Rowing in Pretoria

This last weekend I travelled with the rowing team up to the 54th annual South Africa Championships rowing regatta held just north of Pretoria. In attendance were most of the same teams as at the last regatta, but this time, there were also teams from clubs, not just varsities (colleges). Hence, there were older people on teams together and even an Olympic pair. This was the most competitive racing of these few months.
On Friday we drove up to the lake, a good 6 or 7 hours, and pitched our tents and cooked up boerwoers on the braii--sausages on the bbq--and hung around the campground, looking at the southern cross, and trying to remember the rest of our astronomy, I bet my neighbor Lynn could tell me(?). The guys tried to get in to mischief, which they did, setting off firecrackers and getting some angry Africaaner guys to come after them...not a good idea...some shouting and slapping followed! Well the campground was definitely our playground for the two nights of the regatta. We had booked three campsites, but ended up smashing all 25 or 30 of us onto one site for the bonding I guess :)
My crew entered a women's eight (placed 2nd) and two women's fours, both my races were Saturday. It was a lot of fun and we were super tired by the end of Saturday. The thing with rowing is there is a lot of carrying. the boats are heavy, and they do not get themselves assembled and in to the water...definitely a process. That afternoon we went to a pub and watched a rugby game on TV, then went back to camp for a mince meat and pasta dinner, and we showed our teammates all about s'mores, yummy. It rained that night, but we kept fairly dry.
On Sunday we watched a lot of races, particularly the guys crews, and helped them get in and out of the water on time. I coxed one of the guys' four person boats: sat in the front, facing the direction the boat was going, and steered and gave encouraging yelling and calls to the rowers. Its pretty fun, cause the guys row hard, and you sit at ease cause you aren't rowing, but you are most definitely in the competition, you line up the boat at the starting line, you see where the boat is going and how close it is to the other teams during the race. Some people go to school and row for a team just for that position...scholarship, sort of like with any sport position. In case you were wondering, our school does not have anyone on scholarship for rowing, too social?
Sunday we packed up our stuff and drove a couple hours to JoBurg where we left our stuff at the Sleek Backpackers and went out for the post-regatta party with the other school teams, at a country club type of place. It was a lot of fun, probably one of the best nights I have had in South Africa, a culmination of the season. And just cause it was great hanging with the crew and seeing familiar faces from the last regatta. Lots of dancing, House Music is THE music here. It is like electronica but with more words and it is generally upbeat, not angry or headbanger. Well, the party was great, and as usual, our team MADE the party, haha! After the party ended, not wanting to sleep we drove around a while, in the Quantum, a giant minibus we often rent out for travel, and finally made it back in the wee hours to our beds at the hostel.
Monday we slowly made it back to Maritzburg where we all unpacked and settled back into school life.
Let me explain, Monday was a national holiday because that was the date, the 27th of April, when South Africa had its first democratic election in 1994. So, yes last Wednesday was a holiday, so that people could go out and vote, but the 27th is a holiday so that people that work the voting stations (Wednesday) really do recognize the special date, by not working either.
School is tough. I believe it is because I have not been putting in as much time on the weekends... well this next weekend is another 3day weekend, and I am not travelling, it is school time. That is how it goes. And, we are done with regattas for now, so I won't have as many posts about rowing, sadly.
Currently, I have a PowerPoint presentation on cauliflower mosaic virus to give on Thursday, and a test that day too. Then a paper on organic farming and foods due on Monday. Along with a test in Animal Science. Will be busy.
I would love to write more about what I observed last Wednesday at the polling station, it could be sort of long, though, so I will plan another post this week.
Oh, and, it is a friend's 21st this evening, woo whoo!
So that is all for now. (right, birthday girl, Emily, in the white)

