The Guguletu Gourd

Someone in the manor mentioned the other day that we have less than two weeks until our excursion to Johannesburg/Pretoria/Kruger National Park and that Saturday marked the halfway point of our program.  Time is flying!  

One of the things we had been putting off was eating dinner at Mama Africa, which is a well-known restaurant where you can have entrees of traditional African food, which I guess includes pap and game meats (springbok, ostrich, etc).  Soon we heard that there was a better place, though, called Marco's African Place, which serves the same (or better) "authentic" African experience for a lower price (we think).  On Friday night, we set off towards the Waterfront for our 7pm reservation at the restaurant.  I find that I am quite obsessed with flowers here, so I yanked some from the side of the road and gave one each to Josiah and Sarah.

This picture captures Thomas, Josiah, and Sarah perfectly.  Big T is dubious as ever, making a face at Josiah and Sarah, who had put their flowers in their mouths.  I think we were all exhausted from the work week and lost a bit of our sanity on the thirty minute walk to Marco's.  Thomas kept asking if we were there yet... he was prepared to eat a seagull if necessary.

Behind us, local celebrities Kaitlin and Andrew (both very "powerful," as Josiah will tell you) were enjoying a stroll down the road when the paparazzi struck.

The paparazzi chase was very heated - Andrew remained elusive as ever.  Finally, they made it inside the comfort and privacy of the restaurant.

Whilst there, Kaitlin observed Moakles drink out of a giant gourd.  What was in the gourd, you ask?  Home-brewed beer from the Guguletu township.  No worries - it was non-alcoholic.  It had a milky look and a bubbly feel.  It tasted a bit sour and spicy, though maybe that is not the best description.

Many people ordered the "Pan African Platter," which included warthog, crocodile, and chicken.  Most of us also got a side of skdjfkuquisdlfj (something with a click which we forgot how to pronounce almost immediately), which reminded me of refried beans.  Above is my plate, with the skdjfkuquisdlfj and grilled kingklip fish.  Everything was delicious, though I think our favorite was the warthog.

After dinner, Andrew asked Danielle for a dance to the smooth jazzy sounds of the band.  Everyone in the restaurant was real jealous of them, especially since they were the only ones who stood up.  People were staring.  In a good way...?

Josiah wanted to show us how quickly he could drink his Coca Cola soda by basically suctioning his mouth onto the glass and taking gigantic gulps.  Kaitlin decided to show him just how ridiculous it looked.  It still doesn't quite capture how awkwardly/hilariously he was doing it, though.

It was great to all be seated at a huge table and enjoy each others' company after being separated all week.  The waitress was also awesome and taught us how to pronounce many of the dishes (which we promptly forgot) and gave her personal recommendations for the entrees.  She assigned each of us an order number, and I got #8 by chance, which is one of my favorite numbers! (August is the 8th month in the year... go figure.)

As a parting gift, Moakley decided to make Anne Marie feel real awkward in front of the camera.  I cannot get these kids to take a normal picture.  "Cheese" apparently means make the photographer as uncomfortable as possible.

On Saturday, Eboni, Alexis, Kaitlin and I climbed Lion's Head.  It was the first time for the former two and the second time for the latter two.  If you recall, the first time I climbed it was a glorious day that ended up depositing two huge clouds right on top as I reached the summit.  It was upsetting.  Saturday, however, was VERY clear and I thought it would provide way better photos.  Get ready to be stunned by the blue of the sky.

Here is a photo of Eboni and Kaitlin having a staring contest towards the beginning of the hike.  Already you could see the beach below and the mountains.  They are the big sisters of the house and I absolutely adore them.  If the world had a Ebokaitli hybrid she would be elected President of the United States, have a global fan base, and be on the cover of Parisian Vogue at the same time.  On the bright side though, there are two of them so we get to share their collective greatness.

When it came to the part of the hike where you have to decide whether to take the chains or the "recommended route" (psht), we opted for the chains, of course!  Eboni hated Kaitlin and I for a few minutes, but hopefully by now she has forgiven and forgotten.  I think I saw the glint of a tear in her eye from fear of the height.  We were so proud that she was able to keep calm and successfully get up the rock face.  (Not gonna lie --- I was sweating half from the heat and half from worry, too.)

Now that I was at the top and could actually see for more than a few meters around the mountain, I decided to go to the ledge which the first group found and take a jumping photo, of course!  Below you can see Table Bay (I believe).  The water was unreal.  If I had wings I would have leapt off Lion's Head straight into the Atlantic Ocean.

The table cloth was threatening to come closer, but it stayed on and around Table Mountain.  It made for a really cool video of the "cloth" slowly creeping over the edge and covering part of the mountain.  The southeaster (a strong wind) was raging that day, so I was nearly blown off on the way down.  It is usually responsible for sweeping away the smog of the City Bowl.  Days of a strong southeaster are incroyable.

