Love potion

Thursday we didn’t have time to hike Table mountain, so instead we rode the cable car up. It went extremely fast, and the floor rotated which scared the crap out of me. 1,670 meters above sea level is where Table Mountain stands. The weather was perfect on top, hot, with a little breeze, and cloudless. We hiked around the top for a few hours; eventually we found a bolder to sit on where we popped Pink Sparkling Wine. We went to the café on top of the mountain for a late lunch before we headed back down. For dinner, we went to Mama Africa and it was amazing! I ate the “Mama Africa wild game platter” including Crocodile Kebabs, Ostrich, Springbok steak, Bratwurst, and one other meat that I can’t remember. But uhhh SO good! All of it! I am definitely going back to get that meal again! For dessert we had worms, they were NASTY. I was gagging the whole time… They had live music and we all danced for hours. After dinner we went to Springbok, which is in Claremont and is the bar/club for the rugby team. It was intense and mainly guys haha.

Friday…FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!! So today was Tuesday according to UCT and my classes weren’t too bad. My courses each have at least 3 course conveners (which are essentially teachers); so far they seem really nice. My history course doesn’t teach from a book which means missing class (not that I ever would) is OUT of the question. My philosophy class was a little overwhelming. There are SOOOOO MANY people in one room, each person has about 1 foot to squeeze onto a bench and take notes. We already have a ton of reading to do, and one of our 3 papers is due March 1st…yup a SUNDAY! But other than that they don’t seem too horrible yet. Ha. After classes I had to drop off my laundry to the “dry cleaners”, Laundromats don’t exist here and our washer doesn’t work also we don’t even have a dryer, so you have to drop off you laundry to these ladies who do it for you. It’s not very expensive but it is more expensive than back at home. I went to the UCT pool to lay out after. It was so relaxing. On my way home I noticed something really close to my house was smoking and then I realized that it was a wildfire. Helicopters were flying overhead every 15minutes or so dropping sand and water on the fires so they didn’t spread. They are out now, thankfully.

More on the Mini-bus story: so there are 2 different Minibus companies, one of which went on strike, because the Government either wants to stop all mini-bus transport for the year 2010, because of the World Cup or they want to regulate their routes to make them safer. The one company is rioting because the majority of locals take mini-buses, so overall it’s the most used transportation system within the country. So without them a LOT of people can’t get around. The mini-bus drivers are now throwing bricks into the local buses and any other type of bus system to destroy them and hurt the people inside of them so people will essentially be petrified to ride them. Thursday a girl who was on a bus got hit in the head with a brick and had to have her scalp sewn back on... Sorry for the graphic details. It’s just a HUGE problem at the moment. Also, on Friday one of the Jammie buses (school transportation) was held up while students were on them… Saturday the strike ended due to loss of money but it will probably start back up closer to the elections.

Saturday I picked up my laundry and it was AMAZING! I never want to do laundry again ha. A few of us decided to go to Clifton Beach which is like a 20minute cab ride away. It was beautiful, with big boulders everywhere. The water was freezing but we just played on the rocks and soaked up some sun. At one point there was a really strong breeze which hurt sooo bad. We all had so much sand on us. While we were lying there we just happen to look over and there was an OLD naked guy just laying out soaking up some sun near us. It was awkward at first but we just pretend he wasn’t there. Haha we missed the memo about it being a nude beach. AWKARD. Our Valentine’s party was a great success…we made a very fruity love potion. Haha The house was somewhat a disaster but no worries I cleaned it up. I have figured out that is why I live with the two boys, it’s because I do the majority of the cleaning….because I don’t really care.
Sunday we hung out around the house and read for our classes, I went to the grocery store while everyone went to the botanical gardens and of course my bag ripped…but you get charged for every bag so you have to bring your own, so I had the hardest time carrying them home. We rented the Constant Gardner and watched it on our laptops, we don’t have a TV, radio, and lots more, but it’s normal.

Monday we had classes and in my first class it was cool because i knew 4 other people in the class. The classes are straight lectures and they use zero technology. I actually like it a lot better. Each class is 45 minutes long but they meet at least 3 times a week with one tutorial a week aka TUT. All the classes are assessed by 3 essays. We will see how they go… After classes we went to the gym and then the Rugby game, where we won. :D My roommate, Evan, decided he was going to bring a 6 pack with him to the game since it’s on campus. We weren’t allowed down on the field until they were finished but the field is on a hill, so you don’t actually have to be on the field to see the game. After the game we went to Panchos, a great Mexican restaurant, for Margaritas and dinner. Between the 6 of us we had 6 liters of Margaritas.. haha they were good.

Tuesday more classes.. the walk to campus is a pain, for all of those Pitt students imagine walking from way south Oakland to way North Oakland and then up Cardiac hill, if you can’t picture that, picture this: it takes 45 minutes to get to my furthest class walking up a mountain and by the time I get to campus I have to buy a drink and am in desperate need of a shower because I am sweating so bad.…anyway after classes we went to the beach :D to soak up some sun. While on the beach I read for my classes. I was productive. Sort of. When we got home, the back house didn’t have power so our house was overwhelmed with people for awhile. Our core course for tomorrow was cancelled due to the fear of the mini-bus strike going to Khylethshia, which is where our class was scheduled for tomorrow.

Our neighbors have named the homeless people who sleep on our street, 2 of them are death eater 1 and 2. One night a few weeks back, when we had gotten home late, the cab accidentally dropped us off at the end of the street so we had to walk up the street home…anyway we woke up the homeless people who sleep under the trees in sleeping bags. The people sometimes scare me, but I was talking to our neighbors and they said having homeless people on our street has stopped a lot of people from getting robbed. Last night one of my roommate’s friend’s fence was jumped. Luckily no one entered their house because they were still awake. I sometimes find myself forgetting where I am, in the sense that I am not afraid to go places, but I constantly have to remind myself that things aren’t safe here…

Until next time, as they say here, CHEERS~