Sarah in South Africa

Today, I Say Goodbye

2010-06-15T04:12:00.000-05:00

Well, my five months here in Cape Town are coming to an end. I have to say goodbye to the place that's been my home, my playground, my nest, my launching pad for other adventures. My feelings are jumbled. On one hand, I'm painfully excited to go home. On the other hand, I'm in denial. Cape Town, in every respect, has become my home. I'm scared to leave. How sad will I be? When will I see my friends again? When will I come back? Will I come back? Will I forget about this place? The people I've met? The things I've done? Will I remember all the good food I've eaten? The places I've been? The things I've seen? My biggest fear is that when I leave, this whole experience will become foggy like a dream. I don't want to wake up and say 'Did that really happen?' Right now, Cape Town feels like a part of me. But I don't want to leave that piece of myself behind. I want to carry it with me forever. As sad as it is to say goodbye, I want to remember this place for everything it was and everything it meant to me. There is insecurity in leaving. Home might have changed, I might have changed, the food might not be as good. I wonder if it's possible to be happy to be home while still remembering the good parts of Cape Town, or if I will only be able to be happy about one or the other at a given time.

Enough of the drama. I'm going to do what every study abroad student does in their final blog. A greatest hits and misses, so to say. Here are the top things I'll miss about the Mother City:

1. The beauty. Table Mountain, the ocean, the beautiful places only a drive or train ride or flight away. Enough said.

2. The food. Food here is cheap and delicious. I've grown accustomed to a delicious meal for the equivalent of $5. I also like the laziness of meals here. You sit, wait, get a menu, wait, order, wait, wait, wait, eat slowly, wait, get your table cleared, talk, wait, ask for a bill, wait, pay, wait. You get the idea. It's a lot of waiting, but it gives you a chance to enjoy your company and when your food finally comes, you're really looking forward to eating it. Like the anticipation makes the food better. Or it could be the amazing cooking or the fresh ingredients.

3. The energy. Maybe it's just because it's world cup time, but people here are happy and their happiness is contagious.

4. My peeps. Although most of the people I've met go to Wisconsin, a significant number of my good friends do not. My roommate, for instance, goes to University of South Carolina. It will be strange to not see these friends all the time, and it's sad not knowing when I'll see them again.

5. Africa time. This goes along with the restaurant thing. Things here run SLOW. Living here has turned me into a slow person. Things just take time, and it's fine. It's refreshing to not have any pressure on you.

6. Obs. My neighborhood. With Lower Main Rd only a short walk from my house, full of restaurants, bars, shops, interesting people, it's been amazing. State Street had better step it up.

7. Old Biscuit Mill. I can't even go into it or I'll get emotional.

8. Getting in a plane, flying for two hours and What? You're in Namibia/Botswana/Zambia! Everything is so close. You get in a plane in the States, fly for two hours, and you're in Nebraska. Not as cool, though I've never been to Nebraska.

9. My home! My house is SWEET. I love my room, my view, my garden, backyard, neighbors, EVERYTHING. Even though it's freezing because there's no heating, I've grown to appreciate how cozy it is to be wrapped up all the time in blankets and sweaters.

10. There is more, but this would turn into the longest blog ever.

Now that I've done the Cape Town list, I'll mention a few things I'm excited to get back to: good coffee, friends, family, Oliver, Roxy, Chicago summer, safety, Madison, the beach, the list goes on.

I've become used to my life here, and I like it. I like the adventures, the people, the constant stream of new experiences. I've done all I've wanted to do. I don't want more time here, but I wish I wasn't leaving without knowing when I'll be back. Cape Town isn't exactly the place you can fly off to on a whim. I'll miss this place in the indefinite period I'm gone. But it's not goodbye forever. I've grown to love this place too much to not return.

So farewell, dear Cape Town, until we meet again.

-Sarah

BAFANA BAFANA!!!

2010-06-14T09:23:00.000-05:00

The World Cup has begun!!! On Friday, the first World Cup ever held on the continent of Africa started in Johannesburg. Bafana Bafana (translation: The boys! The boys!, meaning: South African soccer team) took on Mexico Friday afternoon to kick off (no pun intended) the games. Along with tens of thousands of fans, I went downtown to catch the first game. The city was wild! Everyone was decked out in their Bafana gear and there were celebrations in the street. Cape Town was a completely different place. I watched the first game from a little coffee shop on Long St. that was absolutely packed with fans. There were people on the street crowded around the windows looking in to watch the game. When Bafana scored that first, absolutely BEAUTIFUL goal against Mexico the city erupted. I can't describe it. South Africans have so much pride in their country, their athletes, themselves, and especially in stepping up and hosting the world for the first time ever. I don't think people can know how big of a deal it is for the South Africans that they're hosting the World Cup unless they've witnessed and experienced being here for it. Bafana pride is contagious. All the Americans were rooting for Bafana, myself included.

Parade in the streets

Another parade down Long St.

Watching the game in Rcaffe

Taking it to the streets

After the Bafana game it was Cape Town's turn to host a game. Thousands of fans paraded to Greenpoint Stadium for the France v. Uruguay game AND I WAS ONE OF THEM. I can't explain my excitement in going to a World Cup game. Even though the game proved to be somewhat boring, it was still totally awesome. I mean, I was at a World Cup game! How cool is that? The stadium is amazing. It's so bright and white and new. I loved it. My friend Dan and I sat together and we had great seats. We were in the lowest level, 23 rows back from one of the corners. I'd never been to a soccer game besides ETHS games, and I'd say this was a pretty good introduction.

My tickets

Greenpoint Stadium

Inside, view from my seat

Yesterday I went to an English bar with some friends to watch the USA v. England game. The eight of us were the only Americans in a place full of English fans. After a couple hours of speculation and trash talk with the English fans, it was pretty depressing when England scored that first goal. The draw was sweet, though, since we knew we were the underdogs. There was a good camaraderie between us and the English fans, making for a fun time. Hopefully the USA or Bafana goes all the way!

-Sarah

I Love Namibia

2010-06-12T08:31:00.000-05:00

I just returned from the most surprisingly amazing places I have ever visited. Namibia is a gem, complete with everything from huge, rolling dunes to sunny coasts to vast mountain ranges. Over four days we traveled 1900 miles and had a great time. I went with my three neighbors, Alex, Callie and Kristine. We left at 8:00AM on Saturday morning and drove up the N7 highway to the border in our little white Nissan Tiida packed with gallons of water, three bags of apples and oranges, bread, peanut butter, jelly, chocolate and one Cosmo magazine. We drove straight up to the border of Namibia, only stopping a couple times to make PB&J's and to get gas. The South African side of the border was organized; the Namibian side not so much. It took us about an hour to get across the border. Namibia must be a more popular destination than i originally thought because there were about twenty people trying to get through the border. Callie had been in contact with the hotel we were supposed to be staying at but they had refused to give an address and failed to answer the phone, so we didn't know how to get there. We ended up driving a couple hours north of where we intended to stay so we could be more sure of finding a hotel. Where we ended up was the Canyon Hotel, a nice place that gave us extremely cheap adjoining rooms. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant before falling into a deep sleep. Driving all day takes it out of you.

Strange rock hills on the road

Sunrise from the Canyon Hotel

We woke up early the next morning because we had to backtrack to get to the Fish River Canyon. This canyon is the second biggest one in the world and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, we had to drive for a couple hours over the bumpiest dirt roads you've ever seen before getting to the canyon. Our little Nissan, affectionatly called 'Tidds' by the four of us, had trouble on the roads. We were worried she would get a flat tire or just fall to bits without warning, so we took it very slow. Eventually we made it to the canyon. It was worth the drive. While exploring, we ran into another group of study abroad students who happened to be traveling through Namibia. They also had a Tiida and theirs was proving to be as much of a struggle on the dirt roads as ours. After a little chat with our friends, it was time to drive up to the desert.

Fish River Canyon

Tids at the canyon

Fish River Canyon

It was another long stretch of driving before we made it to our hotel. This time we stayed at the Desert Camp near the entrance of the Sossusvlie National Park. Again, we had to drive along dirt roads to get there. Close to the end of the drive we were on a road that weaved through a mountain valley and we saw the most brilliant sunset. There weren't any clouds so you could literally see the layers of color changing from red to orange to yellow and so on. It was unbelievable. The Desert Camp was such a treat. This place was amazing. We stayed in luxury tents, which may not sound like much on paper, but were beyond what I thought a tent could be. These tents weren't the kind you take down at night, and had electricity, comfy beds with the softest linen, a beautiful bathroom and a cozy atmosphere. It was my favorite place we stayed. The Desert Camp was part of a larger string of hotels around the Sossusvlie area and the closest one was a super nice hotel called the Desert Lodge. The Lodge offers delicious buffet dinners and Camp lodgers are welcomed there for dinner. The dinner was amazing. There were these great appetizers complete with a yummy soup and bread, salads, pastas, etc. Then for the main course you went up to a grille where there were selections of meat and a chef grilled them up for you right there. There was a huge selection of meat including ostrich, springbok, warthog, zebra, and a bunch others I cannot remember. I had sprinbok and zebra. It felt kind of strange eating zebra but it was delicious. Then, of course, there was dessert. A beautiful and delicious desert dessert. I think I tried everything. After dinner we headed back to our luxury tents and slept. We had an early morning the next day.

Luxury Tent

Beds in our luxury tent

In the morning we woke up super early, intending to get to Sossusvlie right when it opened at 6:30AM. Little did we know, Namibia participates in daylight savings time so it's an hour behind there. So, we ended up getting up at 5:15 and were at the gates before 6:30. But in the end it worked out because we got to beat the crowds. Sossusvlie was unlike anything I've ever seen. The park has some of the largest sand dunes in the world and they were magnificent. I never knew sand dunes could be so enormous! Most were as tall as buildings. A major highlight of the park is Dune 45, one of the largest dunes in the park. You have free reign in the park and can climb around on all the dunes, but Dune 45 is the major exploration point for most people. We parked and climbed up the side of the dune. It was a lot harder work than I anticipated, but we did better than most people. I guess we spent a lot of time there because eventually we were all alone on the dune. It felt great to be the only people as far as you could see in the middle of a desert on the top of a huge dune. After a little photo shoot we decided to run down the side of the dune. It was pretty steep and a long ways down, but your feet sunk into the soft sand so it was impossible to fall. Running down was such a cool feeling. The sand was warm but not hot, and it was so soft and cozy to lay in. We probably took twenty minutes to get down, not because it should take that long but because we kept stopping and laying in the sand, rolling around and loving it. When we finally decided to leave the dune, we made some PB&Js and continued to the end of the park. At the end of the road we had to leave our cars and get into a jeep taxi to go to the Sossusvlie valley where we explored the desert some more before leaving the park.

Dunes

Dune 45

View from Dune 45

Walking up the dune

Callie, Kristine, Alex and Me on Dune 45

View from Dune 45

Sossusvlie Valley

From the park we drove to Luderitz, a little coastal town that has been around since the early 1900s. We had called a hotel from a phone number on this map we bought, and had been in contact with the proprietor for a while, having been lost numerous times. When we drove by the place for the first time we were sketched out and did not want to stay there. It was this dark place, with circular windows and a weird looking sign. We were about to choose another place to stay when we saw the woman who had been helping us standing outside in case we drove by. We felt too bad driving away, especially after she waved at us, so we decided to stay. It was a good decision, because the inside of the place was so cute. There was a restaurant that had really good food. I was struck with the taste for home cooking, so I ordered pork chops and mashed potatoes. They were delicious. We got baked apples for dessert which were also delicious. For the third night in a row we went to bed early and got to sleep in the following morning.

Luderitz

Coast of Luderitz

Luderitz

In the morning on Tuesday we explored the town. We started with the coast, which was rocky and very pretty. From there we went to a little coffee shop in town. It was such a cute little place that I would have never expected to be in Namibia. After a bit of coffee and tea we drove out to Dias Point, one of the highlights of Luderitz. We had to drive about thirty minutes through a 'Diamond Recreational Area' (whatever that means, because want kind of recreational activities can you do in diamond mines?), along yet another dirt road, to get there. It was a desolate drive, with nothing but rolling hills of beige dirt, but Dias Point was worth it. There were a few buildings, marooned boats, and a random coffee shop that had a sign advertising 'tea, cake and beer'. Of course, we stopped inside. The place was full of what art history calls 'found objects'; bottles, driftwood, clocks, shells, netting, beer advertisements. Pretty much anything you could find, including stained glass windows on the doors. It was a cool place with outdoor seating and a small playground of recycled tires and various other 'found objects'. The specialty of the shop was oysters. Luderitz is big on oysters, with restaurants and bars (the few of them in the town) advertising their oysters and other edible sea creatures. So we decided to try the oysters. Why not? We were in a coffee shop on the coast of Namibia that happened to sell oysters, miles from nowhere. Each of us got two oysters. They were huge! I'd never seen oysters so big, but then again I'm not well versed in oysters, having only eaten them once or twice. They were cold, and I was surprised at how salty they were. It was as if the guy had gone right down to the shore, picked up eight oysters, put them on a plate with sea salt and lemons, and set them down in front of us. Regardless of whether or not we liked them, it was a really fun experience and we all cleared our plates. From the oyster bar/coffee shop we walked out to the Dias Point monument, a large stone cross on the top of a rocky cliff originally erected by a Portuguese explorer. It was really windy, even by Cape Town standards, and we kept getting blasted by ocean sprays. I can't explain the view from Dias Point. It wasn't monumental, and we didn't really see much because there wasn't much around, but it was striking at how removed we were. I had the feeling of being marooned on some desert island completely cut off from civilization. I guess it wasn't far from the truth, minus the marooned part. When we returned to the car, we discovered we'd lost a hub cap. Oh well.

Coffee shop on Dias Point

Oysters

My kind of place

View from Dias Point

We left Luderitz around one in the afternoon and drove to the border. The ride was breathtaking. We took a route through a national park and it was pretty much mountains as far as you could see. The Orange River made an appearance from time to time, making the drive even more beautiful. We made it through the border right after dark and intended on staying at a hostel on the Orange River on the South African side. After driving forty minutes on the worst dirt road I've ever experienced without catching a glimpse of our hotel or anything else for that matter, we turned around and started the eight hour drive back to Cape Town. At one point, when we were passing a truck, we ran over the biggest porcupine in the world. There wasn't really a choice. It was run over the porcupine, run off the road, or swerve into the truck. So it was goodbye porcupine. It got the last laugh, though, as when we pulled into a gas station a couple hours later we found we had a completely flat tire. The situation was laughable. It was 4:30AM, we were in some nameless South African town at a gas station, with seven guys working to switch out our tire for the spare. They pulled out a quill that was probably ten inches long and as thick as a pencil. Luckily, flat tires (as well as missing hub caps) were covered by our insurance so we made out ok. We got into Cape Town at 6:00AM Wednesday morning.

My trip to Namibia was the perfect way to end my semester. I've been to all the border countries now, and Namibia was my favorite by far. It was the most surprisingly beautiful place I've ever been. I hope to someday get the chance to go back to Namibia, one of my favorite places on the planet.

-Sarah

Off to Namibia!

2010-06-04T03:05:00.000-05:00

Well I'm off to Namibia for the next six days. I'll be traveling to the Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Then I'm hitting up the Namib Desert to play on some sand dunes. After that I'm driving to the city of Swakopmund for a couple nights. Should be pretty fun! As of tonight, when I enter Namibia, I'll have traveled to all of South Africa's border countries.

-Sarah

Castle of Good Hope and other Misc. Adventures

2010-06-02T08:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to the Castle of Good Hope with a few friends. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Summer has returned to Cape Town, so it was quite warm out yesterday. It was a neat place to explore. There were museums and lots of nooks and corridors to wander through. From the roof of the castle you could see all of downtown and had a great view of the mountains. The museums had a lot of relics from the initial Dutch occupation of the cape.

