Monday, April 13, 2009
Penguins, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point
Thursday morning we left early for a full day excursion on our bus. First we went to Simonstown where we looked a colony of penguins. Can you imagine penguins living in Africa? It was the weirdest sight, almost as weird as the cows on the beach, to see all these penguins lying on the white sand! The Atlantic Ocean is in Cape Town so it is cold enough for them. Babies were just hatched so there were tons of cute penguins to watch. Next we went to the Cape of Good Hope which is the southwestern-most point of Africa. It used to be called the Cape of Storms because the storms kept ships from going around the point and returning. Once a ship made it around the point and lived to tell about it, it was renamed the Cape of Good Hope. It was the windiest day in the world while we were here and we barely could take a step without falling over. I think the combination of strong winds in the country and being on this point made it so difficult, but we just held on to each other and stayed low to the ground to make it out to the point for pictures. Next we went to Cape Point, which I guess I don’t really know the significance of. Maybe it was just the next point down the coast. Anyway there were several hikes to do there and lighthouses to see, so we did that for a few hours. When we got back to our hostel, aka backpackers, we got ready to go out to see a play. The play was called Coming Home and it was about a coloured (a person who is some mix of white and black) family living on a farm near Cape Town and the hardships they faced because of apartheid and AIDS. It was very interesting to see and get that perspective.
Table Mountain
Here we go, “quick” update of my spring break. Which by the way, isn’t spring break…it’s fall holiday. Of course! That confuses us every time too, but I think the South Africans get more confused when we told them we were on spring break. Haha! I’m going to post this in bits so it is easier to read.
From the last post, the Holocaust museum and the Jewish museum were very interesting. The cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain was cool too. That mountain is so beautiful and it gives the best view of Cape Town. The city, the ocean and the mountains spread out on all sides. Just gorgeous, check out the pictures of course! The group that hiked up the mountain was very tired because it was the hottest day ever and it was a three hour hike. I regretted not hiking with them a little bit, but I still got to see the top and I’ve hiked a lot so it wouldn’t have been that different. We got to see the sunset on our way down in the cable car which was also beautiful. We went out to eat at a traditional African restaurant as a group that night and had great food!! It was kind of like Buca in that there were several dishes that the whole table just shared. Only difference was that we had unlimited supply of all dishes!
From the last post, the Holocaust museum and the Jewish museum were very interesting. The cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain was cool too. That mountain is so beautiful and it gives the best view of Cape Town. The city, the ocean and the mountains spread out on all sides. Just gorgeous, check out the pictures of course! The group that hiked up the mountain was very tired because it was the hottest day ever and it was a three hour hike. I regretted not hiking with them a little bit, but I still got to see the top and I’ve hiked a lot so it wouldn’t have been that different. We got to see the sunset on our way down in the cable car which was also beautiful. We went out to eat at a traditional African restaurant as a group that night and had great food!! It was kind of like Buca in that there were several dishes that the whole table just shared. Only difference was that we had unlimited supply of all dishes!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
From Scuba to Cape Town
My second day of scuba diving was fun. There were big swells out in the ocean, so we weren’t able to take a boat dive like we planned. Instead, we went in the same spot as on Friday. It was very cool again. Saw some interesting fish and plant life. The water isn’t super blue like you would imagine, but it still had pretty good visibility. We were diving around the “6 pillars” which is the big cement legs that used to hold up a pier. Underwater, they are overgrown with plant life. I got to hold a flute fish, which is long and skinny like a flute and has a head that looks like a sea horse. It was moving very slowly, so we were able to catch it and all hold it for a little bit. After two dives and some more skills, I took my final exam and I am now scuba certified for life! So if anyone ever wants to go somewhere, invite me to come along!
All day Sunday and any freetime on Monday was spent working on my poli sci paper…which is finished! Nice to have that big thing check off my list, but the week after spring break there is another one due! I seriously cannot understand how this teacher would enjoy reading 25- 14 page papers. Monday night I had to stay up late to register for classes online in Central time. So that was fun. I guess what was the most fun is that it is the last time I’ll be registering for classes (since I’ll be student teaching in the spring)!!
