INDIAAAAA.
So I woke up and went to get breakfast around 0800 or so, and then snuck upstairs in a group so I didnt have to wait for Aegean Sea to be called dead last, as per usual. The immigration officials gave my passport a big ol purple Chennai stamp, and after a while I wandered outside onto the patio, as the ship hadnt been cleared yet. There were a couple of drummers and pipe-players down below us, playing for us. Chennai was muggy outthe sky is a dusty kind of orange, and there are modern buildings everywhere, as well as random Indian spires, a total mix of cultures and influences.
Never have I ever been in a more humid place. It isnt even as hot as India typically gets, but youre still just dripping sweat just standing in one place. Julie and I decided to walk around outside before going back at 1:30 so I could latch onto her Chennai city orientation she was doing. Chennai has ironically been the safest port weve been toyou need to carry your passport and customs form at all times, and there are two checkpoints just to get out of the port area. So there was a huge line that it took us like 45 minutes alone to get out of. A group of Indian people were clustered around a fence to our far right, and whenever we looked over and waved they would get really excited and wave back. When we finally got outside, we walked for a while along the port areaeverything is traintracks, broken-down buildings, and garbage is everywhere. Upon passing the second barrier, we were bombarded with auto-rickshaw drivers trying to get us so they could show us around for only one dollar! This was a level of annoying I was used to, because when we were in Ghana everyone would always be coming up to you with bracelets and stuff and trying to sell them to you or get your name or whatever. Still, at a certain point you would think that they would just realize that we just wanted to walkwhy on earth would we change our minds after saying no to the first ten drivers?
We quickly learned whyits a far walk to get anywhere. You pretty much need a rickshaw to get you somewhere, as the main street we got out on doesnt have any shops on itjust a couple of parks and some bus stations. So we headed back after a while to hop on our city orientation bus, which only had like two other studentsthe others were all just faculty and lifelong learners.
First we headed off to around where Julie and I had been walking around nearFort St. George, which contains St. Mary's Church and the Fort Museum, all of which reflected the days of British India. We had to go through security, and unfortunately for me I had forgotten I still had my pocket knife in my purse. They put it aside and said that I could get it when I came out again. We walked over to St. Marys Church. While en route, I looked up to see a crow poop mid-flight. Immediately, things hit slow motion. I tried to dodge out of the way, but I was promptly shat on under the right arm. Luckily Julie had hand sanitizer and Kleenex on hand. The church wasnt anything particularly special, to be honest. It was a white cathedral that had a couple of grave slabs out front. Inside, an Indian man in a white button-down shirt was speaking to his congregation through a microphone. He was speaking in Tamil, so I couldnt be sure of what he was saying, but he was yelling pretty angrily. It was kind of awkward. Next we went to the Fort Museum, which was basically a bunch of statues and paintings of fat old white guys. There was a neat area that had all these old gun, cannon and sword relics, where there were a few really cool blunderbusses. I was trying to be interested, as British India IS part of Indias history, but I wanted to see India for its own culture.
It took a while, but I bullied the guards into giving me my pocketknife back, as they tried to pull the oh, its not in the pile, someone must have taken it already trick. Being as that at this point Ive gotten pretty bullcrap savvy, I pestered them long enough to check everywhere, and lo and behold, it was in a drawer at the deskfancy that. We hopped aboard the bus again and drove past the Marina Beach, which is one of the longest beaches in the world. It was long and was just a huge beachlots of people were out there, though the most interesting part was seeing all the fisherman shanties that were built along the beach where people were selling fish theyd caught recently. Goats and dogs littered the streets, as did crows watching the fish being chopped up. At the end of the beach was a statue of Ghandi with his walking stick. (Dont patronize me, Charles!) The guide kept trying to point my attention to the university on my right, the senate house, a former palaceand I glanced there way, but I was too enthralled with the thatched houses on my left, tiny stalls selling beads, huge looming slums underneath apartment buildings.
We finally reached our destination, which was San Thome Cathedral. Its said that the apostle Thomas was buried in India as he was killed here as a martyr, and this is where he was buried. We went down to see his tomb as well as the little holy relic that was besides it. I felt really awkward there as a tourist when there were so many people around praying, but that wasnt nearly as awkward as what happened next. We entered the cathedral, where there was a FUNERAL PROCESSION TAKING PLACE, and walked along the wall and into an adjoining room. I didnt know why we entered the churchit just seemed really strange and disrespectful, even if we werent in their space or anything. In the side room there was a dog laying down, getting out of the heatlooks like even pups are welcome in the house of God when it comes to India.
FINALLY WE WERE OFF TO SOMETHING I WANTED TO SEE! The ancient Kapaleeshwarar Temple, which resided in the thick of the city and is the oldest temple in Chennai. It is predominantly for worshipping Shiva the destroyer and his wife Parvati. The entrances to the temple are marked by these huge, towering pyramids full of colorful figures and scenes from Hindu legend, topped with the heads of dragons. It was incredibly beautiful and absolutely astonishing to see the level of intricate detail. It reminded me of a giant Lego tower, because of how beautiful it was. :) We took off our shoes and entered through the pyramid to the inner temple courtyard. There were many one-room temple buildings speckled around that were shrines to different gods. Ive already discovered that my absolute favorite is Ganesha, who is the elephant headed god of good luck, compassion and beginnings. We wandered around outside, and peered into the main temple room, which was marked with a sign that said HINDUS ONLY. I watched an older woman light an oil candle on one of the trays nearby, and when she noticed me watching her, she said something. I cocked my head, indicating I didnt understand, and she clasped her hands, like in prayer. I smiled widely and nodded, and she walked away. :) There are lots of roosters and cows around in the temple areaI didnt realize that taking pictures of cows is actually illegal (as they are holy animals, the bull being Shivas animal), so I actually took a couple pictures of cows. Whoops.
Anyway, it was an amazing temple. Driving back, Julie and I realized that we hadnt eaten lunch and were starving for an Indian dinner, so when we got on board the ship, we had a couple of our guides recommendations in tow. We badgered Jared until he finally agreed to go with us and then headed out, hoping in a rickshaw for a place called Woodlands. We told them one dollar each for us to get there, which is high in itselfwed been told that you can get anywhere in Chennai for a dollar. Still, they agreed, though the switched rickshaws several times.
Rickshaws are bright yellow death traps. They are also the most exciting method of transportation ever. Theyre always dodging in between cars, honking obsessively, and swerving around. I would lean practically my entire body out the door frame and would have to dodge back in. After we were in the rickshaw for about a minute, the man immediately asked where we were going again (as we had switched drivers a lot). We told him and he said immediately that he wanted five dollars each. Now that was absolutely ridiculous, and we refused. I told him repeatedly that if he didnt like it, he better not expect us to pay him it, and that if he had a real problem with it he might as well pull over right now and let us out. He would only shake his head in response and keep repeating.
Chennai was really pretty by night. We crossed a bridge over a still river that smelled intensely of sewage. But anyway, when we got there we held out our three dollars and he started giving us crap. I started arguing, and then Julie just grabbed the money out of my hand, threw it on his seat, and walked away. We followed, and surprisingly the cab driver didnt follow us in. He was probably just thinking we would be pushover Americans, I guess.
The restaurant was amazing. I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, which was only two dollars, but due to a language barrier it didnt come, so I just ate my butter naan and dipped it in Julies curry she got, as well as ate some of Jareds fried rice. SO GOOD, though I was sad I didnt have a full meal. Because we wanted to avoid the cabbies outside, we called a cab from the hotel and had an adventure trying to get back to port, as the driver didnt speak English and thought we wanted to go to the airport as opposed to just the regular port. When we finally got back it was late, though not too late, so Jared, Julie and I found Bryan and made him play Loaded Questions with us! It was very delightful and made me miss my people at Chaptown. :)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
October 22 2010 / Chennai, India
Monday, October 25, 2010
October 20 21 2010 / MV Explorer
First of all I cant believe that there are only like six of each classes left. Um, wat. After classes were finished on the 20th, we worked all night on our Sea Olympics preparations. At first I was incredibly not into the preparations at all, because our Sea Meeting was super stressful. I dont know why, but our LLC (Living Learning Coordinator) always says very anxiety-inducing things as opposed to just letting everything go and us having a fun time with everything. For our banner, we decided to incorporate a bunch of different things into an amazing bit of nonsenseGreek letters spelling out AEGEAN SEA, with marble pillars on the side, with a SEA MONSTER in the middle (that is, of course, purple!). The sea monster turned into an octopus and its super awesome. We had some artistically talented folk draw it while I helped color in the lines (although Jared quickly demoted me, because I am not good enough at coloring in the lines, it seems). Jared and I sat on the steps of Deck 2 and wrote the words to our chant. I had the idea to remake the YMCA song into the AGNC (which sounds like our sea name). Here is the final product, if youre interested:
Club Med, theres no need to feel down,
I said, Bering, get yourself off the ground,
I said, Baltic, make sure not to go drown,
Theres no use to be on your sea.
Yellow, theres no place you can go,
I said, Red sea, when youre short on your dough,
I said, Nomer, when your joints start to grind,
And well be having a good time
Its fun to live in the A-G-N-C,
Its fun to live in the A-G-N-C-eee.
They have everything, that you would want to do
You can hang out with all the crew.
Its fun to live in the A-G-N-C,
Its fun to live in the A-G-N-C-eee.
Theres no need to be green, or a terrible teal,
Purples cute as a harbor seal,
Its fun to live in the A-G-N-C,
Its fun to live in the A-G-N-C-eee.
A-G-N-C!
(Yell this loudly and strike a sassy pose. :D)
As you can clearly see, this is the best chant to ever exist. Our duties done, we went to sleep around one or two in the morning.
