Vacation from Vacation

The days of Spring Break in South Africa are almost over... Tomorrow classes resume, but I had an AWESOME break. Besides, Easter Break is on Friday and lasts through Monday... How convenient? :) Anyway, break was wonderful... I got up really early Saturday morning (5 AM) to meet up with the rest of my program that decided to go on our trip together at the Alma house (I live at Welgelegen). We went to the airport and had a not so great breakfast and flew off to Joburg. After our bus finally showed up to pick us up, we headed to Soweto (SOuth WEst TOwnship), which is about a 40 minute drive from the airport. Soweto is the largest black township with over one million people living there. It is the home of Desmund Tutu and Nelson Mandela's early home (they are actually right down the street from each other... SA is the only country that can proudly say it has two Nobel Prize winners that came from the same street), and the site of the Soweto Uprisings, in which youths and others rioted against the National Party government and the unfair education reforms. On 16 June 1976, thousands of black students protested in Orlando West in Soweto and the police used violent force against them. The youngest person to be killed by police that day was a 13 year old boy. There is now a memorial there and we got to see it as well as both Mandela and Tutu's houses. We also got to see some of the hostels where there was a lot of conflict between the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party, primarily Zulu) and the ANC (African National Congress, headed by Mandela), drank homemade beer, tried cow's head (well I didn't, but some people did!), and went to a shabeen (kind of like a bar but different). All of this we did on a four hour BIKE tour. It was actually really great and made me miss having a bike a lot... Curses, Lexington! We stayed in Soweto for two nights at a hostel right across from a park that the owner cleaned up and made for the kids in the area. They were adorable but very demanding... always wanting to play... We also went into Joburg for a day and saw some museums, including the Apartheid Museum... VERY interesting and learned a lot actually... We also went up to the 'Top of Africa,' which is the top of the highest building in Joburg. Kind of reminded me of the Radio Turm in Duesseldorf... I think that's what it was called anyway! Next we went to Nelspruit, which is right outside of the borders of Kruger National Park. We stayed in an awesome hostel type place and the owner was named Crazy Dave... not kidding! He was really nice though and they made AMAZING food. It was especially great for vegetarians because Crazy Dave is also Veg and so he always let us go first in line no matter what! Two mornings in a row, we all got up at 3.45 (before dawn!) and left to make it to Kruger when it opened. We would spend all day driving around looking for animals, which was nice! However it was extremely cold in the mornings and then by 10 or so incredibly hot. But, that was a minor sacrifice for what I got from this trip... I saw LOTS of animals, the Big 5, giraffes, elephants, bugs, lizards, hippos, zebra, impala, and tons more... Since I've come 'home,' I really haven't done hardly anything since most of my house is in Zambia, but I'm ok with that. It's nice to be lazy and take a real break for a little bit because as fun as the trip with IES was, it was exhausting.

Jammin'

I love the Jammie. I am always forgetting what I already wrote and what I haven’t, so in case I haven’t explained what a Jammie is, it’s a bus… They are big light blue buses for UCT students and faculty that come and go all over Cape Town… Forest Hill, downtown at Hiddingh, at the mall in Claremont… And sometimes they even play music! Jammies are never ‘on time,’ but they always seem to come at either the best or worst times, especially the Forest Hill Jammies, which go right by my house. Luckily I am not too lazy and will settle for anything that just goes to Lower Campus… (there is Lower, Upper, Middle, Health, and Hiddingh Campus) Anyway, Jammies are almost always crowded… it is not uncommon to have to stand or be the last person on and stand in the door (that is actually kind of fun). However, it’s really nice because most of the time if the bus is not too too crowded, a guy will stand up and give you his seat. Nice! No American male would EVER do that. Never in my life have I experienced that on a bus or subway in any American city! So that is pretty great… also, Jammie drivers ALWAYS stop for you… If they are driving right past the stop and they see you, they will always stop and let you on… it is the nicest thing ever, really. Jammies are also an excellent source of entertainment. Sometimes when drivers are nice and let you on, they start driving before you are completely inside the bus… the other day I actually witnessed a guy who got half shut in the back doors and barely managed to get inside before we drove right past another bus, which could have been potentially damaging I suppose… but all that we could all really do at that point is laugh. People also have the most interesting/odd conversations. It's kind of like the Transy cafeteria on a Saturday morning/afternoon… especially on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays because going out during the week and on Saturdays is what's popular here... Friday night, not so much surprisingly. If you ask a local what they are doing, oftentimes they will tell you studying. I'm not kidding. Also, a recent development... Jammie malfunctions! Apparently someone that works for my program saw a Jammies breaks or something (I forget what it was but some boy told me it was most likely I don't remember, transmission or something, I have no clue, I'm no mechanic or whatever) went out and the Jammie literally started to roll back down the hill and there was nothing they could do at first... And this is a very hilly place... Also, it was in the school paper that a UCT bus (but not a Jammie, I just looked at it...) basically the same thing happened right outside of my program's office/student programmes,etc. The bus rolled back and crashed into two cars, which then crashed into the building. Yes, it's all very exciting here. Another common thing that I have noticed is protesting is rampant here. Every other day I feel like I see a new poster for some protest, and before I leave, I will go to one. I'm thinking free and equal education... sounds good and justifiable to me, and it's a pretty hot issue. There was supposed to be a big demonstration last week all over SA and I read that it ended up getting kinda crazy in Joberg... setting things on fire, rocks, spraying people with fire hoses... but that is Joberg for you! Here it was pretty tame and there was even a Jammie that took people to Parliament.

