Sunday, September 14, 2008

Dancing day :)

Today I took a ballet class at the regional school of ballet, wanting a class more rigorous and regular than the one I had been taking on campus. The class lasted nearly 2 hours and was pushing my limits - I hurt from head to toe when it was over!!

Unfortunately I had also scheduled a private tango lesson for this evening - so I had to get back on the dancing shoes and do some more... that lesson ended just before the free intermediate group class started at the tango center - so I stayed and joined that too... 2 more hours of dancing!

By the time the actual dancing started at the club tonight I felt like I could hardly dance anymore! So what did I do? Go home?? NO! I went and got some food - rested my feet for an hour, then came back and danced for 2 more hours :)

Thank goodness for cruise control because I don't think I could have held that gas peddle down at all to get home!!

Word of warning to other crazy dancing fools out there - don't assume you will get parking just outside the regional ballet school on a sunny Saturday morning while the farmer's market is going on just because there's ample parking there the rest of the week... So don't go just wearing your leotard thinking it'll just be a hop out of the car, across the sidewalk and into the school... You will instead, have to circle the town for parking, and walk two blocks down crowded streets with lots of traffic, in your leotard, to get to the ballet class... Yikes!!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

I've conquered my office :) (now for the rest of the to do list...)

I finally managed - after 4 days effort (sometimes only a few hours in each day) to give my office a through organization. I had so many piles that all surfaces were covered and I couldn't find things I needed anymore... this was really needed!! I hope to be able to work a lot more productively tomorrow. (check out Audrey under the desk - she was helping!) Here are before and after pics - though the before is really only about 2 hours before I finished - I had already done a lot of unseen things like cleaned out the filing cabinet, rearranged a lot of the shelves, and dealt with some of the piles - so it had been much worse than this!











Here are my office companions: mouse (white one with orange head), pepper (deep orange one), pebble (light orange one), and quark (black one). Fred (the algea eater) is hiding... too bad, he's gotten really cute this summer. There is a theme to the names: animal, vegetable, mineral and fundamental particle :) (I'm such a geek...)











Earlier today I went up Mary's peak with a friend who decided not to stay here and is taking a job in the mid-west. I'll miss her! It was windy up there and I got a really cute picture of Audrey being blown in the wind - her ears are not up by her own desire - it's all mother nature :)

Friday, September 5, 2008

Kruger (and safari camps) vs. Zoos

It is interesting to contrast Kruger vs. a nice American zoo. Let me preface this post by saying I far prefer Kruger!

Visability: at the zoo you are nearly guaranteed to see each animal. That's pretty cool, except it means that habitats for them are lacking (not as private as they would prefer in the wild), and it also eliminates the thrill of the search.

Food: at the zoo the animals are fed, in Kruger they have to fend for themselves. I have never understood why it is ok to give dead, previously killed animals as food in zoos but it isn't ok to give live animal as food. Why is it ok for humans to kill the animals but not for their natural predators to? (I guess if you read my last post you could say that we are likely to kill more humanely - though that can be debated.) In fact I've always found it odd that people don't want to see an animal get eaten at the zoo yet they go to the zoo food stands and eat dead animals there... Very odd... It seems we are happy so long as we are removed from the death.

Lifestyle: at the zoo the animals are given enrichment activities to fend off boredom, but in Kruger the animals aren't bored because they are doing what they are meant to do. It is amazing how different elephants seem when they are 99% of the time foraging for food - they are constantly active - the elephants in Kruger didn't look bored at all!

Cages: at the zoo the animals are in cages - or more properly are behind electric fence. At Kruger, you are in the cage (in your car outside the rest camps), or you are behind the electric fence (at the camps). It puts things into perspective... This is their land, you are just visiting...

Comfort: at the zoo, human comforts are actually minimal - made for mass use and low quality. Kruger is actually quite comfortable. Granted you are likely to stay overnight in Kruger and that won't happen at the zoo, but you could do Kruger in quite a high level of comfort. There were people getting out of cars at "picnic" spots (where they cook and serve you fresh food) in fancy clothes with designer purses. That was my biggest shock in Kruger. In fact, the one member of our party made the comment that you can tell who the locals are - they are the ones in the camps NOT wearing khaki or neutral colors!

