A Toast to Stellenbosch

Happy Easter Everyone! While the weather here has taken a turn for the not-so-great, yesterday was absolutely perfect for our short jaunt to Stellenbosch, the Cape's wine country. Eight of us girls took the train out and spent the day with a tour group checking out four different vineyards, tasting lots of wine, some cheese, and enjoying the spectacular scenery and even better company.
We started off at the second oldest vineyard in the country, called Simonsig, world-famous for being the first vineyard to start cold fermentation on white wine. According to our tour guide this was kind of a big deal because before then all wine was fermented at room temperature, but cold fermenting white wine brings out more of the natural flavor and makes the wine better (red wines, on the other hand, are always fermented at room temperature and more commonly in oak barrels, which bring out different flavors). Simonsig also has one of the first sparkling wines, and arguably one of the most popular, in the region: here it's called Cup Classique because Champagne can only be applied to sparkling wines cultivated and made in the Champagne region of France (fun fact!). I absolutely loved all five of the wines we tried, even the two reds, particularly the Shiraz which has the most amazing chocolate-coffee undertones and fantastic color. And the winery itself was of course absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful mountains all around, row upon row of vines (empty now because harvest season just ended about three weeks ago), and absolutely clear blue skies.
Next we traveled to Fairview, which is also famous for its goat's cheese and other cheesy products (not tacky, but literally cheese goods). Another beautiful estate on the side of the mountains, with gardens and a big koi pond outside the tasting room. The atmosphere inside was also really great, with the walls tastefully decorated with photos and historical plaques about the vineyard and several tasting stations stocked with Fairview's different labels: Fairview also produces La Capra wine and Goats do Roam, which we were able to try. My particular favorites here were the Viognier Special Late Harvest, a pale-gold desert wine which tastes like ambrosia, as well as, surprisingly, the Chardonnay, which is the best Chardonnay I've had since I got to South Africa. Definitely both worth trying, but I didn't dislike any of the other five wines I tried either.
As I mentioned before Fairview is also known for its cheese, so attached to the wine tasting room is a cheese tasting center, where you can grab a toothpick and taste away to your heart's content. After trying some wine, tasting some cheese, trying some more wine, and tasting a little more cheese, we were hustled back into the van to head off to lunch, which was served at a small coffeehouse with some great ciabatta bread. It was nice to get off our feet for a little bit and discuss our observations so far, and we were all feeling ready to go by the time we needed to be back in the van for our next tasting.
Our next stop was Dieu Donne vineyards, perhaps not my favorite for the wine but certainly for the view! The farm is set literally on the side of the mountain overlooking the Stellenbosch valley, so the view was just spectacular as we sat out on the patio and sampled our wines. The girl at the bar was also incredibly knowledgeable about the wine making process and the wines we were tasting, which was very helpful.
Finally we made it to our last stop, Boschendal Wine Estate, was also incredibly picturesque, with wrought iron tables and chairs set up outside the main building under a huge tree surrounded by tree-lined drives and grassy fields. The glasses were already set up for us, making the tasting rather quick and simple, but there was no sign of anyone who worked at the farm to tell us about the wines, which I found a bit off-putting. I also didn't find any of the wines particularly great, although I did find my sudden ability to judge wines a little interesting. But in all honesty I don't think the wines at the last two estates were really that great compared to the wines at the first two places.
All-in-all it was a fantastic day, and it really isn't that expensive to get out to Stellenbosch (only R25 round trip) and about an hour's journey by train, so I'd love to try and get back sometime to explore more of the town and shopping malls (the girls are already talking about trying to get back tomorrow, but we'll see about that).

Two Oceans Aquarium and Some Reflecting

Kudos to you, my dear readers, for remaining ever patient and attentive while I neglect my blogging duties these past few weeks. I left off two weeks ago with tales of adventure in Mozambique, and while the past two weeks haven't been quite as thrilling I've definitely been up to a few things that I thought I'd share with you this evening.
