Rugby, Crystal Pools, and Peninsula Tour

I have gotten to do some really fun things the last three days! Friday morning I registered for classes which was quite an experience! Registration started at 9 so some of us got to campus around 8:30 and were actually the some of the first people in line! At 9 they let everybody into this big room and there are like three different stages which got really confusing! You had to pick up forms, fill them out with your classes, then an advisor had to check it and sign off on it. There were only 7 advisors for over 700 students registering during that time! Then once the advisor signed the form you had to take it to the data center where someone entered your classes into the computer. Not sure why we couldn’t just do that to begin with! Then once that was done you had to take a form and wait in a LONG queue to get your student id. Luckily the whole process only took me about 2 hours which was a lot better than some people! I am currently registered for Xhosa (an African language where they make clicking noises for certain letters!), Traditional African Religions, Economics and Development, Natural Resource Economics, and last but not least African Dance!! I’m excited to see what the classes will be like here. Our first day is this coming Friday, Feb 5. Two nights ago some of the group went to see a rugby match which was awesome!! I absolutely loved it! It was between the Stormers and Sharks and both teams have players who play on the Springboks (SA national rugby team). Those guys were unbelievably huge and they run full force straight at each other! I was getting really into the game and asking this old man in front of me all the rules! Every time something happened I didn’t understand I would ask him to explain it! I hope I didn’t annoy him and I apologized for asking so many questions! I will definitely be going back to more matches while I’m here! It is so easy to get around anywhere using the train and taxis. There is a train stop 2 minutes from my house and there are frequent stops which makes it easy to go pretty much anywhere. Yesterday I went hiking to Crystal Pools with a group of people who are South Africans I met through one of the guys in my group and have started going to a bible study with on Wednesday nights. It was an intense hour-long hike climbing on rocks and sand. There were three different pools you could jump in and swim with high cliffs all around that people would jump off. I decided not to jump from the cliffs because while we were there four people had to be airlifted because of serious injuries!! One person fell down the cliffs and fractured his skull and did something to his back and I’m not sure what happened to the other people! That scared me from doing any jumping, but several of the people in our group still jumped. Five of the girls who went with us are models from around the world that are in Cape Town for three months doing shoots for different companies and magazines. Two of the girls are from Brasil and are actually from the same city as Mar! What a small world! Today we went on a peninsula tour which was so much fun! We started off by driving around the city to see famous buildings and then we drove along a crazy road! It was on cliffs along the mountain overlooking the ocean below! It was scary but had amazing views! They used to film car commercials on the road because it was so windy and beautiful. Then we went to see the African penguins on the beach! They were very strange looking penguins and just stood there in weird positions staring at the sun! They weren’t the big fluffy penguins you always see on tv, but it was still cool. Then we went to a township to eat lunch and some kids performed hip-hop dances and sang which was awesome! They were really talented and they practice with an organization that works with children in townships. After that we headed to the Cape of Good Hope. This was absolutely beautiful! It is supposedly where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. We had to go on a really long hike up to the top of these cliffs where an old lighthouse is and the famous sign pointing in different directions of cities around the world! Then we hiked down and back up another cliff which was close by and is considered the Cape of Good Hope. The water is such a pretty blue and the waves were really big. One thing I have noticed is that here there aren’t any railings or fences to protect you from falling off into the oceans! It is very different from America. The paths are natural and harder to walk on. I also noticed yesterday and today that older people were hiking and walking up the mountains!! It kind of put me to shame because I thought I was gonna die walking up! They are in better shape than us Americans haha! Tomorrow we are going on a three day Garden Route tour along the coast of South Africa. We will be going in caves, riding ostriches, kayaking, and other fun things so I can’t wait! I put up pictures of the penguins, the helicopter picking someone up from the pools, and me with the sign at the Cape of Good Hope!

Soccer games and the beach!

