Bus Fanaticism

It appears that in my absence I forgot just how fantastic buses are. Sure driving from point A to point B my be a little faster, but not nearly as entertaining. I took the bus into White Rock today (in an attempt to find a 24 newspaper and complete the crossword puzzle there within) and it made my already pleasant day increase exponentially on the awesome scale. On the way into White Rock there was a man sitting at the front of the bus chatting with the driver. He was discussing things that he likes about White Rock and proceeded to exclaim with much enthusiasm "It's not like that Surrey place with all them panhandlers" This exclamation was greeted by much laughter on the part of the rest of the bus, all ten of whom began to participate in discussing panhandlers in Surrey and the term panhandler in general. To make it even more fantastic, my ride home on the bus was coloured by two elderly women almost climbing over each other to sit as near to the young bus driver as possible. They appeared to be having a "who can be a more ridiculous flirt and make the poor bus driver reddest" competition of which I, the self-appointed judge, say Edith wins :P

It's official

I'm going skydiving on Saturday!!!

It was touch and go there for a while because, for some reason, no one wanted to go with me. But finally, new BFF consented and... I'M GOING SKYDIVING ON SATURDAY!!!

Eeeeeep!

Meadow Commission

Since it’s almost time for me to leave SA, my boss has been trying to get me out in the field to balance out the shear mountain of time spent in the office at a computer. As such, the last 2.5 of my working days have been spent in the field. Much adventure has resulted.

Thursday and Friday I went out in the field with my SA officemate, who, despite working at the Department of Forest and Wood Science, is not a forester by trade. In fact, she's an arts kid, psych to be more specific!

Needless to say, she was entirely unprepared for the heat, dust and heavy machinery that awaited her introduction into the forestry industry. It probably didn’t help her opinion of forestry that our task wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating in the industry. In fact, my mother even suggested that the two of us could easily be replaced by a camera placed in a strategically high tree. To demonstrate the skill involved, our task was as follows:

Follow a skidder as it drags trees from where they were felled to the roadside and write down how long each step within this task takes.

In order to exercise our minds, forget the heat, and just generally pass the time, we played an alphabet game. Choose a topic (i.e. countries; designers; plants) and alternate listing off things that fit under the category in alphabetical order (i.e. Australia, Belize, Cameroon; Armani… I wasn’t any good at this one; Arbutus, Birch, Cyprus). It still amazes me that such a simple game can happily provide two days of eight hours each worth of entertainment.

Compared to Thursday, Friday was ever so slightly more eventful. We decided from the start to sit in the shade, since the day was much hotter and there was no wind. So we made our camp near where they were choking (attaching to the skidder…for all intents and purposes) the trees and contentedly sat on some branches. About an hour into our work, the skidder comes back from the roadside and the operator jumps out with the machine still running. He calls over one of the chokers and together they start trying to get some pieces of log out from behind the winch…WITH THE SKIDDER STILL RUNNING!!! At this point all I can think of is how I’m about to witness something so gruesome it would put WorkSafe BC Awareness videos to shame!

Once they had removed these chunks of wood, they began carrying them towards us. They brought us stumps! They brought us stumps, so we wouldn’t have to sit on the ground!!! I think I’m still a little in shock. This is possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. At least anyone I had only communicated with via the occasional “Hello” and smile. Stumps. Stumps! I spent the rest of the day regaling my poor officemate with various renditions of “Stumps! No one has ever brought me a stump before!” and smiling to myself each time I remembered. I don't think anything else I have experienced here better demonstrates the South African chivalry and lack of workplace safety.

…Stumps!

Hard Day's Work

~To the tune of Spiderpig~

Fingerman Fingerman
Does what ever a finger can
Pick your nose, scratch your bum
And your balls if you're a man
WATCH OUT!!!!
Here comes the Fingerman!

Oh and...

Happy Birthday, Kitty Kat!

Dances with Elephants

As I mentioned about a month/4 posts ago, my parents came to visit me in South Africa to see the country, but more importantly, me! I decided to take them to the Northeastern part of SA, mostly ‘cause I hadn’t been there and wanted to see it. We decided that, in order to see more of the country, we would take the train to Jo’berg. A decision that all of my friends felt was sketchy, but only took the time to inform me of this once I had returned safely home. Thanks a lot, guys…not that I would’ve listened. Anyway, we took the Shosholoza Meyl train from Cape Town to Jo’berg and weren’t murdered or robbed, so I’d call it a success. The train, however, was a bit (read 2 hours) late because, get this, they couldn’t find the engine. I mean last I checked train engines are, you know, quite large. It would take an impressive amount of magic (we’re talking Harry AND his friends) to just make one disappear. This unorthodox delay resulted in us getting into the Jo’berg station (that’s right in the CBD) just after dark and just after the car rental place had closed. Meaning that someone from the car rental agency had to drive from the airport, outside of town, to pick us up at the train station and drive us back to the airport to pick up our car.

After sleeping near the airport that night we left in the morning to go to Polokwane our next stop before Kruger National Park and a stop I remember very little about, probably because everything we planned to do around there was closed (except for the hot springs, but it was about 30 degrees that day, so really!?!).

Now the original plan was to stay in Shingwedzi camp the first night, which is about two hours into the park from the Punda Maria entrance. Unfortunately we arrived at the Punda Maria entrance at 5:50pm and the gates to all the camps close promptly at 6. IT being a little difficult to make a 2 hours drive in 10 min, they found us a spot in the Punda Maria camp, just 10min away from the entrance. Convenient. These 10min were probably the most eventful 10min in the history of Kruger. Ok, except for that youtube video where all the animals get in a massive gang war, but it was a close second. We saw lots of buck, giraffe, huge elephants about a meter from the car, and, as we pulled up to the gate, the guard told us to go down a Do Not Enter road for 2 min and we’ll see a pride of lions eating. It was amazing! They were so close to the car and you could hear them ripping the flesh of whatever poor buck is now known as dinner. This is when it started to feel like a vacation. Although I was a little concerned that after that, 3 days of seeing buck would get old pretty quick...

Even in the summer it rains on my birthday

But I had a lovely day anyway. My dear wonderful friend who, as of yet, does not have an acronym made delicious little cup cakes that spelled out Happy Birthday and brought them to work. She even lit candles and let me blow them out at tea time. Then after work the original plan was to go out for dinner than a movie 'cause I wasn't feeling well. However, dinner was so much fun and we had drinks before and dessert after so that we missed the movie. Definitely worth it! The socializing was much more fun, and we're going to see the movie tonight anyway :-) Coco Avant Chanel, so we can put my poor French skills to the test!

Today will go down in history

as the day I beat new BFF at bao for the first time since he taught me how to play.

Write it on your calendars boys and girls...October 25th, 2009!

My Parent's Are Coming!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Goodbyes

I had my last dance class today :-( I can't believe I'm already saying goodbye to people and I still have two months left in SA. Actually I can't believe I only have two months left here! It feels like forever and only yesterday *sigh*

My New Archnemesis

My boss told me to put up a poster about 30 minutes ago. A simple task you might say. Well, looks can be deceiving, my friend. Oh how they can deceive. For you see, this poster had no desire to adjoin with the wall. No, it prefered to leap from it's smooth, verticle grasp with the utmost grace and fall unelegantly to the floor far below... Repeatedly... These actions, inconsiderate of my will, infuriated me until I proclaimed my hatred of that laminated piece of botanical excrement to the heavens. To my unfortunate horror, the heavens were not the only witness to my turmoil, but the owner of the poster as well. He, who to my shock and dismay, was at that present time located in the office adjacent to my own. This being's presence was only made known to me through his apologetic tone and words expressing regret at ever having rolled up that flexible sheet of doom. My cheeks, flushed red, were soon covered in tears of great amusement as I came to peace with the hilarity of our circumstance.