The next morning Julie and Jared and I got breakfast together around 0800. There was a small child who delighted in terrifying me by creeping up on me and making hissing noises. He was being a cheetah, which I suppose is excusable as that was a favorite pastime of mine when I was that age as well. After breakfast I took a nap, and then Julie and I lipsticked AG NC on our faces. We also busted out the acrylic paint and smeared it on like war paint, much to Jareds horror, as apparently that kind of thing is not good for your skin. We met on our Deck 2 space, taught the chant, and went upstairs. I brought the paint, which was utilized by everyone. Everyone was slapping handprints on each other and writing AGNC on their arms. It was totally badass. People were talking a lot of smackour team, to our credit, was quiet, but filled with spirit! Deck 2, hangin with the crew is my favorite chant, followed by Purple is the way to be, we are the Aegean Sea. At the rally, all the other seas chanted like summer camp kidswe were the only people who came up with our own song.
After the rally we went upstairs to see the Synchronized Swimming event, but it was too packed, so I just went over to cheer on AGNC for limboEllie and Julie were both doing it, and they were doing AWESOME! One person got into second place from our sea. We then did Tug of WarI screamed my heart out! We beat the toughest team but then lose in the final round because we had to go repeatedly without stoppingif wed rested we probably could have won it. At this point we had placed in everything, and were losing only to the Caribbean Sea. Being as that Im never on a winning team in anything, I was incredibly excited. Julie and I went to watch the Lip Synching competition nextit looked like so much fun! There was a Holding Out for A Hero, Ours was most certainly the bestit was a mashup of Single Ladies, Bad Romance, some Britney Spears song I dont remember (an older one), Genie in a Bottle, I Like Big Butts that transformed mid lyric to some Justin Bieber songit was just incredibly glorious, and then to Thriller!! It was OFF THE HOOK. I wish I had signed up for it, all the dance moves just looked like they were so much fun. We placed first, ~*~naturally.~*~
We ended up getting beaten by the Caribbean Sea, which made me kind of grumpy because I felt like they werent being very sportsmanlike a good amount of the time, plus I was bummed to have been so close to victory (we were in second place!) and have it be taken away. Now were doomed to leave the ship dead last. We were pretty down that night, because we were all feeling pretty competitive, but I havent felt such pride for a team I was a part of in a long time. It was awesome.
Oh, and I finished Cat's Cradle. I FEEL CHEATED, THAT BOOK WAS WACK. And yet I really enjoyed it. :o
NEXT UP, INDIA!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
October 16 through 19 2010 / MV Explorer
We have been sailing from Mauritius for the past four days, and things have been going pretty lovely, asides from a random bout of depression that seems to have settled over me. Im not quite sure why, I guess its just because I feel a little lonely and stressed and its been harder for me to write poetry, which Ive been really enjoying. Here is something cool we didCushman (poetry professor) noticed we were getting kind of quiet in class, so he decided to spice it up and asked us what we wanted to do. So for the first time we did writing exercises in class, one where you write lines in between a poem and another where you eliminate words from a poem to create something entirely new. They were really awesome prompts and we had a great time sharing what we had made with each other. Im going to try to do similar things with song lyrics.
Had my Anthropology of Tourism midtermunlike the other two, I am actually 100% sure I got an A or at worst an A-. I found it pretty simple because Id kept up with the reading and all the material was pretty straightforward to understand to me. Plus she is incredibly reasonable with her test, which is a nice surprise.
Lorelei and I were on beverage duty for the first time in an eternity on the 17th, which we had a great time with because we just sat together with Bryan (and Lander, for a little while) and watched videos of him drinking white russians and reading FMLs, which was pretty amusing, and talked about love and loves lost. We actually stayed up on Deck 7 until like
1AM, which became 2AM because we had a time change. Were now officially 12 hours different to home hours!
Went sunbathing for the first time on the ship. It was lovely and I did not burn.
Last night on the 18th we had a Sea Rally for the Sea Olympics that are coming up in a couple of days on the 21st. The Nomer Sea (say it out loud
they were going to be the Tip Sea), which are the older folks and dependent children, did an amazing Lion King skit. In the end they held up the 6-month-old babby, Simba style, into the air, which was hilarious. The other sea skits were a little sketchy because a lot of them were hating on other seas. Still, the prize to winning the Sea Olympics is a dance party in the Glazer Lounge, which is super swanky, and we would get to be the first people to leave the ship when we get to San Diego, which would be AWESOME to bypass the huuuge line. Ive already signed up for Jeopardy and Tug of War to do my part.
Today has been pretty good. Worked a little bit on poems, which is nice to do. Sat out on deck with Bryan and Julie listening to Lady Gaga and doing our respective creative pursuits. At Bryans mention I went to go check out Kurt Vonneguts Cats Cradle, which is amazingly dry and hilarious so far and I love it, so I will finally know what Bryson and Winston love so much when I get home! Even worked out with Jared and Julie, so that was nice.
Im gonna try to get back on daily updates, buuuut it is almost India time! :D Also if you have any questions about life at sea or any country-specific questions I would be happy to answer. I know I probably don't clarify a lot of things or am vague. I am excellent at being vague. Anyway, have a nice night <3
October 14 and 15 2010 / Port Louis, Mauritius
So I think Ill write about Mauritius in one fell swoop, as our stay here was only two days. For some reason I had thought that Mauritius was part of Madagascar, so you can imagine my surprise when I looked at the SAS map, saw that we were cruising right on past Madagascar, and were headed instead to a tiny little pinprick of an islandMauritius, which rhymes with delicious, I have discovered.
We arrived in port early in the morning and when I looked out my cabin window, I flashed back briefly to Cape Townthere were gigantic mountains stretching across, creating a perimeter around the town. These mountains were not ordinary mountainsthey were extremely tall and spindly, not like normal mountains that gradually come to a peak. They were pretty cool. Anyway, Lorelei, Julie, Bryan and I went out into portwe had to take a water taxi from the quay out into the main touristy waterfront area, which wasnt very impressive because wed just come from Cape Town, but it was a pretty nice little mall with some tourist shops and stuff in there. Lots of dodo bird thingsthe dodo bird lived on Mauritius, you know. Julie got this really cool sandblasted rum bottle that had vanilla rum inside, as well as vanilla beans/leaves/orange rinds and other things inside the alcohol. It was a really pretty bottle, as it had a little dodo silhouette and everything.
We walked into the city to find an ATM, and it reminded me a lot of the sketchier parts of San Franciscohigh buildings, but construction going on in the streets, hole in the wall Chinese restaurants, and people just kind of loitering around. We pulled out some money at a Barclays and lost Brian to Jareds group, who was going to be climbing some kind of mountain. We, on the other hand, had just packed for the beach, as we werent sure what we were going to do now that we didnt have a scuba plan. First, however, I had priorities. Hobby World was the store James had directed me to so that I could find DnD dice (you heard me) and it was only a couple of blocks away. Unfortunately it was all dyes, not die, so that was out, though they did point us to a lovely sketchy restaurant where a woman was cooking in a few huge pots. Seeing us looking at them, she lifted the lid of one of them. There were mountains of different dumplings inside. I didnt know what any of them were, but I got noodles with dumplings on top and a Fanta soda for 60 rupee, which is like 2 USD, and it was delicious. I think some were tofu, some was chicken, some was beef? Im glad I dont ask these kinds of questions. I didnt get sick so thats all that matters.
We wandered around and found a liquor store and got really excited over finding Mauritian rum. Lorelei bought a bottle of the cheaper kind. In doing the math it was a 4 USD bottle of rum, which should have been the sign of bad things to come, but we were just excited to be buying it so cheaply (and something that was authentic!) that we did so anyway. We then got a taxi to the North to a place called Grand Baie where wed heard the best beaches were. Upon getting out of the cab, Lorelei booked it across the street to were a man beckoned us over with scuba pamphlets. He said that we could get certified and one dive for eighty bucksum, SOLD.
We drove to this little place that was a little while away, only about five minutes or so, and put on our wetsuits. There was another SAS group there as well. They told us how to use the equipmentI learned how to clear my goggles without going up out of the water, and how to breathe normally, and so forth. The other SAS group was for some reason really belligerent about not wanting to practice anything because they didnt want to get wet or something. It was like, ugh. Come on.
So we figured we were going to go to a pool or something to practice because thats how stuff is done in the States, but nope! He was pretty much like this is how you breathe
okay lets go! and we headed out to a speedboat type of deal. The water was the most beautiful color blue, and we drove out into the ocean for a while until we couldnt see the bottom anymore. Then the experienced divers went first. As they went, we asked if we could jump inthey said sure! So we leapt into the water with our goggles and sometimes with our fins, looking at the fish down below us and just swimming around joyfully. At one point there was an entire swarm of striped fish below us! I kept trying to dive down, but the Indian Ocean is so salty I kept getting launched back up to the surface again. I have never known an ocean to be so salty, its actually pretty incredible.
Then finally we were ready to do our own dive! We got a little closer to the shore, as we were only going to be diving five to seven meters down. First we put on metal belts to weigh us down, and then we put on our tanks. They are SO HEAVY. I wasnt even able to stand up when theyd finished harnessing me while I was sitting. The guy who was helping me was really confused as to how I wasnt scared at all, just grinning goofily. I flipped backwards into the water, joining Julie and Lorelei.
