Africa Patty: Blog Post #2

Ok! Here goes blog entry number 2!

So the last time I left off about two weekends ago. And since then so much has happened. So once again this is gonna be one long post. But whatever. Let’s do it.

Let me start by saying that school has finally started after what I can only describe as the greatest two month Xmas vacation I’ve ever had. So life is becoming somewhat normal again. But not really. Not really at all actually. Huh.

So the last time I left off on Friday the 3^rd of February. That night all of Ida Cooper’s internationals went to the VA Waterfront. Which is relatively close to downtown. This funky little area is yet another awesome place to go for a night out. Situated right on the water, it is littered with shops and restaurants of all types of cuisines and prices. Probably the best part about the waterfront is the way it looks at night. When you take into account the massive ferris wheel, all the bright neon lights, the local bands playing in the amphitheater, the thousands of people walking around, the moon glistening off the water surrounded the marina, and the backdrop of Table Mountain in the distance, it might just be one of the coolest sights you can see at night. Maybe a meteor shower could make it better. Who knows. Anyway, we all split up into smaller groups for our meals and I decided to go with some friends to a very up-scale Italian restaurant called Meloncino’s. Well up scale as far as I’m concerned. Next time I go the waterfront I’m going to definitely going to the Ferryman’s Tavern instead. Because supposedly they’ve got lots of nice beers.

After the waterfront we went as a group to Long Street in Downtown. Long Street as you  might have guessed is the longest street in downtown and is by far the best place to head for a night out if you are looking for options. I went to three different bars this night. Started at a place called The Neighborhood which was probably the homiest bar I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know they made bars where everywhere you sit is a couch or loveseat. After this we went to a place called Abantu. Which is essentially a whole in the wall that has extremely cheap drinks. It was recommended to us by Anne. Who like I said in my last post is one of Ida Cooper’s associates who helps out my house on Lyle road with any inquiries we might have about life in Cape Town. However, she’s pretty much one of the crew. Not at all a house mom like I stated in my last post. Anyway, Abantu was quite a funny bar. Mostly for its drink and shooter selection. My favorite shooter was called a Creamy Pussy. I had about ten of them at R5 each. Lol. After Abantu me and Anne went to get down at a night club called JoBerg. Which was my favorite place because all the music that was played was bumpin ass hip hop. Nuff said.

The next day was the day we had all been waiting for. Dinner at Ida Cooper’s pad!!! The lot of us went that Saturday to Ida’s house for an amazing dinner.  Ida has to be one of the hippest ladies I’ve ever met. We get there, she’s got live music playing, pita bread and hummus, and because she knows her babies (as she calls us) so well, she’s got tubs of Sangria for everyone and coolers full of beer for the guys. Needless to say this was a great night. And worth the wait. Best home cooked meal I’ve had in a long while.

In my last post I talked about how in SA they don’t have barbecues, they have braais. Braais are a very common thing over here. And I was very anxious to host one for all my new friends. So Super Bowl Sunday seemed like a hell of a day to have one.  After shaking off my hang over from the drum and bass night club Mercury a bunch of us went to after Ida’s dinner the night before, I headed into town with 800 Rand in my pocket and bought up as much meat and beer as I could while my house mates cooked up some tasty little side dishes. I had to get the beer at that same dodgy little liquor store I went to with a couple of the rugby guys a few days earlier because liquor stores are closed on Sundays.  I then texted a ton of my new friends and told them to get ready for a braai for the ages. Potluck style. Many of you do not know the Schuster family. But they are some of the greatest people you could ever meet and have been my loving neighbors for about 15 years. Anyway Johnny and Lisa Schuster, the parents of two of my best friends and brothers Justin and Jared, have over the years thrown some of the best bbq parties I have ever experienced. So they were my inspiration for hosting a kick ass braai. The Super Bowl Sunday braai at 9A Lyle Road was an absolute success and I can’t tell you how happy I was to tend the grill for hours and provide succulent meat for my new friends just like the one and only Johnny Schuster has done so many times for all my family and friends back in Auburn! After a nice two hour nap, I woke up and headed right down Main Road to the local friendly Pig and Swizzle bar to watch the Super Bowl. It started after midnight and didn’t end till after 5 in the morning. The American spirit reverberated throughout the bar and into the streets that night. The predominantly local guests of Pig and Swizzle must have got a kick out all of us belting the national anthem that night. Most definitely the most epic anthem I’ve ever been a part of. I could have fallen asleep standing up by the end of the game but it was well worth it to be see skeezy Bill Belichick, that punk rock bitch Tom Brady, and his cronies once again screw the pooch in this year’s Super Bowl.   