Just livin' the dream...

Time seems to go by really fast here, although Africans tend to be very slow and laid back about everything... I had my homestay in Langa township last weekend and it was amazing! My family was really great and it consisted of: Patience, the momma (who was away at a funeral, but I talked to her on the phone!); Nandi, the big sisi, Bopsie, the younger sisi that just had a baby, a younger brother Andiswe, and then since the momma and her oldest daughter were away, the daughter's little boy and girl were also there. There is also an older brother that I met at Chickenland in Gugulethu (where I had my first cheeseburger in seven years or something!!! AND IT WAS GREAT!) but he doesn't live there. The house was AMAZING, especially for what I would have expected for a township, but this place never seems to be what you would expect... I am constantly surprised... and pretty much always pleasantly. I went out with Nandi and Bopsie and their super fun neighbor and Amanda, who hosted a guy in my program that I didn't really know all that well but I do now, thanks to last weekend!
I spent some time in Langa, and a lot of time in Gugulethu too because Nandi likes going there a lot more than staying in Langa. We went out to some really fun places, and it was so good to be by myself in a place that wasn't with a bunch of kids from my program. Don't get me wrong, I love a majority of them! But... I am only in South Africa for so long and I want to get as much of an actually South African experience as possible...
Oh a very interesting story from a few days ago: So my roommate went for a run on Friday after I got home around 5 or 6 and she was running up to Rhodes Memorial on top of this hill type thing and some guy behind her yelled. So she turned around and it was this random white guy that was in his late 20s-early 30s and he was wearing khakis and a polo, but he was really dirty like he had been rolling around in the dirt. So she turned around and then he took his pants off and she screamed at him and started to run away and then she turned around to see if he was coming after her (because he was only about 3 meters away from her) and he was going to town on himself and so she yelled that she was going to call the police and sprinted up the hill into the woods and was out of breath and then she ran into some Rastafarians that weren’t wearing any shoes and had walking sticks and had just come back from collecting herbs from the mountains (haha) and asked them if they would walk her down the hill and they did… what a great day for her!
Also this morning I went to Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela served a majority of his time as a political prisoner. The tour itself was kind of boring, but it was interesting to be there and know they history and see what it actually looked like. It was really small and very hot! And.... apparently before it was a prisoner's island, it was a leper colony! There's still a graveyard there! Great history... But anyway, on the boatride over we saw two wales and some seals! And that is pretty exciting because whale season is way into the winter and that should be after I am gone. So yeah! Still excited, still having fun...

Fun Stuff...

