Mzoli's (that is: 'mm-zolees' NOT 'MAH-zolees')

I realize that I am like the slowest blogger in the world and it is already Thursday...night. But! Some images from last Sunday:Yes, That is a giant dirty TUB of meat with 30 grubby Americans eating out of it. South African sausage, chicken, and steak.
And yes, all Mzoli's serves is meat. And some fresh salsa with something called pup...which they described to me as "maizemeal" (cornmeal) but it was grits.
No silverware, no plates, no napkins. We walked about 5 houses down the road and bought all of our drinks out of some super shifty guy's refrigerator.
Basically, the ultimate experience. And if anyone is feeling the urge to pop by for a visit in the next 3 1/2 months, this will definitely be a stop that makes my list of things to do.
Love

Babies and classes and mountains, oh my...

Date: 18/02/2011

Time: 20:32

Days abroad: 26

Oh my gosh, what a week. Classes started this week and I am WORN OUT. Their scheduling system is so bizarre…they have “periods” that are one hour long and you register for a class in a certain period then your professor tells you which days you have class…so it could be 5 days a week and it could be 2, you don’t know until after registration is over and your teacher gives you the course handout. This is very inconvenient. At University of Oregon, I can take a class at 9am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and a completely different class at 9am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. No such luck here. If you have a class in second period your teacher owns your time 9-9:45am 5 days a week. Even if they only schedule class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday you don’t know that until you start so you cant sign up for another and hope it is only Thursday and Friday. Nope. If 2 classes you want are in the same period, too bad, find a different class. Anyways, my point in all of this is…my schedule is crazy weird. Because each of my professors want a different day of the week off. And I have class from 9-4 Tues, Wed, Thurs but only 45 minutes of class on Mondays and Fridays…which would be fine except my volunteer transportation only goes out to the high school I am volunteering at in the evenings…so I can only go on Fridays. Because my 3-4 class meers Monday-Thursday. Talk about frustrating. I guess this is all part of navigating a new country, right?

Other than the scheduling, classes went swimmingly this week. I think I am going to really like all of them. A bunch of people in my program were kind of freaking out because the lectures here are all about 200 (or more) people and they all go to small, private schools where the average class size is like 15. I keep telling them all it is fine, all of the big classes meet in small tutorial groups once a week and you can get your discussion in then.

UCT itself is very comparable to the University of Oregon in size, I think...it has about 26,000 undergrads so I think it is just a small bit larger. (I’m not sure on UO’s exact enrollment anymore and googling it would cost me too many megabytes. Haha, you don’t realize how spoiled we are with all of our unlimited internet until it is taken away.) The diversity at UCT, though, is unlike anywhere I have ever been. As a white student, I believe I am in the minority. Barely, but still, the minority. The majority of the student body is black (full African) while a large portion of it is Colored (most people who are not ‘white’ or ‘black’ are considered ‘colored’…like everyone who is mixed race…it isn’t a derogatory term like in the states…it is just a description). Anyways, I think the population is almost divided in 3rds but the Black population is slightly larger and the White population is slightly smaller. It’s crazy because as I walk down the sidewalk I hear so many different languages and accents. And it makes class discussions very interesting because everyone comes from so many different places. There are people who come from all over Africa to attend UCT, it is considered one of the premier universities on the continent. Most of the international students are American…I have met a couple of Dutch and a couple of Norweigans…I think that is about it for world-wide representation…

The campus itself is beautiful…though it is literally built INTO THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. I get an excellent cardio workout on my walk to school every morning. I’m going to have glutes and claves that will make Richard Simmons jealous by the time I get home. There is a shuttle that goes to upper campus but I would have to walk about 10 minutes to get to the shuttle stop and it only takes me 20 to hike up the hill so I’ve been walking all week. It’s good for me, right? Anyways…I’m not including any pictures this time because they cost a lot of megabytes but the picture of Jameson Hall last week should give you slight indication of how pretty campus is. I’ll put up some more pictures in a week or two...another thing about campus, South Africans walk SO SLOW. Seriously, I think they can all tell I’m American because I weave around them down the sidewalk. Oh, and because I try to pass on the right. Hahaahaha. I always step right when I meet someone and they step left because they drive on the left here and there is that awkward back and forth moment where you both don’t know which way to go..I;m sure you all know what moment I am talking about. Well Monday and Tuesday it happened ALL THE TIME. By Wednesday though, I remembered to consciously think “move to the LEFT” when someone was walking towards me.