Cannon

Table Mountain seen from the roof of the Castle

City seen from the roof

After the castle we had lunch at a cute restaurant called Milk, Bread and Honey. It was delicious. From there we wandered to the Company Gardens area, which has a lot of the museums and other such institutions. On the way we stopped in St. George's church, a very old church. There were lots of stained-glass windows and an enormous organ. I bet it would be a great place to attend mass if I were to attend mass.

As it should be

We stopped into the National Library, but there wasn't much to see. There was a soccer exhibit about the history of soccer in South Africa. From there we went into the Company Gardens, which I've mentioned in previous posts. It was such a beautiful day to spend walking through the city, and the gardens was a perfect way to end. The rose garden was so beautiful, with some of the most enormous and brightly-colored roses I've ever seen. There was also a well with a spout that came out of a nearby tree, which I thought was interesting. We sat on a bench in a courtyard for a while, just enjoying the twilight and nice weather. On the walk back through the gardens we came across a group of ducklings attempting to hop over the edge of a pond to join their mama, but the lip was a little high so they kept jumping and sliding down again. It was precious and eventually they all made it in.

Parliament

Rose garden, looking measly, with Table Mountain in the background

A close up does the rose garden justice

In other news, there are two youtube videos everyone needs to check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhM-cpSwrmM
The first is the new Nike football commercial, because it is awesome and was totally worth the absurd amount of internet credits I spent to watch it. The second is the of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Anthem. It's a jolly song, and I like it. It's FIFAmania here. There are literally flags EVERYWHERE, and not just South African ones. All the cars have these little mirror covers of the South Africa flag. It feels like every store, regardless of it being a clothing store or grocery store or whatever, is selling soccer things. Clothes, flags, whatever you can possibly think of. I am currently wearing my bright orange sweatshirt with the World Cup logo on the front. At Green Market Square downtown, there is a huge market for bootleg jerseys and miscellaneous FIFA gear. And yet, I was by the Greenpoint Stadium two days ago and they are still doing construction. The train station that lets you off at Greenpoint is still being worked on, bridges are still being built, sidewalks repaired, homeless people being rounded up and removed from the city (no joke), and buildings being painted (or built). The World Cup starts on June 11. That's nine days from now, and they're still finishing up. I have the feeling they'll get everything done, though. Cape Town is just that kind of place. This city is alive right now, with the World Cup just over a week away. It's exciting times over here.

-Sarah

A Few Things

2010-05-28T09:44:00.002-05:00

So my days in Cape Town are coming to a close. I finished finals on Monday and have been relaxing with numerous movies ever since. I've been placing a few fun things into my hours of laziness which are worth mentioning.

On Tuesday afternoon I went to afternoon tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel with Erin and our neighbors Kristine and Alex. The Mount Nelson is a bright pink hotel at the base of Table Mountain on the outskirts of the city bowl. Afternoon tea was held in the lounge, a very long, slightly stuffy, bright room filled with plush chairs and a fireplace at each end. There was even a piano player. In the center of the room was a huge buffet table piled with dainty finger foods. One half was devoted to savory items and the other to sweets. They had baskets full of rolls and breads and bowls full of fruit salad complete with strawberries. All of the food was served in elegant silver dishes. Our mouths watering, we chose a table right by the fire and ordered our tea. Immediately after ordering, we headed to the buffet and piled our plates with savory foods. I've been to tea before, and no food has ever compared with the spread at the Mount Nelson. The sandwiches, wraps, toasties, and mini quiches were to die for. It was all I could do to confine myself to one plate to begin with. When we sat down, the waitress brought out our tea. It was served in these clear pots so you could watch your tea seep. My tea, even though it was lemon, was a vivid magenta color. It was beautiful, but I didn't like the taste much. After waiting the minimum amount of time, we headed back to the buffet. This time I mixed it up, getting both sweets and savories. They were equally delicious. A couple hours later we were all filled to the brim with tea and totally stuffed from multiple buffet runs, we headed home. It had been a lovely afternoon.

Pretty tea

Savory

Sweet

I've recently discovered a lovely bakery/restaurant in Obs called Mango Ginger. This place has the most amazing (and enormous) wraps. I've been three times in as many days, it's that good. Yesterday I got their minestrone soup and it was heaven. Today I haven't been feeling too good, so I went there alone and got chai tea and an apple crumble and just sat there with my new book for a while. It was really nice and relaxing. It's surprising how hard a good cup of chair tea is to come by here. They dump so much sugar and sweetener into it that you can't even taste the chai. But Mango Ginger knows what's up. There's a cute used bookstore on Lower Main where, if you spend enough time, you can find some really good reads. Earlier this year, before discovering the surprisingly good selection at UCT's library, I found a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story book called 'Leaf Storm' that I plan on taking back with me. Today I picked up 'Hearts in Atlantis', a book by Stephen King. Hopefully it's a good story, as most of his usually are.

In other news, I've been working at planning out my summer vacation. Right after leaving Cape Town I'm spending a couple weeks in Europe traveling with my friend Lisa. After spending a few days in London, we're hitting Dublin, Brussels and Amsterdam. Then it's home on June 27 after spending just under six months away from home. I'll be glad to be back after being gone for so long. I won't be home for too long, though, since from August 1-16 I'll be traveling through Ecuador with Adam. I can't even imagine how amazing that trip is going to be. So, my summer will be anything but quiet. Four continents in just over two months. I'm sure having all these adventures to look forward to will make leaving Cape Town much easier.

-Sarah

Mozambique: Six Days in Paradise

2010-05-23T14:20:00.000-05:00

Here comes the blog post all about my trip to Mozambique. You ready? It's pretty epic.

On Wednesday morning I left for Cape Town airport in the Boogie Bus, a private mini bus for international students that's painted crazy colors and decorated all over, with my friends Will and Stephen. Seven hours and one Joburg layover later, we were in Maputo, the capitol city of Mozambique. This place was unlike any city I'd ever seen before. It was completely run down, without any apparent traffic laws, and DIRTY. Dirt and trash were everywhere, it was pretty gross. We stayed at Fatima's Backpackers for the night. Will had been to Maputo once before, so he suggested we go to this fish market for dinner. This fish market was wild. Immediately when we got out of the cab, there were dozens of people heckling us, trying to get us to buy whatever they were selling or to let them take us around the fish market. One guy got our attention, and he led us through the chaos. We walked into this large tented area where dozens of vendors were selling their various kinds of fish. I'd never seen anything like it. Tables laden with dozens of fish, buckets full of clams, crab, and prawns. We picked out our choices (clams, calamari, barracuda, and crab) and went around the side of the market. There were a bunch or restaurants all surrounding a middle seating area, and they all cook the fish you buy in the market. The guy who led us around and helped us pick out the fish worked at one of the restaurants so we chose to ate there. We negotiated a price for the cooking, and sat back and cracked open a few beers. The guy didn't know very good english, so we pretty much just smiled and nodded when he spoke to us. First we had the clams and some garlic bread. They were delicious. I don't think I'd ever had clams before. Next came the salads, barracuda steaks, crab and calamari and they were so good. None of us had ever had barracuda before, and I was surprised how tasty and rich it was. My favorite was the crab, even though it was a total mission to get the meat out. Once we were done with dinner we headed back to the hostel and relaxed with a bottle of wine and a game of scrabble. We went to sleep early since we had a 6:00AM bus ride to Tofo in the morning.

Maputo fish market

Barracuda in the background, calamari steaks in the front

We awoke at 5:30 the following morning and headed outside to catch the shuttle that would take us from Maputo to Tofo, where we'd be spending the rest of our time. I thought the shuttle was just for Fatima's lodgers and that it would be a nice, comfy bus. Oh, how wrong I was. This bus was a nightmare. We were dropped off by cabs along with three other young travelers we'd met the night before at this bus station in Maputo. There were about a billion buses there and ours looked just the same as all the others. Like a typical African bus, our was packed. Luckily, there was only one butt to a seat (sometimes this is not the case), but it was still shoulder to shoulder. And these people were so stinky! Like they hadn't ever showered in their lives. It was kind of like torture to ride a stanky bus for eight hours. We only got off twice-once to pee on the side of the road and another to buy snacks at a gas station. Along the way we would pull over to buy from street vendors who would run up to the car and bang on your window to try to get you to buy stuff. We got some rolls and muffins, so we survived the trip. It didn't really feel like we were riding for eight hours, for some reason. I was thankful that it didn't seem as long as it could have. The ride could have been a lot worse. I was lucky enough to sit between Will and a window, so I was removed from the stench.

After a long, uncomfortable journey we arrived at Fatima's Nest, our backpackers in Tofo. Tofo is this tiny town that consists of a few hostels, a hotel, a dive shop, a couple restaurants and a market, all right on the beach. Fatima's was like the tree house from Blue Lagoon, and was totally a beach lovers dream. There was a thatched-roof restaurant and bar that was open to the air, a completely open air hangout area, and steps leading right down to the beach. Right when we walked up to the checkin counter (which also served as the bar and the ordering counter for the restaurant) our friends Lara and Cay ran up to us. It turned out they were staying at Fatima's too! They were supposed to leave the following day for Vilanculos, a beach spot farther North, but in true Tofo manner (which I'll explain later), they stayed there for their entire trip. We threw our stuff into our room and hit the beach. This beach was out of this world. It stretched as far as you could see, had the softest squeakiest sand, and the water was unbelievably warm. After swimming for a while we walked to the dive shop where we signed up for snorkling and scuba diving for the next day. Afterwards we headed over to a restaurant called Dino's for some pizza.

Fatima's Nest

View from Fatima's

We ended up staying at Dino's for a few hours, drinking more than we ate and becoming quite tipsy. Once the bill was paid we headed back to Fatima's where we met up with some of the other lodgers. A few of us hung out on the beach till pretty late before turning in. The tide was really low, and for some reason I was totally paranoid that there would be a tsunami. Luckily, there wasn't. I got over this fear the next night (well, actually the following morning, when I woke up dry and alive) because the tide always gets that low.

Early the next morning, after a breakfast of fruit and yogurt, we strolled over to the dive shop to go snorkeling. We went on what was called an 'Ocean Safari' and we were supposed to see whale sharks and rays and all sorts of cool stuff. Apart from a couple dolphins we saw on our two hour boat ride, we didn't see much of anything. After not finding anything cool for a while, they dumped us on a reef where there were some pretty fish. I've never been a talented snorkeler, and always end up breathing in copious amounts of water. This was no exception. I was disappointed by the snorkeling, especially since I had just learned to dive and was used to that kind of water activity. I kind of suck and swimming and at holding my breath, so I don't think snorkeling is really my thing. I got a better hang of it by the end and could get down kind of far to see things up close, but it wasn't all that exciting. This general lameness was compounded by my horrible seasickness. Something about the swells of the ocean made me totally nauseous. I thought I was going to chunder. Thankfully I was able to hold it together and didn't have to sit in the boat for very long before we got moving. Riding in the boat was SO MUCH FUN. I didn't feel seasick when the boat was moving, which was surprising since it was like being on a roller coaster. Come to think of it, roller coasters don't make me sick. So there you have it. The waves were pretty big, so we went airborne a good amount of times.

Immediately after snorkeling my friend Lara and I had to set out for our afternoon dive. I almost didn't go because I was still queasy, but I rallied and am very happy I did. Lara and I along with four other divers rode out to a dive site called "The Chamber of Secrets," which I thought was totally awesome. There was another dive site called "Hogwarts" and the divemasters claimed there was no connection. Riiight. To get into the water we sat facing each other and simply tipped backwards into the water, then swam right down to the bottom. I'd never dived anywhere besides the frigid, murky waters of Cape Town so the waters of the Indian Ocean off of Tofo beach were beyond my imagination. There were schools of brightly colored fish, I saw rays, Nemo, Dory, and a few puffer fish. The puffer fish were my favorite. I was surprised how much bigger the tropical fish are in the wild are compared to in captivity. Some were the size of dinner plates. After about fifty minutes we headed back up to the surface and cruised back to shore. Since there aren't any piers or docks, the boats have to run ashore. It's really fun and exciting, since the driver goes super fast and slams on the brakes right at the end and you have to jump off really fast.

In the afternoon we went to town. Town consisted of booths set up by locals who sell foods, alcohol, goods, and clothing. There were tons of pants made of boldly patterned fabrics. Lara and Cay had discovered these delicious peanut better bon bons which were to become my greatest vice for the week. We bought some fruit and Tipo Tinto rum before going to a hotel for dinner. The Tofo Hotel was being renovated, but the restaurant was still open. We ordered some drinks and some calamari. Though the place is mere yards from the ocean, they were out of fish for the day. We headed back to Dino's after dinner, which at night turns into a dance club. Since it was Friday night, the place was happening. I think everyone in Tofo was there. We hung out and danced with a few people we'd met at Fatima's, one of them being a bartender from Holland who was leading a tour of the area the next day. We'd signed up for the tour, little did we know what was in store for us.

The pants

We awoke the next morning to a beautiful day, had some breakfast and hit the beach. We played in the water for a good amount of time. Around one we left for the Tipo Tinto Tour of Tofo. As I mentioned before, Tipo Tinto is a rum but not just any old rum. It's cheap, delicious, and fierce. You can be drinking it and BAM! all of a sudden you're waking up the next morning with a pounding headache when just a second before you were out dancing with your friends. It's blackout juice. So this tour was all about drinking Tipo Tinto and driving around Tofo. There were about nine of us going on the tour and three leaders. We piled into the back of a pickup truck along with the bottles of Tipo Tinto and the cans of pop. The best way to drink Tipo is to drink a little pop, fill up the can with Tipo, and repeat. So we cruised around Tofo in the back of a pickup truck, sipping Tipo Tinto and enjoying the randomness of our situation. We stopped at a lighthouse to do some exploring and there was a wedding being setup on the beach below. It looked like it was going to be really beautiful. After the lighthouse we headed to the house of our driver. He was squatting in this house with a few other people that used to be owned by a General. It was huge and right on the ocean. There we met the other people in the house who were cooking us dinner. We had a huge fresh fish braai with some kind of huge fish, calamari, and prawns. It was fun, we ate with our hands all from one dish while standing around the table. It was such a surreal experience. Somehow our travels had landed us in an abandoned house, drinking cheap rum, eating good fish, all right on the ocean in Mozambique. It felt like a dream. After having a bit of a party we headed back. It was pitch black and we were all piled into the back of this pickup truck, but somehow we made it home safely. It was only 7pm, but it felt like midnight. I lasted till 7:30 and had to go take a nap. I woke up at 11:15 and Will and I set out to find our friends. We checked all over the place before checking Lara and Cay's room, where we found the two girls and Stephen totally passed out. Will went out to Dino's and I went back to bed at midnight and slept till nine.

I almost got sick when I looked at this the following morning

Yummy

The abandoned house

View from the house

The next morning we all felt pretty terrible, and the most we did was take a walk to town. We all had to go to the ATM to get more Mozambique money since no place took credit cards. The ATM was at a gas station a ways out of town, so we paid a bus driver to take us there. After struggling with the ATM and buying a ton of chips between the group of us, we hitchhiked back to town. We got lunch at the dive shop and there was a bee cooked into Lara's burger, which was both gross and hilarious. Will, Lara and I went on an afternoon dive to a site called Salon. The waves were enormous, the biggest I'd ever seen and apparently they were as big as they get off of Tofo. We got into the water as fast as possible to avoid seasickness. For some reason I had about twice as much air left as everyone else when they started running out of air, so I was able to stay underwater with the divemaster and another diver for a really long time after everyone else had to go up. In all I think we were underwater for about an hour and five minutes. I'd never been so deep, about 16m. I felt pretty cool getting to stay down with the other divers who were both very experienced and knew what was going on. I was just kind of floating around getting distracted by the colorful fish. There was a really strong surge that day, which is a current underwater that pulls you to and fro. I didn't really fight it at all and just got pushed along by the water. I think that's why I had so much air left, I didn't put forth much effort against the surge. I really liked staying with the other two divers, it was like being let into the club, since they were so experienced. I'm really glad I went ahead and got certified. It adds a whole new dimension to traveling since now whenever I go someplace with water there's the potential to dive. You can see so much cool stuff, the people are generally fun and enthusiastic, and it's a lot of fun. It's a really good thing I stayed down as long as possible, since the waves were so enormous. Everyone on the boat was extremely seasick when we got out of the water. The ride back was wild, since the waves were so big. There was a complete rainbow in the sky that was the brightest I'd ever seen.

