Wellness in Africa

I found free hugs in Africa! 

As some of you may know I was in a Peer Health Internship for 2 years at UCSB. One of the things we did a lot was give out free hugs. Seeing this guy on the street really made me miss Wellness!If you ever have the chance to wear a free hugs tee or just hold up a sign I recommend it! 

I found this guy during my weekend trip to Hermanus, a small little beach town about an hour and a half from Cape Town.  It was a great get away full of whale watching, sea food, and wine. 

School is quickly coming to an end, I have three more weeks of lectures and then three weeks of finals. Seems absurd that they last that long. I never thought I say I miss the week of hell that is finals week back home, but I'd rather just rip of the bandaid and get it over with. I'll be done on Nov 14, and then I'll finally have the summer that I left when I came to Cape Town mid July. Can't wait!

Cheers!

Spring Break Safari

I just got back from safari, best 10 days of my life, no doubt about it.  I’m still in awe when I think back to what my trip entailed. 

I’ll start from the beginning...

I chose to go on a guided tour over my school’s spring break instead of planning and traveling through Africa independently.  The trip left from Cape Town, up to Johannesburg, drove through Botswana, up to Zimbabwe, and left from Zambia. 

We left at 5:00am Saturday after school got out, and met everyone from our trip.  I knew a few people on the trip including my housemates Eva and Senta, but most people I got to know as time went by. 

Team Elephants

That night we drove into Botswana and saw our first African sunset outside of the city. It was beautiful. We played the Lion King soundtrack, followed by Shakira’s “Waka Waka”. I finally felt like I was really in Africa, and classic me, I teared up a little from happiness. 

We arrived at our first campsite of our trip and was greeted with an African feast.  It consisted of a lot of meat, and other mystery dishes.  I cut out early that night, tired from the traveling.

The next day was another day of driving. Six long hours. I was really sick the whole ride and just sat there not talking.  We finally made it to our second campsite, Delta Rain.  Senta came up to me after being at the campsite for less then an hour saying she threw up. Turns out we both had the same sickness, I got sick only 10 minutes after. What makes this funny, is we both got sick on the same anthill.  Thankfully it was only a 24 hour flu, and we were back in action the next day.

sickes by the anthill

We were off to the Okovongo Delta for a 2 day camping trip.  We jumped on a truck and met up with our polers.  These people live in the local village and take groups of tourists out into the delta a few times a month. This was one of the highlights of my trip. We had no plans, only 2 days of relaxing in the delta.  

In the Delta we went on game walks were we spotted our first animals: elephants, wilder beast, antelope, and zebra. When we weren’t tracking animals we spent our time swimming in the delta and giving ourselves “spa” treatments in the mud. It felt great to be this carefree after a few weeks of grueling school work. 

the best sunset I've ever seen

The last night in the Delta our polers bid us farewell with a traditional performance. They were great and even got some of us to get up and dance with them.  We put together a farewell from them as well, not as cool but it’s all we could do. We sang “Lean On Me” and “In the Jungle”. 

The next morning we reluctantly left the delta. It was sad to say goodbye to all the polers that had been so great to us, but I was excited for what was coming up next in our trip. We were on our way to ZIMBABWE!!

We drove into Zimbabwe and got to our campsite right outside Chobe National Park.  That day we went on a boating safari, aka booze cruise.  This also was a highlight of my trip. It seemed so strange to be sipping on wine with friends, and at the same time seeing a herd of elephants. Strange, but awesome. We saw so many animals!!! 

The next morning we left for a game drive at dusk.  Once again we saw an amazing amount of animals, all from pretty close up. The only animal I really wanted to stay far far away from the whole time was the baboons. I’ve heard they are really violent, and they always seem to eye me.  I wouldn’t doubt that they would jump up at the truck at any moment. I felt a lot safer around giant elephants than those little baboons. 

deceivingly cute

The one animal I didn’t see on this trip that I really wanted to see was a lion. Half of our group did see three female lions eating a buffalo carcass, needless to say I was jealous. But you can’t always know where wild animals will be. Oh well, I saw the pictures.

That evening we drove up to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It was absolutely amazing, waterfalls and rainbows everywhere! We even ran into a wild warthog on the path.