The policy that I have officially adopted this week: attend anything on campus that promises “refreshments”. The refreshments here are always like fully catered meals. I went with a friend to a speech on Wednesday, it actually sounded cool, it was the first Black South African to earn his PhD so we actually wanted to hear him speak…it turned out to be a 2 hour lecture with about 4 speakers. All talking about investments and finance and corporations…oh my goodness, snooze-fest. But the refreshments were AMAZING. I had some lemon-herby chicken and some cheese-herb pita and sausage rolls, and little pastries filled with spinach and cute little mini-sandwiches! And, as always, Coke and Orange Fanta. They LOVE their Orange Fanta here. So, my new policy…always attend functions that include refreshments. Totally worth the awkward moment at the end where they ask you if you enjoyed the function and if you are interested in joining their society (in the case of InvestSoc, I had to politely decline). Our study abroad fee includes the cost of joining any 3 societies on campus (except skydiving club, which I’m kind of okay with). So I’ve been talking to people about the different societies. The only one I have signed up for thus far is Habitat for Humanity…since my volunteer organization through CIEE can only get me to the high school once a week I figured I’d better find some other things to do with my free time…and why not build houses? I am trying to decide on another society but it is so hard to choose! They have a lot here! I was considering yacht club, they have beginners sailing every Wednesday night; or fencing club, I could totally learn to fence; or maybe a club that has an African country in the title…like Namibia club or Zimbabwe club…I don’t know. Too many choices.

My house was supposed to go to Robben Island tomorrow (where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner) but when my RA went to buy tickets, they were sold out this week…so, hopefully next weekend. Sunday we are going to Mzoli’s which is a place in a township where you go and there are a bunch of shops and stuff and they serve you meat. Lots and lots of meat. I guess it is a really cool experience to hang out with the locals and eat meat and drink beer. I am pretty excited about it.

Also, the grocery store here, has a WHOLE AISLE for cookies and crackers. And they call them ALL biscuits. Which is so British. It kills me. They have 6 kinds of cereal but a whole entire aisle of tea-time treats. I bought some delicious coconut cookie cracker things the other day…very addicting. And the whole package was 4 rand. Which is about 70 cents US. Excellent!

I talked to a guy at a party the other night who is from Zimbabwe but he is half Belgian and half Zimbabwe-an and he went to the US for the first time last winter. I asked what area of the US he went to and he said (honestly) “New York City, Washington DC, and Toledo.” I was like, “WHAT?! Toledo?!” hahah, so random. I guess he has an aunt in Toledo but it was still hilarious. I asked what he thought of America and he said everything was so big in America! So, naturally, I asked what he meant by that and he said “the trollies in the grocery mart! They were as big as a car in South Africa!” Which I also thought was very amusing. It is always funny to me to hear about someone’s opinion of the states.

Anyways, I better be off…a couple of us are having movie night at a friend’s and I am the movie supplier…so I guess I better not be late!

Congratulations to Dan and Jayne on my little niece! And to the Gibbons on Asher’s baby sister! I can’t wait to meet all the new additions when I get home!!

Love

Some adventures from last week...so much to tell, so little time...

Date: 13 Feb 2011

Time: 14:36 in Cape Town

Days abroad: 21

It’s been a while…10 days..? yikes. I would say I’ve just been too busy to blog but that may not be entirely true. Last week we had a week of freedom before classes start so most of the people in my program took off to do something called the Garden Route. Basically, they drove along the coast of South Africa for a week stopping at various animal parks and tourist destinations. I decided to stay here (in Cape Town) that week and try to get comfortable navigating the city and campus before school gets into full swing. I finally got all registered for my classes about a week ago…and Friday they had like an intro day where we went to classes and the professors gave an overview of the course…I think my classes will be very interesting. I’m taking a little break from my usual parade if science classes and labs…I registered for a sociology class, medical anthropology, health psychology, and intro to politics. It should be cool because all of them focus on South Africa specifically; so, for health psychology we will be talking about chronic diseases in South Africa (TB, HIV, cancer, asthma…etc).