But, I still hate that f_cking poster!

My Time in Nam

It may have occurred to you that I am doing everything in my power to avoid writing in this blog. You see this is what happens when I leave it too long; I feel there’s a ton to write about and then when I reread what I’ve written it bores me because I’m just listing off things that I’ve done. However the only way to get past this is to get it over with, so I can go back to the fun blogs where I meet strangers in book stores et cetera. So here goes…

Namibia was fantastic, but as one of the least densely populated countries in the world there was a hell of a lot of driving in between all the fantastic. We left on Friday afternoon and drove through the night, so we could start our Fish River Canyon hike the next morning. Driving through the night meant we arrived at the SA/Namibia border at 3am. Everything was going fine until we got to the customs office to find everyone asleep. Now granted, it was 3 in the morning and maybe I’m being too “North American”, but I would expect that border control would at the very least be awake to do their job. Not only that, but when the polite tourists wake you up because they wish to uphold the laws of your country (laws that you are put in place to enforce), you wouldn’t give them the same look you give your mother when she wakes you up at 7am Monday morning to get ready for school.

Once through the border, we turn off the main road and onto a gravel one. At this point the only thing lighting our path is the high beams of our Citi Golf. Unfortunately this was not enough to reveal the massive pothole right in our path, resulting in a little surprise as the car is miraculously taken from its standard stance of four wheels on the road to a more precarious position of two wheels on the road and the other two momentarily leaving them to demonstrate a 45 degree angle to the various rock dassies passing by.

After arriving at Ai-Ais where we intended to leave the car before getting a ride to the start of the hike, we slept for 3 hours until morning and started the hike shortly there after. After taking a 5 km or so detour the minute we got down into the canyon because I was unable to print off a map before we left, we found some footsteps in the sand we assumed to be the trail and continued on…for the next three days. I’m not going to go into detail on this, but there was a lot of hiking, sand, heat and Germans.

Leaving the canyon, we spent the night in Keetmanshoop where we sadly left the Americans to wait for a bus that was 12 hours later than we thought after intimately witnessing an early morning brawl and sat in silence for an hour mourning their safety. The next day we went to Sossusvlei where they have some of the highest sand dunes in the world. They were really beautiful and we even got to climb up one of them, which EB rolled down while I filmed it running along beside him.

The next stop was Swakopmund, where I had originally intended to go sky diving and EB had intended to go dune boarding. Unfortunately we were so tired from driving all day and running up dunes that we just went for dinner then passed out and didn’t plan our adventures for the next day. This resulted in us only being able to walk around looking at markets and museums, which was still fun although less so than jumping out of a plan. And once again, we were on the road to Windhoek. I believe it was around this time that the cd player stopped working, having never been the same after the aforementioned surprise. From this point on we were forced to listen to Botswana radio when we could get reception or sit in silence.

After consulting with a friendly taxi driver we met at the backpacker’s, we learn that there really isn’t much to do in Windhoek. He’s main suggestion was to go look at a view of the city from behind the parliament buildings, but to be careful because tourists usually get robbed up there. Deciding it must be better than driving in circles around town, we head over only to be stopped by security and forced to look at a less spectacular view in front of the parliament buildings. At this point we decide to leave Windhoek and go to a reserve just outside of town, where we proceeded to chase and photograph giraffes before taking two days driving back to Stellenbosch.

May I just rant for a minute?

I received an email this morning from the forestry mailing list about a topic irrelevant to the telling of this story. About an hour later I receive another email from the forestry mailing list by some idiot who is asking to be taken of said mailing list. Annoying, but yes it happens and he can be forgiven. The thing that drives me up the wall is what happened next. Obviously unfamiliar with the concept of mailing lists or common sense, somebody else decides to join in the conversation by replying to the first idiot along with the entire faculty of forestry and asking why the first idiot emailed him with this request.

I mean honestly!

words to live by

I went out for lunch today in an attempt to slow my reading of Spud (by John van de Ruit). On my way home I decided to stop in at the bookstore and see if there was anything new and exciting in there. While I was browsing around this guy and his wife came in, only to reveal to me some of the best advice a stranger has given me...

Guy: opens some reference book on famous authors to F. Scott Fitzgerald's entry and a picture not unlike the one to follow, bursts out laughing and shows his wife before enlightening myself


Me: laughing That's fantastic! And to think he was the playboy of his time.

Guy: nodding knowingly Yea, never trust a guy with a center part.

My Life is Plagued with Fire

As I returned home from a lovely night of sokkie last friday, or should I say early Saturday morning, I found myself having the following conversation with the friend who was dropping me off...

Me: Ummm What’s that large orange glow?
Friend: Fire.
M: That’s awfully close to my flat, isn’t it?
F: Yup.
M: Damn I was really looking forward to going to sleep
F: Yup.
M: I’m not going to be able to do that now, am I?
F: Nope.
M: oh kak

As she dropped me off I observed a group of students from the building next door shooting a stream of water from what can best be described as a garden hose onto the trash can and tree on fire in front of my building. Watching this measley amount of water evaporate before it even hit the fire were the cops and paramedics...the fire department no where to be seen. This went on for about 15 minutes and just as the garden hose was starting to melt from the heat, our heroes in red decided to pitch up and put the fire out in a good 30 seconds. Oh will the adventure never cease.

Then Saturday and Sunday we went to SonA's house to have a braai, make breakfast on a waterfall and attempt to play tennis and pseudo-jenga.

Last night was EB's last night in Stellenbosch, so we decided to be as lame as possible. We went to a local pub because there was free food. Then we proceded to half sleep on the couch while watching month old horse jumping for much too long until we got so fed up with it we just left and went to bed. In case you care, Eric Lamaze (the Canadian show jumper) came second! Woot woot!

The rest of this week was spent avoiding the planning of my trip to Namibia with EB and his two American friends. Despite our best efforts at not planning this trip, it has somehow worked out and we are leaving in (theoretically) an hour. I'll let you know how that all went when I get back!

Friday Night and the Lights are Low

The last two weeks of my life have been utterly consumed by ballroom dance. Last weekend we had “dance bootcamp”. This consisted of being trapped in a hall away from Stellenbosch with no form of escape due to the sketchiness of the neighbourhood, while being yelled at to “Stop and do 20 cha chas!” I exaggerate only slightly…

Then this weekend was intervarsity…yes, they have intervarsity for dance. Now, let’s not start up the argument of whether or not dancing is a sport. They have intervarsity for wine tasting too, so they’re obviously not that picky here…

“hmmm this Pinotage has a hint of black current”
“No it doesn’t! That’s red current! You fail!*”
“Ok, but this Chenin Blanc definitely has a hint of gasoline with just a touch of burnt rubber”
“Full points!”

