Man vs. Fence

It is winter here in the southern hemisphere, which for South Africa typically means rain nearly every day. Until this last weekend though, it had honestly rained twice in the five weeks I had been here. While this type of sunny weather is quite nice for us short term visitors, I have been told that the dams won’t be full after this winter like they usually are, and water supply will run low during the inevitable summer drought. Over the weekend though I’m sure the water levels caught up a little bit in the dams because it was not just raining off and on, it was downright pouring most of the time.

One of the side effects of the weather finally catching up to us was that our weekend excursion with our study abroad group, interstudy, had to be postponed a week. On the agenda for the weekend were oceanic kayaking, quad biking (ATVing), whale watching, paintball, and shark cage diving. The fun filled weekend wasn’t cancelled though, just postponed to this upcoming weekend, so I will be blogging about all those shenanigans next week.

Since our weekend was postponed I thought long and hard about making the trip to Jo-burg (Johannesburg) to go to the Tri-Nations rugby match between the South Africa Springboks and the New Zealand All Blacks. In hindsight I wish I would have so I could have avoided the imminent danger to my leg that would occur on that fateful Saturday afternoon. Since I did not purchase a round trip ticket to Jo-Burg I settled for planning on going to a local pub to meet some guys, rep my Boks polo, and cheer on the squad! That seemed like a very good plan B in my mind.

Saturday ended up being a very relaxed morning, filled with sleeping in and not much homework. Paul and I decided to walk to Rondebosch and eat at Steers, a chain burger joint, for lunch. After our meal of burgers and chips (French fries) Paul and I walked back to our flat on Upper Liesbeek Road in Mowbray. Now, the city had the power shut off on our block since 10am, and was planning on doing maintenance until about 3pm. The gate outside our building wasn’t working since the electricity was out, but the gate in front of the building adjacent to ours had been propped open all morning so people could get in and out. When we got back from lunch we came to realize that both gates were shut, and neither of them would open.

There was a girl about our age standing just inside the gate which had previously been propped open, and she informed us that “some idiot closed the gate, and I really need to get to the library to write a paper!” She ended up passing us her backpack and the rest of her belongings over the 7 foot fence, and proceeded to climb to the top of the fence at the corner in front of our building. When she got to the top she kind of froze, and a few more of our American friends had crowded around trying to help her out. Me being the tallest, and strongest, obviously, took charge and lifted her off of the fence and placed her safely on the ground. She was very grateful, but Paul and I still needed to get into our building so we could get our homework to have a study session at our friends’ house across the street.

Paul went first, scampering up the fence and hopping over very gracefully, and I followed suit. Little did I know that the small snag I got in my jeans was just the beginning of my issues. Since theft is so common here literally every housing building has a gate around it with spikes all over. I caught my jeans on a spike on the side of the fence, but I didn’t think much of it. I grabbed my books and jumped over the fence to the other side so I could study study study. Once I got to Grace and Judy’s house I realized that my jeans had blood on them by where the snag was, so I rolled up my pant leg to check out the damage. To my utter surprise, there was a legitimately open wound on the inside of my left knee.

Judy and Taylor graciously accompanied me to the ER down the road in Claremont where we got to sit around for about 4 hours. But on the bright side, Taylor learned how to do stitches so if this ever happens again we won’t have to go to the ER! Now, four days later, my wound looks very clean and isn’t infected at all so there shouldn’t be any complications, but surely I will have a sweet scar with a funny story to boot!

African Road Trip

A week ago Monday was a national holiday, Women’s Day (the equivalent of Mother’s Day), here in South Africa so we had a long weekend off of school which is always enjoyable. Since we had an extra day of weekend, 15 of us students planned a road trip along the scenic Garden Route along the coast of South Africa. Basically the Garden Route is a state highway that goes along the southern part of the country through the mountains and along the beaches of South Africa. As seen in the picture, I road tripped with (L to R) Andrew, Aria, Chelsea, Lil. When we left on Friday after classes all we had planned was where we were sleeping each night, and most of us knew we wanted to bungee jump on Saturday. Some people opted not to tag along because of the fact we were being very spontaneous about the weekend plans, but I loved it and it ended up being a very fun filled trip.

Friday we packed up the rental car with all of our gear, and headed out once we were all done with classes. Andrew had already mastered the art of driving on the left side of the road by the time he got back from the rental place, so we didn’t have any troubles with that (until Lil tried driving haha). We hopped on N2, aka the Garden Route, and off we were, into parts of Africa we had never visited, filled with excitement. Who knew what kinds of African adventures lie ahead of us?! Certainly none of us expected to be offered so many cell phone chargers and other random things by people waiting at the stoplights, oh Africa how many hilarious things you have.

Very last minute Lil decided to burn a CD that we could listen to in the car, which was a blessing and a curse. The radio here isn’t like back in the states, there really only are a handful of stations that play music. Since the radio was pretty much worthless, we ended up listening to our one CD at least 20 times throughout the trip, and needless to say we knew every word of every song by the time we arrived back home on Upper Lisbeek Road. We definitely bonded over the love/hate relationship we had with the disc.

