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.