The Daily Grind

Hey everyone!

I am going to try to start posting in this blog weekly, just to keep everyone updated on what’s been going on here in Cape Town. The last few weeks have seemed pretty dull when compared to our Garden Route road trip adventure. I mean, getting to campus for my 9am class just isn’t that glamorous when you’re riding the UCT Jammie Shuttle instead of an elephant. However, since I am “studying” abroad rather than just hanging out in Cape Town, I guess I’ll have to deal.

Classes here are much different than at AU. For one thing, the semesters here are very backloaded, meaning that most of our work is due at the end. For now, I have next to no homework. I am not complaining! (I’m sure I will be by the end of the semester when I have a bunch of papers, finals, and I am scrambling to do as much as I can before I have to leave, but for now I’m happy!) Classes are also a lot shorter here, only 45 minutes. Since the professors start late and sometimes end early, class ends up being a little more than half an hour long. Glorious! Same length as my attention span. Most of my lectures are not all useful. It’s sort of annoying when you climb a mountain to get to class only to find that the mountain climb was worthless, but I need the exercise!

I have started doing my volunteer work for SHAWCO, the UCT student-run non-profit. I am working at St. George’s Home for Girls, which is located in Wynberg not too far from UCT. Most of the girls are between 5 and 18 years old, but there are a few younger ones. Basically, when we go, we just play games or color with them. They are very sweet little girls, FULL of energy, so our time there is pretty chaotic. I have fun with it. My experience at St. Georges so far very much reminds me of the ones that I had with my Girl Scout troop last year. I will tell more about St. Georges in a later entry.

Between St. Georges, scuba diving meetings, hanging out with friends, and a little homework, my weeks are suprisingly busy. I have a lot more free time here than I do at home, obviously, and it is a very welcome change. I really needed a break from my usual stressful, overcommitted life in DC. Having so much more time to do the things that I want to do has made me realize how thinly my time was stretched last semester. I am definitely learning that taking time for myself is a wonderful thing!

On the weekends, we have been having a great time continuing to explore Cape Town. There is so much to see and do here that I don’t think anyone could ever be bored. Last weekend, we went to Long Street and went shopping in Greenmarket Square, which is a big craft and flea market. It reminds me very much of Eastern Market in DC, except the things that people sell are much much cooler! I bought some gifts for people and a few carved wooden bowls to keep my hair clips, jewelry, and loose change in. That night, we went back to Long Street to have dinner and hit a few bars there. The nightlife in Cape Town is so much fun. Everyone is always in summer party mode, since the weather is nice, so it makes for a great time.

Tomorrow we are going to Noordhoek to ride horses on the beach at sunset. Beforehand we plan on spending the day there, just exploring the area and soaking up some sun. I need to get some homework done today because I have a paper due on Friday. I will post more, hopefully with a fun story about our day, later in the week. Love and miss you all!

ROAD TRIP!

Hi everyone!!

Sorry that I have been so bad about keeping up with my blog! I realize that over a month has passed and I have yet to update it. Oooops. However, you should all just take it as a sign that I have been having an absolutely amazing time in Cape Town- so amazing that I haven’t had the time (or the reliable internet access) to post much!

I have been doing all sorts of amazing things that I have never had the chance to do before- I have learned to scuba dive and am now open water certified, I have seen zebras and baboons, I am working at a children’s home here in Cape Town, and tons more. However, this past weekend has been by far my favorite experience yet and inspired me to reopen the old blog.

Midway last week, a few of my friends and I decided that we needed a little road trip to get out of Cape Town for the weekend. We started googling things and decided that we really needed to drive along the Garden Route, which is a scenic highway that goes up the eastern coast of South Africa from Cape Town, so we rented a car, booked a hotel, and were off.

Our first order of business was to ride ostriches, so we headed to Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of South Africa and quite possibly the world. Our rental car, which we promptly named Mashinga, was dropped off at my friend Sarah’s house on Friday. We headed to campus to get everyone else and off we went on our merry left-side-of-the-road way! On our trek out of Cape Town, we managed to buy two cowboy hats from men who were running up and down the street selling everything from beaded keychains to bows and arrows. Having obtained the “ultimate American hats” we were now ready for the trek.

The drive was absolutely beautiful. The landscape here is so different from anything that I have ever seen in the states, with tall rounded mountains and vast grassy plains with the occasional cow or ostrich stretching as far as the eye can see. After only an hour of driving, we realized that we were already in a place that was pretty uninhabited. Cape Town is gorgeous, but this was a very different landscape from what we had already seen.

