Facing The Music

I’m currently bundled up in my room in what used to be Alex’s blanket. I say what-used-to-be because Alex and Kristine are somewhere over the Atlantic ocean right now asleep from Ambien or watching their last few episodes of the OC on Alex’s computer. I miss them terribly and they haven’t even been gone for 24 hours. I know, I know, I'll see them soon but without them here, the end of my semester abroad is very, very real. My house is empty and although it was already cold before they left, it has been a bit more brisk without them here. If I keep talking about this, I’ll probably start crying in my empty, cold house and we can’t have any of that.

I was going to write about our trip up to Namibia but I’m not quite ready for it yet, so all you get is that picture.  Instead I’m going to share something I have been putting together since January- a playlist of songs that will forever remind me of Cape Town.  Each song has some significance to life here, a life that has flown by and one that is oh-too quickly saying farewell.

Cape Town South Africa 2010 Playlist

Best Days- Matt White: Alex and I played this too loudly on our computers almost every morning for close to two months. Everyday was the best day.

1901- Phoenix

Make You Feel My Love- Adele: Kristine and Alex can both tell you that I listened to Adele a lot, maybe too much. It took Alex and I two days, upping my iTunes play count on the song, to figure out who originally sang this one. It wins.

Battle Studies Album- John Mayer 

Fidelity- Feist: The last song Sarah, our neighbor, and I listened to before she left.

Strawberry Swing- Coldplay: Re-realized my love for Coldplay because of this song. It was always on my studying playlists.

Beautiful Mess- Jason Mraz

Sold My Soul- Goldfish: Goldfish is a band from Cape Town that we actually went to see back in January. They make a lot of good music but this song is one that I heard the most. They are a perfect example of music that Capetonians love and I’ll miss hearing them back in the U.S.

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly- My Fair Lady: Some of you may know that I have a secret love for musicals, this is one of my favorites and a song I found myself singing even when I wasn’t listening to the music, particularly when I was walking to and from our house.

Little Secrets- Passion Pit

I Got A Feelin'- Black Eyed Peas: A staple song for getting excited for just about anything but on one night in particular this song came on the radio in a cab on our way to a club called Tiger Tiger.  As we sang along with the driver, I asked him if he liked the Black Eyed Peas. He looked confused and corrected me saying, "No, this is the Tiger Tiger song." He was right, Tiger Tiger is gunna be a good night.

For Emma- Bon Iver

Baby- Justin Bieber: The girls that I tutored loved Justin Bieber, a lot. Whenever I hear this song I think of them immediately and how we sang our hearts out every week to it.

Wavin’ Flag- K’naan: We have been hearing this for quite some time, pumping us up for the World Cup and it still hasn’t gotten old. Well not yet anyway.  If you are around Kristine when it is playing, you are in for a treat.

Memories- David Guetta & Kid Cudi: I think we heard this song every time we went out. Memories is right.

California- Phantom Planet and I’ll Be There For You- The Remembrants: I put these songs together because they are the intro songs to two shows that we will always associate with Cape Town and 154 Station Rd.

Empire State of Mind- Jay-Z & Alicia Keys

Chasing Pirates- Norah Jones: Love her. Love this song. As of right now I’ve played it 30 times in Cape Town. Is that an obsession? Maybe.

Train Song- Ben Gibbard & Feist

Animal- Miike Snow: I downloaded a bunch of music the weekend Kristine and Alex went on the Garden Route and I worked for endless hours on a paper. This song was one of them and ended up being a favorite.


With friends leaving everday, my last week in Cape Town will for sure be a bittersweet one. Maybe a Namibia post will appear tomorrow. Maybe.

Met liefde van Afrika,
Callie

And The Rockets Red Glare...

Howzit! It’s 4 in the afternoon and I am drinking a glass of wine at my desk (we are working on finishing our last few bottles from our Stellenbosch trip) while Kristine and Alex are packing up and cleaning their rooms.  Today is their last full day in Cape Town and I am in disbelief because the past 5 months have by far been the fastest 5 months of my life.  The time has flown by and I feel like we just got here.  And I don’t want them to go. I’m not ready to pack up and go home so it’s a good thing I have another week until I have to board that 12-hour plane ride.