Our objective was to climb down this rope that stretched diagonally from the boat to the ocean floor. Every time we reached a knot, we were supposed to clear our ears. I scaled it like a pro, while Lorelei and Julie progressed a little more slowly. At one point Julie sank to the bottom and cut herself on some coral, even, but I felt completely at ease and at peace in the water. I could just hear the sound of my own breathing and bubbles. All around were different kinds of fishparrot fish, striped fish, and angel fish especially, and mountains of coral reefs. For all that it was cool, I felt really bad looking at the coral reefsmost of them were clearly dying. I took great pains to be careful around them and to not touch anything. One of my favorite things to see were giant clamsthey were everywhere, and were probably the size of my forearm. They would clamp shut as I swam by, and that was the only time I wanted to intensely touch something. I WANTED TO BE THAT TRAPPED UNDERWATER DIVER. As I was exploring on my own (as I am wont to do) I found a spiny lionfish hiding in some coral. I grabbed Julie to show her, as she was the nearest by. I also saw this bright black and red sea slug. IT WAS ALL SO COOL. I think the best part of it was just the experience of being down there in this underwater universe, and being able to be part of that.
We were down there for a half hour or so and then came up. Back at the cabin we paid and Lorelei New Yorked her way into getting one of the guys to put the underwater pictures AND video onto her computer flash stick for free, so I even have some scuba pictures to bring back! We were not certified, as we expected, because there was no way that kind of thing could count as being certified. At that point it was growing dim, so we decided to grab some sodas (delicious pear sodas are found everywhere except the USA) and sit on a grassy knoll next to the beach and watch the sun set. We had said that the night would be my night for getting ridiculous, but it turned out that it was Julies turn as she drank her vanilla rum. Meanwhile, the rubbing alcohol we had purchased was so bad I could hardly have more than a couple of drinks.
As Julie frolicked in the sand looking for shells, a young man holding a beer came up to us and said that you know its illegal to steal our Mauritian treasures off the beach. Being as that we actually have those laws in California I believed him, but he was just kidding and introduced himself as Clifton. We talked with him for a while and he seemed really nice. We went with him to a Chinese restaurant and he talked about his job working for Honda, and because he apparently was making such big money, I halfway expected him to pay for the mealnot so. Oh well, it was still good. After dinner I started getting irritated though. He kept bringing up the fact that he smoked marijuana over and over again and kept trying to pressure everyone, especially Julie and I, into smoking with him. Being as that I was entirely not interested, I kept saying no, and he STILL kept asking. It was really peer-pressurey and weird, and finally Lorelei and I realized that we hadnt been drinking in a long while and he was probably trying to get us to keep drinking or getting further intoxicated. SO WE BEGAN TO PLAN OUR ESCAPE.
We went back to the beach where there were these tiny glow-in-the-dark blue speckles washing up on the shore. Apparently it might have been a kind of coral, but we kept frolicking around looking for them and ignoring this guy who kept trying to bring up weed. Far away we could hear a Hindu ceremony of some kind taking place, so we decided to walk over there. On the way, we ran into another group of SASers, and decided to ditch this guy by showing them these little coral specks on the beach, and perhaps he would realize we werent worth the effort of a big group and go away. And he did indeed say he had to go about two seconds later. Good riddance and go away.
We decided to go night swimming, so we walked over to our favorite beach near the place wed scubaed and hopped into the water. It was awesome getting to know our new friends and just being comfortable and having nice, intelligent conversation. This might have been a mistake though, because when I got out I realized that I had no jacket, no towel, and no way to keep warm. I did my best in covering up as we walked to a place called the Banana Club, which lots of SASers were at. Lorelei, Julie and I realized that between all of us we probably didnt even have enough money to get a cab back to the ship, so we decided to leave. A cab driver took pity on us when he realized that we werent going to raise our price over 750 rupees. He gave us his card at the end of the nighthis name was Rashid.
It was around midnight by that point, and I was thoroughly exhausted. I went to bed without setting my alarm, intent on sleeping until whenever I wanted as I would just have a leisurely day wanting around port the next day. THIS WAS NOT SO. Lorelei knocked on my door around 9am, upsether trips time had been changed, so shed missed the bus. She still, however, wanted to do everything, so I told her I would come on her adventure. We called up Rashid, our driver from last night, and asked him if he could do one of his South Island tours that was listed on his resume card thing. He agreed and we bartered it down, and then we were off.
We should have expected something wasnt right went we got to our first destinationa duty free discount store that he told us he got points if we were to buy anything. Then it was a diamond factory. Then it was a wood-carvings place. He kept taking us to all these places that we didnt want to go to, undoubtedly because he got commissions from the places. When we came back in, we demanded that we go to lunch and then from then on we JUST wanted to go to places we wanted to go to. We told him we wanted to pay no more than ten dollars for food, and he said we would get sick if we went anywhere other than this big, fancy Indian restaurant. When we refused to stay (the entrees were like twenty bucks a plate!), the owner came out and we actually bartered for our lunches at this fancy placegot it down to ten dollars for a set meal (drinks included? I said at the last minute, to which they hurriedly agreed). Later, we noticed that our cabbie had vanished to grab food at one of these places that he had told us we would get sick from. The food was okay though, we were just feeling stressed out that wed gone to all these places that we didnt want to go to, were clearly being taken advantage of, and we had to be back by six anyway.
After lunch, however, it was really the last of our commission places. We went to the crater lake area, which had been a volcano, and admired the view of the mountains. It was so cool, as it had clearly been a volcano but now had trees and life and it was just really neat. Then we went to see Black River Gorge, which was really beautiful and you could see a waterfall in the distance. Lorelei and I tried sugarcane water, which actually made my stomach hurt, though this was probably a combination of the twisty mountain roads. Then we were off to the Earth of Seven Colors and a waterfall. The waterfall was really neat, as it stretched out across a big gorge and we could see why the Black River was named Blackthe volcanic rock literally made the river look black. The Earth of Seven Colors was kind of a tourist trapit was a small group of sand dunes that had different colors (looked like only four to me) due to the combination of the volcanic elements in the rock. There were also some Galapagos turtles nearby, and they all looked really sad. :(
By then we were kind of freaking out because while our driver had told us that we would get back by 5 it became well try to get back by 5 or 5:30 and then it was well, if we dont hit any traffic well get back as soon as we can. So I was freaking out because I didnt want to get dock time because of this stupid cabbie taking us to all these dumb commission places. On the way back we did talk about divorce and how in the Muslim religion you can have up to four wives. I told him I wanted four husbands, and when he looked scandalized I asked him why couldnt I have four husbands? He didnt give me a satisfactory answer and was really weirded out. STEPHANIE M, MAKING PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE SINCE 1990
We got back at 5:30, and when we sprinted over to the ship we saw that there was a HUGE HUGE HUGE line. FRICKKKKK. We panicked, stressed, and luckily I swiped in at 5:57the closest Ive ever gotten to being late, and hopefully I will never cut it so close ever again. Dinner was BBQ, and because Ellies cellphone wasnt working, I bought three phone cards to call mom and dad, Cassy, and James.
Mom and Dad flew into London (they left that day) and I think are travelling to Amsterdam today (the 19TH). Im very happy that theyre enjoying themselves through travel and arent having their money sucked away by me. I talked to Cassy awhile about school, her new beau (who is apparently really conservative
BARF), and her study abroad options (I would love her to study in South Africa because of how incredible it is, but its just so dangerous thereconflicted!), and talked to James about how things are going at Chapman and at The Burrow. It was wonderful to hear everyones voices again
I really do miss all you guys so much and I cant wait to give you all hugs again.
As we left Africa, I spent some time thinking about how much this country has meant to me. Africa has really been a huge culture shock to me and each country has taught me something different about people, nature, or societies. Its been an incredible learning experience. And because I know that someone will ask: [South Africa > Morocco > Mauritius > Ghana] in terms of enjoyment. I cant rank them in terms of meaning to me because Ive learned so much in each placeGhana, for example, probably blew my mind more than anywhere else because I finally really understood what widespread poverty is, as well as the amazing ability of the human spirit.
Thanks, Mama Africa. Its been a blast seeing where humankind has come from and connecting with a wonderful group of people, so different than what Im used to but so welcoming. And now? Off to Asia, the mother of religion.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
October 9 through 13 2010 / MV Explorer
The week between South Africa and Mauritius was filled with both the exciting and the dreary. On the reading day I legitimately spent a good majority of it writing my Women in Royal Courts paper, finishing it a few days before it was due and sending it off to my professor for suggestions. (I still have not gotten it back with suggestions, and it is due tomorrow. Drat.) I also did a little work on my Contemporary Social Issues midterm research as well as my Women in High Courts class, as I had both of those midterms before Mauritius. Contemporary Social Issues midterm was two essay questions picked out of a hat, as well as ten multiple choice questions. I just got that midterm back today (October 16), and I got a 25/30, which I was kind of disappointed about, because I thought that I had done much better on my essay questions than I actually did. I guess I got higher than the median, but it was just still a little disappointing for me. I want an A in this class, darnit. Women in High Courts was even more difficult, just because the class is so random and tangent-y in the lectures, so now Im even more anxious about how I did on those essayswhich we had to do 3 of in an hour and a quarter. Im just glad its done and over with, I guess, but Im still disappointed. =/
As we curved around the Cape of Great Hope, we discovered why its also known as the Cape of Storms. On the second night out after leaving Cape Town, we sailed through a massive lightening storm. Jared wasnt sure whether we should go out and lift weights that night, but I knew as soon as we were doing cycling in the gym and the room kept lighting up with lightening flashes that I was even MORE sure that we should go outside and lift weights. It was truly incredibleevery twenty or thirty seconds a gigantic bolt of lightning would crack open the sky, some bolts only being three or four miles away. There was definitely a feeling of intense mania aboard the ship, as people roared their approval to the sky as thunder rumbled and particularly branched gold would streak out of the sky.
