Hiking up Table Mountain

I finally got my chance to hike today - and it was a satisfying hike. We parked on the road near the cable car, and hiked up the mountain. The top is about 3000 ft high, and the road is probably about half that elevation. The hike is nearly straight up a gorge - there's info on it here:
http://www.tablemountain.net/visitor_info/hiking/platteklip_gorge_to_upper_cable_station.html

and pictures to show the hike:


























It took us just under 2 hours, which is slower than my host usually goes, but faster than the estimated 2.5 hours that is marked at the start of the trail. The webpage says 1 hour for the superfit, and 3 hours for the slow. I did have to stop a handful of times to catch my breath. The climb is worse than I had imagined - it is stone steps, but often the steps were nearly knee-height. It felt good to reach the top, and we had a little picnic lunch there, before checking out the vistas from the top of the cable-car area, having tea, and taking the cable car back down. The cable car is hard to see in this pic - but it's there. Just click on the pics to expand them.










Here are pics of the vistas:




















There were also amazing plants:

AIDS - another blatant reminder of where I am

Ever since I've been here, there has been at least a background awareness of what a big issue AIDS is. I heard that roughly 20% of adults in South Africa have AIDS. Today (or maybe this week/month?) was a day where AIDS testing was strongly promoted on campus. I saw a student today with a T-shirt that said "HIV-positive" on it. That is a very bold statement. I hope it was a way to get people to be honest about having AIDS so they don't pass it along to other people.

I noticed on my first day that condoms were being given out for free in the restrooms. I also noticed posters on campus, and even a mural in the tunnel I pass through to get to main campus. I also was aware of the news here, and how the events are treated differently from in the NYTimes. The firing of a top official here who had bold plans for treating the AIDS epidemic did not make big news from what I could tell, though it was a big topic of conversation. It did make the news in NYTimes. What did make the news here was a trashing of US's abstinence-only policy. It's always easier to finger point about what another country should be doing better, I guess.

The most startling experience I have had here regarding AIDS was asking a student today about a bracelet he was wearing. It had beads with letters that spelled out "I Know." I asked him what he knew, what it stood for. He said it was for AIDS awareness, that he had the bracelet because he had been tested and he knew if he was positive or not. Then he gave me a big smile like he was thrilled to know/report that he is HIV-negative. This is a 1st year university student, probably no more than 18. I didn't know what to say at all. He was a sweet, soft spoken kid.

It's amazing that these kids are trying hard to be scientists (after all they've made it into the best University in the country, and probably in all of Africa), and they're dealing with language issues, class issues, and worrying about having AIDS. It makes going to college in the US seem a trivial task.

The weather, and joys of being outside!

Today is absolutely beautiful. It is about 70F and sunny - and so far it has stayed sunny all day (though it's just noon, so that may change). People say that in Cape Town you can have all 4 seasons in one day - I understand that saying well! I think I'm in for a streak of good weather though - hopefully it will be good next weekend as well.

Tomorrow my host will take me on a hike up table mountain. I am very glad to be going hiking! Today I plan to walk up to the Rhodes memorial, which is either on or adjacent to campus. I hear it's only short walk from my building. Info on it is here:
http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/rhodes-memorial.htm






















This morning I got to school early and ran an errand for someone I know who also does research here. He is the brother of an old Columbus friend. I had a nice conversation with him before coming on the trip, and got good advice about what to expect, what to/not to do, and what to see. It was nice to get over to a different side of campus and meet different people. They work with early childhood literacy issues.

I am meeting students in an hour - time to get back to work!

(later addition:)

To give an idea of how different the weather is here, I wore a long sleeved cashmere (thin) sweater today and carried my big scarf for a wrap. I was warm by the time I got to my office, and opened my window for the first time today (I think today was also the first day I didn't need to use my heater). However, by the afternoon (though it stayed sunny) when the campus was in shade due to the mountain, I needed the sweater. And by early evening when I walked home I needed the scarf. Tonight when I go out I'll take my coat and the scarf.

Rhodes memorial turned out to be a quick walk uphill from campus, well worth it. There is a little restaurant up there, too - I will go back next week for lunch. Someone was robbed at gunpoint just above that area yesterday, so a professor went up with me. He's my age and does not do my kind of research, so for the first time I was just able to speak to someone my age without any professional interactions involved. It was very relaxing!

