Day 10 - Fiery Drinks...

First of all, today is my big brother’s birthday! Don’t worry Sean, I won’t tell ‘em how old you’re getting – that is, if you can even read this without your bifocals anyway ;)

This morning was our community group’s WOW morning- Now, I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I’m guessing it’s just a reason to get people up in front of the group and professors and speakers and have us make fools of ourselves. Or maybe just to pump everyone up? Have a good morning laugh to start the day out right? Get us out of our comfort zones? I dunno. Doesn’t matter, really- it was fun! We made up a Global L.E.A.D. rap (yes, rap- real gangsta) to Smash Mouth’s “All Star.” And it went a little somethin’ like this:

Soooooommmeebody once told me Cape Town was gonna own me,

But now we’re here and seizing the day

We had that tourist look with our camera and our blue book

And the letters “USA” on our forehead

Well, the days start comin’ and they don’t stop comin’

Climbed Table Mountain and we hit the trail runnin’

Didn’t make sense not to Sunset Cruise

The friends were great and the waves were smooth

So much to do, so much to see so we gotta take Ish’s taxi

You never know so just don’t go, LEAD!

You never shine if you don’t glow

Hey now, we’re in Cape Town, get your game on, go, LEAD

Hey now, we’re in Cape Town, bungee, skydive, safari

And seeing the smiles of those kids,

If only we could dance just they did

**Disclaimer: please do not judge me for all these cheesy lines.**

Today we had the honor of having Vince and Barbara Dooley visit with us and speak in class. Lucky for us, they waited to start our WOW thing until they got there- ergh. Maybe I should find them and personally apologize… Anywho, they were absolutely fantastic speakers – charming, engaging, witty, genuine, and just all around enjoyable to listen to. I didn’t see one person nodding off! …as that tends to be an issue in some classes, unfortunately. Think about trying to keep the full attention of 101 college kids at 9 o’clock in the morning. It’s no easy feat, I assure you. The Dooley’s managed to do it with flying colors!

my sprinbok steak

Mr. Vince Dooley started us out talking about some of the things he’s learned about leadership through the years as UGA’s football coach among other things (and lesser schools…GO DAWGS!). His main points included the acronym P.R.I.D.E. and he was sure to specify not the kind of pride that crosses the line into arrogance. P is for preparation. As one team member put it- “proper preparation prevents poor performance,” the 5 P’s. He stressed that anyone has the will to win a football game, but not everyone has the will to put in the time in preparation for that game. R is for risk. His example of risk was UGA hiring him at age 31 to come be the athletic director. He said he and Barbara realized years later that they were the only two people who thought that was a “good hire.” I is for integrity. Mrs. Barbara went into more detail on this subject; integrity is the most important thing to have and it just takes one small move to ruin it and you may never be able to get it back. D is for drive and determination. Mr. Dooley taught us that drive and determination are more important than talent. He used Herschel Walker as an example. Herschel was a good player and fast, but two other boys on his highschool team were just as fast, and “that made him mad.” And his older sister was faster than he was! “And that made him mad.” He decided that he needed to do anything he could to get faster. He worked on starts and all sorts of other things to give him an edge. And finally he could beat those other two players on his team. But his sister was still faster! Also, Mr. Dooley noted that amongst some of the most successful people in the arts, sciences, sports, etc., usually were not the most talented in their family. It was their drive that set them apart and allowed them to be great. E is for everybody. This is where working together and truly being a team comes into play. It really was such an inspiring lecture (if you want to call it that). Mr. Dooley colored his speaking with splashes of funny stories about football, life in general, and his wife- his inspiration he says. How sweet is that?

Moving on to Mrs. Barbara Dooley - my heavens, she is something. She seemed to be such a witty, wise, positive, strong, and well-grounded sweetheart of a lady. And this is only after maybe 30 minutes of hearing her speak? I only hope that I can have her great attitude and outlook on life. She spoke mainly about overcoming obstacles- both the kind you can control and the kind you can’t do anything about. And her philosophy is that it all depends on one thing- your attitude. Attitude is really the only thing we can control. For example, she had breast cancer and remained positive throughout the chemo and radiation. She said once she saw the look of terror on her kids’ faces, she knew she would have to be strong and positive through the whole process. When she decided to shave her head, she bought wigs of all different kinds- blonde, red, long black with red streaks, and a spiked one.

