“Mexe-Beans” and SA Post Office Ransom Notes, Sept 27

Today has been an eventful but unproductive study day. I woke up at 8 am and went for a run around the track. I have been running every morning, and it is getting a lot easier to wake up. I am really enjoying it. Today felt like I was sleeping in, 8 am is the latest I have woken up in weeks! When I got home I showered and headed off with my 300 lb suitcase full of laundry to the Laundromat. “Wash ‘n Web,” the two in one Laundromat and Internet Café was ridiculously crowded for a Monday morning, but I was able to get both of my loads washed and dried with little problems.

While my clothes were washing I did my grocery shopping. I always go to Pick ‘n Pay first and then to Woolworths (the expensive and amazing health foods store :) I have been craving Mexican food for over 2 months. Thus I decided to try to find some ingredients to make burritos or quesadillas or something. Unfortunately all of the tortillas were out. I purchased “Roti” which is tortilla like Indian food wraps. Then I went to the canned veggie aisle. The only canned beans they had were baked beans. South Africa does not like black beans or refried beans apparently. Next I turned to the one foot Mexican spices/salsa portion of the shelf. And to my surprise I found two cans of “Mexe-Beans.” I bought some chili powder in place of the beloved chipotle spice I normally like to use. I finished my grocery shopping and went back to put my laundry in the drier. After my clothes dried I headed home to test out my South African Mexican food cooking.

I made a roti-quesadilla for lunch. The Mexe-Beans were more like baked beans without the tomato/sweet sauce, but they worked. My quesadilla was ok, considering I used Roti as a tortilla substitute. Needless to say I CANNOT WAIT to be back in Cali where I can eat and make Mexican food everyday without any trouble!

After lunch I folded my laundry and procrastinated by cleaning my room. Monica (our houselady) came to my door and informed me that I had a package. It turns out that the South African Customs is not as ridiculous as I once thought. My package that my mom sent (consisting of some used/new clothes) was being held for a ransom of 900R (over 120$). After days of trying to reach the customs dept by phone, I finally got through. They told me to send it back with a letter explaining the problem. I sent a letter to customs and my package was sent back to be reassessed. It arrived today and I only had to pay 25R (about 3$). I was so excited. It felt like Christmas! Thanks mom!

And now I am back at home, listening to good music while blogging. The sun has finally come out, and I think it is here to stay :) I have my door open and the chilly wind is blowing in. Anuk, Hanli’s poodle puppy, keeps running in and out of my room and trying to eat my toes. She is a pretty cute puppy, despite the fact that she is a poodle. But alas, I think it is finally time for me to stop procrastinating and to work on my last Tut Assignment. After this paper, I only have one more dance paper, a 2500 word Memory and History research paper, and a 3500 word Medical History research paper. I have four more weeks left of classes. YAY! I can’t wait for finals to start (finals last almost three weeks), and for it to get warm so I can go to the beach everyday :)

Whales and Trails, Sept 24-26

On Thursday night I hiked up Lion’s Head Mountain with Kate, Kevin, and Nora. It was recommended to do the hike on a full moon - where you hike up for sunset and then hike back down in the dark. When we went it had just rained and was a very cloudy day. It was a bit harder than I would have thought, and involved a lot of rock scrambling. Because it was so cloudy, there was no moonlight, so we were rock scrambling down the mountain in the dark, trying our best to avoid the rain puddles. Kate, who was leading the way, stepped in many big puddles. (Kevin’s small headlamp couldn’t illuminate everything…) I slipped once and fell on my butt on a rock, but besides that I made it down the hill without too much difficulty. It was a really pretty hike, and we got a 360-degree view of Cape Town and the Cape Point. I think I would like to do this hike again, but on a night where we can actually hike down by moonlight.