Tuesday morning we woke up early, loaded our bags and hopped onto a bus to begin our spring break! 10 hours later we arrived in Cape Town. This is supposedly the best city in South Africa, and so far it’s beauty really ranks high. It is a very metropolitan city bordered by the ocean on one side and mountains on all the others. Most notably is Table Mountain, which is flat like a table and often has a “table cloth” of clouds hanging over it. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Cape to Cuba which had a very interesting mix of food. I had a pasta that wasn’t anything spectacular; but other people had enchiladas with all sorts of weird things in them including onion rings and curry. It really was from Cape to Cuba!
It’s Wednesday now, even if this doesn’t get posted till later in the week or once I get home. This morning we went to see the District 6 museum which told another story of a section of town that kicked out all the non-whites to make them move into townships, similar to ghettos. This museum was different than others that we have seen so far in that it had a lot more community involvement. Many of the people who used to live in District 6 contributed to the exhibits, so that was cool.
About half of our group just left to go climb Table Mountain which is a very strenuous 3 hour hike. I chose to go with the other half of the group to a Holocaust Museum and then take a cable car to the top of Table Mountain. We will meet up with the rest of the group up there, walk around on some trails on the plateau, watch the sunset and then all take the cable car down. It should be beautiful. I am still indecisive about whether or not I made the right decision to go to the museum over the hike. I really wanted to do both and if my plan works I will be able to. We have a free afternoon on Saturday, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to hike the mountain then with a couple people who didn’t go today. But if the mountain is covered in the table cloth, which apparently happens a lot, it will be too dangerous to climb. So I will for sure see the top of the table mountain, I just don’t know if I’ll get to hike it.
I just wanted to get some of this written down now, so I don’t have to try and remember later. Or try to post it all at once! Everyone in my group is praying for those at home who are dealing with this new blizzard, and of course the floods in F/M. Sorry your spring break has turned out to be so long Anna!! Nice to have the time off, but maybe not in these circumstances. I hope everyone else is doing well at home. I know that Mac and my dad printed off most of my blog to bring to Grandpa and Grandma in Arizona this week, so they’re getting caught up on all of this too!
All day Sunday and any freetime on Monday was spent working on my poli sci paper…which is finished! Nice to have that big thing check off my list, but the week after spring break there is another one due! I seriously cannot understand how this teacher would enjoy reading 25- 14 page papers. Monday night I had to stay up late to register for classes online in Central time. So that was fun. I guess what was the most fun is that it is the last time I’ll be registering for classes (since I’ll be student teaching in the spring)!!
Tuesday morning we woke up early, loaded our bags and hopped onto a bus to begin our spring break! 10 hours later we arrived in Cape Town. This is supposedly the best city in South Africa, and so far it’s beauty really ranks high. It is a very metropolitan city bordered by the ocean on one side and mountains on all the others. Most notably is Table Mountain, which is flat like a table and often has a “table cloth” of clouds hanging over it. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Cape to Cuba which had a very interesting mix of food. I had a pasta that wasn’t anything spectacular; but other people had enchiladas with all sorts of weird things in them including onion rings and curry. It really was from Cape to Cuba!
It’s Wednesday now, even if this doesn’t get posted till later in the week or once I get home. This morning we went to see the District 6 museum which told another story of a section of town that kicked out all the non-whites to make them move into townships, similar to ghettos. This museum was different than others that we have seen so far in that it had a lot more community involvement. Many of the people who used to live in District 6 contributed to the exhibits, so that was cool.
About half of our group just left to go climb Table Mountain which is a very strenuous 3 hour hike. I chose to go with the other half of the group to a Holocaust Museum and then take a cable car to the top of Table Mountain. We will meet up with the rest of the group up there, walk around on some trails on the plateau, watch the sunset and then all take the cable car down. It should be beautiful. I am still indecisive about whether or not I made the right decision to go to the museum over the hike. I really wanted to do both and if my plan works I will be able to. We have a free afternoon on Saturday, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to hike the mountain then with a couple people who didn’t go today. But if the mountain is covered in the table cloth, which apparently happens a lot, it will be too dangerous to climb. So I will for sure see the top of the table mountain, I just don’t know if I’ll get to hike it.
I just wanted to get some of this written down now, so I don’t have to try and remember later. Or try to post it all at once! Everyone in my group is praying for those at home who are dealing with this new blizzard, and of course the floods in F/M. Sorry your spring break has turned out to be so long Anna!! Nice to have the time off, but maybe not in these circumstances. I hope everyone else is doing well at home. I know that Mac and my dad printed off most of my blog to bring to Grandpa and Grandma in Arizona this week, so they’re getting caught up on all of this too!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Real Quick...
