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 learners—wine 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 aren’t the adults allowed to bring back wine?”  to which I said, extremely loudly, “I think we’re 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 I’m some binge-drinking idiot who doesn’t 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 can’t drink wine properly if it’s 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, they’re for adults only.”  The alcohol policies here just make me so angry.  It’s 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 buildings—it’s because that’s 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 wine—what a wine estate was, that wines can be less than 10% “other” and not have to mention it on the bottle, that there’s 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 city—which 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 home—it 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 that’s 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 couldn’t 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 pairings—mussels 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 (he’s 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 it’s already gotten there because it shipped from Alabama or something.  But they’re really delicious so I can’t 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 pursuits—I want to start a book club when I get back to school, anyone interested?  We also talked about webcomics—we 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 okay—I 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, guys—it 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 okay—now that I know how easy that goes through, I’ll have to do it more. 

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 I’d agreed to meet Julie at 9AM.  I actually finished getting ready before her, though I didn’t go to breakfast and ended up munching on some Corn Pops or whatever they’re called.  Then we split, and finally wandered off into the wonderful world of Cape Town—or 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 children’s bible stories book that I kind of want to get and donate to my church—the art in it is absolutely superb, every story with a different artist, and it’s just… adorable.  :)  There were some pretty neat tee-shirts, but nothing is worth 180 rand to me yet (that’s 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 Simon’s Town/Cape of Good Hope/Boulder Beach/etc for like 480 rand each—no 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 nice—he 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 don’t 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 while—the 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 we’d 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 wares—the 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 don’t have a purse and have been meaning to buy one—am 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 there—like Europe, it seems as though places don’t 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 Africa—a 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 chicken—a 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 wasn’t expecting it to be so huge, gave most of it to me.  SCORE!  It was an incredible meal—spicy but didn’t 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 weren’t 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 pool—I 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 exhibit—apparently 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 intelligent—they 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 we’d 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 they’ll like it very much.  The canvas (it’s 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 falsity—internet 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 facebook—I think ya’ll 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 I’m pretty excited for that.  And a man from South Africa came up to me in front of Michell’s and asked if I’d been over the equator recently—didn’t 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 reading—there 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 room—almost like someone’s house were they charged people to eat dinner.  I got a glass of wine and sat down in the poetry reading room—it 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 didn’t just read his poetry—he 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 instrument—it 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 I’m 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 performing—just rude.  But aside from that?  It was truly an incredible night—I didn’t 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 anyway—it was a mixed drink with vanilla vodka, kaluha, amaretto, cream, and chocolate sauce.  It was pretty good, but I have really discovered that I don’t like vodka too much, so I’ll 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 (I’m 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 don’t like going into anyway, because people tend to be ignorant no matter what side of the argument they’re 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 don’t 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 fun—it’s in Stallensbosch (I think that’s how you spell it?) and is like a 12 mile ride, which sounds awesome.  I’ll just have to get there and hope that there’ll be a place for me in the morning. 

I love this country so far—the 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 can’t 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 isn’t moving,” which was true—we’d 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 YOU’RE 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 around—a gigantic mall and a shopping center is literally a minute’s walk from the ship.  Out stretching behind it are beautiful houses and businesses, and close by, Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, Devil’s 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 don’t remember anything of what the second guy said, though Ellie told me  later—women shouldn’t go to bathrooms alone, because they could be attacked; don’t use your cell phone in public, because you could get bashed over the head; there’s no pick pocketing here because there’s so much violent crime.   I’m glad she told me those things, but I’m kind of glad I was asleep—talk 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 me—it just looked so beautiful, the sun and weather were perfect, so I had to go out and explore—I didn’t 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 was—nice 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 Francisco—very touristy and clean, definitely a change after all of the working ports we’ve 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 strange—seemed 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 see—weirdly enough there was a McDonald’s 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 Farmer’s Market, but it was pretty cool—there 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 it’s a set and is pretty cool—did a little bit of bartering and it’s 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 table—a 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 shouldn’t 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 local’s advice, so we decided to go to Lion’s 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 incredible—it 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 Bay—in the distance I could see Robben Island, which I was like whaaa I want to go there… I can’t 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 us—the 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.  I’m really glad that I’ve been doing so many active things while I’ve been exploring here.  I feel as though it’s been a truly great experience. 

At the bottom of the mountain, we caught a random cab.  We wanted to go to the pizza place we’d hear of from pre-port, but the diver didn’t 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 didn’t 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 didn’t have anything and his jeans were all torn up… you just can’t 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 shouldn’t 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 Michell’s 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 fun—people 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 good—apparently 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 we’d have to order more!”
<3 She’s 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 can’t even do Cape Town justice with this blog—it’s just so beautiful it needs pictures to accompany it!