On Friday we woke up early to depart for our two-day Hermanus Whale Festival Trip. It was National Heritage Day, so we didn’t have any class on Friday. Liz, Kevin, Kate and I rented a car for Friday and Saturday in order to drive up to Hermanus. Our car that we rented was a bit sketchy. It was an old Toyota Corolla. When the rental man drove up to our house the hubcap fell off. He then proceeded to put it back on with a zip tie…This is when we knew that we wouldn’t be doing a ton of driving in one day. The car ended up getting us there the whole way without many problems - despite the broken hubcap and a shaky streeing wheel. It unfortunately didn’t have a CD player, so we ended up listening to the radio. The radio in South Africa is pretty bad. We often would only get three stations at a time - composing of old school hip-hop, polka, rap, soft oldies, or reggae…..not my favorites by far, but we managed. The drive there was gorgeous. It felt a lot like driving through Monterey CA combined with Washington. The traffic was a bit heavy due to the popularity of the festival and construction on the road. We ended up reaching Hermanus after 3 hours of driving.

When in Hermanus we drove around the town for a bit, and stopped to get lunch at a local café. The burgers were absolutely amazing. The town was very cute, and felt so much like California, that I almost forgot where I was. Of course, I was reminded quickly I was no longer in America when I heard people speaking in Afrikaans all around me. After eating we went down to the festival shopping tents that were set up. I bought some really cool jewelry and other souvenir type things. I have become pretty good at bargain negotiating, so I got a good deal on everything that I got. After that we went and sat by the ocean side and watched the whales off of the shore. The shore was cliffy and rocky, and the whales came very close to the shoreline. It was really fun to watch. We saw lots of whale backs, fins, and tails - but unfortunately didn’t see any breaching (which is when whales jump fully out of the water).

After watching whales for a bit we went to check in at the Hermanus Backpacker’s Hostel. It was my first hostel dorm experience. The Backpacker’s inn was really artsy and nice. It had a pool with a bar, and a huge kitchen and lounge where people could make food and hang out. There were 60 people staying in the hostel, but we didn’t really get to meet too many of them, because they were all out and about. After checking in, we went back to town and walked around and got dinner. I was wearing shorts, and once the sun set the weather dropped like 10 degrees and it was windy. I was freezing! We went back to our hostel where we played pool and met some students that were studying abroad here from England. After that we went to sleep.

On Saturday we woke up early and checked out of the hostel. We walked along the coastline for an hour and did some whale watching. Then we returned back to the festival and ate really good and greasy festival food. I ate a “cravedog” (bratwurst style) and a fried potato swirl on a stick. It was delicious. After eating we walked back to our car and headed home along the coastal route to Cape Town.

The drive was so gorgeous. It looked like a combination between New Zealand’s rocky cliffs, and the gorgeous blue of Kauai’s ocean. The contrast of the scenery was so gorgeous. It looked like I had entered into a world that had been photoshopped and the contrast enhanced. I get this feeling a lot when traveling around South Africa. The colors are so vibrant here. We stopped at some scenic outlooks and beaches. There were baboons on the beach, which was fun to see. We stopped in Gordon’s Bay around noon to get ice cream and walk around. We got huge soft serve ice cream cones at an old fashioned shop, and then went to a used bookstore and looked around. We took our ice cream to the beach shore and ate it while looking out at the ocean and the whales. It was perfect. I love the ocean, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to move somewhere that is not close to it….this could be a problem :)

After Gordon’s Bay we drove back to Cape Town. Once at home I took a nap and a much needed shower. For dinner my friends from Boston College were having a “tail-gating” party - which entailed grilling burgers and listening to the BC football game over the stream on the internet. This did not turn out well, as BC lost miserably and the internet wasn’t working very well. My friends were left feeling depressed and homesick. I personally was not very invested in the game, so wasn’t too devastated by the loss.

Today is Sunday. It is an icky rainy day. I just want to sit inside and read a good book or watch a movie, but unfortunately have a lot of reading and work to catch up on. I went to a new church this morning, which was really good. It is called “Church on Main” and is located a 5 minute walk from my house on campus. I already knew some people at the church because some of my Student Y friends go there. The worship and the preaching reminded me a lot of Upper Room. I miss UR and Flood so much, and can’t wait to come back home, and return to these communities and friends. But Church On Main was definitely very similar, and was full of students. I think I will definitely go back there next Sunday.

Springtime is officially here! September 23

In honor of springtime officially arriving in Cape Town I chose to wear shorts today. The morning was sunny and it looked like today’s weather was going to be nice. But by 2 pm it was sprinkling, and I was questioning my decision. Luckily, many other students also decided to commemorate spring by wearing shorts, so I didn’t look totally ridiculous walking around campus while it was nearly raining.

