#medium3

J4683 Stop Putin cheesy puns in these threads

AbsoluteTruthiness You need to quit Stalin' and come up with better puns.

just_a_beaver Yup. More effort should be Putin to this comment chain.

I'll Really Draw Tomorrow, Promise

02-27-2015

Effortless

02-26-2015

SO, I sincerely apologize for the long, long gap in posts. After mid-semester break, life really got crazy. Pretty much immediately after my mom and grandma left, I settled into a few weeks of intense homework/paper writing- In the course of three weeks I wrote a 8 page paper, a 13 page paper, and most of a 30 page paper. (which is why I wasn’t so keen on writing a long blog post at the time. The light at the end of the tunnel of doomsday workload? A visit from my wonderful boyfriend, Ethan. 

            After a last minute flight cancellation, 13 hours in Frankfurt and well over 24 hours of travel, I met Ethan at the airport on a cloudy, cold Cape Town winter day (don’t feel too bad for him, he got to fly business class for some of the legs of the flight….!). That night Ethan rested up after his exhausting travel, and we made our plan for a very busy 10 day visit. The next day, we woke up bright and early (well, not that early) and went to see the penguins at Simon’s town! The train ride there was beautiful and we even saw an incredible rainbow over the water. 

Despite getting caught in a very brief rainstorm, we enjoyed our quality time with the penguins, and even spotted one of Ethan’s new favorite African animals- the Dassie, sitting majestically upon a rock. After our trip to Simons Town, we met up with my friends Alexa and Elena at the Hout Bay Night Market for some delicious food and music. That night, at around 11 pm, we realized that our adventure we had planned for the next day was set to start at 4am. Whoops!

            While 4am wake up was a total challenge for both of us, we were still incredibly excited- our adventure? Shark cage diving! After arriving at the dock, we were treated to a delicious breakfast and a briefing on all things we shouldn’t do if we wanted to keep our limbs (I.e. reach outside of the cage). After signing away our lives and eating what we feared might have been our last breakfast, we climbed aboard the small boat and set out. The sun was rising over the water and it was absolutely beautiful, if a bit chilly. We rode out into the middle of the bay and waited for what seemed like a very long time. Apparently, I am more susceptible to seasickness than I had thought, and spent much of that time staring desperately into the horizon, trying to keep breakfast in my stomach. Luckily, the best cure to seasickness, according to our guide, is getting in the cold sea and within an hour, upon the first shark sighting, we were suited up and ready to jump in the cage. The cage was much smaller than I had imagined, and we didn’t use any scuba gear. Instead we would hold ourselves up by the top of the cage and whenever a shark would swim by our guide would tell us to push ourselves into the water and look. This was easier said than done, as the cage was constantly rocking back and forth and it was an ab workout just to keep ourselves in the center of the cage. Still, the sharks were incredible! We saw about 8 great white sharks, the longest being 10 feet. The sharks were attracted to the cage because of water that smelled like chum that was being poured off the back of the boat, and a fish head on a line that was dangling out in the water (no hook though, if the sharks caught the fish head, it was theirs). The sharks were very active and one even bumped into the cage while I was in it! (Although none charged the cage, thank goodness). Also, once our turn in the cage was up, we got to watch from the boat.  We were very lucky in this regard because the sharks were breaching so we really got to see them up close, even outside of the water! 

By the time we returned back to land, Ethan and I were very happy to eat a few generous helpings of soup served for lunch and enjoy sitting on dry land. Still, the experience was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and I highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in South Africa! That evening Ethan and I enjoyed a picnic dinner at Camps Bay during sunset, despite the wind, and then went to bed early for another sunrise pickup the next day for our day trip Safari!

            Again, waking up rather Early, Ethan and I boarded the transport van to Aquila game lodge where we were treated to a delicious breakfast buffet, some sparkling wine, and a beautiful, sunny day. After breakfast, we got on our open vehicles and began to look for animals. Having already done a similar thing in Kruger, I was much less excited than Ethan, but was pleasantly surprised, and definitely enjoyed myself. The highlight was a break in the drive where we all got off the vehicle in a safe area and were treated to some more sparkling wine. While drinking wine in a beautiful landscape, we saw a stampede of zebras and ostriches running, being followed by a Rhino, who seemed to be chasing them. To see hundreds of Zebras running all together was a breathtaking experience. We also got up close and personal with some very lazy lions, basking in the sun, which Ethan, an extreme cat lover, was very pleased with. The morning was followed by a delicious lunch and a long drive back to Cape Town.