This picture is of Jameson Hall, which is the big main building on upper campus. It is all administration and the library and stuff, no classes are taught here, but it was the campus’ first building. It is gorgeous with the mountain in the background…there are 100 stairs between where I was standing when I took the picture and the front door of the building…I had already climbed 2 flights of stairs, crossed a rugby field, and hiked up a hill for about 6 blocks by the time I got here. My calves are going to be so toned when I get home…

Anyway, enough about boring classes. I did some fun things last week while I was hanging around town…one of the RAs wanted to take us to a Mexican restaurant in a suburb called Clairemont one night (Clairemont is next to our suburb, Rondebosch) so about 15 of us caught the shuttle from campus. The campus shuttles are called the Jammie shuttle and they go all over the place…two go to different places downtown, one goes to Clairemont, one goes to Mowbray (another suburb), they go between res halls, and their main function is to go from lower campus to upper campus because UCTs campus is literally built ON A MOUNTAIN. It is like a half hour hike up a huge hill then up one million stairs from my house which is located near middle campus to the upper campus where classes are held…shoot, I’m rambling…ok, so we caught the Jammie to Clairemont. And it took like 20 minutes to get to the Clairemont mall, ok cool, 20 minutes isn’t bad. Then we walked to the restaurant…it was called something Havana, which made me think maybe it was Cuban…? The waitress called them case-a-dill-ahs. And the case-a-dill-ahs had crazy stuff in them…like pickles. And mayonnaise. So I asked the RA who took us if there are Latinos in South Africa. He laughed…I took that as a no. hahaa. Well, after we were done eating, the Jammie had stopped running for the night so we were just going to call some cabs but a friend of the RA who lives in my house happened to be at the restaurant too so he took 4 of us home…the car ride took about 2 minutes. It was like left turn, right turn, home. I looked at one of the guys in the backseat and I was like..umm, where on earth did the Jammie take us that it took TWENTY MINUTES to get there. It was hilarious. That is how things tend to work here. Also, I don’t think the Jammie has a schedule. I cant find one anywhere. I just go to the Jammie stop and stand there and wait until one that has the name of where I want to go shows up. Sometimes it’s within 5 minutes and sometimes I have to wait 40 minutes. It’s really bizarre.

One day I went with some friends down to a place in downtown called District 6 to go to the District 6 museum. I had heard it was one of the must-see things in downtown…so we thought we’d give it a shot. The museum was small but it was packed so full of information…I learned more that day than I have learned the rest of my trip. District 6 was a black neighborhood and in the 60s (under the Apartheid government) all the residents were forcibly removed and their homes were all bulldozed to make room for a white suburb. Crazy stuff. Now there is a plaque mounted outside the museum that they put up in the 90s when Apartheid ended…

Thursday, February 10, a couple of friends and I signed up for shark cage diving! Oh my gosh it was so much fun. A van picked us up at our house and drove us about 2ish hours south to a town called Kleinbaai which is located on the shore of the most densely populated great white waters in the world. On the way, our bus driver talked to us about different parts of Cape Town, mostly things we had heard on our tour of the cape peninsula a couple if weeks ago. But, I did learn as we drove through Khayelitsha (a township outside of Cape Town): that it is the largest township in the Cape Town area and that 1.4 MILLION PEOPLE live there. That is an insanely large amount of people.

Once we got to Kleinbaai, they fed about 20 of us breakfast then put us on a boat and we headed out to sea. We learned that the great whites love to hang out in “shark alley” between 2 islands off the coast because one of the islands is home to about 40,000 seals. If you have seen the discovery channel, you know, sharks like seals. Apparently there are no residential great whites who stay here permanently. Most hang out for somewhere between a day and a week before they migrate elsewhere. They are one of the most nomadic animals on earth. So, the water in Kleinbaai is still a large portion Atlantic and only a small portion Indian ocean current so the water was COLD. Like Oregon Coast cold. They gave us wetsuits and we got in the cage 5 at a time.