The most fun part of these last couple of days was starting up a Dungeons and Dragons campaign! Jared is our DM and Julie, Martha and I are the players, as well as Bryan. I am playing a smartass Halfling rouge that probably talks too much, Martha is a cleric changling that is masquerading currently as an elf, Bryan is a soul train Deva invoker (who speaks in a soulful voice), and Julie is a longtooth shifter paladin. Were having a great time dealing with fun time travel adventures that seems like it could be a little Lord of the Rings inspired, dealing with a huge war across different areas. Its extremely different though, because unlike in my DnD group at home, Jared does not let me get away with ANYTHING. He adds a little more realismif I say that I want to kill a wolf by stabbing it in the mouth, he makes me roll a rabies check! He does a lot more checks in general, which is kind of cool. And he does a lot more quest chains and sidequests, which is also pretty neat. Having a small group is really exciting, basically, because you can do more independent adventures. Rolling a 1 means you hit yourself and a 2 means hitting someone else, also. Basically its pretty differentI think may be more reality-formal? But its an interesting learning experience. I kind of want to DM a DnD group when I get home. Any takers?
My last interesting event of the week was getting a survey through my email. One of the questions was about how we perceived ship officers. Though I didnt mention it in my blog, I had a bit of a strange run in with a ships officer in Ghana. Because of my strange writing about it, I was called up to the Assistant Deans office and was told to write up a report about the issue. Because I dont want to write out the whole story, here it ityou may remember it as the night that some of my friends and I went to the Duty Free shop across the way with a couple of my friends, and I ended up playing mother hen for the night:
These are events that occurred on the night of September 24 2010.
I (Stephanie Mech) and a couple of my other friends (Lorelei Thompson and Julie Bowers) decided to go out that night to the Duty Free Store across the way from the ship. We got our drinks and set down a little always from the crowd on the upper floor outside of the store. Julie and Lorelei were sitting against the railing, while I was sitting facing towards them. After a little while I felt heavy hands on my shoulders. I couldnt understand who I knew well enough who would do that, so I turned my head around to see who it was. Directly in front of me was the face of a man who was older, white, with extremely piercing blue eyes. I said hello, confused, and he just continued to stare. I turned back to my friends and asked them to help me. Julie started shouting things like Go away! while Lorelei sprang up and started pulling him away from me, speaking very quickly Hey, who are you? Why arent you talking to me? Whats your name? Whats going on? in order to distract him away, as I was very uncomfortable with the way he was just staring at me. I did not hear this, but later Lorelei said that he mumbled something to her that was akin to You are nothing, you are nothing before he finally stumbled away.
A little later I looked down off the balcony to see him being led back to the ship by a much shorter man with black hair. I initially thought it was a student, but Ive heard that it was a crew member. I believe he was wearing a white shirt, but otherwise I was too far away to see anything else.
I recognize this man as the officer of Security and Environmental Affairs, a man whose name I do not recall but is on the officer board in Tymitz Square, in the middle and down, with blue eyes. I have heard many other rumors about this event, such as him trying to kiss girls or pulling at the front of their shirts. I did not see any of these events take place but just hearing about them is enough to make me extremely uncomfortablethe fact that he is the officer in charge of making people feel secure is quite angering to me enough.
Soooooo basically both the assistant dean and executive dean that I talked to were really thankful that I had come forward with this information. Even though I had been kind of creeped out and uncomfortable, I hadnt really known who to talk to (you cant talk to the crew, because its a hierarchal structure and you just cant really do that). So I told some other people who had had similar experiences to come forward, because they want to dismiss this guy because he is the HEAD SAFETY OFFICER. If the Head Safety Officer is creeping on girls in port, I dont feel very safe. But they were wonderful and the captain has been notified, so this officer is going to get dropped in Port Louis and left there, pretty much. Good riddance.
The other awesome thing about before Mauritius was an open mic night we had, where a lot of people played songs but even better were the people that did spoken word poetry. I want to learn how to do spoken word poetryits just so potent and badass and fierce. It really makes you listen. I wish I had a book that was How To Do Slam Poetry, because I am definitely a fan. But I did email my poetry professor and he said he would be down to do a lecture on it at some point near the end of the semester. YAY. :)
Working on my Mauritius blogs. Had a wonderful time there. Will probably update about it later tonight. <3
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
October 8 2010 / Kariega Game Reserve, South Africa
We had our 5AM wake up, which I was chipper as everything for because Id gotten a solid seven hours or so of sleepbeing out and about all day makes it easy for you to sleep! Unfortunately for me, my spider bite from hell had DOUBLED in size, making the entire area of my shoulder red and purple, and the skin around it was becoming rough. African spiders are hopefully not dreadfully poisonous, because I really don't want to see the doctor, but this is the grossest thing I have ever seen (I'm sure I'm going to die in some sort of horribly stupid way one day). As expected, after the apparently raging party that had happened the night before, two students didnt make it to the 4x4s before we took off for the boat. We had a little game drive before getting to the boat, which was like a large platform boat that floated gently down the Kareiga River as the sun rose. It was so incredibly beautifulthe birds were just beginning to call, and the clouds were reflected in the water and there was mountains all around us and oh man, it was just so incredible. Even though we didnt see too much wildlife (aside from a particularly cool looking half-collared kingfisher), I was still awestruck just looking at the natural beauty of the place. I cant even believe I was lucky enough to have this opportunity, to be there and to be in so many different places. It was truly wonderful. We sipped our hot chocolate and took a few pictures on the water, but mostly I just basked in how peaceful it was and how lucky I was to be there.
On our way back, we saw buffalo heading to a mud wallow. Phil raced ahead of them and got there very close to the water hole. Earlier he had discussed how buffalo were the only animals on the reserve that made him uncomfortable, as they were very unpredictable. There were four of them at the mud wallow, three of them sipping and laying down, enjoying the shade and the mud. One of them, however, was looking directly at us. She would sip water, stare at us, and then lean down again. She never broke eye contact with us, and was probably only about 20 feet away from us the entire time. Buffalo are HUGE animalstheir chests are literally the size of a barrel. Many of the girls were practically wetting their pants, because she seemed ready to charge at any second but Ill be honestI yearned for a charge. How great of a story would that be? (I would only really be sad that the buffalo got hurt.) After a while she drifted away and let us drive off, making everyone sigh in relief. I thought it was the most intensely charged (hoho. I really need to stop making puns) experience of the trip. She was facing us directly most of the time, and seemed very much inclined to take a run at us.
We looked at birds of prey in the sky on the way back, and when we got back to our chalets to pick up our luggage the two students were still awkwardly sleepingeveryone on the 4x4 was really vindictive about it. I think that SAS kids do love to party, and there are only few exceptions to that rule, but practically everyone still will get themselves up early, no matter how theyre feeling, to make the most of their time wherever they are. So I think that might be where that kind of hypocrisy/vindictiveness comes from. It was pretty amusing though. At the reception desk we took pictures of our guides and our 4x4 group, and then finally we headed out and away. I will miss Kariega. I want to go on safari for my honeymoon when Im married. Can there be safari weddings?
I tried to sleep on the bus back, but that was just a world of pain for my neck. However, Kariega did provide us with awesome bag lunches, including bacon pesto chedder sandwiches. NOM. It was great. We got to the airport LITERALLY twenty minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off. Im pretty sure we bribed the people there to let us cut in line, because we still made it (though with no time to spare). It was pretty funny. I wrote postcards on the way back (Im sending out sooo many postcards from South Africa, because Ive loved it so much <3).
When we touched down in Cape Town I could not have been happier to get back and take a nice shower. But first, I went out into the mall and bought a really cool World Cup shirt (its necessary) as well as this Africa one. After showering, I grabbed my laptop in hopes that I would be able to skype with my mom and dad or Cassy, or even retry to upload facebook pictures. NOPE. There was literally no way. I was really disappointed because I really wanted to talk to mom and dad and Cassy, but at that point it was too late to get a phone card. I will be calling at least mom and dad in Mauritius though!!
Went back to my cabin after shopping around for a while. Was finally able to depoison the spider bite (sorry if this is grossing you out, by the way. It was really freaking gross and I didn't let too many people see it, so I need to vent), which hurt SO MUCH I got tears in my eyes. Hopefully it goes down and I will not have to go to the medical bay for some stupid African spider disease, where I turn into a giraffe or something.
Our neighbors bought a vuvuzela (we knew this was coming), so we listened to that for a while. As I personally celebrate the vuvuzelas obnoxious nature, I let it go for the day.
Cape Town is the only port so far that has made me want to stay weeks longer as opposed to feeling ready and okay with moving on. It has been the most incredible port that Ive been to so far, and has made me absolutely love and adore Africa and its people. I really want to come back with my parents one day, because I know that its exotic but not TOO exotic and I know they would love it. There are so many things I need to come back and do, and it has such rich history. Its incredible still seeing the ending effects of apartheid. Im not taking no for an answerIm coming back to Cape Town one day.
My apologies with how brief these seem to be (at least they seem that way to me, but then again, I could talk about this for hours). I just wanted to get on track before Mauritius. Sometime tomorrow I will update about what I did this week. Some was boring, some was crazy and awkward, some was EXCITING! But Mauritius is TOMORROW (October 13) so that is my first priority!
NEXT TIME ON EMECHULATION AT SEA: Gigantic lightning storms, studying for midterms, midterms, Dungeons and Dragons, bystander to an incident that will (hopefully) end in someone's expulsion from the ship, and poetry slams.
