Peninsular Tour!

I got up at the crack of dawn. literally. Heres a pick from my township:

We went all over Cape Town. First we took a driving tour of the city. Then we drove all along the south western coast to Camps Bay, which is right under Table mountain. This is where you can see the sunsets! We visited Maidens Bay too.


Then we drove down Chapmans drive. This is a very dangerous drive because there's a risk of rocks falling and heavy winds can blow people right off the side. A man and actually was blown off Chapman's peak and died a few days ago. Here's how close the road is to the edge, and how far down the fall would be! In the far distance you can see Sandy Bay which is the only nude beach in South Africa!

We stopped at Boulders Beach to see the cute little south african penguins. An interesting thing about these creatures is that they are monogamous (unlike the president...) and they also trade sitting on the egg. Its so cute! Here's Kristin and I by the penguins.

After Boulders Beach, we drove to Ocean View to get some lunch. Ocean View is a coloured Township. It was so good! They feed us so well here. Some people that live in the township set up a presentation for us. Some woman sang, others did hip hop dancing. It was amazing!

Then we went to Cape of Good Hope (the most south western part of Africa!) Here's Amelia and I posing by the sign to prove it!

"light" hike and near death

Today finally came! I got to register and I got into all my classes. Since I'm the only one in the faculty of science, I got to cut the line and get advising very fast. I also got my student card. It's fine, but the lady squished my picture to look like a conehead.

The woman setting up my internship invited me to go on a hike to the boomslang caves with other interns from the program. She said it would be a "light" hike. We hopped on a train to Kalkbaai (pronounced cock-bay)and then started our hike. After reading some of the signs, and losing my breath after 30 minutes of non-stop up, I found out it was a 2 hour hike and the signs said it was 13km. That's almost 8 miles! Yikes. There was a little river that we got to cool off in. Then we finally got there! Here was the view from the top:


To enter the caves, you have to crawl on your stomach for about 100m, then it opens up and you can stand up. Here is the hole you must crawl through army style.

Here's the view right when you enter the caves from the other side of the mountain.

I felt like I conquered the world.

At the top of the hill there was this little hole where I named it "Hayleys hot tub". Note my nasty dirty knees.

While we were busy taking all these pictures, the rest of the group who actually knew how to get down went ahead and were out of sight. We followed the little trail which led down, but then the trail disappeared and we found that we were bush wacking all over. We were lost, hungry, thirsty, and the sun was going down. Finally after 2.5 hours of being lost in the african bush, we found the trail and the rest of our group! I thought I was going to have to set up a hut and eat bugs, then tell my story to "I shouldn't be alive". At the bottom, we had dinner around 7 and then got on the train to go home!

We ride trains south african style:

Here is the moon. It was beautiful tonight!

Registering classes like the cavemen

Like I've said before, the process of registering classes here at UCT is from the stone age. Thank god CIEE is pre-registering for us, or else we would have been on campus all day. oh wait...I was anyways! Someone needs to teach them how to get online and click. (i've been told it's not that easy)

I took the Mini-bus (basically a VW eurovan)to school. it's only R5! these minibus' are so fun to ride! the drivers are crazy, fearless actually, there are no seat belts (which I hate) and most of them play the i'm-only-certified-to-carry-16-passengers-but-theres-always-room-for-15-more game.
I got there around 9. I needed all the department heads to sign off on my courses. I first went to the archaeology department to get them to sign my roots of black identity off. That was so easy that it got my hopes up for the rest of the classes. Then I went to the math building. The professor and the department head both weren't there, and they were gone for the rest of the week. Well, that doesn't help because I am registering tomorrow! Anyways, I found someone to sign off for calc, bio and physics which was lucky. I was done by 1pm and starving. My friend Kristin and I took the minibus to Observatory where I stayed for the majority of the time in 2008. It was so weird how things changed! My fave restaurant Cafe-hot was gone, the big field across from the grocery store is now a courtyard.

We decided to eat at the Obs Cafe. It's funny how every place does funny things to the straw wrappers:

After lunch, we walked around a little and I played around on my camera.

At 5pm, we were invited to the fresher's braai, for all the international and first year students. After waiting in line to get food for an hour, we ate really fast and left because it was so cold and too windy. Here's the mass of freshman/study abroaders.

It's not a party without a bouncy house!

Last day of Orientation!

UCT has funny notes all over the place. These two I find hilarious:






















We celebrated our last day of orientation by hanging out in Langa. My friend Kristin came over today and played field hockey with some of the neighborhood kids. It's so great to just come home and have all the kids waiting for you! They are literally waiting at the gate and there's a mob when you arrive.
This is a random baby I saw that was just so cute I had to take a picture!

Here are 3 of the youngest in the hood. Linathi is on the left, Lukah (whitey's son) is in the middle, and Luthando is on the right. Whitey calls Luthando "China". When I asked him why, he said "just look at his eyes!" These people are really funny!
The garbage trucks here are mercedes-benz. I find that hilarious and ironic. The thing holding trash is a luxury vehicle.
here's Brownie looking all cute and innocent after he ate one of my shoes. Note the sole (or whats left of it) next to his paw:

UCT Orientation day 2

more orientation today, pretty boring. I figured out all my classes and I have to get them pre-approved tomorrow.

