I spent a lovely day in London on Wednesday with my friends from home, Lisa and Laura, who are both studying for the year in Oxford and London. We had a great time, and did the usual touristy things like visiting the palace, seeing parliament, going to Traffalger Square, etc. It was so nice to be taken out for the day by my friends. I had never been to London before, and spending twelve hours at the airport would have been painful.
The flight from London to Cape Town was terrible, so I won’t write about that. The important thing, and the idea that got me through the horrible flight, was that I would land in South Africa. The University had orientation leaders picked the dozen or so of us students up from the airport Sunday afternoon and drove us to campus. The drive was breathtaking, as was the balmy 80 degree weather. We drove past a township, and it looked exactly like how they do in portrayals on TV, a total shanty town. It reminded me not to be blinded by the beauty and glitz and to realize that there are serious issues here.
After moving into our dorms, we went on a tour of UCT campus and the Rhodes Memorial. UCT is more beautiful in person than it is in pictures. It is literally built into the mountain. Seeing campus with Table Mountain made me absolutely giddy. The orientation leaders, or OL’s as we call them, are all so nice and friendly. They are all students and were for the most part totally in charge of our initial orientation. After our campus tour, we walked up to the Rhodes Memorial. Cyprus Rhodes is an early Dutch settler who donated the money to start UCT. His memorial is a Greek-looking building and a bizarre nude man on horseback. The view from the Rhodes Memorial is amazing. It’s above campus, and you can see for miles all around the city.
That night, the OL’s took us out on the town. A few of us went to Tiger Tiger, a dance club in the Claremont area of the city. We had a great time and did a lot of dancing. Tiger Tiger drew a diverse crowd, including one man who removed his prosthetic leg on the dance floor and proceeded to drink liquor out of it.
On Friday a large group of us went to the beach at Camps Bay. There aren’t words to describe the beauty of this place. Luxury homes dotted the slopes of Table Mountain, and a swanky street with posh hotels and restaurants ran parallel to the shore. Laying out in the sun all day felt amazing, especially coming from the arctic that is the Midwest. To get to the beach, a group of us had our first minibus experience. Minibuses are these vans that go all around the city and usually a guy hangs out the window hollering at pedestrians to get in. If you want to get in, you just tell them where you want to go and hop on, then hold on for your life. Our minibus drivers were a father and son, and they got us to Camps Bay safely and in style. Once you find a legit minibus driver, you can get their number and they’ll come to pick you up anywhere. Still, we are told not to take the minibuses alone because they drivers have been known to pick you up, drive you out of town, take your money, and leave you stranded. Luckily, this did not happen to us.
Friday night we all went to a bar on Long Street in downtown Cape Town. Long St. reminded me of Bourbon St. in New Orleans with its bustling nightlife, public intoxication, and balconies. This bar we went to was really nice. It was on a second floor, and had a dance floor, balcony, and seating area along with the bar. Then there was a second floor with more indoor and outdoor seating areas. On the roof, there was a nice open air seating area. Drinks are so cheap here, with most drinks not costing more than R15, which equals about $2. The domestic beers are delicious, and obviously the South African wines are awesome. I had my first bottle of South African wine, called Nouveau. It was delicious and under $4.
On Saturday we moved into our permanent housing. I LOVE MY HOUSE. I live with two other students, and we share a backyard with another house of students. My room is huge, bigger than both my room in Madison and my room in Evanston. The house is very spacious and has the highest ceilings I have ever seen. The floors are nice wood and the kitchen and bathroom each have nice, cool, red stone floors. My neighborhood is called Observatory, and a lot of other students live in houses around the neighborhood. Down the street from my house is a street lined with funky restaurants and shops. I’ve eaten at two great restaurants so far, and can’t wait to explore the rest. The neighborhood gets a little dodgy at night, and we can’t leave any doors or windows open ever. But hey, things can’t be perfect right? Something’s gotta give, and it this case, it’s a sense of security. I just have to be smart about my actions to make sure I don’t get in any trouble. Otherwise, Obs is a wonderful neighborhood. There are always people out on and about and the nightlife is bumpin.
Today was a long day. We had to get up super early and meet everyone at upper campus, which is about four miles from Obs. There were about seven coach busses that took all the international students on a peninsula tour. First we had a driving tour of Cape Town. My guide, Gertrude, knew so much about the city. We then stopped at Camps Bay at a nice lookout point on the ocean. There were a half dozen or so dolphins swimming right below us. I had never seen dolphins in the wild, and that was really neat. We went from the lookout point to Boulders Beach, where the penguins live. One goal crossed off the list!!! The penguins were so cute. We didn’t get to go onto the beach with them, but we walked around on these boardwalks that let you get really close to the penguins. From the beach, we went to Oceanview, which is an area where tens of thousands of coloureds (‘coloured’ here isn’t like ‘colored’ in the US, it’s an official racial term for people of mixed descent) were forcibly relocated during the Apartheid, for lunch. It is populated by people who made the best of a really horrible situation, and though they have a lot to show for their perseverance, like schools, homes, an identity, and sense of community, the place is impoverished. It felt strange and uncomfortable to drive into this area in our fancy busses and eat the lunch that the citizens of Oceanview provided for us. They were so welcoming, and put on a show for us that included some history, singing, and dancing.
From Oceanview we drove to Cape Point and walked out the most southwestern point of Africa. We hiked up to the lighthouse on the highest point of the Cape. The view was amazing. It can only be explained with pictures. From the lighthouse we could walk out the Cape of Good Hope. This hike was mildly treacherous. There were sheer dropoffs but we all made it out unscathed. Like, the scenes from the lighthouse, the scenes from the walk to the Cape of Good Hope are too much for words. I didn’t want to leave, and plan on going back at a time when I can really take my time to explore. I’m pretty sure everyone passed out on the bus going back to campus.
Tonight I’m just hanging out at my house, working on this blog. I just had some wonderful and cheap Thai food for dinner, as well as some yummy chocolate cake. Tomorrow, orientation for UCT starts with HIV/AIDS training. I hope it gives some background to the history of South African AIDS awareness, since the government has had some interesting ways of dealing with AIDS in the past. A group of us is also planning on signing up for some tours and adventures hosted by a tour group on campus. One is a cycling tour of the wine lands, which will be beautiful and entertaining. We’re also signing up for a day trip to go cage diving. The trips are all extremely affordably and signing up for an organized tour takes away some of the pressure of doing it solo. But we are planning on organizing our own trip. Since we have a week free before classes start, a group of us is thinking about renting a car and driving the Garden Route for a few days. As of now we’re still looking into certain aspects of that plan, but it’s something fun to think about.
Well, this post is pretty lengthy, and though I could easily write for hours about my past five days here, I’ll save some for later. My internet here doesn't let me post pictures, so I'll have to add some another way. Hopefully I'll have a link up here soon to a website with my pics. Goodbye for now!
-Sarah
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