I went running this morning. I have ran everyday for the past week. But unfortunately I think I may have pulled a muscle in my leg again - or strained it at least. Either way, I had trouble walking to school today. I walked like a gimp up the hill, undoubtedly looking pretty ridiculous.

Last night I volunteered with SHAWCO. We went to a township called Joe Slovo. I worked in the paeds mobile, so I got to see a lot of small babies with many minor ailments. None of the children had anything seriously wrong with them, that we saw, which is always a good thing.

Tonight I will hopefully be hiking up Lion’s Head mountain for the full moon. It is the smallest of the mountains in Cape Town. It is a popular hike for people to do on a full moon because it is relatively easy and you get a view of the whole of Cape Town. So hopefully it won’t rain tonight, and we’ll get a good sunset.

Tomorrow is a public holiday, so I don’t have any class! I will be going to Hermanus with Kate, Kevin, and Liz for the Hermanus Whale Watching Festival. I want to go kayaking with the whales! We are renting a car and driving there on Friday and coming back on Saturday. We will be staying at the Hermanus backpackers hostel. I will let you all know how the weekend goes (hopefully I won’t get smushed by a jumping whale as I am kayaking :).

I drink Tea, Sept 20

I love the tea here. Everyone in South Africa drinks tea. Tea is served at church, at restaurants, for dinner, lunch and breakfast. There are three types of tea that I have become accustomed to drinking. There is the original black tea (like Earl Grey/Breakfast - similar to US tea), Chai tea, and my personal favorite Rooibos. Rooibos tea is an African tea blend, that doesn't have caffeine (thus perfect for drinking after dinner), and is sweeter than black tea. South Africa was once a British colony, which partially explains their "tea culture." Needless to say, I have fallen back into my tea drinking habits, and have even started to put milk in my tea.

Along with issues of tea is that of eating healthy. I have decided that I need to start eating healthier (aka, I must give up my Cadbury chocolate eating addictions, regardless of how amazing the chocolate here is). I am trying to eat healthy and go running/exercise everyday. It is hard to eat healthy though when you are cooking for yourself - but I can do it! As for today, I think I will go running. After I go running I plan on writing my dreaded History of African Dance Essay. I am taking this class for pass/no pass, so I'm going to see if I can produce a very mediocre essay in only one day. But seeing as I'm keen to go exercise before it starts raining, I might postpone the essay writing and go for a run. ("Keen" is my favorite South African lingo. I like to use it often in sentences, and it is one of many words that I will be taking home with me :)

Ditching Class on Fridays, September 18

Yesterday I decided to skip my class that was showing a video on perpetrator’s testimonies in order to go surfing. I went surfing with my friend George, who also ditched that class. He came to pick me up at 8 am and we drove to Muizenburg to get my board. Unfortunately when we got there, the shop that holds my board wasn’t open. So we got some coffee and waited until 9 am and chatted it up. Once we got my board we drove back to the other side of town to go surfing. We went surfing at a beach that is on the Atlantic side, and a lot closer to down town Cape Town. It was super fun, and I loved surfing somewhere besides Muizenburg. The waves were 2-4 and pretty steep in sections, but slow. It was really fun, and I don’t know if I will be going back to Muiz anytime soon (partly because my board is no longer at that shop, and I don’t know how I will get it back, haha). We surfed for about two hours. Because it was on the Atlantic side it was freezing, so after two hours I could no longer feel my feet. George had made hot chocolate, so after we surfed we drank some hot chocolate and ate cookies. Although it does not beat the standard burrito after surfing, it was definitely a very good substitute. Then George drove me back home and dropped me around 1 pm. It was a long and fun day of surfing, and now I have a nine foot, red longboard standing up in my room :)

After surfing I showered and took a nap. When I woke up I was hungry and ate a ton of random stuff from my refrigerator. I ate a banana, carrots, pasta, chips and salsa, and orange juice. Not a good idea. Haha, I need to go grocery shopping. My stomach hurt after eating the weird combination of foods. Later that evening I went to HUB. At HUB I played another piano piece, it was fun.