When we arrived in Mossel Bay on Friday night both of the other cars we were caravanning with had already arrived and were waiting for us at Café Havana, a café in the town which had some sort of Spanish roots because all the dishes on the menu were in Spanish. Thankfully the descriptions were in English! That night was my first experience with what you call a hostile, sort of like a motel, but it is possible you could end up sleeping in the same room bunked with total strangers.

Each of the three nights we stayed in very nice Hostiles, and actually all the ones we stayed in are technically called Backpackers (higher class hostiles, basically). On night 1 we had a little trouble finding the hostile in the town, so after going to the wrong hostile and almost booking a room, driving around for about 20 minutes and getting stopped by the cops twice, we finally found the hostile! It was only R120 per person, which is about $17 a night. The rest of that night was very relaxed, just hanging out at the hostile, chumming with the locals, all that good stuff.

Saturday was the day that I experienced the most thrilling thing ever! Bungee jumping off of the highest bungee jump in the world! Stopping at 7/11 for a classic breakfast of Snickers and Mountain Dew we departed Mossel Bay and got back on N2 yet again, driving through mountains and past beaches, and all sorts of beautiful scenery. I actually drove that day for about 3 hours from Mossel Bay to Bloukrans Bridge, the site of the highest bungee jump in the world! Driving on the left side of the road was much easier than I thought it would be. Surprisingly the hardest part was the fact that the blinker was on the right side of the wheel, so I kept hitting the wipers when I just wanted to switch lanes haha.

Like I said, bungee jumping was the most thrilling thing I have ever done in my entire life! The rush of free falling for 5 whole seconds, followed by the feeling of zero gravity, again and again was such a rush I can’t even explain how awesome it was! I didn’t even tell my parents that I was going to bungee jump until after the fact, and I’m pretty sure my mom had a little panic attack when I told her. I bought the pictures of my jumping experience which are all on facebook, as well as the video of my jump, but that will have to wait to be uploaded until I’m back in the states. As well as the pictures and videos, I also bought the family some hand made souvenirs from a guy peddling his goods (but you’ll have to wait and see what they are once I get back :) )

Saturday night we stayed at another hostile, this one being located in Jeffery’s Bay, which was even nicer than the one we stayed in the first night. This hostile offered free wifi which was useful for posting our bungee jumping pics! As well as complimentary breakfast which was a nice touch. Three of us ended up staying in a room with some strangers, which I thought was going to be quite an experience after I heard some horror stories about European hostiles, but it ended up being very anti climactic. We went out to dinner on Saturday at a very nice restaurant in Jeffrey’s Bay, and this ended up being our first experience to malva, a traditional South African desert, which was SO delicious.

On Sunday we woke up and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at the hostile, and hit the road again. Part of the group went to the coastal town of Port Elizabeth to hang out for the day, while the rest of us had the same plans, except for a pit stop at the lion sanctuary which was amazing. We pulled into the lion sanctuary and drove along the dirt road to get to the parking lot, almost getting stuck a handful of times in our very non off-road vehicle. Along the road there were springbok, wildebeest, zebra, and giraffe, which we naturally took lots of pictures of. The lions were all kept in cages, so that the humans don’t get munched on, but it felt just like a zoo, so I wasn’t all that impressed. But at the info center/restaurant they had lion cubs you could play hands on with, which was spectacular. They were the cutest little things ever! They all were kind of sleepy when we got in the cage, but I bugged one of them enough that he woke up and was getting a little feisty. Definitely ruined his nap, but I got some sweet pictures! I felt like I was living the Lion King for about 15 minutes, and I was fully enjoying it.

Once we had had our fill of lion action, we got back on N2(yeah yeah I know, we didn’t want to get lost in Africa alright?) for a few more minutes and stopped at the beach in Port Elizabeth. Thanks to that quick stop, I can now say I have been in the 3 largest oceans in the world, and 3 of the 5 oceans on the planet. I have yet to set foot in the Southern or Arctic oceans, but I have plenty of time to hit those up. Also, since I’ve been to Africa I now have been on 4 of the 7 continents in the world. I have been to all except Australia, Asia and Antarctica. Quite an alliteration eh?

Our last night of the journey, Sunday night, we stayed in Storms River at a hostile that got 5 out of 5 in the travel guide, so we knew it would be nice. We had one giant room for all 15 of us to hang out in, and there was pool and foosball for us play as well. For dinner we went to a diner type restaurant which is the greatest Elvis tribute restaurant outside of the united states, or so I heard. I had a ham and cheese omelet which was quite delicious so I had no complaints even though we didn’t see any Elvis impersonators.

Monday, the last day of our trek was filled with 8hrs20min of driving, the worst traffic jam in the history of the continent, multiple close calls with baboon crossings, chicken flavored chips, eye spy with kids in the other lane, selling “pelts” for beans, and finally getting home! I realize many of these are inside jokes you might not understand if you were not there, but you will just have to ask me about all my adventures some other time for I feel very long winded currently.

Long story short, we had a great long weekend thanks to the celebration of women!