That night we were all really tired. I wasn't feeling too good, possibly from the dive, possibly from the Tipo. Regardless, I wasn't feeling a late night. It was a good thing, though, since our bus for Maputo left at 4am the following morning. We got in the bus at four and took off. It was sad to leave Tofo. It's the kind of place where, if you're not careful, you'll end up staying for weeks. Lara and Cay, instead of leaving for Vilanculos like they had planned on, kept putting it off until they had to leave for Cape Town and it was too late. You quickly lose track of how long you've been there. Whenever someone would ask us how long we'd been in Tofo, we really had to think about it before remembering. The days and nights blend together. You meet cool people that stay there too long just like you do, and you just never leave. If we didn't have finals to get back to, I think we might still be there. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of beach vacations.

After a torturous bus ride back to dirty, stinky, sweaty Maputo we had a couple hours to kill so we go out for pasta of all things. It was good, but pasta on a hot day, when you're tired, sick, and in the middle of traveling, is dumb. I felt so gross. At the airport we each had to check a bag since the boys wanted to bring back bottles of Tipo Tinto. Of course, it all ended up in my bag and all my clothes were split between theirs. Unfortunately, Will's camera and cell phone were stolen between Maputo and Joburg. Getting stuff stolen from a checked bag is not an unusual occurrence in Southern Africa, which sucks. What sucks more is this was not Will's first time getting stuff stolen from his bags. We were all tired and cranky and had a two hour layover before leaving for Cape Town. While Will filed a report with the airlines, Stephen and I sat at Mug and Bean and had milk and cookies. They were so delicious. I fell asleep before everyone had even finished boarding the plane. The best thing about flying in Southern Africa is that you never fly more that a couple hours, so as soon as you start feeling like you want to get off the plane, the flight is over.

Once home I took the longest, best-feeling shower of my entire life and slept for hours and hours. I didn't move from my bed till noon, and that was only to get food. I've pretty much been a slug since getting back, and it's been great. School is finally wrapping up. Tomorrow at 5pm I have my last final and then it's goodbye junior year. Summer vacation here I come!

-Sarah

Finals: Three Tests Till Freedom

2010-05-19T03:23:00.000-05:00

It's finals time at UCT. I have one tonight at 5:00, one tomorrow at 8:00AM, and another on Tuesday at 5:00. Studying does not come easy when you're recovering from a week in Mozambique, but there's more to come on that trip later. I've got just under four weeks left in Cape Town, then I take off for a month in Europe before heading home for a couple weeks. Until finals are over, I think I'll be feeling like the only place I want to be is one of these three:

On the porch with Roxy

Chicago (but preferably in the summertime)

With this kid <3

I'm sure I'll feel much happier and contented when finals are over. Until then, it's study study study with many facebook and internet breaks and plenty of snacks!

Wish me luck!

-Sarah

Stellenbosch: Wine is Life

2010-05-18T04:42:00.003-05:00

I spent this past weekend in the lovely town of Stellenbosch. My good friend from back home in Evanston, Eric, is at Stellenbosch University for the semester, so I hung out with him for the weekend. Friday after class I took the train from Cape Town to Stellenbosch. It reminded me of taking the Metro to visit my favorite Sconnie in Brookfield. The ride was about an hour, and Eric met me at the station. After touring the university (which is very beautiful), we had dinner at this great Lebanese restaurant called Manoushe. We had a really good bottle of white wine from none other than Stellebosch. The restaurant has one chef, who is amazing, and all the flat breads are made at the restaurant rather than store bought and heated up. These flat breads were AMAZING. We had a hummus appetizer and I could have just eaten that, it was so good. For dinner we had these really good wraps made with the flat bread and filled with whatever filling you wanted. We couldn't decide on a dessert, so we got cheese cake and this one specialty dessert, which turned out to be a mountain of fruit and two flat breads with nutella in the middle. We barely ate any of it because we were so totally full. That night we went out with a bunch of Eric's friends, all of who are really fun and friendly peeps. We went to this one really entertaining bar that played very eclectic songs, making for a really fun night.

Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs

On day two we woke up early and went out to breakfast at Java Cafe before hitting the town. We walked all over Stellenbosch and went into probably every single store. Stellenbosh is a really pretty town, with lots of tree-lined streets with beautiful fall colors. There are a ton of little galleries and shops hidden in tiny alleyways and tons of cafes and restaurants. Stellenbosch is also full of old buildings that date back to the beginning of Dutch occupation in South Africa. For lunch we stopped at this little organic cafe that had a delicious a la carte menu and served the only legitimate iced latte I've had in this country. After lunch we went back to Eric's res and rested for a bit. My friends were coming into town that afternoon, so we needed to get our energy back. Earlier in the week I had scheduled a ninety-minute massage for myself in Stellenbosch, so I headed over there and left Eric to rest. This massage was awesome. I had needed one since before coming to South Africa, and it felt so good. The massage I ordered was the 'Super Deluxe Massage' and it was so intense. It even included a hot stone massage. Afterwards, with my hair all messed up and my eyes unable to focus properly, I wandered back to Eric's to grab my stuff and meet my friends at the backpackers.

Beautiful Stellebosch

One of the cheetah statues that are scattered throughout Stellenbosch

We stayed at a backpackers in town that was a little janky but nice none the less. After a quick rest we met Eric at Rustenvelt 5 for dinner. The restaurant is known for it's unusual gourmet burgers. We first ordered a bottle of wine, then scoured the menu. There were so many delicious-sounding burgers to choose from! I ordered the 'trio of cheeses', which had goat, camembert and mozzarella cheese. It was sooooo good. I think everyone loved their choices. We had a yummy brownie for dessert and another bottle of wine and set off for the night.

The crew at dinner

Early the next morning we set off for our whole-day wine tasting extravaganza. First we went to the J.C.LeRoux vineyard, which is the largest maker of the bubbly in South Africa. We tasted five different sparkling wines, which unless you are in France cannot call it Champagne, and for each one had a completely full glass. We were all a little giddy by the end. The guy leading our tasting was fabulous, and was really really funny and eccentric. The second vineyard had such delicious wine. I sent a case home with my favorites. We drove a ways out to the third vineyard, called Fairview, and it was so awesome. At this point we were all pretty drunk and ready to eat. Luckily for us, this place sold cheese and bread along with wine! We even got to do a cheese tasting. Fairview is a fun relaxed vineyard that has the 'Goats do Roam' line of wines. Everything was sooooo good. The last vineyard was ok. We were all so tired and drunk by then that we weren't really tasting the wine anymore. They had this one wine with a name that translated to 'Bird Shit' and it really tasted terrible.

Early morning bubbly at the House of LeRoux

The wine shop of the second vineyard, where I bought my case of wine

Fairview

Final vineyard, so beautiful

They fed us bird shit

After wine tasting it was around four in the afternoon, and we stopped for a bite in an Indian restaurant. It took a little longer than we thought and it was starting to get dark when we got on the train. Little did we know in our daze that we did not get on a train to Cape Town but to the Cape Flats. This was a bad mistake. The Cape Flats is where black South Africans were displaced to during the Apartheid. Though it's an interesting area worth visiting to see the modern-day effects of the Apartheid, it's no place to be at night. It's all informal settlements and the crime rates run high. By the time our train stopped there, it was almost dark. It's never safe to take the train at night, especially not in this area. We hopped on the next train going to Cape Town, which was luckily already at the station, and sat in this compartment that had no windows. There were a few really nice people who could tell we were out of our element and told us where we were and how far we had till Cape Town. It really helped. Eventually we arrived in Cape Town and the cab took forever to pick us up. Erin and I were so thirsty it was like torture. Finally we made it home and I drank five glasses of water and fell asleep. Except for the train detour to the Flats, the weekend was great.

-Sarah

Check out Picasa for more Stellenbosch pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahcaldwell9/Stellenbosch#

Mozambique!

2010-05-04T13:32:00.000-05:00

I'm heading off to Mozambique a week from tomorrow for five days in paradise. My friends Stephen and Will and I are flying to Maputo, Mozambique on Wednesday and spending the night there. From Maputo we'll take a five hour or so bus ride to Tofo. Apparently Tofo, and pretty much the whole coast of Mozambique, is absolutely beautiful and is great for diving, surfing, snorkeling, kayaking, and relaxing. There's a huge whale shark and ray population around the waters of Tofo, so hopefully we'll get to see some. The place we're staying is a surf and yoga lodge, and they offer beach yoga classes as well as surfing lessons. A few other people are going to be in Tofo while we're there, so it's hopefully going to be an amazing trip. I just have to get through this next week of school and a tough weekend of wine tasting and good eating in Stellenbosch before I get to peace out to paradise.

-Sarah

On Climbing Lion's Head

2010-05-02T11:57:00.001-05:00

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." -John Muir

Scuba and Goals

2010-04-28T13:17:00.001-05:00

First off, I've added pictures to Picasa from when my mom visited. Be sure to check them out!

Now onto business. I finished my scuba certification course yesterday! Now I'm a scuba diver for life. The UCT underwater club, of which I'm a member, held an open water dive course so I signed up. Along with nine other students I got certified to dive up to 18m anywhere in the world. How cool is that?? We had two evenings of classroom instruction before getting in the water. Last Saturday I spent the entire day in a freezing outdoor pool on UCT's campus. We got to the club at 6:30AM and took a nice little swim in the pool before learning how to set up our gear. There were a bunch of skills we had to learn how to do before the end of the day, and we spent a few good hours in the pool. Sunday we met a little later in the morning and drove out to Windmill Beach in Simon's Town, about thirty minutes out of Cape Town, and did our first sea dive. It was so different! For one thing, the salt water tasted gross, as always. The visibility was really low, which was unfortunate, but I was so thrilled to actually be scuba diving in the ocean that I didn't really mind. In our first sea dive of the day (we did two that Sunday) we completed a few skills, then had a nice snack. For our second dive we got to swim around a little bit. That was really fun. It was the first time any of us got to stretch our legs and see what diving was really like. For the training dives we all kneel around in a circle and practice our skills, such as removing and replacing our masks underwater, sharing air with our buddy, etc., under heavy supervision so we stay safe. After two days of that, swimming around, even in murky water, was really fun. Once we got out of our gear and warmed up we went to this fish 'n' chips place in Kalk Bay called Kalky's. I'd never had fish 'n' chips before and I thought they were DELICIOUS. Maybe it was just because I was starving, but it hit the spot. We were all packing it in. Once we were done with lunch we took our exams and all of us passed. Yesterday (Tuesday) we didn't have school so we did our last dive. We went to a beach with a shipwreck not too far from shore to do our dives. It was so cold at the bottom! One guy said he was trying to use up all the air in his cylinder so he could get out of the water. Like on Sunday, the second dive was all about fun and we got to swim all around the wreck. It was so cool! There were sea creatures everywhere and little colorful invertebrates stuck all over the remains of the ship. I'm hooked on diving for sure. We went to a restaurant called Dixie's for a congratulatory drink after the dive. I'm so glad I signed up for the class. I wanted to try scuba out, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy it! It's like a completely new world has been opened to me and I'm so excited to start exploring.

Remember before I even left for South Africa I made a list of goals I hoped to fulfill on my trip? At the end I'll do a grand tally but I wanted to do an update to see where I stand. I thought this was a good time considering scuba was such a huge goal and I've just crossed it off.
1. Climb Table Mountain

2. Learn about South African wine

3. Learn to scuba dive
4. Cage Dive
5. Go on safari/go to Kruger

6. Travel to another African country
7. Visit Robben Island
8. Watch a soccer game. This will happen June 11, 2010. Uruguay v. France. Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town. WORLD CUP!
9. Learn some Xhosa. Meh, not really happening, but I can make many more clicks than before I left!
10. Try traditional South African food

11. Go whale watching. The whale season starts in June.
12. See penguins
13. Go to Kirstenbosch
14. Learn about South African art. I'm in the process of learning about South African art in my sacred art class.

15. Make friends with South Africans
16. Volunteer
17. Drive along the Garden Route

Maybe I should start adding to the list? I haven't got many left on the first one. But I'll save that for another post. Here are some things on the horizon:

Classes end May 12 (HOORAY), leaving me one week before my first exam. The oppotunities for travel in the week are endless. It looks like I'll be spending that week in Namibia traveling to the Fish River Canyon, the Skeleton Coast, and the Namib Desert. After finals, I plan on spending five days in Mozambique, where I'll be able to practice my new scuba skills. Possible trips to Malawi or Madagascar have been floating around, but I do have to pick and choose and Namibia and Mozambique are definitely top of my list. Starting June 11th is the World Cup, and I cannot wait to see what this place will be like.

-Sarah

Caldwell Girls Reunite! My Mom's Week in the Mother City

2010-04-25T15:24:00.003-05:00

Now here's the post I've been waiting to write! As I mentioned at the end of my spring break post, I met up with my mom at the Joburg airport on the Sunday at the end of spring break. That wonderful couple hours was only the beginning of an AMAZING week. We met at the Cape Town airport when my mom's flight got in and hopped in a cab to Obs. My mom had booked her stay at the Aloe House B&B months in advance, but because of a mixup on the owner's part, my mom's room went to my friend's mom instead. So that first night we snuggled up in my house. It actually worked out better that way, because we didn't have to separate on the first night :)

Our first morning we headed to Mimi's, a wonderful little restaurant in Observatory, for breakfast. I don't know what my mom liked better, the fresh yogurt and latte or the view of Table Mountain from our table. After breakfast we took the Jammie up to UCT, where I had to turn in a paper. UCT is so beautiful and has an amazing view, so we would have ended up there anyways. Once the academic business was over with, we walked down the mountain and hailed a minibus for downtown. Luckily, we didn't get one that was too dodgy or broken down. The first stop in Cape Town was Vida e Cafe, a lovely coffee chain that serves the best coffee and snacks. It's right in this little cobblestone area that's always bustling, so it was the perfect place to stop and people watch while sipping away. From there we went to Green Market Square, the hectic and immense African curio market that takes up a whole city block. We went on a rampage and bought dozens of gifts and trinkets. My mom is an excellent bargainer! I had no idea. We bought things for prices I never even knew possible. Long Street was next on our list. We went into various shops, took in the sights, and explored the African Music Store. We also took a very nice stroll through the Company Gardens, a spot I hadn't been to yet. The Company Gardens is like the Central Park of Cape Town, but more landscaped like an actual garden. Large trees, beautiful flowers and shady pathways make it a great spot. Along the paths are various sculptures and art installations. At the edge of the Gardens are numerous museums which were all being renovated in anticipation of the World Cup (now less than fifty days away!). Finished with our walk, we headed back towards Green Market Square and had some lunch at a little cafe I'd always wanted to try. We each had a glass of wine and shared the most amazing roasted veggie salad.

Once back at my house we started looking for a replacement hotel. What we ended up finding was a very nice place called the Courtyard, which happened to be not far from my house. When we got to the hotel, it seemed as if we were the only people staying there. It's a spacious hotel with lots of courtyards (hence the name) and a great view of the mountain. The lobby had a complementary bar service, apples and other fruit, cookies, muffins, and coffee. Our room was great. I say 'our' because I stayed with my mom the whole time. Saying in a nice hotel was such a luxury after spending ten days in the bush. The room even had cable and internet.