October 2 2010 / MV Explorer

I’ll keep this entry short because it was several days ago and I don’t even remember it too much—it was the day before Cape Town, so I was a little preoccupied. 

Global Studies today was taught by none other than the lovely Desmond Tutu, who is an incredible human being and I just adore hearing him talk.  One of the first things that he said was, “Someone asked me once how to get a Nobel Peace Prize, and I told him that there are three things you need—an easy name is first.  Secondly, a large nose, and three, you must have sexy legs.”  And then he cracked up.  ADORABLE.  He told us lots of parables to talk about apartheid and he gave us a little bit of history about it as well, though for a lot of it he just talked about some of his own experiences and mostly how people, black and white, were affected in their spirit.  It was a very powerful speech, and in the end, people were asking assortments of questions.  I kind of wanted to ask him what he could say to people who lacked the kind of faith that he has in God, but I felt too shy, so I didn’t ask (but I should have).  People asked about health care, how he kept his joy, and other things.  And the ending question was:

“What’s your favorite color?”

Desmond Tutu laughed and said, “You.  You are a good color.”

More awesome things I found in my notes that Desmond Tutu said:

“God has got no one except you.  God wants there to be peace in this world, for every child to have enough to eat, to have clean water, for education, but they are not going to come floating down from heaven.  God says, “Please help me, so those women being raped in the Congo will stop.  You, you, you, [pointing around] please help me.  I want a world where people live in peace.  They are all my children.  Help me make my world a compassionate world.  Help me make this world where they will spend more money on food and homes than on guns and bombs.  I have no one except you.””

“Don’t be affected with the cynicism of oldies like me.  Continue to be idealistic.”

“Dream the craziest dreams—they often are God’s dreams.”

“Just telling your story can be therapeutic.”

“It is not the faith that is the problem, it is the faith fool.”


That was absolutely awesome, but what WASN’T awesome was that night, when I got an email saying that the ferries that go to Robben Island were not working properly, so the “Robben Island Pilgrimage” I had signed up for would not be to Robben Island, but instead to a Holocaust Museum, District Six, and some other places.  Being as that I was already losing my mind not knowing how I was going to fit in everything I wanted to do in the three days I had in Cape Town, I stomped over to the field office immediately to demand a refund.  They were not there, which made me even more angry.  Change the itinerary the day before the trip, and not be there to provide refunds or even mention anything about refunds in the email?  I saw her at the pre-port and she said she would “do her best” to get me a refund.  Yeah, I’m pretty sure if you change the itinerary to something completely different I’m entitled to get a refund.  -.-  Mostly though, I was just disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to go, though I did try to look on the bright side of the entire day that I had ahead of me. 

Logistical pre-port was a little bit of scare tactics going on, which I guess makes sense because South Africa is the second most violent country in the entire world.  But don’t worry, we’re all taking good care of each other. 

That was really all the interesting parts of today.  SOUTH AFRICA IS AWESOME THOUGH.  AIEEEE. 

October 1 2010 / MV Explorer

In Poetry today they talked about this awesome-sounding FDP that’s called Poets and Authors, where we meet with successful contemporary authors and poets on board the ship and have lunch with them and talk about their writings.  It seems as though it doesn’t have a cap on how many people can go, and it’s only twelve dollars, so I think it would be really neat to get myself immersed that way.  It might also give me some new ideas for poetry to write, because I am just getting a little overwhelmed with how poetry “should” be with all of its metaphorical imagery and emotions and all that stuff.  Also presented my magic box in Anthropology of Tourism, and talked a bit about our visit to Robben Island and some of its back history.  I am extremely exciting to be going now that I’ve learned more about apartheid.  Contemporary Social Issues we had our first debate in class, which was on capital punishment and whether or not it should be outlawed.  It got, as imagined, pretty heated, especially since both sides actually believed that their side was the right one.  I’m glad I’m doing something that is more of a no-brainer and less controversial (comprehensive paternity leave in the United States)—I would just end up working myself up into a frenzy. 

After class I went into the Wellness Center to get my hair buzzed evenly, as my patches have earned me the nickname “Patches” with my friends (don’t worry about it, mom).  It is definitely far more even now.  The woman who was doing it was extremely confused as to why all of these women were so excited about their lack of hair, and kept trying to tell me how to make my hair grow out faster.  I appreciated the gesture.  But I actually really like my hair short, if not shaved—it just draws so much more attention to my wonderful face.  :)  (My receipt said that I had come in for a beard trim—I lolled.)

