100 Years of Solitude

Tuesday:
I have a cold!!!  It sucks.  Thank goodness I brought Throat Coat tea and Tylenol Cold relief with me.  So I feeling much better, and hoping to sleep it all off in time for UWC orientation tomorrow!  As of this moment, I am drinking tea, and watching a movie I have been craving to watch for a few weeks.  Thrilling. :)
Today we went on a tour of the Langa township.  I was a bit apprehensive about the concept of a group of american tourists walking around a poor neighborhood, and treating an area where people actually live as a spectacle and attraction.  I am happy to report that the reality was far less creepy and concerning.  Instead there was a huge range of incomes and cultures, many programs aimed at bringing income to the area, and great food.  We ate at a really great restaurant for breakfast and lunch as we finished up our program orientation, there was a dish with eggplant and sweet potato that was especially delightful.  On top of all of that we had fabulous weather.  It was very nice.
Before I left Eugene, I bought 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which I thought would be a fitting literary backdrop to my potentially isolating adventure.  I am 150 pages short of the end of the novel, and while the jury is still technically out, I believe I will have a much easier go of it than the majority of the books characters.  All of the people I have met, with the program or from the country have all been lovely and friendly.  Soon I will register for classes and gain a better understanding of what my routine will be in Cape Town.  I cant wait! 

Wednesday:
Today was devoted to UWC orientation.  It was nice to meet other exchange students, both from other schools in the US and all over the world.  We learned about out health services, the registration process,   and the many accolades of the institution.  UWC has an interesting history as a university. It was originally founded as an instrument of the Apartheid government, then it was the cradle of afrocentric ideologies and anti-apartheid sentiment, and is today, committed to providing education to as many students as possible from all backgrounds.   One thing I didn't realize was that about 80% of the students at WUC come from a background of poverty.  Perhaps my definition of poverty is different from the one the college administration was using when they came up with that statistic, but I found that number to be quite striking.
So far in South Africa the thing that has surprised me the most was just how much diversity there is everywhere.  This means all kinds of diversity.  Today was the first day fastimng for Muslims observing Ramadan, and the signs of this were evident around the community, which was something I had never seen before.  In the US our general racial categories are defined by the concept of hypodescent or the idea that if someone has even the littlest fraction of African (or any) heritage they are categorized as African American (or the appropriate substitute .  This is an over simplified but easy racial lanscape to traverse.  In South Africa, I could not even begin to categorize the people I see.  There is just too much variance.  It is refreshing, thrilling and confusing!  While I doubt that even a lifetime of preparation could give me the right or ability to make sound statements about racal construction or identity, the South African "Rainbow Nation" has been brilliant to observe, and I cannot wait to see more.


real life update: Tonight I am making a list of meals Anna and I will eat this week so we can effectively go grocery shopping tomorrow.  If any one has meal recommendations that can be cooked on a hot plate, let me know!  We are in need of your suggestions.  Hugs from SA!

Garden Route

Hello again!  Last night we finished our epically long Garden Route tour.  Let me just say: It was incredibly beautiful.  As someone who comes from an exceptionally beautiful place, I am kinda hard to impress, but South Africa is off the charts in the beauty department.  A lot of the places we went to where similar to the type of beauty you would see in Oregon, but on a much larger scale.  Instead of trying to explain to you any further, I will just show you the evidence!  Although my pictures are not of any remarkable quality, they do the area far greater justice than I can with words.

At the gas station where we ate breakfast

Action shot from the bus

sitting on an ostrich.  Don't tell PETA.

The ostrich farm, I had some ostrich meat on a salad (good, but kinda tough) but ostriches are also farmed for their feathers.  They can regrow their feathers in 6 months! 

The coast! It's the Indian Ocean.  I swam in it!  It was really cold, but refreshing after  a hike to the  look out bench at the top of the mountain in the picture below.
   

We climbed to the top! Very carefully.  

This was so pretty! At the end of a bit of a hike, we sat and ate lunch at the waterfall.  

This was the end of the amazing sunset that we saw while watching our crazy comrades bungee jump.  I took about twenty pictures as the sun went down, which may have been excessive, but every time I looked up it was more beautiful than it was the moment before. 

The water is the ocean.  This was taken from a suspension bridge. 

A bay where we ate lunch on the last day of out tour.  There was a marathon finishing, a festival going on and a rugby game on the television! 

Today we met up with the rest of our UWC crew, and went to Kwa-Mzoli's which was a kind of a bar and barbecue place.  But that description barely scratches the surface of what it was really like.  First we went through a line to pick out the (raw) meat that we wanted to eat.  The workers put it in a bin and slid it down the counter to a cash register where we paid.  then we walked the bin back to the kitchen where we left it to be braaied or barbecued  I was a little overwhelmed, so I didn't really catch what kind of things they were using to cook it, but next time I will take a closer gander.  So we left our meat with them, and went out to the dining area. I thought it was packed, but the locals told me that it was not such a busy day.  There were people everywhere, eating, dancing, smoking hooka, and drinking impressive amount.  All around a good time.  