A couple pieces of her advice include:

• The woman is the ‘thermostat’ of the household- if you’re crabby, your kids will be crabby and your husband will be crabby. If you’ve got a good attitude, your kids and husband will likely have positive attitudes too.
• Everything you do has a ripple effect on your family- making them proud, shamed, etc.
• Hit any obstacles you meet head-on. You’ll be able to handle them best when you have the determination to be strong and have a positive attitude.
• Never stop working on relationships. You have the power to make them happy and good or the power to ruin it.

live entertainment at Mama Africa

For the rest of the day we’re free to do whatever. As for my roomies and I, we will be resting, grocery shopping, doing yoga, and going to dinner at Mama Africa. A group of about 15 of us along with two other groups with about 50 people total all chose to go to Mama Africa. On the menu were items such as kudu, ostrich, alligator, springbok, warthog and other random items. I chose the springbok steak, and it was fabulous. It really did taste just like normal beef steak! I tried the others except for warthog- no one ordered it! I don’t blame ‘em. Sounds weird. After dinner we all headed over to Dubliner’s again, then to Fiction to end the night.

not lookin too happy about this traditional fire deal... but hey- when in Rome, right?

Day 9 - Irish Pubs and American music- yes, we're still in Africa. Supposedly.

This morning began the end of sleeping in! We reluctantly pulled ourselves out of bed and headed down for breakfast - a girl’s gotta eat! The wind was INSANE today! We literally were being propelled towards the building. It felt like someone was actually pushing you. Nuts. Absolutely nuts. After our fantabulous breakfast of the hot cereal concoction (this time everyone was OK, we knew something else was coming after) and eggs and bacon we made it down to class for our lecture on leadership styles. We then met in smaller groups to discuss the book A Walk in the Night by Alex La Guma, a personal story written about times during the apartheid. (I may or may not have actually finished reading the book…just being honest).

cooking dinner! they'd kill me if they knew about this...

            Today has been a super chill day, and I’m guessing it’s because everyone is preparing for our busy week. Tonight we’ve got trivia, Wednesday we’re going to Cape Point (the southernmost peak of Africa!), Thursday we will be going on a wine tour, and Friday we will visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. And all of these will be in addition to our classes in the morning! Oh, and we’re going to the Goldfish concert on Saturday - to be honest, I’m not quite sure what I’m getting myself into with this concert, but I’m sure it’ll be a blast!

at the hotel bar

            Tonight we cooked dinner at the apartment instead of going out to eat- gotta save some money! Laura Claire and Ches cooked eggs with peppers and onions and tomatoes, while Adams kindly made grilled cheese for the two of us, and I took charge of heating the soup. Everyone had been talking all day about going out tonight and we weren’t about to get left behind! We all went down to the hotel bar, the new hangout for us global leaders, and chatted it up with some of the students as well as the professor and a couple teaching assistants. Then it was time to call Ish, the taxi driver bodyguard man. (He’s not really a bodyguard…he’s actually quite tall and skinny – but he comes with us when we go out and keeps an eye out for us among other things). We all piled into the familiar taxis and headed to Dubliner’s, an Irish pub/club (say that three times fast). We proceeded to dance the night away with a fairly large group of our friends and some locals, along with the token creepers. The music at Dubliner's is like something you would hear on an oldies radio station back in the states. We had a nice sampling of Elton John, along with “Eye of the Tiger”, Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life,” Shakira’s “This Time For Africa,” complete with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” Oh and here’s the kicker – “Sweet Home Alabama” on request. I kid you not. Embarrassing, I know.

Ches, Blair, Laura Claire and I dancing at Dubliner's 

The DJ- quite a character as you can see. And no, we didn't ask him to pose.

I’ve noticed here that not many things are uniquely or indigenously “South African” or really “African” at all. It’s really a mixing of many different cultures. This is obvious from the Irish club with American music, the famous Thai restaurant, Greek and Mediterranean food offered everywhere, gelato, and abundance of curry. This place is just an African-esque melting pot if you will. And a fabulous one at that!

