New Place, Same Blog

Sorry about the lack of posts at the end of my stay in South Africa but school started getting more hectic and I didn't go on anymore vacations so there wasn't anything big to write about. I did rent a scooter the last day I was in South Africa and drive up and down the Western Coast. I only fell once and I recommend everyone take a ride on one at some point in their life. I spent a week at home last week but some joked that I wasn't really at home for most of that time, and while I was in Iowa and Wisconsin for part of the week I did spend my fair share at home.

I woke up with plenty of time this morning to finish packing but I ended up making pancakes and thought I had an extra half hour so I ended up leaving for my 1:10pm flight at 12:10. I missed my flight (for the first time in my life even though I've had many close calls), but I'm glad I got to learn how to deal with a missed flight when I wasn't really in a hurry. Apparently as long as you show up at a ticket counter within 2 hours after your flight they will put you on another flight free of charge. I was originally flying into Dulles which is not so easily accessible to DC so I was able to change to the 2:55 flight to Reagan which is on the Metro and much closer. I was second on the standby list and even ended up with a window seat.

I took the Metro to GW, walked to New Hall where I got my keys, and then found my room in Ivory Tower without a problem. My roommate, Sam Ramos, was there to show me around and soon my apartment-mate, Seth Goldin, emerged from his room. We went to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Georgetown. I've never been to one before and it was pretty good and very similar to other Asian food. Sam had a shopping cart he got somewhere so we used it to do some quick shopping before the grocery store closed. Pretty sparse grocery store but I'll check out Trader Joe's tomorrow which should be better.

I start Tuesday at Planned Parenthood so I have all day tomorrow to get acclimated. I should be able to get around DC without my iPhone by the weekend.

First Week Back

The rental car company couldn't make it to pick up our car Saturday and because of Easter (and Monday being a public holiday as well) they weren't going to pick up the BMW until Tuesday. There were so many things I wanted to do with 3 free days and a car in Cape Town but we all had too much homework to fully take advantage. We did get to use it a few times though. Saturday night, Ayano, Lexie, and I went out to dinner at Theo's Grill in Mouille Point (on the beach near Green Point). I satisfied my taste for game (some Kudu steaks) and Lexie satisfied her taste for fish. We even played a little South African mini-golf but it turned out to be too difficult for us and we quit after 9 holes.

Sunday Lexie and I drove to V&A Waterfront to have breakfast at a delicious breakfast place she had looked up that was supposed to be by the Aquarium. We couldn't find that but I remembered the Pancake (Crepe) restaurant I'd seen with my family so we went there instead. The pancakes were almost as thick as flapjacks (American pancakes) and were quite good but of course nothing compared to my weekly pancakes back at home. Monday the car was off limits as Kate, Lexie, Aissa and I all had a project due for Psych the next day that we needed to finish. Once I was done with that, all I had left for the week was an easy Politics test.

I thought the politics test was Wednesday but it turned out to be Friday at 5pm which was nice because it gave me another 2 days but who wants to take a test at 5pm on a Friday! It counted for 20% of my grade but they pretty much handed the test to us on a silver platter. 10 definitions, give an example for each term, here are the 40 terms that might be on it. All it took were some notecards and a few hours of studying and I could easily break 80% and possibly hit the elusive 90% (70% is an A here, 80% is an A+, >90% is unheard of as a final grade). I think it went well.

From ANC Rally

Wednesday I walked into my politics class and heard kids talking about Julius Malema coming to speak on campus. Julius Malema is the leader of the ANC Youth League and is probably more polarizing, charismatic, and even scarier than Zuma himself. My politics professor came into class and asked us all what we were doing there when real politics was happening on campus. People told him that the venue was too crowded and they weren't letting more people in. I decided to go anyways and found one of the largest lecture halls on campus not only filled but with probably just as many people in the hallways and overflowing onto the street outside the building. Then several ANC supporters began singing a tribal song and doing a circle dance. It grew into a large group of about 25 and they kept chanting louder and louder until finally someone came out to say that Malema would be speaking in another venue on campus in a half hour. I walked over there and waited for the circus to begin. Jameson Hall, one of the other enormous venues on campus, quickly filled up. An even larger group than before of Zuma supporters came dancing into the hall, chanting at the top of their lungs. They walked down the aisle and then came to the front and posted a banner which read "Fight! Produce! Learn!"