Life and death in Kruger

The last two days I've watched 3 episodes of the BBC series "planet earth" on DVD. They have a decent amount of footage in Southern Africa, where I could name the birds and animals before the announcer - which was pretty cool. It is an amazingly filmed series, though not very informative. Worth watching though just because it is so beautifully filmed and gives new perspectives into certain animal behavior. The DVD is fun too because it has an extra special after each episode on the filming of the biggest challenge in that episode. It really puts it into perspective when you see the guy waiting in a hovel for weeks to spot a snow leopard!

In last night's episode, one scene was crocodiles hunting cape buffalo. The announcer said that it took an hour for the crocodile to drown the big bull he caught. They win by not letting go. It is amazing how many prey actually manage to escape the hunt - and when you see the few hundred thousand impala at Kruger you feel sorry for the big cats because they actually have it pretty hard - it's exhausting, dangerous, and not always successful for them to hunt.

All that being said, while I was in Kruger, when we were at the main Skukuza camp and had a few hours to ourselves, I took a long walk by the Sabie river (of course, everyone is inside the electric fencing...) and reached the far end of the camp just past dusk. (It was neat to see the private large rental houses along the river, much nicer than the hut-shaped hotel room I had.)

Just at dark, at the edge of the camp, I heard the most terrible squealing that was so distressed and heart breaking - and it just wouldn't stop. It lasted for what seemed like nearly 5 minutes. I thought I must be mistaken about the noise (though it was hard to imagine why anything would sound like that if it weren't struggling for its life) because surely whatever was hunting would kill faster than that... I asked the guide, and he said it can take a long time for the kill.

We did not see any kills during our trip and for that I am glad. It is part of the life in Kruger, but hearing it was enough. The sound haunted me for days...

Things that made me happy yesterday

So I should preface this post by saying that I'm still recovering from the stomach virus and don't feel great to begin with, plus I miss not only the beauty of Cape Town but of course I very much miss my friends... While it is good to be home, I wasn't exactly happy yesterday morning...

Top 10 list:

1) Happy dogs - Waking up in the morning to a dog that is so thrilled you're up that she makes her mouth into a funnel, exhales and makes that gentle "aahhooo" sound that I love, then squeezes herself as close to me as possible for morning cuddles

2) The sun - you can see the hills and the mountains and all the different greens are amazing - the weather is perfect right now

3) Working in a friendly department - I lost several hours yesterday catching up with 2 of our 5 staff members and 5 of the other 12 faculty members. The only reason more aren't on that list is they are the only ones I saw in the building yesterday!

4) Fresh food - even though I had no appetite, knowing there were healthy options across the street from work was great, and the fresh fruit and soy smoothie I had for lunch hit the spot and was the first thing I've had all week that didn't irritate my stomach. It was so good I managed a blueberry-lemon muffin after it! (the most flavorful and rich food I've had all week)

5) Friendly people - ever had a construction worker stop you to ask how your day is going? Not to whistle - but to strike up a conversation? He went on to explain the progress of the project and was totally nice

6) Construction - speaking of the construction, it was so cool to see the new lecture hall and classrooms being constructed after all the committee work and plans that went into that this past year! It's actually happening :)

7) Open windows - I can leave my porch door at home totally open and let the fresh air in, no worries about burglary - oh yeah, and no bars on the windows either!!! (7.5 - taking a walk with Audrey yesterday and leaving the house unlocked - no worries in this town!)

8) Open fields - the field across the street from my house was a great place to play frisbee with audrey when I got home after dark - and I could stand their safely in total darkness, looking up at the vast stars, enjoying the fresh air

9) Feeling organized - I went to the co-op yesterday and thought, shoot, I forgot to bring the milk jugs for return - then found that in July I had put them in my shopping bag that I keep in the car, so when I pulled that out I had the happy surprise of feeling on top of things

10) Happy cats - it wouldn't be fair to put Audrey on the list and not my boys. They wanted non-stop cuddling my first day back and have now settled more into a routine, though they are waking me up a lot at night wanting to cuddle a bit too much, but it is sweet having two purring little bodies around

So, as you could guess, by the end of the day I was happy! I still couldn't stomach much dinner, and I still miss my friends, but I am very happy to be home...