The way UCT does classes is from the stone age. You have to first pre-register to make sure you aren't a crazy old person. Then you have to get all your classes pre-approved by the department head. Most of the CIEE students are registered into the Faculty of Humanities, but I'm the only one in the faculty of Science. So everything the people are talking about is irrelevant to me, yet I still have to go to orientation.

Today I had to take the "academic and qualitative literacy" test because I didn't send in my high school diploma (king's doesn't even have them on file!) It's the SAT south african style. It took over 4 hours to complete and I forgot to take my adderall today! It was really brutal and the test leader was really mean.

Brownie came back today! He has been gone since Saturday. Silly puppy.

Here are pics of my campus. I have to say it's the most beautiful campus on earth. It was founded in 1829 and is the oldest university in South Africa. Cecil Rhodes played an important role in the University of Cape Town because he wanted UCT to be just like Oxford, where he went to school. When he wrote his will, he specifically said that all the buildings shall be draped in ivy. And it is. Most of the buildings are covered in ivy which is absolutely beautiful. There are 3 sections of the campus. Upper campus is where I will spend most of my time. It's where most of the buildings are. Math, physics, humanities...libraries...everything. Middle and upper campus is divided by the rugby fields. Middle campus is where the school of music and college of dance is. Lower campus is very far from upper, but it's still all connected. Lower consists of the study abroad offices and most of the res halls.
These are the "jammie" steps. Jameson hall is at the top:
The view if I turn 180. Cecil Rhodes is the statue. If you look to the far left in the distance, you'll see two tall towers. Just on the other side of those is Langa where I live. It's about a 10 minute drive to campus:

Rugby fields and upper campus:

Orientation...one day after another

The CIEE program coordinator Quinton Redcliffe talked about culture shock. Then two students that run the HIV/AIDS unit came in and gave us an in depth sex ed talk. I learned lots of things that I will not go into!
We walked over to Jameson hall to do some african drumming.
After the drumming, there was a feast. They ran out of plates, so I used one of the empty trays to load up food for a few friends and myself.

A day at da Braai!

I got to sleep in today! Whitey took me to Lieesbeck Gardens which is the dorm where some of the CIEE students are staying at. We had a braai (pronounced bri)there. It's a south african BBQ where they slow roast lamb...yumm it was so good! We got to feast until our heart content then go swimming. It was a beautiful day! After lunch, a friend Kristin and I walked back to her homestay house in Mowbray. It's a 15 minute walk from UCT to her house. Here is the view from the main road by her house:
Here is Rondebosch commons. This is a huge piece of land that every developer wants to get a hold of. It used to be a military compound, but is now a conservation area. No one can build on it. ever.

We all went out to the fat cactus, a local tex-mex restaurant. It was so good! Note the obama burger:


Because of the geography of Cape Town, no one will ever see a sunset if they live in Cape Town. The mountain acts as a barrier, so you have to drive around the mountain to see a sunset. Since we stayed at fat cactus a long time, we missed the sunset but made it in time to see the moon before it went down!

Langa, my new home

Today everyone moved into their houses/homes/dorms. I packed up, ate breakfast then met my home stay dad Whitey. His real name is Eric, but since he's so light, everyone calls him Whitey. He's very respected in the township and everyone knows him. He helped me with my bags and off we went! The house is on Harlem street. Everyone there jokes that they live in New York. All the houses in Langa are one story and they all share a wall. It's sort of like a ghetto San Fransisco. Please research Langa to know about where I'm staying. http://www.capetown.at/heritage/city/langa.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langa,_Cape_Town

The household consists of Whitey, his grandfather, his sister Daphne, and his daughter Sasando. His grandmother stayed with him up until she passed away from lung cancer last year. Daphne is currently at CPUT (cape town technical college) studying sports medicine. Sasando is also at CPUT studying finance. Whitey also has 2 sons, Luwando and Lukah from two different woman that live with their mothers just a few streets down. He's very involved in his kids lives and takes them to school every day.

When I first got there, Whitey told me that he got me a puppy he named Brownie. He's about 4 months old, but he wasn't sure. He is sooo cute, but he's a rascal. When I entered my room, I was so excited! The room is very nice, I have a queen sized bed, huge closet, lots of cabinet space and a huge TV with cable! My bathroom is connected to my room and there's a sink, toilet and shower. The tiles are beautiful. My room and the girls rooms were added to the house a few years ago.
Here is the front of the house:


Here is what you see right when you open the door. The living room is to the left, the grandfathers room is also to the left, the kitchen is straight ahead:

living room:

Grandfather/Whitey's room:

The courtyard. they dry their laundry outside. There are two rooms to the left. Mine is the one farther away, and the girls room is the closer one. Their bathroom is straight ahead:

Daphne/Sasando's room:

My puppy:

My bathroom:

My room. Complete with huge tv, full bathroom attached and cable tv. Whitey also included photos of his family to make me feel at home:

Let me just zoom in on the picture Whitey put on my bedside table. I've edited it, but you get the picture:


After I got all unpacked and moved in (everything fit surprisingly!) I was off to a soccer game at the Green Point stadium. Two cape town teams competing. This was the inaugural game for green point stadium which was built specifically for the world cup. We got great seats and they were only R50! The stadium is right next to the beach. it's gorgeous!