From ANC Rally

Malema came in a little later and spoke for about 10 minutes but was barely understandable over the roar of the crowd and on account of the fact he was speaking through a megahorn. A few funny quotes I heard were "ANC's going to win a three-thirds majority!" and that the ANC would offer all Africans free college educations.

Spring Break

Saturday

From Safrican Spring Break

We left at 7:30am and drove on the N1 heading towards Gariep's Dam, 8 hours away. Everyone had told us that traffic was going to be terrible since it was holiday all over the country and the road between Cape Town and Joburg was always bad. Turned out to be great with some construction but no traffic. We realized about an hour or so into the drive that the rental car company never gave us our papers to cross into Lesotho (proves the car's not stolen). We got them to fax it to where we were staying but first we had to figure that out. We wanted to stop in Gariep's Dam for dinner and then drive the next couple hours to Ladybrand, right outside Lesotho. After a few calls we had booked ourselves into a guest house called My Housy in Ladybrand.

From Safrican Spring Break

Gariep's Dam was beautiful and a preview of beautiful sights to come. We found a bar to eat at, not a great first dinner with pretty awful service. Then, we started driving at around 8pm to Ladybrand. We soon realized why the GPS was telling us to take the long way around, as the shortcut was a dirt road. We still beat the GPS's projections and got in around 10:45pm. My Housy turned out to be the nicest place we stayed on the trip, as it was originally R390 per person. On the phone, I had heard her say that it was R390 for the room not per person. I was able to negotiate it down to R1000 total so R250 a person. Everyone loved the included breakfast and it continued to be brought up every time we had a sub-par breakfast. She gave us some tips about Lesotho and ended up only charging us R200 per person, quite a bargain for the breakfast and great accommodation.


Sunday

We drove to the border in the morning and it was expectedly a bit confusing. We had to get out of our car twice to get our passports stamped. They never actually checked that we had stamped our passports at the gate though. We also turned out not to really need the documents the rental car company had faxed over.

From Safrican Spring Break

We drove around Maseru, the capitol and only actual city in Lesotho, and headed towards the dirt road. The 65km of dirt/rock road took us 4 hours to drive through and was the most challenging driving I had ever done. At some points we were going 10 kmh literally driving over boulders. The worst parts of the road were actually the paved parts because they were filled with huge potholes. At least with the dirt roads they could just send a bulldozer and smooth it over. We got to the top of the hill with Semonkong Lodge at the bottom and realized there was no way the BMW was getting down that hill let alone up it the next day.

From Safrican Spring Break

We sat there while Evan walked down the hill and asked the lodge how they expected us to get down the hill when they had assured us the sedan would be able to make it to the lodge no problem. They ended up finding someone in the village to watch the car for us while they drove us down in their 4x4. We dropped our stuff off at our Basotho hut where we were staying and went to go train for the world's longest single drop abseil (repel) in the world. They had us abseil down a 20 meter rock face three times, making it harder each time. The training was a good time in itself but it had started to rain and was cold so we stopped in the bar for some hot cocoa.

We met a family who was staying there who ended up giving us some great suggestions for the rest of our trip. The father was Swedish but had lived in Lesotho for a good portion of his life and had met his wife Ruthy, an American from North Carolina. He had hiked all through the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa on the eastern border of Lesotho, and suggested we hike up to Amphitheatre, basically a rock formation that was in the shape of an Amphitheatre with the world's second highest waterfall. We made that our next major destination and planned the rest of the trip around it.