But I digress… Intervarsity went very well. Stellenbosch came second overall and we won the spirit cup, which we’ve won every year since we bought it (except last year, but the University of Cape Town stole it, the jerks!). I personally wasn’t incredibly involved in this impressive second place, but my dance partner and I did better than I thought we would. This is not saying much as I thought we’d be kicked out after Round 1, but we made it to quarter finals, which, as my English co-worker so kindly pointed out, makes us mildly better than average :-)

I can’t believe that for all the clubs I joined and didn’t get involved in for the four years of my university career, it took traveling to the other side of the world for me to actually get involved. But I guess that IS what it takes. You have be all alone in a country, miles from home without your safe group of friends in order to *shock and horror* move out of your social circle.

The only problem with getting involved in a club on the other side of the world is that you eventually have to return to your original hemisphere. That’s kind of the stage I’m at now. Since intervarsity is over, everyone’s planning for next year’s intervarsity. They’re all picking partners for formation (where you all dance together as a group), but (although I would love to try it) I won’t be here (it doesn’t help that practice is on trivia night either) (ok, that’s enough parentheses for one sentence). I mean I would even consider joining the committee next year if I was going to be here. And joining the committee would involve commiting myself to doing regular voluntary work; that’s how much I enjoy being part of the dance society. But alas, that is life…

Time Management

Last week, my officemate (the South African one, not the Belgian one who is back in Belgium now) and I decided that we were going to language swap. She would teach me Afrikaans and, in return, I would teach her French. A much better swap for me as my French is rustier than my bike! Anyway, we had just taught each other the months of the year, so I decided that I should multitask and instead of just wasting time walking places, I would practice my Afrikaans while doing so. There I was, briskly walking to one of my many very important meetings and in what I thought was an ingenious form of time management, practicing my months. “Januarie, Februarie, Maart, April, Mai…” I had just reached Julie, when all of a sudden the man walking towards me shoots me a weird look and furtively crosses to the other side of the street, mid-block, almost getting hit by a surprised driver in the process. Some people just have no consideration for the safety of others! I’m sure wherever he was in a hurry to be could have waited until there was a safe place to cross...

Fair of Face

My dear friend, who I have been so thoughtfully refereing to as Prego for the last couple enteries...is no longer. This is not to say she has departed this life for a better one among the heavens. It is simply that calling her Prego is officially a scientific inaccuracy. The parasite that for so long resided within her loins has chosen to depart and consume air and nutrients of its own accord. Thus I would like to welcome a new little Monday's child to our midst.

Welkom, liefie!

Oh boy!

I wasn’t going to update today, but I fear what the update will look like after the weekend, so I’m biting the bullet as they say.

I can’t believe I left it this long, but two weeks ago I spent the majority of the week planning for my friend’s baby shower. It was all very domestic as another friend and I spent the whole week baking cupcakes and cookies for the aforementioned English tea themed baby shower. The shower itself was on Saturday, July 11th. It was so much fun to meet all of Prego’s friends and play silly baby shower games. On a related note, store bought baby food is pretty disgusting and I vow to make any future children I may have homemade baby food…aka my dinner in a blender.

I don’t remember much of what I did the week after the baby shower because I’m lazy and it’s been so so long since I updated this. The weekend after that though, I went to SonB’s house for a braai and then we all went out on the town on Friday. EB has been doing field work, so he was able to use the van they rented for that purpose for his own desires on the weekend. So, on Saturday we went to explore Franschoek. Apparently there was not much to explore, besides chocolate tasting at a Belgian chocolate factory and even that was done for the day. But it was fun to drive around and we went wine tasting at Solms Delta. Then on Sunday I went to the aquarium with the same work friend I planned the baby shower with, her sister and little nephew. We watched the sharks being fed and laughed as her nephew alternated between asking where we were going and telling my friend to go faster.

Classes started up again on the 20th, so overnight Stellies went from completely deserted to much too overpopulated. This also meant that my new roommate moved back from being home for the winter holidays. I got to meet a bunch of his friends and went out with them to facilitate roommate bonding. They seem nice enough, but maybe not the kind of people I would normally hang out with. Then last weekend I had my medal test, which I already told you about and am still smiling when I think of. Sunday I just hung out with friends and went to see The Hangover, which is hilarious and I highly recommend it…for the strong of stomach at least. Overall a pretty chill weekend.

This week everything started back up. It was the first trivia night I went to in a while. I think my team is a little rusty. We started off well, but got progressively worse as the night went on. Next time though…I’m thinking we’ll win something! Then on Wednesday, I went sparkling wine and nougat tasting at JC le Roux (is it just me or does that sound like a stripper name?), which was so very delicious! Then we went to Prego (who is going to hate me calling her this)’s house for dinner and watched a movie. Finally, Tuesday was EB’s birthday, but since he just got back to the field yesterday, we went out for 363 days early birthday party, which was lovely.

The End!

Blue Suade Sneakers

I didn’t fail!!!!! I had my medal test for dance today. The medal test, if you don’t remember, is where you dance in front of judges and they determine what level you dance at and give you a certificate accordingly. I did the Social 1 level, which means I danced rhythm foxtrot, cha cha and boogie. As most of you know I don’t have a partner for dance and spend much of the time dancing with my invisible partner, Ramone. Unfortunately, if you want to do intervarsity (compete against other schools), you need a partner. As I wish to do this, I’ve been trying to get a partner for a while, to no avail. But today, in addition to not failing, I got a partner to not fail with! He is lovely and shall be referred to from this point on as DP (dance partner…how original). [Side note: please let me know if these acronyms are useful or just irritating] Despite only having about 20 minutes to get used to dancing with each other, we both got a "highly commendable" on our little report cards. That is we scored one below "honours", which is the highest you can score. I’m thinking that once we get used to each other we may not fail at intervarsity as well :-)

I’ll update the rest of my past two weeks a bit later on, but I just wanted to share the happy news with you all! Now I must get read to watch the rugby and go to the Robbie Wessels concert tonight. Ciao for now!

Home Sweet New Home

Remember when I said that I was about to run out of electricity any day. Well I haven’t yet. You’d be surprised how little electricity you use when you’re only at home to sleep…well maybe you wouldn’t. Anyway after knocking on the doors of various neighbours to no avail, I finally found someone to help me. And by help me I mean she asked me if I had a card and when I said no, she came over and showed me that I did and it was right in front of me. Sometimes you just need other people to point out your idiocy, you know, just for fun. But long story short: now I have electricity and the ability to get even more if necessary!

I finally went back to the residence I was staying in for the first half of my SA experience to get my back. As I was riding it back to my new flat, it seemed strangely hard to ride. Following a random hunch I stood up on the bike and jumped up and down. Yup, both tires were extremely flat. Well, I suppose that’s what happens when a bike doesn’t get ridden for 5 months plus. So my mission for today is to re-inflate tires and get oil in an attempt to de-rust the now completely rusted chain. I kinda feel bad. It’s like looking at your child all grown up and realizing the effects of accumulated neglect over the years.