We headed back to the department in time for the annual award ceremony, which was kind of boring for me, but I was able to get some good information about what a few people think of how the disadvantaged kids are doing in the courses here. It's always good to hear diverse opinions, even if I don't agree with all of them.

Tonight I'm off to the waterfront for dinner :)

Kirstenbosch pics

Here are more pictures of the botanical gardens. The phone-camera worked well!

The first picture is of one of those silver trees that look so beautiful in the wind. The leaves really are very silver-colored. I have an up-close of the leafs in the mix here, too.

Settling in nicely

Although I am anxious to get to Oregon and start my new job, this week I'm settling in nicely here, and starting to regret that my trip is so short. I've started to get my bearings, and am starting to feel like things are friendly (not just my host, who has been great since the start, especially at making me feel comfortable).

This morning I had my second breakfast in a row with the Irish guy - he turns in his PhD tomorrow, he looked quite relaxed this evening! Amazing that people can actually be ready in advance! This morning I saw the first other female in my part of the dorm - and I sat with her while I ate dinner. Not only is she the first female I've spoken to the in the dorm, but she's the first American I've spoken to since being here. She's a visiting professor from Emory, in religious studies.

She invited me on an outing next Wednesday, but I can't go - because next Wednesday I'm giving TWO seminars! My seminar yesterday went well, apparently, and people want to hear more. My host tells me people have said nice things about it, and that it was very interesting/good. I always second guess whether I have anything important to say - and I came here primarily to learn from people. Now here I am being an "expert" and creating new research with my host.

The department is also getting friendlier, with people who actually choose to sit next to me during tea, and talk to me. I'm normally the only female in the tea room, and often people speak of people/places/research I'm not familiar with (I COULD be, if they wanted to explain the names they're using...) Unfortunately I think one of the people who wants to sit next to me is a grad student who may be a little smitten with me... I look too young!

Today I also took two female grad students to lunch, and we had a nice time. They are in my research area, so I wanted to allow them a chance to discuss their work with me. It was also nice to talk to women for a while - something I've hardly been able to do since I arrived! They were friendly and it was good to be a little relaxed. I teased my host that he couldn't go with us, and he acted sad about it - but the truth (which I told him later) was that one of the women is very shy and I wanted to make sure she was free to tell me about how her work is going. I also learned some from them about how the academic system works here.

The weather today was terrific, and it is supposed to be good tomorrow too. I will try to take a little walk - there is a memorial to Rhodes near campus, as well as a town area I've been meaning to walk to. The trouble is I can only go during the daytime, and I keep working late. I also need to do laundry!

Saturday it looks like I'll finally get to go on a hike. I have my camera batteries recharged and am ready to go!

So many stairs!

Today I had a big thrill: I walked home!! This is a first since my arrival. I've been told not to walk at night, and thus far I have never managed to leave the physics building before sunset, resulting in getting a ride back from my host on his way home. Today I managed to leave before 5pm even, and am now posting this from my room while it is still light out.

I counted the number of stairs today - there are 243 exterior stair-steps between my dorm room and my office. If I include the interior ones it must be close to 300. It's not too bad, either, because the physics building is on one of the lower levels of main campus. Each building has at least two floors difference between the exterior entrance on the two sides - so for instance physics has a ground floor on the back, and when you enter from the front you enter on the 3rd floor. Each row of buildings is the same. It must have been another 60 steps to go to the place where I gave my seminar today.

Where I taught this past year people talked about the huge number of stairs on that campus. It was something like 107 between my office and the union where I ate lunch. That suddenly seems tame!

I've been keeping up with my daily exercises every day but yesterday. When that cold front blew in I felt miserable. I don't know what that happens to me. I was so completely groggy it took me an hour to convince myself to get out of bed. Then walking to school it felt like it was hard to breath the air - I didn't think I'd make it all the way up the stairs without taking a break. Normally the stairs aren't a problem for me at all - they feel refreshing. I would like to figure out why this happens to me so I can try to do something about it. I hate feeling groggy.