At Victoria Falls there are a lot of activities one can do. Bungee jumping, level 5 river rafting, etc. But I decided to get a massage and a mani/pedi.  It was such a relaxing day.      Later that night we went on booze cruise #2, our group really likes boats. We saw a lot of animals again, but it’s weird how quickly you can become desensitized to the sight of an elephant.  

The next day we went to the African craft market.  The only money I had on me was 50 pula (about $7.00) and 5 Rand (less than $1).  Luckily, this market accepts trade.  I brought a lot of my first aid kit and some cheap earrings.  I came out with 6 great beautiful souvenirs, I was proud of my bartering skills. 

My final activity of the trip was the Gorge Swing.  Some say it’s scarier than a bungee jump, but I haven’t done that so I couldn’t say. All I know is I was frozen in fear for 3 seconds of free fall.  I wasn’t that scared leading up to the jump, but once we got clipped in and felt the tension of the rope I completely regretted my decision to sign away my life on a waiver.  The rope guy counted to 3 and Eva and I jumped, it was crazy!! I’m proud of myself for not having to be pushed off. After the initial jump we just swung back and forth across the gorge, which was beautiful. 

The next morning we headed to Zambia to catch our flight back to Cape Town. This trip really was the best trip of my life, it’s hard to describe in this blog. There is so much more I could write, luckily pictures say more than words.

Trust me I'm a scientist

I haven't blogged in a while, whoops! These past 2 weeks have been so hectic with school.  I am taking 2 two science courses, and 1 social science course while I'm here. The students in my science courses are all well-trained science people, lab coats and all. Back in Santa Barbara we didn't take lab (especially bio lab)  too seriously so it's taken some adjusting. 

On Wednesdays I have my marine bio lab which mainly consist of looking at cool specimens and we have a worksheet of some sort. Personally I'd rather use google pics than go into a lab for 3 hours, just saying.  So in these "serious" labs all my fellow students have on lab coats because apparently some dead algae and microscopes are something to worry about. 

I learned there is a such thing as a "scientific drawing", I thought I gave up on my artsy side by getting a BS. So the lab says draw this specimen blankity blank.  Apparently I didn't do very well, good news is that it doesn't count in the course grade.  

Below is my beautiful artistic rendition of a kelp, check it out. You be the judge

I take the rest of my school seriously, I am a senior and everything. But who would have thought I'd be judge for a drawing. Lesson Learned

Now that my little rant is over....There are things I love about my classes here. I get to take a cable car up table mountain and collect carbon dioxide levels up the gradient of the mountain. Cool right? Undergrads hardly get out of the classroom back home.

 UCT definitely wasn't the easiest school I could have chosen to go abroad to (it's the #1 African University) , but I don't regret it for one minute

I'm off to Botswana and Namibia tomorrow! I'll have a lot to share when I get back :)

Road Trip

This past Tuesday was National Women’s Day in South Africa and we had school off, so naturally I skipped class on Monday and took a road trip.  The road trip we took is called the Garden Route. It follows up the east coast of South Africa including any stops on the way.  We left from Cape Town and went all the way up to Tsitsikamma (below Port Elizabeth on the map, its not the red line). There were 16 of us, 4 cars. 

The weekend began early on Saturday morning. I woke up to a filthy “after friday night party” house, cleaned a little and then went to the rental car company in downtown cape town. My roommate, Emily, reserved an automatic car for the whole weekend. Turns out she couldn’t be the driver for the car, so I had to sign the papers as the primary driver. When I found this out I’m pretty sure my face went white.  I’m a great driver in the states, on the right side of the road, but I was not prepared for the left side especially in Cape Town. I reluctantly pulled out of the parking lot, turned a corner, and immediately scratched the hub cap on the curb. whoops! Emily took the wheel for most of the driving and I was perfectly fine with that :)

left side of the road baby!

ag lands

The drive was beautiful and showed all sides of South Africa.  From miles of native vegetation, agricultural land, suburbs, and settlements. We pit-stopped a couple times in towns were English was defiantly the second language, with Afrikaans being dominant. We drove for maybe 5 hours and finally made it to Mossel Bay stopped for dinner, and then onward to Wilderness. Yes, Wilderness is a town not a description.