I have to amend this post - the next morning brings two more things:

11) Beautiful paths - Audrey and I enjoyed a walk in the paths in my neighborhood today - I forgot how peaceful and nice it is. We also saw several friendly people along the walk, and Audrey enjoyed wallowing in a mud puddle then bathing in the creek :)

12) Ease of getting around - my car is due in for service and will be at the shop all day Wed. I thought, what will I do without a car all day? How will I get around and to work? Then I though - oh yeah, DUH! I can walk! This town is so small :) It may be a bit far from the service shop to work, but there are buses, too... It won't be a problem at all!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Congrats to my friend!

I posted this past spring about my friend who is training for boxing. She is also doing power lifting, and just competed in her first tournament. She took first in her class, which is super cool! She dead lifted (no assist) 275 lbs... Wow!

http://www.apa-wpa.com/2008NutmegOpenResults.htm

How's that for motivation? And she started training around the age of 40! I appreciate being in better physical shape than I was in my 20's - here's to the idea it can keep getting better :)

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Going out in Cape Town - music and dancing

Partly in the last 10 days I didn't post anything, I was busy going out in Cape Town... it wasn't all work! I emailed the few local argentine tango teachers and found one in the town 45 minutes away. Not sure how I would get to the lesson, he told me of a German student who had just moved from that town to Cape Town and was commuting down for their Tuesday night dances. He got me in touch with her, and she was happy to take me along - and even go early so I could get a lesson before the evening of dancing. (She actually normally goes early to visit her friends there.)

The dance scene in Stellenbosch (the town we went to) is nothing like in Oregon. There were about 15 people at a cafe with a concrete floor. The people were super friendly though! The lesson was fun - it got me warmed up, but I found most of the people there thought of the dance as a series of steps, so weren't so fun to dance with. One guy was nice though - a farmer, mostly of different types of fruits.

I got excited about getting into the dancing scene so I pushed to get a lesson with the Cape Town teacher later that week, who turned out to be fabulous! I had two lessons with him overall, and they were the most amazing dance lessons I've ever had. After the 2nd lesson with him, I left feeling 2 feet taller and half my weight! I felt light, but balanced - strong and stable, but free to move with his lead. It felt like I was doing the dance right - and really dancing! I hope that the things I learned stick with me so I have more good dances back home!!

http://www.tangocapetown.co.za/

Here is a picture of the teacher and his partner - who also teaches:










That Sunday I was stoked to try tango in Cape Town where the scene is bigger and there are some great dancers. However, I was disappointed to find the scene very snobby, and only two people asked me to dance, besides the farmer who had come up from Stellenbosch. And one of those two hit on me while we were dancing close - which is not cool...

So after 2 hours of not much dancing, the German student wanted to go salsa dancing instead, and invited me along. I don't know much about salsa, but people there were nice, and taught me to dance - I was doing all sorts of things I didn't know I could do by the end of 2 hours at that club! I met one nice guy she had made friends with, and over the noise he thought I said I was 24 - turns out he believed it! I can't believe I can pass for that... Salsa was fun - but after the 2nd awesome tango lesson I can't imagine giving up tango...

On top of the dancing, my host's masters student plays bass and invited me out to see him play covers for his weekly Friday night gig. He was in a band and they were going to tour in Canada, but they didn't all get visas, or something like that, and he ended up starting the grad program after undergrad instead. He also took me to a coffee shop before my trip to Kruger to hear some friends of his play. The band was fun to listen to though I was way too old to be out with that scene. People were seriously superficial there - loads of barely legal people making out... I may be able to pass for 24 by looks but I certainly don't want to act like one!!













At any rate - it was fun to go out and explore the night life a bit. As awesome as my host is, he wasn't going to help me on that account :)

Driving is disorienting!!

