My last weekend

Saturday my host took me on another amazing hike - this one called "silver mine." My friend joined us, as did another young professor in the department. The four of us had a great time together - I am still waiting for them to send me the pics of the 4 of us at our picnic spot.



This hike was at times easy and at times challenging. There were places where you had to pull yourself up a bit, and believe it or not, there is a trail in that pic on the right. Mom said it looked more like a drainage ditch! It was well worth it though... Overall we hiked 4 hours, and had an amazing picnic with a view that couldn't be beat. My host really knows how to pick a picnic spot!



On Sunday I had a busy day. A prof from the center for higher education took me out to lunch at a nice fishing village. We walked out on the peer, saw a whale (which became a casual thing by the end of my trip) and ate with a view of the ocean. Then my new friend invited me to his sister's house to meet his nephew who is 1.5 years old and very cute (though not as cute as my 2 year old nephew!) Then my host picked me up for another terrific game of scrabble at his cousin's house, and later that evening my friend had me over since it was my last night. I felt like I was being shuffled from here to there all day! It was good to feel I would be missed.

The scrabble game was again fun - my host and his cousin were good fun. They made lots of jokes; both clever and silly ones. They also teased me a lot about my new "friend" and made lots of flirtatious words on the scrabble board in my honor. I managed to come in 2nd - not bad! I didn't have the luck this time of drawing the big scoring letters, but I managed to hold my own. I think my host is a little sore I beat him two times in a row! I wish I could join them weekly to play :)

Alas Monday it was time to go home. I spent as much time as I could with the students; conducting interviews and looking at their work. I also cleaned out my office, organized my papers, packed and did all that necessary stuff. When dinner time came both my host and my friend took me out to my favorite Thai place (nice I stayed long enough to know the restaurant scene!) then to the airport for my midnight flight. I was sad to say goodbye to both of them. I know they will miss me, and I miss them quite a bit.

More about safety in Cape Town

Friday evening and Saturday evening I ate dinner at my new friend's house. It was very nice because I was sick of eating out. We went to the grocery store and got bread, cheese, wine, soup, and salad. Other than making those evenings relaxing and enjoyable, it was interesting to see how someone else lives in this city. At this point I had been to the house of my host, and one of his cousin's. I got to see the house of my friend in more detail and talk with him about the security issues.

Each house I saw had a separate front gate in front of the front door. You keep that locked so if someone comes to your front door you can open it but they are stuck behind the gate. That way you can find out what they want but they can not come into your house unless you open the gate. The houses all also had security systems. Most of the nicer ones had walls around the property, with razor wire or electric wire above the walls to keep people from climbing over them. At my friend's house, he also had the security system set up such that when he goes to sleep any movement in his lower floor will set off alarms.

My friend told me accounts of break-ins to his row of townhouses before they put up the electric wires. He has a small round kitchen window; one time he heard noise, came downstairs and found footprints on the inside wall under the window. Kid-sized foot prints. Although it was so nice to be in a home and have a causal meal, I realized those two evenings how much I missed being free to just walk outside whenever I wanted to. I also missed seeing yards that bleed into each other and accessible open spaces inside neighborhoods. I don't think I could live like that - other than the amazing hikes, it felt like living in a cage.

Where did I leave off??

I'm sorry to everyone for neglecting my blog! You can guess a man was involved - I started dating and suddenly was too busy to keep up with this... I'll try not to let that happen again :) I have so much to tell everyone about! Silly me for dating while in South Africa anyway - I should have been working in my spare time!!

So I left off with the day I went wine tasting. The next day; Tuesday the 21st of August I didn't do much of anything except prepare for Wednesday. On Wednesday I gave 2 seminars; one to the numeracy center and one to the physics department. The morning one was very casual and nice, the afternoon one in the department was well-attended and seemed to go well. People spoke well of it, at least. I felt like I had to fight for acceptance with some people in the department, and the seminar helped with that. I was rather exhausted by the end of Wednesday.