Speaking of the weather changes, today was nice again, on and off. It started beautiful, clear and sunny. Then it got really cloudy, then it got sunny again, then cloudy, now sunny... And I mean the whole sky changes - not just the patch above us. The clouds move in and out so fast. I hear the winds here are horrible in the summer; the trees are sideways. It isn't windy on campus at all - I guess we're sheltered by the mountain, but there must be strong winds up higher to move the clouds so fast.

Speaking of exercising - I'm amazed at how hard it is to do a real push-up. I've been working on it now for nearly 10 days. I have so little shoulder strength to begin with... I find that I torque my body, either pushing my shoulders up first or my butt up first, and can not push up fully keeping my body straight. I can go back down straight, so maybe I'll build that strength slowly.
I'm quite tired this evening, having taught part of the class this morning, and given a seminar to a mix of language and science people in the Center for Higher Education. The room was full, and people were friendly, but it was not only taxing to give, but taxing to try to remember everyone and follow up with conversations after it was over. I'm going to take a break and read a bit. I am now reading a modern Sherlock Holmes book recommended (and lent) by my host. In a few hours I'll be "collected" to go to dinner with the dean. I always find it funny he says "collected" - as if I've broken into pieces and he's going to come sweep them up and bundle them together to take me somewhere...

I'm a bit worried about my host... He says he plans to take me to the wine regions this weekend, get me drunk, and talk me into doing more projects... I'm exhausted already, and I'm not yet even working full time! How will I do all these projects once I've started teaching again??? I'm glad the collaboration is going well :)

Small victories...

I have just found that I am about 2/3's of the way through the horrible task of coding these summaries. My host and I had discussed having the students write summaries before I arrived, but when he set the assignment he didn't give any restrictions - so we have a pile of about 100 summaries ranging from 4-30 pages long. It is taking a LONG time to go through them. It is not fun work. The later summaries are restricted to one page, so the project should get better...

I met another dorm-mate this evening, a guy from Ireland here to finish his PhD in law. I found his accent hard to understand, then I remembered how much I've adjusted this past week - I felt the same way about people here last Monday and now I understand almost everything. I still miss the names of things sometimes though.

Ever since going to Kirstenbosch yesterday, I have been contemplating whether I feel comfortable being so much more well off than the average person in this city. People in the gardens all seemed well off, and the restaurant had quite a stuffy atmosphere. Part of me wants to go to the winelands and eat at some fancy vineyard on Saturday, but another part of me wants to go do volunteer work. I'm sure if I lived here I would find ways to contribute to society and not just take advantage of fitting into the upper crust. I would like to interact with more of a range of people - but I don't know of any safe way to do that. At least I know I'm helping disadvantaged kids at the university. Still, they have made it to university, so they are doing well. It is important to help them succeed though - the drop-out rate can be very high here.

I think I will take a reading break then do some more coding before bed. I have to space it out - it is just not fun.

Nerdy Thrills...

Today I decided to finally pay for the NY Times "Times Select" option so I could return to reading the op-eds of my favorite columnists. It used to be discounted for faculty members, and I figured it was worth the price. Low and behold, it is now FREE for students and faculty - lucky me! I have finally returned to reading the news daily - it's a habit I broke during my busy interview period in the spring. Being out of the country made me want to get back to reading the news even more - since I don't have NPR on my radio.

Speaking of the radio - I have become sick of the local station. This happens to me every time. I move somewhere and turn on what sounds like a fun station while I settle in. Within a few days I get absolutely sick of it. The same songs over and over, and the ridiculous things said by the people on air. I will have to start listening to the web broadcasts of NPR. I also remembered I have several CD's on my laptop, so I can listen to them as well. I am now listening to Satie in my office.

I remembered a funny thing today - in the first lecture I sat in last week, a bird flew in the lecture hall - the students were quite amused by that. Today's lecture was a lot better than last week - on a Monday I guess the students are a bit more serious. They seemed to be engaged and enjoying the majority of it. One of the projects I'm working on is helping them make productive lecture notes. I took my own notes today, and the difference between mine and what I saw on the pages around me is phenomenal. My host spent the first 15-20 mins on some demonstrations, and many people wrote nothing down the whole time. Then when he was discussing graphing, many people copied the graphs without ever stating on their papers what they represented, what the actual problem was that they corresponded to. It will be interesting to see what we can measure from this study, but I think in the least it is worthwhile to help them with this.