view from Wilderness Hostel

Wilderness was amazing!! I had an image of what a hostel in Africa would be, and it was blown out of the water. This place was perfect.  Right on the beach with a bar, fire pit, and breakfast ready for us in the morning.  The day started out great, we walked to down the railroad tracks. I felt like a hooligan, but the train wasn’t running anymore so it wasn’t that cool.  We walked through a tunnel and came out the other side to a cave/house/craft fair.  There is a man that lives in a abandoned cave where a restaurant used to be when the train did run.  He now collects things and decorates his cave. He homes home less people for the night and runs off tourist donations. We were lucky to see this place because it isn’t the kind of place that is published in tour books.  We walked back to the ocean views of whales waving in the water. It was a beautiful morning.  

walking on the railroad tracks 

whale waving at us :)

the cave

We reluctantly drove away from the beautiful hostel and made our way to Knynsa where we met our elephant friends.  The park rescued orphaned elephants that have been found in the area. We were able to feed, hug, and KISS the elephants :)  I loved one of the baby elephants a little too much and to tusked me in the stomach lightly, I think it was over taking pictures with me. This was my favorite activity of the weekend by far!

Sally and I

The next day the group split up. Half jumped off a 215 meter bridge, and the other half did a canopy zip line tour. I’m was not mentally prepared for jumping of a bridge so I went with the latter. On our way there we stopped in Nature’s Valley (like the bar haha) and ran in the Indian ocean! The water wasn’t too cold and the beach was deserted and beautiful! The canopy was really fun and a lot of the ticket cost goes to good causes like feeding local school children, HIV/Aids support, and local employment initiatives. I love when there are simple ways to give back here. At times I feel stupid being a tourist here when there are so many people who live in extreme poverty and can’t even enjoy the beauty in their own country because they spend their time working hard for their family. 

Indian Ocean!

Canopy Tour

Our trip was coming to a close, all we had left was to “caress” cheetahs.  We couldn’t take the main road to get to the park because it was closed, so we had to be inventive. We ended up driving 2 hours on a dirt road. This was the most pristine nature area I’ve seen so far, the only visible human impact was the one lane dirt road we were taking. It looked like a scene of Jurassic Park, I was just waiting for a dinosaur to pop up from behind a bush.  

car after the dirt road

We finally made it to the Cheetah park and took a tour.  I was a pretty disturbed of how they kept the animals here.  The animals were held in small areas in relation to their size and most are bred in captivity. It was basically a zoo that specialized in African animals.  The tour guides also was pretty strange, there seemed to be a goal of making the visitors scared of the animals. As if we should be glad they are caged or else they would attack us. In a way justifying how they keep these amazing animals caged all their lives. Even when we went to pet the cheetahs, they pointed at a small hill with rocks around it and joked it was where an old visitor was buried. As an environmental/ecology major I have a lot of guilt for supporting this place.  But its true I was amazing to be able to pet a cheetah while in Africa.  If I could do it again I probably would want to go to a more wildlife friendly place and accept the fact that it’s not a normal thing to pet a wild animal. 

It was an amazing weekend and I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer to get out of Cape Town and see more of Africa.  I am now looking into spring break trips (seasons are opposite here) to Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

Driving back to Cape Town

Minibus

In America we are taught not to get into big white vans when men are whistling at you, in South Africa this is the preferred mode of transportation. The vans known as Minibuses take you down the main road which all main stores and attractions are based from. We are all packed in like sardines and wondering how the driver was issued a license.  Today on the way to the Two Oceans aquarium in Cape Town we were lucky enough to have a hip driver. I took a little video but I missed the fee collector dancing. It was great :) 

I'm here to study? almost forgot

College is college no matter where you are in the world. The professor stands in the front and lectures monotonously for about an hour while the students stare back blank faced. It’s like this in Santa Barbara and it’s like this in Cape Town. 