Dinner was ok as we had to eat at the Lodge since there wasn't really another option. We went to bed early because we were leaving for abseiling at 7:30am the next morning.


Monday

From Safrican Spring Break

After a mediocre breakfast, we got in the 4x4 and took the 20-minute drive to maletsunyane waterfall. We hiked with our gear on horse-back for about 15 minutes to where we would descend. The view was magnificent, incredible, beautiful, there really aren't enough words to describe it. We just sat there struck by our surroundings while they set up the equipment. I was last to descend and though I was able to control it most of the way down, it got quite wet near the bottom as the waterfall sprayed to the side. That's what happens when you abseil down the one of the highest single dropping waterfalls in Africa.

From Safrican Spring Break

We had an hours hike back to the top and Ayano hadn't been given a raincoat to go down and was feeling some mild hypothermia. Once we got to the top she had warmed up and was fine. It was a great hike and the whole experience was well worth what we thought was R600. When we checked out and they told us it was R750, I was a bit surprised as it had clearly said R600 on the website. Turns out we were supposed to look at when the site was copyrighted (2007) and that it had been too difficult for them to update the price for 2 years. They were not willing to compromise at all, claiming we should have asked. We were pretty pissed and my review of the lodge quickly went from 5 stars to 0.

From Safrican Spring Break

We had lunch in town where the only thing on the menu was chicken (cold and slow but good), then I drove us back through the mountains and then back down to Maleala Lodge. There were much better roads to Maleala and only a 7km dirt road. They had saved us dinner and we all collapsed in bed around 10:30.


Tuesday

From Safrican Spring Break

I had another cereal and bread breakfast, trying to eat as much as I could since the pony trek would be 3 hours without food. At around 9:30am we all climbed on our horses and rode off into the mountains. I had been pretty excited to do pony trekking as it is one of the major attractions in Lesotho, but it turned out to be a bit disappointing. The guide did not say much unless it was to yell at us for letting the horses eat. We met another woman once we got to the top of the gorge, and she led us down to the caves to see the Koi San paintings. We stopped at the first cave for what I thought was a break but turned out to be where some paintings were but none of us could see them. Then she showed us two other caves farther down where there was an abundance of paintings. It was pretty cool seeing something that was painted 27,000 years ago, but I think my dehydration and allergies were getting to me and I was not enjoying myself. We got back and I had some water and showered and felt much better.

From Safrican Spring Break

We stopped in Maseru for lunch, first sitting down at a hotel restaurant where we quickly realized nothing was available on the menu so we left. We ended up at a pizza place which was exactly what all of us needed. Evan did the rest of the driving to Clarens (2 hours from Maseru). We got to the town around 6:30 and entered on a back road into a sketchy neighborhood. Once I called the hostel owner and got proper directions though we realized the town was just as nice as the guide book had said. It was definitely a tourist town but it was cute and consisted of lots of restaurants and shops all around a square park. It took us a little while to find someone to give us our keys at the cool but abandoned hostel, and then we drove back into town for dinner. We ate at a great italian place, a little pricey (pricey here is $8-10 per dish) but well worth it.

Wednesday

I woke up and made pancakes (crepes) for everyone here in the hostel kitchen and afterwards we went into town to explore Clarens. We found a great cafe with free and unlimited internet (a rarity in South Africa, I think it might not have been the cafes internet), so I camped out there planning the next day while everyone else went shopping. We had lunch at the cafe too and then got back on the road.

From Safrican Spring Break

First stop was Golden Gate National Park, a beautiful park that is supposed to contain lots of animals (not the big 5 though). We did see some antelope but not as much as the guide book made it seem. The views were well worth it though and we had to drive through it anyways. From my research, I knew there was a resort right next to the base of the Amphitheatre hike but I could not find any information online or a working phone number. We decided since it was early in the afternoon we would drive the hour or so and just hope they had space available and it wasn't too expensive.

