she left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares

the lighter side of Robben Island

So, last week was pretty awesome - mainly because of my birthday! I worked all week to finish up a paper for archaeology, and I think that it really turned out very well. The subject matter was pretty intense, and the paper was ten pages, but everyone I had proof read it said it was really pretty good, so that's exciting.
Friday was my birthday. I received three really nice cards in the mail, and a girl named Zandile at LEAP had made me a nice card as well. I actually teared up a little bit when I read the cards from home. It's so nice to know that people really are thinking of you and that "out of sight out of mind" doesn't apply to you too. Of course one of the cards from my uncle John and aunt Carol said "you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss your youth good bye!" It was certainly a bit shocking, but god bless their dark humor...
Friday night my friends organized a really awesome surprise birthday for me. We went to Camp's Bay, on the other side of the mountain. They wanted to do something that I couldn't do at home, so we had dinner at this really nice restaurant and had sundowners as we watched the sun set over the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful. They made sure to make it an american-style 21st as well. Inevitably our friend Annette had to point out the South African 21st tradition - something called a "flaming lamborghini." It was ok though, seeing as I remember the whole evening to be able to recount it! We all shared a bunch of desserts, but Shannon got a little something extra as a gift from the manager. We always give her a hard time and basically threaten to sell her for free drinks, so finally someone helped us prove our point that long legs and a short dress really do get extra attention for the wearer...
Afterward we went to a local bar in Camp's Bay call Dizzy's. This cop came and checked out IDs, which we thought was weird, but it got even weirder when by the end of the night the same undercover cop was dancing drunkenly on a table. In general it was a good place. They played all of the music from jackfm basically, with other selections from your 6th grade school dances. You might have noticed the post title from that annoying Blink 182 song that was so popular for a while. Yeah, we definitely rocked out to that as well. Awesome!
We went to one more club that kind of stunk, but we were all in pretty high spirits, so it was fun anyway. We had an "early night" and were in by 2:30 after only eight straight hours of birthday fun. I was just so touched that people would organize all of that for me. It was definitely one of the best birthdays I've had.
Saturday we went to Robben Island. It was a half hour ferry, then a 45 minute bus tour, then 45 minutes of an ex prisoner showing us around, then the ferry back. We went on the last trip of the day, but it would have been nice to go earlier and look around. The island was host to a leper colony, and maximum security prisons for political prisoners and convicts. So much of the current leadership of this country were in Robben Island together. Basically all of the top member of the ANC were in at one point or another. It was fascinating to hear our guide talking about the intricate smuggling systems they set up for political information. They led classes for themselves and also did general education and cultural activities. The ANC candidate for president right now, Jacob Zuma, took himself from a grade three education to a highschool diploma by doing correspondence courses while he was imprisoned in Robben Island.
I was reading a book when I was staying in Ocean View where they interviewed all of these people who had been affected in one way or another by the island, and one interview was with a former guard. He talked about how with the political prisoners if you left money and a newspaper laying on the table, they would return the money to you, but you'd never see the paper again. The political prisoners were apparently very disciplined and guards had to be switched out regularly because they so quickly became sympathetic. All of the political prisoners who were leaders were confined to cell block B. It seems to idiotic to think that it would in any way by effective to put all of these extremely intelligent disciplined people together so that even if they were against each other's organizations they would eventually work out a way to have them get along. The prison was eventually referred to as "the University" because of the intellectual and political influence it had on the prisoners.
So tonight we're planning to meet to plan our trip next week. We're going to Mozambique, Swaziland and parts of northern SA. It should be absolutely amazing, if we get it planned that is. On that note, I probably won't be posting next week...
That's about it though, hope everything is going well at home. Fall is beginning to peak its head in here, but it gets hot and cold by the week. I can't wait until I can just count on being able to wear boots and sweaters!
Love you all!

