Hey Everyone!
This week has been a bit more relaxed than last which is good. We have been able to get orientated to the house and Cape Town more. There are so many little things to do, so we have had to figure all of that out this week.
On Thursday we spent a thrilling 4 hours at the bank. We were trying to pay rent, but for some reason all 5 of us who went had some sort of issue. Guess we will just have to live in Cape Town for free. I set up a bank account, but the funny thing about here is you don’t get interest or anything. You actually have to pay the bank to keep your money. You are then charged every time you withdraw money, use your debit card or even check your balance more than once a month. Even with all of that, it’s still the best thing to do because it’s the safest thing.
Later that night we had a fresher’s braai. It was sort of funny being like a freshman again. They were doing (very odd) cheer songs for us and had moon bounces and such. We got our first real taste of the Cape Town wind there though. All of the food was blowing away and even the moon bounces. It was hard to enjoy it at all standing in all of the wind, but that’s ok because I wasn’t planning on making tons of fresher friends anyway.
On Friday we registered for classes. They don’t use computers to do it here! I always thought it was such a pain registering at Eastern and Iowa, but at least we used computers. I’m taking Applied Ethics, Poverty, Development and Globalisation, Economics for Non-Specialists and Intro to Sociology. Even as a junior I manage to have an 8 am four days a week. That will not be fun leaving to house by 7:30 to catch to Jammie to upper campus.
After registering, we hung out by the pool all day and played games. We all pretty much layed there thinking about how it was such a good idea to study abroad haha. We had dinner at the waterfront, we were able to eat outside and look at all of the boats and the pier. It reminded me of Navy Pier, just in Chicago. Later, we went to Roots again. It was fun because the housemates met us there. One of the nice things about living with 20 people is that it makes for a big group to go places with.
On Saturday, we went to the horse race. It was basically the Kentucky Derby of South Africa. People were danced super fancy and crazy, everything from evening gowns to Lady Gaga-like costumes. The theme was “In Full Out Color,” so people were very bright and bold. There was a costume contest, and everyone went full out for it. It was very cool being at such a unique event with South African celebrities and socialites.
Sunday night we went to a bar called La Med. It was right on the beach and had a great view of the Table Mountains. I think we’re going to go back sometime to watch the sunset there, because by the time we got there is was more of a frat party. We left and went to a much better place where apparently Paris Hilton hangs out at when she is in Cape Town (which I’m sure is very often).
Monday morning we woke up early to get out ID cards, but the line was once again 9 hours long so we skipped it again. All of the clubs were in the plaza, so we spent a long time looking at them. They have everything from a wine club to a dungeons and dragons club. I still have to figure out my schedule a little bit more before I know which ones I will join, so far volleyball is the only one that I know I will do for sure.
We hung by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Later, we went to our landlords house to watch our South African housemate and another housemate play our landlord and his wife in tennis. I have never been to any of my other landlords house to watch tennis before! They have a tennis court and a huge pool. We mostly just watched and talked to their kids and then everyone played a little too. It was very cool hanging out with a South African family.
It was one of my housemates 21st birthdays so we all went out for Indian food. We packed the restaurant with our house alone plus a few other friends.
Tuesday morning we finally got our ID cards. We checked out the clubs some more and ran a few errands. That night we had dinner at Ida Cooper’s house. Ida is the woman who looks after me and 82 of the other study abroad students. She sets up events for us and her associates look after our houses etc. It has been really nice being part of her program because she really looks after us and makes sure we are doing fine. She is in her 80’s, but still made dinner for all 83 of us. She has all of our names memorized and even has a poster on her wall that says “Ida’s Darlings 2010” and pictures of all of us.
Wednesday I went shark cage diving!!! Kathryn (roommate) and I were picked up at 7:20 and driven 2 hours to Dyer Island. Dyer Island has the densest population of Great White Sharks in the world. They fed us breakfast when we got out there, we signed our lives away, and were off. It was only a 15 minute boat ride until we stopped for cage dive. In the summer, the sharks are close to the shoreline which is very comforting. They put fish oil and mushed up tuna in the water to lure the sharks in. When a shark was spotted, they threw tuna heads out as bait. Within 10 minutes we had our first shark. We ended up seeing 9 great white sharks. Most of them were about 2.5 meters long, and the longest we saw was over 3 meters long. It was such a cool experience, especially when the sharks attacked the bait.
The water was pretty rough so about a third of the people ended up puking (or chundering as it’s called here). There were 30 of us and almost everyone was close to throwing up. For some reason I don’t get very sea sick which was good. Some people even chundered in the cage which was lovely.
We had wet suits and masks for the cage. The cage was attached to the boat and you prop yourself up until a shark is close and then they tell you to go down. We were supposed to get to the bottom of the cage, hold onto a red bar and press our faces as close to the front of the cage as possible. It was harder to see the sharks under water because the water was really murky, but we still caught some glimpses. It seemed pretty crazy to see a shark 3 feet away and then dive under water. The group after me had the best/worst? experience when a shark attacked their cage and bit it. We called it a day after that. We went back to where we started and watched a video of the day. We then drove the 2 hours back.
That night some of the housemates and I went to UCT’s Bowling Club. Their bowling doesn’t seem to be like ours because it was on grass and a huge field, but we didn’t actually see anyone play. It seemed like it was just a place that students came to at night to hang out.
This week another South African moved into the house, giving us a full 20. She goes to a design school in Cape Town and is the youngest at 19. Also this week, I taught the house how to make microwavable grilled cheeses, so I have changed many lives for the better. We start school on Friday, so winter break is almost over!
I’ll try to put pictures up of the house soon!
Cheers!
Megan
Thanks for the update Megan. I think your writing is very interesting. Beats my college experience in beautiful Champaign-Urbana.
ReplyDeleteUncle Jim