I accidentally fell asleep in my room after my haircut, waking up only to hear something on the intercom about South Africa, so for some reason I was convinced that meals were going to be segregated by gender, and continued to think that was until I was on the stairs.  But Julie, Lorelei, Jared and I munched with some of Jared’s other friends, Kathy and Kristy, who were pretty nice.  We talked about extremely inappropriate things.  I’ve discovered that I am the “Robert Greene” of my group of friends.  I say one little thing and Jared’s eyes bug out and he goes “STEPHANIE!” in the same way I always would go “ROBERT!”  I am pleased to accept this title. 

We went into the Union to snag good spots for the cultural pre-port in South Africa, which was THE MOST INCREDIBLE pre-port EVER.  It left me so jazzed up for South Africa.  First of all, the chorus sang the South African national anthem, which is in four languages and is so beautiful.  Desmond Tutu came in midway through and went up there and started singing too… that man cannot get any more adorable.  There are just SO many incredible things to do in South Africa—the R62 wine route (Shellenbosch vineyard selection is close by apparently), Greenmarket Square, hiking Table Mountain, Boulder Beach (where all the African jackass penguins are!), township tours, Cliftton beaches, “ostrich riding” (terrifying), shark cage diving (far less scary), Cape Point, nightlife, jazz clubs… my mind was just boggled the entire time people were speaking.  I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do everything I want to do in such a short amount of time, especially when I’m going to be doing a safari the last three days.  I am not at all going to be sleeping.  I also really want to go to a jazz club while I’m in South Africa, even if I just go by myself and enjoy the music (Lorelei doesn’t seem to be into jazz, and Julie and I have pretty conflicting schedules). 

AUGH! This is the first place where BEFORE we’ve even GOTTEN to the country I already know that I’m going to have to come back in order to do everything I want to do!  I wish that my fam was here to do this stuff with me--I feel as though there's something for everyone here, and that this would be an awesome place for us to go in the future (and I haven't even been there yet, haha).  Apparently the South African favorite pizza is bacon, avocado, and feta cheese.  I feel as though me and SA are going to get along just fine. 

After the cultural pre-port it was karaoke night in the Union!  Julie and I wanted to sing (despite my flashbacks about the last time I sang karaoke on a ship…) and it took a while before we finally settled on All Star by Smashmouth.  We figured we couldn’t go wrong with a 90s favorite.  I wanted to sing Frank Sinatra, but the other girls “didn’t know it well enough.”  UNACCEPTABLE.  I also bullied Jared into coming up and singing as well.  We went on AFTER the guys who totally rocked “I Want It That Way” by… the Backstreet Boys? N’Sync?  So that was a little stressful, but we did our best.  I lost my voice midway through, but people were still happy and we got a good reception.  The last song of the night was sung by Lander—he did Piano Man, which I hadn’t seen in the book!  Everyone in the hall knew it, and by the end everyone was standing and swaying together as we sang.  It was the most awesome thing. 

After karaoke night, Julie, Lorelei and I kind of worked out the first day in what we want to do, which is me going to the Poets and Authors thing, leaving around noon-thirty to go to Boulder Beach, going to Clifton’s “Fourth Beach,” which is apparently a big party beach, and shopping.  If I get bored and we’re at the Clifton Beach for too long, I’ll just come back and find something else to do.  I really want to pack my days—there just isn’t enough time to be idle in this country!  I think we might be hiking Table Mountain on the third day.  I will have to have some kind of late night excursion into the port mall to use their free wifi to upload pics onto facebook as well, so ya’ll can see my bald head.

I really want to buy a vuvuzela in Cape Town.

PS: I sent out a LOT of postcards in Morocco--have people not gotten them yet? 

September 30 2010 / MV Explorer

Kind of like with yesterday's entry, instead of writing some long entry, I think I’m going to try to do little bulletpoints with what I find the highs and lows my day to be.  It might be more time efficient for both of us, right?

•       Didn’t go to my Women in High Courts class or Global Studies because I felt weirdly nauseous this morning.  I don’t know why, but I’ve just been feeling weird waves of nausea for the past couple of days.  It went away after a while, but I was definitely worried for a little while.  I’m very grateful that I haven’t been feeling sick like I have after I got back from Morocco.

•       So I have three midterm exams and one paper due after South Africa.  Being as that we get to South Africa in like… two days, I felt like it was probably about that time to start kicking my butt into gear.  I read for Anthropology of Tourism on souvenirs and wrote a little write up on my magic box I got in Morocco so I can present it tomorrow.  Lorelei sat out on Deck 5 on deck chairs, and I read a little about Women in Versailles for WIHC and then attempted to start brainstorming for a poem while we idly chatted and looked out at the water. 