Well... it's been a lot longer than I thought... yet again. Sorry I am really terrible at this, but I'm trying! So... since the 12th... well there was Valentine's Day, which was highly uneventful other than I was supposed to go to Rhodes Memorial with two of my housemates and our RA, but instead we ended up trying to find a store that was open so he could get something for his girlfriend that was coming back in a matter of hours... guys are great, aren't they! So we didn't end up going, but that was ok! I was just kind of disappointed that South Africa gets really into Valentine's day because I don't particularly enjoy it. Sadly, I was let down because they love it! After that was my second week... started my tutorials, one of which BLOWS... but... it's only once a week, so not really a big deal. Also another student at my school got murdered in a place called Observatory (or Obs/Obz) that is very close to me. It is unfortunate and sad, but there is really no need to worry because I am very careful, I promise! Also there were just a few things that weren't such a good idea that this guy and his friends did, and I will not make those mistakes! I learned that there is a Jammie that goes into downtown Cape Town, so now I can take full advantage of that and go there for free all the time! Like last week... when I went to Mojito's for happy hour three different days... Oops! I also bought lots of presents and post cards while I was there, so I think that constitutes a success! Then I had a very interesting and eventful weekend. Friday I had my first language lab for Xhosa and then I was pretty much done for the day so I went back to Long Street yet again and later I met up with 5 guys from my program who had just finished climbing Table Mountain only to find it was too windy for them to take the cable car down and the restaurant was closed... yeah they were pretty hungry... So I walked to Rondebosch and met them at the nicest place in Rondebosch (not saying a whole lot, but still it was great! And definitely cheaper than what it would have been in the States) and had dinner with them, even though they were sweaty and gross and all got some variety of steak... and then there was me with my fish, which was AWESOME and I was VERY excited about because somehow, I just don't know where to get fish around this place... weird, but it's not available like meat is, even though it's right on the ocean. I hear I just need to know where I can go and buy it, but I have yet to be informed of where that is! Then Saturday I went to Muizenburg (a warm beach that is different from Camps Bay) and after I came back... I went to Stellenbosch. And it was fun. Very fun.... weird Afrikaaner dancing, "howzit dorris?", beach at 5 am, something with metal objects rolling the wrong way on a hill, and a lot more.
Oh also... funny story... so one of the RAs knows I have a love for Germans and so he has made it his goal to find me a German-speaking friend so he gives my number out to random German-speaking peoples... Well one guy was really weird and he was texting me and I was like eh... he's kinda creepy, so I'm not going to respond to him! Well... Friday I was at Mojitos like I said, and as soon as I walked in, a text from this random guy comes on my phone saying, We're at Mojitos what are you up to? Well, I had not seen this person yet, but my roommate and I were able to figure it out based on a mutual friend this person was with. Very strange guy, in no way attractive, and had no idea that we were also there. Needless to say, this was pretty amusing to us. So yeah... I had a nice weekend and I am certainly enjoying my time here...

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Also, you all can comment on stuff on here if you would like... :)

UCT: Week numero uno

I made it through the first week at UCT and it seems like it is going to be a good semester, although I'm disappointed that my program class is going to be more difficult than I had anticipated. I dropped my German class, but whatever... it was not going to be a good class at alllll. Terribly boring topics, readings, and it was half in English. The schedule was horrible and conflicted with another class on Mondays and it was definitely not worth being on campus at 8 AM three days a week... So instead, I'm just keeping my poli sci classes and Xhosa, a South African language with CLICKS! It's so fun! Also difficult because it is completely foreign to me... I mean obviously it would seem foreign because it's a language from another country that I don't speak, but even though I know no French or Spanish or Russian, it doesn't sound strange or new to me. BUT... it will be really cool when I come back and I am a pro. Kentucky will not know what to do! My poli sci classes are pretty interesting too it seems like... comparative politics and then political economy, which is taught by a German woman.
So tonight I'm going to see a film about Mandela at a theater called the Labia... REALLY! It's not that type of theater.... it's actually kind of like the Kentucky Theater in Lexington (sorry all of you Germans reading this that have no idea what I mean... for those of you in Heidelberg, it's kind of like the Kamera or whatever it's called I can't remember). But yeah, it is about Mandela because yesterday was the 20th anniversary of his release from prison. Yesterday was also the opening of Parliament this year for it's duration in Cape Town (it meets part of the year here, part in Pretoria, and part in Johannesburg) and there was a parade... and the President, Jacob Zuma drove through in a thing sort of like what the Pope drives around in. So... yes, I saw the president of South Africa yesterday... Woo! And a parade!

