Sharks and School

26.07.2010

I have been in Cape Town for two weeks now and its crazy. It is super beautiful and the campus is on the side of a mountain. It does suck though that it is super nice weather back home and not as nice here. The first day, it was about 40 degrees and really rainy, and it was like that again till the end of the week. It has gotten better though, during the days its been sunny and it get pretty warm (60’s?) but once the sun goes down it gets cold again. But luckily it hasn’t rained again since that first week. The sun goes down pretty early so I would say the majority of the day is fairly cold. Plus our rooms don’t really have heat so its even cold inside.

My flights were okay, the take offs and landings were smooth so that’s good (except the last one was a little rougher). The 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg was a little tough. Very long. I do not look forward to that coming back home. My first two flights were delayed so I missed my transfer in Jo’burg. They put me on a later flight and everything ended up working out fine. But I was nervous because I couldn’t figure out how to use the pay phones so I couldn’t call the people who were waiting to pick me up at the airport in Cape Town. It turned out that they were all still there because the people’s who did catch the flight I was supposed to, luggage got delayed and they were all waiting for it.

I share my room with one other girl named Lill and she is super nice. We each have our own really big bedrooms and then share a kitchen and a bathroom. Since we have a two person flat, my room is also the living room and has a TV and couch in it (The three person apartments have living rooms too). There is also a door in my room that leads to a really pretty backyard with a picnic table and garden. To get into our room is a little ridiculous. First there is the gate that you need a button in order to open to get into the community of all of my programs housing. Then there is a gate to get into 4 of the apartments, then there is a gate door, and then a regular door to get into our apartment and then finally the door to my room. All of these are locked mind you. Plus then we also have the door in my room (with a gate as well) and a door in our kitchen (also with gate), so I have a massive amount of keys.

The first two weeks were pretty boring, minus the weekends. It was all orientation stuff during the days. At night we went out to different bars and clubs and that was pretty much it.

The first weekend, we went to a rugby game, which was cool but a little boring. It was not the Springboks, as everyone wants to know. It was the local team against a Jo’burg team. We won a lot to nothing. Then the next day, we went on a tour of the peninsula. It was really beautiful, but also required us to be up really early and to sit on a bus all day, so that part was no fun. First we went on a bus tour of the downtown area of Cape Town and learned a little bit of history about the buildings. Then our first stop was at Camp’s Bay area and we got a great view of the ocean and Table Mountain. Our next stop was in Simon’s Town at The Boulder’s where the penguin colony lives. It was pretty amazing. They were so cute and they were everywhere just hanging out on the beach. Sadly we did not get to get super close to them because there was a boardwalk for us to walk on. Still cute. Then we made a stop in the township of Oceanview and had a lunch and performance prepared for us by the locals. The performance was a youth group of students who are trying to better themselves by staying away from drugs and street violence and taking up forms of art. They were all really good and had multiple talents. They had seriously the best break dancing group I have ever seen. One kid had just put on a helmet and then they cut them off. I’m interested in what he would have done! To end their show they had two really young kids dance a tribute to Michael Jackson. One kid was spot on it was the cutest thing. The final stop to our trip was at the Cape of Good Hope. Unfortunately we were running late so we didn’t get to walk a whole lot through the cape but we did get to walk up to the light house and the views were amazing. On the way down I saw a scary giant rodent thing jump from one building to the next right in front of me it was freaky, Im just glad it didn’t attack me! I think it was a Dassie. Which is related to an elephant go figure. Back on the bus, as we were leaving the park, I saw two ostriches in the wild. Sadly, no baboons spotted (apparently they are very popular here, especially at the cape of good hope), but also very vicious so Im also glad one didn’t attack us.

The next week, like I said was pretty boring. Except I got to African Drum for a little bit which was cool but tiring work for your hands. Thursday I went to the Muzenburg beach. It was too cold so I didn’t go in the water but it was really pretty and they had these colorful little houses all along the beach. I definitely plan to go back! Then Friday was registration which was not fun. It was on paper, so first we had our preapproval classes when we were still in the US, then the week before we had to go around to the different classes we didn’t get approved for or for new ones we wanted to take and get the head of departments signature saying we could take the class. Then day of registration, we had to wait in a line to get our registration packet, we had to fill them out in a line, wait in a line to have them approved to be taken by some kind of high faculty, then we had to go to another line to wait to have somebody enter it into the computer system for us, then we had to wait in the longest line to get our UCT (University of Cape Town) ids. It took me from 9am to 1pm. Then I went home and napped.