Thursday I don't recall doing much of note except going for lunch at the nice restaurant at the Rhodes Memorial with said person I dated. I wanted to walk up there again but it was raining so we ended up driving. It was a nice little hike up there; about 15 minutes up a steep hill - I did it a few more times before the end of my trip.

Friday I took the afternoon off and went to Robben Island - the location of the famous political prison. I went with the same guy which I thought would be really interesting because he grew up in Cape Town in an affluent white (British) family and was fairly sheltered from Apartheid until he reached high school age. All during my trip it was interesting to hear the stories from everyone about how things were when they were young and how different their childhoods were depending on their race, religion, and social status.

Unfortunately Robben Island was a disappointment for both of us. I would not recommend it for tourists. The trip and museum is poorly run, and the tour was dumbed-down to the point of being ridiculous. At one point our tour guide said something about how they wanted to show a full picture of life on the Island and show every one's points of view fairly because the Island is now dedicated to unity; but the white guards wouldn't contribute their point of view "if they even have one." And after 15 minutes of asking everyone on our bus about their country of origin (where are you from, what time is it there, how are you enjoying your trip...) the tour guide took one sentence to thank all of our countries for helping to end Apartheid then asked for tips. I don't even feel like I learned anything, which is a real shame. Things were not explained - they would say "this was done just for the press" but not say how conditions were when press weren't visiting, or what was being hidden from the press.

My favorite part about Robben Island was that I saw wild bunnies and penguins in the same place - and the penguins were not hanging out with the bunnies, because the bunnies were busy making baby bunnies and the penguins seemed disturbed... It was pretty funny. I never thought I'd see penguins crossing a road to get away from happy bunnies! I was rather engrossed in watching this, but not too engrossed as I was still able to overhear someone from Michigan stating the time in their home was 12 hours behind Cape Town... um, people?? you were off by 5! American tourists get such a bad rap - sometimes well deserved...

The ferry ride to and from the island was also quite fun; the waves were huge! At one point I bounced right out of my seat. The view of Cape Town and Table Mountain from the ferry was amazing - you can easily see where it gets its name from these pics. I can't believe I hiked all the way up that in less than 2 hours...

Wine Country

Monday I went to the wine country and saw both Franschoek and Stellenbosch. The first is a town that claims a strong French heritage due to relocation of many French Huguenots who took refuge there after being granted farms by the dutch government. I went to a museum about this, which was interesting for me since it is part of my heritage, though our ancestors went west instead of south. This museum also has a monument.











Then we went to the Boschendal Estate which has very typical architecture of the region (though I'm sure it was one of the nicest houses of its time). We had a nice lunch there, but my hosts do not drink alcohol, so I did not taste any wine.






















After that we went to the Spier Estate, which has a training facility for dogs that will chase of cheetahs without harming them (since they are often killed by farmers in this region), a famous restaurant, a hotel, and beautiful grounds.











The wine region is most striking because not only does it have lush hills covered with pretty vineyards, but it has high mountains on either side of the valley. I didn't get a good picture to show the perspective - but it is quite beautiful. Mom, count your blessings that the university in Stellenbosch teaches in Afrikaans, so I can't teach there - because I would love to live in that town. A beautiful small town in this amazing valley only 45 minutes from the city and the beaches. Of course - I'm about to move to a beautiful small valley town near vineyards that is only an hour from the ocean and just over to a nice city - so I can't complain :)

Lots and lots of flowers

Today I was picked up and taken up the west coast out of town to see the wildflowers. Another professor in the department took me around this time instead of my host. Tomorrow my host has worked out for me to go on a tour of the wine lands. Tuesday I'll have to get back to work! Today was very nice though. We went to a park on the coast that has some wildlife and lots of wild flowers. It also has a few beautiful beaches, and I played some on the sand and in the water. Among the animals I saw were ostriches and a zebra. I also saw some hoofed animals I didn't recognize. I'll have to ask the guy again what they were called. The flowers were absolutely terrific - so many vibrant colors, and the land was blanketed with them. I tried to get the perspective of the masses of them, and also up close to see their individual beauty. Some of the flowers had many colors even within a single flower or single clump of flowers, where others were vibrantly singular. After that we went to a small town called Darling where I bought some more gifts (at much better prices than in the city - and I got to meet the person who made the crafts) and we had a late lunch at a little cafe that was very Afrikaans. It was nice to experience something different from the city and the academic areas.. Here they are - and a pic of me playing in the water... proof there's more to staying here than my research!