Although it is great to have my car again, it is very disorienting to drive! It is bad enough to drive after not driving for nearly 6 weeks, but on top of that I got throughly used to always being on the left of traffic and sitting in the passenger seat on the left side of the car! I was so confused pulling into traffic today! Good thing I live in a small town without much traffic :)

Speaking of being back in my small town... I am very glad it was sunny today and I could see the beautiful mountains and hills all around. It is disorienting to be home. I have to think about where I am and where I am going - roads that were 2nd nature probably still are, but briefly I am not sure where they lead and which way I'm going!

It is good to be home - and I picked up Audrey today. Having my sweet dog here is wonderful. My cats are also very happy to have me back. Home is comfortable (it is also dirty - working on that...) and best of all, it is my home...

I've really become an Oregonian...

So all my talk about enjoying the fashion on campus, and the fancy big-city style at the waterfront, I had a chance to go shopping alone on Saturday, and where did I go, but Cape Union Mart - South Africa's version of REI!! I bought a fleece, a sweater, and a scarf! Nothing high fashion there at all... Maybe it was the influence of the stormy weather, maybe it was the oncoming stomach virus, but I just didn't even have interest in trying on any of the cutsey fashions at this high-end mall!

http://www.waterfront.co.za/

This is THE shopping destination in cape town. If you want cute quiet boutique shopping, yes there are other places to go - but this is the place with gucci, armani, burberry, chopard and so forth... And I BOUGHT A FLEECE!!!!

http://www.capeunionmart.co.za/

Haircut

When I went to Cape Town I was in need of a haircut. I was debating about letting it grow out a bit, so I wasn't too worried - but I figured I could get it cut there if need be. Well, soon after getting there I realized that was a mistake - I really needed it. However, my host and friends all being guys were none too sympathetic to my plight and kept putting off taking me to a salon. I tried to make a booking online on my own, but that does not seem the way to do things in South Africa - responses are frustratingly rare to online inquiries!

Eventually, after about 3 weeks, my host was taking me for a walk with two of his long-time female friends and I asked him to ask them where he can take me THAT DAY! Fortunately they knew of a place, and it seemed to be a good place - I was quite happy with it. I was, however, quite frustrated at having my hair get so out of control, that I let the stylist go a bit crazy and now I have very little hair at all :) So much for growing it out...

Here is a progression. The first pic is my hair back in early June - before it got 2 months over grown. The second and third pic are of my new cut - one with the "bangs" down and the other with it spiked up. It looks quite cute spiked up - these pics don't do it justice - I just took them in bad lighting with my laptop webcam...


Heading home

I can't believe it's been since the 18th since my last post! Well, I was very busy, then my last weekend I got sick, so I just never caught back up with posting.

At the moment I have little energy and want to close my eyes again, I just thought it would be fitting to close out my trip posting from the shuttle, just as I started the trip back on the 26th of July. I am about 45 minutes from home, in the airport shuttle. Amazingly, I have better internet on this shuttle than I have had the entire time I've been away!

This past weekend was not great - I got a stomach virus, my host got an upper respiratory infection, and my good friend ended up in the hospital visiting a family member.

On top of none of us being in good shape to do anything, the weather was horrible. There was some sort of winter storm that seemed to me to be at least tropical storm level. The wind was horrible and the rain came in huge bursts. It started on Thursday but the violent wind didn't get bad until Saturday. It was downright scary that day. Sunday wasn't much better...

I was bunkered down in my bedroom in that big old drafty house - I had the portable heater going nonstop, and had my biggest sweater on under all the blankets. It was perhaps good I was sick on top of it because I didn't even feel like getting out of bed, and there was no where to go anyway!!

The flight home would have been horrible as I'm still getting over the virus, except I saw a dr. before the flight and he gave me lovely sleeping pills... I solidly slept 19 of the 24 hours of my in-flight time. It is 2am and I'm on the shuttle (SO CLOSE NOW...) and I can't sleep now, but I'm sure it's just the anticipation of being almost home...