When we finally caught up to Alexis (who powered her way to the top... she is beyond human!), we rehydrated and scarfed down the snacks we had packed.  Here is Eboni looking normal and Kaitlin... not so much.  Same old, same old.

K decided to do some yogic stretching at the top, which culminated in a lion-like pawing.  She was really taken by being at the top of Lion's Head.

Obviously, I had to continue taking jumping pictures once my energy levels were back up.  You may remember me taking pictures from here the first time I climbed, which ended up completely opaque with mist and cloud.  These are much better!

We were deeply concerned this puny chihuahua would end up flying off the mountain since the southeaster was so relentless.  I think it was just taking a moment to gaze at our manor in Tamboerskloof.

OF COURSE I had to get some shots of Eboni jumping, too!

Again, the water below looked irresistible.  I think even Eboni, who refuses to go into the freezing Atlantic (it's winter/spring after all), was tempted.  Just look at the turquoise band!  It's beauuuutiful.

The requisite handstand picture had to be taken, of course.  I never seem to snap it right when her legs are completely vertical, but surely I'll have plenty of chances to get it right another time.

This gross curious-looking beetle was twitching below us, so Kaitlin made a little grave for it near a flower on a bed of grass.  She is so kind to the insect life.  Eboni and I can't say the same.

This time I got some really dramatic photos of the descent... I promise it's gradual, though.

You can get a good idea of how steep the steps are and exactly how far up you come.

The path over the roots of this tree is really slippery from wear, so you have to be extra cautious.  Hiking in converse doesn't help, either.

Eboni and I decided we would take the "recommended route" back down, since I thought the chains were too hard last time, but we ended up right back at them!  It was frustrating, but we went for it anyway.

Cool bird's-eye-view of the ladder.  Eboni first started to go down facing away from it, but we coached her through going down backwards.  I doubt it would have been catastrophic, but it would have involved some ridiculous maneuvering for sure.

That night, feeling exhausted refreshed from the hike, we went to see Mother to Mother at the Baxter Theatre with Eboni's coworkers.  They were really nice, as were the facilities.  The play was a one-woman show, which is my favorite casting style, and was based on the life of the mother of one of the people who killed Amy Biehl.  It was a very powerful performance.

Yesterday we came home from our first day of work (Mondays... oh joy) and saw a rainbow right outside our house!  You can see it going over the apartment building opposite, with a close-up below:

Soon I will post news of the Inter-House Athletic competition at CHSA and reports on how the casting for Annie is going (which is at a stand-still as of now).  I feel as though I am really getting acclimated to South African life, finding that I have favorite places to go eat and hang out, and aspects of the city which I will really miss when I leave.  I have come to love hearing Xhosa in the background of the staff room, the smell of rooibos tea with milk in the mornings (and a few more times during the course of the day thereafter), the sight of the mountains hugging the city all around, and all the other quirks of South African life.

Roar!

Although we have had a stressful week with drama (the bad kind) at the manor, internship tours, and studies, we managed to blow off some steam by... HIKING!  Again!  While my roommate, TA, and a friend climbed Table Mountain, me and some of the kidz decided to get to the top of Lion's Head in less than 1hr 15 min (the time set by the previous group).  It's not really a race, but one of our main forms of entertainment is having unnecessary and uncalled-for contests.  SO IT WAS ON.

We had been told that the hike up Lion's Head was a bit treacherous, and it began with edging along the side of the rock after hiking up the trail.  I tried to make it look really dramatic, but it was actually quite safe.  The more intense part, of which I have no pictures (curses!), was climbing vertically with the aid of a chain up to the top.

On the trail and at the top, we kept seeing these revolting interesting beetles.  I think I saw three total.  This one was being devoured by some flies.  Appetizing, yes?

After only 45 minutes, we arrived at the top of Lion's Head completely out of breath.  Then we realized we were IN a cloud.  I tried to include the photos that show some of the scenery, though most of the time it looked completely white all around.

The view of the city.  A cloud is about to consume us.  Clouds are actually quite cold when you pass through them.  It made for a bitter victory.

Anne Marie, Brenna, and I on a ledge (sorry Ma and Titi Sylvia) at the top of Lion's Head.  I think you can guess what is about to happen...

Great success!  Jumping photos are far too fun to pass up.  When I show people this I will lie and say I actually sky-dived from a plane and landed gracefully on the sandstone of Lion's Head.  Anne Marie looks like she actually did just that.

We then proceeded to continue jumping and taking photos of ourselves.  I was able to get some amazing shots of Anne Marie when it was completely clear, but then a cloud came to mist up mine.  Lame.

I promise I have a neck.  I was pretty giddy at this point - what's new?  Also, it was freezing, so don't be fooled by my clothing or jovial expression.

