Kaapstad Forever ♥
How do you deal with leaving a place you’ve fallen so madly in love with? I was having lunch with a good friend from Joburg a few weeks ago who asked if I would cry when I said my farewells… Well, that time has finally come, and I can vouch for the tears that have already been shed and for the many more that I am sure will come on the plane ride to Asia and when I finally land back in the States… I can’t believe how quickly this semester flew by, and I definitely can’t wrap my brain around the fact that I am LEAVING this gorgeous country TOMORROW… I’ve thought of several, mostly illogical, schemes of how not to leave Cape Town, a lot of them revolved around freak accidents and missed flights… But don’t get me wrong, I do miss home a little bit, and there are some things I am looking forward to: COAL<3, my parents, summer, Texas, Mexican & Chinese food, drinking legally, and Disneyland… but there is a level of unease too… I’ve built such a grounded perspective while living out here, and I’m afraid how quickly I’m going to lose that when I get back to the nonsense that is LA…
Leaving this time around is much more bitter than sweet, and I don’t know if it’s going to be a permanent “Good bye” or a “See you later…” But I hope to freaking God it’s the latter… I just wish that time would stop for me, even if only for the slightest of seconds just so I could enjoy the very little time I have left with the people here and to relive upon the great times, the ridiculous ones, and even the uncomfortable ones… My life has been amazing here, and I’m just not ready for that to end…
Just some things I’m going to miss…
- Hearing minibuses whistling and honking for people who need rides – listening to “Mowbray Kaap!” or “Wynbeeeerg!” being shouted at you will never get old. And on top of that, some of the cheapest public transportation I will ever find. 5 rand from Mowbray to Town? 6 rand from Town to Camps? Does it get any better than that.
- Riding the sometimes (or oftentimes) unreliable, crowded Jammie UCT shuttle buses
- The train experience! Getting fined R40?! Almost getting locked up?! ‘Nuff said.
- Speaking Xhosa to people – I think people are always a little surprised that an American can speak it! & those CLICKS!!!
- Learning all the Cape Coloured Afrikaans I will ever need to know in life (aka all the curse words…)
- Actually, just the Cape Flats humour in general – all that kak praat nie (=bullshit)!!
- The view of Table Mountain from ANYWHERE in the peninsula!
- Cape Town’s diversity : )
- Cape Malay food………mmmmmmmm… the curry, the stews!! I’m dying just thinking about it.
- The sketch side of Long Street!!! (aka the side of the club Joburg!) – my friend got mugged right in front of it and we saw the bouncers Beat. The. Shit. Out of the thief. Belt lashings were included…
- Soccer and rugby mania – all day, everyday!
- Running around the Rondebosch Commons and passing the “love is life” graffiti makes me smile every time.
- The sometimes annoying, but overall entertaining interaction between my little host brother (14 y.o.) and I – thank you for being the kid brother I never had! : )
- Confusing S.Africans if I’m Asian or American… or maybe both?! – I was at passport control, and the guy didn’t understand that I could be a Chinese-American!!!
- Pick ‘N Pay grocery shopping!!! But definitely won’t be missing buying airtime for my cell phone every few weeks.
- Walking up the mountain every day at school… such a bitch, but my calves have that to thank for.
- Monsieur Price – only the classiest boutique in all of South Africa ; )
- Driving manual on the “wrong” side of the road!!! : )
- The South African accent & -isms! It’s so hectic, hey (hehe)
- And, most obviously, all the new friends I have made…
Craig & Hash!
aw, my favorite twins! - Klang & Nda
the original gang! - Boka, Siya, Mzi, and Kiki
Guardian Angel driver, Fatima!
Earl & Andrew
Serame & Mercy
LBG security guards! Dominique & Owen!
Roh, Philip, and Mercy!
Quinton! CIEE program director!
Ameil!
Mercy and I enjoying the sun set
Aniqah & Gheeta!
my host fam - Margot, Andrew, & the dogs!