river rafting and a mountain on fire

Though this past week was mostly studying as well, a few interesting things did manage to happen. We've hit that point in the semester where first papers are due in almost every class, in about a two week span. For someone who's not used to writing this style of paper, it's pretty intense. I think it'll be ok though... (well, it has to be!)
Last week the mountain caught on fire one night. I know that sounds crazy, but there were lines of fire all along the mountain and it was still smoking and sizzling the next morning. They had four helicopters picking up water from near UCT to drop on the fire. My friend Shannon pointed out that it was probably largely ineffective and more for show than anything else, which I believe. I didn't get to see it at night when it was ablaze, but even just seeing the aftermath the next morning was insane. The whole thing was just kind of smoking and sputtering.
Friday night we went to see a play called Macbeki, which was a political farce with former-president Mbeki as some sort of Macbeth. It was pretty good, but a lot of it was definitely over our heads. The one point that did make it to us was when the porter, who was dressed in all white and had his face painted white and was always somewhat harrangued asked why he couldn't stay for an important conversation. He basically was reduced to actually saying, "Why can't I be here? Is it because I'm white?" I thought it was pretty interesting. I wish that I had gotten all of it, not just the really blatant stuff.
Saturday we went rafting on the Breede River (I think that was the name of it anyway). It was basically a pleasant float for the most part, although there was a fair bit of rowing toward the end. It was really pretty and it felt good to actually use my muscles and get a little worn out. I wish I could have taken pictures, but obviously water and digital cameras don't mix happily.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm hoping to finish up two papers today and tomorrow, but we'll see I guess. My friend Sebastian introduced me to this really great music by these two bands from Maine. One is Big Blood and the Bleedin' Hearts, which is a husband and wife who are both in the other band, Fire on Fire. They're really nice kind of folksy stuff, so I've been listening to that a lot. It's funny that I have to know a Capetonian to get properly acquainted with good American music!
That's about it, but know that I love and am missing you all!

a slow week

This past week has largely seen the beginning of the worst part of study abroad: the studying. A paper due this week, next week, and the week after that. How much fun! Not to mention that none are biology papers, so the lack of a hypothesis and methods sections gives me more than a few heart palpitations. Hopefully by the end of this semester my non-analytical brain will have had quite a rigorous workout...
Other than that, not much to report. The week consisted mainly of quiet nights and trying to keep up on readings. The weekend was either me studying or "studying" (aka staring out the window, eating a cookie very slowly or falling asleep in the grass). Somehow I managed to stay vaguely on top of things, but it's more like a marathon than a sprint. This coming weekend I'm going white water rafting Saturday, so I need to work on a paper all day Sunday.
I put up more pictures on Picasa. Because nothing super interesting happened, it's a short survey of things around where I live and go to school. And you all should know that I'm very jealous of what sounds like the beautiful spring weather. It gets to be roughly a million degrees (and that's in Celsius!) here a lot of days. Yuck!

a better place for pictures!

So, I think that I've managed to set up an account on Picasa, another google thing. I'll be able to put up more pictures, so that should be good...
Check out picasaweb.google.com/aatinafrica for that!

...and please let me know if it isn't working.

Love you all!

making the Monday posts a tradition

A picture from last weekend: Emily, Shannon and I at Neethlingshof Wine Estate

A good looking bird at the ostrich farm (I feel like every post will eventually contain one good looking bird or another)

Coming back from the ostrich farm they let me sit in the bed of the truck. What a beautiful view!

My favorite picture from the weekend (although I swear I can't take a picture with a perfectly flat horizon to save my life)