That night my mom took my and four friends and me out to dinner downtown. We initially tried to go to Mama Africa, an infamous African restuarant on Long Street, but were unable to because we didn't have reservations. Instead we went to Cape to Cuba, a restaurant with a great vibe right across the street. They were only serving tapas and it was delicious. I'd never had tapas before and thought it was great. We ordered so much food and drinks. For dessert we had a couple desert-beverages. Before long it was time to head home, where we watched a crazy movie while falling asleep.

On her second day in Cape Town, my mom and I went on a guided Peninsula and wine lands tour. In the morning we took the hotel taxi service to the waterfront and had a quick breakfast before leaving for the tour. Our first stop was Boulders Beach, where we got to see the penguins. A bunch of them had babies. It was such a beautiful day. Not too hot but very sunny and pleasant. And not too windy, which is always a treat. After the penguins we went to Cape Point, where we hiked up to the lighthouse and around on the paths a little bit. Our tour guide knew so much, and it was fun chatting with her. We were with three other women on the morning tour. A mother and daughter from Spain and a friend of theirs from Germany. The six of us, including our tour guide, had a great time. After the morning tour my mom and I grabbed lunch at a nice restaurant at the waterfront. We also had a scoop of melty vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate sauce and watched the boats go by. In the afternoon we set off for Stellenbosch for some wine tasting. We first went to Spier, a vineyard that is absolutely made with wine tasting in mind. It's beautifully landscaped and set up, with many different buildings housing restaurants, distilleries, and the tasting room and wine shop. We tasted five wines and bought two bottles, a white and a rose. After Spier we went on a tour of the town of Stellenbosch. I had never seen the town and was surprised at how beautiful it was. Most of the architecture is of the Cape Dutch style, meaning whitewashed buildings with the decorative rooftops. We went to a second vineyard where we did more tasting as well as a cellar tour where we got to see how the wine was made. There were grapes all over the floor as well as three resident dogs, all three of which made me miss Roxy, which in turn made me miss Oliver. In the cellar there were thousands of barrels of wine. Our guide explained that the wood from the barrels came from all over the world, which I thought was pretty cool. It turns out none of the trees in South Africa have wood strong/dense enough to make wine barrels because trees here grow too fast, making their wood too porous to hold wine. I enjoyed seeing how wine was made, since I'm most often only on the consuming end. We bought two bottles from the second vineyard, a red and a white. I'm having a glass of white wine from this vineyard as I write this post, actually. It's quite delicious. Along with our wine tasting we had a cheese tasting. The cheeses were good, even though I thought the cheese my mom and I had at our cheese tasting in Chicago on Christmas Eve was better ;) We headed back to Cape Town after this last wine tasting feeling a little loopy.

At Cape Point

A beautiful day at the waterfront

Heaven is wine cellar

That night we took my friends Erin and Jess out to dinner at Mama Africa, where we'd thought ahead and made reservations. There's live music every night at Mama Africa, and it has a total party atmosphere. We were seated right by the band. The group that played was great! It was a few guys playing drums a couple guys singing. The singers were so cool. They had this Afri-opera style that blew my mind. They had the whole restaurant dancing. Our meal was as amazing as the music. We split a sprinbok salad and crocodile skewers that were to die for. My mom brought the bottle of red she bought that day on our tour and we drank it with dinner. We all had really good meals; cape salmon, lamb curry, prawns and chicken malay. We followed the wine with margaritas and I can't remember if there was dessert involved.

The third day, Wednesday, we woke up early and went running. Can you imagine a true Caldwell girls trip without running? We took a cab to the waterfront and ran to Camps Bay. It was such a beautiful morning for a run. Not too hot or windy, and the sun was to our backs. Running along the seaside trail is always such a treat. When we got to Camps Bay we stopped for breakfast before taking a stroll along the beach. I had a test that afternoon (whomp, whomp) and afterwards we went back to the hotel, did some laundry and packed, and relaxed. That night we went to dinner at The Wild Fig, a restaurant right next to our hotel. It's funny, because our good friend of the family, Victor, who frequently conducts the Cape Town Symphony, had recommended it to us as one of his favorite restaurants and it just happened to be right next to the hotel. It totally deserves the rave reviews because dinner was out of this world. I can't even explain it to you, it was just delicious.

The next morning we left for Kruger. Our flight left at 5:15 and I slept the entire way. From the Joburg airport we got a cab to a hotel in a nearby suburb where we were scheduled to meet up with our tour group. Our tour group ended up consisting of us and six Norwegian students, four girls and two guys, studying in Cape Town at the Cape Peninsula School. Gustav and Nicholas were our tour guides. They were both young, and Nicholas ended up being younger than me. So we set off in our bus named Pavarotti and five hours later we were in Kruger. Kruger is beautiful. I was expecting more flat and arid land expances like in Botswana, but Kruger had lush and rolling hills. The first day we were there we went on a mini game drive and saw a few animals. My mom and I had upgraded to accommodated lodgings so we got to stay in little huts instead of tents. I did not know what to expect since I was used to living a rudimentary existence in manky old tents. I am so glad we upgraded. The first place we stayed was like a mini lodge. It had extremely comfortable beds, electricity, a shower, a kitchen with a fridge, and air conditioning. We went to the campsite for dinner but retired to our cool indoor sanctuary right after eating. Sleep was so good that night.

Kruger is a beautiful place

The next morning we took off for the next campsite. Along the way we incorporated a morning game drive and saw a ton of animals. We got to see three huge lions! They were just lounging on the side of the road. It was awesome. We stopped at the campsite for lunch and then had an afternoon game drive. On this one we saw a herd of hundreds of buffalo. It was crazy to see so many in one place. We also saw baby monkeys playing on the side of the road. They were so cute. In addition we saw numerous giraffes and zebras. The second place we stayed was in the main camp at Kruger and it was so busy. The campsite was like a little transient city plopped in the middle of a nature reserve. A cool thing about Kruger is that you can't just go on a walk through the park if you want. You have to schedule it with the park officials and they supply you with an armed guard and a guide. We didn't do any of that. Our second hut was awesome. It was this circular, thatched-roof hut with the kitchen and fridge outside on the porch with instructions to place a chair against the fridge so the monkeys couldn't get in. Again, there were extremely comfortable beds with the softest sheets and air conditioning. That night we had dinner at the campsite and hung out for a while afterwards. Everyone on the tour was really cool and friendly and we all got along well. The Norwegians were all second year students and were friends from back in Norway. They were really funny and had some great stories. The guides were great. Gustav was quite, but he knew a lot about the wildlife and had some great stories from growing up on a farm. We found out he's planning on opening up his own lodge with his fiance, which is so fitting for him. He's a real sweetheart. Nicholas was great fun to have around the campfire. He's had some crazy adventures, and has even had malaria and lived to tell the tale. So we had story time around the campfire and got to know each other a little better before heading to bed.

Herd of buffalo

On the third day we left Kruger for a private game reserve right outside the park. On the way we passed a huge elephant munching on some leaves right on the side of the road. It was amazing! We were so close to him and got to watch him grabbing the leaves with his trunk and stuffing them into his mouth. I loved it. After a bit of a drive we arrived at the next campsite. This place had really neat buildings and huts, with colorful geometric designs painted on the sides. After getting camp set up and eating lunch, we went on a tour of the village across the road from the camp. Our village guide took us all around and explained to us how all the electricity and water are funded and installed by the government. So everybody gets water, electricity, etc. for free. The question is how often do the lights actually turn on when you flick the switch and does one light bulb for an entire house really count as electricity. But that's besides the point of our quaint little tour, which made my mom and me quite uncomfortable. It felt strange to be led through these people's homes and lives like they're in a perpetual Colonial Williamsburg. Not so cool. What was cool was what you got to see when you looked beyond the strange. This village was beautiful in its surroundings and simplicity. There were beautiful gardens and trees and flowers everywhere, not all landscaped like most places but free as well as cared for. People's houses are like compounds, where a plot of land is fenced off and on it are various separate buildings each with a specific function. I really liked this one building in a compound that had been painted in bright colors unlike any of the rest. It was quite pretty. We made a stop into the witch doctor's hut, where there were bones in jars and bottles filled with various tonics. The door had a creepy black hand-print smudged onto it and the whole thing gave me a weird feeling.

In the witchdoctor's hut

Pretty building

Village living

After the tour we had a night game drive back at Kruger. I had a lot of expectations for this tour, but it fell short. We didn't see many animals, at least nothing in the big five. One cool thing was we saw a battle royale between two wildebeests. One wildebeest was up in the other's territory so they duked it out. By far the biggest moment of the game drive was when, after feeling like something was touching my foot for five minutes, I finally looked down to find the BIGGEST BUG EVER laying there beside my foot. AHHHH! I freaked out and kicked the thing off the bus. It was terrifying and enormous and I have pictures to prove it. But what was really the coolest part of the night drive was the sunset, which, like most African sunsets, blew my mind.

AHHHH!

That's a bingo. Kruger sunset.

The next morning we left camp after a quick morning game walk. The site we were at didn't have much large game on it, but we did get to see a giraffe and a large kudu. We also saw two enormous spiders. Our lunatic guide Axen said they weren't poisonous, but I think otherwise. The drive back to Joburg was breathtaking. We drove through mountains that are beautiful in their own right, but we stopped at some truly amazing spots along the way. First we stopped at God's Window, a spot where you can see into a large gorge/valley between the mountains. There was also a very pretty spot where you were right at the edge of a drop-off and you could see these really interestingly shaped mountains, like huts. After driving a bit longer we stopped at the Bourke's Luck Potholes in the Blyde River Canyon. They were so cool! I'd never seen anything like them. First you walk out over this rocky ledge to a waterfall (beautiful) and then after crossing some bridges you're right over the Potholes! The water from the waterfall caused these wild holes to form in the rock. They were amazing. After the Potholes we booked it to the airport where my mom and I shared some amazing nachos and some salad. Then it was home to Cape Town.

The view from God's Window

Another view from the Window

At the Potholes

Bourke's Luck Potholes!

In the morning we still had some time before my mom's flight so we (of course) went running. After our run we had a nice breakfast in Obs, this time at a lovely organic restaurant called Quench. Our coffee was served to us in individual French presses and was delicious. The food was equally, if not more, tasty. Then, sadly, it was time for my mama to leave. It was a sad occasion and I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry the whole day and watch Love Actually three times. My mom's visit was amazing, and I'm so lucky she was able to come. I didn't realize how much I missed home until I got to spend the week with my mama, and it took some time to get back to feeling normal (or Cape Town normal, that is). We always have the best time together, and this was no exception!

-Sarah

New Photos!

2010-04-18T06:27:00.003-05:00

I uploaded pictures from spring break. You can find them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahcaldwell9/SpringBreak#.

I also put more pictures up of my hike up Table Mountain. http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahcaldwell9/CapeTown#

Enjoy!

-Sarah

PS Here's a newly discovered picture by my neighbor/quasi-roommate Kristine:

The roommates minus Erin: Jugal, Alex, Kristine, me, and Callie at the top of Table Mountain.

Recent Activities

2010-04-17T05:09:00.001-05:00

Good news, everybody: I turned 21, had an AMAZING birthday celebration, and didn't get a hangover OR throw up! Monday, April 12, 2010 I entered the world of (legal) drinking. Myself along with a bunch of friends went to a nice bar in Camps Bay (a nice area south of Cape Town, think Miami) called Cafe Caprice on Sunday. My friends supplied me with drinks the whole night and everybody, including myself, got thoroughly drunk. We all had a really great time and I'm really happy I was able to celebrate my birthday here with such wonderful people. I also got to wear my cowboy boots, always a bonus. Initially I was bummed that I wouldn't be celebrating my 21st birthday where turning 21 actually matters, but I'm really happy I celebrated it in Cape Town. Not only does it make an awesome story when people ask what I did for my 21st, but I really had an amazing time with really great friends. My friend Sam took some really epic pictures on Sunday night that made my birthday complete. On Monday I stayed in bed all day, until I met my friend Jess for some Cha Chi's chocolate cake, chocochino crush, AND potato wedges. Epic. For dinner a bunch of us went to Pancho's, a local Mexican restaurant that serves extremely potent and delicious margaritas. I was so stuffed from my enormous meal that I could barely go out that night, which was probably a good thing. At Pancho's they give the birthday girl/boy a shot of tequila and a sombrero to wear. I looked goofy but that tequila was super yummy. I coincidentally drank tequila most of the night and my huge dinner probably saved me from a tequila-induced death.

Last weekend I FINALLY climbed Table Mountain. It was so hard. The trail was moderate but the weather made it immoderate and strenuous. It was blazing hot outside and we were in the sun for the most of it. The trail was a wasteland of people sitting down panting and guzzling water. I like to think of myself as an athletic person and I was dying. Even though the trail was hard, the views made it worth it. All up the trail were amazing sights of the city and the outlying ocean and mountains. After about two hours of hiking I made it to the top. It was great! I had finally conquered the mountain that had been looming over me for so many months. Being on the top was so cool. The view was out of this world. You could see the whole mountain range and what seemed like the whole world. The sea was a beautiful blue, as was the sky. The air was perfectly clear and we could see for miles and miles. There's a restaurant at the top of the mountain so after some refueling, we went down. This part was so hard for me. Something about going down is really difficult, and I definitely struggled. Climbing the mountain was worth all the pain.

Victory is the view from Table Mountain

Kapstaad (Cape Town in Afrikaans)

Yesterday I went to Stellenbosch with a few friends. I actually just got back a few hours ago. My good friend Lara lived in a township right next to Stellenbosch called Kayamandi. She brought about ten of us to visit the family she stayed with for the five months she lived there. The mom of the house, Mama Lily, is an amazing cook and hosts dinners and caters events. We were lucky enough to have dinner at her house. This. Meal. Was. Amazing. There were multiple courses and as she presented them to us beautifully while explaining everything we were eating. First we had this corn and bean soup. The description does not do it justice, as corn and beans have never tasted so good before. She transformed them into a soup masterpiece. We then had chicken curry with this crazy bread. The curry was great, and wasn't too spicy. The bread was a monster ball of warm doughy bliss. It was the most filling bread I've ever eaten and was absolutely to die for. Then we moved onto the main course, which was comprised of chicken, pap, pumpkin puree, spinach, and chakalaka. The chicken could not have come from anywhere but heaven, and I'm going to leave it at that. I've never had such good pap before in my life. Usually I don't like it that much, since it doesn't have much flavor. Pap looks like mashed potatoes, but tastes like nothing. This pap, though, was fricking awesome. I don't know why. I'm not the biggest fan of the way spinach is traditionally prepared, so I kept away from it. Pumpkin is used frequently in South Africa, and it's definitely a good thing. Mama Lily's pumpkin was pureed and had cinnamon and other spices in it. It was almost like a dessert. My favorite part was the chakalaka. Chakalaka is this delicious veggie dish of tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, and beans in tangy/spicy sauce. I've had it before at various braais and restaurants, but Mama Lily's put it all to shame. It is my solemn promise to all of you who read my blog that I will perfect my chakalaka recipe and make it for you when I'm home. It is my favorite traditional dish. How could anybody not love it with a name like chakalaka?? Mama Lily topped us off with this muffin/cupcake hybrids. They were shaped like muffins and had the consistency of muffins, but were sweet like cupcakes and had a sweet cream on top. If I could I would have eaten ten, but I physically could not eat anything else. Mama Lily had also made ginger beer and this great juice that had a bunch of fruit juices in it, but all I know is it was the best juice ever.

CHAKALAKA. Not Mama Lily's, I found it on google, but this is what the dish looks like.

