Final Days in Cape Town/Family

Hey everyone!
The last few weeks have been very busy, so I’m starting to write this blog entry from Sabi Sands which is part of the Greater Kruger National Park and where we are on our safari. Since we do not have internet here, I will post this once I’m back home in Wheaton. We are having an amazing time on our safari, but I will get to that in a later entry.
Our house had set aside Thursday the 20th for a long time to have a Thanksgiving. We figured it worked because it is fall/winter here and Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday here. We didn’t start the day with the Macy’s parade or football, but instead about six of us went to Green Market Square in downtown Cape Town for some last-minute souvenir shopping. We had all sort of been waiting on souvenirs here because everything pretty much looks exactly the same, but every once in awhile here you can find something cool/unique, so we spent the early afternoon trying to do that.
We also went to the District 6 Museum. District 6 was an area of Cape Town where all of the black and coloured people were kicked out of during the Apartheid. They were then placed in the townships against their will. It was interesting to read that one of the borders of division between the black/coloured/white people was actually at the interception right where our house is. It actually explains a lot about the racial makeup of the area that we live in. The museum was really interesting, but also really sad. It’s unbelievable how badly people were treated not long ago in South Africa.
Later that day we went to Hotel Mount Nelson for their famous high tea. Hotel Mount Nelson is a very, very nice hotel in downtown Cape Town right next to Parliament. We got a menu full of teas and were able to have as many pots as we would like. They had everything from Forest Berries to Rooibus (South Africa’s famous tea) with rose petals in it. They serve the tea in glass pots and then we were given our specific tea leaf blend and told how long to soak the leaves in the pot. It was very cool watching the water turn all different colors such as orange, hot pink or purple depending on what kind of tea it was. High tea also included a very nice buffet. There were all sorts of finger foods like cucumber sandwiches, quiche and samosa’s. They also had lots of desserts and chocolates that were delicious. It was a beautiful day so we ended up staying the whole afternoon there enjoying tea outside, pretending we were rich and taking walks around the grounds to make more room for more food.
We took the Jammie shuttle from downtown back to campus and then walked home to a Thanksgiving dinner at Penrose! We figured that it was appropriate because in South Africa it was fall/winter and a Thursday! We had tons of food because everyone made something. Being from Illinois, I naturally made lots and lots of corn. We went around the dinner table (meaning our living room because we only have 4 kitchen chairs) and said what we were thankful for. It was an especially special night because it was one of our very last nights altogether. The next day Marie, Hannah, Kathryn and I were leaving for the Garden Route and 4 of the guys were leaving on a trip the day after we were set to get back and most of us wouldn’t see them again before we left. It was a very fun day/night enjoying Cape Town and all of our housemates. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to live or better people to live with while studying abroad. It was really the people who made Penrose so special and I miss them dearly.
The next morning Hannah, Marie, Kathryn and our friend, Erin, left for the Garden Route. The Garden Route is a stretch of highway along the East coast of Africa with lots of different ecotourism attractions. We decided to do our last road trip in style with a BMW. I will really miss how cheap it was to rent cars in South Africa because that was just a little over $30 a day to rent!
We drove for about 4 hours the first day and had dinner in Wilderness. We then drove a little further and stayed at a really nice hostel in Knysna. It was much cleaner than Penrose! We made friends with the hostel owner and watched a movie with him and went to bed early because we were all really tired from driving all day.
We woke up the next morning and drove to the highest bungee jump in the world in Tsitsikamma, South Africa. I had absolutely no desire in jumping because I am sane, but I was happy to watch the others delusional ones. Erin, Kathryn and Hannah jumped, while Marie and I watched from the restaurant. The jump is crazy because the first jump is the highest in the world, but the first bounce up results in the second highest in the world. They then have someone come down with a rope and pull you back up with them. Kathryn was the first one to jump. They sent the rope a little too early after her and it ended up wrapping around her neck while she was still bouncing! She then had a huge rope burn around her neck. She was totally calm about everything, while I was ready to take legal action for just seeing it!
After bungee jumping, we drove to Stormsriver which is still in Tsitsikamma National Park, where Erin, Kathryn and I went on a canopy tour and Marie and Hannah went on a safari nearby. The canopy was very cool because I had always wanted to zip line and it was especially cool to be able to do it in an African forest. It was interesting learning about all of the trees and different vegetation that was in the forest as we zipped between platforms on the trees.