~anime~ hahahhaha
Beautiful people and beautiful memories. Thank you, Cape Town, for the best semester of my entire life. I will miss you all. <3
See y’all in Asia.
Revision Blues
Hello, from Social Siberia. I’ve exiled myself for two weekends in a row to revise for my BIO papers…
A quick guide for y’all scholars:
- Revise = study; eg: OMG, revising for Verts is going nowhere!
- Write = take an exam; eg: When are you writing BIO? I write Monday morning at 8…
- Paper = exam – all essay formatted; eg. Man, that Verts prac paper was such a trainsmash…
While I know my classes are pass/fail, there is (1) a part of me that can’t let myself completely blow it off, and (2) no way I could spin crap outta my ass for science anyways…
Naturally, though, I am procrastinating. One of my more notable skills. So here are two webcam photos of me reppin’ SA and CPT (overly cheesy, I know)
Life’s good otherwise! Barca beat ManU, my MAVS are in the NBA finals again (can we say 2006 rematch??), and I’m done writing this Wednesday! It’ll be a happy and probably tiring day!
Until then though, back to Verts revision. Cheers, y’all!
Battling Sharks & Life
I’ve been putting off the blogging, partly because of school, but mostly because I don’t want to accept the fact that I have only a month left in a country that I have fell so madly in love with. But this is not the time for reminiscing or feeling sad; like I said, I still have one month left, and much can happen in a month! So onward we push…
Typical, but a lot has happened since the last time I updated…
I’ve been so busy. School has been a little ridiculous, and I’ve been volunteering a lot. I go to clinics in Khayelitsha, a township near Cape Town, Monday and Wednesday nights and shadow clinical students around. It’s an experience I would never get in the States because I get to do some of the examinations and diagnoses. And in the off time, I get to practice a little bit of my Xhosa. : )
A few weekends ago, I went to Bo Kaap (literally means above Cape Town), the Malay Quarter. I saw all the colorful houses that so distinguish the area. I had some seriously stomach-satisfying curry (NOM NOM!), while overlooking downtown Cape Town.
I visited my host family in Ocean View again. Tommy and Cindy (my host parents) took us to Soetwater, and they let me practice driving manual on the way back (ALWAYS, ALWAYS a plus!!) Tommy talks so much shit, but it’s always a great time, not to mention all the delicious food we had – they made curry potjie for us. NOM NOM!
L-R: me, Cindy, and my friend Ro
And saving the BEST for the last… I finally went SHARK CAGE DIVING last weekend at Gansbaai!!!!!!!!! The one thing I HAD to do in South Africa is finally crossed off my list!!! Sharks, hands down, are one of my favorite, favorite animals. I waited this long to do it because I heard the best season to do it was near winter, and thank goodness I did because we saw about 8 Great Whites!!! I was worried I would get sea sick on the boat ride out to Dyer Island, but nothing to worry about!
I'm BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
: ) Classes are almost over, and only my Xhosa oral and my Verts 20 page report is standing in my way (well, there are those 4 finals too……) But I’m excited to see what this last month has in store for me!
Force of the Mice-Field
I write today on one of South Africa’s many public holidays – Freedom Day. I’ve been off school since Good Friday, then the weekend and Easter came, followed by Family Day on Monday. This coming weekend is yet another 3-day weekend due to Workers Day. It may not be great for the local economy, but I’m not complaining. : )
But even though I’ve had a week long holiday, my break has been far from the usual relaxin’, chillin’, and bummin’. One of the main reasons for my choosing South Africa to study abroad was to go somewhere that would further enhance and stimulate my interest in biology (my major). Back at USC, all of the bio classes I had taken did none of that. While the molecular and biochemical aspects are important to understand, it’s just not what I find exciting. In Africa and at UCT, the research in zoology is substantial. The diversity in animal life blows you away, and the evolutionary history of it all runs so deep here. What better place to go, hey?