Durban

Friday we went to dinner at our favorite Indian food joint, Bollywood Curries (the ever popular mutton bunny chow, see above). Then walked back to campus and went to the Irish pub, The Bell, with some girls from my dorm. Later we went to the apartment of a friend, Eddie, who was throwing a grad party in celebration of his graduation ceremonies over the weekend. Graduation ceremonies are ongoing, at least so it seems, because of the logistics of processing all the degrees, it is different than back home.
Saturday I spent the morning in the computer lab with my virology group working on a paper and powerpoint presentation that we are to submit next week. Then in the afternoon I went to Durban with some friends to see my very first rugby game!! Lots of fun! While the sport (and the fair like festivities/tailgating before and after is most like football), the stands and crowds are reminiscent of baseball, like going to a Giants' game. photos of rugby game (a New Zealand team vs. Durban Sharks), and then a photo of me in front of one of the new (still building, it. Thsi picutre was taken from inside the rugby stadium, so you can see they are very close by)stadiums being built for the FIFA World Cup 2010 (there are stadiums being built in many of the big cities here, including JoBurg, Durban, and Cape Town).
That night we walked on Florida Rd. the supposedly happening place in Durban...it was not that crazy, but it was a little nicer than other parts of the city.
Sunday we walked out of our hostel and into uShaka (named after the Zulu king) water park. We spent the day between the water slides and the beach where we rented kayaks and body surfed. I think next time I go to Durban I am going to try surfing. I like waterskiing...maybe similar?! (to the left a photo of the beach in Durban, part of the "Golden Mile")
So, Monday has once again arrived and I am back to classes, writing lab reports for Animal Science, volunteering for my political science internship based class. It is going well.
Wednesday is election day, national holiday. Zuma is expected to win, even though many people are unhappy about this. Some argue he is a criminal. As one poster put up by and ANC opposing party says: "Put criminals in jail, not in government (Independent Democrats)."
I am supposed to help monitor elections on Wednesday, as an observer, make notes about how the polling station is running (not just us students, there are many people from the community that are doing this, compensated appropriately, not as community service workers), through my PoliSci class, so, we will see, it should be a pretty big day! (a little Zuma opposition, Independent Democrats party street sign to the left)

Easter Vacation: Garden Route

We started in Coffee Bay; we were there two nights. On our very first day/night of driving—to The Coffee Shack Hostel—we got a flat tire!! It was pitch black and we pulled off to the side of the highway, Mom, I had my flashlight (though the emergency flashers were sufficient…), anyhow, the guys managed to switch the flat in 15 minutes tops, just as some other random folks were strolling by (yes, walking on the shoulder of a country highway). Not a blink later we had arrived at Coffee Shack where we got a free welcome drink, and went up the hill for pizza. Coffee Bay was a very small seaside town (pop 600), lots of huts for houses, one gas station that had limited (petrol supply?!) hours and no signage, the main attraction = beach, main attraction for most of the South Africa Garden Route. At Coffee Bay, surfing was all the rage, as was lounging on the soft sandy beaches, and making a toast (sundowners) and taking photos at sunset, below, left.

Man, the words to describe this trip! I want to just talk and have it transform people’s minds. Anyway...Coffee Bay had “Hole in the Wall” a big island rock with a hole in the middle, caused by such strong wave action over the years

We took off for Jeffery’s Bay and stayed two nights, funny, a brief but fierce shower poured down as we pulled in the driveway that night. Not a good sign for sand boarding the next day. Oh well, we jogged in the morning, and shopped in the small beach town, a lot like a California surf town! Santa Cruz or beach towns in So Cal, San Diego neighborhoods even. Got a billabong sweater and slops (flip flops). Worked on a tan. Went out for Mexican food. (Jeffery's Bay to the lower right).
We went up the road to the world’s highest bungee jump (lower left), which I am still glad I did not do. I watched most of my friends, that was plenty of terror for me! Then we rolled on towards Knysna (“Nice-na”). A touristy---but for a good reason--place. You can walk to wherever you need to go, so we just parked it at the hostel (sweet restored old mansion) we booked and walked on to the waterfront (lagoon here, reminiscent of Venice). That night we barbequed some grub and hung out.

The next day we took of down the road to where the Indian Ocean ‘meets’ the Atlantic Ocean. We arrived there just at sunset; I would say one of the most beautiful nights here. (photo here).
Then we carried on to Gansbaai, where we stayed the night to wake up bright and early to get in a cage with sharks swimming around us. This bay is credited with being home to more than 70% of all the photography and documentaries that are on TV these days. Inside the tour operator’s area they showed movies of underwater cage diving, they had teeth on display, they had photos of Matt Damon and Leo DiCaprio with the tour director, it was a fine established program. Thumbs up! A lot scarier than I thought it was going to be. Partly because of the suspense. The whole boat stays there looking at the chum line, bobbing up and down, waiting for a shark to snap on it. Not as common an occurrence as you would expect. No, you wait, until more than half the boat has gotten motion sickness, until the side of the boat is painted with “complementary breakfast,” until the six people waiting in the cage are too cold to wait any longer (and then they swap out with a drier bunch). the nthe shark creeps up, and BAM in your face!You wait until everyone has had the nice underwater, shrilling, life ending/death-breathing monster they call the Great White within an inch from their heads. The sharks feed on some 60000 seals that populate the rocky shores. (On a side note, I learned that a couple dolphins could take down a shark! They just ram into him until he cannot take the pressure). Photos from Gansbaai, below.
That afternoon we drove towards Cape Town. We followed the Garden Route and saw some nice beaches. Beautiful coastline. see below.
Upon entering Cape Town, we were shocked with the differing kinds of housing. The whole route we had taken showed and obvious trend from poorer, generally, to richer (that is moving from KwaZulu-Natal KZN to Western Cape)—everything from businesses to homes, to streets, to signs. There were still poor people in western Cape, but fewer. And we sort of expected this trend, but when we saw the repercussions of such a general pattern, there were no more words to describe it. The poor people in these “rich” areas of South Africa looked a heck of a lot more poor than the poor peoples’ neighborhoods here in KZN do. The shacky places were up on top of one another; the electricity wires were originating from a central pole, and hung low to the ground even until they reached a given shack. Heavy pollution (though not as bad as Naples, Italy last summer) more spread out garbage, not clumped in a heap. I have no idea if they have water nearby, most likely not piped to their shacks, maybe a central spot in the streets over. As usual, only coloreds and blacks walking around in these streets. Let me repeat, these streets are minutes from Cape Town. We just drove by.