After dinner Tuli and Ati, Mama Lily's daughters, gave us a tour of Kayamandi. Kayamandi is situated across from Stellenbosch and the people in the township definitely got the better view. From Mama Lily's house you can see the Stellenbosch and all the beautiful mountains. I enjoyed walking around Kayamandi. When you first see a township you think it's the saddest thing, but after a going to them time and time again you realize that the people are really happy. Nobody should have to live in a shack without running water or electricity, but the people living in townships have a very positive outlook and I think we could all learn something from the simplicity of life and sense of community they have. One crazy thing in Kayamandi were these things called 'smileys'. The girls asked us if we wanted to go see the smiley goats, and we did. I was thinking 'cool! a goat that smiles!'. NO. Smiley's are goat heads, cooked and charred. There were a bunch of them! EWW! Somebody was taking a searing knife and further burning them. It was so creepy, but oddly fascinating.

Five of us girls spent the night in Stellenbosch and had a good time. Stellenbosch is a really fun town, and I got to see my friend Eric who is studying there for the semester. I plan on going back sometime so I can spend more time in the town, since we had to get back early to Cape Town to return our friend's car. Mainly, I want to go shopping there and eat at all the cute cafes. I have some housekeeping to do today, literally and figuratively. I still have laundry left over from spring break (gag) as well as a pile of dishes to wash. This evening I'm going out to dinner with a few friends at a new Africa restaurant that opened on Lower Main Rd. I went on Sunday for the first time and the meal was great. It's a really traditional place and they even brought out a basin for us to wash our hands. That's a common thing, to wash your hands in bowl of water before eating. I really like the custom. There is something so personal and symbolic about passing around the washing bowl and towel and washing up together, right at the table. Last time I had beef stew and it was sooooooooo good. Everyone should at some point come to South Africa and eat traditional Africa food. There isn't anything like it. The last time I went to the place I'm going tonight I felt like I was eating a home cooked meal. It was really nice and comforting. The owner was really friendly and talked to us a few times. It really felt like home.

Anyways, I should get to the dishes. Everyone's mission is to go out and find an African restaurant and try some African food! I can guarantee you will love it and hopefully this post has peaked your interest.

-Sarah

THE EPIC SPRING BREAK POST

2010-04-15T09:30:00.038-05:00

Without further delay, in what will probably be the longest blog post ever, I’m going to tell you about my epic spring break. As a basic overview, I spent ten days traveling through southern Africa in a large, 22-person overland truck named Janis. I went to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We drove between each campsite and spent a good many hours in Janis, sleeping, getting bounced around, and playing cards. Not to mention the occasional day drinking. Here it goes:

We set off from Cape Town airport on Friday morning at 6:30 and flew to Joburg. I had never been on a flight where you had to walk up the steps from out on the tarmac, so I thought that was cool. The flight was great, I got to sit in the window seat and look out over South Africa for two hours (when I wasn’t sleeping). We set off for Botswana and after hours and hours of driving we finally made it to the border. Janis, our bus, is named after Janis Joplin. All Nomad tour buses (Nomad organized our trip) are named after famous musicians. We stayed in a nice campsite not far from the border. After setting up our tents we had a braai with the two other groups on the trip. We took off early the next day and drove further into Botswana. We slept at a camp near the entrance to the Okavango Delta and in the evening got to take a scenic flight over the Delta. I swear the pilot of my little five-person plane was no older than me, but he did a great job. We flew really close to the ground and got to see plenty of animals.

JANIS!

The next day we set off really early for the Delta in these open-air trucks. The ride took about three hours and it was arduous. We were crammed into this bus for the bumpiest ride ever. Even though the ride was kinda bogus, the scenery was really beautiful and we got our first glimpse of animals. I think we saw elephants, impala, and giraffes. We rode to the end of the road from which point we were transported by makoras. Makoras are wooden canoes carved out of various kinds of trees found in the Delta. At a certain point, makoras are the only way to travel in and out of the Delta. We packed all of our gear into the two-person makoras and set off into the wild. The ride was about an hour and a half. It was soothing to float through the reeds and lilies, even though it was sweltering and sunny with no shade. I can’t imagine a better introduction to the Delta. Our campsite was right on the water and was surrounded by thick forest. It was truly rustic. There wasn’t any running water or electricity, so we carried all of our water in and the only light we had at night was the fire. I had never been so far removed from civilization before and it felt wonderful.

Getting situated

Floating down the Delta

We arrived at our camp in the early afternoon and were absolutely starving. After putting up our tents we had our long-awaited lunch (eight hours, actually, since our 6am breakfast). As I was walking with my loaded plate of tuna salad, I had the unfortunate experience of getting boiling water spilled down my leg. What happened was I was walking past the fire, one of the women who was helping the group for our time in the Delta was getting a pot of water off the fire. As I passed her, she turned and we bumped into each other, making the water splash onto me. A patch of skin on my hip was badly burned and blistered. The group helping us, who had also driven our makoras, was so sweet and took care of me, giving me ice and hugs. It cleared up fine, and by now is healed. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t go swimming in the marshes immediately after lunch. The water felt AMAZING. It was so hot and we had been sitting exposed to the sun for hours that morning. Our group and another group all swam in the same spot, and a feisty chicken fighting match ensued. The representatives from my group won, of course, since lions are indeed king of the jungle. That evening we went on a game walk with one of the helpers, Julius. We didn’t see much that evening but it was really pretty as the sun set. At night we hung out by the fire and went to bed early since we had a very early morning the next day.

Lion's camp in the Delta

View from camp, makoras

Before the sun rose we set out on a three-hour game walk through the Delta. The sunrise was amazing and it was pleasantly cool outside. We came upon a herd of giraffes and zebras roaming around together. There were so many of them! And we got so close! I never thought I’d ever be that close to that many animals in the wild. They were so beautiful and majestic. As we got closer they took off running, and though I felt bad to have scared them, they looked even more beautiful in motion. We also saw a huge group of baboons and a ton of impala. The walk was fun and tiring, and we were welcomed back by our cook, Albert, with bacon and eggs. That day we had nothing to do so we brought out the sleeping pads from the tents and lounged around all day. We must have looked like slugs. The women in the group that came along with us set out bracelets and baskets that they had weaved out of reeds and grass that we could buy. I bought a very pretty basket and a bracelet. We could sit and watch them weaving the bracelets. In the afternoon we tried out steering the makoras, which was quite a hilarious scene. They’re so hard to steer! The makoras are about seven to ten feet long and are heavy. You steer them by standing in the back and pushing the boat along with a long pole. It was pretty fun, even though it was hard and we all frequently got stuck in the reeds. After a short swim we headed back to camp for lunch and afterwards it rained an absolute downpour.

So close!

Once it stopped raining we went on a beautiful sunset ride in the makoras. We went to this one opening in the marshes where we could watch the sunset and where there were a bunch of hippos. I was mildly terrified of the hippos, since they’re responsible for the most animal-caused human deaths every year. Luckily, my fears of being trampled weren’t realized. The clouds from the storm made for a lovely sunset, of which I took maybe thirty photos. Back at the camp, we were treated to a show by the group of Botswanans who had come along to help us. They sang traditional songs for us and preformed dances and stories along with the songs. It was so cool. I was almost brought to tears, thinking about where I was and what I was experiencing. I think everyone had a little moment when they started singing. We all got up to dance with them for some songs, which was both hilarious and great fun. The songs they sang all related to village life and rites of passage or other themes. After a song, which was usually sung in Swana, one of the members would explain what the song was about. When they were done we preformed for them. Two guys in the group wrote a rap about being in Botswana and we sang Shosholosa, a song I’ve mentioned in a previous post.

The sunset by which I will judge all future sunsets.

We left the Delta early the next morning the same way we came. Starved again, we had a large lunch back in civilization (including double scoop ice cream for cheap). We then set off for Camp Baobab near the Zambian border. It was such a cool campsite with a pool, bar, and baobabs. Unfortunately we did not get there in time to truly enjoy it, but it was cool to check it out. The next day we left for Chobe game park. Along the way we had to get out the bus, bring all of our shoes and sanitize them. It was so weird. I guess Botswana has a potential livestock disease problem so you have to make sure you don’t track any wild animal poop out on your shoes. At the Chobe campsite we were able to hit up the bar, a pleasant diversion. We went on a sunset cruise along the Zambezi River and had a great time. We stopped and saw about ten hippos chilling in the water and another perfect sunset as well. In the morning we went on a game drive through the park. We saw so many animals! Elephants, impala, warthog, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, cool birds, and a LION. Chobe was really pretty, and seeing all those animals was awesome; especially seeing the lion, which is a rarity in Chobe. After the drive we set off for Zambia.

Sunset from the Zambezi cruise

Chobe sunrise

LION

Crossing the border into Zambia is quite the experience. First, you have to wait in line for the ferry to take you and your bus across the Zambezi River. This could take anywhere from no time to five hours. We didn’t have to wait too long, luckily. The strangest part was getting onto the people ferry. The ferry didn’t come right up to the bank. Instead, we had to wade out to it. It was about a ten-minute ride to the other side, and on the other bank we again had to wade to the shore. So strange. We had to wait for about an hour to get our passports stamped and for Janis to make it to the other side. Once the ordeal was over, we left for Livingstone, Zambia. Livingstone is right on Victoria Falls and we stayed in this totally awesome campsite called the Waterfront. The area around Victoria Falls is infused with references to the Belgian explorer Livingstone, as everything is named Livingstone and there are statues of him everywhere. This was much to my delight, since I love 'Heart of Darkness' which is a book all about a man being sent to find Dr. Livingstone. Our camp was right on the Zambezi River and had a restaurant, really nice bar and deck area, two pools, and legitimate showers. The camp was really spread out and beautifully landscaped. There were also dozens of little monkeys roaming around. That evening we went to Victoria Falls to explore a bit. We went on this one trail that took you right along the edge opposite the lip of the falls. Since it’s the rainy season, the falls were so intense and at maximum volume. We got completely soaked from all the mist. There was a bridge that took you right across this gorge and we got drenched by the falls. It was like being inside a hurricane. I’ve never felt more soaked in my entire life. The power of the falls is unbelievable. They are truly fierce. On the other side, from where the water falls off and hence you stay dry, we were able to watch as the river ended and the falls started. The currents looked wild and if you fell in, you’d be sucked of the edge for sure. We were standing taking pictures at the bank of the river, about fifty feet from the edge, when all of a sudden a Zambian guy jumped into the river! We were stunned and thought he was surely going over the edge. About twenty feet from the edge he started swimming and made it to the bank. It was terrifying, as we all thought we were about to watch somebody die. With water that fast and full of fierce currents, it would have been impossible for any of us to help him. If you go over the falls, there is no hope of surviving. When he got out he told us he had been swimming at the lip of the falls his whole life and knew the currents really well. That would be a little too much adrenaline for me. I’ll stick to jumping off bridges.

The girls and Mike. Imagine somebody floating by right behind us.

That night Albert had made us a traditional African meal and it was absolutely delicious. We had pork chops, pap with red sauce, butternut squash with cinnamon, and coleslaw. I don’t know if I’ve had a better meal. The next day we went on various adventures. Some people rode elephants and some went bungy jumping. I went abseiling in the gorge. It was a day affair and involved a zipline, repelling down the gorge, and a gorge swing. The zipline was fun and you got a nice view of the gorge. The repelling was kind of lame, I thought, but a lot of people really liked it. We had to walk up to the top of the gorge after repelling down and it was the hardest walk of my life. It was a billion degrees outside and something about this hike, maybe because it was steep, made it impossible. We had to stop for ten minutes at one point to catch our breath. Thankfully they had the foresight to put a cooler of water halfway up. When we got to the top we had to wait in line for the gorge swing. It was about an hour wait and I was starving. I felt like I was going to pass out if I didn’t eat something. I asked if they had snacks but instead they had something much better. A beautiful bottle of delicious, cold Coke. I swear Coke has never tasted so good. I gulped mine down in less than two minutes, no doubt. The gorge swing was really cool. I went tandem with my friend Jess, who went bungy jumping with me on the garden route. We went backwards and I was terrified. It was really fun though. Walking back up the gorge was not that much fun, especially because there was not water left in the cooler so we had to break chunks of ice and chew on them. After the day at the gorge I sat at the pool and read, wrote in my journal, and ate ice cream. That night we had another delicious meal and had a bit of a party at the bar.

The next day we went to Zimbabwe. We had to walk across this bridge to get across the border and the view was amazing. It was right by the falls so the water below was really rough. There were small waterfalls trickling down the sides of this huge lush gorge. In Zimbabwe we had to take out money from the ATM and much to my surprise, it gave me US dollars! Even since the Zimbabwe currency crashed, they’ve been using US dollars as their currency. I think Zimbabwe has all of our old $2 bills, since I got a bunch from the bank. It was neat to have US dollars again, though they were much harder to part with than rand, which has a assumed an air of Monopoly money. In Zimbabwe I went on a lion walk with my group at a lion rehabilitation and protection center. We got to walk with two four-month old lions, a brother and sister. It was so cool! We each got to walk alongside them and pet them. Then we got to go see two older lions and hang out with them for a little. That was neat because they were a lot bigger and we got to be really close to them. After the lions, we went to a market where you can trade your stuff for goods. I was wearing a bandana and dozens of people wanted to trade me for it. This one guy kept trying to get me to trade him my gym shoes. So many of the people in my group ended up sockless and one girl traded her sleeping bag for a tall wooden giraffe. I bought a lot of stuff, including a wooden chess set that has animals as the pieces. On the walk back to Zambia, we could see a complete rainbow when we stopped on the bridge. Since we were at the top of a gorge that was full of mist from the falls, we could see the whole circle of the rainbow. It was amazing.

View from the bridge

That night Albert cooked us a steak dinner. Afterwards the whole group proceeded to get drunk off of boxed wine. We had a legitimate college party way out there in Zambia. We played a bunch of fun games. One great game we played was everyone had to say something they really enjoyed from the trip and if you also enjoyed it, you had to drink. After somebody from another camp came and asked us to be quiet, we moved the party to the bar. There, we proceeded to party until the wee hours of the night, then went swimming, and then passed out. We awoke in the morning to a complete downpour that had turned many of the tents into rafts and our campsite into a river. A bunch of people’s stuff got totally soaked and the tents were all wet. Luckily we pitched our tent (which Jess and I had named Lady Gaga) on high ground so we stayed dry. In our hungover state we packed up camp for the last time and left for the airport. We said goodbye to Albert, Brian (our driver), and good old Janis and left for Joburg.

At the Joburg airport the most amazing thing happened. I was able to meet up with my mom!!! Our layovers overlapped and we ran into each other at my check in. It was so wonderful. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to meet up because her flight got in right as I would have to check in. My flight was delayed and for once, it was a good thing. We got to hang out at the airport for a couple hours before I had to take off. Then we met up at the Cape Town airport a few hours later. A perfect end to a perfect trip. More to come on my mom’s visit in the next post!

-Sarah

Just a little post to hold you over

2010-04-06T13:30:00.001-05:00

My apologies for not posting in so long! Ten days in Botswana/Zambia/Zimbabwe, followed by my mom coming to visit for a week including a trip to Kruger, followed by ruthless art history teachers with no sympathy and no soul doesn't leave much time for blogging.

Just a general update, I'm back in Cape Town, readjusting to a life that sadly doesn't include long drives through the countryside, wild animals, camping, or amazing sunrises/sunsets. What my life does include this week is a 4-6 page paper on Renaissance art that I have not yet started. I asked my professor for an extension because I am literally exhausted (look up the definition of exhaustion in Websters and you will find my picture) and he said no. Wow, who knew I was being educated by Scrooge? But poor me, the reason I'm so tired is because I was fortunate enough to spend the past two weeks traveling through Southern Africa and being visited by my lovely mama. So I'll put my nose to the grindstone, or more accurately pull out the old bullshitting hat and get to work. You can hopefully expect the first blog installation of my past two weeks by Monday. That is if I don't spend my entire 21st birthday weekend in a semi-intoxicated/hungover state. Hopefully blogging will make its way onto the agenda.