Dramarama

Well it was a long and interesting week followed by an even longer and more interesting weekend in Cape Town… After the Peninsular Tour with UCT, IES took us on a three day trip of what is called the Garden Route (Google it. It’s pretty sweet.). We met up at the local Seven-Eleven at 7 AM and drove several hours until we stopped for lunch at a traditional Xhosa (which is the language that I’m studying and it has clicks!) restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Then we went to an ostrich farm, and I got to hug an ostrich. It’s name was Betty… Some people in my group got to ride them, but only a few because they supposedly don’t have sweat glands but I think maybe the guy giving us the tour just was tired of us. We also went into some caves. They weren’t super impressive and they sure as hell had nothing on Mammoth Cave, but it was fun to go with everyone in my program. We stayed at a campsite-type place and I finally got a full size bed for a night (some people in one house have them)! Even if I did have to share with Stephanie… no worries. The next day we got to go shopping and kayaking. It was really great because I finally got a pair of flip flops… just what I needed. All of the climbing and hiking and kayaking and going to the beach and everything else we do all of the time is really not so great in flats… The kayaking was awesome, especially because where we went to was a private beach that was really warm for a change. We drove a lot more and stayed that night and the next day in the Tsitsikama National Park, which was AWESOME. We stayed in some really amazing houses that were right on the beach… literally… we could hear the waves alllll night. And we had fish for the first time! You all know I was pretty excited about that… although surprisingly, they have all been incredibly accommodating to vegetarians and have lots of good stuff for us. I think since I’ve been here I’ve actually become even more vegetarian, but I have had some meat since I’ve been here. Anyway it was really beautiful there and it was so clear! Everyone in our program was spazing (sp?) out (ok and maybe I was too…) because it was completely dark walking back and there were so many stars and we are in the southern hemisphere, so it looks completely different. The next day we could go hiking or to the biggest bungy jump in the world. I chose to sleep… My roommate and I and some of our guy friends had originally planned to do some type of hike but we overslept a little… oh well. And maybe I will do the bungy jump later… We’ll see… So after all of that, we left and eventually made it to lunch, several hours away (and very late thanks to people who went on the early, organized hike and people that went on the bungy because the minibus taxi they took broke down). Unfortunately, when we were ready to leave, the bus wouldn’t start… so we waited around for a while… Eventually they got it working and it was very impressive because a bunch of the guys in my program at one point pushed the HUGE bus in an attempt to get it started. However, it failed, so they just kept playing soccer. Finally someone got it going and we made it back to Cape Town at 10 or so, but this was actually pretty nice in a way because we could see Cape Town all lit up. Nobody really did much the next day, but Friday was sort of the first day of classes, on the Tuesday schedule. I only had two classes though because apparently the Poli Sci department only does 1000 level classes on this day… go figure. So I went to German, which was incredibly awkward because the teacher called me out and embarrassed me in front of everyone since she didn’t know me and didn’t understand why I was there, and Xhosa. After all of that, there was the Big Bash, thrown by UCT itself. My friends and I ended up taking a taxi because the line for buses was TERRIBLE. Typically taxis only hold 7 people, but I kinda got thrown in on top of the people in the first row. That’s just how it is here and I am very small… so usually I get to be that lucky person! Well the Big Bash was pretty fun for me… there were a lot of people and lots of music. It ended a little early because the DJ that was supposed to go on at 11 didn’t show, and afterwards me roommate, Will, a friend that went to college with them, and one of his friends on the baseball team here all went to Long Street. Long Street is a really interesting place and it is very much alive at nighttime. We went to Stones first, and then to some unknown, very sketchy bar. The second room was essentially just concrete, and my roommate really had to pee, so we went to find the bathroom, which had no toilet paper, no toilet seat, and a broken out window that faced the whole concrete room… Yeah, it was a pretty interesting place… Then we went to Dubliner’s, where I lost my cell phone…. There were two really weird Viking guys that had apparently been in Stones (one of which did a ‘naked lap,’ which means he ran around something without any clothes on… somehow I missed that…), and they put a Viking hat on my roommate when we were at the bar. While we were walking back through a thick crowd, some random guy was grabbing at me and kissing the side of my face… Weird I know, but weirder has happened! Someone came up to Emma and licked her face. Just on the street, in the middle of the day… Well I pushed him off of course, but I would be willing to bet he grabbed my phone out of my pocket. Otherwise it must have fallen out when I was dancing, but I really don’t think so. Oh well! These things happen! Since that kind of killed everything, their friend from Grinell drove us home, where my roommate and I made pasta at 4 AM. Great stuff. The next night was even MORE eventful, even though a majority of my house stayed home and went to bed before midnight. Well 3 AM rolls around and a ruckus (one of the coolest words in the English language I think haha) was brewing outside. Then someone from my program started buzzing to let him in. We all thought they were just being drunk and stupid (which they were), but what had happened was this: one psychopathic girl got into a pointless fight with the guy buzzing away at our gate, and another guy tried to stop them from fighting, so… she thought it would be a good idea to knee him in the balls. Great idea. Long story short, he ended up punching a window in their house and so they brought him across the street to our house. At first they just wanted paper towels (oh the ideas we have when we are drunk) or someone’s shirt, but then someone had the good sense to bring him inside so they wouldn’t be loud, he could actually get it cleaned up somewhat, and oh yeah… they could call an ambulance… needless to say it was a long and dramatic night.