Days 7 & 8 - R&R weekend? Yes please.

This weekend we were finally able to sleep in a little, which was awesome! Once we got up and got going, we went and met up with everyone at the Green Market, a place where we could look for souvenirs and traditional African stuff and haggle with the locals. Random items people bought included a bag, bracelets, a necklace, a ring, a fabric-type poster deal, and other small random things. After the Green Market, we decided to walk to the Waterfront to look for some boots! No boots were bought due to a time crunch unfortunately, but we met up with some other girls there and hung out for a little bit. Saturday night we had a roomie dinner- Adams, Ches, Laura Claire and I decided to go to Wang Thai, one of the restaurants right outside the apartments. We had fantastic food- sushi, pad thai, honey chicken, and spring rolls.

Sunday we finally made it to the Pick-n-Pay down by the Waterfront, a much bigger and better one than the Pick-n-Pay by our apartment. After our shopping escapades we decided to try San Marco Café down by the water for lunch. Again, fabulous food. I tried an African Chococino the waiter recommended, which is a coffee/chocolate/liqueur type drink. It came out warm with whipped cream, a chocolate stick, and a marshmellow on top. Yum.

Once we got back to the apartment, we decided to take another run to the lighthouse and back. Surprisingly it wasn’t as horrendous as it had been a couple days ago! Maybe I’ll finally make it to being a legit runner woman. We’ll see.

Tonight we had our first big group Sunday dinner at the Brasserie, the third restaurant by the hotel. We sat together in our community groups and took our turns going through the monstrous buffet. There were so many salads, breads, entrees, and desserts to chose from! It was insane how much food we put away. Vince and Barbara Dooley were actually at our dinner, too! They were an integral part in supporting the Global LEAD staff when they first had the idea to form the organization and study abroad program.

After dinner it was up to our rooms and time to read for our class tomorrow morning! 

Day 6 - mild fits of hyperventilation

We were told to eat a good breakfast, wear workout clothes, and bring water and a snack for this morning’s meeting. Needless to say, we knew something was up. At breakfast, we were served a bowl of cereal…without milk. Everyone was looking at each other like, “what are we supposed to do with this?” and “seriously?” About five minutes later, after everyone had just assumed we were to eat it dry, we were brought warm milk to add to it. Again, we were a little thrown off by their seemingly odd traditions. Amongst the talk of worry for what our plans would be for the day, something that needed good nutrition as a start, the cereal wasn’t quite going to cut it. I don’t know if the second course was originally planned or if the staff were just horrified at our looks of confusion and worry, but each person was then served a couple small slices of breakfast pizza with a small hashbrown on the side. That seemed to take care of it.

View from the start of our hike up Table Mountain

I really enjoyed our class this morning- it’s occurred to me that this trip is not only based on service, adventure, and history of South Africa; we’re focusing a good deal of our time on character building and incorporating it into our classes. For example, the other day we spent a while talking about our top 5 strengths- something most people weren’t aware of. We spent today discussing our core values and their importance. We were instructed to take 30 seconds and write down what we spend most of our money on, then 30 seconds for what we spend our time doing, then 30 seconds to list our core values. After this, we were asked, “do your values align with your time and money spent?” Sadly, most did not, including my own. Most of my money goes towards food, clothes and other accessories, or sorority things or events. My time is mainly spent studying, hanging out with friends and family, exercising, or cleaning. However, I had listed faith, love, relationships, being genuine and honesty as my core values. Do these align with the way I’m spending my life? Not really. And that was pretty tough to see and recognize.

hiking up Table Mountain

We were then asked to write five of our core values on small strips of paper. “Hold these papers close to your heart,” she said, we need to always remember these and not let them go forgotten. We were asked to throw three away in trash bags being sent around. For many people, groans were followed by feelings of resentment- they didn’t want to have to choose which of their core values to throw away! I held onto faith and love, and it wasn’t hard for me to choose at all. Again, we were instructed to throw away only one this time, leaving just one to hold close. This wasn’t hard for me to choose either. Faith remained, as long as I have my God, I have everything. As long as I have my faith and I stick to its teachings, the other values that distinguish good character will come.