So on to Cape Town, and once you get there, it’s like the whole other world you passed by never even happened. Seriously: European! It is mostly white people walking around, a lot of cafes (we have about zero here in KZN, I am guessing because there is not enough extra spending money to waste on lounging in a café, though beer is another story). We were fortunate enough to stay at some other exchange students’ flat, in Observatory area of Cape Town, where we could go out at night, walking distance from a busy party street. Apparently not the safest part of town, oh well. (We met some UCT exchange students from the States, earlier in our trip, in Coffee Bay, and they told us that the UCT demographics are hugely different from ours. The most striking info was that of 20,000 students, 3,000 are international! Within that, 300 are American! Thus, they live with, hang out with, PLUS have classes with at least a handful of Americans per class. While here in KZN there are maybe 30 of us Americans, and we do not see only each other. We live with locals, and personally, there are no other Americans in my classes).
The next day we hiked Table Mountain (view from top is on the right here). We started in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Papa and Grandma would have LOVED them!! I even said that to my friends when we were walking there. Hiked up the mountain (via Skeleton Gorge) for a couple hours, very steep, even had ladders at some points! But the breathtaking panoramic views were worth it. We “took the scenic route” getting down, which left us quite exhausted—lost?! Anyway, not a big night, that one, had Mexican food yet again! (Yes it is alright here, they know Mexican about as well as Chevy’s does, so we’re happy). The next day, Saturday before Easter, we headed to V and A Waterfront for a look around, shopped, saw a snazzy hotel or two on the water there that I could have moved into! Shopped around for some crafts, had a mocha and then we took off for a scenic drive around the Cape Point.
(The baboons!)

(photo: Cape Point)

That was an afternoon of beaches, wildlife and a lot of laughs! We stopped at Camps Bay, a lot like Miami—classy restaurants and bars on a longs single strip of town that runs along side the sandy beach (water in this part of country is cold, FYI) We saw African penguins at Boulders Beach, adorable (mating season now, we had some fun) and then we drove on towards the point and stopped to take millions of picture of baboons crossing the highway, picking at each other, climbing trees, they even opened the two car doors! Apparently they are very strong, ie dangerous, though, so my friends were scared, I thought it was absolutely hilarious!
We carried on and saw a camel on our drive back in to town, yes a camel! And then I got a nice call from my parents, wishing me well and saying they, too, were on a trip, really good to hear from them.
That night we checked into a hostel right in the thick of downtown Cape Town: Long St!!! it is crazy hectic loud from the afternoon, picks up around 8, and blares music, serves drinks, pours out people, until 5 AM. I made it until 3, but even then I could have kept on. Imagine Mardi Gras in New Orleans, just like that main drag there in New Orleans! I mean there is a bar/club interspersed by like 20 Backpackers hostels (they run like $10/night), so what can you NOT expect. (Long St below to the left). Well, one night there, and we bounced to the quiet and quaint Stellenbosch: it is like Healdsburg, but a little quieter.

Downtown and campus in Stellenbosch, above.