Last week actually wasn't at all exciting so I'm just going to skip over that bit and fast-forward to this past weekend. Friday evening started off with Wine Society, which, while sounding like a horribly veiled excuse to just drink for two hours every Friday night is in fact a very fun and socially acceptable way of drinking for two hours while learning about wine and wine tasting. I've gone for two weeks now and already I can tell a lot about a wine based solely on its name, color, and smell. Each week a different vineyard stops by UCT to divulge some knowledge on how its winery grows the grapes and produces the wine, giving us some short but informative presentations on the history of the vineyard and its philosophy in wine production, which has been very helpful in understanding why some wines have a more acidic taste than others, what makes an oaked wine more expensive, and why some wines have to sit in the bottle for so long while others should be shared immediately. I've also discovered that I definitely am not a red wine kind of gal, but can palate a few varieties if pressed.
After Wine Society a few friends and I went out to Claremont to see Water for Elephants, which I recommend although I haven't read the book (I'm told by someone who has that the book, of course, is better, but I still enjoyed the film nonetheless). It certainly made me want to go out and join the circus, or at the very least get an elephant that speaks Polish, but alas, I haven't done either.
Saturday was also action-packed, as I started off the day at Old Biscuit Mill again (although it's been much too long since my last visit!), which of course was fantastic, as always. The experience was made all the better, however, because I happened to run into two friends from Skidmore who are also studying abroad in Cape Town through a different program! What a small world! The three of us were on the same Skidmore First Year Program in London, so it was so nice getting to talk to them about our experiences here in Cape Town in comparison to our experiences in London and how different things are. They leave in mid-May, when their program ends, so I'm hoping that sometime in the very near future we can all get together though.
The girls and I then headed down to the Waterfront to check out the Two Oceans Aquarium, a "must-see" according to all the guidebooks. Having lived within a stone's throw from the Boston Aquarium I was a little skeptical about the fantastic-ness of Two Oceans, but went into it with an open mind and was completely shocked at how cool it was! The exhibits were great and very interesting, and we all ran around like little kids looking at all the amazing sea creatures, both local and abroad, as well as the special exhibit on frogs. While it wasn't as exciting as being in the water with Great White Sharks, I did enjoy the clown fish tank where you could stick your head inside to get a fish's perspective of the world. Unfortunately it was a bit difficult getting into the tank as the little children kept cutting the line: who made the rule that five-year-olds automatically get to go to the front of the line at the aquarium? I don't recall seeing that on the rule board. I got a chuckle out of the "No Fishing" rule though. No joke, they actually specify that you're not allowed to fish at the Two Oceans Aquarium. Anyway, I'm getting carried away...
The rest of Saturday was low-key as the day had been long and educational, so it was a pretty early night for me. Sunday dawned bright and early with a call from one of my friends inviting me to breakfast at this neat little restaurant-farm thing that another girl recommends. Intrigued, I battled my way into the shower and hit the road, literally, as we walked for what seemed like miles, my empty, unhappy stomach grumbling all the way. But boy was the wait worth it. Basically Millstone Farmstall and Cafe is pretty much what it sounds like: a farm that sells its own goods but also runs a cafe on the premises. The store has all homemade goods, from honeys to cookies and bread, and you can sit outside in the sun next to the garden and order food. I got the Farmhouse Breakfast, with scrambled eggs, and I swear to the good Lord they were the best eggs I've ever had in my life. Like, melt-in-your-mouth-like-butter delicious eggs. And the bacon and sausage that came with it: I could practically taste the home-grown. It was fantastic. And the atmosphere was so relaxed and calming, with gardeners doing the weeding and horses grazing on the other side of the fence. Definitely a great way to start off a Sunday. After mowing down on the scrumptiousness we all walked around the place, picked up some essential victuals (the cookies were just begging to be tasted!) and spending some time petting the horses (more than therapeutic for me, I've been dying lately from not being able to ride) we made the trek back, which of course seemed way shorter than the walk out. Funny how that always seems to be the case.
The rest of the weekend was again low-key, with some grocery shopping and reading for class taking up the rest of the afternoon. This week has also been relatively mild, although Manenburg today was a bit chaotic, as the kids finished the activity we had for them super quick, so we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them, and they completely took advantage of the situation and got completely out of hand. Only the promise of snacks and outside time could get them to remotely listen. I'm getting to know some of the kids and do enjoy being there with them, but most of the time I look forward to seeing them leave so my head stops ringing and I can take a breath. I can't handle kids and have almost certainly re-affirmed my stance on children and child-rearing.
Anyway, on a more serious note: since getting back from vacation things are quickly winding down in terms of my stay here. Only seven more weeks remain before the end of the program, and nine before I fly back home. I've been doing a lot of thinking these past few weeks about my stay here, and what I'm gaining from it, what I haven't accomplished yet, and what I plan to do when I return to the States. I certainly feel that I've gained a lot from my brief stay already: seeing and experiencing first-hand the struggles of people post-apartheid as a new nation, has been incredibly eye-opening. Honestly I don't think I fully considered or anticipated how fresh the wounds would still be for people, so when I left home in January I wasn't fully conscious of what I was going to encounter here. My time in Ocean View and in the subsequent weeks, through material I'm covering in classes and interactions I've had outside of the classroom have really brought home for me how people here are still dealing with the recent history of this country. People are still mourning--for loved ones, for lives irrevocably changed, for what was--but the atmosphere isn't one of sadness. Overwhelmingly I sense and have heard in others a deep wealth of hope, in spite of all that's happened. As a tour guide told us two weeks ago, anger doesn't solve the problem, it doesn't bring back what was lost, and it certainly won't take this country in the direction it needs to go. It's forgiveness and hope that will make the future bright. That was definitely a message and a philosophy I could get on board with, and I think I've incorporated that ideology into my life as much as possible.
Speaking of the personal, I've also been giving some thought to this study abroad experience as a whole and what it has done for and to me. So far I've surprised myself in how much I feel I've immersed myself here in Cape Town as opposed to my semester abroad in London. The explanations for that are as varied as they are complicated, so I won't go into to much detail and risk boring you, but I believe it has something to do with my willingness to submerge myself, my desire to fully experience this place, and my greater understanding of myself as a person between then and now. I came into this study abroad semester with set goals based on my experience in London, which has certainly been to my benefit. Although my living situation isn't ideal aesthetically, I'm certainly happy with my choice of living in the dorm and getting to know at least one of my Southern African roommates, as opposed to secluding myself with other Americans in a house. I'm also thrilled that I chose a program that immersed me into the University culture, where I get to intellectually interact with South African students. While I've been surprised and even saddened by the gaps in the education system here, I certainly respect and admire my UCT peers and have come to know some of them on a personal level. I definitely didn't get that opportunity while in London, and I'm grateful for the opportunity here. I also feel that the courses I'm taking, particularly my South African history course, as well as some of the extracurricular activities, such as my homestay in Ocean View and volunteering in Manenburg and at Brooklyn TB hospital have given me a more rounded view of South Africa, not just from a student's perspective but more importantly from a human perspective. I know it may sound corny, but it's true. Cape Town isn't just a place on the map for me, and it's not just some city I went to school in for a few months; it's hard to express accurately or fully (which is obviously saying a lot, coming from the English major) but I just feel more connected to Cape Town, more aware of it. Maybe it's the people I've encountered, or the things I've seen, or the history lessons and the guided tours, I'm not really sure. I suppose I still have some time left to figure it out.
But it certainly hasn't been easy. Finding my niche among my American peers hasn't been as easy as I'd like, certainly not as fast and binding as fitting in among the Skidmore Londoners (when you're all thrown under the same bus you build a tight sense of camaraderie). I have terrible bouts of homesickness, which I didn't experience as much or as intensely as I did in London. It makes me unspeakably sad knowing that life is carrying on back at home and at Skidmore without me, and seeing the Facebook posts and getting the invites to things I couldn't possibly attend sometimes makes me want to get on the next flight back to Boston. I feel like sometimes I'm a character in a novel, and this chapter is going to end with a satisfying cliche or quip and the next page will open with me back in my real life, getting ready to graduate and finding a job and moving on to the next stage. And this whole semester has sort of felt like that: an interlude to my life, a short break before the real stuff hits the fan. Everything seems to hang on when I get back.
I try to think about all of these observations and reflections and to make sense of them all, which is a daunting task but one that I believe is important in understanding this point that I'm at and growing from it. Yes, life is waiting for me on the other side, but it's also happening right here and now, and hyper-focusing on what's going to happen doesn't make sense when there's so much in the immediate present. As a historian I should be focusing on the past anyway, so what qualifications do I have to micromanage the future? OK, a bad joke but sort of true, in a way.
I'll leave you with that for now and will keep you updated on any progress made towards making sense of life, the universe, and everything else. In the meantime thanks for hanging in there with me and next post will definitely be more lighthearted and fun:)

Mozambique!

We're literally at the other end of the semester now, so time's truly flying. Only six weeks left of classes and three weeks of finals, then... done. It's really rather frightening to be honest.
Anyway, what an amazing midterm break! As it's one of the few long-term periods we all have off, many of the CIEE students scattered to the four winds to find adventure and excitement, and I was certainly one of them. I decided to head north-eastwards to Mozambique, with its spectacular Portuguese-influenced culture and gorgeous beaches.
My four friends (Brittany, Diane, Nate, and Loren) and I flew to Jo-burg on Friday the 25th, despite our plane being delayed (big surprise: almost nothing flying towards Jo-burg seems to get out on time) so we didn't arrive until after midnight. This wouldn't have been a huge problem except that we had a bus to catch at 6:30 the following morning, so by the time we reached our hostel it was after 1am and we needed to be up at 5am for the bus. What was really sad was the fact that we only spent such a short time at this wonderful hostel: Moafrika Lodge, despite being a bit out of the way of the main city, was a palace compared to our living arrangements at UCT. We pretty much ended up with our own room, complete with a jacuzzi tub, how shower, a TV (which only got two channels but it was still a working TV!!) and fresh towels. We literally did a double-take because we couldn't believe our luck. Fortunately we were scheduled to spend another night at Moafrika on the way back, and were already excited about it.
So Saturday had barely dawned and we were up and out once again, headed towards the bus station to catch our lovely Greyhound bus (yeah, no joke, Greyhound runs in South Africa too!) to Maputo, scheduled to be about nine hours. While we had some issues with our tickets--Loren had lost hers, as well as her camera and all her money at the airport the night before, and Brittany and I needed to get our tickets for the return trip that we had to reschedule due to our inability to read a calendar--exacerbated by the system failure on the Greyhound computers (another frequent occurrence in this country, the sporadic shut down of the internet for long periods of time, always when you need it most) we did manage to get on the bus and were headed to Maputo! The ride itself was rather uneventful, although the choice in movies was rather questionable (I have a hard time believing "Drag Me to Hell" was really appropriate for the toddler and young boy sitting across the aisle from me, but maybe I'm just a soft American or something). At the border we had to get off the bus in order to get our passports stamped by the South African side (to declare that we'd actually left) as well as the Mozambiquean side (to clarify that we'd arrived). The border crossing was made easier by the helpful assistance of some of the regular border-crossers, who probably guessed from our slightly confused and worried expressions that we needed some help deciphering which unmarked brick building to enter first and what lines we did and didn't have to stand in. All-in-all the whole process was rather hokey because we probably could have walked through the whole mess without any visa or stamps and no one would have questioned us because we're white tourists. But I have the visa and stamps to prove that I follow the rules.
We finally made it to Maputo and found the hostel, called Fatima's Place, which is deceptively large but homey and laid-back at the same time. Apparently Fatima's Place can keep up to 90 people, which seems impossible at first glance because the bar seems to take up most of the space, but once you start exploring you realize there are bunk beds everywhere, and each room can hold at least eight people. The common area is open, which becomes problematic when it rains, which happens quite frequently, but lends a sort of jungle-atmosphere in the middle of the city. But we got our things situated and found some food across the road, then made it back to take up residence on the outdoor furniture in the common area, where we met three young guys from Pretoria (also on break) who were extremely entertaining and had a great time making fun of our American accents and our lack of soccer knowledge. Fabio, Matthew, and Thebe were determined to make sure we had a good time, and they certainly fulfilled their roles as they introduced us to South African culture (I'm mostly referring to their extensive knowledge of South African drinking techniques, but we also had some interesting conversations about race and soccer). We also met a traveler from Colorado, who had taken a month off from his job designing iPad and iPhone apps (ever used the New York Times ap? Yeah, Ryan designed that) to travel, and he'd already spent time in Amsterdam, and Cairo, and was headed up to Tofo for a few days and then out to Cape Town to round off the adventure. We filled Ryan in on all the vitally important things to do in Cape Town, and were excited to hang out with him on the beach in the coming days. The boys persuaded Brittany, Diane, and Loren to head out with them to a Reggae club at 1:30 in the morning, but I decided to pass and paid the entrance fee to Club Sleep instead.
The following day we spent in Maputo, exchanging money (Mozambique uses the metical, which currently is worth 30MZN to the US dollar) and seeing a little bit of the city. We didn't get very far though, as the small area we were in was rather peculiar and honestly didn't seem like a friendly place for tourists anyway. I was struck by how much dirtier it felt to the Cape Town that I've become accustomed to, and I realized that Maputo was more of an African city without the heavy European influence. The Portuguese colonized the area, but it seems that once Mozambique won its independence the country was adamant about removing all traces of colonization, and it hasn't really recovered since. We did manage to get our money exchanged and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying some amazing pizza and preparing ourselves for the next leg of our journey.
Monday morning we headed north along the coast to Tofo, a beach town about twenty minutes west of Inhambane. The ride was...well, horrible. Basically the bus we were taken in was a glorified minibus, the kind I see here in Cape Town every day that run along the main roads taking people to work and such. The ones here fit about ten people, maybe more if you really squeeze people in. This bus held 29 people, including the bus driver (I counted) but was bigger than the minibuses in Cape Town. Each row of seats held four people across with no aisle and absolutely no leg room. The seats were horridly uncomfortable, and we were all soaking wet to begin with because it was pouring when we left and, as I mentioned before, almost all of Fatima's Place is open to the elements. It had rained so hard during the night that the street in front of the hostel had turned into a river, and we had to wade through ankle deep rushing water to get into the bus. Needless to say we were none-too-pleased about the forthcoming six hour drive to Tofo. But we got to see some of the massive markets that Maputo is reputed for and the scenery was lovely once you got out of the city.
Tofo could not have been more perfect. We arrived a little after 1pm to beautiful puffy white clouds, an azure sky and the rhythmic sound of the ocean. We literally dropped our stuff, threw on bathing suits, and ran down across the hot sand into the water of the Indian Ocean. It was literally like a bath tub the water was so warm. The sand was perfectly white and unblemished by rocks or debris, and the hostel was right on the beach so there was no commute and no lugging of beach gear down to the water. If this wasn't paradise I'm not sure I want to go.
The hostel itself was called Fatima's Nest (owned by the same Fatima that owned the hostel in Maptuo) and it consists of the main common area which houses a bar and several picnic tables, a kitchen where they serve three meals a day daily, and comfy canvas chairs that look out over the beach and the water beyond. Next to the main building are several grass covered wooden buildings that house the dorms and suites, and beyond those are the showers and toilets as well as the kitchen were you can prepare your own food. The whole place is built on the sand, so after about five minutes you begin to realize that you're going to be sandy for the rest of your stay. But that didn't bother us as we soaked up the last rays of sunshine on our first day.
We met up again with our new friend Ryan (he had taken the bus with us that morning) as well as two American teaching assistants that work at UCT who's gone out with Brittany, Diane and Loren the first night we were in Maputo. Sara and Shannon joined us for dinner and we had a great time looking over the exams they had to grade for their students back at UCT. I was appalled by the absolutely awful writing of most of the students: many of the exams had basic, basic grammatical errors, like misuse of commas or subject-verb agreement and spelling errors. Both Sara and Shannon assured us that this was not abnormal, despite these papers being from their second year students, and that the sporadic and poor public education system in South Africa is to blame for the failures of the students. It just made me sad to think that UCT is the best school in Africa, often toted as the Harvard of Africa, but frankly that only insults Harvard. Obviously not every student that goes to UCT can't write--please don't believe that's what I'm saying--only that a majority of the students are not prepared for college in terms of their writing, and the system in place here is not doing them justice.
Basically my friends and I spent the next couple of days just enjoying our time off and exhilarating in the sun and sand. We walked down the main road (I think the only real road in Tofo) to the market on our first full day where the locals swindle the tourists for souvenirs, food, and booze. We had some fun bartering for things, as well as exploring the language barrier between English and Portuguese. A trip into town became necessary to find the ATM, which became an adventure as night started to fall and myself, Brittany, Diane, Loren and Sara were crammed into the back of a minibus knowing that one of the golden rules of Africa is never to travel in a minibus after dark. But we didn't have a problem and made it to Inhambane and several ATMs, most of which didn't have any money in them (a common occurrence in Mozambique) and others which only took specific cards. We finally got what we needed, stopped at a grocery store to pick up essentials (like drinking water, as the water from the tap is not OK to drink) and took the nice public bus back to Tofo. We spent a couple of nights with Fabio, Matthew and Thebe, who we met in Maputo, as they liked to peruse the three main hot-spots along the beach (Fatima's being one of them) so inevitably they would run into us.
Wednesday the girls, Sara and Shannon, Ryan and I all took a dhow, a traditional fishing boat, out to Flamingo Bay, where we spent the day sailing in this beautiful lagoon and touring Survivor Island, where apparently a season of the TV show Survivor was filmed. I'm a little skeptical about that point, only because the guide seemed a little washy on the details, but the tour was fun and we got to see this small village that is almost completely isolated from the mainland and survives only on its own resources, which was pretty interesting. They also treated us to fresh crab for lunch, which didn't sit well with my stomach, but the side dishes were delicious nonetheless. We slowly sailed back to the mainland, saw some flamingos, and headed back to Fatima's to examine the sun damage caused from being out on the water all day.
Our final full day in Tofo was spent primarily sitting on the beach and hanging out in the luke warm water, as it was so hot we couldn't stand to be anywhere else. That night we headed over to Dino's, a bar and grill (yeah, just like the song) where they have fantastic pizzas that are delicious but take forever to make. Literally an hour and a half after arriving we got our pizzas (after two people from our group left because they couldn't wait any longer and were fed up) only to have a black out (the power was cut to the area). The entire beach went pitch black, which was actually kind of awesome because the stars just popped, and it was breath taking to look at them with no lights. But after about five minutes the power came back on and we finished eating and headed back.
That morning we all returned to Maputo by the minibus, and spent the afternoon at Fatima's Place showering all the sand off of us and taking a long-awaited nap. Sara and Shannon had a flight out of Maputo airport at 5pm, so they left shortly after lunch and Ryan had a bus to catch later that evening, so he left shortly after the girls. Fabio, Matthew and Thebe still had two more days of their Tofo stay, so we had said goodbye to them the night before.
Our bus back to Jo-burg Saturday morning was almost empty, so we had the run of the place on the ride back. No issues at the border, and two more stamps to prove that I was leaving Mozambique and re-entering South Africa. Saturday night was a luxury once again as we enjoyed the comforts of Moafrika, indulging in a long hot soak in the tub and a little Aljazeera on TV. Our flight out of Jo-burg Sunday morning actually left on time, and we were back in Cape Town by 10:40am, with plenty of time to get back to good ol' LBG to get some postponed school work done and a little grocery shopping.
Overall the trip was fantastically relaxing and fun; essentially the epitome of a college Spring break. The people I traveled with were great, we had a lot of fun and definitely made some great memories that will last for a long time. I'm glad I got to experience a piece of Africa that I can't find here in Cape Town, and while I realize that Tofo is definitely a tourist area I think spending time in Maputo and just traveling around between the two spots allowed me to see more than just the Spring break experience. I'm certainly glad that I got to meet the people I did, and I'm hoping that I meet them again (I actually ran into Shannon today on campus, and we're hoping to catch up with Ryan before he leaves Cape Town on Saturday, and Fabio has extended an unlimited invitation to stay at his house in Pretoria should we be in that neck of the woods).
I only have a limited amount of pictures as we rotated cameras throughout the trip to conserve batteries as well as limit the amount of doubles of the same pictures, so once I get the photos from Brittany and Diane I'll have more stuff to post, but in the meantime enjoy the ones that I do have and I'll post the others ASAP.