One of the things I had really wanted to do was go on a field camp and do research (I’m such a nerd, I know), but I had missed both my chances during the mid semester vacation because of the Botswana camping trip. But this girl needed help with her thesis project during the week break, so naturally, I volunteered. We drove about an hour out of Cape Town to this private nature reserve called Jakkalsfontein. We spent 5 days setting up mice traps in three different habitats in the field, observing birding from an outlook post, and tracking the predatory behaviour between the two. It was a pretty interesting experience, and on some occasions, fun. The mice were really cute, but they generally shat/peed themselves whenever we caught them, which is pretty nasty.
don't worry! we released them!!!
What made the camp miserable though was the weather… As winter approaches in Cape Town, the rain and winds do too. We went out in the field whether it was rain or shine; otherwise the data would’ve been weather-biased. Each day, we were out in the field for ~12-13 hours, doing a mice trap run every 30 minutes. My clothes and takkies (tennis shoes!) got absolutely soaked and the cold and rain kept them from drying during the day. But, hey, at least, I didn’t catch pneumonia!
Otherwise, Jakkalsfontein was gorgeous. We worked right next to this private beach, and we got to see the sunrise and sunset by it everyday. (It’s interesting how I’ve seen more sunrises in Africa than I have in the States, eh?) And I further mastered manual driving – I understand clutch control and gearing up and gearing down. Going home and driving on the “normal” side of the car and road is going to take more getting used to. But that’s ages away, hey?
Well, I’m off to enjoy my last day of holiday.
Cheers. : )
In Love and Death…
Things have taken a turn recently. There is no easy way to deal with it, but I am still taking it one step at a time. I traveled a long journey to Taiwan this past weekend to attend my grandfather’s funeral and to be with my family. One of my good friends from home gave me words of advice and for coping. I’m summarizing it, but what she essentially said: “Find solace in knowing that his suffering has ended. Celebrate him. Laugh and cry, alone and with friends.” It’s really helped me deal with this. As they say in Chinese, 一路好走. It means, he has had a long and good life.
Not only that, but I think it’s in times like these when you realize what is most important to you and how far your goals and attitudes may have strayed. While I have felt significantly at peace here in Cape Town, I was still getting caught up in the small nuisances of day-to-day life. It is reminder for me to let it go and be grateful for the life I have been given.
Keeping it short and sweet; don’t want to bog anyone down.
Love,
Holly
BORDER CROSSING INSANITY
Sorry for being MIA! I’ve just come back from an AMAZING ten day camping trip in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The trip started with a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, meeting the rest of the crew (Harmony, our driver & Owen, our chef), and heading in our truck (AKA Armstrong) across the border to Botswana! The first border crossing was… tame. We walked into Bots, looking for crocs in the river and getting hassled by baboons on the bridge.
We made it into Bots, and the highlight for me here was our 3 day stay in a bush camp in the Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta in the world! We went on game walks through the brush, witnessed families of zebras, hippos, and giraffes, heard the roars of lions in the distance, swam in the freshwater pool of the delta, learned to pole makoros (wooden canoes), got freaked by a real thunderstorm (haven’t experienced one of those in a LONG TIME!) and a poisonous centipede, and witnessed some of the most breathtaking sunrises in the world.
Mokoros!
Giraffes & ZEBRAS
lily pad flowers!!
absolutely stunning
When we came out of the bush camp, we started our trek into the Zambezi Waterfront in Zam. A guinea fowl had flown into Armstrong’s front window, which was starting to cave in, and right before we made it to the border, the Bots police came aboard our truck, asked for all our passports, “fined” us for the window damage (strangely close to bribing…), and then let us on our way. When we finally got to the border, there was no bridge for us to walk across, but, instead, we had to wait for the ONE ferry to return from the Zambian side. We waited and watched Bots security guards carrying hugeee guns and asked when they used them last. Apparently, it was only the day before on a couple of elephant poachers… By the time we crossed, we were all a little tired and hot and found out we needed to wait another hour or two in the hot sun so Zambia could process our visas, but TIA (haha..)
