Friday, April 30, 2010
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.
Monday, April 26, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
HAPPY EASTER FROM US TO YOU!!!!!!
Easter brunch in the backyard
(you may find this on awkwardfamilyphotos.com in the near future)
Our Spread.
Our Spread.
Hard at Work
Hardly Working?
Do it to it Lars.
Mission Accomplished
The Easter bunny (Kristine and Alex) hid eggs so Callie could have a hunt.
Proud mom Alex.
17 Things I Love (kinda) About You
photo by JDS
9 Things We Have Gotten Used To and Embraced:1. The left side
As you may know, South Africa was at one time under British rule. That is evident in a couple ways but one of the most obvious is that they drive on the WRONG side of the road. When we first arrived, it only took a few instances of looking the wrong way before crossing the street before the left side became the right side.
After a week in northeastern South Africa on semester break I can now say that I have driven on and become comfortable with the left side. But have no fear America, I will gladly drive on the right side of the road when I return.
Another note on cars in SA, 95% of them have a manual transmission. The search to find an automatic for vacation for useless Americans was a joy. I have brushed up on my manual driving skills, some may say lack-of-skills. A friend bravely let me drive his car one afternoon giving me some pointers and practice behind the wheel. I wasn’t allowed out of the parking lot but I think I kind of got the hang of it. Only stalled out once.
Another thing they do on the left here is pass people. For example in stairwells, I’m always going down the side that everyone else is going up. It is natural and instinct for me to go to the right when passing someone but I’ve begun to think in the world of lefts.
2. Military time
In the U.S. the idea of a 24-hour clock seemed impossible to understand. After arriving in SA I was unpleasantly surprised that time is often communicated in this foreign clock. But after 2 months I can officially say that I can look at the clock on my circa 1999 cell phone and tell you what time it is without using all of my brain cells. Hey Army, you are really going to want me now.
3. Bare footedness
You may be wondering what we mean by this. Well one of the “characteristics” of Cape Town is that life is laid back and meant to be enjoyed at a slow pace. One way this is expressed is by walking around without shoes. The first time you see someone without their shoes on in public you think something must have happened to their shoes because no one just walks around barefoot, right? Wrong. Here you can go to class, breakfast, lunch, dinner, the mall, the grocery store, to the movies, shopping, on the bus, almost anywhere, barefoot. I have seriously considered trying this out for a day but I thought everyone would stare at my feet. They wouldn’t. It would have been normal. Maybe I’ll eventually muster up the courage to try it. Keep you posted.
This is one of the greatest beauties of traveling abroad, well traveling outside of Europe I suppose. The conversion rate has wavered between 7.2 and 7.8 rand to the dollar. Our first couple visits to restaurants and stores, we were slightly alarmed by the prices we saw but once you stop thinking in dollars you realize that an amazing piece of steak can be had for the bargain price of R80 = less than $11. The conversion rate is one reason why the three of us are pretty sure we have gained weight… (Refer to the food blog if you care to see exactly how).
5. The wind
There are only 2 occasions when we don’t embrace the wind. The first is at the beach. There can be a light breeze inland but when you reach the beach there are tropical storm sized gusts which don’t make for ideal sunbathing sessions. The second occasion is when you are getting ready in the morning and you think the wind wont be too bad so you decide to wear a dress and then BAM, you can imagine how we walk around on those days.
Otherwise, we love the wind. It cools us off and occasionally brings gust of ocean-smell to our backyard, giving us the illusion we leave on the beach.
6. Howzit?
This is a common way to greet someone here. After you hear it a few times, it becomes natural and somewhat addicting because it is so fun to say. Try it sometime, you wont be disappointed.
Other South African lingo we’ve learned and use:
Tomato Sauce= ketchup
Chips= fries (or almost always means fries)
Curios= souvenirs
Take away= to go
Petroil= gas
Lekker= cool
Sundowner= cocktail
Serviette= napkin
University/uni/varsity= School but when you say ‘school’ here, people think you are referring to high school and give you a funny look
7. Buying electricity
Before coming here we read the blog of a fellow badger in Cape Town so we knew that we would have to go buy electricity. So when we arrived it did not come as a total shock. To keep the lights on in most houses requires that you buy electricity credits from the grocery store. You get a long multi-digit code on your receipt that you then take home and plug into your electricity meter, which in our case is a less attractive box by the front door. This may seem unnecessary to some but we have grown to appreciate it. Because we have to physically go out buy it and we can watch our credits depreciate, it has made us aware of our energy consumption, which we think is kinda of cool. I speak as the least green person in the house that having to buy electricity is a great idea and could be the solution to global warming. Patent pended :)
8. Cheap great wine
Some of you may not know that South Africa is home to some of the world’s finest wines. The landscape in the Western Cape, the region of South Africa where Cape Town is located, is extremely diverse and perfect for growing grapes. This means this area of the world produces a variety of wonderful wines. On top of it all, wine is inexpensive. We can drink a quality bottle of wine for about $5 US. Amazing.
