd.
Saturday I saw Batman, it was sweet. The movie theaters are very nice here, although you have to pick your actual seats online before you get to the theater...I'm not used to that.
Yesterday, I went to Gardens, which is a section of Cape Town. Company's Garden is there, along with Parliament, and various museums. The weather hasn't been great the last few days, but it held out long enough for us to view the garden in sunlight. We went for coffee in the garden, it was a nice relaxing day. They don't have regular coffee here...I have to get like Cafe Latte's because otherwise its just espresso, or like ...chocolate milk.
Now I'm gonna continue to try to figure out where my TBA tutorial is...they sure don't make anything very easy for you here. O well, table mountain is within my view from any point of campus...it doesn't get much better than that!
Currently, I'm sitting in the computer lab on UCT campus. It was not easy to be able to sit in this computer lab though. I have a tutorial at 3 and was trying to send an email to figure out where it was in the library, when I was told that you are not allowed to use email in the library. It was my school email! So now I'm in a certain computer lab that I'm allowed to use...so odd.
Saturday I saw Batman, it was sweet. The movie theaters are very nice here, although you have to pick your actual seats online before you get to the theater...I'm not used to that.
Yesterday, I went to Gardens, which is a section of Cape Town. Company's Garden is there, along with Parliament, and various museums. The weather hasn't been great the last few days, but it held out long enough for us to view the garden in sunlight. We went for coffee in the garden, it was a nice relaxing day. They don't have regular coffee here...I have to get like Cafe Latte's because otherwise its just espresso, or like ...chocolate milk.
Now I'm gonna continue to try to figure out where my TBA tutorial is...they sure don't make anything very easy for you here. O well, table mountain is within my view from any point of campus...it doesn't get much better than that!
Monday, July 21, 2008
best day ever
Yesterday was the best day ever! In the morning I ate breakfast on the picnic table outside, and then around 1230 like 10 or 15 of us went to this barbecue (brae) in a township like 20 minutes away. Thapz, who is from JoBurg took us there and we all paid 40 rand for our food. It was almost like a block party, there were people all over the street, and everyone was drinkin' and loungin' and eventually dancin'. We ended up waiting like 3 hours for our food, so we went to the liquor store right down the block, inside the township in the mean time. We got some Hunter's and Sahara cider which was good; I'd never had it before...and then some beers. Since we had waited so long for the food, we were all so excited to get it because we saw other people receiving theirs. Everyone at our table was literally like drooling and freaking out. We knew that we were getting different types of meats and it came like family style for the table. We end up getting these 3 huge bowls: one filled with chicken, another with lamb, and the third with this certain type of sausage. It was kind of disgusting but also delicious. Everyone eats with their hands, and there are no plates, so at the end of the meal the table cloth is covered in the remains of our meat. I felt like a savage, but it was awesome.
Our cab driver ate with us, and he had 3 adorable kids with him, and 3 more at home. I think his name was Bobby...His cab was pimped out, painted green, red and yellow with license plates and cd's covering the walls in their entirety. They hung out with us all day, it was awesome.
After the brae, we went to another one at Moses' house. Moses is a soul mate that works for CIEE. There were a ton of peeps there, so we only stayed for like an hour. They have a sweet yard at their house...i wish we had grass!! O well.
Today was the first day of classes. I had class at 10 and 11. My 10 o' clock class was pretty cool, but my 11 o' clock was canceled until Friday. Not bad, not bad at all. I'm gonna go grocery shopping because I just heard about this bigger, better grocery store that's not too far away. They charge you for bags here...like when you are checking out, they'll ask you if you want a bag. It makes sense, but I keep forgetting to bring bags because I'm not used to it.
I wanted to do something fun today like go for a hike, but the weather is kind of yucky. Gray skies. Tonight we're going to see a play called Cissie, I'm not a big play person but I'm sure it will be something new and different.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
sunny day
I'm all registered for classes and stuff; it feels good to have that over with even tho they start monday.
After registration on thursday, we went into a local township about 20 minutes away to look at this volunteering program called SHAWCO. It was kind of wild. They created a school in the town ship that specializes in arts and sports, so it offers kids something to do after actual school ends. We got a chance to meet all the kids; they're all beautiful. We had like an hour to do whatever and like chill with them; it was sweet. It looked cool, but I think I am going to end up volunteering at a similar school called the media school. It specializes in teaching kids about journalism and photography...as basic as how to use a camera and things like that. I also heard about a cool refugee program too...we'll see.
Today, CIEE got us tickets to go to the Manchester United vs. Kaizer Chiefs at the stadium really close to my house. It was a fun time.
Last night we went out for my friend Robert's 21st birthday to this ridiculous club; there was like a VIP lounge and we had a table and bottle service. It was absurd and expensive and i got lectured about how i can never come back while wearing sneakers. Soooo insane.
It's so funny because essentially it's someones birthday like every 3 days here, haha. It's my housemate Lauren's birthday tonight and everyone is going out to dinner for that, but I think I'm gonna skip it and go to my other buddy's barbeque instead, we'll see.
Tomorrow we're going to go to this open air market that I went to last Sunday too. It's pretty cool, but touristy and they sell a lot of cool african stuff; i gotta get some stuff for my walls. After that we're gonna go hang at the beach since it's like a 2 min walk from the market.
After registration on thursday, we went into a local township about 20 minutes away to look at this volunteering program called SHAWCO. It was kind of wild. They created a school in the town ship that specializes in arts and sports, so it offers kids something to do after actual school ends. We got a chance to meet all the kids; they're all beautiful. We had like an hour to do whatever and like chill with them; it was sweet. It looked cool, but I think I am going to end up volunteering at a similar school called the media school. It specializes in teaching kids about journalism and photography...as basic as how to use a camera and things like that. I also heard about a cool refugee program too...we'll see.
Today, CIEE got us tickets to go to the Manchester United vs. Kaizer Chiefs at the stadium really close to my house. It was a fun time.
Last night we went out for my friend Robert's 21st birthday to this ridiculous club; there was like a VIP lounge and we had a table and bottle service. It was absurd and expensive and i got lectured about how i can never come back while wearing sneakers. Soooo insane.
It's so funny because essentially it's someones birthday like every 3 days here, haha. It's my housemate Lauren's birthday tonight and everyone is going out to dinner for that, but I think I'm gonna skip it and go to my other buddy's barbeque instead, we'll see.
Tomorrow we're going to go to this open air market that I went to last Sunday too. It's pretty cool, but touristy and they sell a lot of cool african stuff; i gotta get some stuff for my walls. After that we're gonna go hang at the beach since it's like a 2 min walk from the market.
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