-Sarah

PS Here is one sample picture from spring break. In keeping with my blog, my Picasa has also been sorely neglected. Update to come soon!

View from the scenic plane ride over the Okavango Delta, in Botswana.

Spring Break 2010!

2010-03-18T03:12:00.001-05:00

Spring break is here! Tomorrow morning I leave at 4:30 in the morning along with my tour group of twenty students for Cape Town International Airport where we’ll catch a flight to Johannesburg. From there we hop on a bus to Botswana. My tour guide is a professional game hunter named Bo. He’s the guy wildlife parks call when the animal populations get too high or when there’s a rogue lion that needs to be taken care of. I’m glad he’ll be the one in charge of my safety when I’m camping out in the wilderness. We spend one night at a campsite in Botswana before heading out to the Okavango Delta, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We’ll spend about three days in the Delta, where we’ll hopefully see lots of wild animals, before heading out to the Chobe National Park. Chobe is the first national park in Botswana and has one of the highest concentrations of wild game on the continent. Hopefully I’ll have seen at least one of the ‘Big Five’ by the time we leave Chobe. The Big Five are the five top animals people hope to see in southern Africa. Hunters originally coined the term because the Big Five were the five hardest animals to hunt on foot. Seeing them is definitely a big deal. The Big Five are lions, African elephants, Cape buffalo, leopards, and rhinos. After a couple days in Chobe we’ll drive to Zambia where we’ll spend a few days at Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is right between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and we’ll have the opportunity to travel into Zimbabwe if we so choose. There are a bunch of activities to choose from during the two full days we spend at Victoria Falls, such as walking with lions, a river rafting/cruise down the Zambezi River, and other things that I can’t remember. I’m beyond excited, and can’t wait for tomorrow morning to come! Wish me luck!

-Sarah

New Pictures!

2010-03-13T06:32:00.001-06:00

I added some pictures to the 'Cape Town' album, taken on an Friday afternoon hike on Table Mountain and the Old Biscuit Mill market this morning. Check them out! http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahcaldwell9/CapeTown#.

Saturday morning, Old Biscuit Mill, best sandwich EVER

It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood

2010-03-08T13:59:00.007-06:00

I live in the wonderfully dodgy southern suburb called Observatory. ‘Obs’ as its inhabitants so lovingly call it, is about a ten-minute minibus ride from downtown Cape Town and a five-minute drive from campus. Its main drag is Lower Main Road, a street similar to State Street in Madison. Lower Main is lined with shops, restaurants, clubs, bars, and the most unusual and random assortment of people ever assembled on a city street. My house is a three-minute walk from Lower Main.

Lower Main Road

There are some truly great places on Lower Main, here are some of my favorites:

-Cocoa Cha Chi: the place of wifi, chocochino crushes (frozen chocolate/coffee drinks), iced americanos, chocolate cakes (mentioned in a previous post), and the occasional real meal.

-Obz Café: a great restaurant if you’ve got a couple spare hours and an empty stomach. Obz Café is the first restaurant I ate at when I moved into my house. You’ll be tended to by the charming Annie, who coincidently works at the next place on my list as well.

-Corner Bar: not sure if this is the real name of this place, but that’s what we all call it. Corner Bar is usually the last stop on the late night train, complete with a funky bartender, five for R15 samoosas, and only a short distance to stumble back home.

-Florentine: not only a great café for a delicious meal but has two for one drinks in the evenings.

-The house of 17 of my friends: yes, there is a house of 17 study abroad students on Lower Main. Many of them go to Wisconsin, and all 17 of them are awesome. Much time is spent in that mega house.

-Stones: a laid back pool hall that also serves as the spot on Wednesday nights for many Observatory residents as well as UCT students, given its two for one drink specials from 10:00-11:00pm. It occasionally plays good music, but not as often as it plays bad music.

I live conveniently close to the Main Road, where you can easily hail a minibus to take you to Cape Town or to the mall, or to any number of places beyond and in between. More often, though, the minibus drivers tend to hail you as you try to walk down the street. My house is also no more than a five-minute walk to the wonderful Jammie Bus stop. Jammie Buses are these big blue buses that comprise the UCT transportation system. They’re free for all UCT students. Jammies are convenient in that they’re free, they take you up the steep climb to upper campus, and drop you off close to home. They’re inconvenient in that you might wait five minutes or fifty minutes for one to come depending on your luck (not great if you have a class to get to), and they tend to be hot and packed. Riding a Jammie is definitely an experience, and it’s better to ride a Jammie to campus than to walk the two miles. I also live very close to the train station. The trains are reliable here, and you can take them into the city or away to Muizenberg or Kalk Bay (where the infamous Cape to Cuba restaurant is). You can even take the train to Stellenbosch.

Obs in general has a great vibe, and I’m really happy to be living here. There is an unfortunate amount of crime, and I would never consider walking home alone at night. There have been some truly unfortunate occurrences involving UCT students in Observatory this year already, including one death, and they remind us to be vigilant. All you can really do is be smart and not flaunt your valuables or vulnerability. Obs residents have been working hard to make the area safer, and there is a visible presence of security guards patrolling the streets. Still, you won’t find a house without a front gate and fence and bars on all the windows. I think the term ‘fortress-chic’ would be appropriate for Obs, since in addition to these metal gates, there are beautiful gardens in almost every front yard with vibrant colored flowers that somehow manage to make themselves visible to passersby. To the left is a picture of a flower in my own front yard.

The view from just outside my front gate. Table Mountain.

There is no lack of nightlife in Observatory. Dozens of bars are in the area and each attracts its own following. Stones I’ve already mentioned, but here are some others:

-Scrumpy Jacks: the local sports bar where many a night people pack the place to watch soccer.

-Bananajams: a new bar with a nice beach like outdoor area, soon to be explored more in depth considering this past weekend was opening weekend.

-Tagores: a hole in the wall where every night local bands and performers play to an eclectic group of listeners. Upstairs is a mix of Aladdin and Alice and Wonderland, where if you get your timing right makes you feel like you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.

-Gandolf’s: yes, that is a LOTR reference. This little gem is where the alternative crowd gathers to mosh and cry and drink a little bit. For a really good time head next door to Mordor where you might, if you're lucky, make it out without being bit by someone who considers himself to be Dracula reincarnated. My friends and I stumbled upon this place late one night, much to our inebriated delight.

-Mojo: a bar that is on my list of places to go, but I have never been able to convince anyone to go with me. I pass it on my walk to Lower Main every night, and it sounds like a total party. Someday, I’ll go to Mojo and when I do I’ll let you know how it is.

A fifteen minutes walk from Observatory is the suburb of Woodstock, where every Saturday a truly amazing market is held at the Old Biscuit Mill warehouse. I first went to the market this past Saturday, and I’m making it my goal to attend as many as possible for the rest of my time here. Everything is local, fresh, and most of it is organic. You can easily do your week’s shopping at the market and you’ll be healthier for it. You can also eat at the many, absolutely delicious food stands. I had my first ostrich burger there, complete with caramelized onions and guacamole. Yum. I also had warthog, fresh honey, mozzarella, springbok, and the first true iced coffee I’ve encountered in South Africa. In addition to the food there are great clothing and goods markets. I bought a very pretty bracelet and was tempted to by dozens of various items of clothing and home goods. I restrained myself. I'll add pictures of the market next weekend, once my camera decides to stop running out of batteries at inconvenient times.

I’m sure there will be more to come about Obs in the future, given I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface on all that goes on in this neighborhood. As for now, the sun is finally down and it’s cool enough to go outside. Not much can get done when it’s in the 100’s for three days straight, except for when the sun sets!

-Sarah

Garden Route Pictures!

2010-03-07T05:15:00.000-06:00

I put up pictures from the Garden Route! Check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahcaldwell9/GardenRoute#.

The Garden Route

2010-03-01T10:45:00.003-06:00

My friends and I made it safely to the Eastern Cape and back this weekend. We started off Thursday night around 5:30 in a wonderful red 1991 Nissan Sentra. The five of us piled in and took off for the town of Swellendam. The drive was beautiful, with rolling hills and a long sunset. The hills were too much for the little car, and it was a struggle to make it over some of them. This was a common theme throughout the trip. We took to singing ‘Push It’ by Salt-n-Pepa for encouragement on the really steep hills. The roads in South Africa, at least the on the N2, are exceptional. They’re wide, nicely paved, and well marked. They even have a built-in passing system that puts the US roadways to shame. When someone passes you and you’ve scooted over to allow them to, they flash their hazards as a thank you without fail. There are also not any highway patrol people around to give out tickets for speeding.

The backpackers in Swellendam was like going back to summer camp in Saugatuck, Michigan. It was a really nice spot, with a lot of land around it and hills not to far off. We stayed in a dorm-style room with about ten bunk beds. Everything about it reeked of summer camp. I loved it. We were only in Swellendam for about twelve hours before we set off for Plettenberg Bay. On the way we stopped at a really quaint roadside restaurant called the Blue Crane Farmshop for breakfast. We ate outside in the beautiful garden. Everything we ate came from the farm and it was delicious. I had fresh yogurt with fresh honey, fresh muesli and fresh fruit, fresh toast with fresh strawberry jam. Everything I ate was made on the farm and I could have bought it all at the little shop attached to the restaurant. I bought some honey and was tempted to buy out the whole shop. The picture is of fresh bread from the Farmshop.

Swellendam Backpackers

The view from our table at the Blue Crane Farmshop

After breakfast we drove to Mossel Bay, a lovely coastal town right off the N2. We wandered around the coast for a while, exploring the rocks and seashells. There was one rocky point that jutted out into the ocean a little and we decided to go out onto it. While posing for a photo, a wave soaked my friend Jess and me and I nearly lost my shoes. It was quite hilarious. Luckily we had more exploring to do outside and it was hot and breezy, so we were able to dry off somewhat fast. We climbed up a rocky cliff trail to a lighthouse and lookout point, where we saw dozens of strange rodents that resembled prairie dogs. We could get so close that we could have touched them. After Mossel Bay we drove to the town of Wilderness and stopped for a light lunch. From Wilderness we drove straight to Plettenberg Bay.

Beautiful Mossel Bay, and it's natural lap-swim pool.

Plettenberg Bay is possibly the nicest and least assuming coastal town I have ever been in. The people are all really nice and the town is gorgeous. It’s situated at the top of a hill overlooking the bay and the Indian Ocean. We got into town around 4:30 so we spent the evening at Nothando Backpackers, our home for Friday and Saturday nights. Nothando Backpackers was much more ‘hotel-ish’ than Swellendam, and our room was really nice. We shared a room with a couple from the UK who were two months into a yearlong world tour. They were finishing up Africa and heading to Asia, starting with China, in a couple weeks. Nothando Backpackers had a nice yard and a convenient bar, living room, kitchen, and movie room. The bartender, Eric, was very friendly and made great drinks. The resident dog, Sarah (see photo), was playful and super friendly. She made me miss my Roxy. The proprietor recommended the restaurant La Med to us for dinner. We chose it not only for it’s great seafood but because, since we were staying at Nothando, we each got a free glass of wine. Our meal was delicious. I shared a duck spring roll appetizer with my friend and had a seafood medley for an entrée. So good.

In the morning on Saturday we took off for the Bloukrans Bridge where we were scheduled for an 11:00 bungy jump. Bloukrans Bridge is in the Tsitsikamma Nation Park. We had to drive for about 45 minutes to get there. Along the way we passed a troop of baboons in the middle of the road, as well as the border to the Eastern Cape, and crossed the bridge itself. It was hard not to be nervous. When we got to the bridge, we checked out the lookout deck where you could watch people jumping. It was both terrifying, because I knew I would be jumping in no time, and comforting, because I could see dozens of people jump and survive. We registered, signed away our lives, and were weighed. I finally know what I weigh in kilograms. Then we got our harnesses. It was trippy getting harnessed in because it made everything seem real. The harness distinguished us jumpers from the sane people.

Bloukrans Bridge, next pic is a detail of the where you jump.

How it works at Bloukrans is you’re put in a group of about twenty people and then the group is led out to the bridge. Our guide was really funny, and joked that if we hesitated when it came time to jump he’d kick us off. There was a lot of nervous laughter. To get out to the jump area we had to cross this freaky walkway that’s about 200m long. Lots of people say that the walkway is the scariest part. It’s got a mesh bottom and you can see right through to the ground. Our guide didn’t fail to remind us that we would be jumping from the same height as the walkway. Once at the jump site everything set in. We received our final instructions and then the jumping began. There was already an order set up, so we just had to wait and be surprised as to when we would jump. My friends and I were in the middle of the lineup, so we had the comfort of watching other people in the group jump and come back up. I went after my friend Erin. It was so scary. I was really pumped all morning and was excited even in the jump area, so I was ready to go. Here’s the play by play. They sit you down and put these huge Velcro legwarmers on your ankles, and then the guy wraps a rope around the legwarmers and straps your ankles together with it. He explains how the rope works but you don’t pay attention because you’re about to jump off a bridge and that’s a hard idea to cope with. Then they ask if you’re ok. Once you say you’re ok they pick you up and help you to the edge, since your ankles are bound and you can’t walk. Then they attach the bungy cord to the rope and lift you to the very edge of the bridge. This is the ‘holy shit’ moment when you can’t even think about what you’re about to do or else you will back down. There are two guys on either side of you, and you have your arms around them. When they back away it’s scary, because you’re standing there on the edge with your arms held out completely exposed. Then they scream ‘FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, BUNGY!!!’ and you jump. How you jump is you bend your knees and spring off the edge with your arms out, just like diving. Falling is the most surreal feeling. I had four seconds of freefall before the cord kicked in. Then I bounced up twice more, so that means I fell three times. There was about a minute of dangling before a guy on a pulley came down to get me. Bungy jumping was so exhilarating. I would do it again for sure. All of my friends did it, as well as everyone in my group except for one guy who chickened-out twice even though his girlfriend jumped. Oh did I mention Bloukrans Bridge is the highest bungy jump in the world? 216 meters baby.

On the edge, about to be abandoned by my guys.

Falling

On my way back up, taken from the on bridge. You can tell how high up we were.

Right after the jump, posing with the crew.

The rest of the day we were pretty tired, so we lazily explored Plettenberg Bay for a while. We found a really cool old church and cemetery. Around 5:00 we went to the beach and hung out for a while. It was a little too cold for swimming, so we walked up and down the beach and took in the gorgeous view. We made pizza for dinner and watched two fabulous movies, ‘As Good As It Gets’ and ‘Blood Diamond’.

On Sunday we drove into Tsitsikamma for a canopy tour. After bungy jumping, zip lining isn’t all that scary. We zipped ten times between these huge trees. One of them, the Yellowwood, is South Africa’s national tree. It was a very relaxing morning, even though we managed to get lost along the way. The guides were hysterical and we had sing-alongs on every platform.

After the canopy tour it was time to head for home, so we embarked on the seven hour drive back to Cape Town. I drove the whole way, and luckily I had my friend and trusty copilot Shawn to keep me company. The five of us snacked, sang, discussed, and joked our way through six hours of driving and then we ran out of gas…literally. No joke. We went looking for gas in one town and since it was Sunday and apparently nobody drives in South Africa on Sunday, the gas station was closed. We got about ten kilometers outside of the town when the car puttered and died on a hill. Luckily there was a large shoulder so we were able to pull over and hang out safely. Since there isn’t AAA in South Africa, we called the police. The conversation went something like ‘Ya, we’re stranded in our car on the N2 about 15km out of Bolt River. We ran out of gas. Ya I know we should have stopped. We’re stranded. No we’re not walking back to Bolt River because there’s no gas there. Ok the police are coming? Ok we’ll be here on the side of the road…waiting’. About ten minutes later two policemen came. We gave then R100 for gas and they came back with 5L. They were really helpful and told us we’d be able to make it to the next big city where there was a 24-hour gas station. Unbeknownst to us, 5L was just barely, if not less than, enough gas to make it 45 kilometers. Luckily, most of the drive was downhill so we were able to coast into the gas station while the tank was back on empty and the gaslight was back on. It was almost a very bad situation times two. Being stranded on the side of the N2 was kind of fun. I was super tired and needed a break anyways, and we had a ton of food so we were able to get our snack on while we waited. There was also a full moon Sunday night, and we got a spectacular view of it from the road.

