Settled In

I am officially in my third week of classes at UCT and that I have been in Cape Town for over a month. It’s strange to get into a routine and have real responsibility as opposed to the three-week vacation that I was on before classes started.

My classes at UCT all seem interesting and manageable. The classes are only 45 minutes, the perfect amount of time to hold my attention. The classes meet far more often than at Wash U, giving me more class overall, but definitely less work. I am lucky enough to have Monday and Thursday afternoons free and most of Friday off as well, so that I can still have time to explore the city and do fun things. Here are some pictures of the beautiful UCT campus:

Its certainly hard to balance going to school and going out as much as I did in the beginning, but I am still managing to do my work and have an awesome time going to Long Street, Obs, Claremont, and Newlands. Unfortunately, my camera is gone temporarily so I don’t have new pictures of my own, but I have stolen from some friends to give an idea of where I’m living right now. Here are some pictures of my house:

As per usual, here are highlights of what I have done over the past two-ish weeks:

• Big Bash – a huge party during UCT orientation that all freshman attend, think WILD but on crack

• Green Point market and Sea Point – another fun market with African goods and souvenirs, and walked around the town of Sea Point with its millions of sushi places and eclectic feel
• Old Biscuit Mill Market – an awesome yuppie-ish market in Woodstock with amazing gourmet foods of all kinds and awesome unique fashion, I absolutely loved it

• Concert at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens – CIEE paid for our tickets to see the Destiny’s Child of South Africa, not necessarily my first choice of artist but it was a blast. We picnicked with wine and cheese and it was a beautiful afternoon.
• Military procession with Jacob Zuma – we were lured downtown by the promise of seeing Nelson Mandela in the military procession for the opening of parliament, but he was a no show. We instead saw the really cool military procession with all different types of soldiers and even the President of SA, Jacob Zuma (through a car).
• Field Trip to Imizamo Yethu - for my Sustainability and Environment class, we went on a field trip to a township in Hout Bay, it was so interesting to see the poverty but real community of the township.
  
• Holocaust Museum – two friends and me trekked downtown to the Holocaust museum, it was nice and interesting to see how many people immigrated to South Africa.
• Women’s Show – a friend and I kept seeing signs for the Women’s Show, and we didn’t have any idea what it was, but I got free tickets in a magazine that I bought so I decided to go downtown and try it. It was altogether not what I expected, and certainly hard to explain, but it was a bunch of booths, some advertising lifestyle magazines, clothing, spas, and other things. Definitely an experience.
• Rugby Game – CIEE took us to a rugby game, the Cape Town team vs. an Australian team, it was so awesome to see a professional rugby match, we got super into it.
• Rhodes Memorial – at the base of Table Mountain, just above the UCT campus sits Rhodes Memorial, dedicated to Cecil Rhodes, the first Prime Minister of Cape Colony. There is a gorgeous view of Cape Town and it is only a 30 minute walk from my house.
• Kalk Bay – after class today, a friend and I took the train to Kalk Bay, a quaint beach town an hour away with a hippie vibe. We had an awesome lunch at a restaurant with all locals, and walked around the town.

Overall, I am continuing to have an amazing time, it still feels surreal at times, and we are already freaking out about leaving this amazing place. There are so many exciting things coming up including a house barbeque, wine tasting, and many more crazy nights out!!

The Garden Route

I have just come back from a blissful trip on the Garden Route. The Garden Route is an area on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, stretching roughly from Mossel Bay to Port Elizabeth. All the towns are small beachy or fishing villages, each with their own charm and attractions. I rented a car with three of my housemates and we started on our four-day journey.

Here is a little taste of what we did:

• KLOOFING – what is kloofing, I still couldn’t really tell you. It is a cross between hiking and rock climbing and swimming. We started on a hike into a gorge and from there our guide simply told us to follow him. We climbed over boulders, swam in the river, jumped off cliffs, and everything in between. It was exhausting but a blast.

• Mitchell’s Brewery Tour – this local brewery doesn’t use preservatives in their beer, so it is always fresh. The beer was great and we felt like champions because we did the tour at 10:30 am.
• Knysna Elephant Park – we got to feed, touch, and watch elephants, they were adorable, I wanted to take one home!

• MonkeyLand – we walked around this monkey sanctuary where there are 9 different species of monkeys, this was my least favorite activity that we did, it wasn’t very interesting and you didn’t interact with the monkeys at all

• Bungee Jumping – the highest bungee jump in the world – this was by far my favorite activity of the trip. It was so scary but awesome at the same time. To get to the jump, you have to walk under the bridge in a wire cage. It was terrifying but good preparation for the jump. When you are at the jump station, they blast loud music to get you pumped up and all the people who work there are dancing and having a blast. They call out your jumper number and you mentally prepare to go. They make it impossible for you to chicken out. They bring you to the edge of the bridge and say, 5-4-3-2-1 BUNGEEE, and you just jump. It was an awesome sensation to free fall, and then the recoil was great too. It was so silent and peaceful hanging there, I loved it. I was on such a high after that happened.

• Jemima’s restaurant in Oudtshoorn – an awesome restaurant where we tried ostrich. It really was like a red-meat chicken. It was delicious, the best meal of the trip
• Cango Caves – caves outside of Oudtshoorn, they weren’t my cup of tea but interesting nonetheless
• Safari Ostrich Farm – we got to see and sit on ostriches, stand on their eggs, and I even got to ride one. Ostriches are just fascinating creatures, they don’t seem like they’re anatomically possible but they are. Riding the ostrich was hysterical, they go so fast! I had a blast here.

The trip was tons of fun, but I was ready to come back to Cape Town by the end. It was great to drive on the other side of the road, experience different places on the Cape, and have a vacation within our vacation.

On Friday, we had our first day of classes, kind of. At UCT, they have a day before classes start where you attend the class and they deal with administrative stuff like giving out the syllabus. I have to rearrange my classes a bit, but most of them seem interesting and fun. My Sustainability and the Environment Class particularly sounds awesome. I was so excited about it when I left that I felt like such a nerd. I’m excited to start classes for real on Monday and get into a routine. For now, I am going to savor my last weekend of vacation.