After stopping for lunch, we continued along our way. The road got closer to the ocean and the drive got even more beautiful as we looked down at gorgeous bays full of deep blue water and adorable seaside towns. When we got to George, a larger town, we turned off our main route and headed up to Oudtshoorn for our date with the ostriches.

The road to Oudtshoorn was amazing. We drove up, down and through mountains, at times driving along cliffs with enormous drop-offs.. so large that we were afraid to look over the edge for long enough to guess exactly how high we were. Sarah, our driver, definitely handled it like a champ. Once we descended from the mountains, the road became rough and windy. While it was a welcome change from hanging off the edge of a cliff, our car did not enjoy climbing hills on basically a dirt road, so we had to take it really slowly.

Because of this, we ended up a little behind schedule. We began to fear that the ostrich farm would close before we got a chance to ride, so we stepped it up a notch. We finally ended up pulling into the farm at the last possible moment. We missed the last tour but the woman who both pitied us for being this upset over ostriches and thought we were mildly hilarious in our hats decided to let us ride. We hopped in our car and drove over another dirt road to the pasture to meet our new feathered friends. Riding the ostrich was probably the most ridiculous experience of my Cape Town trip thus far. They are so fast! I just leaned back and it took off, with the men who run the rides screaming things at it in some language I couldn’t understand, urging it to run as fast as it can while I was screaming that it should stop. I have some hilarious pictures.

We next went to feed them, which was creepy. They really do look like little dinosaurs. After that, smelling like ostrich and pleased with ourselves for doing something that we definitely NEVER could have done in the states, we hopped in our car for another two hours and headed to our hotel in Knysna, an adorable town on a lagoon. We went to a nice dinner and then went to bed early. We had a hot date with elephants the next morning!

On Saturday, we woke up early and went to the Knysna waterfront for some lunch, which was delicious. We then hopped in the car and drove toward Knysna elephant park. There were more forests in Knysna (it is known for this), and we were surprised at how much like home the terrain looked. We went around a bend and I had just finished saying to everyone, “Wow, this really looks like America” when suddenly we saw a large black.. thing in the middle of the road. As it got closer it scamped to the side of the road and sat down with it’s family.. of BABOONS. Sooooo yes, we really weren’t in the US anymore. It was pretty funny.

We got to the elephant park, watched a video about the elephants, and then got down to business. All of the elephants in Knysna Elephant Park were orphans rescued from various parts of South Africa, usually Kruger National Park. Because elephants need to be mothered for a long time, they would not have survived on their own. We met a mother elephant and her two month old son, which was absolutely adorable. After that, our guide escourted us to three elephants, two huge adults and a smaller adolescent. These were the beasts that we were going to ride!

The ride was so fun! It was not nearly as frightening as the ostrich, even though elephants are much taller. My elephant was named Namibia and I rode him with my friend Laura and a guide, while wearing my red cowboy hat of course. The elephants were very docile, calm, and extremely well-trained. When we were done we got to feed them, which was my favorite part of the experience. Our guide told us to tell them “Trunk up!” so that they would lift their trunks and let us feed them straight into their mouths. Namibia listened to me! He also really enjoyed the pineapple that I gave him. I think I made a friend!

After the elephants, we headed back to the hotel to relax and shower for dinner. We hung out in front of the TV for a while, which was really nice, since we had many many channels in our hotel. We went to a delicious little Italian restaurant in town, then headed home for a swim in the pool. After that, we went to bed fairly early so that we could get up tomorrow for the next leg of our adventure.. the Tstiskamma National Forest.

The drive to the forest was gorgeous and very different from what we had experienced before. The landscape in South Africa is so varied.. it really is the “world in one country” as all the tourist info says! My friend Sarah and I went on a canonpy tour which was amazing. We ziplined through the trees over 30 meters from the ground.. definitely not something I had ever seen myself doing before I came to South Africa. Our friends went off in search of another activity while we were on the tour. And whoaaa.. they found one! The largest bungy jump in the world! Amazing! I really want to go back and try it.. kind of. ;-)

After that we headed back on the long drive to Cape Town. About seven hours later (ouch) we arrived exhausted but happy after an amazing weekend!

I'm HERE!

So I am very bad at updating this blog, and I appologize for that. However, you should know that my internet is sketchy at best and I have had very little free time since I have arrived! I have been extremely busy getting acquainted with Cape Town. I am working on a long post summarizing my first few weeks here, and I will add that soon! Until then, just know that I am having lots of fun and I miss you all very much!!

Here goes nothing...

