Adventure Week

With class on the horizon, we made sure to keep this past week as jam-packed as our first ten days in Cape Town. 

Wednesday morning we got up early to meet a group of students to go on what we thought would be a leisurely bike tour of the Stellenbosch winelands.  By the end of the day we had a few cuts, sores and bruises to serve as reminders of our naivety.  The eight-hour, 21 km tour on mountain bikes led us to three vineyards and one brandy distillery.  Despite the ominous cloud that hung overhead all day, the rain held off and gave us the perfect conditions to peddle through some of Cape Town’s finest vineyards.  Even with our three different tastes for wine, we all agreed we would not be enjoying any more brandy in the near future.   After warming it to room temperature in the glass, taking the proper steps to waft the aroma from our chest and our chin and drinking over half the first glass of a 10 year vintage, the brandy never seemed to go down as smoothly as we were assured it would. The wine, on the other hand, impressed us enough that we traveled home with six bottles in our backpacks. If you aren’t awed by the scenery on the trip, without a doubt the tour guides will give you something to look at. 

Keeping up with our full schedule, the next morning we joined forces with several other American students to tour the V & A waterfront along with Robben Island.  We hopped on a ferry, which brought us to the island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.  With the end of Apartheid occurring within our lifetime, we had the opportunity of having a former Robben Island prisoner lead our tour.  It was enlightening to hear a first-hand account of a political prisoner.  Although the prison has been transformed into a museum and memorial of Apartheid, to our surprise the island still houses a small group of people.  There is a primary school, a post office and church that support the community. 

We continued the day as tourists and explored the waterfront.  This part of Cape Town, we quickly learned, is not a location where many locals spend their time but is full of out-of-town visitors.  To fulfill Alex and Kristine’s desire for seafood, we enjoyed a lunch at a restaurant along the harbor.  We were unable to get to the aquarium before it closed but that will give us a good excuse to return. 

This week we also signed up for UCT societies (aka clubs).  We must have been feeling ambitious that day because we only signed up for clubs that could be defined as “extreme sports.”  They include mountain hiking, underwater (SCUBA) and surfing club. To add to this list Kristine and Alex also signed up for a gym membership where they plan on rekindling their love for lap swimming.  For all of you who know us well, check back in with us soon and find out how long the motivation upholds.

 

Saturday = Mzoli’s.  Anthony Bourdain made sure to make this restaurant a stop on his TV show “No Reservations” when he visited Cape Town, and we had the chance to have our own Mzoli’s experience.  We say experience because it is more than a meal.  Mzoli’s is an open-air restaurant hidden in a township outside of the city. Our meal was pre-ordered for us and was a feast for the eyes.  Meat and salads arrived at our table piled high and piping hot.  Alongside 20 Americans, we ate with our hands and licked our fingers until our plates were empty and stomachs were full. Alex claims she hasn’t licked her fingers since she was eight; can anyone in the Huml family back up this statement?  The restaurant was more crowded than normal when we were there because it hosting a large block party put on by one of the local radio stations.  The emcee kept the music loud, freebees flowing and dance competitions rolling. That day we were reminded of the many languages of South Africa- the dialogue was constantly changing between English, Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans.  It was nice to experience another side of South African life and culture.  We recommend Mzoli’s to all meat lovers and future visitors of Cape Town. 

So far, today has been another lazy Sunday.  However it has been in preparation for tonight.  For everyone at home, it is Super Bowl Sunday.  For us, it is Super Bowl early Monday morning.  A local bar has agreed to keep its doors open until 6 AM so all of the American international students can watch our beloved football.  Don’t worry, we plan on taking a quick nap tonight so we can be up and ready at 2 when the game starts.

Friday was the official first day of class but as we soon found out, South Africans don’t show up until Monday.  So, tomorrow will be a day of rereading over syllabi and signing up for tutorials (for everyone in Wisconsin this is a dreaded discussion).

We set up a website of just pictures of our time here in Cape Town.  To visit it, go to www.apieceofcape.shutterfly.com.  We plan to update that site as frequently as our blog. 

Until next time,

Met liefde van Afrika!

Alex, Callie and Kristine

And So It Begins

We’ve been in Cape Town just over a week and have finally settled into our home. The past ten days have been full of excitement, anticipation and information overload. We’ve sat through five long days of orientation, three hours of pre-registration and five hours of registration. We’ve quickly associated the word queue (a line FULL of people) with a test of our patience. Even after all the monotonous administrative work, we’ve realized that we are in the most amazing place on Earth.  In a single word, paradise.