More Photos...!

This is my roommate at the bar... woohoo! Yeah, she was having a real good time :) And that is Brian in the background...
The other one of us was at Hemisphere, which is on the 31st floor of the ABSA building... IT WAS SO WINDY

Some pictures...

The first picture is my lovely school... This building is probably the most famous and most photographed... cause it's really cool... It's called Jameson Hall. Apparently everything (almost) has ivy on it because Cecil Rhodes (yes that British Imperial guy that there is a scholarship named after him and the former Rhodesia was as well...) put it in his will that all of the buildings had to have it or he wouldn't donate some large sum of money. Basically he wanted it to be Oxford in Africa. And as Nick Shepherd (this crazy tan white teacher that helps us out with all things academic... I wish I had a picture of him... haha) always says, we all know you can't have a serious institution without ivy on it... There are also a LOT of stairs in front of here and you can see a lot of the city from there because it is really high up.
This other picture is me and Lizzy, my lovely roommate from Wisconsin. We were at a party at a club last night and yes, that is fire in the background! There is sand on the ground too! AND the power went off a few times while we were there... but, TIA...

Already here over a week and still alive. Sounds like success to me.

I guess it has been a little longer than I realized... Well, in the past week I have had lots of very new and different experiences... I went to a few bars and to a very amazing beach called Camps Bay. It's incredibly beautiful but almost unbearably cold... You can't stay in the water for more than a few minutes because it's freezing. That beach is on the Atlantic side and the water comes from the Arctic or something, I'm honestly not really sure. All I know is that it is pretty damn cold! To get there, we've taken the train from a station nearby to downtown Cape Town. From there we usually walk outside and find a cheap mode of transportation that is what is known as a mini bus taxi and is supposed to be kind of off limits according to our program, but we always go in large groups, never just Americans, and always have your money ready. In general, I guess there are some rules that you just kind of follow, or at least I do because I think it's a good idea... such as...
1. NEVER leave your bag. Anywhere. For ANY period of time.
2. Always look like you know where you are going and pay attention to what is going on around you.
3. Don't give anyone money.
4. If you are drinking and you think it's kind of questionable, shake it and if it fizzes or gets foamy then there might be something in it (a girl at a bar told me this... I don't know if it's true, but it couldn't hurt). Just throw it out, even if you aren't sure...
5. If you take a taxi, never take it all the way home. Stop on a corner a few blocks away.
6. If you are on a mini bus or in a sketchy location, don't talk unless you have to. As soon as you open your mouth, they know where you're from.
7. Hide stuff in your rooms and never put anything next to the windows.
8. Don't talk on a cell phone in public for various reasons... you aren't paying as much attention to what is going on around you, they know you are foreign, and they know you have something that they can now steal.
There's plenty more, but that's all I can really think of at the moment...
At any rate, the bars were pretty fun. The first one I went to had dancing, which was really really fun although different. The other one I went to, called the Pig and Swizzle (sounds pretty classy, am I right?), is much more... I dunno, laid back? They have a lot of soccer games on in there and I was actually there the night of the Zambia/Nigeria match in the African Cup... pretty intense stuff! Let me tell you.... And somewhere in Nigeria, I guarantee Sakah Mahmud is celebrating a victory... Overall, most people are very friendly, although guys can be kind of creepy at times, such as when they talk to you and then proceed to stroke your face and tell you that you are the first blonde they have ever spoken to... Ah these things happen... that's why it's always good to have a guy there with you to be there in the event that you need to be removed from this kind of situation. They are also great for fending off potential creepers. For example, if a guy is near you another guy comes up and starts talking to him and then asks about you, he can always tell the creeper that he is your boyfriend or that you are actually a lesbian. Or that you are married and just had your second kid... although I feel like the first is probably the best option, although I guess that would kind of hinder any chances with any normal guys there. Regardless, South African bars are very different from what I've experienced in the US and even a little different from Germany. I think this is maybe because all of the bars I've been to in Germany have been at least somewhat classy, but I'm sure you all have your dives as well...