The cage stayed attached to the boat and we just did simple hold your breath dives when a shark came around. We had goggles and weights and whatnot and there was a spotter on the boat who would yell “down down down!” whenever a shark came near enough to the cage that we could all see it and we would take a deep breath and pull ourselves to the bottom of the cage. Over the course of the day we saw about 15 different great whites which, the skipper told me, was a really really fortunate day. We didn’t have to wait any length of time for sharks to show up and more and more just kept coming around. At one point, one of the smaller sharks launched itself at the tuna head we were using as bait and missed and got the buoy on the end of the cage where I was. He thrashed violently and his eye rolled back and it was the most terrified I had ever been in my whole life. I thought for sure that I was going to lose an arm. I bought the DVD that the videographer on the boat made of the day as proof in case none of my underwater point and shoot camera pictures come out.

That was, by far, the most exciting day of my week. Friday night a couple of us went to a party downtown hosted by RAG which is an on-campus fundraising group. The party was called the Big Bash, there was a huge stage and a DJ and it was sponsored by Smirnoff so there was a giant bar and tons of students. They closed off a big courtyard park thing in downtown for it…it was crazy but very fun. Unfortunately, a lot of the boys got pick-pocketed while on the dance floor. Several people who live in my house got their keys, phones, and wallets taken.

Oh! Also! A friend of mine in the program got mugged the other day. In the middle of the afternoon. In broad daylight. Scary! She is in a homestay and she walked home one day and she was waiting for her host-mom to buzz her in the gate and a guy walked up to her and showed her his knife and politely asked her for her phone and her wallet. Of course, she gave them to him and he walked away. Poor girl, I would’ve just died right there but she is so calm about it. The RA who took us to Mexican food, Faraih, told me that the muggers here are all really polite. They will just show you a knife and ask nicely for you to give them your things. They wont ever grab you or chase you down or anything. So, I guess that is good. If I’m going to be mugged, I would rather the mugger be polite and not really mean and threatening…right? I don’t carry anything with me that is worth taking. Usually just my cheap pay-as-you-go phone and like 200 rand in cash…which is about 28 US dollars. If he wants my $28 badly enough to show me a knife…he can have it. This explains why I haven’t taken massive amount of pictures…I am too scared to take my camera out if I’m going somewhere for the day…that is just one more thing that somebody might want to take…

Next weekend my RA is planning on taking us to Mzolies which is a township where you go and they give you a huge beer and a lot of meat to eat. They have a giant Braai (barbq) going all day and they just serve you meat. Tons of meat. Apparently it is like the ultimate experience that everyone has to do when they come here. Also, next weekend, we are going to Robben Island. Which is the island where Nelson Mandela was held as a prisoner until the prison on the island closed and he was sent to a max security prison in Cape Town. It should be an exciting weekend.

I fell like I have so much more to tell but theis post is already like a small novel. I also feel like the things I say on here cannot do justice to Cape Town…it is hard to capture the essence of a city on a blog.

I hope everyone is doing well in the states; I miss you all very very much. I need to go start some readings for school…homework, gross.

Enjoy the photos!

Love

I love this continent

Date: 2/3/2011
Time: Africa Time
Days Abroad: 11

I just had a meal that rivals all other meals I have ever eaten. My small group last week won a free dinner at a place called the Africa Cafe....seriously a transcending experience. It was all you can eat homestyle dishes from all over the African continent. Let me tell you, they know how to make their flatbread in Mozambique. and their dips in Ethiopia. oh my gosh...
So...when we won this meal we were all like 'woo-hoo, whatever' (third place got $10 worth of internet vouchers each, which, at the time seemed like a godsend since we'd been cut off from the world wide web for the better part of a week)...after tonight...we no longer regret getting first place. Our waitress came in when we got there and said she would be bringing us several courses and when we were finished we were allowed to ask for more more more of whatever dishes we liked. I tried everything (yes, even the fish...). and there was not one thing I tried that I didnt like. It was incredible. There were these little ball thinks rolled in sesame seeds and I missed the waitresses explanation so I asked my RA what it was and she said..."i dont know, the sweet potato cheese what-what" haha. So I ate it...it tasted JUST like cereal...so bizaare. like...cinnamon toast crunch plus apple cinnamon cheerios but in ball form...crazy.
My favorite by far was the flatbread...and the ethiopian dips. Amazing.