After all the emotional commotion this stirred up, we were surprised to hear that we would be climbing Table Mountain this afternoon and that we would need to gather our things and meet outside for the bus to take us. Once we got there, to the bottom of the mountain, most people were shocked as to how we would actually climb this thing! It looked impossibly steep and rocky. We followed the staff to the trail and got to it! Within five minutes, most of us were quite out of breath and working with shaky legs and burning hamstrings. We decided it was like a stairmaster on steroids. As we continued to climb for an hour and 45 minutes, going in and out of the shade, snapping pictures every couple hundred yards, the air got thinner, our bodies got more tired, and the water supply dwindled. We finally reached the top, and let me tell you it was one of the most gratifying things I’ve done. I’d just climbed that gigantic monster of a mountain! I’m officially a legit, full-fledged mountain climber for goodness sake. Will I go back? Absolutely. Tomorrow? Absolutely not.

about 3/4 up Table Mountain

After some mild hyperventilating for pictures and such, it was time to get off that thing. Cable car was our method of choice, considering our legs would probably buckle if we were loony enough to try to hike back down the mountain. In case you’re not already aware, heights aren’t really my thing. I’m working on it. Anywho, we hopped in the cable car and were informed that it would be rotating. Slowly hopefully, I couldn’t help but picture the teacups at Disney World. We made it back to the busses and then to the apartments, where many a shower and nap ensued. Then we were off for dinner!

View from the top of Table Mountain

Me during my panic attack in the cable car going down Table Mountain

A group wanted to go to Buena Vista, we’d already been but they hadn’t, so we went along. Bad idea. It took 3 hours outside in the cold for the wrong orders to be brought out. Not the happiest situation if you can imagine. We dealt with it, then decided it was time to meet up with Ish- our awesome local tour guide, cab driver, and bodyguard- at Chrome, a club downtown. There was great techno music with a few American songs intermingled and I was ready to dance. A couple shocked looks from my friends told me they didn’t realize I was either 1) crazy, 2) outgoing, or 3) liked to dance. Nevertheless, we had an awesome time. A few people fizzled out and headed to another bar down the road that frankly made me sleepy, it was so chill. A group of us left to find Ish and got a ride home. 

on top of Table Mountain

Erin, Blair, Laura Claire, me and Ches

Lion's Head from Table Mountain

Day 5 - apartheid and townships

This morning we had a speaker come to our class from the Amy Biehl Foundation which was formed after the murder of Amy Biehl, a 26 year old woman who was living in South Africa trying to help prepare the Black Africans and coloureds for their first free voting since the apartheid. This foundation is meant to be a safe haven for children after school and to educate them, teach them arts such as dance and music, and to keep them off the streets of the townships and hopefully out of trouble.

            This afternoon we took busses into the townships to see tour it, see how the people there live, and see the programs that the children are involved in after school. The bus got eerily quiet when we entered the townships, everyone was in awe at what we were seeing. It was very difficult for me to picture myself in their shoes, to actually try to imagine how their daily lives must be was and still is very tough for me to imagine. It’s just another one of those things that made me realize how truly blessed I am to have a warm house, loving family, and live in a free country.

            After riding through the townships, we stopped at one of the schools of the Amy Biehl Foundation. As we were walking in, we weren’t quite sure what to say, what to expect, or how to act. Some of the kids don’t speak English, how were we to know? We were then told that the kids would be performing for us, so we aligned ourselves in an audience and watched while they brought out the bongos, xylophone-type deals, and other instruments. Then the show began! My heavens, we were all shocked to see these kids that couldn’t be any older than 14 dancing and playing those instruments like real legitmate semi-professionals! They were fantastic. The little girls who were dancing were mostly around the age of 10 and were completely together in their dance and were shaking their hips like MTV was filming. The music was fantastic also- very well rehearsed. These kids had some serious talent. The people on staff at the schools informed us previously that by the kids having the opportunity to cultivate some of their talents, their self-esteem was improved and they felt that they had something to be proud of.