Weekenders

I went with some friends into Cape Town on Saturday. There’s this little market called the Old Biscuit Mill, which is, shockingly enough, at an old biscuit mill. There was tons of good food and I ended spending way to much money on bread, cheese, pesto and other delicious goodies! There was this one guy selling raw organic chocolate that he had made. It was amazing. Raw chocolate tastes very different from the chocolate we’re normally used to. It is a lot richer and his kind was sweetened with agave nectar and coconut oil. I can’t wait to bring Mom there; she’s going to love it! After the market we went to Green Point stadium, where some of the 2010 World Cup games will occur. It is still under construction, so we didn’t get to go in, but it looks like it’s going to be gorgeous. There was even a performance by the “janitor” that gave us into the history of that area and a little bit about Cape Town in general! Then Sunday, I hiked up Stellenbosch Mountain…for real this time. I made it all the way to the top and had a nice, if excessively long, chat with a philosophy PhD student when I reached the top! I guess sometimes you need to tell your life's story to a random stranger, but I know I've never got that urge.

Standing on Guard for Thee

We had a wonderful Canada Day on Wednesday. My fellow countrywoman here at the office and decided that South Africans needed to experience traditional Canadian dishes. After much debate and googling we came to the conclusion that we would expose them to the most carbohydrate and cholesterol enriched Canadian delicacies in the form of blueberry pancakes (real pancakes not those thin SA fakes) with Canadian maple syrup, East coast donairs, poutine (of course), Nanaimo bars and butter tarts. Ironically enough, I made the west coast dishes (blueberry pancakes and Nanaimo bars) and the NB native made the east coast ones. I officially feel I’ve done my part as a Canadian ambassador by exposing foreigners to Canadian food, music and culture! Especially that part of our culture where we emphasize stereotypes by having people come dressed as Mounties and lumber jacks.

Happy Canada Day, BC and the Yukon!!!

After weeks (or rather week) of preparation, I have finally moved in to my new pad. There was a little mayhem what with me not having a bed or a fridge and having to move out a day earlier than expected. But everything is all settled now…other than the fact that the electricity is on a pre-pay plan and may turn off any day now :P Good thing I don’t spend a lot of time at home.

It’s weird to be an international staying here for longer than 5 months. All the other internationals that I’ve met are leaving or have already left. I said goodbye to my roommate this morning. We went for a last breakfast together (not that we ever ate breakfast together before). I wish I had gotten to spend more time with her, but we were both very busy and it just never seemed to work out. Ahh, but that is life! Anyway, she will be missed and now I have an excuse to go to the Netherlands!

On a happier note, a co-worker has informed me that July 1st is also the Congo’s Independence Day!!! So happy Independence Day to all the Congoians (?) hat read my blog and happy Canada Day to the, all more likely, Canadians that read it :-)

Something About Scales and Libra

When I write this blog I keep finding myself trying to find a balance between letting you know what’s going on in my life and telling the random stories I would tell you if I could tell you in person. I’ve decided that for this posting I’m going to let you know what I’ve been up to lately to compliment the random stories I’ve been focusing on because...it’s all about balance.

The weekend before last I went to the Wacky Wine Weekend in Robertson with my supervisor’s sons and some of their friends. Robertson is a small town Northeast-ish of where I’m staying. Friday night we hung out at my supervisor’s eldest son’s house, hung out and had a braai. Then we stayed at a friend’s farm just outside of Robertson on Saturday night and braaied some more ‘cause that’s what South Africans do :-)

I am now going to list off vineyards that we went to even though you probably won’t know them, but this is really just so I will remember in the future. So, we went to Bon Courage Estate, De Wetshof Estate, Excelsior Estate, Graham Beck Wines, Montagne Cheese & Wine Shop, Rietvallei Wine Estate, Rooiberg, and Van Loveren. All of those and we didn’t even cover a quarter of the vineyards participating.

I came home with 4 bottles of wine…one of which I invented with new BFF. At Excelsior Estate you have the opportunity to blend, bottle and label your own wine. They had barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz and let you test out different combinations of them to come up with your very own blend…Wow! Ours was 60% Merlot, 40% Shiraz and 100% Delicious. It was really interesting to see how they cork and package the wine. However, I was most excited to do the Cabernet Wine Dive at Roodezandt Wines & Vineyards. Unfortunately, you can only go swimming in red wine for diamonds on Saturday, which we didn’t realize until Sunday morning.

Then last weekend I went rock climbing with guy-who-flipped-me-upside-down-at-sokkie (from now on known as SG unless I come up with something better) and some of his friends in Montagu (near Robertson). I had my first rock climbing experience on Saturday when I climbed up a route that was 15 (i.e. not very) in difficulty if that means anything to you. It was really fun…especially when I got to go down and jump against the rock. I don’t know if I’ll take it up permanently, but I would call my first attempt a success! I attempted to do another route on Sunday, but I didn’t make it very far before falling off. My excuse is that I wasn’t feeling motivated enough; I didn’t have the desire for the top so much as the desire for a nap.

Me and the Mystery of the Illegal Harvesting

I finally hiked up Stellenbosch Mountain yesterday. When I say hiked up, I mean walked around. I started out and as I got closer to the mountain I noticed that it was not one, but in fact three peaks. Obviously I wanted to climb the highest one because...well what would be the point otherwise. Of course, the highest one is also the furthest away, so I start walking around the base to get to a trail leading up to my desired peak. However, the walking around was significantly less exciting than hiking up, but there was still no trail. After a couple attempts and bushwacking and getting driven back by poke-y bushes, I gave up and started telling myself stories to keep it interesting.

When I was a kid I was really into Nancy Drew books and other mysteries. This, combined with the active imagination of my youth, resulted in a lot of my time spent observing things and creating mysteries out of them. An example one of my best friends back home might remember, is when we were sleeping out in my bowler trailer and observed my neighbours preparing to get drunk and murder someone with a baseball bat. Now there was probably a more reasonable explanation to them walking into the house with a cooler and baseball bat, but there definitely wasn't a more interesting one.

Along a similar trend I decided to create a mystery for my little hiking adventure. As I was walking I heard a chainsaw and saw some people cutting down trees in a nearby stand. Being both a forester and detective at heart, I decided this must be investigated. This intestigation involved me sneaking up on them in the bushes and talking to myself. Then running away in mock terror when they happened to walk my way. I figure if I keep doing stuff like this randomly, I'm going to go down in history as a local hero.

A Loving Memory

I made a new friend last night
In a rather unorthodox way
He snuck up behind me on the couch
And happily made my day

We spent the night dancing
Bad music on the radio
My moves may have scared him
But he barely let it show

I just love everything he does
The way he blinks his eyes closed
To his honey-eating face
And ticklish little toes

But there comes a time
For each loving parent
When baby has to leave
Go pay his own rent

That day came too quickly
On my hand he lay curled
Left the warmth of my hand
Victim to the cold dark world

It was nice while it lasted
Not sure if I was ready
Please come back and visit
I miss you, Freddy <3

Bun there

I started apartment hunting Monday as I'm getting kicked out of residence at the end of June. Compared to when I first got here and was looking for a place, there were so many nice places. However, based on my two requirements of "in town" and "sane roommate", I've found a really nice place! It's a little two bedroom right next to main campus. My seemingly sane roommate will be a nice second year Afrikaans boy. More to come on him once I actually know his quirks :)

I've just learned that in order to take the medal test necessary to compete in ballroom dancing I'll need to put my hair in a bun. Those of you who know me (which I'm assuming is all of you), know that I don't like putting my hair up at all let alone in a way that makes it look neat. This was one of the reasons I quit ballet at the age of 5. I'm afraid this is a pretty big deterant of my future dancing career. I feel I've reached a crucial crossroads in my life...should I take the road less travelled? Should I, God forbid, wear my hair in a *shudder* bun?

