Quiet Week in the Southern Hemisphere

This week I was a little concerned I wouldn't have anything worth while to talk about on the old blog. But then... yesterday rolled around in classic Capetonian fashion with some good old fashioned insanity. The two stories from yesterday, as usual, revolve around the informal

salesmen at the beach and a minibus ride.

I'm unsure if I've talked about the informal beach salesmen before. But if I haven't they are the guys walking around the beach with coolers constantly yelling "IceCreamIceCreamGetYouMineralWaterIceColdCokeGreenNYellowLollies!" on repeat. All the time. You don't sleep on Cape Town's beaches. But anyways, I realized maybe an "IceColdCoke" would be a worthwhile purchase. So I wait about two seconds for one to come and harass us. I asked the man if he had any Coke. "Of course, my brother. But you must wait a minute." And he walked away. Left his coolers and just walked away. I watched this guy walk off the beach, up to a man sitting in a chair on the sidewalk. Talk with him for a few minutes and then continue walking. At this point I decided to find out where he was going. So I followed him. I followed him until he walked into a grocery store right across the street. This man was going into a grocery store to buy me a Coke and then sell it to me at a huge markup. So I set a limit of how much I would pay this man R15 (while they cost about 12 in stores). After about 20 minutes, he comes back with one Coke. "20 Rand, my friend"... "Sir, did you just go to the Pick N Pay to buy that Coke?".... "No! No! I take my job very seriously! I'm not trying to play anyone"... "Regardless, man, I'm not paying more than R15."....After much arguing he sells it to me for 15. But turns out he only has R3 change. (This is surprisingly common here, no one ever has change. I've had taxis drop me off and say they will call me later to get payment when they have change.) So I take the 3 Rand and he says he'll be back in a few minutes with my change. But then! All of the sudden the man has an epiphany. He sees my housemate Rune's R2 coin on his blanket. Picks it up and gives it to me telling me "Here is your change." You have to be kidding me right now. This guy just picked up Rune's money, while I was watching and tried to give it to me. Takes his job seriously my ass. After calling him on this he says he'll be back with my change soon. He didn't come back. But I was still content with the story.

My second story from yesterday comes from the minibus ride back. After getting dropped off at the taxi rank and being probably the most scared I've been here, going across the bridge with the touchy-feely homeless people, I get into a minibus via Wynberg(!) and we begin to drive off. At the first robot outside of the minibus rank, a man runs off the sidewalk and jumps onto the back of our bus as we continue to drive. (See Picture Above). This wasn't a joke to this guy, he rode for about three blocks and then just got off his free ride. The free rider situation was alarming to everyone on the bus, not typical behavior, I guess.

Asides from those things, this week was pretty slow. Had a nice hike up Devil's Peak, played soccer in the Cage a few times. The soccer in the Cage can either be tons of fun or the most frustrating thing I've ever done. There are about 30 guys there 6 teams of 5. You've got the Zambian guys (who are enormous), two teams of Americans, the old guys, the guys that call each other names of South African presidents. (They at least have someone they call Zuma and someone called Thabo Mbecki), and the team with the guy with the dreads. You play first to one goal, then the next team comes on. So if you are winning its great fun. But if you are losing because you are playing the teams that will just shoot every time they cross half field its beyond frustrating. No fun to play D if you know you're just going to be kicked.

Not getting service at this cafe even after asking for my drink twice.

Last weekend something I didn't mention, but amused me all the same and not really SA specific. Were my two run ins with hardcore alcohol abuse last weekend. Both pretty scary, both rather funny. 1.) My friends and I went to Cafe Sofia to catch a soccer match, we get there about 4:30. At about 4:45 this table sits down right next to us. They order some beers. Nothing exciting so far. Then about 10 minutes later, I notice one of the guys sleeping. Now this Cafe Sofia is not a quiet place, the game is on high volume, people get really into the games cheering and what not. But this guy sleeps on. For the entire game. I figured he must have gotten bit by our old friend the TseTse fly ( I don't think they have those in SA) but sleeping sickness seemed to be the order of the day because he was OUT. About the 90th minute of the game. He starts to rise. Now the not so funny part starts. He starts throwing up all over the restaurant. It was vile. The manager comes over, tells his friends to escort him out. On his way out he can barely walk, but the one thing he can do is, grab his beer on the way out the door. That amused me.