Being less than 15 minutes away from the closest beach is a blessing and a curse. We can basically go to the beach any time it is nice, and not too windy out. Coming from Wisconsin and an Atlantic coast with mediocre beaches, we are taking full advantage of the white sand and sparkling waters even to the detriment of our schoolwork :)
8 Things We Have Gotten Used To But Have Yet To Fully Embrace
1. Waiting for the bill
As you all know, we love to eat out and we do it often. However like most of the world, in South Africa when you are done with a meal you have to ask for the bill. It never will just come to the table after the food is taken away. Ever. This is a nice idea because waiters aren’t rushing you through a meal but we are too impatient to wait for the bill. At least I think that is our problem. Either way, we still don’t like it.
2. Transportation -Mini buses, Jammie buses, cabs, no car
The three of us are used to not having a car at our disposal, we have done it for the past 2 years. So coming here we knew we would have to take advantage of the public and university transportation to get around. Alas, it is still an inconvenience. BUT we aren’t letting us stop us from exploring.
The school bus is called a Jammie. Alex hates this name almost more than she hates catching one every day.
Mini buses are a HUGE mode of transportation. You can get just about any where in them, in fact I’m pretty sure you could make it across the whole country in one if you tried hard enough. They are big vans that stop and pick up people along their intended route for a low, low price (like $1 cheap). There is always one man driving the van and another yelling out the window announcing where they are going. It is this constant yelling that we haven’t really embraced but it no longer comes as a shock.
Cabs, we use more than the average person ever should but they get us everywhere we want to go.
Air conditioning, okay not a necessity we realize, but we aren’t used to sweltering heat in February and March.
A dryer. We share a washing machine with our neighbors but everything gets hung on a line in the backyard. On a nice, hot, breezy day clothes will dry in an hour. But these days are far and in between. Sometimes it will take all day for loads to dry. Annoying for sure.
This is only partially our fault, well my fault because I keep our back door open almost all the time. Kristine and Alex have both had cockroaches. I had a variety of little critters around my room and IN MY BED! I’m also the worst at dealing with bugs and I think the bugs know it. Last night there was a little praying mantis next to my pillow. Yuck. Gross. Ew. GO INTO SOMEONE ELSES BEDROOM!
5. Milk
We realize first that we are milk snobs coming from America’s Dairyland, so we can’t always expect the best. What we dislike about milk here is that is goes bad so quickly. On more than one occasion I have poured sour milk into my morning coffee without realizing it until later on in the day. Not a happy occasion. Maybe this is just saying something about all the preservatives that we put into our milk in the US but here milk only takes about 5 days for milk to go bad. Boo that.
We, thankfully, haven’t had any security breeches at our cute, little, innocent house. This however comes at a cost. Everything has a lock. Everything. So when leaving the house every lock has to be checked and the security alarm has to be set. To get out of and into our house you have 3 locks to get through. This becomes an annoying process if you are trying to run in or out. But it does keep our things and ourselves safe so we really can’t complain too much about it.
7. Internet
This has taken us the longest to get used to. Each of us, at the beginning of the semester, had to buy Internet packages from the wireless Internet provider in our house. We bought, or so we thought, we bought enough “credits” that would last us through the semester. FALSE. We have become less conservative with our internet usage and it is eating up our credit. Some of our favorite sites NYTimes, the iTunes store, Facebook, YouTube, People.com, checking the NCAA bracket are what we call internet suckers. Uploading or downloading info drains our internet quota. South Africa is working on expanding their internet bandwidth, especially in time for the World Cup, but it has a ways to go until it is up to par with other parts of the world. Until then it’s expensive and on occasion very slow.
8. School, it cramps our style. Enough said.
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