My Zam/Zim experience was completely different from Bots. There was less moving around camp sites. We settled in the same site for three nights. I saw Victoria Falls from both the Zambian and the Zimbabwean sides. Two entirely different experiences, but it was definitely more of a view from the Zim side (they have ~70% of the falls). It was SO beautiful, and it felt great to get soaked in the African heat!
Zambia side
Zimbabwe side (+RAINBOW!!!)
I got heckled by market owners on both sides, who were overwhelmingly persistent in making sales of their crafts. Imagine… “C’mon! My sister from another mother, I support you, so you should support me!” being yelled into your ear every few minutes… On the flip side though, I got to walk and pet LIONS in Zambia!! (That makes my Big 5 count to 4 now… Seen leopards, lions, elephants, and buffalo… only need to see the rhino to make it complete)
such a cutie patootie : p
But hands down, my highlight of this part of my trip was the day trip into Zimbabwe. Vic Falls in the morning, the Zim market & visiting Owen’s home and family in the afternoon, sipping drinks at sunset at a ritzy lodge, and then a delicious and exotic dinner at The Boma! I tried and ENJOYED several different meats from croc tail to impala and kudu to ostrich and guinea fowl (PAYBACK!) to warthog. AND, I also tried Mopani worms, which was disgusting… The guinea fowl and the warthog steak were my favorites though. We were in the middle of an African drumming sesh with our stomachs happy, when we realized it was 9:15 PM and the BORDER WAS CLOSING AT 10 PM!!! We rushed into our vans, tumbled into immigration and got stamped out of Zimbabwe at 9:30 PM… but little did we remember, the distance between the Zim and Zam border control offices was roughly ~3 km (almost 2 miles!). Owen told us that it was possible to get caught in the middle and that we should run… And, man, did we ever. Running through the dark with heavy backpacks, with the spray of Vic Falls hitting us, trying not to lose our balance in our now slippery flip flops as we tried to avoid pot holes of muddy water, and NOT to mention, the ITIS that had slowly been creeping up on us back at the Boma… But we made it, just barely though! We staggered into border control at 9:56 PM!!!!!!!! Definitely, DEFINITELY will never forget this moment, and what an epic way to wrap up the trip. : )
Harmony, me, and Owen on the last day : (
Now back to lectures, practicals, and tutorials… Bring it UCT. I got this.
Home Stay vs. Home Stay
I just got back from a LEKKER (Afrikaans for good) weekend at Ocean View, a township where the colored residents settled after being displaced from Simon’s Town during the apartheid. While I love the home stay I’m in normally in Mowbray, I’m really glad CIEE planned one for us in the township. It’s given me a completely new perspective of life in South Africa, particularly in a colored community.
In Mowbray, I live with a white family – a mom, her son, and 2 dogs. It’s a small family unit, and we, on occasion, have other exchange students for shorter amounts of times. Just recently, we had a pair of Brazilians stay with us for three weeks. We have dinner together every night and have a Monday evening tradition of catching the latest Survivor episode. But mostly, it’s very similar to what I am used to back in Texas. I’m an only child, and I enjoy having my personal space when I crave it.
My host mom Margot, the Brazilians, and I celebrating their last night in CT!
In Ocean View though, the family is almost a small community. Grandparents, brothers, sisters, cousins all live down the street or relatively near by, and people are always walking into your home. Yet, as extended as it may seem, everyone is so tight-knit and close with one another. At first, it was a little overwhelming because it felt like everyone I was meeting was the 2nd, 3rd, even 4th brother of my host dad, but it didn’t take that long to get used to; what made it easier was that the family was relatively younger – in their 30’s to 40’s, and I could feel the age gap slip away when we talked.
My family for the weekend!
Overall though, both have been amazing and insightful experiences into South African lifestyle and culture. Although my home stay in Ocean View has come to a close, it definitely won’t be the last time I’ll be there; I plan to visit as soon as I can. As for my home stay in Mowbray, well, I still have until June! : )