Second incident. This was at the balcony lounge of the Waiting Room. A very crowded area on top of this bar. Everyone is talking, everything is fine. Until BAM! this one girl just falls over. Just 100% passes out, while she was standing up. I'd never seen anything like it. So everyone is in a general panic now, get the staff, call an ambulance! But then this Mexican kid, Pablo walks up to her and just starts speaking Spanish. And by some crazy stroke of insanity, she gets up starts talking to him in Spanish and doesn't even seem to be drunk any more.

Weird.

Around the World in 80 Days starring Jackie Chan is a terrible movie.

Middle of the Week Blog Update!

I was feeling literate today so I figured why not do a middle of the week update.

And DANGER FREE! I know this will ease at least my parents minds.

I'll do the daily rundown:

For all intents and purposes today began around 2am, thanks to my room's (this country's) lack of air conditioning and certain past incidents forcing me to keep the windows closed(tired is better than robbed), and a mosquito intent on keeping me awake. So I woke up to buzzing and sweat at around 2. Tried to read/sleep for a while, but the mosquito would get to the buzzing every time I laid down. So it came for Operation Nate-i Freedom. I mounted a full-scale offensive by removing myself from my bed, turning on all the lights, and sitting in the corner where I could see all the white walls (and hopefully the mosquito in contrast). I sat for about 30 minutes until the damn thing bit its last bite and I squashed it. The surge was successful.

Regardless of my victories with the mosquito, the heat kept me up until 5. I had 9am Xhosa Tutorial so this was not a good day to be kept up.

Woke up around 8:30 rushed out the door. Remembered the 1000 person Jammie Shuttle queue from last Tuesday, spied the same 1000 person queue for the Jammie Shuttle, and decided to do something I hadn't done yet. Walk to class. It's about 10 minute walk up the mountain. But I got to class with a profound sense of accomplishment for 9am and smelling like sweat.

Xhosa tutorial bugs me to no end. After my awesome professor I have for the lectures. I have the absolute opposite kind of tutor. She's only a second year, younger than me. Doesn't speak the language natively. And teaches things incorrectly, most notably the "q" click. She does it totally wrong. If I've been taking this language for 2 weeks and I can already tell she's doing something 100% incorrectly, she should not be teaching me. So that makes me crazy.

I'm really getting the hold of Xhosa grammar. It's pretty straightforward if you know the rules. Fluid speaking is still to come, the sentence structure is so different I can't really think like a Xhosa speaker yet. But I am starting to understand what people say occasionally, I read some signs, and can write some stuff. We have our first test Thursday, so we'll see if I'm as confident then. The vocab is challenging, but you can usually just throw an "i" or "isi" in front of a misspelled English word and have Xhosa reader understand it. Examples: itren (train), Ndishap(I'm sharp) , isiFrentsch (French language/culture), and I may have posted this earlier but my favorite isiteydiyum (stadium).

Language related side-note: I was recently wondering why I have had such a hard time learning other languages (in my limited experience), the conclusion I came to is this. As an English speaker abroad, asides from immersing yourself for the sake of immersing yourself in a language, there is really very little reason to totally immerse yourself in a language. Everyone can speak English almost everywhere. Though I consciously try to stop myself with my limited other languages (the occasional Spanish, and starting recently my limited Xhosa), my brain defaults to speaking English to everyone knowing they will probably understand me and respond adeptly in English. Makes immersion difficult. But I'm trying.

Next thing for the day was African Instruments. Had our full ensemble class today, played the West African Djembe drum. I still don't have rhythm, but I still love the class. I look forward to the marimba tomorrow, you need less rhythm. I don't have an ear for this percussion stuff at all, I just constantly cheat by watching the people in my group and hit when they do. I guess it's not cheating, but it's not how it should be done.