Today was my first day of classes at UCT.  It started out early, my first class being at 8am.  Like Santa Barbara, math and science courses are often the earliest ones. I managed to catch the “Jammie” (the school bus) at 7:30am. I wasn’t sure where the stop was so I just followed all the people with book bags. Then like a typical foreigner I asked if this was how to get to UCT to the next person I saw. They responded with a polite “yes” but a look that inferred “DUH”.  

The Jammie took me to upper campus and my day began.  

A few things I noticed about UCT that differ from home...

1. Everyone knows everyone. A lot of the students take the same courses as their classmates all 3 years, it’s similar to high school in that way.  So I felt like I stuck out a lot, most of my classes have very few or no international students. It will be fun to meet and befriend all the Capetonians while I’m here. For one of my classes I actually have to do research with 4-5 other students and give a presentation. 
2. Everything is paper based, online registration doesn’t happen.  On my registration form I replaced one “3” in a course code with a “1”. Rather than a quick switch online I have to go find my professor, hope he is in his office, and have him sign a form.
3. Doors aren’t labeled push or pull. For some odd reason I’ve been pulling push doors and pushing pull doors constantly. It’s getting ridiculous haha
4. Campus is on a mountain.  The campus is beautiful, might even give Santa Barbara a run for its money.  But there are SO many stairs. I am going to miss biking to class.
5. Books are FREE. What a concept. UCT believes in an equal playing field for all. Personally I’ve known people who couldn’t buy their books until their next paycheck or financial aid went through. This can really put people behind.

This might be my last entry about school, its pretty generic.  South Africa has so much more to offer in culture and natural beauty, and that is defiantly why I choose here to study. 

                                                   On our way to Cape of Good Hope, Dutch Buildings

                                                      Cape of Good Hope with people from my house

                                                     Singing at Ida Coopers house

Welcome to Cape Town!

I’ve now been in Cape Town, South Africa for almost a week after 30+ hour travel time. This is my first time leaving the US (except for Mexico which is so close I don’t count it) and it has been a big step. After talking to other international students I realize I haven’t seen much of the world compared to them, I’m expecting culture shock to hit me pretty soon.  

Let me start with the South African accent....sexy. Boy did I choose a great place to go, it fun just listen to locals talk.  In places outside the University setting it can be hard to understand, for example in the very rural townships where a good english program is rare.  They also use quite a bit of slang here...

bru= bro, and it is not condescending. what a concept! 

braii= barbecue, and gas is a big no no here

robots= stoplights. cute right?

globe= light bulb. This one was pretty confusing during a conversation 

There are 11 national languages in SA so there is a lot to listen to and learn. I want to come back with a few words in Xhosa, otherwise known as the “clicking language”.

Now onto my new crib. I live in an old bed and breakfast, the old Charlton Hotel.  There is 20 rooms, but we only have 18 people in the whole house.  The place has a very old feel which is reflected by our lack of internet and testy electrical system. Our house has 2 large gates and a night security guard, Fariki (sp) to help us feel safe. South Africa, as you may have guessed, has a lot of crime. Mainly muggings and burgulry. Fariki was the one who tried to warn us with our first encounter with our local men in blue...

On Monday night my new housemates and I were having a cozy night in the house playing games and getting to know each other when hoards of other internationals came over. We had all heard this humor of a party at the “big house” and apparently that’s us.  So the party arrived, and our older neighbor called the cops for a noise complaint.  The place was cleared out rather quickly.  We had no music, no yelling, just conversation of 50 or so people. 

This week has been orientation and classes start soon. I’ve seen a lot of South Africa so far from the ritzy shops at the Waterfront, to the extreme poverty of the townships. I’m excited to be immersed in this culture, talk to locals, and experience as much as I can while I’m here.

 BTW...there are only two wires that connect the WHOLE content of Africa to the internet. Therefore, internet is scarce and expensive compared to the states. Something to get used to

anticipation

University of Cape Town

A little more than a month before I embark on the adventure of a life time. I don't really know what I'm getting myself into, but that's half the fun. 

I will be studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa for their Spring Semester, the UC's fall quarter. I hope to keep up with this blog while I'm away because I don't know how phone calls will work and facebook isn't any fun.  

This is my first time blogging so it might be a little messy and definitely will have typos, I'm a science major :) Bear with me...