Today I hiked Table Mountain with Liz, Kate, and Julia. Liz and I woke up early and went to eat breakfast at Coco-Wahwahs (spelling?). We took a cab that drove us to the bottom of Table Mountain. From the trailhead we proceeded to climb straight up for two hours to the top of the mountain. It felt like I was on a stair-climber machine for two hours straight. It was strenuous, but really fun. Once we reached the top we could see all of Cape Town and both sides of the Cape Point. It was not flat like one would image the top of a table mountain to be. A cable car goes to the top, so there were a ton of people once we reached the top. You could tell who had hiked up. We had a bet going of how long it would take us, and the person who’s time was furthest away from the mark had to buy a piece of cake for us all to split at the top. There was a restaurant at the top where we ordered burgers, and Liz (who had lost the bet) ordered us a piece of chocolate cake. It is a great idea to have restaurants at the top of mountains, because burgers after hiking are amazing! After stuffing ourselves with delicious burgers and chocolate cake we took the cable car down the mountain instead of hiking. I am so glad we saved our knees by taking the cable car down. At the bottom we had to find a taxi to take us back. We wanted to only pay 80R (instead of the 140R we payed on the way up). A taxi driver approached us who accepted that price, and led us to his car. It was a mini-van, which was a surprise, since it was very off of its normal Cape Town/Whineburg route. We got into it, and were a little sketched out, since normally mini-buses don’t go off their routes. But the guy was really nice and he took us back to Rondebosch with no problems.

I just finished napping and showering, and am now going to see Inception with Liz, Ann, and Jen. It will be the first time I've seen a movie in South Africa! yay! Tomorrow I plan on going to church, and writing a Tut assignment (not looking forward to writing this Tut, but it must be done...)

And the schoolwork resumes, Sept. 16

School resumed this week in full force. I was hopelessly behind in my readings at the beginning of the week, but have miraculously been able to nearly catch up. By the end of this weekend I intend to be fully caught up. This week has been relatively uneventful.

On Monday I went to class and then spent the afternoon doing laundry and grocery shopping. I was excited when I arrived back from my trip to discover that I had two packages awaiting me at the post office. Upon pick-up I was informed that the customs charge on the package my mom sent me was 894R (roughly equivalent to $130). This was a total downer. The man at the post office told me that because my mom had put the values of the items (i.e. t-shirts, tights, etc.) on the package that customs was charging me thinking that I was going to sell the items in South Africa. Totally ridiculous! So after three days of relentlessly calling customs, and using up nearly all of my monthly airtime, I finally managed to receive orders to write a letter explaining the mistake and have the package sent back to customs. Hopefully when it returns I will not be paying an outrageous amount for my used clothes!

Later on Monday I went surfing. Monday was gorgeous and sunny, and the waves at Muizenburg were really fun. I saw more whales while I was surfing, which is always fun. The rest of the week the weather has not been so nice.

Tuesday through Thursday are really blurring together in my head. I think I spent these days going running, doing readings, and playing the piano. Some memorable things to note:

1. I have been going through another one of my banana eating obsession stages. I have eaten 14 small bananas in the last 2 days. Some may say this is not healthy, but I disagree.

2. I am also obsessed with picking pretty flowers off of neighbor’s bushes while I walk home from school. I make sure to only pick flowers that are hanging over the fences, in reach of the sidewalk….thats okay right? I have two vases of flowers in my room :)

3. Tonight I went out to dinner with the girls, Amanda’s mom, and a few other friends. There were eight of us in total. Amanda’s car that she just rented is a small 4/5 person car. (Mom and Dad: you might want to stop reading here) We thought it would be easier and cheaper to cram all eight of us into the car instead of calling a taxi. Not a good idea. Not only did the car sound like it’s breaks were going to give out due to the extreme weight load (equivalent to a small Jetta carrying 5 obese people) but we literally drove by eight Cape Town policemen. I did not know that that many policemen existed in Cape Town (haha, jk). There was an accident on the freeway so we literally had to drive past policemen that were standing 2 meters away. This constituted multiple people being smushed down out of view and cramped necks for a 2-mile period. After seeing the eighth policeman we decided to hire a cab, so as to not risk our luck any longer. So we reached the restaurant alive and without a ticket (thankfully!). The food was great and I ate a whole Margherita pizza by myself. My stomach hurts now.