Anyhoo, not much going on here this week other than dinner...I pre-registered this morning...which means I stood in the SCORCHING heat for 2 hours to get one piece of paper signed for registration tomorrow...and I hear registration is terrible terrible...like 5 hours of lines to get signed up for 4 classes. Funny thing...they tried online registration a couple of years ago and they thought the lines were EASIER. South Africans are funny that way. After pre-registration, a boy named Jeff tried to convince me to hike Table Mountain again with him...I told him "you're dreamin'"...Jeff is funny, because he lives in Fargo...so he has that accent...dontcha know? hahaha, I love it.

It has been blazing hot the last two days...and today there was zero wind. For the first time since we've been here...none. It was like Houston in August...the air was still and filled with moisture. Which made the line even more fun. Then, at like 6 o'clock, it thundered and lightninged and rained for like an hour and a half. But the air didnt cool down AT ALL. it is still one billion degrees. and it is 11pm. I actually dont know what the temperature is...the humidity throws off my ability to figure out how hot it is....because it makes it like 15 degrees hotter feeling...

Well, I'm off to bed down here in the southern hemisphere....just waiting for the phone call that my small niece has arrived (yes, I think that is phone-call worthy news...even if it costs $2 per minute. Please and thank you to someone)...
Love

This is the theme song of life around here...

Just a little something for everyone's enjoyment :)

Date: 1/31/2011
Time: 20:35 - Cape Town Time
Days abroad: 7

sorry for my long blabbery post yesterday....it was a long day and I was very exhausted...today, we had an African drumming class at IAPO orientation. It was so incredibly fun! It made me want to go buy a drum. Only a coupe more days of orientation then I have about a week and a half of freedom before classes start on February 14th. A whole bunch of people are taking a tour up the East coast of S. Africa on a trip called the Garden Route but I think I am going to save my money for a spring break trip and spend my free week exploring Cape Town. A friend (named Alex, I know, I came all the way to Africa and met ANOTHER Alex...I think they are drawn to me) and I found a good deal on a shark cage diving trip so we will probably do that during that week.

I hope all is well Stateside! I am missing everyone a lot and I love hearing from you guys!

Love

Week one

Date: 1/30/2011
Time: 22:00-Cape Town Time
Days abroad: 6

Oh my gosh, so much to share! Yesterday night was the first time I was able to access any internet since I've been in Cape Town, apologies for the long absence. This city is absolutely incredible.
I'm just letting everyone know that the internet here is slow...and I have to pay per MB of upload or download so facebook is out except when I run down to Main Road to use the internet cafe...I'm not ignoring all of your notifications, I promise, facebook just uses a lot of download space which gets expensive quickly...I got a cell phone here, it costs a small fortune for me to call or text home but if you call or text me it doesnt cost me anything...so maybe international phone cards on the states end is going to be the cheapest form of communication besides email. If you would like my number, email me and I can send it to you :)