You might have noticed we have significantly increased our posting frequency the past few days, which is the result of two things. The first is that there is just that much excitement going on in Cape Town that we can’t help but to spread it, or at least try to. The second is that I have set a goal of updating the blog every day until I leave because there is a lot we never got to cover. So don’t be surprised if something pops up on here from let’s say mid-March :)

Last night was the USA v. England game. If you didn’t watch the game or if you cheered against the US, I have a bone to pick with you. The game took place in Rustenberg and we had one lucky friend who got a ticket which I am slightly jealous about. We had a couple game viewing options here in Cape Town but in the end we went with the boldest choice- we watched the game at a bar owned by an Englishman and it was full of England supporters.  The bar was packed but alongside the 10 other USA fans, we definitely showed those Brits some American spirit.  We painted our faces, sang/shouted the national anthem along with some other American tunes, cheered loud and obnoxiously and had a great time.

After the game, we went back to our friends’ house where we were greeted by some “you got lucky-s” but game well played. People from six countries were there and while there were no Brits, there were definitely some England fans. We spent the rest of the night dancing, singing to impromptu sing-alongs and participated in some friendly nation rivalry.  It was definitely one of the most fun nights we have had in Cape Town and we wouldn't have had it any other way.

One of our sing-alongs: In the Jungle
                            

Met liefde van Afrika!
Callie

Sweet, sweet biscuit!

Although it’s difficult to believe, our time is coming to a close. While we are excited to get home and see all of our family and friends, we cannot believe we have to say goodbye to this beautiful city. We all plan on returning at some point, but the uncertainty of how long it will be has us begging for more time. With our days numbered we have each one mapped out to the minute so as to make the most of our remaining moments. That being said, high on our list of priorities (other than obviously celebrating the WORLD CUP) was attending the Old Biscuit Mill. We arrived around 11 a.m. and proceeded to eat and drink the place out of food and beverages…. Okay, not quite, but it sure felt like it! We sampled cinnamon buns, vegetable wraps, rare rump sandwiches, butternut paella, lattes, macaroons, double flat whites and finished the day with strawberries in champagne.







We each left with a respective desert that included (pictured below): carrot cake with cream cheese frosting surrounded by dark chocolate chunks and topped with caramelized almonds, vanilla cake with raspberry frosting topped with fresh, real raspberries and finally the mother of all tarts topped with every fruit under the sun. While the day was cloudy (we took it as an ominous goodbye or see you later, rather) our afternoon ended on a wonderfully SWEET (once again, see desert descriptions) note. You’ve treated us well Old Biscuit, you’ve treated us well!









Met Liefde Van Afrika,

Alex

P.S. On a completely different note, GO TEAM USA! Beat those English chumps!

Can YOU FEEL IT?

Today, day one of the World Cup, was an absolutely amazing day for the three of us. We went into town almost six hours early to secure our spot at the Fifa Fan Fest to watch the South Africa v. Mexico game in Joberg with over 20,000 of our closest friends, and then quickly traveled to Green Point Stadium in Cape Town to go crazy nuts at the Uruguay v. France match. We made a video of parts of day- the pre-game excitement, singing of the national anthem, celebrating South Africa's goal and cheering on Uruguay. Hope you enjoy!!! We are going big for the USA v. England game tomorrow. More to come…

BAFANA BAFANA!!!!!

                        

It's AYOBA time!!

The city is ready and so are we. The world cup is tomorrow and we coudn't be more excited. Cape Town is alive with excitement and we got to be a part of it today- the eve of the world's greatest sporting event.

In the words of a good friend, we leave you with this,

"I am more excited to cheer for South Africa tomorrow than I ever have been for any game in the U.S."

BAFANA BAFANA!!!!!!!

                     

Chum and Chunder

Earlier this week we decided to schedule something fun for Thursday to celebrate finishing our first round of finals. We decided it was time for shark cage diving because it has been on our to-do list since January. We have been waiting because June and July are supposed to be the best months to see sharks.  As some of you may know, South African waters are the most densely populated area in the world for great white sharks. On top of that, the most densely know region is Dyer Island, and that just happens to be about two hours away from Cape Town and where we spent our day. If any of you have ever seen a shark documentary there is an 80-90% chance that it took place near or around Dyer Island.