Next was a cup of Ricoffy. I don't know what that is. But I bought it when trying to buy coffee the other day. It's like instant coffee + chicory. It's okay. But I don't think they sell real coffee at low prices, it's the same with orange juice. You can buy 100% Orange (and other juice) Blend with the top ingredient being (I kid you not) Apple and/or Grape Juice. They do this to save money, I assume its the same thing with Ricoffy.

Then I had Inkanyezi. Went to the township. Got a new, better behaved group. Still with absurdly high expectations for their lives (nuclear scientists, dental technicians, surgeons) and they all plan to go to University next year. I can only imagine that won't happen for many. A little bit heart-breaking. But the workshop we had today (goal setting) was fun. I helped them fill out the forms and they helped me learn some more Xhosa.

When leaving the township, I came to a strange realization. Every other building was a barber or (bar bar) shop. The market is totally over-saturated with haircutters. No wonder these people aren't making any money. Okay that's obviously not the reason (and maybe a little offensive), but it's still very odd to me why 4 neighbors would decide to open up barber shops right next to each other. My friend Aluta said it's the easiest thing to do and there are lots of heads to cut. I guess. If I was this poor, a haircut would not be at my list of to-buys.

After Inkanyezi, I went to what I thought should be Social Soccer Club. When I arrived it was Second Team Trials / Practice. Something I was not going to waste my time with. So a few other Americans and I (really confused why there was no social soccer today) decided to go play some African guys 5v5 in this little 40m cage nearby. Tons of fun. We smoked them. 10-2, 10-7, 5-3. But that's not the important part, the important part is why we smoked them.

As we played these guys, one thought when through my head. It was something my housemate Andreas had told me when we watched Africa Cup of Nations. African footballers never make the smart play. They have pace, strength, and power. But never make the smart play. When I heard him I kind of brushed the thought off and continued to watch Ghana rip shots from 25m out every time it got the chance. But watching these guys play today, it rang so unbelievably true. This is why there are no great African teams. The way soccer is taught here involves lots of dribbling and shooting, but no passing. These guys would always make the same play, dribble up the wing and either A.) cut in one touch and shoot regardless of the situation or B.) trying to out dribble the defender. Never pass back, rarely make a smart cross. Bafana Bafana will not make it out of the group stage in World Cup.

One more small observation people talk here to talk/converse. People in the US talk to be heard. It's a big difference. People here talk really quietly, but everyone understands everything. Americans talk loudly. That's number 1 way to pick them out of a group. That and lack of shitty Euro mullet.

And I can't get used to saying colored. It sounds totally racist to me. But it's 100% acceptable here. I've said that before but will say it again.

Yesterday reached the pinnacle of lazy. I ran 3 miles in the scorching midday African sun. At the end of this I saw the minibus taxi rank. Ran there and rode back home. Too hot for running. I think Lil Wayne was in my taxi.

Few days ago I had a moment of true serendipity. Realized I'd taken many courses about Africa. So I began to wonder is Conn had a minor or something I could take a few classes for. I pulled up the requirements for the major/minor. Turns out I'm only 3 courses away from the major. So I think I'm going to do it and be a International Relations / Africana Studies Major and Anthropology Minor. I'm excited about this.

Well.

Sala Kakuhle! (stay well)

Sobonana! (We'll meet again)

In the infamous words of Ice Cube...

..."I didn't have to use my AK, I gotta say it was a good day"

Quite an accurate description of my weekend...for more than just the good day part.

So Friday my housemates and I decided that Muizenburg (beach with the shark flags[sharks!]) was the place to be. And being the place to be, we had to be there. (Sorry, I'm feeling a little story-teller's block) And in order to be there we had to take a train from our house to there. So we walk down to the Rosebank train station, incident free. Go into the station, to the ticketing booth, buy round-trip tickets. Then are told the train is on the other side of the tracks. Okay, no problems there. But the only way to get to the other side of the tracks is to take the subway. South African subway is not like New York subway. It's literally a sub way. An underground walking tunnel. As we walk down to the subway, we see a sign dictating proper subway etiquette. When I say that I mean it was more a set of pictures of things you cannot bring in the subway. They included: Axes, Bombs, and AK-47s. The fact that someone felt the need to include an assault rifle on a list of things you should not bring somewhere is actually horrifying.