I'm not even sure where to start...I guess the beginning...
I arrived late at night the 24th and a very nice man named Godfrey Manuel picked me up from the airport and took me to a City Lodge hotel where I stayed the night. Tuesday Godfrey picked me up at about 11 and took me to the University of Cape Town Campus. Literally as soon as he dropped me off the RAs (our South African student mentors) rushed me through checking in and finding my room for the week of orientation...they dragged my gigantic suitcases upstairs, tossed them in a room and said "put on shorts and close-toed shoes, we're going to walk up Table Mountain". Then they dragged about 100 groggy, jet-lagged, starving Americans up the side of a mountain...it was not a walk. It was a HIKE. There were times when I had to use my hands to help myself get up over rocks...worst hour and a half of my life...I took exactly 1 picture:It's not even from the top...by the time I got to the top I just wanted to die. I couldnt have cared less about dumb pictures. So...this is Cape Town from about halfway up the side of Table Mountain. Next time, I'm taking the cable car. As you can see, it was quite a beautiful day, one of the warmest since I've been here...probably close to 90ish...everything is in Celsius and I'm not very good with converting it...haha. I walked up with one of our RAs, his name is Remy and he is from Rwanda...he asked me and another girl where we were from and the other girl said "Tennesee" and Remy goes, "Oh, Tennessee! Nashville is the capital!" and she said "hey, you're right, most Americans dont even know that, they all think it is Memphis." and Remy said "I've been studying my states trivia the last two weeks. Most South Africans think the capital of Tennessee is Kentucky." Hahaha. Then he asked what the capital of Oregon is and I told him Salem and his response was "oh yes, now I remember, where the Witch Trials are!" hahaha, so I told him that was Salem, Massachusetts but close enough...I gave him an A for effort. After we climbed in silence for a while, Remy yelled out from behind me "THE VOLUNTEER STATE! That's Tennessee" apparently he had been trying to remember that for the previous five minutes. I thought it was funny that he tried to memorize all the state capital and nicknames...It's a little embarrassing to admit but, I dont even know all the state capitals.
That evening we got back to our dorm at 8ish and I went up to my jail-cell of a bedroom after dinner and passed out cold.
By the next morning most of the CIEE students had arrived...I think there are 158 of us in total. Wednesday and Thursday were spent mostly in boring orientation talks...we broke up into smaller groups for lunches and ice breakers though. There were about 10 people per RA in the small groups. My RA is from Durbin, South Africa. Her name is Namonde and she is maybe 5 feet tall and has more energy than all 10 of us Americans in her group put together. She showed us all of the good places to eat on campus and told us which restaurants to avoid. The money conversion is strange and it kind of takes me by surprise when I calculate how cheap things are...like fast food. They dont have American fast food restaurants (except KFC...there are KFCs literally everywhere. oh, and mcdonalds, of course. though I havent seen one near campus...) but anyway, their fast food menu has like a meal and next to it it says something like 22.50 and at first I was like "holy moly! i'll be broke so fast!" but then I did the conversion and 22.50 rand is less than $4. For a whole meal. Anyway...I've kind of gotten off-topic here...orientation Wed. and Thurs. was fairly unexciting. Thursday we did what they called the AMA-zing race (their attempt to make fun of our American accents) we had to find 14 different locations around campus...My group (Namonde's group) finished first! It took us about 3 hours to get everywhere because the campus is built into the side of a cliff so we were running up and down hills and stairs all aftenoon. anyway, for first place we get to go to a fancy dinner at a place called the Africa Cafe later this week...the motto for the restaurant is "the food tastes so good, you'll wish you had bigger lips" whatever THAT is supposed to mean...
Friday. Friday was my favorite day in Cape Town (until today, that is). Friday we went and visited 3 potential volunteer sites around Cape Town. The study abroad company will provide transportation for us to go out and volunteer if we do it through one of the organizations they are affiliated with...we went to a TB hospital and played with babies first, oh my gosh they were so cute it just broke your heart. Many of the babies' parents had either dropped them off and left to get back to the rest of their children or died in the adult TB ward at the same hospital so the babies dont see their parents for sometimes years at a time, if ever again...they had 40 babies to care for that all were lying in their cribs when we got there. They were so adorable and so happy when we all stopped to talk to them and tickle them. Then we went to a place called the Ark which is a Christian organization that provides housing for orphans, abused women, and families who have lost their source of income and are homeless. When we pulled in hundreds of adorable children from toddlers all the way up to teenagers came running out to give us high fives and hugs and beg us to take pictures of them and their friends. They were so cute in their little school uniforms. The third place we went was a high school called the LEAP high school. What the school does is send tutors to township high schools every week and if a kid shows remarkable diligence and drive with regard to schoolwork, they are admitted to the LEAP school for grades 9-12. Because life in the townships is so hard, the schools are dreadful and most kids dont even finish high school, the idea of college is completely unheard of. so the LEAP school is trying to develop a model that they are hoping the government adopts to fill the gap between township schools and the "better" schools that were the white schools under the Apartheid regime. I think that is the volunteer work I am going to sign up for; I would be going out to the school 2 or 3 times a week and meeting with a group of about 5 girls. It will be the same girls every week and, basically, I will help them with their homework and let them talk to me about whatever they want to talk about. the idea is that they get to build a relationship with someone close to their age who is in school and make it seem like a real possibility to them that they can go to school and get an education and hopefully make a better life for their family then the one they were forced to grow up in.
Friday night they took us out to Stellenbosch to a beautiful winery for dinner. The restaurant was called Moyo and it was at a winery called Spier. Dinner was buffet style but instead of one huge buffet spread they had a bunch of booths with different things at each booth and the chef would cook it in front of you when you told them what you wanted from their booth. It was really cool. The whole restaurant was inside of a giant tent and there were African drummers and dancers and entertainment all night. Our waiter was from the DRC (the Congo) and we asked him to sit with us when we had finished our meal and we talked to him for about 45 minutes...he had a terribly sad story about growing up in the Congo.
Saturday we moved into our semester housing (finally)! I am in a house that is about 10 minutes walk from campus. There are 8 other americans and 1 South African RA (his name is Bule...it sounds like a mixture of boo-lah and boo-kah when they say it...and apparently none of us Americans can say it right....anyway he is from Johannesburg) in my house...there are 2 other houses on the same property, one has 8 Americans and one has 11 Americans and 1 South African so there are 30 of us all living on our little plot. We all have our own bedrooms and the bathroom ratio is about 2 or 3 people per bathroom so, not too bad...we had a moving in barbq yesterday except in South Africa they call it a Braai. They made us South African sausage and Mutton and Chicken. They "do not grill PATTIES here in South Africa" I assume that means they think we are crazy for grilling burgers in the states. They also thought we were crazy because several of us suggested buying some vegetables to grill...they dont do that here either. Haha.
Today was the best day of all! We got up very early and met the rest of the international students at UCT this semester on campus (they were all American, I think America is the only country that sends international students to UCT). We loaded up about 13 chartered buses and they took us on a tour of the entire peninsula south of Cape Town, all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope. We stopped to eat lunch in a township called Ocean View and the kids there put on a performance for us...one little boy did a Michael Jackson medley dance that was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to smuggle him back onto the bus and take him with me.
We saw a billion things but I've only included a couple pictures (I have to pay per MB...and this internet is soooo slow):
This is beach number 4 at Camps Bay...Camps is short for some unpronounceable German name, it isnt called that because people camp there...this is just south of the Cape Town Waterfront District. A very safe part of Cape Town as they have their own police force and the entire community is gated. The locals call the cloud that forms over the mountain the "cloud of death" I have no idea why or the "tablecloth" that one is abit more clear :). either way, it certainly makes for dramatic pictures...this was our first stop on our bus tour today. Also, the beaches at Camps Bay are named beach1, beach 2, beach 3, and beach 4....apparently the British are not very creative beach namers...