The view from the side of the N2. You can see the red Nissan.

This weekend was awesome from start to finish. I had an amazing time and spent a surprisingly little amount of money, considering all that I did. Hopefully I’ll find myself driving along the N2 again someday. Maybe then I’ll bungy jump backwards…

-Sarah

Garden Route Itinerary

2010-02-22T11:27:00.003-06:00

This weekend I'm driving part of the infamous Garden Route with four friends. We’ve just worked out the details, and it’s looking like it will be an amazing time. We’re leaving Thursday evening and driving to Stellendam, a little town along the N2 about two or three hours from Cape Town. The hostel, or ‘backpackers’ as hostels are called in South Africa, in Stellendam looks really cute. They have a braai every evening, which will be a welcome treat. Friday morning we will take off for Plettenberg Bay where we will stay Friday and Saturday nights. The drive shouldn’t be more than five hours and it’s supposed to be beautiful. We don’t have anything planned for Friday so we can take our time on the drive and really take in the scenery. The backpackers in Plettenberg Bay is right in town, so we’ll be able to go exploring if we have time to spare in the evening. Saturday morning we’re all doing the Bloukrans Bridge bungee jump. It’s the tallest commercial bungee jump in operation in the world (216 meters!). I’m nervous to do it, but I know that if I don’t I will regret it. So I’m trying not to think about it too much. We’re leaving Saturday afternoon open to do any number of fun things like horseback ride through Tsikamma National Park, visit a cheetah sanctuary, go to a monkey park, etc. Sunday morning we’ve scheduled a canopy tour in Tsikamma National Park. I’m really looking forward to it. For three hours we zip line between trees in the park and learn about the forest. I’ve never zip lined and I’ve always wanted to, so I’m psyched. We head back Sunday afternoon, so it’s kind of a short trip but I think we’ll be able to pack if full of fun things. I’ll be sure to give a full account of my adventures once I’m back.

The Mullet Issue

2010-02-18T06:38:00.001-06:00

Cape Town is full of beautiful people. I think there is something about the South African sun or something in the water, because people are just bred differently here. UCT students definitely dress nicer for class than UW students. No basketball shorts or sweatpants here. UCT students must view walking on campus as a modeling competition, because they really put thought into what they wear to class. It makes for some delicious eye candy and people watching. But for all the great style of South Africans, there is one glaring, major problem. Mullets. They’re everywhere. Whereas in the US, the mullet died with the 1900’s, it’s still very much a part modern style here in Cape Town. I’m not talking a bad haircut-induced mullet that you get fixed asap, but full blown, business in the front, party in the back, mullets. I don’t know what causes these otherwise good-looking guys to get a mullet, but it’s an epidemic. A touch of insanity? Belated American fashion finally making its way to South Africa? I wouldn’t know, because I never get close enough to one of these mulletted boys to ask. I’m too afraid that whatever illness that caused them to get a mullet is contagious. Other than the mullet issue, South Africans are truly beautiful people who in general have a great sense of fashion.

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

2010-02-17T13:24:00.001-06:00

I had my first volunteer day for SHAWCO today. It was the first day so everything was somewhat unorganized. We left late and the bus didn’t have enough space for everyone, so we had to squish. I volunteer at a girls’ home, St. George’s, about fifteen minutes from campus. The girls are all ages and they have all been removed from their homes by child protective services. When we got there most of the girls weren’t around for various reasons, so we spent most of the time hearing about the history of St. George’s and all that they do there. The St. George’s staff works very hard at reuniting the girls with their families, and last year reunited seven families. Girls started coming in a little while before we had to leave, and it was nice to meet them. Most of them are really friendly and have a lot of energy. They are really excited for us to come every week and you can definitely feed off of that energy. I’m really looking forward to going to St. George’s every week. The ratio works out that it’s about one girl to one student, so we have the opportunity to form a real bond. That they’re excited to get to know us makes me much more excited to start volunteering.

I’m currently totally obsessed with learning the South African national anthem. It’s in five different languages: Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans, and English. The national anthem has an interesting history, since it combines the anthem from the Apartheid era and a hymn called ‘Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika’ (‘Lord Bless Africa’), which is the actual title of the anthem. It’s a pretty song, and I really like that it’s in five languages. I tried to include a link to where you can listen to it, but my internet is running wild so I can’t. If you get the chance, search for it on YouTube and listen. Another South African song that I’ve been listening to nonstop is the ‘Shosholoza’ as performed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It’s so beautiful, and South Africans play it at all of their sporting events. Shosholoza is the name of a long distance train in South Africa, and the sound of the song is supposed to sound like the sound of a train. The song is also significant because it’s come to represent unity, strength, and pride of South Africans for their country and people. Try to check out ‘Shosholoza’ by Ladysmith Black Mambazo if you get the chance. My friends can attest to my obsession with these two songs, as I am constantly singing them.

Next weekend I’m driving the Garden Route with four friends. The Garden Route is a beautiful stretch of coastal highway along the southern coast. We’re renting a car and taking off Thursday evening. The drive to Knysna, where we’ll be staying, is about six hours from Cape Town. Between Cape Town and Knysna (pronounced nys-na) is nothing but beautiful scenery and small coastal towns. I’m sure the drive will be reminiscent of the wonderful road trip I took with my mom this summer down Highway 101. Hopefully there won’t be as many drop-offs or hairpin turns as there were on Highway 101. The road we take is the N2. You can take it for a really long time, maybe farther than Port Elizabeth, but we’re not making it that far since we have to get back for school. There are a ton of cool things to do around Knysna, like bungee jumping (highest bungee jump in the world!), canopy tours, elephant parks, cheetah reserves, ostrich farms, just to name a few. I’m really looking forward to doing a trip without a tour group. Everything up until now has been organized by travel organizations. It will surly be an adventure!

I added more pictures to my Picasa page. I’ve also added captions and reorganized the album. Be sure to check it out! http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahcaldwell9/CapeTown#.

A Concert in Kirstenbosch

2010-02-15T13:21:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned in my Sunday post, last night I went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens for an outdoor concert. I had such an amazing time. Not only are the gardens breathtakingly beautiful, but my friends and I packed a picnic for the gods. I’ll start with the gardens. It was hot hot hot all day Sunday in Obs. I could barely think it was so hot. But Kirstenbosch, being on the other side of Table Mountain, was blessed with a pleasantly cool evening. It was the perfect escape from a sweltering day. The concert grounds are in the gardens on a sloping field bordered with a variety of plants and trees and with Table Mountain as a background. The music was good, with lots of slow jams since it was Valentine’s Day. My group sat right in front of this one woman who was really digging the music. She danced and sang along to every song. It got kind of weird when she tried to get the guys to dance with her. It was so relaxing to sit in such a beautiful place and listen to groovy music. The atmosphere was perfect for a Sunday night. We brought such an amazing picnic of freshly baked bread, various veggie and dips, cheese (of course, since we’re all from Wisconsin), nutella, and other goodies. We pigged out like the royalty we are, or at least like we felt we were. I cannot describe the awesomeness of Table Mountain as seen from Kirstenbosch. My camera died right when we got there, so I don’t have any pictures. As soon as I get some from my friends I will post them. I definitely will go to another concert at Kirstenbosch. The experience was pure bliss.

From Cape Town, with Love

2010-02-14T06:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine’s Day! Right now, I’m celebrating by eating a very yummy heart-shaped cookie at Cocoa Cha Chi with two of my favorite ladies. Later today, I’m going to an outdoor concert at the Kirstenbosch Gardens. We’re bringing a picnic complete with wine and cheese. The concerts there sound a lot like the Ravinia Festival, and I’m really excited to go. My main squeeze is in the Argentinean wilderness, so I’m sending him extra love given the holiday.

I had a very full day yesterday. In the morning I had a SHAWCO meeting. SHAWCO is a UCT student organization that places students as mentors in various townships. The program I’m doing is called Masizame. Every week I will go to an all girls orphanage to teach what is called life orientation. Basically, we try to empower the girls and teach them about various life skills. I’m really looking forward to starting the program.

In the afternoon I went to yet another delicious braai. This time the host was Andrew, the guy who took us to Mzoli’s last week. Andrew lives in a township not far from Cape Town. We had to drive past very poor areas to get to his house. If you’ve seen District 9, then you know the kinds of places we were driving through. Andrew lives in a nicer area, and it was interesting to see what life is like in the townships. I don’t know if it’s the same every Saturday afternoon or if this was a special occasion, but there was such a relaxed party atmosphere. There were people from the neighborhood hanging out in the street, where music was blaring and drinks flowing. The neighborhood men organized a soccer tournament, and a few of the people from my group got to play. There were children galore in this neighborhood and they all loved to play with us. We served as their jungle gyms for the day. At one point, I think every one of us had a child on our shoulders. It was really fun to play with the kids. They especially loved wearing our sunglasses and getting us to take pictures of them. Andrew’s sister Ivy cooked for us. Ivy made salads for us to eat at Mzoli’s last week, and it was such a treat to get a second round of her delicious cooking. I really enjoyed yesterday afternoon with its wonderful food, happy children, and block party atmosphere.

Ok now, everybody grab a child!

Pigging out

The one and only Ivy

Last night I got to see my longtime friend Eric, who is studying in Stellenbosch for the semester. I’ve known Eric since middle school, and it was so much fun to party with him in the Mother City. Etown blood runs deep, and it’s nice to get a taste of home when you’re so far away. I plan on going to Stellenbosch soon so I can see what his South African experience is like. Apparently, the Stellenbosch University kids party harder that the UCT kids, so I think I’ll be in for a good time when I do end up going.

I finished Nelson Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom today. It was amazing. He included everything from his early childhood to his presidency. The book provided a glimpse of the personal side of such a great and significant man. It is amazing to learn about the struggles he faced and all that he had to overcome in order to liberate South Africa. I’m glad to be here at a time when I can see the manifestations of his accomplishments. I can’t believe that in my lifetime, South Africa went through such a transformation. I look forward to learning more about South Africa’s history and the experience of other freedom fighters. Everyone should read Long Walk to Freedom. It might be 625 pages, but it’s worth the weeks (or in my case, months) you spend getting to know one of the most important men of our lifetime.

-Sarah

Surf's up, bru!

2010-02-12T11:07:00.003-06:00

It’s been a day over three weeks since I landed in Cape Town. Every day of these three weeks has been amazing, and I absolutely love it here. The reality of being here is starting to set in, and even though I feel a little homesick sometimes, I know I made the right decision in coming here. The people I’ve met are amazing, and they make for a good time no matter what. And in a place as beautiful and welcoming as Cape Town, it’s hard to feel homesick for long.

This afternoon I went to Muizenberg and tried surfing for the first time. Luckily, I went with all girls and most of them had never gone before either. At Muizenberg there is a local surf shop that rents out boards for fifty rand an hour. The boards were huge! I couldn’t even get my arms around mine to carry it to where we were sitting. I was so nervous about surfing! I’m not that good of a swimmer and the waves were quite large. But in we went, and it was quite hilarious. We couldn’t really get that far out because the waves kept crashing on us. I was definitely struggling. There is a lifeguard who I’ve met a few times at the beach, and earlier we had been talking about how it was my first time surfing. He must have noticed that we were all struggling because he came out on his board and helped us out. It was so nice to have him in the water with us, basically giving us a free lesson. He taught us how to get through the waves without getting tossed around and some of the other basics. He was really helpful. I never really got the hang of it, but it was really nice just chilling out on the boards past the point where the waves were breaking. We went out so far! At one point our group was the farthest group of surfers from the shore. I really enjoyed floating around on my board in the ocean. It was really peaceful. Getting back into shore was all but impossible. I didn’t really know how to ‘catch a wave’ so I ended up getting tossed around and falling off my board. Luckily, the lifeguard was there to get me out of what could have been a panicky situation. In all, I rode two waves. I never actually stood up, but just laid on my board as it coasted to shore. It’s surprising how fast you go. I will definitely try surfing again, especially because the lifeguard told us to go get him whenever we went surfing so he could go in with us. The shop that rents surfboards also rents out boogie boards, so I think I will spend a day getting my boogie board on.

At Muizenberg there is this amazing ice cream/frozen yogurt place called Sinful that has the best ice cream. I rewarded myself for all my hard work and bruises with a scoop. There’s also this amazing bakery that has chocolate croissants that are to die for. They bake them throughout the day so they’re always fresh. I’m all about the food here, if you can’t tell.

Today also wrapped up my first week of classes. I won’t dwell on this idea of school, because it doesn’t do much to brighten my day, but I think I will like this semester. Today in my social work class, we had a guest speaker who played a huge role in organizing the social welfare policy when Apartheid ended. It was amazing to hear all of the planning and coordination that went into the making of new social service system. She spoke a lot about the climate at the end of Apartheid and about Nelson Mandela’s release, since the twenty-year anniversary of his release was yesterday. It turns out my social work professor had a large role in coordinating the development of new social policy, and it really makes me excited to learn from her.

OK, here’s the Kit Kat update: according to Wikipedia (yes, I wikied Kit Kats), Kit Kats are made differently in the US than everywhere else in the world. Here in South Africa, they are made with more milk and less artificial sugar than in the US. How about that? I wasn’t going crazy, there really is a difference! I plan on buying a ton (yes, a TON) of Kit Kats to bring back with me. They are that good. I’m getting my friends to try them, and they all agree that the difference is there. If anyone wants a delicious South African Kit Kat Chunky bar, let me know and I will work on getting one to you.

Well, I’m off. I only have about 25 pages of Long Walk to Freedom left and it’s about time I finish it.

-Sarah

And so it begins...class.

2010-02-08T12:50:00.003-06:00

Sadly, the day finally came when classes started. Today, Monday, the honeymoon ended and I started what I came to Cape Town to do (well, at least officially), which is study. I'm taking three classes: sacred image, which looks at Christian iconography in film, Italian Renaissance art, West African art, and South African art; a social work class which I have yet to attend, since it meets Tuesday through Friday, but according to the course manual looks at South African social work structures both before and after the Apartheid as well as international social work institutions; and a history class about African genocide. Even though I'm not really looking forward to adjusting to a set schedule (especially one that impedes on my beachgoing), I think these classes will be very interesting. My art history class, sacred image, is starting with film which is exciting because I've never taken a class about film before. The class about genocide will be extremely interesting, and the teacher seems great.

But to be honest, I can't really be too sad about starting class since this is where my classes are:

Complain all I might, I know how beautiful this place is and how lucky I am to be studying here. I'm looking forward to learning things I would never learn back home while in a new and exciting environment. I think it will be rejuvenating for my academic life.

Something fun that comes along with starting school is the sports. I went to my first rugby game this afternoon. I got to watch the Ikey Tigers, UCT's teams' mascot (I prefer saying 'icky' to how it's really pronounced, like 'eye-key') fight it out against a rival university. I look forward to seeing more games to come. I'm also excited to start up with the clubs I joined. UCT has some really amazing clubs, and international students get to join three for free. One club I joined is Mountain and Ski, which involves a lot of hiking and climbing. I also joined the underwater club, where I can get certified to scuba dive and go on lots of fun diving trips throughout the semester.

I signed up for a spring break trip today. I'm spending ten days in March camping in Botswana and Zimbabwe. In Botswana I'll go on safari in this one park that has a huge elephant population. In Zimbabwe I'll go to Victoria Falls and go rafting down the Zambezi River. Fun, eh? I can't wait. What makes the trip really special is that we camp for the whole time. It's a relief to have all the planning taken care of, since a travel agency sets everything up. It gives me more time to plan other trips and adventures that are less daunting than the all-important spring break.

