On Sunday, the residence hall sponsored a trip to the beach, which was beautiful but crowded. I thought it was interesting that since sharks are such a big problem in South Africa, the African government has hired shark watchers to make sure that the beaches are safe. The shark watcher sits on a mountain or a high chair like a lifeguard and watches the water for any signs of sharks. If a shark is spotted near the beach then a flag is flown so that people know to stay out of the water.
On Tuesday, a group of people from my study abroad program went downtown to see what was going on. We found the South African museum, a museum that is similar to the Natural History Museum in DC and mostly focuses on early African history. My favorite exhibit had rock drawings that are 2,000 or more years old!
While we were downtown we also explored Long Street. At night Long Street is the place to go out because it has a lot of clubs, restaurants, and bars, but during the day there are a lot of shops that sell African things. My roommate Rohanna found a neat African mask and bargained it down from R350 to R100, which was pretty impressive! Even though I didn't buy anything, I had a lot of fun talking with the shop owners. Most of them were from Kenya or Zimbabwe. In fact, I've only met a handful of South Africans while I've been here because almost everybody here seems to be Zim!
Popular fabric choices at the market.....
On Wednesday, our RA Farai took us to Simon’s Town. Simon’s Town is a small area by the Indian Ocean with beaches and sea food restaurants, and it is also home to the South African Navy. The South African Navy is the largest navy in Africa and is proud of its two submarines, but it is only a fraction of the size of the U.S. Navy. We visited the Naval Museum, which was really cool. They had replicas of all of the ships in the navy as well as old cannons, missiles, and part of an old submarine. At the museum, there was a flag with a swastika displayed next to a sign that read, “South Africa seconded to the British Royal Navy”. We found out that South Africa had been divided between those who supported the British and those who supported the Germans during WWII. Since there was strong support for both sides, the South African Navy fought for both the Allies and the Axis.
Today I did a biking and wine tasting tour with the travel agency on campus. We left early in the morning and took a train to Stellenbosch, the section of Cape Town with vineyards. It was amazing! We first biked to Van Ryn’s, a brandy distillery in the area. There, we learned the proper form for tasting brandy and got to try the 10 and the 15 year fine cask reserve, which won the International Spirits Challenge and has been named the best brandy in the world!
From there we had a short bike ride to a winery where we ate lunch and sampled wine. We then had a 3-mile bike ride to the next winery. It was amazing since we were able to bike through the vineyards and the African brush. Many of the native plants in the brush are thought to be related to sea corals, since the area was once underwater.
The last winery that we visited was on the Moyo estate, the same place where our study abroad dinner was held. Aside for a restaurant and a winery, the estate has a cheetah and a raptor rehabilitation center. The cheetah we met was supposedly in a movie with Patrick Swayze!
Even though Monday is our first official day of classes, there is an official ‘practice run’ tomorrow. I was confused at first about what we were supposed to do, especially because the RA’s had no idea what we were talking about. Later I found out that even though everybody is supposed to attend the ‘practice run’ so that the lecturers can make sure that the space is big enough to accommodate everybody, usually only the American exchange students show up!