Some great white shark facts:
With one bite, they can gobble 14 kg of flesh
They can grow up to 7 meters.
They are the best-equipped predators on the world (or so we are told)
They hunt prey by picking up on electrical fields
They have two eyelids, some have three
They are extremely migratory and lead “lonely lives”
They are ovoviviparous = eggs grow inside the female, hatch there and continue growing until they are born

Before taking the plunge, we had been warned by some of our friends of seasickness.  So we knew to take some Dramamine before leaving to prevent all and any kind of illness and thank goodness we did.  When we loaded into the van at 0830,  we had no idea we would be in there for the next 3 hours before arriving in Gansbaai.  Along the way we picked up our fellow divers: 5 from the UK, 1 American, 2 Spaniards and 2 non-English speaking Europeans.

Our transport for the day

We were greeted by a little breakfast and a quick debriefing by the boat captain of how the day would go. The most important information, as we would later find out, was that if you felt queasy, don’t get sick in the cabin, please go to the side of the boat. This nugget of information was helpful for more than a couple people.

To attract the sharks, they use chum and it almost guarantees a shark spotting,  and in our case it led to constant attention from the massive beasts. Chum is tuna guts, fish oil and sea water and it looks and smells as gross as that description would imply.  But it does the job.

 Chum supplies and the chum bucket.

Once we anchored out in the water, we spent time on the top deck, watching the sharks come up to the bait line (basically a tuna head, tied onto the buoy) and swim around the boat while the first five people were in the cage.  Before we knew it, we were putting on 7 mm thick wetsuits (which is difficult to say the least), booties, weights and goggles and preparing ourselves to hop in. At this point we don't really think we really knew what we were getting into but we were excited.

Who knew we could look so good in wetsuits and huge goggles?

With the sharks swarming the boat, we were instructed on the proper technique to make sure we left the cage with all our fingers. Callie was first in, followed by Alex, then Kristine and lastly two of our European friends.  The cage itself is attached to the boat and about two feet of it is above the water. We waited above water as we waited for commands from the shark spotters until we heard "down!" Then it was time to take a depth breath and submerge ourselves; this is where the weights come in handy.  The bait line slowly lured the sharks in close to the cage so we could get a good view.  Had we felt like risking our appendages, we definitely could have touched multiple sharks, they were THAT close.

This routine went on for a while and we must have made good impressions on the crew because they let us spend the most time in the cage. We don’t really know how long we were in the water but we were definitely in the cage longer than we were in the boat.

Attractive little fishies

Unfortunately, no one was safe from the chunder (this is what South Africans and English people call vomit). Four divers got ill on the boat and we unfortunately experienced the effects of this first hand while inside the cage (as you recall, we were instructed to throw up off the side of the boat). People both in the boat and in the cage were feeling the motion of the ocean. At the time, we were less grossed out than we are now looking back on it. We were annoyed by the murkiness it caused but were already accustomed to the chum water and the debris of the bait line. As a result, when a fellow divers breakfast appeared in the water with us in the cage, it didn’t completly faze us. With a few splashes to “clear” it out, we happily continued to go under to view the sharks. We were having too much of a good time to let a little vomit ruin it. Gross, we know.

Inside the cage

On the ride back, Kristine almost made the chunder count five but she held it together and once we were back on solid ground she felt fine.  Back at the shop, we were greeted with hot soup, cookies, coffee and tea.  We watched the video of our voyage at sea, bought a couple t-shirts and reflected back on our experience with fellow divers.

Too cool for school

Shark cage diving is the COOLEST thing ever! We all would definitely do it again and again and highly recommend it.  Here’s a quick video Callie took from below the surface. Tell us that's not cool.

By the time we arrived back at home, we were exhausted.  We ordered in sushi, which we thought was a little ironic, and we plopped down and watched some OC (Alex and Kristine have been on an OC kick lately).

With school over and only two finals left between us and freedom there will definitely be more adventures to report on in the near future.

As always,

Met liefde van Afrika

Callie, Alex and Kristine.

For more pictures, you know where to go (www.apieceofcape.shutterfly.com)

Note the full-bodied aroma, taste of freshly cut grass and pencil shavings...?

Fact: we love wine and we spent last weekend expressing this love. Stellenbosch is a region of the Western Cape of South Africa that is synonymous with wine. On Friday afternoon, after a small dispute with the rental company, we hopped into our white automatic Nissan Tidda and took the 30-minute drive out into the country. It was nice having the ability and independence to have this little escapade and it was a great way to celebrate the end of classes.