On the edge of your seats, I'm sure. :)
October 7 2010 / Kariega Game Reserve
The next day we arose at 5:30 bright and early to depart on our morning game drive, and we decided to go back after our lion friends, as we didnt see them too well before. And in literally in ten minutes or less we discovered a male lion, his mate, her four cubs and a juvenile male lion, settled close together between two sets of shrubbery and underneath some POWER LIONS (PRETTY FUNNY, RIGHT GUYS?). We crept closer in our car until we were only about 20 meters away or so. The male lion and the juvenile male went to the right as we came closer. All of a sudden, the cubs shot off to the left. Seconds later, intense roaring was heard, as well as a little bit of minor crunching of brush. The female went after the two males, and then returned later to roar a few more times. The cubs presently came back, as did the male lion, but the juvenile had been chased awayhe is starting to get too big and is becoming a threat to the alpha male lion. It was absolutely amazing and I actually got most of it on film. The male resumed laying down, and the female settled down again to the right, letting her cubs (I say cubs, but they were still probably at least as my big as my dog) nurse from her and climb all over her and each other, licking each other occasionally. It was absolutely incredible and they were adorable and it was just SO COOL. It was the Lion King come to life right in front of me, basically. We learned that cubs are taught how to defend food, how to hunt, and then how to kill by their momma, which I thought was just
wow. Learning about the elephants and lions just made them seem all the more intelligent to me. Sorry Kenz, no ivory to you, especially after how human elephants seem to me now.
After about an hour or so of watching the lions, we headed off to a big field, looking forwell, just looking, but it was a place favored by many of the herds of animalsa wide plain besides many trees. In the middle of the plain, where the water hole was (a very small water hole), was a rhino and her baby, with another standing further away. I dont think I have ever noticed until now that rhinos literally look like tanks. They are walking, breathing tanks. They were just kind of cool to see. Then we were off up the hill, passing HUGE herds of zebra and five giraffes hiding eating leaves in the trees. One giraffe was absolutely enormous with really dark brown markingshe was the bull giraffe. Turns out giraffes necks are too short, as they have to spindle out their legs when theyre drinking, which makes them vulnerable to predators. AWESOME. :D
As we drove we noticed that the ground was shimmering. We stopped and it looked closerthere were thousands of winged termites on the ground and beginning to launch themselves into the airit was quite a swarm. In the distance we could see vervet monkeys leaping up to catch the termites and eat themit was pretty funny to see them hop up and down. Theyre quite good protein, said Phil. Reaching up, he plucked one, grabbing it by the head and wings, and bit the body.
He probably meant to gross us out, but I immediately clamored up, Give me one, Im hungry! So he snatched one out of the air and gave it to me, probably because he thought I was bluffing. I was not. It was a big ol bug, probably about as long as my thumb (though of course not as thick). I was supposed to hold the wings and head and bite the body off, but instead I just sort of shoved the whole thing in my mouth. Actually, it tasted a little like buttered popcornkind of oily, and the wings felt like those kernel pieces. DELICIOUS
Speaking of eats, we then got back to eat breakfast and then around 10AM we went on a hiking trail called the Sunset Hikeit wasnt so much BIG animals we saw (we did see three giraffes) as it was concentrating on the little world. We sound termites fighting ants, a dung beetle working on his dung ball, termites stuck in spider webs (which was cool because we watched the spider bite the termite and let it die). We also saw several small scorpions on the path (with smaller tails and HUGE pinchers) so that was pretty cool too. After late lunch I took a massive and much needed nap, and then we went out on our afternoon game drive, looking for leopards. During the early part of this I noticed that my shoulder was hurting INTENSELY, like I had a massive bruise. When I rolled up my sleeve, I saw the largest, most gnarly spiderbite I have ever seen in my entire life. It was puffy, red, and stretching the skin, and I couldnt get it to open so I could drain the poison. IT HURT (and would only get worse for days to come). Despite the relative heat, I kept my sweater on just because it was so disgusting to look at.
We went into an area that just had tons upon tons of open valleys and hills. There were no leopards to be found, but we went out on an observation platform to see 5 hippos floating around in the river. I couldnt see their whole bodies but I know that they are godless killing machines that will pretty much destroy you just because youre in their zone. Many of the girls were obsessing over one of the guides, so I asked Phil about his wife and then we proceeded to annoy him with personal questions . We joined other 4x4s overlooking the plains as the sun set and drank hot chocolate and something called Simba Chips which I find fascinating.
On our night drive, we found buffalo! There were four of them moving away, so we didnt get very good pictures, but theres another animal to check off my Big Five list. We also saw hippos out of the water, across the river. THEY ARE HUGE. They are like
the size of rhinos, no joke. There was a babby hippo but I was not fooled by its cuteness. We also saw a babby zebra following after mom. It was pretty great.
We had a boma dinner, which is basically like an open air dinner where the food was cooked on an open flame. Ribs are delicious. Everyone wanted to party that night and have their own bottle of wine, but I thought that was just about the silliest thing I had ever heard (we were waking up at 5AM to go on a drive at 5:30!), so I decided to pass, did a little bit of writing, postcarding, and a nice, early bedtime!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Because of the lack of updates...
...I decided I would share with you one of the poems I've been working on for my World Poetry class. It's not quite finished but hey, what the heck. It is a sonnet done in typical Steph fashion (odd and probably somewhere awkwardly between funny and creepy, in case you were wondering). I hope you enjoy. We shall be resume our regularly scheduled program shortly.
Sonnet For My Apocalyptic Lover
My darlings arms are steel pipes, wrapped around me
when night grows cold and our kerosene lamp begins to burn out.
While oolong bites bitter, his words are sharper than any tea
warding against fever signs and staving off starvation doubt.
My beloveds eyes are the man who breaks into the store
hands shake as he scrambles for a tool in his inevitable collision
brushing shattered glass off his weathered leather jacket as outside undead roar
and his footfalls sound like military men who, mid-action, make hasty revision.
My lovers lips are red as zombie brains
the head smashed to pieces, not yet full of flies
and before the gray and rota lovely pink, the kind that comes after the rains
of shrapnel, when the sunset lights the cityscape gold as it dies.
Stronger than machete and crowbar entwined, we deter our dead of earth revive
And wonder, how do others without love survive?
Monday, October 11, 2010
October 6 2010 / Kariega Game Reserve, South Africa
Early morningwoke up at six in the morning and went up to nom some breakfast. I went into the Union just to be told that if I dont have a jacket, I need to go back and get one, because apparently group As safari was rained on the ENTIRE TIME. Which would definite suck, so Im really hoping it doesnt rain. I went downstairs and changed out my fleece for my SAS sweatshirt and hoped for the best. Around 0800 we were out in the bus and on our wayone student staggered over to the bus at the last minute. In our bus there was a tour guide named Buz, and was the Extremely British (er, South African) Minister of Useless Facts, and would tell us all about the city as we drove off to the airport. He was hilarious and did indeed tell us all sorts of useless yet interesting facts. He also told us that in his 63 years here he has never seen a leopard in the wild, and that he would not talk to us if we saw one. I am not really expecting to see a leopard on my safari, though it would be cool if there was one. He also mentioned that the other group saw lion cubsI would die, I think, if I saw lion cubs in the wild. I would be so excited.
The airport was only about twenty minutes away, and we bailed out of the bus to check in. It only took about five to ten minutes for our entire group to check in, and then another ten to get us all through securityand there were thirty of us, mind you. I think San Francisco should adopt their security protocolthey were so mellow I could even bring my shampoos and water bottles and things like that aboard the plane. Andres (my across the hall neighbor) and I sat with a couple of lifelong learners just talking as we waited for the planeafter a while, we all piled into a bus and drove out onto the tarmac to our tiny, tiny plane from South African Express. It was so small that we took up the vast majority of the seats on the plane! The flight was one hour east into Port Elizabeth, and the airport was covered in pictures of Nelson Mandela, as well as picture signs warning about human trafficking, which I thought was really interesting. I wanted to take one, but I am sure that kind of thing is generally frowned upon, so alas, I did not.
We got onto a great big bus where An Extremely Irritating Woman told us things that we did not need to know over the intercom while everyone was trying to get some shuteye. She was extremely loud and it was just very unpleasant. Still, about an hour in I was able to kind of doze off, and woke up about an hour later as someone shouted ELEPHANT! as loudly as possible. We were driving by Kariega at that point, and we all looked out to see the rump of an elephant who stood in the distance. Nearer to the fence in front of him were a couple of warthogs running, as well as some blue wildebeest (which, I just need to say right now, look EXACTLY like they do in The Lion King). As I was looking I saw some pole shapes in the distance, towering above some trees. As I watched, one of them leaned over and munched some leaves. GIRAFFES! I shouted. And indeed there were three giraffes hanging out on top of the hill. It was ridiculously excitingwed already seen one of the Big Five (and several other more awesome critters) without even going inside the park.
We drove for a little while through the park, past impala and nyala herds, to the reception desk. Everywhere were big grass fields, with some shrubbery around as well as big clumps of trees. Hills were everywhere. We signed in and then were off to our chalets, which were lots of cabins along a dirt road nearby the restaurant and curios shop. Get thisin our cabin there were four of us. There were four bathrooms each connected to one of four bedrooms, TWO with KING SIZED BEDS. I shamelessly claimed one of the king bedsyou snooze, you lose. I would be sleeping diagonally every night there. We also had our own patio that we could look out upon tons of trees.
The restaurant had an amazing lunch there. The place itself was wood with massive glass windows so you could see across a valley of trees. The soup was cream of potato-y, and the food was just. SO. GOOD. especially in comparison to what we had been eating on the ship lately.