            By the time we left the townships, most of us had changed our minds from our first impression from entering the townships. You would think that the poverty these people lived in would bring them down, but they weren’t sad or angry- it was easy to see the abundant joy in their smiles. 

            Once we came back home and had some time to wind down from the day, many people decided to go to Zorba’s for dinner, which is a Greek restaurant right outside the hotel. 

Day 4 - runnin' around like chickens with our heads cut off

Today began by making breakfast with our community groups, which consist of a leader and 7-8 other people that you ideally wouldn’t know prior to this trip. The leaders were given, eggs, bacon, cheese, bread, yogurt, and juice for us to make in their apartments. We made scrambled eggs (I chose to make mine into a sandwich with bacon, yum) and ate around the table together. We discussed what group work experiences we’ve had, both good and bad, and how we can use that knowledge to better participate in our groups both while here and in the future.

Ches, Erin, Laura Claire, Blair and I at the Waterfront

After breakfast, we made it down to the room on the first floor of the apartments where we usually have our class in the mornings. Today we would be talking about our Top 5 Strengths we had determined prior to departure from the states on a site called strengthsquest.com. Mine were harmony, learner, responsibility, discipline, and analytical. As lame as some of these may sound, I agree that they describe me fairly well.

Roomies! Adams, Laura Claire, me and Ches on the sunset cruise

According to StrengthsQuest, people strong in harmony look for consensus among everyone and seek areas of agreement while avoiding conflict. Check. Learner means that I want to continually improve and understand the processes of why things are the way they are, as opposed to just accepting the outcome without understanding. Yep. Responsibility means that I take ownership of what I say I’m going to do. I surely try! Discipline means I enjoy routine and structure and thrive on creating order. Oh yeah, definitely. Analytical means that I search for “reasons and causes” and have the ability to think of various factors that may affect a situation. I think they’ve got me down to a T! Scary.

Laura Claire and I trying to look super cool

After class this morning we were to go on a wild goose chase, aka scavenger hunt, taking pictures at various places and of odd things with all but one group member in the picture (someone had to take the pic, right?). We ran around all over the place doing crazy things like sticking a hand in the pool, all fitting on someone’s twin bed, making it rand (throwing money for you non-hipsters), doing a pyramid on the beach, scaring staff members, squeezing 13 people in an elevator, skyping someone’s mom, and posing with a baconlolly. What is a baconlolly? We had no idea. We googled it and decided to wrap bacon around a hotdog and cross our fingers. It was crazy and so fun!

After running around like mad people, a group of us decided it would be a good idea to go for an actual run. This time it was purely recreational and to the lighthouse and back, about a 2.4 mile run we’re told. Now I’m not a runner…I get too bored, but it actually wasn’t too bad! Plus, it didn’t hurt that it was the prettiest weather we’ve had all week!

Tonight we had the fantastical opportunity to go on a Sunset Champagne Cruise from the Waterfront. It. Was. Gorgeous. 

Day 3 = Nap

Today we had a professor from University of the Western Cape come speak during class. She taught us about the apartheid and how the government was still trying to make up for its wrong doings by appropriating money and land to those who were forced out of their homes. She informed us that the government did not have enough money to give back everything that had been taken or lost, and therefore the settlements the people were being given weren’t really much at all for them to start over. Many people wait for years and years to get any sort of land given to them, but in order to build a house on that land people must have a substantial amount of money to start with, which most don’t. During the apartheid, people were forced to move to areas designated for either Black Africans, coloureds, or whites. The people who were already living in these newly designated areas were therefore required to move or they would be forced out of their homes with their belongings on the street and nowhere to go.

at the V&A Waterfront

After our morning lecture, we were all still pretty jet-lagged and came back to the apartment for an epic nap of about 4 hours. Once we were done with our slumber, we decided to go with a group to Quay 4, a seafood restaurant on the Waterfront. Laura Claire and I decided to split a sampler for one they claimed, and it included mussels, prawn (we weren’t sure exactly what those were), calamari and hake, which is a white flaky fish. It was a huge portion, yet delicious.