Just writing to say that I'm on spring break now and I won't be able to post for a little bit. Loving it so far! Lots more to post later~
Saturday, March 28, 2009
We have a cockroach...
The highlight of this week, I’m sure was the way I was woken up on Thursday morning. I felt something touching my arm and I thought someone was trying to wake me up. I turned a little bit to see who it was, only to see huge cockroach scamper off my arm and underneath my pillow! This thing was huge, like bigger than a golf ball!!! We have definitely heard horror stories about the cockroaches that live in our apartments, but my apartment hadn’t seen one yet! I jumped out of my bed, checked to see that it was only 5:00am and then made my plan of action. My roommate Alison was already awake because she was calling home, so when she saw me jump she came into my room to help me search. In the process we woke up my bedmate Emma (who sleeps in a separate bed about 6 inches away from mine.) We found it hiding between the boxspring and mattress, but when I went to actually kill it, it got away. We spend a long time searching for it in my things and underneath the bed, but never found it. If I think too much about it, I get grossed out sleeping in my bed. But hopefully it won’t come back again!!
Scuba this weekend was very cool. Although you cannot imagine how hard it is to get into a wet suit. One girl described it as trying to put on a nylon compression sock on your whole body. It is just so tight and so thick and then your legs seem so big that they’ll never fit! It requires teamwork to put them on and off. The rest of the gear is very heavy and hard to walk in. We have a weight belt, the oxygen tank and all the other stuff. It just makes me really unbalanced, so I’m sure I look like the biggest doofus trying to walk around. And then I have to put the flippers on!! We did a shore-entry dive, where we basically just walked into the water and swam out. Swimming with all that gear on against the incoming waves was kind of hard. Diving is super fun, after you get past the gut instinct that you need to go up for air. Because once you’re down on the bottom, it is hard to just go back up fast. You might get sick from the change in pressure if you move up or down too fast. We were diving about 15 meters deep. We saw the leg of an octopus coming out from the rocks, a huge lobster with long antennas, sea anemones and tons of fish. We just swam around a lot and then did some skills on the bottom of the ocean. When we tried to stay still at the bottom, the waves rocked us back and forth so much that we had to all link together so that no one would float away on their own. If you get sea sick, you wouldn’t have liked sitting on the bottom!!
I’m going diving again today, as long as the weather cooperates. Not too much progress on that paper, I’ll need to whip that out tonight and tomorrow. Then we only have class on Monday this week and it’s spring break! I cannot even tell you all how fast this trip is flying by. And I know that after spring break, everything will go even faster. Just because we have trips planned for every weekend and there are a lot more papers and such to keep us busy going from one week to the next. I love it! But it is hard to take it all in, I hope I’m not taking anything here for granted. We just keep reminding ourselves, we’re in Africa!
Scuba this weekend was very cool. Although you cannot imagine how hard it is to get into a wet suit. One girl described it as trying to put on a nylon compression sock on your whole body. It is just so tight and so thick and then your legs seem so big that they’ll never fit! It requires teamwork to put them on and off. The rest of the gear is very heavy and hard to walk in. We have a weight belt, the oxygen tank and all the other stuff. It just makes me really unbalanced, so I’m sure I look like the biggest doofus trying to walk around. And then I have to put the flippers on!! We did a shore-entry dive, where we basically just walked into the water and swam out. Swimming with all that gear on against the incoming waves was kind of hard. Diving is super fun, after you get past the gut instinct that you need to go up for air. Because once you’re down on the bottom, it is hard to just go back up fast. You might get sick from the change in pressure if you move up or down too fast. We were diving about 15 meters deep. We saw the leg of an octopus coming out from the rocks, a huge lobster with long antennas, sea anemones and tons of fish. We just swam around a lot and then did some skills on the bottom of the ocean. When we tried to stay still at the bottom, the waves rocked us back and forth so much that we had to all link together so that no one would float away on their own. If you get sea sick, you wouldn’t have liked sitting on the bottom!!
I’m going diving again today, as long as the weather cooperates. Not too much progress on that paper, I’ll need to whip that out tonight and tomorrow. Then we only have class on Monday this week and it’s spring break! I cannot even tell you all how fast this trip is flying by. And I know that after spring break, everything will go even faster. Just because we have trips planned for every weekend and there are a lot more papers and such to keep us busy going from one week to the next. I love it! But it is hard to take it all in, I hope I’m not taking anything here for granted. We just keep reminding ourselves, we’re in Africa!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Pendla
Volunteering this week was great. I feel helpful and welcome in the 3rd grade classroom. Monday we taught a lesson on conjunctions. We didn't do it too creatively, but we got the kids involved so I think that was good. During break we played follow the leader and I made the kids do such silly things. They loved it! After break the teacher, I'm not sure of her name yet, taught and it was cool to see how she teaches. She does a better job than the other teachers I've seen here, but she still relies on repetition and rote memorization too heavily.
Tuesday we finished our lesson on conjunctions with a game we made up. That worked pretty well, anytime you tell children they get to play a game at school they get excited! I was thinking on this day, as it was so hot in their classroom, about how once the schools in MN start to get hot that the kids go crazy! Once summer gets close, hardly any learning gets done in many classrooms. But here, they deal with that all the time. But the kids do good, they're used to it. They wear sweaters and high knee socks! Sometimes the teachers make an announcement to the class telling all the kids to take off their sweaters. I don't know why, but I'll be sweating hot in a t-shirt and most of the kids still have their sweaters on! The teachers think it's weird too I guess. After break we decided to take a picture of each student with their name written on the chalkboard behind them. You should have seen how excited they got! They were laughing so hard each time someone else had their picture taken and then they were so shy when it was there turn. I made them say "chees" and show their teeth and that was of course the funniest thing of all!
Today is my last day of class this week, whew it went by fast! Nothing too exciting though. Tomorrow I will be devoting myself to my large political science paper that is due on Tuesday. Scuba diving Saturday and Sunday (I'll definitely have things to write about that!) And already on Tuesday we leave for Cape Town (the biggest and supposedly the best city in South Africa). We'll be there as a group for 5 days. Then Sunday our spring break begins. Me and 8 other girls (3 of my roommates and then 5 from the flat below us) are taking a tour of the Garden Route. That is the coastline from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. Some of the planned events are wineland tours, shark cage diving, bungee jumping (I'm not sure if I'll do this one), hiking, mountain biking, horse back riding, scuba diving....this is going to be an expensive trip! And busy!
Glad to see that Jessie and Anna made it back safely! How is everyone's reality hitting as spring breaks end? Well Mac and Mom, you still have yet to start! Have fun in Arizona!! If you are looking for things to do, ask Kay about maybe booking a ticket to the TrailRiders Rockettes!!
Tuesday we finished our lesson on conjunctions with a game we made up. That worked pretty well, anytime you tell children they get to play a game at school they get excited! I was thinking on this day, as it was so hot in their classroom, about how once the schools in MN start to get hot that the kids go crazy! Once summer gets close, hardly any learning gets done in many classrooms. But here, they deal with that all the time. But the kids do good, they're used to it. They wear sweaters and high knee socks! Sometimes the teachers make an announcement to the class telling all the kids to take off their sweaters. I don't know why, but I'll be sweating hot in a t-shirt and most of the kids still have their sweaters on! The teachers think it's weird too I guess. After break we decided to take a picture of each student with their name written on the chalkboard behind them. You should have seen how excited they got! They were laughing so hard each time someone else had their picture taken and then they were so shy when it was there turn. I made them say "chees" and show their teeth and that was of course the funniest thing of all!
Today is my last day of class this week, whew it went by fast! Nothing too exciting though. Tomorrow I will be devoting myself to my large political science paper that is due on Tuesday. Scuba diving Saturday and Sunday (I'll definitely have things to write about that!) And already on Tuesday we leave for Cape Town (the biggest and supposedly the best city in South Africa). We'll be there as a group for 5 days. Then Sunday our spring break begins. Me and 8 other girls (3 of my roommates and then 5 from the flat below us) are taking a tour of the Garden Route. That is the coastline from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. Some of the planned events are wineland tours, shark cage diving, bungee jumping (I'm not sure if I'll do this one), hiking, mountain biking, horse back riding, scuba diving....this is going to be an expensive trip! And busy!