I have to actually take classes? - First week of school

I have been sitting in the living room of our flat for the last few hours, spending my Sunday evening catching up on calculus in order to bridge the gap between what I learned in my courses at home and what I am learning in my calc course currently. I wish I could spend the semester just hanging out here in Cape Town without having to go to school and do that whole learning thing. But that isn’t a possibility, sadly. Obviously I am over exaggerating the suffering I have gone through so far in school, but that is typical after one week of class. I am taking Calculus 4, Structural Engineering, Statistics and Ethics. Hopefully all of these classes will transfer back to the University of Minnesota to fulfill general requirements, or specific requirements for my major or minor.

In my school schedule I am beginning the first semester of my second year in college, but here in Cape Town it is the second semester, so that makes things a little bit interesting for my calculus and engineering class. Both of them are picking up where the first semester classes left off, but my courses didn’t teach things in the exact same order. Hopefully this won’t end up being a big deal, but this week has been full of trying to get caught up a little bit in calculus, as well as learning some engineering concepts I have never seen before.

Statistics on the other hand has been a breeze so far. We have been covering very basic mathematical concepts, so it has been nice to not use my brain for at least one class! Originally I was enrolled in Macro Economics instead of Ethics, but I filled out some paperwork to switch into the Ethics(Philosophy) class in order to *fingers crossed* fulfill my last general requirement at the UofM. I filled out this paperwork on Thursday, but lectures for Ethics are only Monday-Wednesday so I have yet to attend a lecture for that class. Hopefully all the paperwork on the University’s end gets all sorted out so that I officially have dropped econ and picked up ethics.

I have class at 8am four days a week which isn’t all that bad, but the fact that I have to plan for at least 30 minutes to get to class makes the mornings that much earlier.

I love the feel of the UCT (University of Cape Town) campus. Most of the buildings are really old and beautiful. I can’t wait until it gets to spring and summer here because there is ivy covering almost every building, which will be really cool to see. The feel of the campus feels a lot like home, lots of people, large campus, all sorts of stuff going on all the time, but one of the differences I have noticed (is kind of stupid, but whatever) is that instead of actual restaurants all over campus, here there are tons of food tents set up all over campus. There are a few actual café’s and restaurants in some of the buildings, but mostly there are just little food shops set up in the lounge areas in buildings, or outside in the food court area. Some of the tents seem real questionable, but I’ve heard the Chinese tent has some great food. This is a very weird difference I have noticed, but it was just something I have picked up on so far :)

After classes were over this week, the weekend was packed per usual. Friday night I went to another Western Province rugby match in which they destroyed the Barloworld Toyota Puma’s. The final score I think was 54-13, so as you can guess the game wasn’t much of a struggle, but it was sweet to watch so many try’s scored. The event was organized by a travel agency on campus which does all sorts of events for study abroad students. Before the match all the people going met at CocoWahWah, the local American hang out, for dinner. It is pretty funny actually because whenever you walk past that restaurant the majority of the patrons are American.

Saturday, I woke up and went to the Old Biscuit Mill farmer’s market for the second straight week. Sampling all the delicious homemade foods will be a regular Saturday morning event I’m sure. After we had had our fill we decided to head out in search of Green Street Market just like we had done last week. Instead of taking a taxi there like we had last week, we decided to take a minibus instead.

This ended up being quite the adventure. Minibuses are basically old VW van style van’s which people drive on various routes to and from the suburbs. The minibuses have a station they all stop at downtown, which sadly wasn’t at Green Street Market. We kind of got directions on how to go from the driver, but we basically just walked in the general direction through the downtown. Since it was Saturday it wasn’t all that busy down there, but still there was all sorts of hubbub going on, especially in the stretch of skyway that we walked through. There were at least 6 guys within 30 feet of each other, all of them trying to sell mini vuvuzela bubble blowers, pad locks and various random other things. It was funny to me that they would all be selling the same stuff in such a close vicinity of each other. Eventually we found the market and browsed around for a while. I didn’t purchase anything there, but it was still fun to see all the handmade goods people were selling. Paul, Grace, Judy and I left the market and walked to the waterfront area of downtown, and Paul and I climbed a giant Coke statue on the way.

Today some of the interstudy people decided to go surfing at the beach in Muizenberg, but nine of us went instead to a braai hangout spot in one of the townships. Mzoli’s was the name of the place, and it was different than any restaurant I’ve ever experienced. We got there at about noon and every single table was either full or reserved. I talked one of the employees into searching for a table for us and he ended up finding one in the back, “the last one we have” as he said. Everyone sat around tables under the tent canopy outside or danced to the music the DJ was playing. The way the food worked was that you went to the butcher across the street to buy meat to grill, and then the Mzoli’s people grilled it for you in the back of the restaurant. While you wait it’s just a big hang out dance party pretty much. It was really fun, and totally different than eating out in the states, so all in all it was a great experience.


1 week of school down, 11 to go! The school portion of my experience is necessary, but the extracurricular experiences are what I will remember for a lifetime!


Just a note on terms that are used quite often here:
Lekkar: awesome/really cool
Hectic: used ALL the time e.g. class is really hectic right now, that party was hectic last night, etc.
Keen: “are you keen to grab some lunch after class?”
Bru: bro/man e.g. what’s up bru?