Tomorrow I will go surfing early in the morning with George, instead of going to my class (they are just watching a documentary, thus I think going to the beach is more beneficial). I will hopefully be branching out and going to Long Beach. It will be a nice break from Muizenburg :)

Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, September 3-12

For spring break I went on the 2-way travel Botswana/Vic Falls camping trip. It was the most fun and legit experience I’ve ever had. It was a ten-day trip that entailed a lot of travelling, getting dirty, camping, and laughing with friends. I loved it :)

September 3: On the first day we flew from Cape Town to Joburg. I was in the Lions group - led by George. We were a very international group, made up of Germans, Norwegians, Canadians, a Mexican, a South African, and Americans. From the Joburg airport we were introduced to our truck, Peter Tosh. We were warned by the driver Bevin not to call it a bus or van - but that it was a truck because it was not high-class luxury. It was made for bumpy roads and off-roading. Peter Tosh was definitely by no means a luxurious ride - we drove a lot of days on super bumpy roads, and my head got smashed into the window multiple times due to my trying to sleep as we drove over potholes. On the drive out of Joburg I saw my first safari animal, a dirty zebra standing all by his lonesome. After driving for about 6 hours we made it to the South Africa/Botswana border. But due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. one of the German’s passport was not working) it took us about 3 hours to get across the border. We ended up reaching our first campsite, Camp Itumela late in the nighttime.

September 4: Day two also constituted a lot of driving. We drove for the day and arrived at the campsite in the early afternoon. We hung out by the pool and later ate dinner. George busted out some songs on his guitar, and we sang Wonderwall. It was a fun day.

September 5: Day three we drove from our campsite and arrived in the Okavango Delta. From the town we loaded into a safari truck that took us to the actual Okavango swamp. From there we all loaded our stuff and ourselves into mikaro boats. The mikaro boats are carved out of wood, and are the primary means of delta transportation. Lorenza and I got by far the sketchiest mikaro, but the driver, Rasta, was really nice and didn’t tip us over. Our boat was made of wood and the bottom covered with straw. There were so many spiders in the boat and on me due to hours of travelling through the reeds. Needless to say, I got very accustomed to having large spiders crawling on me, and am no longer afraid of spiders. After an hour we arrived at the island where we were to camp for the next three days. We set up our tents, along with the local mikaro drivers who were to spend the next three days with us. After setting up the tents we took the mikaro’s out and went swimming in a clearing close to our campsite. I paddled a mikaro…it is a lot harder than it looks.

September 6/7: Day four and five blended together. We spend these days in the Okavango delta at our campsite. We went on multiple “game walks” where we saw absolutely no living animals. We saw lots of animal prints and bones, but because the water levels were so high, there weren’t as many animals on our islands. It was rather disappointing, but beautiful nonetheless. We rode in mikaro’s so much I got tired of it. These three days I was dirtier than I have ever been. We didn’t shower or bathe. It was intense, but really fun.

Memorable Delta experiences:

- getting mobbed by huge Delta spiders. Spiders on my face, in my hair, on my body. So gross.

- paddling around the Delta in mikaros

- swimming in murky Delta water, trying to wash my clothes in the water. They came out dirtier than when they went in.

- Hanging with people in my group, and making new friends

- trying to nap in the intense heat….not very successful

- looking at the starlight while watching fireflies and listening to a symphony composed by crickets and delta frogs.

- Curtis and George playing the guitar as we rode along in the mikaros

- laying in the mikaro as it glided along the delta water

- long truck trips - bad for sleeping/reading - but good for conversations

On day five we left the Delta and travelled to our halfway point - Planet Baobab. Planet Baobab was the nicest campsite I have ever been to. It was really fancy, with a gorgeous pool, and a snazzy camp bar. We had a lot of fun that night. I also took a shower on this day. It was the best shower I have ever taken; I have never felt so clean! The Baobab trees at the campsite were really cool. Baobabs have mystical associations in African society due to their unusual appearance. They can live thousands of years and grow to be huge.