Alex and Kristine began the journey by flying out of Minneapolis on an eight hour excursion to Amsterdam where they met up with Callie who came in on a flight from Dulles. After a short layover we naively boarded the longest flight of our lives. Let us tell you, a flight just under 12 hours is nothing to joke around about. It doesn’t take long before airplane food and bad movies catch up with you. Oh, and to top it all off, it was a full flight of people speaking many different languages. And of course our monolingual selves had some difficulty understanding and communicating. Note to self: get used to claustrophobic spaces and learn a new language to prepare for flight of death number two. While Kristine may attempt to convince all potential visitors that this flight was a breeze, we really must warn you that the Dramamine knocked her out for a solid eight hours. Callie and Alex had maybe an hour nap. Thankfully, this place happens to be worth any torture you may endure at 32,000 feet.

Upon arriving at the airport, we were greeted by a team of UCT students who were somehow able to round up all 40 or so international students on the Amsterdam flight and transport us to our temporary on-campus housing. In addition to our bodies being eight hours behind Cape Town time, sleeping was limited due to full days of planned activities. Our first official day in Cape Town consisted of a campus tour, bus trip to the mall, a short hike to the Rhodes Memorial and a night on the infamous Longstreet. Longstreet is similar in nature to Bourbon Street in New Orleans and is appropriately named, it stretches across a significant portion of downtown Cape Town. On Saturday we were finally able to move into the home where we will reside for the remainder of our stay in South Africa. It’s the perfect home for the three of us, very girly, bright, homey and has a great backyard where we eat most meals.

Sunday has, so far, been our favorite day since arriving and one of the most scenic days of our lives. It began with a very large group of the new international students filling into eight large coach buses, complete with tour guides and spending the day exploring the Peninsula. At our first stop, The Boulders, we were able to see the penguins we had heard so much about. They did not disappoint. Although we weren’t able to stand on the beach with them (we were on a designated walkway so we didn't disturb their natural environment too much) we were still able to get close enough to snap A LOT of pictures.

Next stop on the tour was Oceanview, a township in Cape Town. The people of Oceanview were kind enough to open the doors of their community and provide all 400 of us with delicious food and entertainment. This was our first time in a township and we’re looking forward to future visits. Our tour was concluded with a visit to the Cape of Good Hope, where the currents of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. It is, hands down, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Words cannot describe it and pictures don’t do it justice, but we’ve included some of our favorite shots from the day to attempt to replicate what we experienced.

From Monday through Friday we spent most of our days in a lecture hall learning UCT 101. Not fun, but essential… we hope.

So, this past weekend we helped to co-host our first ever Braai. Our house shares a backyard with three other students next door, so it made for a great set-up for a backyard barbeque. We discovered that barbeques here aren’t quite the same as grills back home, and it was difficult to account for the 35+ mph gusts, the “Cape Doctor.” Apparently the strong winds have been given this nickname because without them, it would be quite hot. Luckily we had an easy-to-please crowd who didn’t mind waiting an abnormally long amount of time for chicken and strange South African sausages (Alex was the only brave enough one to try it).  The critics are still out whether or not it’ll make a reappearance at future Braais.

After sleeping in on Sunday, which felt incredible, we made our way to Camps Bay, one of the many local beaches. It wasn’t hard to convince us to spend the entire day on the beach, especially because of the sub-zero temperatures we left behind in Wisconsin. Somehow between lying on the beach, braving the ice-bath known here as the Atlantic and eating at sea-side restaurants we had a pretty okay day. I suppose you could say, we were living the dream. For all you mothers reading this blog, we’re eating well and constantly reapplying sunscreen. You can sleep soundly!

Leaving the beach after many hours of soaking up the sun

That brings us to today. Kristine is currently scaling Table Mountain on a seven hour hike, and Alex and Callie are in pajamas enjoying the sunroom in the house writing this blog. It’s noon. Life is good. At some point we plan on exploring Observatory, our neighborhood, and concluding the day at our new favorite local Mexican restaurant, Panchos, where we'll enjoy their half-priced margarita specials. We have no doubt by June we will be regulars. There’ll be no need to bother handing us menus; they’ll have our orders ready and waiting.

We apologize for the absurd length of this blog. We promise to be more frequent in our future updates. Our lives still feel like vacations, but class starts Friday…

We’d love to hear from you all so feel free to leave a comment or two.

Met liefde van Afrika (with love from Africa in Afrikaans),

Alex, Callie and Kristine