That night we decided that we liked the hostel so much that we might as well stay in it another night. We walked to dinner from our hostel. What was crazy about Knysna was that it was the first place we had been in South Africa where it was safe to walk at night. It was really nice feeling like we had more freedom there. We went to dinner at a nice little restaurant and then rented a movie to watch back at the hostel with the owner who thought we had no lives.
We woke up the next morning to a very sad hostel owner. During the night our car along with the car next to ours had been broken into. The owner had warned us the night before that Knysna had a bad drug problem, so 13 year olds would break into cars whenever they saw something inside. Since he had told us this, we made sure that absolutely everything was out of the car, even the radio and wrappers. However, the back passenger window was still smashed in and there were muddy footprints all over the seats. The frustrating thing was that there was nothing to take even! I had to talk to the police for the second time in South Africa. We were planning on going to different caves throughout the day and going to an ostrich cage, but we all felt pretty defeated after the break-in, so decided to cut our losses and call it a trip. Yes, it was a huge inconvenience having our car broken into, but I consider myself lucky that that was the worst safety thing that happened to me while I was in South Africa. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to study there and I’m really lucky that the worst I had to deal with was a broken window.
We put a plastic bag where the window was and began our noisy journey home. Before leaving Knysna, we stopped at a beautiful lookout point overlooking a lagoon. So many places in South Africa look like they were made to be put on postcards and that was definitely one of them. We also stopped at the beach to have one last feel of the Indian Ocean before heading back to the lame Atlantic and Pacific Oceans back home. We eventually switched out the plastic garbage bag for a blanket which made for a much better solution to the window. We drove the rest of the day and were very happy to surprise our housemates by coming home a day early.
The rest of the week was full of studying for and taking finals, along with saying a lot of goodbyes. Having spent the last 3 years at 3 different schools, I have found that goodbyes never get easier, but you learn to appreciate the time you do have together more.
My mom, dad and sister, Katelyn, came to Cape Town on Saturday the 29th. My brother, Bryan, couldn’t come because of work, which bummed all of us out. They came straight from the airport to my house and after a short tour we headed out to their guest house. They stayed in a really nice place in downtown Cape Town, which best of all had unlimited internet!! Even being back in the States for a month I still feel like sometimes I’m wasting internet credits or using too many megabytes.
Our first stop after the guest house was the Old Biscuit Mill. I had been planning on taking them there since the first time I was there. Obviously I brought them straight to the ostrich burgers. We met up with some of my housemates which was really good because I couldn’t wait for my family to meet all of them. It was really nice being able to finally introduce my family to all of the people who I had talked about for 5 months.
After the Old Biscuit Mill, we went back to the guest house for a bit since my family did travel 2 full days to get to Cape Town. Later, we went to church in Camps Bay (who knew they had church in Africa!). We then went to a nice restaurant around the beach. Camps Bay is a beautiful area and my family was marveling at how beautiful it was. I don’t think I have taken for granted what a spectacular city Cape Town is, but it was funny how by then it was such an everyday thing for me.
I stayed the night at the guesthouse and it was very nice have a comfortable bed again with heat in the room! Cape Town had great weather the week my family was there, but my room is always freezing back in Penrose. I think my room used to be a garage or something because it had absolutely no installation and was normally about 20 degrees cooler than outside.
One of the benefits of staying at the guest house was also that there was a nice breakfast the next morning. Very nice having the parents around for the luxuries again! After breakfast, we headed to the V&A Waterfront to go to Robben Island. Robben Island was where Nelson Mandela, among hundreds of other political prisoners, was held captive. Criminals, lepers and mental patients were also held there. After apartheid, the criminals were shipped to other prisons and the island became a museum. People still live on the island, so there is a grocery store, a school, post office, clinic and church on the island besides the prison.
It was really cool being on Robben Island for the beautiful view of Cape Town and Table Mountain alone. Our tour guide actually used to be a political prisoner on the island too. Why you would want to live on the island where you were once held captive for no real crime is beyond me, but it was neat having an authentic feel to the tour. We saw the lime quarry where Nelson Mandela and other prisoners worked every day and also where they held political discussions that would shape the new South Africa. We saw the quarters where the prisoners were kept, most notably Mandela’s. It was amazing how tiny his cell was without even a mattress to sleep on. I enjoyed finally seeing Robben Island and it was just shocking to see the terrible conditions people lived in even in the 1990’s. It’s crazy to me to think that such shameful things were going on in recent history and I’m sure they are still going on today.