Travel to Muizenburg was largely uneventful. I had a conversation with a South African woman who tried to tell me how bad South African public transport is. This is a sentiment I've heard many times here, and I just don't agree at all. I have never had a problem getting anywhere I wanted to go. Minibuses to the City Centre and Claremont, Trains to the beach, Cabs to Long Street. I don't know if minibuses and cabs count as public transport. Cabs probably not, minibuses maybe. Regardless, it's very easy to get anywhere you want to go for very little money in a fairly reliable way. Round trip for the 45 minute train ride to Muizenburg is 11R = ~$1.50. And the trains run about every 15 minutes. Things aren't that bad here, people like to complain (somethings are universal).

Muizenburg was phenomenal. Tried my hand at surfing. Had to be deceitful to get a nice discount. Said I was part of the UCT surf club and got to rent a board for R50. Lots of fun, but I think the waves were a little too choppy, as opposed to wavy. They didn't crest, so it was difficult to ride them for long. But, I did get up briefly and I will try again. Other highlights of Muizenburg, as always, involved the shark alarms going off as soon as I got out of the water. I live in constant danger.

Went to Long Street for dinner on Friday night. Went to a Kurdish restaurant with a belly dancer and no chairs. That's one way to save money, buy cushions for chairs, but not the chairs themselves. Realized I'd never eaten lamb before, or at least I don't remember eating lamb. It's my new favorite meat and I will eat it whenever given the chance. Did the Long Street thing after dinner, went to my favorite spot... The Waiting Room. That place is top-notch.

Yesterday, went to Camp's Bay beach. It was scorching hot. 92 degrees. No real highlights, I decided I want to do that thing where you jump off a mountain in a chair with a parachute, and fly around a bit. I don't know what it's called, but it looks like a lot of fun.

Other highlights from the week included: dropping South African Politics (it was too awful for words) The man also expected that we had a strong base knowledge on SA politics; for instance before reading the articles I was supposed to just understand that the B.E.E. was a failed initiative. That was just an unrealistic expectation, and the professor was horrible. I think I'm going to go pull the international student card and try to pick up a class this week. Not sure what though, possibly linguistics. I need to look through the course catalog.

This week also marked the beginning of my volunteer work with Inkanyezi. Went to the school today and tried to "wing it." They gave us very little guidance. I think the itinerary looked something like this.

Introduction 10m

Explain the School Commission 10m (what is this??)

Make rules and group contract 20m

I hope they give us more guidance next time. The boys were rowdy. But it was still fun. I spent just about the whole time discussing their favorite South African soccer teams. Mamalodi Sundowns! Woo! When I say discussing I mean I would have to ask them to repeat themselves several times before I got the gist of what they were trying to say. I think they speak English, but aren't confident enough with it to speak loudly so I can understand them. And they have tough names aka names I'm not used to and with the quiet voices, I may have them make name tags for a few weeks. I remember GS, Siphe, and Jacob. The rest, I've got no idea yet. I go back on Tuesday.

Also I played the giant African marimba this week in my instruments class. It was awesome. Played it with 5 other people at one time. My rhythm seems to have improved a little. I could play this at least respectably (aka not the worst of the 6).

My genocides class is awesome. I love it.

Xhosa is a challenge. But I'm getting it. I was excited to be able to read a sign this weekend. It was obviously very simple just said "abantu" -- "people". It was still cool. Have a test on thursday, we'll see how it goes. I'm fairly confident of the basic stuff so far.

This was a pretty lame post. It doesn't at all give me the feel that I've accurately described the great times I had this week/end. It was a fantastic week/end.

Oh yes! One more thing I wanted to write on. Pricing in restaurants. It is not consistent at all with prices on the menu. For instance, yesterday I ordered a beer that was listed as R18, but it came back as R27. Complaints fall on deaf ears here. It's not the African way, I think you are expected to just roll with it. It happens all the time. That was the largest discrepancy I've seen yet. But it's like a dollar.

Sometimes Africa's Pretty Scary.

A UCT student was stabbed to death last night in a neighborhood I regularly eat dinner in. Was planning on going there tonight actually. I guess the lesson learned is if someone tries to rob you, give them your stuff. Or you could be killed. Literally. Security risks are of grave concern here. I wonder if this is the norm all over Africa or just here. I hope the latter, expect the former.