I miss Cape Town, but this trip I was ready to head home. I am sure I'll go back again and I look forward to ongoing work with my host, and keeping up my friendships..

I am much more comfortable back in Oregon than I was in NYC. I have to amend - I spent my 13 hour layover with a much appreciated rest and visit at my good friend's house (see blog links on my page) - but in the airport and such I felt culture shok. Oregon is calmer, nicer, quieter... Cape town is too big a city for me sometimes, but it is a friendly place - maners are different there. You don't over hear people talking too loud and about unseamly things :)

Cape Town is a beautiful place with beauiful people, so there is at least one thing - I no longer feel underdresesd now that I'm back in Oregon :) Being on campus, especially in the physics dept was of course not a place to play dress up - but you should see the glam at the fancy shopping places and out on the town!! I would have to try hard to keep up!

No stressing about it now :) Now I can go home, rest, cuddle my animals, rest some more, take a hike in the woods, and relax!!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Weather and fashion

Today the weather is terrific (it was all weekend, actually) - you can tell that spring is on it way. It will reach nearly 80 degrees and is beautifully sunny. I have seen students ranging from small sundresses to winter sweaters and scarves - some who have the mentality it is winter and others that are ready to celebrate the summer sun.

Fashion on campus is always interesting to see. We have everything from very rustic practical dress (similar to the countryside in france when I lived there, corduroy pants and a wool sweater, nice quality, but worn and bland), to high fashion, to hippy. I enjoy seeing the people who have touches of high fashion with their rustic practical clothes, for instance a gauzy/lacy blouse peaking out from a warm winter sweater.

Last week was fashion week in Cape Town. I tried to get tickets but it was all sold out. I thought it would have been fun, as well as a great statement of my broad interests to go to Kruger and a fashion show in the same week :) I could spend some serious money at some of the shops here getting totally sheik things, but I need to restrain - I still have to pay off the safari!!!

Nice weekend

I'm TRYING to keep up the hard work I did the first week I was here... However, there was just too much fun to be had this weekend!

Saturday, my host, his cousin (a psych prof) and I went hiking at Silvermine. We did an awesome hike that I remembered well from last year. It was nearly a 5 hour hike with some stops for views, photos, picnic lunch, and dessert. This hike is south of the city center, toward cape point, so when you go up the mountain you can see ocean (and false bay) in nearly every direction. There were a few flowers coming up, and the sun was wonderful. When we were at the top, though, big cloud blew in and it suddenly got cold! Good thing we were scrambling up and down a ravine and getting good exercise because it kept us warm :)


























Sunday, my friend took me to Hermanus, which is a breeding ground for whales. He has seen as many as 20-30 in the harbor there at one time. There were 4-5 that we could see, and one did some nice jumps out of the water for us. I could easily see them spewing water out their blow holes, and we could hear them making noises which was super cool!! We stayed there several hours enjoying the sun and view - I could have stayed until sunset! (By the way, whales are hard to photograph!! I did get some video...)






















I had to get home though, for the Sunday night dinner and scrabble game with my host's cousin (a different one from the hike). I lost again, but not quite as horribly as I did the last game two weeks ago. I started the game off with a bingo (all 7 tiles laid at once) and 82 points. I quickly lost my lead though, and the final scores were ~188, 250, 290! My host kicked our butts again... Apparently when I'm not around his cousin usually wins - so there is a conspiracy theory that I am helping him :) Not true! I am just still not that good at the game... I may have done a better job of keeping my lead last night if I had any tiles all night worth more than 4 points, but alas, no :(

Observations on observations...