After recovering from our shit show Super Bowl party the night/morning before a bunch of us went to Clifton Beach. Camps Bay Beach and Clifton Beach are two of the most popular beaches in Cape Town and are situated on the exact opposite side of Table Mountain from my house. When I first got to Cape Town I was told that Clifton and Camps Bay are where people go to be seen and this is clearly evident when you arrive and see just how many beautiful people go to these beaches. Its real nice. Clifton is especially sweet because there is an amazing jump rock life 30 yards off the beach that is perfect for James Bond swan dives and front flips and all sorts of crazy stuff. And it’s not uncommon to see people playing little pick-up games of beach rugby up and down the beach. I had a blast playing one with the fellas on the rugby team and some very talented girls on this day, which was my first ever at Clifton. As far as I’m concerned, Clifton is exactly what one thinks of when picturing a perfect beach. Beautiful people, beautiful beach, and surrounded by the 12 Apostles mountain range that runs down the cost to Cape Point. The only bad thing I can say about these beaches is temperature of the water which can literally be chilling to the bone and definitely brings about some serious shrinkage. After spending the entire day at the beach me and a bunch of friends went to a kick ass foam party at Kopano residence hall where I stayed my first couple nights before I moved into my permanent house. I’d never been to a foam party until this night and let’s just say it’s one slippery, soap, crazy experience. The whole time I couldn’t stop thinking about how there was no way in hell something like that could go down in a residence hall back in Berkeley. I made sure to soak up the entire experience.

The rugby season has started up recently and all I can say is the games are a blast. There is a lot of Ikey Tiger Spirit around here and the sidelines surely the place to be whenever there is a home game. During the first home game a ball was kicked by one of the players in the game what seemed like a mile high, and as it flew through the air it just kept getting closer and closer to where I was sitting until I realized this thing was coming down right on top of me. So like a little kid at a baseball game I stuck out my arms and with one free hand and my other hand covered by a giant #1 Fan foam hand snagged this rugby ball out of the air. I was in disbelief. It was exhilarating and everyone around me was cheering for me. I felt like a star. It was hilarious. Most of you could probably care less about this but it was a big deal for me so BACK OFF! Anyway, yea. The rugby games are sweet.

Side Story: So we don’t have a dryer in my house and I don’t really like hanging up my cloths to dry so I go to this little laundry place down the street called Laundry Lady. And the ladies that work in there are total characters. So like the third time I go in to have them dry my stuff the older lady that works there gives me the same goofy smile she always gives me but then all of a sudden starts flirting with me. She’s like “you are so cute! But I’m old enough to be your mom. Guess how old I am?” I guessed, “25?” She laughed and whispered 50 in my ear than asks me for a hug. So I give her a hug. And then the younger girl working there who’s probably in her late twenties goes, “Well I think he’s cute too! I want one!” To the dismay of the older lady I gave her a hug too and the older lady goes “Damn you, you steal all my boyfriends!” I was in stitches to say the least. Side story over.   

So full moons are a pretty big deal out here in Cape Town because there are a number of amazing places to hike at night to really get the FULL full moon experience. So the first full moon night all of us internationals went to hike up Lions Head which is relatively close to Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak, two of the more well-known mountains around here. The majority of the hike is fairly easy until you get about two thirds of the way to the top, at which point the trail changes from a nice normal dirt trail to successions of jagged rocks and boulders you have to scramble up (as rock climbers would say) to get to the top. It’s not the most difficult hike but can definitely be pretty dodgy, especially once darkness falls and you have to navigate back down. But thankfully this night there was a full moon so the way was fairly lit up. Now this was highly debated during the course of the night but I swear that there had to be at least a thousand people climbing Lion’s Head that night. Not surprisingly either because the view of the sun setting over the ocean followed by the rising full moon, juxtaposed with the brilliant array of mountains surrounding the area is truly breathtaking. This was by far the greatest full moon night I’ve ever experienced and was truly blessed to have spent it with such an amazing group of new friends.