"I'm From Durban...Where people shoot each other"

Molweni! (Xhosa for hello - plural)

Xhosa is coming along well, still in my infancy learning the language. But I had my first comprehension experience which was very exciting (As people were slow to get off the bus, the driver began to yell "PHUMA!" (Get out!) Also, had a greeting with a native speaker that I met at Inkanyezi (more on this later) all very fun.

I'm now trying to wrap my head around the rules of the language. They can get quite confusing... Class 9 verbs in the singular begin with "in-" unless the stem begins with a nasal sound, then it would begin with an "i-" also if the stem begins with a labial that requires complete or partial closure of the lips. The noun will then start with "im-". So rules, yeah.

Yesterday, I had some of my most surreal Capetonian experiences. Said experiences were bookended on one end by a trip to Clifton Beach (one of the "Best Beaches in the World"... I agree) and a trip to a McDonald's drive-thru at 4 in the morning in a cab to satisfy my Swiss house-mate.

I'll start from roughly the beginning. The trip to Clifton Beach was rather uneventful. Minibus Taxi to Cape Town Taxi Rank where we quickly realized that as white men we stood out horribly. Noticing this, and assuming we had no idea what was what, as soon as we got out of the first minibus the driver turned to us and said, "Hey my brothers, R100 to Camp's Bay!" Needless to say, this is a horrible ripoff and there was another minibus 50m away that goes directly to Camp's Bay for R6. So got on the bus in the taxi rank (Side note: this place was unbelievable, hundreds ... if not thousands of minibuses, sitting in the line up, getting washed, or just parked) to Camp's Bay, unswindled and without further incident. Spent the part of the day at beach, I didn't get great pictures but I'll post them somewhere at some point. At the beach, I had a very peculiar incident with a guy selling ice cream. There was a man selling ice cream, coke, water, etc. and normally they just prowl the beach (not selling anything to anyone). But this guy, stopped by my side, knelt down and said the following words, "My brother, I'm not just an ice cream man, I'm a nice guy" then he just walked off. To me, this seems to violate the whole beach salesman policy of not talking to people unless you expect payment. But it happened and was only the beginning of my strange day at the beach.

After this Rune and I decided to walk down to Camp's Bay and get something to eat. As we walked down, we stopped at a, for lack of better word...cove...called...Maiden's Cove... Here we ran into a man and his wife who were sitting in their car, yelling "Here! Help us here!" I was skeptical of this and saw it as a way for these guys to rob us. But, Rune walked over to them and they informed him their key was stuck in the ignition and the wheel was also locked, so they were stuck at Maiden's Cove with the key in the car. Strange.

But one we continued to Camp's Bay, and went a really posh restaurant (more posh than we thought originally). As we were seated the hostess brought a cocktail menu and as soon as she placed it the waitress had descended upon us and demanded drink orders. I failed to cope with this high-stress situation and quickly asked what beer they had on tap...None... Oh no! Well what about bottles?... "Everything"... Okay what about Urquell... No... Okay so now really stressed I pick up the drink menu and with complete disregard for price or what I was ordering I noticed the word mint and went for a mint julep.... Well I will never order one of those again. It was like drinking a bush. With sugar. Essentially unpalatable until all the ice had melted. But then, I was still drinking a bush. So much foliage.

For food, I CHOSE to be lured in by "South African Dishes" and got the Trio of Game. Medallions of ostrich, kudu, and springbok. All three were delicious, I highly highly recommend springbok though. It was cooked beautifully and was so deliciously tender. Great meal. The low light of the meal was finding out the mint julep was R44 (like $6), while Rune's two Castle Lagers totaled only R28 ($4). But still overall a cheap meal by US standards but I'm getting used to this rand stuff and R165 ($22-24) for a meal will soon be unreasonably expensive.