Oh and remember when I told you my arm hurt was beginning to hurt less?...I fell down the stairs again. Now I have a range of motion equivalent to that of Barbie. Hopefully this will expand my career possibilities...seems to work for her!

Wha Bam Bam

You know when you go to a party and while trying to find the washroom, you instead find some random dude sitting in a room by himself? Yea, I’m that guy. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I’m folding laundry while watching Big Bang Theory.

Now, I have been told I am neglecting you people and that this makes me sound as if I am not having fun in SA. I hope to remedy that with this update.

I fell down the stairs the other day and now my elbow hurts. But it hurts less than yesterday, so I’m not complaining...despite appearances (this is a bad start in the remedy-ing department).

Last week my boss was away on vacation. This resulted in a less than optimum quantity of work being completed. On a happier note, this week has been shockingly efficient and I hope to finish the week on the same trend.

Another highlight of this week was new BFF teaching me how to play a game called Bao. I have been informed that this is akin to African chess, and I suppose this is valid as it requires thinking ahead many moves to anticipate those of your opponent. My brother, assuming he actually reads this, will know this game as the game you use to gain intelligence points at the training village in the not-so-popular-outside-of-my-house “Quest for Glory”.

I must now go socialize as my flat has become infested with people I don’t know...more on this week a bit later.

Belated Tripping

And another much too long blog...apologies in advance

Day 1

The original plan was to fly from Cape Town to East London in the morning then make the 4 hour drive to our both figurative and literal Haven on the Wild Coast of SA, but "technical difficulties" and lost luggage inhibited both the leaving of CT and EL respectively. After a hectic time at various airports we decided not to let the airport officials spend over 4 hours driving to and, more importantly, trying to find The Haven and just stay the night in EL to get the suitcase in the morning.

Day 2

Unfortunately, this decision resulted in us not making it to the Haven in time to go to the nature reserve with the rest of the PennState people. This is the point in my story telling where I realize that I'm not in the mood for story telling and will just tell you the highlights ever so briefly (I say briefly, but really you should know better by now).

Highlight #1:
Having wonderful meals cooked for me every night. One night we even had live entertainment, where everyone working in the kitchen came out to sing in a sort of congo line.

Highlight #2:
The confused zebra wandering around the hotel grounds with the horses.

Highlight #3:
There were students from University of Cape Town (UCT) studying climate, one of which wanted to interview me for his project. The interview consisted of me being head of my own windfarm and having to make decisions on how much power to promise people based on various weather predictions. He was looking at the factors people take into account when making decisions. After this we started talking and I mentioned I recently took up ballroom dancing. He dances as well, so we go outside to try a move...sound familiar? The move consists of me standing beside him one minute and the next minutes...standing beside him...? At some point I spun backwards over his arm, but it beats me at which moment that was. Even when he dropped me...one minute I was standing, the next I was lying on the ground. Fun, but I was definitely less prepared for this than the upside down move.

Highlight #4:
The UCT students were studying weather patterns in the area and one day they had to release and track a weather balloon every three hours for a full 24 hours. It was really cool to watch and one of the students taught us how to read the equipment and explained what it all meant. A PennState student and I were so interested that they suggested we try it for real and let us track a balloon. We lost it in the beginning, but eventually recovered and were able to track it for 12 minutes (they averaged 25 minutes and the record was around 40). Not bad for a couple rookies.

Highlight #5:
One of the most interesting things about this trip was when the professors organized with the head of the hotel to let us meet with the Chief of the area. We got to ask him questions to learn about his role within the community and some of the issues he is dealing with. He talked about how some aspects of their life were better under apartheid (obviously not in so many words), his perception of the current government and their hope for the future. I found it interesting how the issue of government versus community control of the land, paralleled First Nations land claims in Canada. It's funny how all over the world people are really just repeating the same set of conflicts over and over.

Quickness

Hey all!

I just wanted to say hi and that I'm going away for a week with a group of professors from PennState. We're going to explore the Eastern Cape province and just generally be fantastic. This means that I probably won't be able to update you until I get back. So you will have to hold out on the fantastic until then, at which point there will be another excessively long posting letting you know what I got up to. You have been warned!

Love and rockets!

Kaptein span die seile

OM and I went to sokkie at the main student building on campus. I already explained sokkie, but for the few that refuse to go back and read my old postings it is essentially a fantastic form of dancing done to terribly hilarious Afrikaans music (ie. anything Kurt Darren) with some random rock thrown in for good measure.

When we arrived there was no one there…well there were three couples and us, so for all intents and purposes no one. We had fun jumping around and practicing our air guitar knee slides to the music, while the couples tried to dodge us. Then my friends showed up and OM had her first sokkie experience! Oh the excitement! We were all dancing and changing partners, as is pretty standard for a sokkie, and then the boy-who-is-soon-to-be-my-new-best-friend-little-does-he-know (or just “my new bff” for short) found out that I like to be spun, possibly from the look of shear joy that passed over my face every time he spun me. This resulted in a fantastically convoluted dance move, where I was constantly spinning and he basically flung me around at an increasingly fast pace. It got to the point where even he lost control and I went flying across the room. Sokkie is honestly a viable motive for me to move here permanently or at least for longer than a year!

Just before my new bff left, he introduced me to one of his friends who is one of the regulars at sokkie night. I had been dancing with him for a while and when we took a break he was telling his friend about a new dance move he had just learned and asked if I would mind demonstrating. He had been dipping me to gain my trust, so I consented to this “new move”. So this move consists of standing at a right angle to the guy on his right hand side. Then you wrap your left leg in front of his body and around his waist, when he takes a step back to jump up with your other leg and cross it, then slowly lets you down until you’re essentially vertical…but upside down. I’m not saying we aced it, but it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done dancing and thus must be practiced!

But now I’m tired, sweaty and I think I might have a mild case of whip lash, so it’s time for a shower and bed. Night!

Drugs = Proactive Health Care

I now fully understand why we keep stealing South African doctors. They are just too wonderful. The extremely rare times I go see a doctor in Canada; they listen to a couple of my symptoms, tell me I’m probably fine and kick me out. Granted this is possibly because I tend to go to walk-in clinics and not my family doctor, but the point still stands. This doctor, however, listened to all my symptoms, checked out my symptoms (I don’t even remember the last time someone checked my blood pressure), asked me questions, listened to the answers, and called my t-shirt a blouse (I love South Africans, they make everything sound classier).

The first thing he asked me after I described my symptoms was “Coffee?” meaning…have I been drinking an excess of coffee lately and not was I interested in consuming some, which would have been nice. This got me thinking. I wonder how many students come in during exam time (as now is SA exam time) with caffeine overdoses. Furthermore, is a caffeine overdose a legitimate reason to postpone an exam? ‘Cause that’s a pretty easy medical condition to inflict on yourself…not that I would ever do that…nope.

On a related note I realized that today is International Feel Sorry for Yourself day.