Around four oclock (after I had gone back to my cabin, digested my food, and written a couple of postcards out on the patio) our guide, Phil, came to pick us up for our afternoon game drive. Phil kind of looks like Alan Rickman in his face shapeit must be a British thing (hes from England). So anyway, a bunch of girls pilled into his car and off we went. Our objective was to find either elephants or lions before dinner, as well as anything else that we could come across. So we drove off, crossing the lane of freeway that separated the two reservesone of them kept lions and elephants as well, away from where the rangers and tourists lived. So anyway, we drove along until we stumbled across a bull elephant! He was as happy as could be, reaching up with his trunk by the side of the road and pulling off leaves absently. Instead of stopping, Phil drove right past him, off road and up into a little clearing. He killed the engine, and presently we realized that there were three elephants right in front of us, eating leaves off the trees. Suddenly, THE ENTIRE HERD OF ELEPHANTS (and there are like twenty of them or so!) came tromping through the trees. Many of them had young elephants trailing after their moms, and even the Matriarch elephant came tromping down, her calf beside her. They ate leaves slowly before passing our carI could have reached out and touched their rough, wrinkled skin if I wanted too, though I didnt
I was too busy being completely in awe. As I watched, two bulls would wrap their trunks around each others and put the tips in the others mouthan elephant hug. As they tromped by, Phil decided they were going to the water hole, so we followed.
Now, the water hole? Whats so great about the water hole?! I will TELL YOU. There are ELEPHANT BABBIES splashing around and wrestling in the waterthey climbed on top of each other, would pick up leaves and put them on their heads, and we even watched one of the baby elephants nursing from the matriarch. It was absolutely amazing. And this was all right next to us. They essentially knew we were there but didnt see us as a threat, so they would come by our car frequently. Trumpeting sounds a little like screeching cars, and all the other elephants would look around confusedly whenever another one did it. They were giving themselves dirt baths to rid themselves of ticks and one of them actually sprayed the car with dirtguess he was trying to help us out! Another one did an eleFART, which is EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT. I thought Luna was bad. They are just such absolutely intelligent animals, thoughthe guide was talking to them whenever they would come by kindly (he loves the elephants) and if they got too close he would change his tone, which gets the attention of the elephant and they know not to come closer. SO AMAZING AUGH. We stayed there for an entire hour at the watering hole, just watching the baby elephants swim around and take rests flopping down in the mud. I loved it.
Next we went off to find lions, which all the females were on a hill, stalking kudo. I couldnt even really see them, even though binocularsthey were just little white specks. There was just really one furry paw sticking up in the air where a lioness was on her back, and otherwise they looked like rocks. Was kind of a bummer, but maybe we would see more later, so drove off. There bones were a giraffe, said Phil absently as we drove over the crest of a hillhuge shoulder bones and leg bones were speckled everywhere.
We learned a little that kalahari lions (black mane lionsyes, an entire group of Scars) tend to let the cubs eat first, the male even running the females off so the cubs could eat first, which I thought was cute. Daw, protective daddy. <3 Anyway, we drove off to ANOTHER mountain where we looked at ANOTHER hill where we could see the male lion. He was a lot clearer but still disappointingly far awayI could see the shape of his body and his tail twitch once through binoculars. We drove off again and saw little game thenimpala, nyala, waterbuck, bushbuck, and blue wildebeest, and by the time night fell, we decided to turn in for dinner. I sat with a pretty exciting table for dinner, so afterwards we decided to get a couple bottles of wine (there were five of us, so it wasnt particularly high impact) and walked to the boys chalet (there were three guys and two girls). We moved the main table outside onto the patio and played Spoons, as well as Gin, while having out glasses of wine and talking about how our game drives had been going. Around eleven I decided to head back to my chalet, as we were waking up to 5:30 to see if we couldnt find a better view of those elusive lions. And I must say, walking around in the dark was pretty incrediblethe stars out were beautiful, and you could hear crickets and bugs and all sorts of things out in the brush. It was a little eerie when it got to me being the only one walking the minute back to my chalet, but it all ended just fineI crawled into my KING SIZED bed, snuggled up into the pillows, and fell happily asleep.
For those of you who are concerned about my lack of updates (are people concerned? probably not), I have been absolutely swamped studying for midterm exams. I would give spend the time on these South Africa blogs that they deserve than throwing something together, so fear notthey will arrive, if slowly and steadily. :)
Whoops
I think I accidentally sent something that I meant to send to myself to my blog. I don't know if it's just a couple of lines or if the attachment was there, but if it's confusing, don't worry about it.
As to why I haven't been writing lately--midterms. Super busy. Will update slowly after everything settles down. :)
Saturday, October 9, 2010
October 5 2010 / Franschhoek, South Africa
Upon waking up a little on the earlier side, I went outside the ship to finagle my way into going on the cycling through the vineyards tour that Brian had been telling me about the day before. I tried to see if I could get in for free, as in a lot of cases people put their tickets in donation boxes when they decide sporadically they want to do something else, but there were just about ten thousand tickets for the Table Mountain hike that Julie and Jared were going on. So I bought the ticket and hopped aboard the shuttle with Brian. There were only about 20 people in the shuttle, and most of them were lifelong learnerswine tasting must not be as hardcore as students like. The guide said right off that no one could buy wine to bring back to the boat, including faculty and lifelong learners. Right away, this life-long learner (the Debbie Downer from the Morocco trip, if you remember her) said Why arent the adults allowed to bring back wine? to which I said, extremely loudly, I think were all adults here, thanks. She amended her statement by saying non-students, and it was probably a little rude on my part, but to be honest I am just so fed up with the fact that just because I am a student, it means that Im some binge-drinking idiot who doesnt know how to control myself. Did I tell my wine-glass story? Several weeks ago I noticed that students were being served wine in little plastic cups, which is clearly ridiculous because you cant drink wine properly if its in a plastic cup. So I went up and said Excuse me, can I have a glass of wine in a wine glass? and the lady said No, theyre for adults only. The alcohol policies here just make me so angry. Its just so condescending the way they do everything. I am 20 years old, which means I have been able to drink alcohol on international waters for 2 years, which means that I think I am adult enough to handle a glass wine glass.
Anyway.
We drove out through Cape Town through countryside. We drove through tin-can townships that got progressively more dodgy into finally heavily wooded areas. The townships are appalling. The colored township was the closest to Cape Town, and the black township was even further away and was even more run down. In town they have these art pieces that are mixed media of the townships, but with pieces of soda cans and metal making up the buildingsits because thats what they actually look like. It was pretty horrifying, that kinds of conditions that blacks and colored (colored means half black, half while) people are living in, even fourteen years after apartheid.
On the way out we learned a lot from our guide about winewhat a wine estate was, that wines can be less than 10% other and not have to mention it on the bottle, that theres only 1% of taste in a wine grape which means that wine makers have to do a lot to bring out the flavor... also some interesting stuff about the color, like if a white is goldish it was stored in an oak barrel but if it was clear than it was probably in a steel tank. Making wine, basically, sounds ridiculously complicated.
So anyway, as we started passing between these beautiful blue mountain ranges, vinyards started getting more and more common. We were entering what was called the French Quarter, Franschhoek, where Frenchmen being persecuted for religion fled. The governor of the area thought they were convicts being sent to Cape Town, so he made them go far outside the citywhich ended up being fine, because it had some of the best areas for growing grapes for wine. We got into the town, which is a sleepy little place not unlike San Anselmo at homeit looks, in fact, very much the same, aside from the fact that it is surrounded by mountains and fields of grapes. Brian and I walked through it together, and all around were art galleries, bistros, and wineries. I bought some postcards and a little loaf of bread, which I ate under a tree next to the Huguenot Monument, which I know nothing about except that thats where we were meeting to begin our bike ride. Our objective was to ride bikes back the way we came to the Solms Delta vineyard, about 13 or 14 miles away. The road was a gently sloping road between two mountain ranges, with vineyards and farms on either side. Because everyone had different fitness levels, I rode somewhere in the middle of everyone. Sometimes I couldnt even see anyone ahead of me or behind me on this straight road through the countryside. A little girl on a swing and a boy under an oak tree waved at me, and at one point there was a great big field of brown horses where foals were still nursing. It was kind of the most adorable thing ever. The bike ride took about an hour, and hour and a half maybe, and when we got to the estate we rode town a little dirt road until we got to the restaurant, which was nestled in between fields.
We sat outside at a nice table, and we had a meal in which there were six wine pairingsmussels cooked in white wine, garlic, and cream with a white wine; smoked snoek and salmon pate with another white; springbok (a kind of antelope) served in braised sauce with a red; a beef frikkadelle (meatball) with a rosey wine; some cheese and crackers with a honey white; and a boeber pudding with a red. It was all SO DELICIOUS. I was sitting at the end of the table with the driver, and we got to talking about his experiences during the end of apartheid and Desmond Tutu (hes met Desmond Tutu before at a café, randomly). It was a really nice time and I totally loved just hanging out and chatting. I bought a couple of bottles of wine to send home to my family, the first white wine and the third wine, which was the first red wine. Apparently its already gotten there because it shipped from Alabama or something. But theyre really delicious so I cant wait to try it again come Christmas time. :)
After a while we hopped back in the shuttle and drove through Stellenbosch, where we got out to look around for a while. I bought some stamps and Brian and I hit up an outdoor market, where I finally found a FIFA World Cup hat that I liked, as well as a present for my dad. The best part about this was a little girl who was shouting Hello! at us over and over again, and the men were saying tell them to come and look around! I told them that she were teaching her to be quite the business woman. Another man was just like So you shaved your head like a man?! and thought it was really awesome when I explained about the equator ceremonies.
We lay out in the middle of central field after looking around, and driving back Brian and I talked about creative pursuitsI want to start a book club when I get back to school, anyone interested? We also talked about webcomicswe have a lot of them in common, haha. He wants me to start reading Questionable Content, so I suppose I will have to do that after all, as I know James likes it too.
Dinner back on the ship was okayI decided not to go out and instead spent the night packing and getting ready for my safari tomorrow! I got a letter from the Burrow (aka where I will be living next year), which always makes me smile, as well as a package from mom and dad filled with pictures that are now all up on my wall, as well as some letters and some malaria pills, thank goodness. Thanks for sending me mail, guysit really makes me so happy to come home to letters on my door. :)
I also sent out a couple of JPEG pics of me as a baldie, and that seemed to go through okaynow that I know how easy that goes through, Ill have to do it more.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
October 4 2010 / Cape Town, South Africa
So have I mentioned how much I LOVE South Africa?