Today was a great day! We finally had a free afternoon and a few of us went to the beach at Camps Bay. It was absolutely beautiful! The water was so freezing cold that you could barely even put your feet in. The Atlantic ocean here is freezing and the Indian ocean is warm, but that is where the sharks are! A week ago someone was eaten by a shark at a beach in the Indian ocean (we are going to that beach on Thursday)! There are mountains surrounding the ocean and beautiful houses everywhere. There were about 12 of us that stayed for the afternoon. It cost us less than $4 to ride a train and then taxi to get to the beach! Im hoping to go to the beach a lot! Oh when we were at the beach I was very surprised and shocked to see so many women without tops on laying out on the beach!!! Later when we got home somebody said that Camps Bay is apparently a nude beach! We ate dinner at a really neat place right by the water and my entire meal cost $11. The money situation is great here for Americans! Today in orientation we learned how to register for classes at UCT which is a bit in the dark ages because we have to stand in long queues (lines) for hours to register because it isn’t done on the computer! I have to figure out my classes I will be taking tonight so there aren’t any problems when I need to register! Last night a big group of us went to a local sports bar called Pig and Swizzle to watch one of the African Cup soccer games which was SO much fun! Everyone there was for Zambia and they were getting really really into the game! It ended up going to pks and Zambia lost so people were kinda upset! We are going back for the next games because it was such a fun experience! We were the only non-locals there and we met a lot of fun and interesting people! The pictures I’ve put up are the views of Lion’s Head and part of Table Mountain from the beach and also some of the people from my group!

CT

Today was very fun and exhausting! We left this morning at about 8 to go walk around downtown CT (that’s how they write Cape Town here) and just got back at 6. It was really fun to see a bunch of different places around the city. I am truly amazed at how nice the city is. I would never know I was in Africa, it looks like somewhere in Europe. We went to a market this morning called the old biscuit mill that was awesome! It was like a farmers market where chefs come and cook on Saturday morning and sell their food really cheap! It had every kind of food you can imagine from every country around the world! I had a smoothie and croissant that were wonderful and also tried warthog which was actually really good! They also had trendy designer type shops. I’m going back next Saturday for sure! We also saw the library where Nelson Mandela made his first speech after being freed. Everywhere you look in the city it is beautiful because you either see the ocean or massive mountains! I had no idea there were so many gigantic mountains in and around CT. I was surprised that no one came up to me today asking for money and I saw very few homeless people where we were walking. It is really shocking to see a township and then 5 min away is a very modern and nice downtown area. I saw lots of families and kids walking around in the markets which was cute. We also went to the waterfront and there is a nice mall where we got Haagen-Dazs ice cream! We felt very touristy walking around in a group of 50 people, but now we know some places we can go on our own. Tomorrow we are going to a township and staying for a few hours and having a braai (barbeque) which should be really fun! We have had almost zero time to settle in and get things for our rooms, and the UCT orientation starts Monday and goes the entire week! It’s still hard to believe I will be living here for 5 months! I’m excited to figure things out in the city and not have to feel like a tourist! I am adding pictures that we took while walking around today and also pictures of the outside of our house, living room and kitchen, and my room!

First Day!

I am finally in Cape Town and already loving it! We got to our house around midnight last night, and have the best roommates. Seven of us live in a house on Church Street with one RA. We all get our own rooms and have three bathrooms to share so there’s plenty of room. This morning around 6 I was woken up by a really really loud noise outside my window which turned out to be a train! I didn’t see the tracks last night because it was dark, but there is a train literally right outside my window. The noise is going to take a little getting used to!
Today we had some orientation and then went sight seeing in one of the oldest townships called Langa. The city is absolutely beautiful with construction everywhere getting ready for the World Cup. The township was really interesting because there were nice houses and then right across the street were the most horrible shacks I have ever seen. All the little kids wanted to come play with us which I loved! In the township it is common to eat sheep’s head!! They said its just like a hot dog stand in the US. So, of course I had to try a tiny bite of the meat which wasn’t too great, but it wasn’t too bad either! I had some of the cheek and the eye! They call it “smiley” because the sheep head is always smiling! One thing I noticed is that it is extremely windy in Cape Town and not hot even though its summer. Of course I still got burned while we were walking around outside!
Tomorrow we have orientation all day and get to go visit different sites that we can chose from to do our service hours. I was talking with the IES director today and mentioned how I loved working with an orphanage in Uganda so she asked me if I would be willing to help organize a team project at one of the service sites! I’m really excited about the opportunity to do that later in the semester. Our electricity just cut off so I think I'm going to bed because it says we used all our electricity! haha welcome to Africa!
I am going to try to upload some pictures, but I’m not exactly sure if it will work. If the pictures are there, two are of the sheep heads and another one is me with two of the kids in the township!