We only had a little over an hour before wine tasting closes for most of the vineyards so we quickly went to one of the first places we saw. Neethlingshof was stop number one and we easily walked away with 6 bottles of wine. As we were leaving a man who was enjoying a cup of coffee jokingly asked if we had purchased each wine we had tried, little did he know that the damage had just begun.



After Neethlingshof, we went to the nearby Asara estate. Although wine tasting was closed for the evening, we were able to satisfy our sweet tooths with a chocolate tasting.





We decided to have dinner at the estate and while we waited for the kitchen to open, we all enjoyed a drink in the cigar and cocktail lounge as the sun set over the mountain. Dinner was absolutely amazing. The weekend was all about indulgence and we fully embraced that with three courses of delectable delights. Alex is still raving about her pumpkin and ricotta tortellini. Kristine’s kingklip put her in the clean plate club and Callie left room for a dessert that was described as an omelet of soufflés. Although we’re still unsure as to exactly what that description means, it certainly did not disappoint. After dinner, we waddled to the car and drove home, excited to be returning the following day.

With the fond memories of the day before, we were up and ready to go on Saturday morning. Our goal for the day was to visit five vineyards, have lunch in Stellenbosch and drive to Franschhoek, a neighboring town, for dinner. We missed the mark by one vineyard but we have no doubt that the day was still a success. Bergskleder was the our first stop where we toured the cellar and the distillery, as well as watched a 15 minute informative video that only Kristine enjoyed (she says she takes after her mother).





The wine tasting included 6 different wines. Both Kristine and Alex enjoyed the dessert wine however Callie deemed it far too sweet only half of a sip in. With three bottles of wine in the car, we were back on the road. Next stop was Stellenzicht. Bergskleder was focused on catering to the foreign tourist but Stellenzicht was off the beaten path, down a dirt road. This turned out to be one of our favorite stops on the trip. Our wine tasting, while it was quaint, was intimate and informative. The 40 minutes we spent with the young woman at the tasting taught us much more than the informative video and the wine, in our expert opinion, was superior.





Six more bottles into the car and we were off. After a quick stop, taking in the countryside, we ended up at nearby Stellenrust. As we pulled into the estate, we were greeted with Grecian-style pillars and statues. The employee who was colder than the statue outside did not warmly greet us. Perhaps she did not realize that we were there for more than the free tasting but even in the midst of her rushing us through, we walked away with three more bottles, two of which were only R25 (just over $3).

At this point in the day we were ready for lunch and we headed into ‘downtown’ Stellenbosch in search of a place to eat. After taking a quick tour of the town we stopped at the most crowded place, thinking crowds translate into high-demand of good food. This was not necessarily the case and our meal was nothing special but it did give us sustenance to continue on with our day. We took a tour of the city on foot, taking in the Dutch and English inspired architecture, stopped for ice cream and were back in the car without knowing exactly where the next stop would be.



As we drove toward Franschhoek, we saw a sign for Delaire Estate and as we drove by, we decided it was a place we had to stop. So we pulled a U-y and drove up the long, winding driveway towards the estate. This was by far the most posh of the vineyards we visited. With breathtaking views of the valley, we sat outside and enjoyed our last tasting of the weekend surrounded by the Cape Town elite.





We literally rode away into the sunset towards our dinner reservation at Reuben’s in Franschhoek. Alex had read about the unique dinning experience at Reuben’s from the always-reliable NYTimes and had us all excited for the meal. The chef changes the menu each week, so every dish is a special and all the ingredients are fresh and local. Once again we ended the day with an overly satisfying three-course meal. Alex had herb-crusted rib eye, Kristine had lemon grass Cape salmon and Callie had lamb curry. While all three dishes and our appetizers were a-mazing, we still were able to squeeze in dessert- one should never doubt our eating capabilities.

Even after the two (full) days, we aren’t fully Stellenbosch satisfied and a return trip is already in the works.



Our new wine cellar includes:
21 bottles of wine
4 Pinotage
3 Cabernet Sauvignon
3 Shiraz
3 Sauvignon Blanc
2 Rose
2 Chardonnay
1 Noble Late Harvest, Bergskelder dessert wine
1 Stellenrust Simplicity- Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz
1 Gewurztraminer
1 Cabernet Franc

If you happen to be one of the lucky ones, you may even get to sample some of this delicious wine with us once we figure out how we're going to get it back home!