The past week was pretty calm, in an eventful sort of way. During the week I attended a presentation given by UCT Student Workers Alliance (UCTSWA) on globalization and outsourcing as it pertains to a university setting. It was pretty interesting, but a little too communist for my taste. I also volunteered for the first time at the LEAP school, which tries to encourage maths and sciences to its students. That was pretty cool, but we'll see how it pans out.
In a weird way, the most exciting part of my school week was when I walked into my room at home, only to find a Cape Morning Dove sitting in the corner, bleeding from the head and staring at me. Surprising to say the least! Michelle, the Congolese man who lives in the house and is very nice, and I tried to capture it with a laundry basket. After leaving some blood stains on my ceiling it finally gave itself up and I got to teach Michelle the proper way to handle a bird. We put it outside in a protected spot, and it wasn't there the next day, so I feel at least ok about it.
This past weekend was the really fun part of the week. The program I'm on organized a home stay for us in a colored township called Ocean View. It was amazing. I stayed with a woman named Myrtle, her husband Patrick and their two children, Robin and Zoe. The family was so nice and open and loving. Both nights they made us big dinners and lots of people came over. One night they served fried abalone which apparently is illegal because it's endangered.
Saturday we went to help at a cancer benefit in the morning, then to an ostrich farm in the afternoon. Sunday we went to see the big bike race drive by. People who were there earlier apparently got to see Matt Damon drive by because he's in the area filming a movie and a big cyclist.
The story of Ocean View itself is pretty fascinating. The community was created in the early '70s by the forced relocation of the colored populations of nearby Simons Town. Many of the people lived where the apartheid government wanted to build a naval base so they were simply forced into moving. Despite the extremely unfair circumstances that their community was founded on, the people seem to have little residual animosity. When asked if they would move back if they could, my family said no. Though some areas of the community are poorer (tin shacks), generally people seemed comfortable. The family I stayed with had a working shower, good food, a flat screen TV, and had just redone their kitchen. Mainly though, the family was so full of love, and that's what made the difference. I felt more comfortable with Myrtle and the family than I had since I've gotten here. My family in Mowbray may think that they're living in much better circumstances, but it doesn't matter if there isn't good home cooked food and love enough to spare.
Something interesting they told us about was how in '94 when the new government came into being apparently there was a mass exodus of white people from the country. A lot of white people, if they didn't leave, stocked up on all sorts of stuff because they thought there would be a civil war. To think about the type of ingrained and institutionalized racism and white power structures that were here, it really is amazing that there wasn't more tumult. It really can't be over stressed what people like Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela did to keep South Africa together. (On a lighter side note, one of the waitresses at the restaurant I'm at keeps popping in an out her partial denture with a loud sucking noise. Those are the things that really do make me love people!)
I guess that the main point to take away is that though it's easy to view people as "other," a weekend in someone's house brings the point home that it's all the same thing, just a slightly different context. The differences make things interesting, but it's the similarities that are the real take home point. It may sound cheesy, but it really is profound to experience it in a new context. And let's be real, it's always nice to be around a loving mama who cooks you good food. Definitely helps with the homesickness, even if I'd prefer that it were my mama.

Sorry it's been a while...

Egyptian Goose at the Company's Gardens

Vodacom Stormers vs. the Reds (we're the Stormers - we Won!)

Hey All! So, things have been pretty busy here, and the internet's been as hard to get to as ever, but never mind the excuses...
Last weekend we went to a rugby game, which was really fun. There are guys wandering around with basically hot chocolate camel backs, and they'll sell you a cup in your seat. Pretty decadently awesome. Certainly cooler than the wander biltong (jerky) vendor. Our seats were good, and it was definitely better than the soccer game, where no one even scored. Maybe it's weird, but I just kind of enjoy watching people just wail on each other and being able to shout about it.
Culturally the soccer game we went to a while ago was very different than the rugby game. Soccer seems to have a much higher black attendance. Everything's a bit more laid back, and a little bit grimier. The stadium wasn't fully finished and there was no score board. At rugby there were various wandering vendors, nice score boards, play back screens and the vodacom stormgirls (basically your garden variety hooched-out chearleaders). Definitely different, and you just have to think about all of the reasons why.
Classes over the week were pretty good, just settling into a routine. Volunteering starts this week. I'm going to be at an organization called LEAP, which is a school that specializes in maths and sciences. It may be nerdy, but I'm already so fired up to encourage some young girls to love bio!
This past weekend we went wine tasting at a wine estate outside of Stellenbosch in the morning, and then picnicing at a place called Speir in the afternoon. I have to admit, it's pretty nice to be just a little wine tipsy at ten am in some lush wine estate, only to have it followed up by a picnic involving goat cheese. I'm not saying I could get used to it, but once was definitely great. That night we made some veg lasagna, then went out with a friend's flatmate's wife (Zola) and her friend (Crystal). It was such a good time, and it's so nice to actually feel like you know people who aren't American.
Yesterday a friend and I went to the Design Indaba fair in Cape Town. It's a huge design festival once a year. It was pretty interesting, but a lot of it was very familiar. There was a lot of screen printed fabric and bird-themed jewelry. I got a cool handmade ceramic necklace though, and lots of good ideas, so it was certainly not a bust. In the afternoon we went to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and saw a concert in the park at night. The music was good, the mood was chill, and in general it was amazing. It's so cool to be able to look behind the stage and just see Table Mountain and Lion's Head stretching out beautifully against the sky. The crowd was pretty mixed, and it was so nice to see all of the families with small children just enjoying themselves. We might do it again, but this time remember to pack a picnic, or at least some snacks.
That's about it for now, and I'll try and be better in the future. I just feel bad posting without pictures too often. Internet here is paid for by the megabyte, not by time though, so it's hard to post pictures because they just eat up your allowance. I'm at a cute little coffee place now though that lets you have some wireless connection though, so it's all good.
Hope to hear from you all soon!