September 8: On the sixth day we arrived in Chobe. At Chobe we saw all of the safari animals (besides the lions) that we had missed out on in the Delta. We went on a Namibia/Botswana game cruise late in the evening. It was a lot of fun and we saw elephants, zebras, crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, and baboons. I laughed a lot, our group was so much fun :)

September 9: On the seventh day we woke up early for an overland safari game drive in the morning. I saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, baboons, buffalo, crocs, sable antelope, impala, roah antelope, hippos, waterbuck, and buffalos. Again we did not see any lions, but we did see tracks that they had left on the road. After the game drive we loaded Peter Tosh again and drove to Zambia. We crossed the Botswana/Zambia border via ferry. This entailed taking a barge across No Man’s Land. Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia all meet at the corner where the river flows, thus I can claim to being in four countries at once. Pretty cool. After crossing across No Man’s Land we drove to the Livingstone campsite in Vic Falls where we were to spend the remainder of our trip. The campsite was also really nice, with a great pool and bar. There were tons of monkeys at this campsite in the trees. In the evening we went to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I can see why it was one of the Seven Wonders. After walking around Vic Falls we went to the market where I bartered my way into getting a bracelet. I purchased it for 20R, which was a good deal. He wanted to trade me for other things though, and even asked for my hair. I told him that I would not trade my hair for a bracelet.

September 10: The eighth day was the most legit day of the trip. We went for a full day of river rafting down the Zambezi river. The Zambezi is the border line between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Our guide, Malvin, was pro status and explained to us about the river and the culture surrounding it. There were 25 rapids in total ranging from class three to class five. The class five rapids were so gnarly! We paddled into them, and the Malvin at the last second would yell down. At that point we would throw ourselves to the side of the raft, and cling onto the side rope with all of our might, to avoid being thrown out of the boat. The rapids were larger than me, and it was so freaking fun! I fell out of the raft on the first rapid, but after that I managed to stay in. Our raft didn’t tip over, because we were such superb rafters, but all of the other rafts did. The river was gorgeous as it wound through a large canyon. There were crocodiles that could be seen hanging out on the edge of the river. Malvin said that they ate fish, but nonetheless it was crazy to think that I could have been swimming with crocodiles. We jumped out of our raft a lot since it was so hot. One time we got out and jumped off a 20 ft rock - very fun! We wore life jackets and helmets while rafting. The life jackets were tighter than a corset to allow for us to be heaved into the raft via the jacket…not very comfortable. There was a lot of horsing around and pushing people off of rafts. It was by far the most fun experience of my trip, and I’m so glad I decided to do it!

September 11: On day nine I hung out at the pool in the morning with two other girls. We ordered cooked crocodile tail. It tasted like tough chicken fish. After the pool we went across the border to Zimbabwe to visit the markets. I bartered my way into a few touristy things. It was very hot and we had to rush back to the campsite for our dinner cruise. We were late so seven of us girls piled into a taxi to take us across No Man’s Land to reach the Zambia border. It was quite a feat piling all of us into the taxi. Zimbabwe was crazy because I used four different currencies in one day, haha. Needless to say, I was doing a lot of conversions in my head between the currencies. After coming back from the markets we went on our dinner cruise/booze cruise. It was super fun to cruise along the Zambezi river with friends that I had gotten to know so well over the past week. After the cruise we had a dance party and hung out at the bar until late in the night.

September 12: On the tenth day we travelled back to Cape Town. We drove to the international airport where we flew from Zambia to Joburg and then home. It was sad to have reached the end, but I was looking forward to showering and doing some laundry. This trip was by far the coolest thing that I have done yet in Africa and I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity to explore and meet some really rad people!

Botswana Here I Come!!! September 2

After a long week of paper writing, it is finally spring break. YAY!

Tomorrow I am leaving for my Botswana Safari trip. I fly into Joburg tomorrow, and am leaving here at 4:30 am (so sorry if this is short, but I have to wake up in less than four hours as it is.) From Joburg we take a safari bus and drive to Botswana. We will be spending 8 days going to the Okavango Delta, going on a lot of safari walks, driving through Botswana, driving to Zambia, spending time at Victoria Falls, and a day in Zimbabwe! I'm super excited and will have pictures up as soon as I get back!

Yay for three more stamps in my passport! Cheers!!!!