After dinner, we went back to the beach and got in the water for my first time here. Camp's Bay is supposedly always too cold for swimming, but this just did not apply yesterday. Perfect temperature. Then, as was the order of the day, more weirdness began. More beach salesmen peddling their shit (that's what it is, garbage) approached us and this is essentially what took place, "Oh, my brother, would you like this painting?"... Having seen one of these guys with the exact same stuff last time I went to Camp's Bay I decided to play with him a bit... "Who is this painting of?" ... "The Masaii, the tallest people in Africa"..(Important side note: these guys love to tell you they personally made all the stuff by hand)... "But don't they live in Kenya and Tanzania?" "Oh...yes...What about this sculpture?"... So then I asked him about this table that I saw one them peddling last time I was at the beach, he calls over his buddy who is supposed to sell me the table that folds up. I engage in a long talk with the guy about this table and how it folds. Then he tells me, if I go back today, he'll have finished a table and be willing to sell it for R250. I mean, he's already made it, but he just has to carve all the animals and sand it down.

Next event, the trip back. I'm almost certain this guy was not a real minibus driver. He didn't have a guy yelling out the window or collecting money, he recruited the passenger in the front seat to do this for him. I took it that this was not normal, because the guy in the front seat looked really uncomfortable turning around and saying, "You need to pay..." But we did and it was only R6.50 (R1.50 PRICE HIKE! WHAT!). Anywho, this ride was not worth that extra 1.50 everyone had to pay, we hardly made it over the mountain, I was shocked we didn't break down on the way up. But we did, and then I got the next indication this was a rogue taxi operator. We asked to go to the minibus rank, but he dropped everyone near the rank. Near certainly being the operative word there, because what ensued was my second scariest experience in Cape Town. We exit the bus and a woman shows us where the rank is, across the bridge over the road. As you ascend the bridge, you descend into what I refer to now as "The Gauntlet of Poverty." The first thing I saw was a woman selling corn out of a garbage can (It probably didn't contain garbage, but...garbage by any other name would still smell the same) Then I walk past the people selling roses, and all kinds of things, and pass a homeless man who asks for R2. I don't give it to him, but he follows me across the bridge. So I quicken my pace a little bit and as I'm swinging my arms I hit his hand.... which is now... ON the zipper of my backpack. So I hit his hand away and pick up the pace a little bit and exit the bridge. But man, that was almost robbery part II. Terrifying stuff.

After the Gauntlet, it was back to the rank which at this point felt like the nicest place of Earth. We quickly loaded 19 people into a 12 person taxi and proceeded onto the Wynburg line. The optimism that these drivers have is great, already at least 7 people over capacity, they then attempted to get a group of 6 more people to get into the cab... They refused. And 10m down the road they tried for 2 more people... They also refused. But it was still fun to watch.

Last night, went out... blah, blah... club... Etc. Nothing of note until the ride home, where we met a pretty cool cab driver. He claimed to be from Paris, but he only speaks Swahili and English... Not French or South African languages... Strange. But he taught me Asante sana (squashed banana) it means "Many thanks" in Swahili. He also got a big tip(more than 10%) for taking us to McDonald's drive thru at 4am.

Inkanyezi training was yesterday. I'm really excited for this, I start Tuesday and I have learned very little except what to do and not to do if someone comes to me with confidential, personal information. I guess it's on the job training. Should be really cool. I'll post about that when it happens.

Well. Sobonana!

I've been here a month on Wednesday... This is going by too quickly.

I'll Check on that Immediately but..... There's no rush.

Scholarship "began" at UCT this past Friday.

When I say began, I mean 3 of my 4 professors did not come to class. The reason for having classes on that Friday escapes me anyways. I can't imagine what must have transpired in the administrative scheduling meeting where the result was Class Friday the 5th, but rather than using the Friday timetables, they decided to use the Tuesday timetable. Oh well. I wasted a day wandering the campus.

Speaking of campus, coming from Conn, everything here seems enormous... Buses from Lower Campus to Upper Campus are essentially a requirement (15 minute walk otherwise... and who wants to leave that early?). And the student body is huge, walking around the main plaza, I can see a group larger than Conn's entire student body at any given time of the school day. Overwhelming.

