Last Day at SHAWCO!

My 4th grade class

I'm Worthless on Sundays

Hello. It's Sunday evening, Day 2 of 2010's March. As you can see below, I had a great bungee jumping experience last weekend. It was part of a four day trip along the 'Garden Route'--which is basically highway N2 along the southern coast. The route is accompanied by beautiful views of the ocean (Atlantic, then Indian) outside the right window, and amazing, mountainous landscapes outside the left. We rented two cars, Mazurka (whom we were fortunate to have for the second weekend in a row) and Desert Rose. Travelling inside Mazurka and Desert Rose were seven fine friends--Ani, Ben, Eli, Alex, Alex, Daisy, & Kristine--whose names probably don't mean that much to most of you. We stayed in different backpacker lodges each night, hiked and explored Wilderness National Park and Tsitsikama National Park, ate good food, and toured the coolest cave in which I've ever been. Overall, it was another exciting and expensive road trip. Eli, Ben, and I stayed an extra night and traveled home on route 62, which is an alternatively scenic road that parallels the N2 and winds through the rocky mountains. On our way home, we pulled off the road to catch the sunset and enjoy a Columbus cigar. I'd have to say it was the best sunset of the semester thus far, and I've seen some mighty-fine sunsets.

In other news, I had a very nice Saturday yesterday. In honor of Mifflin (in Madison) one of the international houses threw a party during the day. We drank out of solo cups and played beer pong--two things I haven't done since leaving the states. Then, in the evening, Ben, Eli & I went on a 'jazz safari,' which is something we'd been talking about doing since arriving in Cape Town. It's set-up by a company that drives people around to local jazz musicians' houses in the townships. It was awesome! We first went to Mac Mackenzie's house--an internationally-recognized guitarist. He and his fiance made and ate dinner with us. The meal included fried snoek, baked potatoes, salad and beer. It was a great time...we talked for a while and then he got out his guitar and performed for us. The next stop was another house in the township...home of an amazing jazz female vocalist named Tsitsi. Her friends and family were there to chat with us and listen to her sing. She blew all of us away with her voice. Tsitsi's blind uncle was quite the character. He sang along with Tsitsi and danced when he felt inspired. He seemed to be particularly fond of me. By the end, he was talking my ear off, the whole time patting my leg to make sure he maintained my attention. Fun, fun night with amazing musical talent. I'm really glad we finally did it...definitely worth the 700 rand. At midnight, the tour ended and we went off to Stones (a bar in Observatory) to meet up with everyone else. As the study abroad time is winding down, everyone seems to be making a point to have fun and not miss opportunities to hang out with friends we've made here. Everyone was out, and it was really fun. Didn't get a cab ride home until almost four in the moanin'.

Time to write 2 papers that I must finish before another road trip begins on Wednesday. This time we're going up to Namibia to explore the second-largest canyons in the world, sand dunes, and Windhoeck (the capital city). I hope Mifflin was enjoyed by all who partook. I really like using the passive voice; however, it's not enjoyed by academics who grade my papers. Anyways, peace and love. I'll be home in no time.

Bungee Jump at Bloukrans Bridge

24.04.2010

Bloukrans Bridge, Tsitsikamma, South Africa

Tallest bridge bungee jump in the world.

216 metres.

2 MONTH WARNING

"Mazurka" [vehicle] atop Signal Hill

Greetings. It’s Thursday morning here on the 22^nd of April. Oh, it’s Earth Day. Happy Earth Day. I’m just finishing up an African lit paper, so I can head out of town this afternoon. I thought I’d catch in before taking off along the Garden Route for the weekend.

Cape Town weather has steadily been getting cooler. It’s nice to be able to sleep with blankets again—much more comfortable. We’ve been getting an increasing amount of rain, as well. As much as I like this cooling-off of Cape Town, I am missing Wisconsin’s spring. It’s one of the best times to be in Wisconsin.

Anyways , I had a change-of-pace weekend last weekend that centred around the sky. Five of us took off after school to a city named Sutherland—“the Gateway to the Universe”. Sutherland is a small city surrounded by the barren Karoo—four hours northeast of Cape Town. It’s thought to offer some of the nicest southern sky stargazing. Wikipedia also claims it to offer the best lamb in South Africa.

Upon arrival, we grabbed some lamb curry and headed to the campsite where the owner—an old, spunky, Dutch man—taught us about the stars in the southern sky and we got to look through his telescopes. After this, we threw our blankets underneath the stars, laid facing the night sky, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Warning: I might come home an astronomy/astrology freak.

"S.A.L.T."

The next day we toured Sutherland's pride and joy, S.A.L.T., which is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, to which international astronomers from all over the world come to study. This about sums up the trip to Southerland. It was a beautiful and relaxing change of pace from Cape Town’s bustle… A good 24 hour getaway.