In food news, I finally went grocery shopping for substantial foods. Tonight I successfully made my first dinner here in Cape Town that consisted of something besides Cheerios or yogurt. I also have taken to eating Kit Kat's fairly often. There is something different about the Kit Kat's here. Maybe it's that they're called Kit Kat Chunky or that they're cheap, or maybe they have some extra additives not legal in the US, but I'm totally hooked. So that's what I've been up to lately: class, planning adventures, and eating Kit Kat's. Peace out, peeps.

-Sarah

Braais, Beaches, and Wine

2010-02-07T08:59:00.000-06:00

I’ve done a good job of crossing goals off of my list. Here’s the rundown so far:

CAGE DIVING. Cage diving was amazing. We drove to the coast at eight in the morning, which took about two hours. When we got there, there was a delicious breakfast set up for us and we got going right after eating. On the way out our guides explained everything we would be doing and how trip would work. We rode out to where the cage was anchored and reeled it toward the boat, which wasn’t parked too far offshore. Then the guides threw a fish mixture into the water to attract the sharks. The guides explained that sometimes the sharks could take minutes to come or they could take hours. Luckily, two sharks come up the boat almost immediately. It was so cool to see the sharks! They were huge. The first five divers, me and four friends, got into our wet suits right away and hopped into the tank, which was secured to the side of the boat. Whenever a shark came close enough to the cage, the guides would yell ‘Down!!’ and we would have to push down to the bottom of the tank and push our faces up to the very front of the cage. I think I had the best spot to watch because the sharks kept coming right up to me. The first time one came close was freaky, but it was more exciting than scary. After a while, I started to get really seasick. The boat was so small and the waves were fairly big, so we were constantly rocking. After spending about thirty minutes in the cage, we got out to watch the sharks from the boat. I was incredibly seasick for the rest of the trip, but I still got to see all the sharks. Even though I was sick, the trip was amazing, and I would do it again in a second. Eight different sharks came to the boat, all between 2.5 and 3 meters. There was one really enormous one that kept swimming right next to the boat under where I was standing. Cage diving totally changed my opinion of sharks. Instead of being terrified of them and thinking of them as monsters, now I kind of like them. They are really beautiful and seeing them in the wild is very powerful.
STELLENBOSCH. I went on a cycling tour of four vineyards in Stellenbosch, the wine country just outside of Cape Town. A group of about twenty of us took the train to Stellenbosch and got fitted with bikes through the tour group Bikes and Wine. We then proceeded on our trek through the wine country. Stellenbosch is really beautiful, with rolling hills and a background of crazy beautiful mountains. It was hot out, and the biking was not easy. There were lots of areas of sand on the trail, which made it hard to pick up any momentum because we were constantly stopping. The scenery and delicious wine made up for the difficult biking. The second vineyard we went to made brandy, and we tried ten and twelve year brandy as well as a peach/apricot/brandy mixture. I struggled with the brandy, which was really strong but delicious. We also had this drink called Angle Share, a creamy milky delicious brandy. We all drank a lot at the second vineyard, which made getting to the third vineyard all but impossible. Almost all of us walked our bikes for at least part of the ride. The views on this leg of the trip were especially amazing.

One of the many amazing views from the wine tour.

ROBBEN ISLAND. I went on a tour of Robben Island the other day. I wish I could say how amazing and powerful it was, but honestly, the tour fell short. Not to say I didn’t enjoy it and wouldn’t recommend going, but the tour was nothing like I thought it would be. We drove around the island in a bus for the first half of the tour. It was cool to see the quarry where the prisoners worked during the days and the wildlife and scenery was great. The prison itself was interesting. An ex-political prisoner led our tour, and we got a firsthand account of what life was like on Robben Island.

A pic from Robben Island, where one of the ex-political prisoners was kept for years after he was supposed to be released.

V&A WATERFRONT. The ferry from Robben Island leaves from the V&A waterfront, so going there was inevitable. It is such a nice area, with upscale shopping and delicious food. I had such an amazing fish dinner at one of the waterfront restaurants.

In other news, I went to an amazing braai (BBQ) yesterday called Mzoli's. Mzoli's is the absolutely amazing restaurant that is known for having some of the best meat in the world. The food was amazing! We drove out to the township where the restaurant is in the early afternoon and immediately went to the bottle shop (liquor store) to get our booze for the day. Then the party started. We had lamb, chicken, sausage, squash, and pasta salad. It was such a delicious meal. Then we danced off all we ate for the rest of the day.

My plate at Mzoli's. Yum.

Classes started on Friday, and since it was a syllabus day and none of the professors were showing up, I decided to skip out early and hit the beach instead. What a great decision! I went to Muizenberg with some friends. A few rented surfboards but I just wanted to be a beach bum for the day. The weather was great, the water was clear and warm, and the waves were fun. That night a friend had a braai at his house-yet another night of great food and friends.

Beautiful Muizenberg. I love the colorful bathhouses.

Right now I'm sitting at Cocoa Cha Chi, a local internet cafe. They have these amazing chocolate cakes which, when warmed up, have oozing gooey chocolate in the middle. It's not really a cake, but a bun-looking thing with a somewhat crunchy exterior, soft cake inside, and then the molten chocolate middle. Basically, they're the best things I've ever eaten, and going to Cocoa Cha Chi to use the internet is an amazing excuse to buy a cake. Speaking of cake, I'm going to go buy one and eat it! Bye for now.

-Sarah

Howzit, everyone?

2010-01-31T12:08:00.000-06:00

The past few days have been amazing. I will start with Friday, when a group of us hopped on the train to Kalk Bay to go spelunking. Spelunking is the term from hiking (or more appropriately, crawling and stumbling) through caves. The train to Kalk Bay was nice, with comfy seats and beautiful scenery. The train tracks run right beside the ocean for a part of it. Kalk Bay itself is a beautiful, quaint, oceanside town. We hiked up to the top of a mountain to a cave. The hike, though somewhat difficult, was really nice. The views were amazing. To get into the cave, we had to crawl on our bellies for about 25ft through a little tunnel. Given the lack of light and tight space, it was somewhat uncomfortable. The cave was really cool, and there were candles left by previous spelunkers so we could see inside. We hiked to the other end of the cave and came out on the other side of the mountain. From there we could see for miles and it was breathtaking. I think I took somewhere around 100 pictures just on the climb. The climb down was improvised, and we all came out very cut up and frazzled. Luckily, there was the glorious seaside restaurant ‘Cape to Cuba’ waiting for us at the end. I have never seen anything like this restaurant. There was a bar that served great drinks and a wonderful outdoor seating complete with sand for a floor and a friendly resident dog. The restaurant was equally beautiful, with eclectic design and delicious food. We ordered some kind of fried bread with a salsa/mayo dipping sauce. I don’t know if it was just a tasty meal, or that we were all famished from the climb, but that bread did not last long.

On Saturday I went to Muizenberg, which has a great beach for surfing. The water is warm, and the waves are huge. I had the freshest pizza of my life at a restaurant on the main road, and then got to go on a long walk down the beach looking for seashells and jellyfish. Right when I got to the beach after my delicious lunch, a siren started going off and the lifeguards started screaming for people to get out of the water. Then a lifeguard ran down the beach waving a flag with a shark on it. There was a 5m shark out in the water!!! It was crazy. Everyone started rushing out of the water and it looked like a scene right out of Jaws. After a while, we were allowed back in the water, but the shark kept coming in close so the water kept closing. It was wild. But, for the time we were allowed to be in the water, I had a lot of fun. The water was surprisingly warm and the waves were great for body surfing.

After getting back from the beach, my roommates, neighbors, and I threw a braai. A braaai is basically a barbeque. Trying to get the braai going was interesting, as all we had were some bricks and a wire rack. Luckily, one of the orientation leaders came and was able to get the fire going. After that, everything went great. The food was good and everyone had a great time. It was definitely a success considering it was our first braai. I’m sure there will be more to come. One of the highlights of the night was when a couple of people decided to pry up the door to the wine cellar that resides in the kitchen floor. What treasures we found! In the cellar was the missing Station Rd. street sign, an empty bottle of rum warning us never to try that kind of rum, a bottle of Absolute Vodka (filled with water, what pranksters), a picture of George Clooney, a boa, a cell phone, and letters to the current residents from past residents. It was amazing to find all the goodies, especially the letters. It gives a kind of continuity to the experiences I’m having, reading the letters and advice of people who went through the program before me. The night had good vibes all around.

The week coming up should be really fun. I plan on crossing off a few goals this week. Tuesday I’m going to Robben Island and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront to do some shopping and good eating. Wednesday I’m doing a shark dive organized by the travel company 2Way Travel. I’m strangely not nervous but I’m sure I will be soon enough. Thursday I’m doing a cycling tour of Stellenbosch, again organized by 2Way Travel. Time will tell if biking and wine really mix. Then on Friday we start class. Whomp whomp. I was under the impression that my life was now one big weekend. I’m taking three classes: an art history class that looks and religious manifestations in various European and African art, a social work class, and a history class called Genocide: Africa Experiences. At least my classes will be interesting. And I supposed a little routine never hurt anybody.

-Sarah

Greetings from Cape Town!

2010-01-26T10:50:00.001-06:00

Hello everyone! I’m writing from my lovely backyard in Cape Town. I absolutely love it here. Everything-the weather, people, food, atmosphere-is amazing. I’ve been here since Sunday afternoon, and almost every minute has been filled with some kind of activity. I suppose I’ll start from the beginning.

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

I'm Off!

2010-01-19T16:25:00.000-06:00

I'm heading out tonight! I'll post as soon as I have internet and a spare minute. Wish me luck!!

-Sarah

South Africa Goals

2010-01-02T19:43:00.003-06:00

Even though I'll be in South Africa for five months, and it seems like that amount of time should be sufficient to do all the things I want to do, I think it's necessary to have an idea of what I truly want to do when I'm there. That way, I'll have a better chance of actually fulfilling my expectations. This list might guide me while I'm there, and keep me from going adrift in the span of time. Or, my expectations could be totally off and I could completely abandon this list for a new one upon reaching South Africa.

My goals have come from various sources, such as recommendations from friends, my imagination, books, even the travel channel. I hope to complete most, if not all, of these goals. I think it will be easy to forget what I had had in mind while planning the trip when I'm actually there, living and going to school and trying to figure out my way. Hopefully, this list will remind me why I wanted to go to South Africa in the first place. So here they are, and maybe posting them where all my friends and family can see will hold me accountable for accomplishing them.

My South Africa Goals:
1. Climb Table Mountain. There are gondolas that take people up to the top, but you can also hike. Where I'll be living is practically at the foot of Table Mountain. Here is a picture of Table Mountain:

2. Learn about South African wine. Along with this, I want to visit a vineyard and do a wine tasting. Here's a link to the Wines of South Africa website: http://www.wosa.co.za/.
3. Learn to scuba dive. The idea terrifies me, as I am not a fan of swimming or deep water. But I figure that the whole point of studying abroad is to leave my comfort zone, so I might as well do something I would never do at home. Scuba diving is definitely one of those things.
4. Cage dive. Again, this is a scary undertaking. Sharks have widely prevented me from venturing into any ocean past my knees. I for some reason feel compelled to look one in the eye, while under the protection of a metal cage, of course.
5. Go on safari/go to Kruger National Park. Kruger National Park is a huge game reserve in northeast South Africa. I plan on going on safari there at least once. Here's a link to the park website: http://www.krugerpark.co.za/.
6. Travel to another South African country. This seems to be an activity a lot of study abroad students do. The major destinations seem to be Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. I will go anywhere. I especially want to see Victoria Falls, the huge waterfalls between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and go to the desert in Namibia.
7. Visit Robben Island. This is an island off of Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly 30 years. Here is a link to the Robben Island Museum website: http://www.robben-island.org.za/.

Robben Island, with Cape Town in the background

8. Watch a soccer game. I'm not into soccer at all, but since the World Cup will be held in South Africa when I'm there, I don't think my friends and family back home will let me get away with not going to a game. Here's a picture of what the Cape Town stadium looks like:

Green Point Stadium

9. Learn some Xhosa, a traditional language still spoken in South Africa.
10. Try traditional South African food. I am a foodie to the core and cannot wait to sink my teeth (literally) into new foods.
11. Go whale watching. There is great whale watching in South Africa. There are boat tours as well as points on the coast where you don't even have to leave land to see the whales.
12. See penguins. At Boulders Beach there are resident penguins, known as 'jackass' penguins because they are loud and grouchy. People can go to the beach and hang out with the penguins, which seems totally awesome.

Penguins at Boulders Beach

13. Go to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. This is a huge garden on the Cape that grows only indigenous South African plants. It's supposed to be really beautiful.
14. Learn about South African art. I'm taking a class on art in southern Africa at UCT, but I want to explore some museums and art galleries in the city.
15. Make friends with South Africans. I want to join the UCT running club, and hopefully this will be helpful in making South African friends.
16. Volunteer. UCT has an amazing volunteer program, SHAWCO, that sends students to the townships. Here's SHAWCO's website: http://www.shawco.org/.
17. Drive along the Garden Route. The Garden Route is a coastal highway that is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. There is great land and ocean scenery. There are also great hiking trails on the Garden Route.

I'm sure the list will grow. I promise to provide updates as goals get checked off! Let me know if you have any suggestions for other activities!

-Sarah

Countdown: 21 Days

2009-12-29T19:46:00.001-06:00

Three weeks left! I've been seeking out anything South Africa these days. Last night I saw 'Invictus', starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as the captain of the rugby team. I don't know how accurate the movie was in regards to history, but it did show some good scenery. It was exciting to see Cape Town and other cities on the big screen, as well as to hear the South African accent. I also watched 'District 9', which takes place in Johannesburg. I highly recommend both movies.

I received 'Long Walk to Freedom', Nelson Mandela's autobiography, for Christmas. I'm only on page 80, but it's great so far. Mandela is such an important figure in South African history that I'm glad I'll have some background knowledge about him. I'll write more about the book once I get a little farther.

I expect these last three weeks to go quickly. I've got a few more things to take care of before I leave, but I've also got some fun times planned. Exciting times, these last few weeks!

-Sarah

Countdown: 29 Days

2009-12-21T21:21:00.000-06:00

29 days from this moment, I will be on my flight! I cannot believe how quickly time has gone. I head home tomorrow afternoon, and it's goodbye Madison! It will be nice to have a break from the cold and snow. It's currently 5:10AM and 63 degrees in Cape Town. That will certainly be a nice change.

There are so many things to do before I leave. It's not even worth listing them all. I find myself thinking a lot about leaving. My thoughts and emotions flip flop frequently. It kind of reminds me of how I felt before leaving for college. Most often, I feel excited and anxious to leave during the day, and sadder and nervous at night. I get to thinking about how I'll feel not being home for so long and it makes me uneasy. I try to keep my mind on all the great adventures I'll have, such as...

CAGE DIVING!

www.ultimate-animals.com/shark_tours.htm

Cape Town is Great White central. Cage dives are a popular tourist activity in which I will definitely participate. Hopefully I don't get eaten!

-Sarah

Getting Started

2009-11-21T17:50:00.001-06:00

I'm new to the whole blog thing. I'm going to figure everything out before I go. So I'll start posting about what I'm doing in regards to studying abroad in the two months before I leave.

I had my program orientation yesterday. It was very interesting and got me really really excited and antsy to leave. It's also a little nerve-racking, too. Everything I have to do before I leave is starting to add up. But I bought my ticket! So when January 19th rolls around, I'm leaving no matter what I have or haven't taken care of.

Here's where I'll be studying:

University of Cape Town

Beautiful. I'll be there two months from today!

-Sarah