After the kind of crazy night last night, I woke up at 8AM and promptly stared at my clock drowsily until I forced myself to get out of bed, as Id agreed to meet Julie at 9AM. I actually finished getting ready before her, though I didnt go to breakfast and ended up munching on some Corn Pops or whatever theyre called. Then we split, and finally wandered off into the wonderful world of Cape Townor rather, into the Victoria and Alfred Wharf district, which is kind of a gigantic mall and riddled with touristy things. I wanted to look for a Desmond Tutu book, and Julie needed a bra and socks, so we went into the mall and poked around for a while. There was this Desmond Tutu childrens bible stories book that I kind of want to get and donate to my churchthe art in it is absolutely superb, every story with a different artist, and its just
adorable. :) There were some pretty neat tee-shirts, but nothing is worth 180 rand to me yet (thats like twenty bucks, I think).
When we finally got to the information center, we asked how long it would take/how expensive a cab to Boulder Beach would be. The lady at the desk kind of winced and told us that as it was about 40 minutes away, it would be a TON of money for just the two of us to get there by cab, and we would be better off going on a half-day trip to Simons Town/Cape of Good Hope/Boulder Beach/etc for like 480 rand eachno thanks. We decided to wander off to see the Malay quarter, also known as Bo-Kaap, which is I guess a kind of township, known for its incredibly colorful houses. Most of the residents were Muslim and Christian. Our taxi driver was really nicehe was a paraplegic who had been shot a little over a year over and was still recovering, and was paying off his modified taxi. He was actually really cool and told us all about the restaurants we should go to.
Anyway, we got to the Bo-Kaap Museum and paid 10 rand to go inside. We actually lucked out because at that moment a tour guide led some folks inside, so we got to tag along on a tour that was really informative and interesting about the history of the people in the Malay district and their struggle today, as their property now is worth a LOT of money due to its location but they dont make very much money themselves and the community itself is incredibly strong and close-knit. It was really interesting. After that Julie and I walked up the street for a little whilethe houses are beautiful, all purple, pink, bright green, bright blue, just these incredible rainbow houses. South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation, and if this is the only reason, it makes sense to me.
We walked town a couple of blocks to Long Street, which wed heard is the awesome street that has all the restaurants/bars/clubs on it, because Julie had heard of this awesome and authentic restaurant called Mama Africa, and we really wanted to check it out. On the way there we witnessed some white guy absolutely screaming at this black street officer in what I can only assume was Afrikaans (I thought it was German first, but Afrikaans is Dutch in origin). It was awkward. First we stopped into an African trade market, which was an indoor place with lots of little stands of people selling their waresthe walls were covered in necklaces and purses, and it was two stories. I bartered down a patchwork purse that I saw and really liked, because I dont have a purse and have been meaning to buy oneam definitely happy with my purchase. Then we walked up the street and finally got to Mama Africa, which had a really cool graffiti art outside of it. However, when we went inside, no one was therelike Europe, it seems as though places dont open regularly on Mondays. We walked back down the street until we passed this place I had actually made fun of on the way to Mama Africaa place called Food Inn, that looked like a cafeteria on the inside, complete with metal trays and all. However, it smelled incredible from the outside, and it had the Bunny Chow that Julie was looking for, so we decided to throw caution to the winds and go inside.
The restaurant was a combination of Middle Eastern ,Greek, and Indian. I ordered something called Butter Chicken, which was a dish that had been recommended during pre-port, and a fried triangular pastry stuffed with chickena samosa. And oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD. The butter chicken was like a spicy, delicious orange curry with pieces of chicken, with rice on the side. Julie got her bunny chow, which is like a fried loaf of bread with curry inside the hollowed out area (we called it the castle). She also bought garlic naan, but because wasnt expecting it to be so huge, gave most of it to me. SCORE! It was an incredible mealspicy but didnt destroy my stomach like most Indian food does. Best yet, it was only about four American dollars, and I was absolutely stuffed.
After that, Julie and I decided to go off to the Two Oceans Aquarium, because as we werent going shark cage diving, we thought it would be neat to see what kinds of creatures we would be sailing over, especially since Two Oceans has two different exhibits for Indian and Atlantic Oceans. We took a cab over and were really excited over the jellyfish (some of my favorites), massive eels, tutles, gigantic crabs
it was just really interesting to see. One of the best parts was seeing a shark embryo and you could actually see the shark fetus moving around inside the sack. But what took the cake was at the tide poolI was touching an anemone when the lady told me to turn around slowly. I did, and what did I see? Four penguins (an Emperor and three rockhoppers) just wandering down the aisle, closely followed by a keeper. We followed behind them and were literally a couple steps away the entire time as they waddled up the carpet and back into their exhibitapparently it was their exercise of the day. It was incredibly neat. Jared and a couple of his friends were there at the same time, so we joined up with their group for a while. We then watched the African penguins be fed (gulping down whole fish), as well as going to the Predator Exhibit and watching divers feed the rays and a gigantic turtle. The rays were so intelligentthey were nuzzling the lunchbox they had, trying to get some squid out of it. It was so awesome. I love stingrays. <3
After that, we decided that wed had enough fish, and so Julie and I started walking back to the ship. We passed through a building that was I think called the African Cultural and Wellness Center, where there was an assortment of cool things INCLUDING lots of painting stands! It took me a long while, but I finally found a perfect painting for my mom and dad. I really wanted to get them this awesome jazz scene, but the best one was frame and would cost an extra 2000 rand to ship, but I found a landscape that is very much in their style, I think, and is also very beautiful and a good representation of Africa. I think theyll like it very much. The canvas (its oil on canvas) is rolled up and securely under my bed.
We went back to the mall with our laptops in hopes of internet, but of course that was a falsityinternet here you have to pay for, which is a huge pain, and the free internet is just brutal to try to get. I uploaded like.. 11 random pictures from Canada on my facebookI think yall will have to wait until I get home for a mass upload. But I did get a little Desmond Tutu book that was quotes on various things, so Im pretty excited for that. And a man from South Africa came up to me in front of Michells and asked if Id been over the equator recentlydidnt understand what he was talking about until he gestured to my shaved head! :) He said it suited me well. :D
Around 6:30PM we nommed some dinner on this ship and collected everyone who wanted to go to the poetry readingthere was Jared, Julie, Caroline, Aaron, Brian and I. After a little bit of mayhem in getting ready, we piled into two cabs after haggling a little with the cabbies and drove off to the Woodstock district, which is what I feel is kind of the creative side of the city. The place we pulled up in front of was a little called A Touch of Madness. There was a tiny bar to the right, a small room to the left filled with chairs, and to the back, a dining roomalmost like someones house were they charged people to eat dinner. I got a glass of wine and sat down in the poetry reading roomit was so small, far smaller than imagined, with a high ceiling, dark green walls, and very medieval paintings and tapestries around. It reminded me a lot of a room in San Francisco, actually. The room slowly began to fill up as we sat there, mostly with South Africans, which we were happy about because we really wanted to get away from annoying SAS students.
The poetry reading was INCREDIBLE. The first man who went up, his name I think was Mwalo, and had a giant drum with him. And he didnt just read his poetryhe sang it, occasionally explaining what words he was using (as he was speaking in a language native to the Congo, where he was from). The drumming was so rhythmic and incredible, and he spoke on a variety of subjects, from failure to poverty and financial issues to xenophobia. It was truly incredible listening to the music. Apparently he has a CD out at a place we walked by on Long Street, so I might try to pick it up. After a short intermission, people went up to say their own poems. I wish I had brought something to share, because the amount of culture and diversity was absolutely incredible and staggering. There was the white South African who talked about feeling like an outsider in her own country because of her skin, the American student who raged about ignorance and not seeing pain of people in different cultures, the Irishman who sang a lament about a man who shot his lover, thinking she was a swan, the man who read an essay in Spanish about finding compromises within different aspects of your personality, and a man with a drum and an incredible instrumentit was a single string that he played on a long stick. He told us to close our eyes as we listened and to just feel it, and Im not even going to lie, it actually put me in a hypnotized state, just breathing deeply and listening to him click into the microphone as he shook a rainstick and played this incredible instrument. The only bad thing about it was that a group of SAS kids came in and were extremely rude the entire time, getting up and going out the door and coming back and making a ruckus when people were performingjust rude. But aside from that? It was truly an incredible nightI didnt expect the atmosphere to be so intimate and for so many cultures to be represented.
Jared, Julie, Brian and I headed back while Caroline and Aaron stayed a little longer. We headed over to The Green Dolphin, a jazz restaurant that was on the wharf, and was thankfully not overcrowded with SASers (a note: people have started referring to them as SASholes and I kind of think the term is appropriate to some people. :|). It was two stories, darkly lit with candles on the tables and green light lighting the stage, where there was a piano, a drum set, and a cello. I was feeling peckish, so I got a salad with all kinds of delightful things (sundried tomatoes, onions, mozerella, avocados, and salmon!) while the boys got brownie deserts. Julie and I tried a drink called a Truth or Dare, which was basically a desert anywayit was a mixed drink with vanilla vodka, kaluha, amaretto, cream, and chocolate sauce. It was pretty good, but I have really discovered that I dont like vodka too much, so Ill have to bare that in mind the next time I order a cocktail.