"Ben, Gabby, Eli, & Alex at Sunset"[pictured left to right]

The following night, we took some Chicken Lickin' up to Signal Hill and caught a nice sunset.

That’s about all…we’re leaving on the garden route this afternoon and returning Monday night, I believe. Upon my return, I’ll be greeted with one speech and two essays needing to be written. Don’t feel bad for me, though; I’ve had it pretty easy in school thus far.

I wish luck to those studying in Madison as exam week begins to nearer. I’ll be home in exactly two short months. Time goes by.

Reluctantly sitting down to catch-up on things...

Good morning, y'all. It's Saturday morning here. I'm enjoying some French-pressed coffee, while forcing myself to get semi-caught up with this damn blog. It's been a busy few weeks, and I'll try and cover everything without being completely broad.

I am lucky to have been visited by my parents last week. They flew in Sunday night, and departed back to Wisconsin late this past Saturday night. It was a short stay for them—the longest they were able to do with only a week off of teaching—but we spent a lot of time together and packed a lot of activity into the short time.

We rented a car and drove around for the week. They got to explore the city and meet some of my friends. Highlights of the week include taking them to Pancho’s Mexican Grill (Monday night tradition), where they took tequila shots with my friends (I responsibly became the DD). Tuesday, we went on a wine tasting tour through the Stellenbosch vineyards. Tasted some nice wines. Enjoyed cheeses, as well. Food definitely seemed to be the theme of their visit. Lotta good eatin’s!

Wednesday evening, we returned from a long daytrip in Simon’s Town/Cape Point, and then headed to Rascal’s Pub for a few drinks. The plan was to hit up the Pakistani restaurant afterwards. En route to this plan, Mother—presumably unfamiliar with Cape Town’s uneven sidewalks (and possibly the alcoholic strength in the beer?)—gave my dad and me a scare when she plowed head-first into the pavement. Thankfully, she came up laughing and unscratched. She even redeemed her ego by conversing with the Pakistani worker at the restaurant, finding out that he had attended college only blocks away from our house in Lahore. It was quite the earth-shrinking discovery, actually.

* * *

Anyways, on Friday morning we toured Robben Island—a half hour ferry ride from the city centre. Our tour-guide, Tulane, was an ex-political prisoner on the island. He shared stories about playing soccer on the island with Jakob Zuma and chatting with Nelson Mandela. More importantly, he attempted to illustrate the gruesome and unjust conditions that surrounded the island and the apartheid system. He left us with an uplifting message of reconciliation and the power of the human spirit against evil. Later in the day, we went to the town of Hermanus for the night. There we stayed at a backpackers lodge, walked the rocky coast line, and ate. It was a relaxing end to their stay. Aside from all our financial talks regarding my reckless spending, I really enjoyed and appreciated their visit.

* * *

Alright, let me take you back in time a bit. Prior to the week of my parent’s visit, I went on a fantastic spring break road trip. 10 people (Americans, a Dutch, and a Norwegian). 2 cars. We named them Heaven’s Breath and Skymaster after two renowned pieces of literature that came along with us. We drove through the nights. It was about a 24 hour trip to our first stop, Kruger National Park. And then about 8 more hours to our final destination, Tofo Beach, Mozambique. Including the return trip, we spent about 64 hours on the road. It didn’t feel nearly that long. The car rides were full of fun conversations, games, and many other great ways of passing time. It was just a great group of people who all got along very well.

We stayed at various backpackers lodges throughout the week. The first one was in Nelspruit right outside Kruger. It was called the Big 5. The first morning there we went on a 12 hour safari—from 6 to 6. Our safari guide was a man by the name of Vishnu--a chain-smoking, heat-packing, yet gentle man. We saw tons of wildlife and beautiful Kruger landscape. Elephants, water buffalo, giraffes, rhino, monkeys, various deer, birds, etc… One of the highlights was an old lion that strutted 2 meters away from our wide-open safari van.

Mozambique started with a bang, as I got pulled over for speeding within the first hour of entering the country. I had to pay the patrols 1,000 Meticais, and then I'm pretty sure they just kept the money and dropped the ticket. Either way, we continued on with our journey. The three nights in Mozambique basically involved chilling on the beach and staying up late with the other backpacker guests. Our lodge sat facing the ocean, and sand covered the entire backpackers place, including the pub, restaurant, and lounge area. We went out to sea one day to snorkel with whale sharks--the biggest fish in the world. No whale sharks were spotted, but we did get to swim around with a handful of dolphins and fish. Aside from this, we just soaked up the intense heat, the warm, Indian Ocean, and the friendly Mozambicans.

The road trip home went by fast, and ended with a beautiful sunset against the mountainous land outside Cape Town.

Well, it's no longer morning and my coffee is gone. Hope things are warming up in the Midwest. Peace.

LESOTHO

This past weekend, Ben, Eli, Andy, and I decided to road-trip to Lesotho, a country completely enclaved by South Africa. Lesotho--on average--is the highest nation in the world. It completely stunned us with its beautiful, hilly landscapes.