"But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?" - Jack Kerouac

Hello friends, family, and acquaintances who have wound up here via Faceboook or AIM- stalking (yeah.. I read your away messages too)! I have decided that writing a blog next semester, or should I say a little over three weeks from now(!!!!!), is the best way to keep in touch with everyone while I am in Cape Town. Rather than flood your inbox with mass emails that you may or may not want to read, I will try to update this blog as regularly as possible with a recap of what exactly I am up to and what I am thinking and feeling.

For those of you who don't already know, I will be studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa from January 31st to June 16th. I will be living in the Rosebank area of the city, which is close to the University, in a house with two or three other international students. Apparently lots of other international students will be living in the area, so that should be fun. In addition to taking classes, I hope to volunteer, either in the townships just outside of the Cape Town, or at an orphanage that some of my other friends have worked in. We shall see, we shall see.

All of this "we shall see" and "I hope to..." is very nerve-wracking at this point. Uncertainty is not something that I cope well with. I am most satisfied when I have a plan and am working to make it happen, and right now, that is simply impossible. Most of the details of my life in Cape Town, from what classes I will take to who I will be living with to how I will keep in touch with everyone in the US to what I will be doing in my free time won't settled until I arrive. Sitting in my basement of my house in Pittsburgh googling "things to do in Cape Town" or "7 Christow Road Rosebank" isn't providing many answers.

But maybe, just maybe, all of these questions without answers are a valuable part of this experience. After all, one of the many reasons that I decided to go abroad was because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and push myself to lighten up and just let life unfold around me. I'm starting to realize that in order to be comfortable and happy this semester, I'm going to have to learn to just go with the flow. As it is written in Big Vito-ism #347, "Everywhere you go, you take yourself with you." And, not to be all cheesy, but this is my blog so I guess I can be as cheesy as I want, I am trying as hard as I can to take my very best self with me.

Lucky for my inner-anal rententive lunatic, some planning is possible. I have begun to slowly organize my piles of crap that I moved from my apartment after finals and to itemize all of the things that I need to get done before I go. I have really just started my preparations this weekend. I went back to DC to go to a Giants game with Christian and to celebrate New Years with him, my lovely Katie, and some of our other friends. It was an absolutely FANTASTIC time with much debauchery and was a fabulous way to ring in 2007. It also made me realize how much I will truly miss my friends in DC next semester.

But now, getting down to business. I was absurdly productive today, considering that my usual activities while at home consist of eating too much, drinking too much coffee, and vegging out in from of Sex in the City reruns on On-Demand. I ran some errands for my brother Andrew's birthday tomorrow, bought a power transformer/converter/electirical thingy that probably won't work, and continued my on-going cleaning project. I also went to the bank and ordered $300 worth of South African currency, the rand, to get me started once I arrive. Simply ordering the money was pretty funny. When I told the teller what I wanted, she was very suprised and asked me why I wanted to go to "a place like that." I just said that it was something I had never experienced before and that I probably would never get to if I didn't do it in college, and she dropped it at that, after informing me that I was ordering what PNC Bank considers an "exotic foreign currency" and I would be charged accordingly. Superb.

Her question, however, reminded me once again how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I would be naive (and incorrect) to assume that there are tons and tons of people that I know here in Pittsburgh or in Washington who would love to go to South Africa next semester. It's a beautiful country and has so many wonderful things to offer, but I know that it wouldn't be everyone's first choice, and that is okay. Different strokes for different folks. But the majority of people I know have never had the chance to go abroad for a semester period. I think that this too will be an important thing to remember. I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity, just as I have been extremely lucky to have so many other opportunities in life. I think that sometimes, at AU, where it seems like everyone has traveled to more exotic, fascinating places than I have or ever will, it is easy to lose sight of this fact and to take this experience for granted. It's definitely a privilege, not a right (Big Vito-ism #573).

I picked up Cat's Cradle last night from the enormous pile of books that is precariously stacked in front of my bedroom door. This pile is right next to the clear plastic bin overflowing with clothes that didn't fit in high school and DEFINITELY don't fit now. Anyway, rereading books that I love is one of my favorite things to do. There is nothing more comforting and nothing with more power to transport me back into the past than sifting through familiar words on crinkled pages, squinting to read old notes in pencil in the margins or to detect underlining and highlighting. I was captivated, as I am every time I read over it, by Bokonon's last rites ritual and its simple wisdom. My favorite quote seemed even more relevant now than ever before:

"The only way that I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around. I got so much, and most mud got so little."

Lucky me. Lucky mud.