In addition to this I have recently (as of 30 minutes ago) discovered that Chris Leavens, the inventor of IFSFY day, is having his first live show anywhere near Vancouver in Victoria on May 30. First Bloodhound Gang and now Cute with Chris Live…why are all these awe-inspiring people playing shows near my home for the first time when I’m on the other side of the world.

Can we just take a moment to discuss what a horrible person I am?

I was originally planning on going to the formal ball with just OM. We got similarly themed dresses (I’m a woodland sprite and she’s a water sprite) and everything was lovely. Then I found someone to go with, so I felt obligated to find a date for OM, too, so it’s not all third wheel-y and awkward (and the tickets are cheaper, which is always a plus). So I went to dance class today with the intention of finding OM a date. I had danced with this one guy last class who I thought would be a suitable dance partner for my beloved OM. After class I went up to him, while they were making announcements about the formal and the following conversation ensued.

“Are you going to the formal?” say I.

“I’m not sure yet,” replies the poor boy I am about to brutally humiliate.

“You should go with my friend?”

“Why your friend?”

“Well, I already have a date.”

“Ok well give me your number, I’ll check my schedule and get back to you”

“Are you leaning towards yes or no?”

“Yes”

Now as I’m saying fantastic, one of the committee members I was talking to earlier calls me over saying he found a date for my friend. So I walk over to this guy, introduce myself and he says that he would love to go with my friend, he just wants to meet her first. See now, so far, this isn’t so bad, but this is the turning point at which I become a horrible person. I turn around and say to this poor soul…

“Sorry, you’re cut.”

Loudly…with a hand gesture…in front of his friends and what remained of our dance class.

Then, in an attempt to make it better I say “She’s a hot commodity, you should’ve snatched her up while you had the chance.” ‘Cause I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. It was honestly an attempt to lighten the situation, but really? That’s all I could come up with.

They should just shoot people like me and put the world out of it’s misery.

Sodie Pop

Work has gotten a lot more interesting now that I have the program and can start working with the GIS data. Due to the increased interest on my part, I have also become a lot more efficient in my work schedule.

There was a wine and cheese festival this weekend in Franshoek, which I went to with OM and another girl from work. It was fantastic. I got to try wines from a couple vineyards I’ve been hoping to visit and was able to weed out the ones I actually will go visit later on.

On Sunday and Monday, I went with OM to Cape Town. We went to Robbins Island, which was incredibly interesting. It helped that I am reading Long Walk to Freedom because I was able to pick out different political prisoners that were held there and how they were related. Also, all the tour guides on the island are former prisoners. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for them. Imagine having to give tours and tell your story over and over again in the place you were held prisoner and beaten for years based on your political beliefs. They are braver men than I.

The next day we hiked up Table Mountain. Something I’ve wanted to do since the age of 11 when I discovered its existence. It was absolutely beautiful although the hike up was practically vertical…worth every minute :)

Also, I’ve finally gotten my dance shoes, which I love in every way. I thought my feet would get sore after dancing in them for an hour, but they feel like I’ve been wearing them for years.

I flooded my bathroom

You see, it takes a little time for the water to go down the drain for whatever reason. Usually this isn’t a problem because by the time the water has reached almost overflowing levels, I’m done my shower. Yesterday, however, I decided to take a bit longer in the shower as it was really cold out and I didn’t want to leave. Consequently, my bathroom floor is covered in a good 5 millimeters of water.

Now I’m just letting it air dry, which is probably a bad idea due to mold and other such microorganisms, but if I use my towel to dry it up I’ll have to wash my towel and I’m not due to do laundry for another week or so.

Road Trippin'

So there you’ve sat for 6 long days. Body a quiver. Breath bated. Waiting to see if I survived the long and arduous road trip...of doom. Well let me put your mind at ease, still your body, let you take that next breath. I have. Obviously. Or I wouldn’t be writing this. Although I must say, it didn’t begin as well as it ended. We got the car (named Lily because all my cars must have flower names as of...now) on Thursday afternoon and after taking Lily for a few spins around the parking lot, I decided I was ready to drive to our pre-Easter dinner. Who would have thought that at the beginning of a long weekend there would be police road blocks leaving the city? Not me, that’s for sure. Due to the whole inability to drive stick thing, it was light out when we left but 5kms and about 30 minutes later it was dark out. The thing about driving in the light versus driving in the dark is that when you’re driving in the dark, it’s dark...so you need your lights on. Or so the lovely South African police that stopped us told me...after showing us how to turn the lights on (honestly though, who puts the lights on some tiny switch in between the steering wheel and car door). He then proceeded to give us a R300 ticket and notify me, the day before our 4 day road trip, that my driver’s license isn’t valid in South Africa because it only says Class 5 on it and I could be showing him my pilot’s license for all he knows. At this point I’m thinking why did I correct him when he spelled my name wrong and give him my real address. Honesty is overrated.

So now, I can’t legally drive without an international driver’s permit and OM just has a photocopy of her license. And the road trip begins...

Day 1

The trip starts off well enough. I drive in the morning when there’s less traffic. I almost ran into the curb while trying to part too fast in Coledon, but other than that it goes pretty well driving-wise. We stop in a cute little town called Swellendam for lunch and eat sandwiches by the road side. A little girl came and sat beside us while we ate, but didn’t say anything until we got up to leave and then mumbled something about 1 rand. It was really sweet and incredibly sad at the same time, so we gave her some of our food.

Our next stop was the wonderfully sandy beaches of Wilderness. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen, so I had to jump in the water. The huge waves knocked me over and I ended up being covered in sand for the rest of the day. I think I was still finding sand in my hair and ears for the rest of the weekend. We had to go to the bathroom at this point, so we stopped by this expensive looking coffee shop and had to order something in order to use the bathroom as there was nothing else around. Best idea, it was the best coffee I’ve had in SA yet.

Finally we got to our evening’s destination, Knysna, and found our way to the cute little backpacker’s where we were to spend the night, where we ran into some forestry friends and people that helped me out with trivia one night...small country. We went to the waterfront area for dinner and when we got back OM realized that she had left her credit card at the bank. This resulted in a lot of driving around and trying to call Belgium to get the card cancelled. An eventful evening to an otherwise vacation-y day.

Day 2

We wake the next morning only to find out that the car parked beside ours was broken into in the middle of the night. All the cars had hand smears on them where someone had looked in to see if there was anything valuable enough to steal. Thankfully we had taken everything with us into the hostel, except some food that was hidden away in the trunk. The poor people had to smash away what remained of their window, but it didn’t seem like too much had been stolen.

After rechecking the bank again for the missing credit card we drove to Tsitsikamma National Park to go on a short hike. We did the 20min. walk to the suspension bridge, the first suspension bridge OM had ever been on and not much compared to Capilano. Then decided that this wasn’t enough hiking for us and decided to take the waterfall trail recommended to us by my boss’s son. This turned out to be less of a hike and more like boulder hopping (ie. more fantastic), but the waterfall was more like a trickle of water off a very big cliff than it was a waterfall and the plunge pool was unfortunately too cold to sleep in. And by sleep I mean swim...and sleep. On our way back we took a less than voluntary detour up a million and one steps and back down them again.

At this point of the road trip OM’s toe, which hurt when we started out, has become infected and is oozing pus, no thanks to our hike. I swear, she is the unluckiest person I have ever met. So we decide to stop in the next town, Humansdorp, to try and find a doctor or medical clinic. The first turn we take leads us to a privet hospital. Jackpot! But apparently there were no doctors there to look at her foot nor would the nurse give us disinfectant for it. So off we drive...next stop: Addo Elephant Park, our final destination. Easier said than done. We decide to skip going through Port Elizabeth due to rumours of it being sketchy and confusing and take a “shortcut” through Uitenhage. As is the case with most first attempts at shortcuts, we got lost and couldn’t find the turn off for Addo. We went to the information center, but it was closed due to it being 6pm on a Saturday. Next door there was a restaurant run by a potentially Scottish couple. They were incredible sweet and instead of just giving us directions or drawing us a map, the lady of said couple drove us to the road we were supposed to be on. Thus, reinstating any faith I had lost in people.

At this point it’s getting dark, but finally we arrive at the park, 20 minutes before the gates are closed for the night. Starving at this point, we go to the park restaurant for dinner. I had a kudu steak for dinner, which tastes kind of like deer or moose, but different in a way I can’t put my finger on. OM had ostrich, which I didn’t like as much due to the weird texture and the fact that it’s a bird whose meat looks like tenderized beef. The cottage we had rented was super cute and one of the ritziest places I’ve stayed in on my own.

Day 3

The idea was to wake up early to go into the park and see all the animals because animals are smarter than people and hide when it’s too sunny out. However, as with all plans, that didn’t pan out too well. Although we missed the lions that were at the watering hole in the morning, we saw lost of animals throughout the park, like elephants, warthogs, kudu (both a delicious and adorable animal), an eland, a leopard tortoise, many dung beetles, ostriches, blue cranes and redknobbed coots. We spent most of the time droving around the park dodging elephant poo and dung beetles (which are much larger than I ever anticipated). When we got back to the Main Camp there was a little boy with only one shoe on and he was cute.

Next we drove to a game ranch nearby the village of Addo where they raise lions and crocodiles. There we got the chance to play with baby lions. It was so adorable. They would kind of bat at you with their claws out and I’d just think to myself “Aww, but no. You’re still a lion”

When we arrived at Tsitsikamma for the night and were just getting ready to go to dinner, I heard a little girl outside talking about tadpoles she found. I ran outside to see the tadpoles too and the kids (the girl and a little boy) asked me if I wanted to go on an adventure to see their “secret place”. Seeing as I love adventures, I asked OM’s permission to have a later dinner and joined the little explorers. We went through a secret tunnel and then hung out catching frogs on the other side. Then we went up a cliff to see a waterfall and up an even steeper cliff to see where it leads to. At this point the little boy and I were worried that are respective parents and OM would yell at us for taking so long, so we finally convinced the little girl to leave and walked home. Walking home involved jumping between slippery creek rocks and when I jumped on a slanted one, I slowly slid into the water, futilely grasping at twigs on my way down. This resulted in me having to walk home with one leg of my pants soaked in creek water serenaded by the mocking laughter of my fellow explorers. When we finally got back, the girl’s mom seemed creeped out by me and gave me a dirty look. However, the little boy’s dad seemed a combination of amused by me and jealous that I got to see the secret place, but they wouldn’t tell him about it. Dinner was delicious though.

Day 4

Today’s plan was to drive to Knysna again and ride forest elephants through the, well, forest for two hours. What with it being Easter Monday or “Family Day” and all, the elephant ride place was closed. A pity, but at least we get home earlier than anticipated. We stopped in Knysna for coffee and to check on the whole credit card situation; to no avail. Then Swellendam again for lunch and drove pretty much the whole way home without incident. When we got to Sir Lowry Pass, there was the biggest traffic jam I have ever visibly been in. The entire mountain road was full of cars until you reached the bottom where it barely seemed to spread out before becoming another traffic jam. We proceeded to put the car in neutral and braked every two seconds on our way down the mountain. After a couple hours of this we left the highway and made it home safe and sound, with Lily all in one piece!

Story time is over.

Adventures in Land Transport

Last night was supposed to be my evening of dancing, dinner and a movie. The perfect little date for myself. However, I went to dance class and the door was shut with no one to be seen, although apparently it may have just been in a different room... Dinner was fun, OM made me something along the lines of spaghetti carbanara, but not in the same way I make it. And painstakingly cut all the bacon up and off the bone because she couldn’t find real bacon at the grocery store. It was delicious! For the movie, I went with another friend to see Monsters vs. Aliens; a classic film that I would recommend to all ages. Apparently Hugh Laurie was in it, to me delight, which really just made the whole experience more fantastic.

Today OM tried driving in preparation for our road trip. She seemed nervous when she came back, so I organized an impromptu lesson with a coworker's boyfriend. So, in event of an emergency I would be able to drive however badly it was. And...

I did it! I drove standard. I got in the car, made it move and got it to reach a destination without invoking horrific cries from my co-pilot. Really what more could you ask for in a transportation experience?

Life is a highway

Everybody left Saturday morning ‘cause the students have a week long break here, so it’s disturbingly quiet. When I came home from unexciting shopping Saturday afternoon my only roommate that’s still around asks me what I’m doing that night. I tell him I’m hosting a satellite Bloodhound Gang concert (since they’re playing a show in California that I would’ve gone to if I wasn’t here) and he says that sounds cool, what is it? To which I reply that it consists of my listening to Bloodhound Gang and dancing around my room with a couple friends, but he’s welcome to join us if he wants. “Oh,” he says, “interesting.” Then goes on to explain that he’s doing something similar and I’m welcome to join him if my posse and I so choose.

Flash forward to a couple minutes later. I’m in my room checking to see if I’m missing in Bloodhound Gang songs and all of a sudden my roommate turns his music on and it begins reverberating off the world. He is on the other side of the building from me and it sounded like it was coming from just outside my window. Those are some acoustics! Needless to say there is no way my little laptop speakers can compete with the thunder, the ubiquitous power that is whatever kind of electronics he has in his room. Well, when you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! So I spent the time until my friends got there outside with his friends: listening to music, learning and promptly forgetting people’s names, talking about the differences in our various countries and other slightly less cliché things.

I’m a little disappointed I never had my satellite concert, but my roommate was nice enough to play a couple of their songs for me, and I really do mean me as no one else liked or cared about them...so underappreciated *sigh*

Sunday brought a much more relaxing time as I spent the whole day doing chores and reading in my room. Later that night I went to a friend from work’s house for a braai and a dip in her hot tub. A very relaxing and wonderful end to the weekend. And I learned more about South African Idol than I had ever hoped to know, which is...interesting.

Yesterday I found out my supervisor isn’t going to be here for most of the week, so I have a stack of things to do and am struggling trying to find the motivation to do them all before he gets back. I also found out that this weekend is a four-day long weekend and not just a paltry three-day one. This means that instead of going to Cape Town for the weekend, OM and I have decided to rent a car and do part of the garden route, making for a very hectic day of planning and trying to find places to stay on late notice, on a long weekend, while all the university students are out of school for a week. Always fun...

But it’s all organized now, so the only issue is that I have to learn to drive standard in the couple hours we have Thursday night before we leave Friday morning. I’ll let you know how that goes...

Much too early adventures

Last night was absolutely horrible. It was so hot out I spent most of the night drenched in sweat and having dreams about drowning. I thought it was supposed to be almost fall. What the hell is this?