In terms of actual classes, South African Politics and Genocides in Africa seem to be the same story. Classes I could have probably taken in the states, with better professors. Both of the seem to also have attracted all the international(American) students. I figure this is because all of us felt that this would give us a chance to study controversial or exciting African issues with actual Africans, but ironically, the classes just attracted Americans. Should be fine though, interesting subject matter. Oh yes, and also for my genocides class, someone brought up the point that we could not sign up for tutorials yet. His response epitomizes South African, "I'll go check immediately, but there's no rush... Tutorials don't start until next week." aka "I'll go check now now" aka "Shut up, Yank."

My other two classes, Xhosa and African Instruments. I am real excited for these. Getting my first taste of Xhosa, and it's got quite a nice sound to it. That's really all I can say right now, outside of in the first lesson we learned: "Ndicela ukuxhela." Or in English: "I politely request to slaughter." Awesome. Glad we got the essentials out of the way. I don't know how to say "My name is Nate," but I can kindly request to kill. Nice.

Instruments, I've not had a class yet. But we did have an informational meeting, where I learned my lack of musical experience was not going to hold me back (allegedly) and the instruments are awesome. I don't know the name of it, but the African style sitar looks like it's right up my alley.

And at this point in my stay, I've bought out the local store's stock of Pepsi Max. Disappointing. Glad they have it for cheap here though.

Other than that, phenomenal weekend with no real low lights.

49 Children...

Asides from the debacle that was classes today.... I had 1 of my 4 scheduled classes was held (Xhosa) I've learned two words "Come" and "earing"... Solid start. I'm really excited for that class. Should be a great semester academically. The other professors decided not to show up. Awesome. Also awesome, books here are free.

The best news I have for the day comes from Yahoo... As soon as I read the headline, I know exactly where it was coming from. I'll leave you with this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100203/od_nm/us_minibus_odd

Wine Tours Are A Waste of Time.

I think the word "waste" that more or less sums up my day.

The Stellenbosch Wine Tour. Beautiful country, and I am sure the wine was great, but my pallate just is not there. Run through of the day:

8am : Leave for Stellenbosch

8:45 : Arrive at a parking lot at which point the driver turns around and asks where we are going... This is, of course, after we were told that this company has a standard tour around Stellenbosch. Calls to the company are made and we discover we have 5 wineries to visit around the area.

9am: Recieve our first batch of 6 half glasses of wine, are taught "proper" wine tasting technique, and are told "Don´t spit it out, making wine is hard work." Not sure if he is serious. But, nevertheless, we take this to heart.

Wines are tasted correctly with proper cheese accompaniment. Hints of dark chocolate and stirred fruit... Wine fortified with brandy really hits the spot before 10am.

10am: Six half-glasses of wine down, head to second winery... 6 more half-glasses of wine... Wines stop being tasted are now being drank.

10:45am: Five more. This was about the time we all realize that the proper tasting technique probably involves only a sip or spitting out the wine after its been tasted.

11-5: Lunch, realize that we've had too much wine too early in the day, also realize my palate is not nearly sophisticated enough for this hobby, go to a chocolate tasting (was phenomenal), call it a day.

So the long and short of it is: I don't like wine nearly enough to spend money tasting little bits . it all day long, never listen to someone when they tell you not to waste wine at 9:30 (no one should be drinking at that time of day), Stellenbosch is a beautiful part of the country, and dessert wines are delicious.

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Today was another not so exciting day. Went through UCT's silly process of having to go to the ITS office so they could give me a password...so I could change it. It would make much more sense to just give everyone a general password upon arrival (or inform us of a user specific one during registration, rather than queue for 20 minutes and have it take 30 seconds)... I bought a new cheap computer... Nothing too exciting... Except I'm the only one who can watch SA DVDs.

My new favorite ridiculous thing is Cape Town has been discovered. "Security Guards" and "Parking Specialists." I say this with quotation marks because these people don't actually have a job (no quotation marks) they are actually homeless (no quotation marks), they have just bought ("found") neon green vests and as soon as someone tries to park they run to the parking space and wave the person into the very clearly available spot. Then they stand by the car and expect a tip. Also fun are the guys with neon vests who try to direct you to a spot where "the minibus taxi can see you," these spots are sometimes alternatively referred to as "anywhere along the side of the road." So as you are standing, waiting for the bus, they will approach you, encourage you to move 5m down the street and then ask for a tip. Not to mention asking for a tip is simply not how it happens.

