Bikes, wine, museums, and cheetahs

This past week is the last week that we have before classes start, so I’ve been trying to do as many things as possible in case I don't have time once classes start.


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!

Mzoli's!

Today the student government of our dorm (the members are called wardens) organized a trip to Mzoli's Meat in Gugulethu, which is a township about 15 minutes away from my res. The restaurant itself is a corrugated metal roof with tarp hanging down in place of walls. Since we got there at about 11:00am we were able to get a table and a place to sit, but most people who got there after us brought folding chairs and had to sit outside on the sidewalk. As soon as we got off of the bus, people came up to us selling sunglasses, fedora hats, and goblets made out of beer bottles.

The only thing that the restaurant served was meat. We had to bring our own drinks and rolls, and there was a stand across the street that sold drinks, chips, and ice cream. When it was time to eat, they brought us two big mixing bowls that were filled up with chicken wings, really long beef sausages, and steaks. Since there were no utensils, you just took what you wanted out of the bowl and ate with your fingers.

We stayed at the restaurant until 4:00 because after we were done eating there was a DJ. His name was DJ Spu, and he is supposed to be one of the most famous DJs in South Africa. People would be eating at their table, and when a song that they liked came on they would just stand up and dance at the table. By the time we left, it was a full out party.

When we got back to the res I went grocery shopping, which is still a little bit strange to me because I am not used to all of the brands here and it is hard to evaluate the nutrition facts because it is all in kilojoules instead of calories. I bought potatoes that ame pre-washed, and eggs which aren't kept refrigerated in the store. They also sell ostrich burgers and springbok butter, but I held out :) I have a feeling that I will be learning to cook a lot of new dishes this semester in the absence of my normal favorite foods and without a microwave or toaster oven to cook with.

Class Registration

Today I took the first step to registering for classes by doing pre-registration. Instead of registering for classes online like you would do at American, the University of Cape Town has a several step registration process that all has to be done in person. The first step is pre-registration which means that you have to bring you insurance card and passport and stand in line for 1.5-2 hours so that somebody can sign off on your forms and clear you to register.

Now that I am pre-registered, I will have to get pre-approved for classes, which basically means that I will have to find professors who are willing to approve my course selection. I won't be able to register for classes until tomorrow when I will bring my pre-approval sheets and wait in yet ANOTHER line.

I'm finding out that in order to stay within American University's credit requirements, I will only be taking three classes when I usually take four, but since classes at UCT usually meet 3-5 times a week + tutorials, this might be the same amount of work. So far I'm trying to decide between taking Conflict in World Politics, Advanced South African Politics, Poverty, Development, and Globalization, South Africa to 1900, Genocide: African Experiences, and Xhosa (an African clicking language).

So, off to wait in some more lines. On the bright side, there is a beautiful campus to look at while I am waiting in line...

Aside from registering for classes, I am still just settling into the dorms and getting to know my way around campus.

Waka Waka

Waka Waka Music Video

I can't tell you how many times I have heard this. They are really proud of having hosted the world cup here :)

Baboons and Dorm Rooms Oh My!

Friday night the study abroad program took us to a restaurant in Stellenbosch, the vineyard area outside of Cape Town, for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Spier on an organic and sustainable wine farm. It was beautiful! All of the seating was outside in a tent and lit by candlelight. There was a live band and African drummers who also danced. I was able to try Antelope kabobs, which tasted like very tender steak, and Springbok sausage, which mostly tasted like regular sausage. As we were eating, a woman came around to the tables and painted our faces with a white paint in traditional Xhosa patterns.

On Saturday, we moved into the dorms. I am living with an American who goes to George Washington University in DC named Rohanna and with two UCT students who I haven’t met yet. The dorm that I am in has four rooms, two big ones connected to a balcony and two smaller ones. Rohanna and I are both in the larger rooms. There are also two bathrooms, one with a shower and one with a bath because South Africans take a lot of baths. There is also a shared kitchen, but no dining room or common space to hang out in.

Today we spent the day touring Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula. On our way out of Cape Town we passed Bo Kaap, a township that was originally built for white workers, the castle, and a penthouse owned by Oprah as well as a house owned by Leonardo di Caprio. Our first stop was at a beach where we could take pictures of the African Penguins. They used to live out on the rocks in the ocean where they bred on top of the bird droppings. In the 1800’s the British began to scrape off the bird droppings to use as fuel, forcing the penguins to move to the beach.