This is a prawn, which I'm guessing is a shrimp, just with the body and head still attched. looks mean, right? 

Once we got back to the apartments, we all decided to head over to the hotel bar, (we = all the girls who wanted dessert, chocolate mainly). We all ordered this “hot chocolate pudding” thing, which turned out to be like a small cake with warm gooey chocolate inside and then a ice cream with a crunch toffee outer shell. Fabulous, as you can imagine. As we were waiting for dessert, we met two older men- the more intoxicated of the two decided that I must be Polish. He claimed that if he were to see me on the street, he would speak to me as though I were a Pole. –Definitely never been told that before! I then informed them that I was actually Irish, mainly from my mother’s side. The other man with him turned out to be a Scots-Irishman like me (minus the man part of course). 

group of us down at the Waterfront

Day 2- The day of grocery shopping and beautiful bathrooms

    
This morning began hopping out of bed and frantically running down to the lobby to meet Blair, Erin, and Katie for breakfast. Luckily we had time afterwards to go back to the apartment to make ourselves presentable before our big meeting with the second half of the group- time for round two of first impressions. We had announcements as usual, then it was turned over to a man from Revel Adventures who told us about various activities we could do while in Cape Town including bungee jumping, skydiving, sand boarding, surfing, and “quad biking.” Clearly, I was one of the only little bumpkin folk who was not aware of what this so-called “quad biking” actually is. I thought the term was hilarious! Quad biking? Seriously? He then showed a video depicting all of the activities he had described, with the last being “quad biking”…I was practically dying to find out what it was! …and there popped a video of people four-wheeling. What. The. Heck. I grew up on those! I think I’ll find some other adventure to spend my time and money on!

One of the TA’s is going to do yoga classes on the beach- I am totally in! I’m all for getting the yin and yang balanced on the beautiful coast of the Cape. Namaste y’all! Wednesday night we will have the opportunity to go on a Sunset Champagne Cruise off the Cape- again, I’m in! In June, we can go see the Springboks, the South African rugby team, play here at home, and apparently they’re doing very well. Does it even need to be said? I’m in, yet again! Now as for the skydiving and bungee jumping…

After our morning class, Laura Claire and I decided it was time for us to go grocery shopping. We met up with a group in the lobby and set out walking for the Pick-n-Pay, the grocery store close to the hotel. We got about a half-mile into the trek and realized that whatever we bought we would have to carry back. Yuck. After about a mile and 25 minutes, we finally arrived at a strange, mall-type building and found our way to the Pick-n-Pay. We decided we would just get the basics this time, what we could carry anyway, and we would just have to come back another day for the rest. Milk, cereal, PB&J fixins, lettuce, tomatoes, an onion, grapefruits, a couple energy bars, crackers, cheese, nutella, and some pasta were about all the items we could handle. Oh, and chocolate of course- let’s be honest. Too bad we forgot the bread…

Apparently you have to pay for the plastic bags here in South Africa. As much of a bit of a pain that was, I think it’s a fantastic idea! Just imagine- if Americans had to pay for plastic bags at the store each time they shopped, they would probably buy a few re-usable bags and bring their own - less plastic would be used and therefore, less would be wasted!

Moya

Tonight we were finally introduced to the food of the South African culture. All 101 students along with the staff, piled on busses and went to Moya, a traditional African restaurant. Here we were seated and served family-style with a salad, some sort of pita-type bread and EVOO, and chicken, beef, and vegetable dishes as the main course, with rice and couscous. For dessert, fruit kabobs were served with warm chocolate for dipping. I guess some things are equally as delicious on all continents!

my war paint- looks tough, right?

All through dinner we were serenaded by two African men with elaborate head-pieces and in colorful dress working their way amongst the tables, playing their drum-type instruments and singing traditional songs along with a few Lion King pieces to appease us Americans. A lady then came around and painted a little design on each student’s face, usually around the eye and eyebrow area.

This restaurant was one of the neatest, most unique, and most beautiful I have ever seen. For starters, it was right on the beach of the Cape, and on the porch there were booths made of surf-boards with glowing blue water running underneath. At first I thought there was a glass floor, but it turns out there was no floor at all! You would dine with your feet in the water and that would be the end of it! Once inside, there were sparkly (!) mirror-esque decorations and such along the walls and ceiling. 