My clearest shot of Table Mountain.  The clouds would NOT let up!  Also, here you can see the stone steps we took to get to the top.  We may or may not be athletes now.

On the way down we passed this stone that I SWEAR says Diana.  It was awesome freaky.

Obviously the weather would become glorious ON OUR WAY DOWN.  What luck.  Here is a shot of one of the ladders we took to get to the top.

At the very least we had a great view of Signal Hill, which is also known as the rump of the lion (we climbed the head, and live on the rump, to the right).

There's the sun!  Where were you all afternoon?!

As you can tell, living in this city is spectacular.  The views cannot be beat.

The strain from climbing made us want to jump into the still-freezing ocean.  Check out the low clouds on the horizon.  How I despise them...

On the bright side, I was walking down with Anuja when we saw people wind gliding!  If I can, I would love to be able to wind glide over the city.  The sky became so beautiful after we left!

As the sun set, we said adios to Lion's Head, because we needed to get ready for Eboni's birthday party.  Eboni is the teaching assistant for our course with Mama Lee, and she is also our residence advisor for the trip (a TA/RA if you will).  She is intelligent, gorgeous, patient, kind, and we all love her dearly.  So much so that we got her a mucking afazing cake from Charly's.  See below (she is on the right):

The entire program was invited to her birthday bash by Mama Lee (our professor), who offered her apartment as the venue.  We had some DELICIOUS cheesecake, cheese and crackers, and concluded with a ridiculous game of charades.  One of the things we had to guess was "Caroline's bicycle" (she is 2nd from the left).  Without pointing, or spelling names.  Actually impossible.

Overall, the weekend alternated between relaxing and nail-biting, but overall it was great.  More to come this week when I start my internship!

3,563 ft - Table Mountain Summit

Yesterday five friends and I climbed Table Mountain.  It was my first time scaling a mountain (I believe - parents, confirm this) and the most strenuous 1.5 hours of my life.  But first...

On Thursday, when I wrote about Cape Point, I skipped over our Monday through Wednesday activities, which were visiting the District 6 Museum, going to the SA National Gallery, and completing a "transportation exercise" conjured up by Vernon (our master/expert tour guide).

Day 4 (Monday 8.31): 

 On Monday we went to the District 6 Museum.  We learned the history of the demolished community and explored the various exhibits.  Above is a photo of a map laid out on the main floor of the building.  Visitors to the museum have labeled spaces where various families lived, making for a very thorough record.

Photos of residents printed on cloth hang around the 2nd floor of the museum.  It was small, but it started out as a 2-week exhibit in the 1990s and has been successful ever since - pretty impressive.

One exhibit was all about the barber shops and beauty salons of the 60s in District 6.  Here my roomie models one of the hair driers.  The middle picture in the row to her left is of our tour guide back then!  Got a sweet mushroom (what they call a bowl-cut) going on.

Another exhibit about children, complete with a hop scotch (hope I got that right) game that goes into the display box.  These cats are creative.  The mural in the background was bathed in light from  windows all around... really pretty.

The tower down the middle is made up of salvaged street signs from District 6.  Much of the museum was composed of salvaged debris from the demolition.

Day 5 (Tuesday 9.1)- Random Places on Brownlow, Kloof Nek, and Long St.:  

 

This is a photo of the cafe by our manor which I promised to post earlier.  They make delicious oven-fired pizza and drinks.  Have only been once for fear of spending too much rand.

 Here we see the choice nighttime hang-out of the group, Rafiki's.  They have a sweet pizza and beer (I mean soda) special and another which involves rump and prawn.  Haven't tried either yet, but I have three months...  Locals use it as a place to catch rugby games and at night they have dancing.  Though some nights it can be relaxed as well.  This was snapped on our way

Walking along Long Street, this gem was spotted.  The baby shirt reads "I Love Boobies."  Those Cape Townians have a sense of humor, eh?

The Carolines and I made our way through Company Gardens to the SA Portrait Gallery.  They had a sweet bronze exhibit and really interesting art from South African and UK artists, spanning centuries up to 2008.

OBAMA!  A flier from the Argus spotted whilst walking around downtown.  Our resident Canadian points.

Day 6 (Wednesday 9.2)- Public Transport Exercise
On Wednesday we were each assigned into teams chosen by Vernon to complete various public transport exercises. Some teams were made to take mini buses from Tamboerskloof or downtown to areas around Cape Town.  My team, however, only had to go from the Hiddingh Campus about a 15 min walk from home (where you find fine art, film, media, and drama studies) to Lower campus, then walk down Main Street in Rondebosch to a Woolworth's.  There, we were instructed to buy a bag of sour cream potato chips.  Simple enough, yet we managed to take a full four hours to do it.  On the plus side, our group was Team Zebra (pronounced zeh-brah).  If I figure out how to edit them, I will post the videos taken of this catastrophe adventure.