Then on Saturday, I got ready to go hike up Devil’s Peak, the mountain on which UCT is located. They warned us that it would be strenuous but I figured I should hike it at least once if I was going to be living right next to it. Plus, I’m stubborn so I knew I would force myself to make it to the top. They claimed it to be a 7 hour hike, 4 up and 3 down, but of course in the US, that usually means about a 5 and a half hour hike. Not this hike. This was actually 7 hours, almost exactly. And it was not just hiking either; we had to climb up and down rocks using our hands and knees. We climbed directly on the edge of the cliff. At times, it seemed like we weren’t even following a real path. We had to switch mountain peaks about 3/4ths of the way up. There is no way we could have done that without the tour guide. I enjoyed the climbing more than I actually enjoyed the plain hiking parts, so that was good for me, but some people had to turn around. Once we finally found our way to the top of the mountain, we ate lunch and it was really a wonderful view, you could see all of Cape Town, the University, the Soccer Stadium, the Cape, Robben Island. It was definitely worth it for me. Then for the way down, we took a different path, expecting it to be a nice, easy way down. Also, not the case. It was pretty much just straight down on uneven rocks/dirt. I think everyone fell at least once. I twisted my ankle close to the top, so that made it hard for the rest of the way down. I also fell and landed in a pokey bush. Apparently called Climber’s friend, because if you slip you can grab the roots of the plant and they are so firm into the ground that they will catch you, but instead of course I fall on top of it and get really small needle things in my hand and bleed and what not. I think I still have some of the thorns in me. After we climbed down the main peak of Devil’s peak, we transferred over to part of Table Mountain but before we could go down, of course we had to go back up some. Eventually we kept going down and were hiking through a more jungle kind of area which was nice since everything else we had seen was pretty much brush. But I did also see some Calalilys at the top of the mountain, which was neat. By the time we finally made it back to pavement, everyone was dead tired and kind of loopy, and our bodies were sore.

Then on Sunday, I went Great White Shark Cage Diving(!!!) They picked us up in their van, and we drove for two hours to Kleinbaai. There they fed us some brunch and then got us geared up to get on this boat (which was not very big to hold 20 divers and a boat crew). The boat sped us to the Straits of Dyer Island, also known as Shark Alley. There in the water they had a cage attached to a red buoy, floating in the water waiting for us. And even before, we received our instructions and before they were throwing in the bate, there were sharks next to the boat (of course I was on the opposite side of the boat so I didn’t see it, but don’t worry I got to see my share). I ended up in the last group to go in the cage. They had us go 5 at a time, which was fun to have someone else see what you saw as well as offer support. When we weren’t in the cage or preparing to go in the cage, we stood on the top deck of the boat and got to see some great views and pictures of the sharks. (I also had an underwater camera with but it was hard to tell if it was working or not and it was just so hectic that I didn’t take very many pictures, let alone who know how good of quality, but my friend had an underwater digital camera so she got good ones, and I will probably steal hers). When it was our turn to get ready, we had a wet suit handed to us by a very gorgeous man, and put it on (very very difficult, for some reason I struggled a lot). Then we had booties and a weight and goggles. All of us looked ridiculous. I went in the cage (in order left to right) with my friends Ben, Carolyn, Avery, Me and Chelsea. It was amazing. It is so hard to explain it was exciting and scary and overwhelming all at the same time. We were not allowed to put our hands on the outer bars of the cage (which by the way, was not as big and protective as one might assume, it was not very thick bars at all) for good reason of course, so when we were resting and catching our breath, we held on to the top and then to hold yourself under the water there was a red bar that stuck inward to hold onto and then there was a red bar at the bottom of the cage to hook your feet in to stay under. I was really bad at getting my feet under the bar so often I just kind of floated upward, or sideways. We also had to simply hold our breath under the water, which was interesting. The cage sat right next to the boat and your head would float above the water until you wanted to go under. When a shark was coming, the boat crew would shout “DOWN DOWN DOWN” or sometimes “DOWN RIGHT” or “DOWN LEFT”. Then we would all as fast as we can duck underwater reaching for those red bars and SEE SHARKS. They would swim so close to the boat. One shark bit at our cage. You could hear the clink against the metal. All of us screamed under the water. I grabbed my hands away from the red bar I was holding onto because I was afraid that was even too close to the shark. It was crazy insane but so so cool. Apparently we saw 7 different sharks that day (I could only tell 3, but I’m no expert). There were two that would like swim next to each other kind of facing off and then there was a little one who was so cute (which is so wrong, because even though he was small, he is still a great white!) It all happened so fast with so much energy. On the drive back home everyone slept. But right before we got into the van, the sun was setting and there was a really pretty sight over the ocean of the full moon in the purple and pink and blue sky it was really beautiful and I wish it would have captured as beautiful in a picture as it looked. All in all a spectacular day.

Then today was officially the first day of classes. I only had one class which was good and fast, but I had some problems getting my password to log on to the computer systems so it turned into a very stressful day. As of right now I am signed up for African Dance, Contemporary Social Work Issues, Contemporary Urban Issues, and Social Justice and Inequalities. But I need to change the last one due to time conflicts, I am thinking about either Race, Class and Gender or Photography in South Africa: 1860-present. I am planning on sitting in on both of those classes, plus the class I need to drop just to see what they will be like, so I will have a very full day tomorrow, basically going from 10 to 7:30. I am not looking forward to that!

So far I really like being here but it still feels like a vacation, and I am ready for it to feel like home. Plus there is still a lot for me to see and I can’t wait.