We stopped for lunch in Ocean View, a township that was created when the Apartheid government decided to make certain sections of Cape Town white only. The government built small houses in an unused area about 40 minutes outside of Cape Town and did not invest in any businesses in the community except for a liquor store. Many people who were forced to relocate lost their jobs because they could not commute to their jobs. Today most people living in Ocean View are fishermen. We had lunch in the community center where there was a talent show that included a drag queen and a boy who danced like Michael Jackson.

After lunch, we drove to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the point where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is also the spot where Africa used to be connected to South America and the Falkland Islands. On the way to the Cape, we spotted some baboons, antelope, and a whale!

Volunteering

Today we visited and heard from several different non-profits, and I need input on which organization to volunteer with. One non-profit, called CHOSA is an organizations started by a GW student after she studied abroad with this program. It is an after school tutoring program that meets 2 times a week that serves children living in orphanages. You can make your own lesson plan/curriculum and choose the ages that you want to work with. The organization also coordinates funding for the orphanages, applies for grants on their behalf, and ‘networks’ by connecting community organizations and non-profits to one anther. This seems to be an interesting program because I would be able to work with kids, but I could also have the opportunity to learn more about starting my own non-profit.

Another interesting program was the LEAP school which is a private high school that is located right outside of a township and focuses on science and math. The philosophy is based around teaching the students social responsibility by volunteerism in their neighborhood. I found it very interesting that the man who spoke about the program talked about the achievement gap, the missing black male phenomenon, charter schools, etc in such a way that he could have been speaking about DC. Since the schools are very successful I would be interested in learning how the organization tackles these problems, but the volunteering seemed very open-ended and without much direction so I’m not sure how I would fit into the organization.

The last program that I was interested in is called People Against Suffering, Oppression, and Poverty. Its an organization that works with African refugees to make sure that they are aware of their rights in South Africa and to combat xenophobia in South Africa and abroad. For example, the presenter mentioned that they organized a protest against the Arizona immigration law in front of the United States embassy. Most of the refugees are from Zimbabwe or Congo and live in refugee camps around the country. As a volunteer, my time would be split between interning in the office doing things like writing news letters, research, and attending meetings and doing things in the field like going to refugee camps, organizing events and protests, and offering advice to refugees. This might be a neat experience because it would give me an opportunity to learn more about the politics of Africa and issues that face refugees since I know virtually nothing about these issues, but at the same time I would really miss working with kids.

Any input into where I should volunteer?

This is a picture of a shanty town that we passed.

Kids who live and go to school at a Christian ministry. Some of them are homeless or abandoned and some live here with their parents. This was one possible volunteer site.

First Day in Cape Town!

After an almost 12 hour flight from London, I arrived in Cape Town today around 9:00 am. The program RA’s were there to meet us and we were taken back to campus in a Jammy, or a university shuttle bus. As we drove to campus, we passed a shanty town. Even though its residents were obviously poor, it had an upbeat feel to it. All of the houses were painted bright colors and many of them had really beautiful murals. When we drove by, there were horses wandering around the outskirts of the area and through the town, which struck me as odd. Hopefully I will have a chance to visit and learn more about the community. I would have liked to take pictures, but we had already passed it by the time I got out my camera, but I did get a picture of some acacia(?) trees.

For orientation week we will be staying in a dorm, otherwise known as a res, before we move into our permanent living spaces. I am sharing my room with Sydney, who I know from AU. There are a lot of other students from American here which is nice because I already know some people right off the bat. After I got settled in, the RA’s took us to a barbecue restaurant that is just a few blocks away from the res. Because there were so many of us we had to get it for ‘take away’ and brought it back to campus to eat.

At 3:00 the program took us on an outing to Table Mountain. We had the option to hike up or take the cable cars to the top, but since we were told that the hike was an easy 45 minutes most people decided to do the hike. It was VERY steep—imagine doing a Jillian workout that only involves your calves and quads for an hour and a half, which was how long it actually took us. Thank goodness that I had a backpack that carried extra water bottles, emergen-c, and sunscreen comfortably! But when we got to the top the view from the mountain was amazing—the pictures don’t do it justice.

At the top, I met an Afrikaans man and his English wife who took my picture for me. They explained to me that most white people in South Africa are fluent in both Afrikaans and English and learn a little bit of an African language in school while most black people in South Africa speak English and their tribal language and most can also understand Zulu, although Xhosa is more predominant in Cape Town. His children go to an English school because it is the only one in the area, but his sons also speak Afrikaans when they are trying to persuade him to do something (otherwise they prefer English). He also taught me that a braai is a barbecue made out of coal (not on a gas barbecue) and that hello is pronounced the same in both Afrikaans and English (hallow).