We left Thursday evening from Cape Town. Next, a fourteen hour bus ride brought us to the South African city of Bluefontain. From here, the fun began. We rented a lil, navy VW Citisport. As a result of my ability to drive stick, I was the driver for the trip. It was my first time ever driving on the left side of the road, and was slightly confusing at first. But before a while, I felt like a master of the road. Throughout the trip, we blasted out to the Beach Boys, Fela, Sublime, Tribe Called Quest, along with some Lesotho radio. The air was fresh and the horizon was constantly lush green and hilly.

I'd say the highlight of the trip was going deep into rural Lesotho to a remote town, called Semenkong. It was here that we camped Friday and Saturday night. The roads to Semenkong were the craziest roads on which I've ever driven. They were narrow, winding and constantly going up and down with the mountains. The guys had to get out and push me up one of the steeper hills. The worst part was that they were mostly composed of rocks. These rocks only had to be five or six inches from the ground to scrape the sole of our VW. Also, there were deep, sharp potholes everywhere. I slammed these potholes on countless occasions. I largely had to keep the car in first gear, and definitely wasn't able to get out of second. 'It's like you're always stuck in second gear....' And to top things off, donkeys, sheep, horses, and goats were scattered everywhere.

...Anyways, the highly-elevated Lesotho kept us pretty cold at night, especially with the limited camping gear we had. We survived though. We went on a pony trek Saturday morning. It was about three hours round-trip. They took us over the rocky hills to this beautiful waterfall that jetted off a cliff into a deep gorge. We soaked in the view for quite some time.

The remainder of the weekend was mostly spent hiking and exploring. We walked through the town. We seemed to be quite the spectacles to most of the locals here. The biggest thing that stood out to me was their simple way of living. Everything just seemed so peaceful. There were many herders who trailed their animals through the hills during the day. Most families had very cool huts of stone. I just got a happy and relaxed vibe from Semenkong. Huge change of pace from Cape Town.

Atop a tall hill, we watched the sun go down with a bottle of Vat 69. It was a good ending to our last night. On the Sunday drive home, we stopped in Roma to see some underwhelming dinosaur footprints. Then we went to the Mohale Dam, which is a huge project that's funded by the government of South Africa with the intention of getting clean water to South Africans, to stimulate the Lesotho economy, and to generate electricity. It's been quite successful supposedly, and was quite the spectacle, too. I drove about 700 km in total, and now feel totally prepared for our spring break road trip, which begins tomorrow. We left Bluefontain Sunday night, and fourteen hours later we were back in our home away from home...Cape Town.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to everyone. I'm of course wearing my green, Scottish jacket, which I wore for last year's Patty's day. Just bought some Guinness. Headin' to an Irish place on Long Street later tonight.

What Would I Want? Sky

First thing's first. The latter-half of "What Would I Want? Sky" by Animal Collective is so damn good! Also, on the topic of entertainment, I just watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" again, and loved it again.

Sitting here, sweating to myself. Just another Sunday night. Had a fairly uneventful weekend. I'd say that the climax was probably the magical turning-on of my computer, who had been hibernating for the majority of this trip. I tried pulling an all-nighter Friday night so that I could skype with the 444. I ended up dozing off around 4 am, but a phone call came at about 7:30 am from Cameron, telling me to get my ass on skype! It was great to see a lot of my bros (Liesl, you are included in the bro category), despite my microphone leading to borderline incomprehensibility. Aside from this, the weekend was mainly just us spending too much time and money at Rascal's Pub. Watched soccer, conversed.

We did go down to Simon's Town for the day today. Phil, Andy, Johannas, Charlotte & I, that is. Took the train there, enjoyed the beach, then ate at a seafood restaurant that overlooks the water. The adventure came on our return trip. By the time we had gotten to the station, the train had stopped running, so we had to find some other way of getting back home. Taxi would've been far too expensive since we were probably 45 minutes out of town. We negotiated with a minibus driver to take us back, even though they typically don't drive all the way into Cape Town. This vehicle resembled our 15 passenger van from Pakistan, except that it was in far worse condition. The sliding door opened on the highway, so somebody had to permanently hold it shut. This van was very noisy, constantly rattling, and unable to absorb even the slightest of bumps. Personally, I had to go number 1 and 2, so that just magnified the discomfort for me. But things would only get worse... Halfway home, there was a loud bang and we could see tire shreds fly up. The driver swerved uncontrollably, then magically managed to pull to the side of the highway. We were lucky to pull over safely. Got out and driver tells us that he lent out his only spare tire earlier in the day. Great. At least I got to pee in a bush, which relieved half of my bodily discomfort. Thankfully, shortly after, another bus came, picked us up, and took us home where I would relieve the other half of discomfort. Here I am now. That, folks, sums up my weekend.