OH. And let me just tell you about the bathroom. Yes, the bathroom. It was fabulous! (First of all, it was co-ed – how does it feel to wait forever in line, boys?) The sinks were covered top to bottom in what appeared to be broken mirror pieces, the ceiling was covered in some sort of aluminum foil, and the doors - ivory, very ornate, and pointed at the top- looked like they belonged on cathedrals instead of bathroom stalls. Fully complete with chandeliers and all things sparkly and fabulous, it was by far the most beautiful bathroom I have ever seen. Maybe because of all the shiny and sparkly things? So be it.

just a peek of the bathroom!

Katie, Laura Claire, me, Romo, Blair, and Skylar at dinner

Day 1 in Cape Town - city tour

Day one in Cape Town began just as expected, full of excitement and jetlag. We had breakfast, a little orientation-type meeting, then it was off for our city tour! Unfortunately the day started out cold, cloudy and misty, but got much better by the afternoon. We took the bus to the Waterfront, which is a mall of sorts, for lunch. It was an interesting building composed of two stories, many normal stores you would find in the US, such as a music store, Apple store, a Best-Buy type store, along with a food court and outdoor patio area complete with a ferris wheel! We decided on Thai food for lunch, and I am proud to say I ate the entire entrée using just chopsticks!

V&A Waterfront

After lunch, we began our real city tour, led by our personal guide, Ish. We started with a few gorgeous views of the Atlantic Ocean, where some crazy fools were surfing and playing in the freezing water! We then climbed the mountains up to Signal Hill, where I then flirted with quite a few panic attacks as the bus was winding corners (on the opposite side of the road, mind you) as we ascended. From Signal Hill, we had a fabulous view of Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, and the city below. Once I was actually looking at Table Mountain I realized how much bigger of a feat it is going to be to climb the sucker! Not to mention then taking a cable car down the mountain! I’m starting to really question this whole skydive/bungee jump idea. Heights are totally not my thing.

Laura Claire, Leanna, Natalie, and I at Camps Bay

    
     For dinner, a few of us decided we would go to one of the fanatically reviewed restaurants around the hotel/apartments. However, when we left to meet in the lobby, we found just about every single student on our trip waiting for taxis to Buena Vista, a Mexican restaurant quite a few miles into the city. We had to wait for the taxis to come and pile all of us in for the ride. All of the 30 some-odd left in the first and second shifts, leaving four of us behind for the next cab. We decided we would go find the rest of the group going to Buena Vista at the hotel bar and get a nice cocktail while we waited. However, as fate would have it, right after we ordered our myriad of South African concoctions, the cab driver calls and says he’s here! Perfect timing. We grab the drinks and make a run for it. Luckily we were able to fit in the cab-12 of us-perfect. Since the cabs here are one flat rate, you most definitely need to make the effort to fill it up!

Table Mountain

       Once at Buena Vista, we were seated outside with another large group from our trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the heat lamps that most other outside tables were pampered with. This place wasn’t just a restaurant-it was a salsa bar- how fun is that?! However, among the groups of older Europeans and Africans, we were not so welcome to come play, as we would surely get in their way. We all decided we would just have to come back…perhaps on a night with free salsa lessons? I think yes!

Laura Claire, Joanna, and I on Signal Hill- 

Table Mountain in the background

     
  

       This was the day of my first African shower. May I just say it was one of the most heavenly things I may have ever experienced. Not so much because of the particular facilities as much as I had been trapped on airplanes for the past 72 hours it seemed. (okay, maybe more like 24, but still.)

A few funny things that happened today involved various problems including:

1) Apparently everyone decided to bring boots on the trip- I didn’t get the memo.

2) No one’s hair straighteners were working! SGP –not that I would ever need one anyway

3) About 95% of us fell asleep around the last hour of the tour - on the bus - sitting up - then slipping off our hands or elbows and falling for a second before snatching our heads up again. We all then embarked upon one of the most epic mass nappings ever. 

Camps Bay