Thursday and Friday we made a trip to Cape Point (which I wrote about earlier) and started classes.  The first is a history survey course (for which Mandela's autobiography prepared me more than I expected) and the second is a course on the 21st Century Scramble for Africa, taught my Mama Lee herself.  The subject matter is pretty complicated... wish me luck.

FAST FORWARD TO...

Day 9 (9.5) - Hike up Table Mountain
We began our hike at the doorstep of Hillcrest.  The walk to the beginning of the trail at the base of the mountain alone took about 2 hours.  We went up Kloof at a steep incline the whole way, still on sidewalk up until this trail near the base which ended up being a 5 minute detour.  Finally we reached the main visitor's center at the base and they told us we had to walk another 2km up the road to get to the beginning of the gorge trail.  After some false starts, we were off!

Cut to an hour later.  I feel like my heart, lungs, and legs are going to explode.  The fear of passing out from exhaustion has never been so real.  The route we took isn't really a trail - there are no smooth parts of it.  Instead, it is like a giant staircase.  Imagine having to take stairs two at a time, sometimes on uneven footing, going up hundreds of feet vertically.  I was pretty glad we had gone during winter, because I think the hike during the summer would give me heat stroke.  About 30 minutes from the summit, we saw some graffiti which captured our sentiments perfectly:

Caroline was a beast.  She kept us at a pretty good pace, so that only about an hour and 15 minutes into the hike we were already near the top:

At least it was gorgeous. We had to hike around the side and up the back, so this was taken between the rock formations looking back (see below for reference, too).

Even so close to the summit, many a rest break was taken to avoid collapse.  Andrew is a LITTLE too excited.  I don't know how I had the strength to push the shutter on my camera.  Part of me was also very angry - I hate this hike, I hate my legs, I HATE TABLE MOUNTAIN, so luckily I didn't punch anyone in the face.  It did help that another hiked on the way down said "break a leg."

AT THE TOP!  I have never been so giddy.  Even though the temperature was probably around 40F, I was still in my shorts and shirt, sweating.  Then the wind started getting to us and we bundled up.

It was a relief to not see any more rocks to climb above us.  Level ground, FINALLY!

 Though it was cloudy, the sky was really gorgeous from the top.

Once we went around to the ocean side (Hout Bay I believe), it was even more evident how far we had gone.  From sea level to about 3500ft.  I'm really glad I went with experienced hikers and they could see how pumped I was to have made it.  Maybe some day I'll get to attempt 10,000ft or higher.

This is me being a fool on a bridge across the table top.  Again, I was delirious.

Many an epic photo was taken at the top.  The Atlantic Ocean sits in the background.

 

Victory dance by Caroline.  In the background you can see the cafe.  Yes, there is an eco-friendly restaurant at the top of Table Mountain.

 

As the sun set, it looked like a painting.

 

Looking out over Lion's Head peak (also a very hard climb which seems dwarfed by Table Mountain) and the city.  Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for three decades) can be seen.

The City Bowl and Table Bay as seen from the summit.  It was glorious.  Can't say I'd do it again, though.  Haha... maybe.

Rotate to the right a bit and you get a great view of Devil's Peak and the Tater Tot Mountains (not their actual name, but can't pronounce or spell it).

A shot of the cable car making its way down the mountain.  We took the last one down because hiking down would have been dangerous past sundown.

Victory!  The girls in green jump at the top of the mountain.  Another take below:

Then it was my turn to take some solo shots:

I was a bit too excited at this point.

As the sun set, we made our way to the cable car.

Goodbye, Table Mountain!  It's been a pleasure making your acquaintance.

The cable car comes real close to the rocks.  It was awesome!

The team!  Walking downhill after hiking was an effort.  Our joints were jumbled, making our legs like jello.  But we were oh so happy.  Look at those faces.

Anne-Marie, looking almost as excited as I am at the prospect of going to Disco Nights.  Look at that.  Or the Baxter Dance Festival.  Good times.

Our victory dinner was at Mexicano.  WARNING: Do not go here.  As Andrew said, "you can't do Mexican in Africa.  You just can't."  All the waiters were very emo and they even dared to give us ITALIAN MINTS with the check.  The food looked like they had Googled the recipes before serving it.  And our check took half an hour to receive.  Again, GOOD TIMES!

We were NOT happy campers.  Caroline was looking especially homicidal.

We decided that going to Cape to Cuba would have been a much better choice.  Check out the front of the building during the day and at night.  Complete with Cuban flags on either side and neon.  Mexican was a bad choice.

Overall, though, hiking Table Mountain was a great success!  Glad I was one of the first 6 from our year to do it.