•       I’m pretty sure I should have a 96 on my Global Studies test instead of a 94, so I guess I might bring that up at some point? 

•       I’ve become addicted to Spider Solitaire, which I have just now discovered.  :|

•       After dinner Julie and Martha came over and we listened to music and sang while working on papers and readings.  Martha and I started our Women in High Courts papers, which is (after the initial hardness) going pretty okay.  I’ve discovered that I still am unable to craft introduction paragraphs until after the paper is pretty much finished, so I just have really sarcastic thesis statements as a kind of outline (in this case, it is “QUEEN MOTHERS ARE REALLY MODERN AND BADASS LADIES WHILE ADHERING TO TRADITIONS (SORTA) AND STUFF”). After a while we went up to Deck 7 and I bought my first ever Semester at Sea beer, which was actually pretty good.  It was funny though, because I haven’t had anything really to drink for a while, so my tolerance is pretty low—definitely felt a light buzz.  Martha was getting really upset about boyfriend issues at home, so I did my best to make her laugh and help take her mind off of it.  I’m not very good with boyfriend issues… I’m pretty jaded about it now, because I’m very much against feeling like crap in a relationship.  Which is probably bad if someone wants to work out their problems. 

•       After we came back, we worked for a little while longer before Martha and I departed to find internet, because the internet had not been working ALL DAY (which is why, as you can see, this blog is a little later).  She was still really upset so she got lots of hugs.  I hope she feels better.  :(

•       Best desert day ever—coconut cake and pineapple upside-down cake are soooo good.

Yeah, actually this is really all I did today.   There wasn’t too much excitement going on, aside from studying… I am definitely going to have to bring my books and laptop to study while I am on my safari, I just feel as though that period of time will be too long to go without working—my brain will melt into mush and I will be no use at all.

September 29 2010 / MV Explorer

Instead of writing some long entry about class, I think I’m going to try to do little bulletpoints with what I find the highs and lows my day to be.  It will probably be more time efficient for both of us, and it will keep me from getting burned out when I want to write really good entries, like for South Africa or other port cities.  Just tell me if it doesn't work, and I'll change it~

•       Not too much thrilling adventures in class today.  Poetry was awesome, as it always is.  Anthropology was cool because instead of just listening to a lecture the entire time, we were given brochures to different tourist sites and analyzed what demographic they would be catering to and trying to draw in.  It was actually really fun—I wish I could get some brochures on the place I’m going in Singapore so I can get a head start on my paper for that class.  We talked a lot about race in CSI—we went over how race is a socially constructed identity and things of that nature, which was cool because I knew it and was able to participate in the discussions instead of sitting there awkwardly.  

•       Jared, Julie, Lorelei and I commandeered a after dinner and Jared asked us questions in pop quiz fashion (Awesomeness 101).  In all I got a C+ on his test questions, but I disagree with some of his grading methods—I do not at all think that a stegosaurus is a cliché favorite dinosaur. 

•       After classroom hijinks, we went to watch a panel on South Africa between Louis Patler and Desmond Tutu, and they were talking about apartheid the majority of the time. This panel solidified my belief that Desmond Tutu is the most adorable man alive.  He was constantly giggling and laughing and high-fiving at whatever Patler or Dean David was saying, most times laughing far longer than anyone else was.  I hope I have just as much happiness in my life.  :)  It was really freaking intense though, because Patler talked about how twice in the 1970s he was on a voyage where the South African government did not let 11 black students get off the ship until a good 98% of the people on the ship refused to get off as well.  A few years later, a car full of SAS students, three white and one black, was run off the road on Table Mountain—the black student died while the white students were so injured that they had to be evacuated home.  It was definitely a kind of horrifying reality.  I didn’t even realize what apartheid was, really, until I got on this ship and started learning more about it.  Desmond Tutu also talked about his experience living in a country under apartheid.  It was very moving, but also uplifting—I feel as though many students left feeling inspired to learn from the hatred and senselessness that was going on during that time and live in love, if I can put it in a bit of a cliché. The entire panel was filmed and is on the public network, so I think I might download it to my computer for later.  It was pretty great.  

•       Watched The Lion King in Lorelei’s room with Jared, Julie, Alex, Lorelei and Steven.  I decided it was a pajama party and got Simba and everything.  I’ll admit, it wasn’t quite as special as watching it with my college or highschool buddies, but it was nice to see again—definitely a comforting movie to watch.  I have also discovered that Rafiki is strikingly similar to Desmond Tutu.  He laughs in exactly the same way and even moves similarly, almost dancing.  It was the most hilarious similarity.  :D