The jazz was fun to listen to, but what was even better was the conversation. We talked about the laws currently passed in Arizona (Im sure you all know the one), various bar stories, travel experiences and how grumpy we were about Americans not being respectful, and assorted other things. Brian and I both defended Christianity against Jared and Julie when we got on the topic of religion, which I really dont like going into anyway, because people tend to be ignorant no matter what side of the argument theyre on. But it was still a great time, and we left around midnight-and a quarter, after Brian and I had finished our coffees. I dont have any plans for tomorrow, so I might try to join Brian on going on a Cycling in the Winelands SAS tour, which sounds really funits in Stallensbosch (I think thats how you spell it?) and is like a 12 mile ride, which sounds awesome. Ill just have to get there and hope that therell be a place for me in the morning.
I love this country so farthe people are incredibly friendly but not the in your personal space way that the Ghanaian people were, and the city and landscapes are just beautiful and stunning. I cant wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me!
October 3 2010 / Cape Town, South Africa
Lorelei gave me a call at 5:30 in the morning, as I wanted to watch the sun rise with her. However, as I was completely exhausted, I sort of stumbled to the phone, warbled out The boat isnt moving, which was truewed come into port far earlier than expected, and then did my best to try to go back to sleep. This, however, was impossible, as around 7:00 the voice of God on the intercom started calling up seas to be checked in, as the immigration officials had to give us our visas one by one. I think she forgot the Aegean Sea, because she called one of the seas twice and then was sort of like IF YOURE NOT UP HERE THEN GET UP HERE. So I went up to Glazer Lounge where the immigration officials were sitting around, and they put the South African visa info my passport. :) I am going to LOVE looking through my passport by the time I get back.
After that, Lorelei and I went up to get breakfast and sit outside so we could see Cape Town. CAPE TOWN IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE EVER. The Victoria and Alfred wharf is incredibly beautiful, with Dutch glass buildings arounda gigantic mall and a shopping center is literally a minutes walk from the ship. Out stretching behind it are beautiful houses and businesses, and close by, Table Mountain, Lions Head, Devils Peak and Signal Hill create a fence around us to the sea. Cape Town is definitely where all the rich people live. The weather is perfectly Californian, with a light breeze and nice heat, no humidity. Everything is green and lush as well. It is an incredible view. Around 8:30 was the Diplomatic Briefing, but I heard that you could get it in the cabins on the TV, so I decided to go back and rest my eyes with it on. Yeah, after the first lady went up, I completely fell asleep and dont remember anything of what the second guy said, though Ellie told me laterwomen shouldnt go to bathrooms alone, because they could be attacked; dont use your cell phone in public, because you could get bashed over the head; theres no pick pocketing here because theres so much violent crime. Im glad she told me those things, but Im kind of glad I was asleeptalk about scaring people half to death.
The Poets and Authors FDP was around 10, when I woke up, but I decided that the city was just calling out to meit just looked so beautiful, the sun and weather were perfect, so I had to go out and exploreI didnt want to be on the boat any longer. So I met up with Julie and Lorelei, who were going to go and explore the Greenmarket Square, which is apparently a flea market where you can haggle for things. We walked into the mall so that we could get some money, and I was momentarily stunned by how very American it wasnice glass walls, spacey and clean. The only real difference is that there were guards EVERYWHERE, as there are in all touristy areas of Cape Town. The entire V&A Wharf is very much like Pier 39 or something in San Franciscovery touristy and clean, definitely a change after all of the working ports weve visited lately. We went and got some rand out of the ATM and then headed out again. A nice guard told us the market had been moved, as it was Sunday, so he gave us directions and soon we were off again, travelling to where I think was north-east in the city. There are tons of roundabouts here, and the cars drive on the left, so we had to be extra vigilant. There were lots of ABORTION KILLS BABIES signholders and truck-billboards around on that day, which was kind of strangeseemed like it was a specific event day.
Anyway, we walked a little up a hill and then turned on Main Street, walking alongside the road. After a while we passed the Football Stadium that had been built for the FIFA World Cup, which was awesome to seeweirdly enough there was a McDonalds next to it that was strangely classy, and we assume had to have been built just for the tourists coming in for the cup. There were large vacant lots around where I assume tents must have been set up for all the events going on. We walked farther down main street until we could see ocean in the distance, and then to the left of us we finally saw tents and colorful fabrics to the right of us. It was a small Farmers Market, but it was pretty coolthere were wire sculptures that were beaded animals, metal scraps sculpted together into animals, teeshirts, African masks, and all sorts of things like that. I found a couple of cool gifts for mom (no telling, but its a set and is pretty cooldid a little bit of bartering and its pretty exciting), as well as this really neat wood carving of Africa that had the Big Five carved into it (rhinoceros, water buffalo, giraffe, elephant, and lion)the man had carved it himself and it was really neat. I also bought a little rhino charm bracelet. :)
After a while we walked back, because it was getting to be around lunch time and we had to meet up with the people we were going to Table Mountain with (we had decided not to go to Boulder Beach today). We (Caroline, Brian, Lorelei, Julie and I) ordered a riki (a largish cab that is a lot cheaper than a regular cab) and went up to the mountain. When we got to the bottom part of it, we started watching the tablecloth roll over the tablea thick blanket of fast moving fog. Our driver immediately told us that there was no way that we could climb the mountain safety because the wind would be outrageous and there would be no visability, and that we really shouldnt go, especially since the cable cars, which were the things that could take you up and down the mountain, would be not running. We decided it was probably best to take a locals advice, so we decided to go to Lions Head instead, which was the slightly smaller friend of Table Mountain that looked as clear as could be.
The hike was absolutely incredible. At first it was a slow incline on a wide dirt path that snaked around the mountain. The entire city of Cape Town was stretched out below us, and we could even see our harbor, our ship, and the FIFA stadium. The fog was rolling over Table Mountain beside us extremely quickly, which was incredibleit reminded me so much of San Francisco fog. The weather here is just very Californian. All around us the ocean was stretched out, and on the other side of the mountain we could see Camps Bayin the distance I could see Robben Island, which I was like whaaa I want to go there
I cant believe my trip fell through. :| But anyway there were lots of pretty purple flowers around, as well as monstrous African bees, which were a little terrifying. The hike was about two and a half hours long, and the best part was near the very end, where you had to vertically climb up along chains and metal handlebars that were embedded into the stone. It was very hardcore and adventurous. I absolutely loved it. :) At the very top we could see completely 360 degrees all around usthe stadium, the Harbor, Cape Town, Table Mountain, Camps Bay, everything just stretched out below and around us. It was incredibly epic. We sat down on the stones up there and just talked for a while before heading back down 45 minutes or so later, because we wanted to be down before the sun set. On the way down, Caroline decided she wanted to do bouldering for a while (hardcore rock climbing) so I just sat on a rock and stared out at the mountains for a while. After a while a South African guy came by and we talked for a little while about Cape Town and how it is similar to California. Cape Town is the base chakra of the world! he said at one point, which was awesome. Everyone here is so kind. Im really glad that Ive been doing so many active things while Ive been exploring here. I feel as though its been a truly great experience.
At the bottom of the mountain, we caught a random cab. We wanted to go to the pizza place wed hear of from pre-port, but the diver didnt know it, so we ended up going to this random chain restaurant, which was just kind of okay, though it was reasonably cheap. I got a pineapple onion chicken bbq pizza, as one does in that kind of situation. After we munched, we began the long walk back to port through Main Street, which was interesting as we didnt really know how far it was to the ship, we only had a map that told us that we would get there
eventually.
We almost went along a freeway at one point, and then we decided that we should probably just stay on the road. Two beggars accosted us at different times for money, which I felt bad about because it was really clear that he didnt have anything and his jeans were all torn up
you just cant help but feel helpless in those situations. Brian had some chocolate so he gave some of that to him. We got a little lost every once in a while, and because we had been hiking all day we were just generally exhausted. We were just trying to get back as fast as possible though. In retrospect, though there were enough of us to be formidable, we probably shouldnt have been walking around in that area that late at night. But all the people who were going by and shouting at us from mini-buses were really sketchy, and there were no taxis. =/
Finally we got back to the V&A waterfront, where Michells Pub (a Scottish pub!) was waiting for us, especially Brian and I, who had been talking about thoroughly needing a beer after that wake to relax our stressed leg muscles. We sat down outside and got Pilsner Urquell, which is a Czech beer that Brian likes. Sitting outside was pretty funpeople would come by that we knew, like Dasha, Steven & Hans, and Aaron. There was a gigantic black and grey bear of a dog going around, who was an endearment of everyone sitting nearby him. It was nice just talking about the day. After a while Alex came by and sat with us, and while Lorelei decided she wanted to go back to the ship to sleep before her safari. At some point we went upstairs (at this point it was just Alex, Julie, and I) and decided to get something people were calling a fishbowl, which was a big bowl filled with blue liquid and ice inside. It was really goodapparently it was just lots of different kinds of alcohol mixed together, and the blue part was blue raspberry sours or something like that.
A brief story for you:
There should be alcohol fish in this fishbowl, said Julie.
Indeed! And they should be cold, so ice cubes would not be needed. Wait! What about when we finish drinking the alcohol? said I.
Well, of course wed have to order more!
<3 Shes lovely.
There was loud music playing while we were upstairs, and a couple of SASers were making asses out of themselves by dancing on chairs, so I kind of wanted to go outside for more conversation, but no one else wanted to go. So I just kind of danced with Julie (in a reasonable and not obnoxious way) and sipped at the fishbowl. It was definitely fun, though I decided to head back with Julie around midnight so that we could wake up early tomorrow. We decided that we wanted to go to Boulder Beach, then maybe the Malay District and lunch, and figure things out from there.
Sorry if this entry is a little fractured
doing so many things in such a short amount of time leaves blog entries a little disjointed! I really cant even do Cape Town justice with this blogits just so beautiful it needs pictures to accompany it!