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 :)

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 :)

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.

When will I ever get work done around here?

First a fun announcement - I heard that my new office in Oregon has been painted with the colors I picked out when I was there in June :) It is nice knowing that a place waits for me! My office has a sunset-facing window, and carpeting, so it is rather nice.

Today my host picked me up to take me around town after lunch. It was raining on and off, so we went to lots of sights, but didn't hike at any of them. I got some good pics though - I'll download them soon. I didn't get a pic of it, but a small rainbow (I did capture) later turned into a full double rainbow that spanned the city "bowl". The city sits nestled between the sea and a curve of mountains - and houses rise up the sides somewhat so the city takes on the shape of a bowl. Besides going up the various peaks to get the view of the city, we went to Camps bay which is an amazing "upscale" seaside town (apparently compared to the french riviera) just outside Cape Town, and another seaside town where we stopped and had some killer-rich chocolate cake and very smooth cappuccino.

It was an interesting evening - we spent some time at his house talking about research and teaching methods, but also about novels. I ended up borrowing 3 books - I don't know when I'll get time to read them, do this project, or any of the other things I had planned! Then we got carry out food and took it to his cousin's house. That family has 3 grown kids, and they were all very nice. After we ate, we played scrabble. I didn't want to play at all! Anyone who has ever asked to play with me knows I hate that game - I haven't played since I was a kid. They let me use a dictionary toward the end, and somehow I pulled all the big letters early on: Q, X, Z and J. Top that with the fact my host opened up a triple word score (was he trying to help me??) and I ended up winning. They gave me quite a hard time for lying about not being good at the game :)

But now I've stayed out until after midnight and still not managed to get any work done...

This is the 2nd time my host has taken me over to someone's house - it is kind of nice, because I get to see how some locals live. We stopped in to see someone on Thursday, too. She gave me a bottle of some lovely fizzy grape juice from a local vineyard. I hope to go to some vineyards while here. There is too much to do... I could probably spend the whole time being a tourist...

His cousin's wife said they were trying to show me a good time so I'd like it enough to come back someday. My host has mentioned the difficulty of attracting foreigners to work there - I wonder if there is a scheme going on? My mom would NOT approve of me living in South Africa! And she thought Oregon was far away :)

What all I have to do next week? Give a seminar, attend classes, probably teach Wed's class, work on the project, go to dinner with the dean, take the grad students out to lunch.... Plus now read these books and try to see some local sites!! It's a good thing I'm well rested from the summer!

Internet and strong winds

I FINALLY have internet - and a plug compatible with both my laptop and the outlets here. I can now use my laptop. I am so addicted to this thing - I hardly feel I can work without it. Unfortunately the internet connection is laboriously slow, which makes getting things done a lot slower. I hear it is much better around 6am, but the system gets overloaded during the day. I'm not likely to ever use the internet at 6am, so I'd better get used to the way it is :)

I also finally have some means of contacting people here. I have a local cell phone though at the moment I can only receive calls with it. It is great to have though, as finally I now know what time it is when I'm not in my dorm room. I don't wear a watch, and I had come to rely on my own cell phone as a clock. It was great to be at breakfast this morning and know when it was time to head out. Without a clock I could probably loose all day lost in my thoughts without realizing how much time had past...

Today the cold front is on top of us, which made it very hard for me to wake up. It's funny, because I can function on very little sleep when need be, but when fronts move in it totally knocks me out. I had to drag myself out of bed, and that was after nearly an hour of ignoring the fact that the radio alarm had turned on. Fortunately I am not feeling sick, though my congestion is still lingering a bit.