While I was in Kruger, I had a lot of time to think and learn about observing and learning new things. There were a few specific experiences I had that prompted these thoughts. First, I was trying to learn new birds and to identify trees. I found that I had been trying to look at characteristics that were not defining in order to tell them apart, rather than characteristics that are more appropriate. The color of a bird's wings is less telling than the length of their legs, and the shape of their beak. Those things tell about their habitat and feeding habits. The color is pretty, but not necessarily defining - what if the bird is female or adolescent? They won't have the same color as the male shown in the birding book's artist rendition! Once I knew what to look for, it started to make more sense and I was able to learn more. With trees, the shape of the bark and the color of it is more important than the shape of the branches, which had previously held most of my attention. It's also hard to say something about "pointy leaf shape" if you don't have other leaf shapes to compare to, so being able to identify requires familiarity with a range of similar things. The other thing that really got me thinking about this was when we saw a dwarf mongoose run across the road quickly. If you had asked me what it was, I would have said it was a squirrel, because they are similar sized and scurry in a similar manor and are both brown. Because I am not familiar enough with the mongoose characteristics, my brain saw "small, scurrying, brown" and filled in the details that I am familiar with.

This is really interesting for me as an education researcher. It is well known that students will sometimes say they saw something different happen in a physics demonstration from what actually happened. This is known as "confirmation bias" - students will think what they thought would happen did actually happen. My favorite physics education person also says that when showing students a new phenomenon to observe, it is important to point out to them what to pay attention to. They won't know what details to focus on. I always thought it was kind of cheating to point out what to look for - but now I see it's important. If I wasn't pointed out what aspects of birds and trees to look for I would not have been able to start learning about them. (It's also funny how this ties into Ontology - how we characterize what is fundamental - which I've been discussing in detail with my host's masters student...)

Those are my thoughts on this, anyway. I always find that pushing myself to learn something new that I find difficult helps me learn about my students and is really beneficial.

I hope I have typed this clearly... All year they have been doing renovations to the physics building at UCT, and currently they are hammering right outside my window... The first day I was here there were 4 guys on scaffolding looking in the window at me - kind of creepy!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Kruger

(you can click on the photos to expand them)

I intend to post a lot about Kruger - but now I'm back in Cape Town, and just wrote out a to-do list with my collaborator, and I need to do some serious work :) It's funny to be back in heals and designer clothes, all focused-on work! I feel like a totally different person than I was yesterday... Fortunately I like work, otherwise I'd already be off on the next adventure.

I will work on posting pictures little by little! For now I wanted to post some highlights to share. The trip was AWESOME! LOVED IT! It was 5 days in Kruger, arriving late the first day, and leaving early the last, because it is a long drive from Joburg. The last day included a drive through the Blyde river canyon - the 3rd largest Canyon in the world - quite beautiful. I was exhausted by then though - we got up around 5am most days, and I was dead asleep by 9:30 pm! Dark falls fast there, and after a good meal cooked for you by the guide and a few glasses of wine, there's nothing better than a solid sleep! The accommodations were quite nice, though only mid-range for the camps (you can do everything from tent camping to luxury). I would recommend the company that did the tour:

http://www.outlook.co.za

I booked them, and the Joburg B&B and tour through EcoAfrica, but they can be booked directly. A better B&B was recommended than the one I used (which was good): Africa Sky - it seemed quite nice!

There were 3 other people on the tour - a nice couple mom's age from NW Canada. They were great! The other person was a young guy from Switzerland - very laid back. They made for great traveling companions! Our guide was very informative and took the time to learn what each of us was interested in and to make sure we each learned about new things along the way. He particularly quizzed me on tree-types... a new skill for me! I'm still working on it :) I learned a lot about birds, too.

We identified roughly 45 bird species, 25 mamels, 12 trees, and 3 reptiles. We saw 4 of the "big 5", all 3 big cats, 3 of the "small 5", 2 endangered birds (and countless other awesome ones), loads of young animals, individuals and large herds, and an elephant with HUGE tusks. Here are some highlights:

My companions: the Canadian couple bravely venturing from the car to read a plaque, and the Swiss and our guide spotting from the front seats











Endangered birds: the Ground Hornbill, and the SaddleBilled Stork











Moms and babies: Hyena, Hippo, Elephant and Baboon






















The "Big 3" cats: Lions, Leopards (yes, there is a leopard there!!), and Cheetahs






















An elephant with HUGE tusks:











Some great trees: Baobab, Marula, Sycamore Fig, and Umbrella Thorn Acacia























Blyde River Canyon: the Pinnacle, Berlyn falls, Lisbon falls, and Three Roundavels




























Accomidations: Mopani, Tamboti, and Skakuza (the first two are tree types, the third means "the one who clears" - the third camp is the biggest base, basically a town, and nearly 100 years old)

Update on the outreach high school day

I ran into one of the high school teachers from the LEAP school where I did outreach with my friends last Monday. I found out more about the school from him. He, himself, is an interesting person - an engineer who at ~45 (?) is doing a masters in physics, with a specialization in physics education research. He decided after a long industry career to go into teaching, and works at the school while doing his masters. A good guy.

The school is for people from the Townships (see my description in the Joburg post). They take youngsters who show promise in their schools, and send them on scholarship to summer camps. From the summer camps, they select the best in terms of doing well in school and leadership potential, and they offer scholarships to them for the LEAP high school.

It is a relatively new school, and funded by the government and by private agencies. Interestingly, the students at that school can no longer be considered "disadvantaged" for college like the ones I work with at UCT, because they have more money spent per person at the LEAP school. I wonder if in 4 years they can overcome the educational disadvantage they have from the Townships? They seem to be having success at the school, and the students were quite engaged in learning. It seemed they were all college-bound, at minimum. Some were even planning to go to UCT (the best school in southern africa if not beyond).

Pretty cool, huh?

Friday, August 8, 2008

Joburg

Greetings from Johannesburg. I'm at my B&B, waiting to be picked up by the safari guide. It'll be a long car drive today and I got up way too early! I'm totally psyched about the trip though. I got into Joburg yesterday at noon, and was picked up along with 2 other people for a half-day tour of the city. We spent some time at the apartheid musuem, and in Soweto - which stands for "south west township". It's probably the largest city in south africa - but it's technically part of Joburg. They call it a "city within a city". When the townships were formed (forced separation of the blacks) they were not allowed to have their own governance. The township now has over 4 million people. About 10% live in nice houses, 80% in "matchbox" houses - not bad but very small, and close together, and about 10% in shacks. We walked a bit around the shacks and met a family - but I most enjoyed the memorial to the children who were killed during the uprisings. The museum really put that into context. Recently, there have been uprisings against the refugees and dozens of people killed in the townships. It's funny because when I heard that I was a bit worried about going there (even though it has calmed down), but it's funny, because dozens of people are killed in any US city over 4 million and it hardly stops people from visiting! On top of that, tourists are a source of income, and are with guides all the time, so they aren't likely targets. Our tour agency took us around in a mercedes - it was kind of odd being there in the nicest car. I felt very conspicuous - doesn't help that I am way too white and well dressed to actuall LIVE there! In Soweto it isn't just the poor, though, we also saw Winni (spelling?) Mandela's house, Mandela's old house, and Desmond Tutu's house (still lives there).

I can't wait to see the big 5!!

Photos from Joburg:

The city - you can see it's just as any other city - has its high rises, even a small amusement park near the Apartheid museum!











Here's what built the city - gold mining. In fact, there are mines under the city and construction is a serious issue. One new building found a mine underneath and ended up stabolizing it and leaving it as a monument!











Here is Soweto - you can see a range of housing types, but not the worst or the best in this pic.











Here is a monument to the children in Soweto who lead the uprising in the 70's against Apartheid. On the left you see the photo of the just-shot child Hector Peterson that brought the worlds attention to the township problems.


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Audrey Updates












My dog sitter is a grad student in my department - a very responsible one!! I am so glad to have Audrey staying with someone I can trust, especially while she is still recovering from Lymes. She has a dog, Arthur, that Audrey has quickly become good friends with. I took her over to play a few times, and we took a hike together before I left (the context of the photos here - you can just see the "three sisters" snow-covered volcanic peaks in the background of the one) so they could acclimate, and now things seem to be going great between them! I got a terrific email from her today I thought I would share here:

"Arthur has really figured out swimming in the past week and a half. Audrey pushed him to go our further and then he suddenly realized that he was a good swimmer. Saturday when we were at the river, he was definitely out-swimming her. Given that he is bigger and a bit stronger it's not surprising, but Thursday was the first time I had seen that much confidence out of him in the water, and they kept the same stick the whole time (which is a big deal for Arthur, though I'm sure old hat for Audrey). So on Sat we went and bought them a real water toy, since finding a good stick can be a challenge on the beach there since so many people take their dogs. They didn't lose it. Boy were they exhausted when we got home though. They napped for the rest of the day. She's teaching Arthur how to play frisbee. He's starting to get it more and more, so we'll see how that goes. We also bought them a tug toy because they kept wanting to tug with toys that weren't really going to hold up to tugging. So now they have a tug toy to wander around tugging on."

It warms my heart :) I miss my pookey little girl so much!!! Apparently she still has a bit of a limp - but her energy is obviously back up to normal!! Her spirits were already back up before I left, thank goodness. I would be far more worried if she were still down like she was in early July...

Staying Busy at Work

Monday I went with two of my friends (the new professors near my age) to the LEAP school:

http://www.leapschool.org.za/johngilmour.q

to do outreach. They had prepared demonstrations to teach the Doppler effect and Standing waves. This is a very well funded school for good students, but it was still nice to get out into the community and interact with students. They were seniors, and very welcoming. They even sang for us at the end to thank us for our time. I was able to jump in and participate, and my friends enjoyed seeing my teaching style and having me partake. It was fun! Now one of them wants me to teach a bit in his college course, too - I should be careful what I get into :)

I'm also spending time with my host's masters student - helping him digest the background literature he needs to write his thesis. It's good for me, too, as it forces me to read new stuff, and think carefully about terminology and education theory. He's also very friendly, so it is fun to work with him. Today he also introduced me to a student lunch venu - african food that reminded me very much of Alabama food - black eyed peas and spinach over spicy rice. It was less than 4$ for a big plate. We ate outside where all the students hang out and got to watch a break dancing exhibition that was drawing a crowd. It's very dynamic to be on a college campus :)

In the physics department, there are big politics going on right now regarding the blending of the disadvantaged students who go through the bridging program with those that go through the standard courses. It has been the "talk of the town" and everyone seems to want to bend my ears about it. I have been given the task of interviewing the students to get their perspective. I am glad to help, and the situation is interesting in terms of how to help these students as well as how to have sustainable educational change, but I'll be glad when this is no longer occupying EVERY tea room conversation!!

I am frustrated with the slow internet, so am staying late tonight to download papers I need and post on the blog, and respond to emails - which has been laregely neglected. It feels like nothing can get done because it takes so long to access resources that are normally at my fingertips... It really depends on the task, though. I shouldn't feel frustrated, because everything has been useful so far.

Tomorrow is my last day of work before heading to Kruger. Then I'll have nearly 3 weeks to work again when I return. They will be busy! There are two people on campus that want my input on their research projects, and this whole interviewing buisness, more with the masters project here, and I am working on a handfull of previously neglected papers for publication.... Glad I'm getting in vacation days on the weekend!!

Kirstenbosch











I spent Sunday afternoon alone exploring the many trails of Kirstenbosch. It is an amazing botanical garden, and I enjoyed every moment of my explorations. I started the day by having lunch at the tea house - a quiche and appletizer (I've already told people they can come visit me for the price of bringing a case of that with them - it's sparkling apple juice with nothing added - very refreshing), followed by a real french hot cocoa with loads of real chocolate melted at the bottom...












Then I walked all the trails, except the ones that actually exit the gardens and head up the mountainside. I went a bit up one but it was amazing how quickly the trail became isolated. Though I am a lot more comfortable here than last time, when alone, it's best to stay where you can see other people... There are still people being robbed on hiking trails :(











I took 160 photos, among them were attempts to capture birds. I had been here last year, but not for as long, and not alone (so free to explore EVERY path...), and my camera battery had gone dead, so I hardly got any pics... I'm so glad I went back!! Here I am including a sampling of some of the Kirstenbosch bird varieties: