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!