Another thing about full moons is that they bring some gargantuan waves to the beaches surrounding Cape Town. So the next day when a few of us went to Camps Bay Beach near Clifton, I was rudely introduced to the power of these waves when tried to go body surfing. Note to self: if waves are crashing directly onto the beach, do not try and body surf them because they will only turn your world completely upside down and leave you with your head buried in the sand. Thankfully I was able sit down and enjoy a plate of super bomb fish and chips and a Slow Comfortable Screw (which is a cocktail) at one of the local beach restaurants lining the streets of Camps Bay after the debacle that just took place. A great way to wind down before preparing for one of the greatest road trips I’ve ever been on.

The Garden Route is well known amongst South Africans. Running along the east coast of South Africa from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province, the Garden Route is chalk full of amazing sights, activities, and attractions for people wanting to experience more of the Rainbow Country culture. Some of these activities include sky diving, seeing all kinds of wild animals, zip lining tours, all kinds of beach sports like kite boarding, and surfing, and even shark cage diving. Since I have already been sky diving twice, been zip lining when I was younger, plan on doing other safaris in Northern South Africa at Kruger and/or up in Botswana/Zambia/Zimbabwe, plan on shark cage diving later in the semester when more sharks are out and about, and have recently joined the Yacht Club here on campus that teaches its interested members how to Kite surf, I opted for some other activities. Thankfully our rubber tramping crew, most of whom are in the Lovers Walk house, were a joy to try and plan the trip with, which we did all by ourselves without the help of local travel agencies. Honestly we winged most of it but everything worked out great over the course of those four days along the Garden Route. The first thing you have to know about traveling along the Garden Route is that if you aren’t staying at the Backpackers (i.e. hostels) along the way, you aren’t doing it right. For like 15 bucks a night you can stay in these sweet ass backpackers that are always full of internationals, and equipped with a fully stocked bar. Our first backpackers was Backpackers Paradise located in Outdshoorn, and that night about twenty of us internationals from a couple different houses back in CT all met up there. We of course had a nice little shindig. Outdshoorn is most famous for its plethora of Ostrich meat and the Cango Caves. Now I’ve been in some caves in my life but nothing like these prehistoric gems and seem to virtually go on forever. As a group we took an adventurous tour deep into the heart of these caves. I put some pictures up on FB for anyone reading this who wants to see. Seriously though, no picture can truly show how incredibly huge and intricate these caves were. The first people that used to live in the caves were said to have never ventured further than the first couple parts of the caves because they believed that the deepest dwellings were inhabited by the spirits of their ancestors. But we had no problem disturbing their ancestors because these caves were way too cool not to explore. After exploring the caves our crew headed out for a beach town called Wwilderness. On the way we saw numerous baboons walking around on the sides of the road which literally made me jump out of my seat in jubilant celebration. Seriously I went nuts. God I love animals. One troop of baboons had a bunch of baby baboons too. It was the cutest thing ever! But unfortunately we were driving past too fast and they scattered too quickly for me to snap a shot. However, baboons are everywhere in South Africa so I’m sure I’ll get some good pictures eventually. Once we got to Wilderness we all rented canoes and paddled down the local Touw River through a crazy little jungle to a path that we hiked to the Touw River Waterfall. The water surrounding the water fall is so tannin-rich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin) that it has an almost blackish-orange look to it. I’ve never seen such oddly colored water in my life but there was no way I wasn’t gonna swim around in it. There were even some sweet little jump rocks/cliffs from which to kloof from. This little adventure was a blast and it was nice to finally be deep in a random jungle in Africa. It was no Congo jungle, but it was still pretty damn cool. After this we all met up again at another backpackers in Plettenberg Bay and then headed out for a night of clubbing. The next day was the day we had all been anticipating since we left Cape Town. The day that we would all bungee jump from the highest bridge bungee jump in the entire world. A 216 meter drop from Bloukraans Bridge just outside of Plettenberg Bay. Everyone in my crew made the jump. The feeling of free fall is one of the most ridiculous feelings ever. You can see it on everyone’s face the second they are back on the bridge. It is such an insane rush of adrenaline and I recommend that everyone at some point in their life face their fear and let this natural high consume yourself. It is the most epic thing ever. AAAAHHHH! So fun. And the bump of the electronic/dub steppy/ house music that was playing on the bridge was a big help too. Its one of those things that you do and it happens so fast, you’re in the car leaving the bridge, looking at baboons walking on the side of the road, and in your head your thinking “What in the F$#@ did I just do?! Did that really just happen?!” What an unbelievable experience. After the jump we went to another beach town called Knysna where we went to the waterfront, had some lunch and some beers. Knysna supposedly is home to the oldest Rastafarian village in Africa but we heard it was too hard to find so we just went to the waterfront. The waterfront was a great little place to go to wind down after our bungee jump. It actually reminded me of the VA Waterfront in Cape Town I talked about earlier. After lunch we went to the best backpackers on the entire trip for our last night, Afrovibe! Afrovibe is situated right on the beach in a town called Sedgefield and is run by one of the chilliest groups of SA locals I’ve met so far. Afrovibe is the epitome of hippy surfer culture. A very green backpackers. I had the best time by far at this backpackers. The party was top notch, and even had a Beer Pong South Africa table set up. I’m pretty sure I also fell in love that night with a fire balling twirling supermodel named Gabriella. Hopefully we hang out again when she’s in Cape Town in a couple months. This was the perfect place to end our road trip down the Garden Route.  