As always,

Met Liefde Van Afrika

Callie, Kristine and Alex

P.S. (If you didn't get your fill of pictures from this blogpost, check out our newly uploaded images on our shutterfly account, apieceofcape.shutterfly.com!)

It's COMING........

We are officially World Cup ticket holders and one month from today chances are you will be jealous of our lives.  Who's excited?!

The Cape of Good Hope

Faith47-The Cape Of Good Hope from Rowan on Vimeo.

This video was shown in one of my classes this week. The South African artist, Faith47, is a famous for her graffiti and this piece was done on a buiding in a neighborhood near ours.

Just some background knowledge- city newspapers post headlines on light posts and poles. Faith47 collected these signs for a year and this is the art she created. 

One part of the video is REALLY strange and it is kind of long but overall what she created, while it is quite heavy, it is also quite interesting and a side of this city that, believe it or not, is easy to ignore.

Feels like Flying

This weekend we (Kristine and Alex) took an extended weekend to travel the Garden Route with six of our favorite fellow international students. We began the journey by piling into two rental cars and heading out of the city of Cape Town early Thursday evening. Our destination was Mossel Bay where we spent the night in a renovated train that now serves as a hostel. We ate dinner at a cute little cigar lounge and finished the evening with a stroll on the beach.





The next morning, with the motivation to begin our adventures, we woke up early, packed up the car and headed to the city of Wilderness. It was about this time when we realized that only two of the mixed CDs that were packed along played in one of the vehicles: 60’s pop and techno-mix. Needless to say tunes like “Hang on Sloopy” were floating through our heads ALL weekend. By about the fourth time around the CD served as merely a backup to our voices, since we knew each lyric like the back of our hands. Though it had started raining we decided to take a chance on the weather and rented canoes to paddle through the beautiful Wilderness National Park.



Unfortunately we could only convince two others that this was a brilliant idea. The other half chose instead to hike through the park and meet up with us at our final destination, the waterfall. To our satisfaction, the gloomy weather quickly diminished and revealed blue sky and a scorching sun. After a 40 minute canoe ride we beached our boats, threw our paddles on shore and began the hike towards the falls. The hike was incredibly scenic and felt as if we were travelling through the rain forest with all the low-hanging vines and vast range of flora. The end revealed two stunning waterfalls that we just couldn’t get enough pictures of to do them justice.



Losing track of time, we realized that we were going to have to hustle back to the cars if we were going to make it to our next planned activity before the end of the night. Knowing this, we quickly made it a competition to the finish line. We were like Olympic speed-walkers hiking back down the path, and with our competitive nature we jumped in our canoes and paddled like we had never paddled before. The entire hike+canoe ride was supposed to take an estimated 80 minutes one-way. We, however, proved our superior athletic ability and completed it all in 50 minutes and to top it off, BEAT THE BOYS!



After arriving back at the vehicles, and one minor dead car battery later, we were once again off and this time headed to Monkeyland! In the midst of all our afternoon activity we seemed to have forgotten about lunch and therefore had to test out this side of the world’s fast food options. As we may have mentioned in our previous posts, KFC’s are this country’s Starbucks; one on every street corner. We are happy to report back that the chicken was surprisingly delicious. Onto Monkeyland. Being true to our group’s philosophy of” better late than never,” we arrived with less than 15 minutes until closing time and had to do a little schmoozing to convince them to give us a late tour. This proved to be in our favor as we had the entire Monkey Sanctuary to ourselves. It was like nothing we’d ever seen before. There were over 15 different kinds of free-roaming monkeys swinging over our heads and running through our feet.



Our personal favorite monkey had to be “Lisa” who sported the excellent 80’s poof. She looked as if she had stepped straight out of the Cosby show. (See picture!)



Still on a high from our nature encounters we headed to Hostel number two in Buffalo Bay. It was our favorite of the weekend with the cozy lounge and open fire.



After our indecisive group contemplated what and where to eat for dinner for nearly an hour we finally ended up taking a local recommendation and going to a restaurant down the road. The local entertainment of a one-man karaoke show was quite amusing, and the food wasn’t too bad either. We finished off the night with a few rounds of cards and star gazing on the beach’s unique rock formations.