I'm off to get lunch. I had to sit in front of my heater for a bit before venturing outside. My feet and fingers needed to thaw out. I should have worn thicker socks today - the weather is deceiving. It will get worse again tomorrow, but that is ok, as long as it clears up by the weekend. During the week I simply have to get more work done.

Yesterday my dorm became more interesting. There is a Brazilian guy that introduced himself to me - he looks like he's just arrived from years on a deserted island. Then we have at least two new young looking fellows, who unfortunately don't believe in cleaning up after themselves. Today was the first day since arriving that I couldn't wait for the cleaning people to show up. The common kitchen was a mess. I have learned to be good again, cleaning up my dishes immediately since so many of us must share the sink. I will be glad for my dishwasher in Oregon :)

I am nearly done with Slaughterhouse 5 already - it is an interesting and quick read. I found a terrific mention of Newton's 3rd law in there last night. I typed it up and would like to use it with my students. It states that when Billy coughed, something simultaneously came out his back end, due to the 3rd law of equal and opposite reactions. I am shortening it here, and making it less grossly explicit. I think the students will enjoy that!

Ahh... time for lunch. It's amazing how quickly time passes!

Kirstenbosch

P1010086
Originally uploaded by ddemar1

Today a prof in the department took me to Kirstenbosch, with his wife and 8 month old. Kirstenbosch is hands down the most amazing botanical gardens I have ever seen. The only plants there are native to South Africa, and the diversity in species is fantastic. They encourage people to go on the grass here, and even have plaques to read up under the trees which encourages you to go up close to the plants. Many people were picnicking. The setting for the gardens is part of what makes them so breathtaking - it is at the base of the back side of table mountain. Apparently you can walk straight up the mountain from trails at the back of the gardens.

We also had lunch at a restaurant in the gardens - it must be the most beautiful view I have ever had from a restaurant table. I wanted to buy gifts for people at the gift shop, but found things overpriced. I'm glad I waited, because after we left the main part of the gardens, the prof''s wife (who is also a prof by the way - just not in the dept. hosting me) wanted to stop at the nursery. The shop there had many of the same items for 1/4th the price - I now have most of the gifts I wanted to buy :)

My camera ran out of batteries so I have only 3 of the gardens. The prof let me take many with his phone - which had a 3Mpix camera. I will have to get them from him before I go.

Some guilt allieviated...

So I confessed to my host that instead of working Friday I finished reading Harry Potter... Much to my surprise he replied not to tell him anything because he's only half-way through :) I guess I'm not in trouble for that lapse of work! I think I might try to play scrabble again sometime too - I had no idea the game was so rich in strategy until I saw them play. I have never seen a board like ours was - there were only two pieces in the upper left diagonal and almost no free space in the half of the board we used.

To answer a few questions in the previous comments - yes, everyone I have encountered speaks English. It is one of the 3 official languages in each province. It is the only language I have heard spoken by academics at the university as well. Even though I am working with kids who are considered to have poor English (they converse with their peers in other languages - that makes it hard for me to roam around and listen to how they are working out the problems in lab) they understand me well and can communicate fairly well.

As for segregation, there are areas which are clearly very expensive and other areas which are worse than the worse slums in the US. I have not gone anywhere alone, and I have only interacted with people who are well educated with good jobs. There is so much crime here because of the huge difference between the haves and the have-nots. The prices here are similar to the US - the cars, the houses, the food - they're probably on average half the cost of what we pay in the US, so quite similar. However, my host told me that being a gas station attendant is considered a good working class job. This came up when we were at the pump, and we were discussing the pros and cons of not being able to pump your own gas. In South Africa (as in New Jersey and Oregon) the attendant is the only one that can pump. It works well here though because the job is coveted so the people work hard and quickly to take care of your car. If they don't, they will be replaced. The people having this job earn approximately $3000 per year, though, full time. So that's a 10th of an average US salary, yet the cost of living is about half of ours. And that is for someone with a "good" working class job. Apparently 30-40% of the population is unemployed. The average salary is quite high, though, because of how rich the rich are - they total swamp out the non-existent salaries of the poor. Even though Aparthide is gone, the effects are still quite rampant.