Tomorrow we will have our first day of orientation, which is sure to be thrilling.  No, in actual seriousness we will be going on a township tour, which I am looking forward to.  I'll let you know how it goes! 

Lots of Love

Firsts

Hello again!  As of today at 2:00 I have been in Cape Town for two days!  Yesterday I went to orientation with the students who will be studying at the University of Cape Town.  There are about 15 of them from colleges all over the United States. They seemed very nice. We heard a few presentations about how to maintain your health and a budget while being abroad and talked about our goals for the semester.  I will be doing this all again when the rest of the UWC students get here, but it was fun to meet the other students.  After our orientation, we took the train to Fishhook and had a late lunch at a western themed restaurant named Spurs.  I had a burger with pineapple on it! It was good!  The restaurant was decorated with all different types of Native American art and served familiar foods like ribs, steak, fish and chips and stuff like that.   Then we took the train to the UCT student's apartments.  They are living on a nice street right behind a train station and near a bunch or restaurants including KFC.  I have seen a lot of KFCs here!  On the ride home I was amazed by the beautiful sunset!  I was so excited about it we decided to drive and try to catch it over the ocean.  We were a little late, but it was still beautiful.  Before coming to Cape Town one of the things I heard again and again about the city was that it was very very pretty.  I can now confirm that rumor.  It was amazing to see the sunset light on the mist in the mountains.

On the hunt for the sunset! On the right is part of the hospital where the first ever heart transplant was done. 

Just missed it!  Still very pretty.  This is over the ocean.

After missing the true sunset, we drove back to the UWC campus through the fancy and expensive beach front property, past Waterfront, and Longstreet where many of the clubs and bars are.  I also got a tip about the restaurant with the best prawns.  Gonna check that out!  As a grad finale to my tour we drove past the World Cup stadium.  It was very large and impressive looking, although it was hard to get a good picture of it out the window of the car.  This is the best proof I have:

The stadium from the World Cup.  Still working on my photography skills.  Sorry,  no where to go but up I guess!

Anna and I made veggies, rice and eggs for dinner.  It was all a bit bland because we had no seasoning, but it was edible and we decided, much like my photo taking skills, we could only improve upon our effort.  It is really nice to have someone to cook with. I am looking forward to practicing.  Hopefully soon we will up grade to salt and pepper!

Today we had the day off from programs and Anna and I, the other girl at UWC took the train into Cape Town with Zola our RA.  It was really cool to see the city.  We went to the mall and went grocery shopping at the Woolworth's.   Every where was very busy, and I know I stuck out like a sore thumb.  Pretty much there is no hope that I will ever blend in here!  I always look like a lost American.
 We got lunch at a place called Nando's, which is a chain that serves chicken in peri-peri sause.  It was really yummy and filling.  I was pleased that I could eat it comfortably even though it was a bit spicy! Not sure why that made me happy but I was proud, and it tasted great.  

Tomorrow we are leaving at the crack of dawn (5:30 am) for our tour of the garden route.  I am not quite sure what to expect, but I hear there will be ostriches and cheetahs caving and many other adventures.  All of the students in the program are going, so it should be a great way to get to know everyone. Many pictures to come of that trip!  

Testing...

Humans! Hello! I made it to Cape Town!  

The trip here went pretty smoothly.  I looked lost at JFK so a hungarian man who was also headed to Johannesburg took me under his wing and helped me find the gate.  He also had a lot to say about how much fun I was going to have in South Africa and how big my balls must be for doing something like this.  His words, not mine.  On the long flight from JFK they served Tilimook cheese and Smuckers jam!  OREGON AND OHIO! Go team. I was very excited, the man next to me seemed slightly less impressed. The only hiccup occurred trying to get through immigration in Johannesburg.  I ended up buying 30 min of internet so I could prove I had a ticket home.  My flight into Cape Town was very pleasant, mostly because they gave us a snack, and it was only two hours!  

What I have seen of Cape Town so far is very very beautiful.  Yesterday the weather was perfect, clear blue skies, about 60 degrees and a little wind.  I haven't seen much of the area yet, but on the drive from the airport to UWC I saw a lot of impressive mountains.  Tomorrow's orientation will perhaps allow me to see more of the city. I hope so! 

My room is really nice. All of the buildings are very new, and swanky.  I have a single and a share the bathroom with a girl who lives next door.  I haven't met her, but I'm pretty sure she exists because there is a washcloth in the bathroom.  

this is my room! 

I will keep posting as I keep learning!  

Claire