After a not-so-early morning start and a long deliberation we were once again on the road, this time headed to our most anticipated stop, Bloukran’s Bridge. As you may know, this is the site of world’s highest commercial bungee jump. By the time we had reached the bridge, all of our hearts were in our throats as we mentally prepared for what would most likely be the biggest adrenaline rush any of us had ever experienced. Staring out from the viewing area, many of us questioned our sanity as to why we would want to subject ourselves to the torture of jumping 216 meters.



Fortunately, after much coercing even Kristine had signed the waiver and stepped into the harness. Next came the walk out to the middle of the bridge, which may have been even more terrifying than even the prospect of jumping. It was constructed of diamond mesh, meaning we could see straight through to the bottom with each step we took. When we had finally made it to the middle of the bridge we had one final safety debriefing and anxiously awaited our jumper number to be called. “Jumper 60” was the first to be called, Kristine. The entire group was shocked to know that our most petrified member would be taking the plunge first. As she had her ankles strapped together and the knot tied, we were all hoping she wouldn’t back down. A few tears and encouraging words later there she stood, feet dangling over the edge, arms spread. None of us could believe our eyes as we saw her gracefully drift out of sight, SHE HAD DONE IT.



... and then we waited to see if she was still mentally intact after the fall. To our delight she came up smiling, perhaps out of the relief of surviving, but smiling nonetheless. At this point it was Alex’s turn and she was ready and willing to go. Maybe it was the blaring house music or simply the adrenaline rushing through her veins but as they started the countdown she was ready to go. Her excitement of the jump is evident in her perfect form as she was voted “best in show” by the group.



Maybe it was because our guides didn’t want to let her leave without a scare, or maybe it was because they were a group looking for a laugh, either way, right before getting back to the platform they pretended to “let go” of the harness. To her relief it was all a joke as they chuckled and said “you looked pretty spooked” following. This all seemed much funnier to her when she was once again standing on solid ground. Overall, it was definitely an experience we were glad we didn’t pass up. I mean really, how many people get to claim that they’ve jumped from the world’s largest single-span arched bridge?

With all of us on cloud nine, we headed towards Storm’s River where we would be spending our third and final night. We decided to celebrate with what we called a “fancy dinner”, and after three courses of delicious food and wine, we headed back to our hostel for a heated billiards competition. Alex and Ben are still the defending champions. We finished the night sitting around a fire talking about all the crazy things we managed to do over the three days. Unfortunately, the fire did not warm us enough for our accommodation that night, which consisted of elevated tents behind the hostel. It is hard for us to believe how cold it gets at night here! You would think two girls from Wisconsin would be able to tolerate an African “winter.” Apparently we’re not as tough as we thought we were. We found it necessary to pile on all the clothes we could to keep us warm in the self-estimated 40 degree weather. We fell asleep in our little tent and were lucky enough to wake to a beautiful sunny day.



Our last day was spent on a Canopy tour of the Tsitsikamma forest. We zip-lined from platform to platform, taking in the sights of the forest. Needless to say the “heights” were a breeze after what we had been through the previous day, and it was a relaxing and enjoyable time.



Our last and final stop was at the Tsitsikamma National Park famous for its suspension bridge. It was an incredibly scenic hike with lots of great views of the ocean and surrounding mountains. This was also the location of our now favorite picture of the journey, “the Brady Bunch” photo (see below).



It was also here where we had to say our goodbyes to the other half of our group who was fortunate enough to be able to stay and explore the area until Tuesday. The two of us on the other hand are STILL procrastinating the papers we came back early to write. So the trip ended with a seven hour car ride on the N2 back to Cape Town where we arrived tired and content with fond memories of our weekend away. It definitely left us with a taste for more adventures with our dwindling time. We look forward to many more weekend trips to further explore this beautiful country.



P.S. We really must commend Callie on her great academic efforts this weekend. Despite all of our begging and pleading she honorably turned down the trip in order to tackle her daunting 15+ page paper. Don’t worry though; we’ll never let her get away with this again. She will most certainly be joining us on any and all trips in the future.

Met liefde van Afrika,

Kristine and Alex

*Check out more pictures of our Garden Route adventure at our Shutterfly website!