I just got word that Brownie got out and is missing. We looked for him and called his name but he's just a puppy. Chances are he won't come back... :(

CIEE Orientation day 4

Friday was more orientation. A woman came to talk about community poverty and development. She explained about how many people are homeless and without work.

South Africa is such an amazing and confusing country. It has 1st world infrastructure, but 3rd world development. Although the country has rich and lush natural resources, the country still continues to export the materials to be processed in a different country, then importing it. This is very costly and the reason why they don't process it in the country is because it is expensive and takes time to build facilities.

The average income of a black South African is between 500-800 Rand a month. Assuming the USD to rant rate is 7.5, they make between .50-.75 cents an hour. Can you imagine living on 67 dollars a month? It really puts it into perspective. I feel so privileged to live in America that I actually feel guilty. You don't know what the rest of the world is like until you experience it. Everyone takes their lives and their things for granted until they see how little people are living on. Basically, you don't know how much you have, until you see people that are living ok without those things.

Tonight we went to dinner at Marco's African place. The food was amazing! We danced afterwards then went to Long street to go party.

CIEE Orientation day 3

Today= more Orientation... This lady came to talk about grading at UCT. Surprisingly, 70%-100% is an A! Can you believe it?? She said that most people don't get over 85%. I think they should re-do their grading system... After her pessimistic chant about how we all are going to fail, we had 8 people come and talk about volunteer options. Each site is different, and each site is wonderful. After the presentations, we had our own version of "the amazing race" except here they pronounce it ama-zing! It was basically a scavenger hunt to familiarize us with the UCT campus which is a small city in itself. After the race, a few friends and I took the train to St. James beach which was beautiful! We ate dinner there and then took a taxi back to UCT.

CIEE Orientation day 2

Today, we had another day of orientation to talk about housing placement. Out of the 156 of us in the program, only 40 people chose to stay in the dorms (2 CIEE studnets and 2 african students in each flat), and only 8 students chose to do homestays. Myself and another girl are the only ones living in townships. ONLY 8!! That means almost 100 american students chose to live with other american students. Chances are, those 100 students are also taking african classes at UCT which means little to no africans will be in those courses. Tonight we went to a place on Long street called Zula. Long Street is basically where all the hip clubs are and cool bars. No one gets carded, and no one really cares. Drinking age here is 18, but kids can go into bars with their parents, unlike america.
I met this nice man named Steve whom works at UCT and is training to be an RA for one of the dorms. I asked him lots of questions about South Africa. He was also surprised that not many people are doing home stays. We talked a lot about how ignorant Americans can be and that's how SA's label us. Words of advice: if you are going to SA ever, do your research on the country before hand. It will help so much when you get here! We also talked about how many of the students chose to live in houses with other americans because they want to feel comfortable. Living in a foreign country can be uncomfortable at first, but once you get used to the country, it becomes comfortable. I decided that I feel bad for those people. They will go to class every day learning about african cultures and the history of south africa with all americans in their classes. Then they will go home to more americans, then they will go out and party with americans. I talked with my program coordinator and we both agree that we are disappointed in the majority of the students on this trip. People I've talked to only came to SA for certain reasons. either A: they needed to study abroad for their major and didn't want to take a foreign language, or B: They had a friend who came here and wanted a change of scenery. One girl said she only wanted to visit her cousin. This is very frustrating because I feel like I came here for good reasons, and I'm going to go home with an amazing story, while the others will go home with cool places to hang out.

CIEE Orientation day 1

This whole week was CIEE orientation to make sure everyone is adjusting well and no one is too culturally shocked yet.

Tuesday, we moved into one of the dorms called Graca Machel. We will stay here until we move into our prospective houses/dorms on Saturday. Graca Machel is named after Nelson Mandela's wife, whom was married to the Mozambican president a while back (before he died). She's the only person in the world who has married two presidents from two different countries.
The rooms are very very small, but big enough to fit a twin bed, desk, sink and a decent closet. Each wing of the dorm has a bathroom with toilets and showers and a communal kitchen with table. Everyone was exhausted and we all went to bed super early.

I am here...FINALLY!!

After traveling non-stop since 7am on January 17th, I'm finally here in Cape Town, South Africa on January 18th at 11:55pm. Total travel time: 41 hours.
I flew from Seattle, to DC, then DC to Johannesburg with a pit stop in Senegal. Then from Joburg to Cape Town! I arranged someone to pick me up from the airport and he was holding a sign with my name on it! I felt famous.

Tonight I'm staying at a house in Kenilworth. It's a very very very nice and safe neighborhood and all the houses have pools and gated entrances. A fellow student in my program has a roommate where she goes to school at UPenn who is from SA, so we stayed at her house. They were very hospitable! The mom offered us food and tea and a shower (after almost 2 days of not showering, I called dibbs!) Everyone got to bed around 2am, but we got to sleep in!