From Safrican Spring Break

It turns out it was a little on the pricey side (R240) but after some calculating by Evan everyone decided it would be fine since it was pretty convenient. The Witsieshoek Mountain Resort was pretty run down but we managed to make the best of it. They let us cook our own pasta in their industrial kitchen which was a lot of fun. I also borrowed some flour and made flat bread for us and the staff. Without that it would have been a pretty awful place, but the views and the dinner made up for it.

Thursday

From Safrican Spring Break

We had breakfast at 7am and we were on the road by 8. It was another dirt road, in pretty bad condition, but at least it was only 10km. The guy at the Sentinel Car Park told us that we needed a trail pass but we had come in last night after hours and there was nobody at the guard house to purchase one. I talked him out of making us go all the way back to the guard house and get a pass.

From Safrican Spring Break

The hike was 3.2 miles each way and scaled about 500 meters. It took us about 2.5 hours to get up and about 2 hours to get down. The views were of course spectacular and at only one point as we climbed 50 meters on a chain ladder was it scary. You can view the hike here, as I used my iPhone to record the way back with GPS. Amphitheatre is basically a large rock formation in the shape of an Amphitheatre and is one of the most photographed parts of South Africa. The Tugela River falls down the face of Amphitheatre creating the second highest waterfall in the world. It was most definitely worth my 4 and a half hours.

From Safrican Spring Break

We returned to our car around 2:30pm, drove through the last dirt road on our trip and made it to Bloemfontein for dinner around 7pm. We ate on the waterfront, very similar to the V&A waterfront in Cape Town but on a lake instead of an ocean. I had found Jazztime Cafe in our guide book so we ate there but we were a bit early for the music and the food was not so great considering there were so many better options in the mall. We did get to eat outside though and we had pretty much skipped lunch so it was just good to eat. We drove for another 2 hours to Colesberg and stayed in a small house that was sparse but clean and everything we needed.

Friday

We drove to breakfast at 9am in town but forgot that it was Good Friday and nothing was open. The gas station had a Wimpy (basically a Denny's) which had a surprisingly good breakfast. We had left Colesberg by 11am and drove straight to Stellenbosch arriving around 6:30pm. Stellenbosch is the wine capitol of South Africa with many vineyards but also a nice downtown area with lots of great restaurants. We settled on a cafe/restaurant and all had delicious and fast (a rare thing in South Africa) meals. We went next door for dessert at another cafe and toasted to a fantastic holiday.

Quick Weekend Update

I don't have much time because I am meeting my family in Simon's Town to go see the penguins and then to have dinner with my homestay family in a township called Ocean View. We had a great weekend first bungee jumping, then going on two safaris, and lastly spelunking. It was a great 4-day vacation (though it may have been the longest drive our family has ever done), and there are some great pictures to see (there you are Carol). I'll write some more later.

Family

From The Fam's First Day

The family got in this morning and I met them at the guest house they're staying at. Unfortunately it's about a 15-minute walk from my house when there are a few guest houses a few minutes away but we booked the guest house before I even knew where I was living so it's not that bad (and only for one night). We went to my favorite restaurant in Rondebosch, Addeso, an italian restaurant with a nice outdoor tent on the sidewalk and amazing sandwiches (Ethan didn't think so but he doesn't know what he's talking about). We took the cable car up to table mountain and the guy told us to let go of the handrails and all of a sudden the floor started to move. It was a rotating gondola! Cool, but kind of made me dizzy. The top had some great views and you could see all the way down to Cape Point and the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and we were not prepared so after about 45 minutes at the top we headed back down and to the beaches of Camp's Bay. We had some hummus and pita watched the sun begin to set, and ended up getting the same cab driver for the ride home. We picked up some food for braiing and made ostrich burgers and lamb chops at my house with 4 of my friends. It was a great time but the jet lag began to set in and they went back at 10. We're leaving tomorrow morning for the Garden Route, go check out the pictures from today!