Glad to see that Jessie and Anna made it back safely! How is everyone's reality hitting as spring breaks end? Well Mac and Mom, you still have yet to start! Have fun in Arizona!! If you are looking for things to do, ask Kay about maybe booking a ticket to the TrailRiders Rockettes!!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Political Rally
Hello blog readers! This is the blog writer, not complaining about poor internet service, but posting nonetheless.
The Human Rights Day activities this past Saturday were quite the experience!! We drove to a town about an hour away, Uitenhage for the events. Once we got off the freeway, the streets were lined with people walking to the stadium. There were COPE (Congress of the People, the new political party formed of ex-ANC members) and ANC (African National Congress, the ruling political party) members all walking to the "freedom day events." I put that like that because instead of commemorating the people who died to secure their freedom, this day was more of a political rally. I guess both the ANC and COPE booked the stadium in Uitenhage to hold their days events. Obviously, they are opposing parties and couldn't both be in the same place and this became a legal issue. So 2:00am on Saturday, the judge decided that COPE would get the stadium and the ANC would have several hours to relocate and replan their event. So when we go there around 11:00 all the ANC members were just hanging out in a field next to the stadium, and this is where the political rally/Human Rights Day events occurred. When our combies were driving through the mass of people, everyone was cheering because we were white supporters coming. When we got out of our combies at the field, we were just stared at (not in a mean way). But it was fun, everyone was super friendly and excited that we were there. Once they found out we were Americans and not able to vote in the April 22nd election, they didn't care as much about us. We hopped in on some dancing and singing, listened to a speaker who spoke on a makeshift stage. The day was just full of meeting people and visiting with them. Super fun!
We were all super tired after that, so I took a good long nap. Then went out to dinner at that weird pizza place, but stuck to just plain cheese this time. Saturday night we went to a jazz concert. I stayed for several songs, but then went home to bed!!
Sunday was my first day of scuba diving! We had several hours of movies to go through and quizzes to take for the "classroom" part (really it was held in our flats, watching from a computer screen). Then we went to an outdoor pool on campus for the first in water sessions! It was really cool to be able to breathe underwater! Although the pool was so murky and gross, it had algae growing in it!!!! But it was still fun and we at least had mouth pieces in so we didn't drink the water. I did pretty well on all the skills and am ready for 4 ocean sessions this weekend on Saturday and Sunday!
I'll post more later, gotta run to class!!
The Human Rights Day activities this past Saturday were quite the experience!! We drove to a town about an hour away, Uitenhage for the events. Once we got off the freeway, the streets were lined with people walking to the stadium. There were COPE (Congress of the People, the new political party formed of ex-ANC members) and ANC (African National Congress, the ruling political party) members all walking to the "freedom day events." I put that like that because instead of commemorating the people who died to secure their freedom, this day was more of a political rally. I guess both the ANC and COPE booked the stadium in Uitenhage to hold their days events. Obviously, they are opposing parties and couldn't both be in the same place and this became a legal issue. So 2:00am on Saturday, the judge decided that COPE would get the stadium and the ANC would have several hours to relocate and replan their event. So when we go there around 11:00 all the ANC members were just hanging out in a field next to the stadium, and this is where the political rally/Human Rights Day events occurred. When our combies were driving through the mass of people, everyone was cheering because we were white supporters coming. When we got out of our combies at the field, we were just stared at (not in a mean way). But it was fun, everyone was super friendly and excited that we were there. Once they found out we were Americans and not able to vote in the April 22nd election, they didn't care as much about us. We hopped in on some dancing and singing, listened to a speaker who spoke on a makeshift stage. The day was just full of meeting people and visiting with them. Super fun!
We were all super tired after that, so I took a good long nap. Then went out to dinner at that weird pizza place, but stuck to just plain cheese this time. Saturday night we went to a jazz concert. I stayed for several songs, but then went home to bed!!
Sunday was my first day of scuba diving! We had several hours of movies to go through and quizzes to take for the "classroom" part (really it was held in our flats, watching from a computer screen). Then we went to an outdoor pool on campus for the first in water sessions! It was really cool to be able to breathe underwater! Although the pool was so murky and gross, it had algae growing in it!!!! But it was still fun and we at least had mouth pieces in so we didn't drink the water. I did pretty well on all the skills and am ready for 4 ocean sessions this weekend on Saturday and Sunday!
I'll post more later, gotta run to class!!
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