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!!

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!

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?