The wind is absolutely amazing today - it is rattling my office windows and making a horrible blustering sound that has me huddled in front of my heater. My host told me yesterday that it is due to the wind here that there is little pollution - so I will try to appreciate its presence. The air does seem very good here. The sky this morning was amazing - if I looked one way there was a huge patch of blue with big white clouds, while if I looked toward campus, Table Mountain was totally hidden in an ominous black cloud. If campus is a Shakespearean play, I must have been walking into the Tempest this morning. There have only been sprinkles of rain, and the temperature is not very cold - but still it does not look inviting outside at all.

It seems my host has a reputation around here (he has reported this to me as well) as being a bit disorganized. People keep asking if I have everything I need, and are helping out with things such as phone cards, internet, and where to go for things. I was invited to lunch today too, since my host wasn't around. I do know where he is though, and we had planned to go after his meeting - so I am not quite the afterthought people seem to fear :) It is nice that everyone is friendly, though. Apparently my visit was unannounced (though my host and I had done a lot of planning for the past few months), and the secretary was quite apologetic that things weren't set up for me before I arrived - but I have been comfortable, so there are no worries from my end.

Today's 11am tea was interesting. For most of it I was the only woman among a large group of men discussing detailed rules of golf. I had nothing to contribute! They were discussing what happens if the ball settles in one place, then starts rolling again. I wonder how anything gets done around here - there is a pleasant relaxed pace. Tea time twice a day, and everyone seems to go out for lunch. That makes 3 breaks between 10 and 5. I was here until after 6pm Wednesday evening, too, and the building seemed quite quiet. There is good research done here, so I am sure people work hard. I think I should bring a bit of this attitude back with me, though - tea time (maybe once per day?) is a great way to bring people together and ignore the pressures of the day.

Going down the cape

Today my host took me on an excursion around the cape. We saw many small towns and beautiful sites. See the following map for an idea of where we went:
http://www.thesafaricompany.co.za/images/Map-Cape-Peninsula.gif

We went all around the cape area south of cape town, but not all the way to cape point, because although it was a warm day, it was very windy. The wind is supposedly much worse at the end of the cape.

I requested seeing the penguins; there is a colony just south of Simon's Town. It was amazing - the colony was huge, and totally unafraid of the people. My host said when he was little they would go swimming there and the penguins were just part of the beach (like seagulls in the US, except they didn't try to steal your food!). Now it is a reserved area just for them. There were a bunch under the bushes making all sorts of noises. The used to be called jackass penguins (now African penguins) because they make sounds like donkeys. They also make cawing sounds, and sounds like when kids are mimicking motor boat motors. There were also some playing in the surf - I got some video of them in motion. There were other beautiful beaches as well, and a good number of people surfing.

On our drive back north at the end of the day we saw people parked along the road pointing toward false bay, so we also looked. Sure enough there were whales. I saw three in all. I can't believe I've seen whales in the wild twice this summer, and at opposite ends of the earth! My host said once he went to some well known whale look out point, and while they saw none there, they saw many while in traffic on the road to get there!

For lunch we ate at a vegetarian Tibetan place, it was quite good. I think my host was a bit skeptical, but he seemed to really enjoy the meal as well. I had something like a crape filled with feta, potato and carrot and topped with some sort of seed. I would eat there again, given the chance.

I got a good view of various aspects of the cape: wealth, poverty, government areas where blacks were forced to live during the apartheid, tourist towns, and so forth. The area reminded me of a cross between India, the Caribbean, and some city in the south of France, depending on which way I looked. We also stopped briefly at a mall which could easily have been in the U.S. Fortunately we did not stop at the McDonald's out front of it!

The plant life is quite amazing. There is a lot of vegetation I've never seen. There are some native trees with leaves that are silver on one side and dark green on the other - they are quite beautiful, especially when the wind blows them and the silver flutters and shimmers. There are a lot of small shrubs that were in flower, too - they had small spiny leaves because that is efficient when there isn't much rain. I also saw some cacti.

Tomorrow it's back to work. This weekend is supposed to be cold - in fact the cold front has already moved in. Rain is supposed to follow as well...