A couple main drags, with nice eateries, and a legit tourism office--but it was even open on Easter! But not much else was, so we relaxed, pretty much. We did take a self-guided tour of the University: it is landscaped marvelously, some oaks, some palms, many other trees and flowers I don’t know…(FYI the proteas are the country flower, it is a large pink and white petalled flower—you see the word Proteas a lot here, like as the name of an establishment). So, future reference, if you want to go to school at a very well recognized, nice climate, small town place, go to Stellenbosch Uni. One thing, though: taught in Afrikaans. Yes, this part of the country is bilingual in a different way from KZN. In KZN we have a lot of things translated to Zulu, but in the Western Cape, especially the richy rich wine regions, there is more Afrikaans, plus English.
The day after Easter we took a wine tour, and I have to admit it was a lot like being a tourist in Healdsburg. We have it good in Sonoma County. Blessed for our earth. On the tour we went to four wineries, a host of wines at each. First was Simonsig, where we had a particularly nice wine, Redhill Pinotage, developed in Stellenbosch, soft red wine. They suggested pairing it with game meats. It is a dressed up, classy, enjoyable activity to go winery hopping. Someone drives for you, have a nice lunch, talk about more flavors than you could have thought of on your own. We even tasted goat cheeses at Fairview Winery. Overall the tour was a good way to wind down the trip. We slept well that night and early the next morning, half past three, we left our hostel to fly back to KZN. And we hit the ground running with school that is for sure. Vacation was awesome. It definitely gave me some perspective about how this town, PMB, (that I spend a majority of my time in) fits in to the rest of it's surrounding country. The country is more diverse than Zulu land. It is whiter in some areas, it is poorer in some areas, not that those are mutually exclusive, but that they are two extremes that we don’t experience in our college bubble.

Today I take off for a road trip of epic proportions: The Garden Route. Yes, Easter Break has arrived. Most people do call it Easter Holiday, no political correctness problem, just as is. Big time Christianity here, overwhelming majority I would say. For example, I am not surprised by the question, “So, are you following Jesus?” (I really have only been asked a few times, but still…)
Anyhow, out of my microbiology lab at noon, and from there we take our rented Toyota Corolla on towards Coffee Bay, stop number one. Plan to stay there two nights. Then on to Jefferey’s Bay (2 nights), then Knysna (1 night —bungee jumping around here), Gansbaai (1 night ---shark diving=big deal=biggest deal IN THE WORLD), then Cape Town (3 nights—place some other exchange students actually live in while attending UCT), then Stellenbosch, around Easter Sunday (2 nights—Wine Tour!!), and fly back on a Tuesday.
So far we are super jazzed, why not?! My car has four, Andrew (Rutgers), Nolan (UCSC), Yvonne (UCB), and me. Then behind us is a car of three Jenni (Finland), Michelle (UCSC), Jon (Illinois). Probably no more updates on the blog until after we return.

A few side notes, if you were wondering:
They sell petrol here, same way as back home, Shell stations, with fast food restaurants inside, too. Petrol is about R7.21 a liter.
Water is totally drinkable here.
Papaya is called paw paw (sounds like “po po”)
“Pop”—fluffy corn meal porridge basically, add salt or differing levels of water make it hard/soft pop---is what a lot of South African’s eat as a staple food, like Italians eat their pasta.
There are condoms EVERYWHERE. Free “Choice” brand condoms in every dorm/school/restaurant/hospital/office bathroom, or outside the bathroom, or in shared mailboxs or cubbies. Everywhere. Yet according to some girls in my class, it is a bad sign if a guy pulls “Choice” out, means no fore thought, furthermore, he could have bought a better kind. Okay, point taken.
Traffic is terrible. Deadly. One of my friends from Michigan State watched somebody get hit by a car at quarter to 8 in the morning last week. The girl was crossing a heavily trafficked road here outside the gate and just got struck. My friend was in shock the whole day and then some, I could not believe the whole thing and the girl that got hit is in ICU. It was just surreal how different the situation was handled, how long it took for an ambulance to come, how long it took to load her in to the ambulance, and then who knows how the care was, because apparently the public hospitals are worthless, and unless the girl had medical aid, not so common among working class, she very possibly ended up there. We are all so thankful it was not one of us.
Really, aside from that, I have not felt unsafe at any time. Really we stick to groups, don’t go places we shouldn’t, listen to the (white and black) South Africans who tell us (and each demographic has it’s own safety precautions), when they tell us to stay away from this or that.
Almost all cell phone usage is on a prepaid basis. And almost all of it is “SMS” or like we call it, text messaging. It is about a tenth the price, and more reliable because calls cut out, depending on the time of day, too. Actually, cell phone usage is a big money spender, I easily buy and use a R30 receipt in 3 or 4 days. Adds up.

Well that is all for today. Hope my friends and family are up to something nice for the holiday, at least spending some quality time together. That is one part missing from this upcoming holiday, the Fam J Peace, Guys.