Cape Peninsula: Penguins, Where Oceans Meet, and Gorgeous Views!

So I left off with promises of the dorm and other fun stuff, but I'll fill you all in on the Cape Peninsula tour and save the less than exciting news on the res for another post in the very near future.

We were fortunate yesterday to have the opportunity to get up early and take a bus tour of the Cape Peninsula, the farthest southwest point of the African continent and scant miles from where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. Famous for its spectacular scenery and gorgeous beaches, the Cape Peninsula runs directly south of the city of Cape Town, with a string of mountains that runs from Table Mountain all the way to the tip of the peninsula. The waters around here are famous for shipwrecks because of the hidden rocks and dangerous tides, with something like 600 recorded shipwrecks from the time the Europeans began exploring the area. If you visit during the right time of the year, I'm told you can also see a few species of whales nearby off the coast (this is a prime breeding area due to the two currents meeting, bringing lots of marine life). We didn't get to see any whales yesterday though.


However, after we took a quick tour of the city (I literally can't wait to explore; there's so much to do here and I haven't even seen most of the city!) the bus moved out of the city and into the next part of town, where we found what I'm calling the most beautiful beach in the world. Unfortunately the name escapes me at the moment, but it's within a public bus ride from campus, and lies directly beneath the famous Twelve Apostles, or the twelve peaks running from Table Mountain along the coast to the south. I'm told seeing the sun set along the limestone and granite is one of the most beautiful sights in the world. We quickly got back on the bus and headed across the peninisula to Simon's Town, the former headquarters of the British Royal Navy back before South Africa declared independence, and now the home of the South African Navy. However, the town is currently more famous for its colony of African Penguins, also known as Jackass Penguins due to the braying sound they make, and we all got some great up-close and personal shots of the adorable little guys from the boardwalk that runs along the beach. Although I was tempted to try and put one in my backpack, I decided the rank smell would probably give me away, and they're monogamous animals so I didn't want to separate two love birds:)

Our next stop was a small town called Oceanview, where back in the sixties during apartheid Coloured people were forced from their homes in the surrounding areas and moved to this designated town. Needless to say the people were not happy about leaving their ancestral homelands, and many lost jobs due to increased travel distances, and the community was thrown deep into despair and poverty. While things aren't perfect their yet, the community is coming together to overcome their struggles, and they were gracious enough to host all of the UCT International Students (around five hundred of us!) for a braai (a traditional African barbeque) and some entertainment in the form of music, dance, and poetry. The enthusiasm and talent of these people is incredible, and their hope is absolutely infectious. I was particularly struck by the little boy who could only have been maybe thirteen who was the best break dancer I've ever seen, as well as a ten-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator who could literally have passed for the pop star. Seriously, he was that good.

But soon enough we were back on the road heading to the farther southwest point of the African continent, Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Table Mountain National Park is open to the public and allows people to bus in and climb up to the Historic Lighthouse, which looks out over the Atlantic Ocean and False Bay. To say the view was spectacular would be underselling this magnificent spot: from the base of the lighthouse you can look out over the Atlantic and know that the next piece of land is Antarctica, and the cliffs down to the water are steep but the water below so blue that it looks surreal. Across is False Bay, so named because Portuguese sailors back in the day mistook the Cape Peninsula for Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, because of the low clouds and fog, so they would sail into the bay thinking they were rounding the southern point of Africa, only to find themselves stuck in the bay. The mountains along the Cape of Agulhas are hazy from Cape Point, but still breathtaking. We hiked up the Cape of Good Hope to look out of the ocean one more time, and then re-loaded the bus to head back to campus (along the way we saw a troop of baboons resting on some cars along the road!) and a good night's rest.

The rest of the week looks to be pretty low-key, as we started UCT orientation today, and tomorrow we pre-register for classes (why we have to pre-register I'm not sure, but I'm told it has little to do with actually registering and is mostly a waste of time) and Wednesday Juliana, Kat and I are scheduled to go to a local cafe for some wine and chocolate tasting:) I've also signed up for a day hike up Devil's Peak, the mountain that overlooks campus, as well as a shark cage diving tour next week (where you put on scuba gear, get into a very safe steel cage, and get lowered into the water as great white sharks swim by)! I'm so excited, I literally can't wait! Stay tuned for updates on the res and a trip to the beach on Thursday! Cheers!

Arrival and First Impressions

So two days of travel and I finally made it into Cape Town around ten in the morning on Tuesday the 25^th. The skies were absolutely clear so I was able get my first glimpse of “home” as we flew over the coast to approach for landing. From above the city spreads out around the base of Table Mountain, which looks out over the Atlantic towards Antarctica. As it’s summer here the landscape is pretty dry and brown, but the colors of the buildings and houses make up for the lack of greenery.

Once we walked through Customs (literally, the one officer that was working there didn’t stop us as we walked through) we were greeted by the RAs of the program, who gathered us up to take to campus. As if the time change wasn’t enough of indicator of leaving home (it’s seven hours ahead of East Coast time), the ride from the airport to campus really hit home that I wasn’t, well, home anymore. The discrepancy between one section of town and the two large shantytowns, or townships as they’re called here, is glaring. Tiny single-room houses made of corrugated iron are packed so closely together that you could hardly ride a bicycle between each house, with electric lines running from each roof to a pole in the middle of several houses and outhouses stationed every few “blocks.” These townships are scattered all over the area, throughout the country, and are home to some of the worst poverty imaginable. But soon enough we drove through the smoke of another pile of burning trash and made our way through the city and up into campus.

We’re all living in one dorm for now, called Graca Michel, until we can move into our respective housing on Saturday. The rooms are large with their own sinks and communal bathrooms down the hall. It’s so warm and sunny here that I leave my window open all the time to let in what seems to be the constant breeze.

Of the close to two hundred American students who are part of the program, I could probably name a dozen of them on sight, and know nearly none of the RA’s names. There are so many people here to get to know that it seems impossible to learn everyone’s names, and I’m looking forward to moving into my permanent housing so that I can narrow down the pool a little bit. I won’t know who my suitemate will be until I move in, because we decided to let the RAs choose randomly for us. I really feel that choosing randomly will allow me to meet some interesting new people, and I can’t wait to get started in that regard.

After we dropped out bags in our temporary rooms here at Graca Michel, we were all invited to hike up Table Mountain, said to be the thing to do whilst here, and I was eager to get moving after two days of sitting in various positions on multiple airplanes. Thus, we were bused out to the base of the trail, only to find that the “moderate, maybe hour long” hike was really an almost vertical assent up rock stairs that took most people at least two and a half hours to climb. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was not one of those people, and thus had plenty of time to check out the absolutely jaw-dropping beauty that awaits at the top of the mountain. From the peak (I’m hard-pressed to call it a “peak” because the top is actually flat, hence the name) you can see out over the city and the bay from one direction, directly out over the Atlantic in the other, and down towards the Cape Peninsula past the Twelve Apostles. While the exhilaration from the climb was still fresh, I decided to take the cable car down, which took about five minutes but also had it’s fair share of spectacular scenery.

The rest of the week has literally flown by, although the orientation has been long. However, the information is important, and I realize how hard the RAs work to make sure that we’re all settled in properly, so I can’t complain too loudly. And we get to be on this gorgeous campus. So far I haven’t gleaned anything that I didn’t already know from my experiences in London or on Skidmore’s campus, but I was pleased to learn about the volunteering opportunities available to us should we choose to do that. Basically we’re allowed to volunteer at one of several different locations throughout the area once or twice a week depending on classes and schedules, and we can do anything from working at a tuberculosis hospital with infants and children to helping out in a youth prison playing with the kids there and tutoring. We toured several of the places today, to get a feel for them to help in our decision-making, and I honestly don’t know which place I want to work in because they all seem like great causes and even better opportunities. Seeing the elementary school kids at The Ark, a half-way house for women and children, as they showed off their dance moves and high-fives was so endearing, while talking to Bones, the principle at LEAP, the equivalent of a US charter school, was really inspiring because of what he and his colleagues are attempting to do with the students from the surrounding townships. It’s definitely going to be a tough decision, but I won’t have to commit until next week after I register for classes and get my schedule sorted out.

Otherwise the time spent has been mostly geared towards getting myself settled in and finding my way around. The campus is at least ten times the size of Skidmore, and the little of the city I’ve seen so far has been interesting. I’m looking forward to exploring more once I’ve figured out the public transportation and found a solid group to travel with.

As I mentioned before we’re scheduled to move into our dorm tomorrow, and Sunday is going to be an outing to the Cape Peninsula to see the penguins at Boulder Beach, so I’m very excited for that. Monday we start our orientation for UCT (University of Cape Town) so I’ll hopefully figure out what classes I’m going to be taking by the end of the week.

Until then I’ll hopefully get to my new room, get some laundry done (oh, by the way, it’s FREE in the dorms!!!) and get out to try some of the local life!