Had my new favorite minibus trip today (I just love the minibus and intend to open a business down at the Jersey Shore [it would work perfect, one long main street + cheap transport + reckless driving + great characters = wild success]) it was 20+ people (so at least 8 over capacity) and a hilarious driver. He pulled up in traffic next to a Castle Lager delivery truck with canvas sides, pulled back the siding and presumably reached for a beer. Didn't get one, but it was a quite a show.

Got my schedule today. Classes meet a lot here. I have 8 meetings of Xhosa a week. So much for 2x 75 minutes at Conn. What the hell is this tutorial stuff anyways.

News in SA is also way more exciting than US. The Cape Times is always good for a laugh, a shudder, and a general good time. Best part is: as of now, no Afghanistan news. I've recently read a story about a building whose construction was ordered shutdown because no plans for the building had ever been stated or submitted (Oh! Reminds me of my favorite man made landmark!). Another involved Zuma's new "love-child." And, of course, "Girl, 7, wanted to be raped." Her teacher said she was acting precocious. Well. There you go. Rather horrid stuff.

My favorite man-made landmark in Cape Town, by far. A highway bridge in the middle of the city. You may ask, "Nate, what is so interesting about a highway bridge in the middle of a city?" Well, my friend, the answer is it's missing a section about 100m of it. So in the middle of the city is a bridge missing a 100m section. Apparently the story (or what I understood from the cab driver) was that they had planned this about 10 years ago and started building; while building they realized they were out of money and stopped. When they got money again... there was a man who had moved into the space the missing section would occupy and refused to move. And as one of my housemates said, "I guess South Africans have a thing with forced removal," so now...there it stands. Unfinished for the last 10 years. And probably without much hope of completion.

Well time to fire up the braai.

Angola Has Arrived

I name it this, because that's my current catch-phrase. Thank you Africa Cup of Nations (worst sports tournement ever). I don't know where Angola has arrived but when players are being killed on the way to the tournement, it appears to me that Angola has arrived absolutley nowhere. Again, making me shiver at the idea of millions more tourists coming to this continent with (probably) little regard for the safety issues. We shall see.

Very little to note in the past few days.

I had a great long talk with a few Zimbabweans at a bar the other night. R7 drink specials really brings out the deepest political discourse. But, honestly it was nice to hear both sides of the story. I feel in the US, we really do get a biased view of many world issues and traveling outside I think I am getting a much more comprehensive of some of them. For example, one man I was speaking with was a supporter of Morgan Tshangari and the other a supporter of Robert Mugabe. The Tshangari supporter did say what you would expect him to, "Look what Mugabe has done to the economy," corruption at every turn, etc... Generally what we hear in the states. But the other man, as flawed as I felt his position may be coming from a US-style political ideology, argued that Mugabe was a national hero who has made a few mistakes as "all great leaders do." He argued that Mugabe's status as national hero was cemented after his dealings with post-colonialism and getting the land back from the British. According to this guy, Mugabe still has huge support in the rural areas (I presume because they aren't maybe as impacted by the economic downturn [read: disaster]) He said that all Tshangari's support is in the cities and they control the media. I don't know, he sounds pretty bad to me. Where I come from, when someone gets over one trillion times inflation, they probably don't deserve to be reelected. Eh, oh well. But, hey, it was interesting to hear the guy's point of view.

Asides from that, classes start Friday. Very excited for them.

We are doing a Stellenbosch wine country tour tomorrow. Should be a blast.

Still riding the minibus, still loving it.

Malls are still expensive. Lacoste polo shirt: R950. That's well over 100$. I guess I don't shop there in the US, and I guess that's why.

Slowly replacing all my things, got a new phone for 20$

Signed up for clubs/societies today. Signed up for soccer club, Mountain and Ski Club, and interviewed for a mentor position in a group called Ubunye. If I get the position, I'll go into townships and help mentor 12th graders on the possibilities after high school. Sounds like it could be a very rewarding experience. Hope I get it, will find out Saturday.