These are some of the kids waving goodbye as we left the township of Ocean View after lunch today. This is by far the cleanest and most progressed township I have seen since arriving in Cape Town. The housing here resembles government housing in the States...most of the townships housing consists of 3 sheets of corrugated tin leaned up against your neighbor's tin...horribly sad and unjust.


Our second stop was at the penguin colony!! I have dozens of pictures of them, they were so cute. They are called the African Jackass Penguin because they bray like a donkey. They were so funny to watch play around. And, like most penguins, they mate for life...adorable, right?


One of my fine feathered friends :) so cute


This is the view facing Antarctica from the lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope. The Indian and Atlantic oceans meet about a 2 hour drive from here but they merge for miles and miles or, as they would say here, "many kilometers" so the water here is still almost a 50/50 mixture of icy Atlantic and warm Indian.

This is the direction post located at the lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope...notice how everything is north. Rio de Janeiro was the least Northward pointing of all the signs and even it was angled Northwest.

Me and my climbing buddies at the sign. From left to right: Alex from Fort Worth, TX; me; Ariel...I dont remember where she's from; Becca from Virginia; and Chelsea...and I dont think I ever knew where she was from...I believe the east coast somewhere...

Sorry for this long rambling post...as you all can see, it has been an absolutely crazy week. It feels like I am living someone else's life. There are one million and three little details that I have left out but I really need to get off this internet before I spend all my dollars...I will have regular internet access for the rest of my trip and emails are always appreciated. I miss everyone back home! I hope everyone is well
Love

P.s. I received an email from the U of O that a boy who was in my department at school passed away last week. I have known Ellis since freshman year when we took writing 121 together and we have had at least 2 classes together every term since then. I wasn't extremely close to him but my department is quite small so I did know him fairly well. He was always so happy and friendly, overall just a nice, down-to-earth guy; please keep his family in your prayers this week.