            By that point I had come down with a minor cold (swimming with sharks in the frigid water might have had something to do with it) so we used that night to rest up and plan out the week ahead.

            Monday morning I had class, so Ethan slept in and then we enjoyed a delicious lunch and then a cable car trip up Table Mountain. We enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen and some stunning views together. That evening, fog rolled in over Cape Town, so Ethan and I enjoyed some ice cream at the V&A waterfront.

            Tuesday after class, Ethan and I explored some museums, including the District Six museum and the South African Natural History Museum. The District six museum was a great experience again, and, as I didn’t really get enough time to explore it the first time I went, I was really glad to go back. The South African Natural History museum was honestly a disappointment, though with Ethan it was extremely fun. The museum mainly featured a large collection of (some very poorly done) taxidermied animals. (see, sad Dassie) 

This made for a creepy and kind of hilarious effect, which hopefully will be updated in the near future. Ethan and I did enjoy posing in this shark mouth, however! 

After the museums, we sat in company’s gardens and watched clouds roll over the top of table mountain creating the famous “tablecloth.” 

            That evening was one of my favorite spent in Cape Town. Ethan and I splurged and went to dinner in “the crypt,” a jazz restaurant in the crypt of St. George’s Cathedral (famous for its role during apartheid resistance and the fact that Archbishop Desmond Tutu served there for years! See previous post- when I attended church there). By day, church services are held upstairs, but on weeknights, the old crypt is transformed into a cozy restaurant with live jazz. As it was a Tuesday night, not too many people were there and Ethan and I had a wonderful time enjoying the music, food, wine and company.

            The next day after class Ethan and I went to the Cape Town aquarium, which was really an amazing place! Cape Town’s ecosystem is so different than anywhere I’ve ever been, so the fish we saw were among the strangest and some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. 

After the aquarium, we enjoyed the waterfront Ferris wheel as the sunset. Then, we caught a bite to eat at Masala Dosa, a delicious Indian restaurant on long street, and met up with my friend Leah to see a play at the famous Fugard theater. The play was a musical called Blood brothers, originally set in New York, but adapted to be about Cape Town. The show was entertaining, heartbreaking and gave Ethan a good taste of Cape Town flavor.

            The next day, Thursday, was my last day of class! After lunch, Ethan and I went over to see UCT’s campus and hiked up to Rhodes Memorial, a beautiful lookout over the city. Then, I showed him my apartment, and we met up with some friends to attend a UCT event to celebrate 20 years of freedom in South Africa. The event featured speeches, the rededication of a road on campus to Madiba (a nickname for Nelson Mandela), delicious food, and concerts by 4 artists, including new personal favorites, Freshly Ground and Mi Casa (Mi Casa, actually, is the band I saw at Kirstenbosch gardens, months ago! Apparently, Im becoming quite the fan). Freshly ground, for those who don’t know, is the band that played Waka Waka with Shakira for the world cup hosted in South Africa in 2010. Dancing and listening to the music with the entire UCT community that night was so much fun, and a great way to introduce Ethan to my friends and my school.

            The next day, Ethan and I finally made it over to Kirstenbosch gardens, where we got to see the new tree-top canopy walk that had just been installed and wander through some of the blooming protea.

Ethan found another South African animal he loves, the guinea fowl.

(which looks like this)

)

He decided that the guinea fowl, penguin and dassie should be referred to as “the medium three,” and spent a significant amount of time chasing around a guinea fowl to try to get a good picture. We were also lucky enough to stumble upon a tour of the gardens where we learned about how the gardens were created and what many of the plants were. We were definitely some of the less botanically minded on the tour, but it was still a great way to see the gardens. After the tour, we went back to town, cleaned up, and got ready for the IES final dinner. The dinner was delicious, and it was fun to introduce Ethan to other friends of mine. Then, a bunch of us went out for some drinks and dancing, a great end to the night.

            The next day, Ethan and I went on a wine tour through Stellenbosch! We had an amazing time, drank some delicious wine (a sparkling red wine called “cape jazz shiraz” – seriously, amazing), and ate a lot of cheese, actually! We also enjoyed taking selfies with this llama. 

All in all, it was an excellent day.