In other news. Like I said school has started. I am now signed up for three classes. The first is History of Genocide in Africa, the second is Sustainability and the Environment, and the third is Poverty, Development, and Globalization. I will also start my work in a local township called Kensington this week where I will work for a few hours each Tuesday teaching math, English, and life orientation to groups of kids. I am very excited to go hang out, teach, and learn from these little kids. I also signed up for the Yacht Club which is one of the bigger, more social clubs here on campus that I will learn how to sail, and kite surf with. Apparently they throw some pretty bitching shindigs throughout the semester too. So that should be a great way to meet new people and more local South Africans. The last club I signed up for is the golf club, which will take me to some great little courses in Cape Town. I wanna join a couple more societies as they are called here as well, perhaps Habitat for Humanity. We will see how things go but for now that’s what I’m signed up for.

I climbed Devils Peak with my friend from Berkeley Troy Hodges this past week as well. 1000 meters high and the second highest mountain here in Cape Town, second only to Table Mountain which I plan to do this week. It was a very strenuous hike but me and Troy busted it out without a guide and in only four and a half hours. About and hour and a half less than the six hours we were told it was gonna take to do the whole hike. On the way up we saw the Queens and Kings Blockhouses that were built when Cape Town was colonized hundreds of years ago in the 1600’s. They are two of the oldest building in Cape Town. The Devils Peak hike was definitely another great adrenaline rush, especially when you’re getting hit by the 50 mile an hour winds that howl at the top as you overlook all of Cape Town.

One thing I’ve enjoyed doing lately is enjoying some solo time to do a little exploring on my own. For instance the other day after class I went to Downtown to buy a book called Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux (described by my neighbor Al in Auburn as Into the Wild x 10 in Africa from Cairo to Cape Town). I went alone and spent the entire day just walking around in local markets, people watching, and soaking up the local culture without the distraction of being with other people who might want to do certain things that I wouldn’t. Just walking around wherever the wind blew me. This was one of my favorite experiences in Cape Town so far. Met a lot of cool people and saw a lot of interesting things including a guy making tips by entertaining people with animal noises. He was extremely talented actually. It was hysterical watching him scare the shit out of un-suspecting tourists walking down the street by grabbing their back leg as they walked past and making a screeching barking sound. He was getting so many people so good and even got me when I walked by. People everywhere were watching him and laughing their asses off. And so was he. Funny as hell. This day I discovered my new favorite beer out here. Its called Jack Black. And it’s a delicious lager brewed right here in South Africa. Apparently its very well known but I hadn’t heard of it until this day. I also went by myself to Muizenberg Beach this week one day after class and taught myself how to surf. I only got up a couple of times, but I had a blast (except for the couple times I was puking up salt water I swallowed) and am definitely gonna give it another go. I’ve learned a lot about my adventurous spirit since I’ve been out here, especially when I take some alone time for myself, which is hard for me to do often because I’m naturally a very social person. Thankfully I’ve had the motivation to go running regularly around my neighborhood which also offers some needed reflection on my time here as well as some solid cardio to burn off all this good food and drink I’m getting here.

Once again, thank you  so much mom and dad for all you have done for me. I promise I am being safe and am having the greatest time of my life out here. I don’t know if there’s ever been a period of time in my life where I have been so happy. Miss and love you all! Peace, Love and Music!