Later that night, we took all of my housemates who were around out to dinner by the guest house. It was really fun having my housemates get to know my family and vice versa. I really hope that I will stay close with a lot of my study abroad friends and that my family will be able to see them again.
Monday, we took a cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. I had hiked about 3/4 of the way up before, but decided I could wait on the rest of the view until my family came. My roommates would hike the mountain most weekends; they must not have known that there was a cable car to take them up! One of my favorite things about Cape Town and South Africa in general was all of the mountains around. Living in flat Illinois, I never realized how much I loved the landscape of mountains. I really miss the view of Devil’s Peak from the back porch. The view from the top was fantastic. It overlooked UCT, Penrose, many beaches, Robben Island and much more. We hiked around for most of the day and marveled at the city.
For dinner, we went to Greenpoint (a neighborhood in downtown Cape Town) to a restaurant called Beluga. I had been there before with some of my housemates. It is one of the top 60 restaurants in the world and best of all has half priced sushi and cocktails if you go at the right time! We enjoyed cocktails, great sushi and steak all for less than 50 American dollars. It seemed like groceries were more expensive in South Africa, but eating out was a lot more reasonable than in the States. After dinner, we walked down to Greenpoint Stadium where the World Cup would be taking place. We were able to walk around outside of it a bit, but couldn’t go in because they were preparing for the World Cup 24/7 with it being just a week and a half away.
Tuesday, I had the pleasure of taking a Poverty, Development and Globalisation final and then studying for my Economics final, while my family went to my favorite beach, Llandudno, and Cape of Good Hope for the day. They picked me up for dinner in Rondebosch that night at Cocoa Wah Wah. It was nice showing my family Rondebosch because I spent a lot of time there grocery shopping and doing errands in that area. Cocoa Wawa was a good place for us to eat too because it’s funny because it is full of American students and actually has American-size portions!
Wednesday, I had my last final at University of Cape Town. It was for my Economics class. I was very, very relieved to be done with UCT. I loved the opportunities that it provided for me with playing sports, volunteering in the townships, the beautiful campus among many other things, but I was definitely not a fan of the actual classes or institution itself. It made me really appreciate the classes, professors, and grading system back in the U.S.
After my final, my family came over for Mediterranean Night in Penrose. I think they were a bit overwhelmed seeing 20 people cooking in one kitchen at the same time, but it was an ordinary night for us! They were actually surprised at what good cooks we were and my pasta especially just blew them away. I really mastered the skill of boiling water while I was there.
On Thursday, we started the morning at Kirstenbosch which is the garden that I saw summer gardens in. We enjoyed walking around the different plants and flowers and having the place all to ourselves. We then went to Hotel Mt. Nelson for high tea after that. It was very nice sitting there for hours trying different teas, eating tons and tons of good food, being sophisticated and talking. Katelyn stayed the night with me in Penrose. Ainsley, Hannah and I took her to Long Street to show her Cape Town’s night life which was a lot of fun.
The next morning we went to Stellenbosch, which is 45 minutes away and wine country. We first went into the town of Stellenbosch which was really nice because I hadn’t been there yet. It felt safer than Cape Town. It was also nice seeing Stellenbosch because there is a big college there too, so it was cool seeing a college town. We went to a wine tasting for about 5 minutes before we realized that we were not a wine tasting family. We escaped out a back door while our server was getting us another bottle. We then just spent the rest of our time visiting other wineries, but enjoying the scenery and not the awkward actual wine experience. To kill time we went to the mall in Newlands to get some World Cup shirts and then we went to dinner at Pancho’s, the Mexican restaurant in Observatory. I had to have their nachos and margaritas one more time before leaving the city! I went back to the house and went out to Long Street one last time with the roommates. We went to one of our orientation leader’s graduation party and then to Café Baghdad, which was the first place I went to on Long Street, so it really came full circle.
I spent my last Saturday morning at Old Biscuit Mill, naturally. We spent most of the rest of the day souvenir shopping at Green Market Square and The Women’s Market on Long Street. We then went to the Waterfront for dinner. We actually went to the sister restaurant of Beluga because we enjoyed it so much before. We sat right on the water and it was the perfect last dinner in Cape Town. We watched an African dance performance before leaving the Waterfront. I went back to Penrose, packed and said sad goodbyes to my roommates. I still couldn’t believe that it was already time to say goodbye. I know that the people in my house made the experience for me and I miss all of them.
Cheers!
Megan