Today I was lending my bike to OM because a) someone should use it, and b) she had to go far and bring back a lot of groceries. So I leave my door open ‘cause I’m only going to be gone for a second and really what would they steal. My laptops on its last legs and it’s not like I’m into high end fashion, although I have a couple library books that I want to finish...maybe next time I’ll lock the door. So my door’s wide open, but so is my window. Then the wind came. It was really more of a breeze, but the pressure change caused my door to slam, locking me out. See this sucks, but it isn’t that big of an issue. I just knock on the door and get my roommate to open. Wait, she’s gone for a week. Ok, so I go to the office and get them to use the master key. That’s weird, why won’t the door to the office open? Oh right. It’s Saturday and the office is closed on weekends. That’s ok they have a number I can call if I need something. But my phone’s in my house. Ok so I wait for someone to walk past and ask to use their phone. Ha! Fat chance finding someone awake at 10 on a Saturday morning at the beginning of Easter week break in a university residence. Hmm think think. Go to the store and ask if you can use their phone. They say ‘sure, but why don’t you just go and ask security’. So I do and they tell me to go to the maintenance guy’s house on the other side of the complex. I make the trudge all the way there just to find out that he isn’t home and trudge back. Then security calls the campus security people for me and they come to cut my lock off. So now I have to leave my room unlocked and go buy a new one and when my roommate comes home from her trip she’s going to be locked out.

As my American roommates say FML

The End of the Rice Era

I finished all the rice up last night, which in itself was a feat of brilliance on my part. I decided that I would just make pudding with the last of it and if it tasted horrible, well I was going to throw it out anyway. Despite the fact that it had lentils in it, it tasted pretty good. Maybe less good this morning for breakfast, but it’s done! Forever! I’m not eating rice for a month.

Last night I went to my second trivia night of the week. My mind must have temporarily left my body when I agreed because I went with the trivia master, a guy from one of the best and smallest teams, and a professor hand-picked by the trivia master himself. And then there’s me, the only one still doing my undergrad and the youngest by a long shot. I’m just going to blame that…I’ve just had less time in my short little life to learn random facts. Right…We won despite my best efforts by one point. I like to think I had something to do with that due to my contribution of knowing the gangs from West Side Story and what you put on waffles if they’re ‘a la mode’. I was surprised to learn that everyone doesn’t know what ‘a la mode’ means…mmmm ice cream. Shocking revelation.

I think the most embarrassing part of the night was when we tied with another team and I had to go up and answer questions (we were taking turns). My poor component and I must have been up there for 10 minutes. Just neither of us could get the questions right. I finally got one and then the next one would be the only one he’d know, too. I’m just glad he was as random fact illiterate as me. There’s something about being up there that just makes all logic go out the door. Example: What famous prison was the movie ‘The Rock’ about? Even if you didn’t know, there are very few famous prisons in the world, but none of them came into my head. Stupid Alcatraz.

To end on a happy note: Yay rice!

Happy Me Day!

As you may or may not have realized Me Day Eve was a Tuesday. This means that my after-work-time involves ballroom dancing (or my new Afrikaans word of the day: langarm) followed, of course, by trivia.

Since I’m an idiot, I thought dance started an hour before it actually did, so I walked all the way across campus and had to kill an hour. I went to the library and decided to read a couple chapters of Long Walk to Freedom and came to the conclusion that Nelson Mandela is a really good writer and, despite the length of his autobiography, I think I could finish it relatively quickly...at least faster than As I Lay Dying (not that that’s saying much)

When I get to the building my dance lesson is in, the first thing I think is “wow they’re playing the music really loudly”. I go upstairs to the room and there’s a note on the door saying the lesson has been moved downstairs. That’s downstairs in the middle of the cafeteria. At 6 o’clock. In the middle of the cafeteria! Now, normally, I have few qualms about dancing in front of large crowds of people...we all remember the sokkie incident of 2009. The thing with this particular dance class is that, not unlike any dance class, there are more girls than boys. The instructor’s solution to this very common problem is not to have some of the girls do the boy parts, but to make the girls without partners dance behind a girl already dancing with a guy. That is, the girl who was already rejected by all the boys to the point where she is forced to dance alone (i.e. me), is also forced to creepily hover behind some poor couple in the hopes that eventually the guy will notice and pity dance with her. This isn’t so horrible in a classroom setting where everyone realizes that I’m doing what I’ve been told to do and it’s not an act of pathetic desperation. However, the rest of the people in the cafeteria, sitting around attempting to enjoy their dinner while Mambo No. 5 plays on repeat and a mass of people in front of them awkwardly dance with each other, do not know this. That is why I left.

And I mean lime

I went to the rugby game last night and witnessed the destruction of a young man’s future. This poor, unfortunate soul could barely stand let alone walk and was clothed in not but a Borat-style, lime green “swimsuit”. If my parents are reading this and don’t know what that is...please, for your own sake, don’t Google it. I’m sure if this kid had been a little more lucid he would have been very embarrassed. It didn’t help the situation when people started taking pictures and the frat boys behind us started throwing empty beer cans at him. What started out as funny turned sad much too quickly. Other than that the game was pretty standard. Kurt Darren came out to sing a few sounds and the national anthem, and I came to the realization that he will be my future husband and serenade me to sleep with much too perky Afrikaans music every night and we’ll live happily ever after.

Oh and it was a close call, but we won the rugby game in the end. Meaning that we’ve won 100% of all Varsity Cups (ie. we’ve won the two they’ve had since it was created). Go Maties!

The Cutest Thing Since Sliced Bread

On Friday I went out with some friends from trivia night, which was super fun (despite the fact that, apparently, they are all lawyers). I learned, to my intense delight that the pub we go to for trivia, isn’t the only pub in Stellies that has a trivia night. This means that I could potentially go answer random questions with strangers for 3 nights of the week!!! I honestly don’t think life could get much better than this (yes I do, if they had Tim Horton’s and I had friends to play Trivial Pursuit with in it) and I most certainly don’t know how I lived before this. I could legitimately move to SA for this reason alone.

As fun as Friday night was I had to be in bed by 10 (which ended up being closer to 11:30) to get my much needed somehow never successful beauty rest due to the fact that I had to get up at 6 Saturday morning. Yes, morning. Supervisor’s son and a friend were going diving for crayfish, so my officemate (OM) and I tagged along thinking we could chill on a sandy beach while they dove. However, getting to the specific diving spot they wanted required an hour long hike on a rocky beach (which was fantastic since I had initially wanted to go on a hike) and then sitting and waiting for them on more rocks. The latter was less fantastic. When we gave up and decided to lug all of their stuff to the sandy area so we could sit comfortably, all we received were complaints because now they’d have to rinse their equipment ‘cause it got all sandy. I know, how could we be so inconsiderate...I did have a lot of fun though :)

Saturday evening I participated in Earth Hour and I hope all of you did, too or we can’t be friends anymore. Then I spent a good three hours talking with OM’s boyfriend and best friend over skype and came to the following conclusion: Belgians are a wonderful people who like pigs and are almost as pretentious about their beer as Canadians.

Then today I spent cooking various things involving rice as outlined below in a sample menu:

Breakfast: vegetable fried rice
Lunch: tuna and rice casserole
Dinner: tomato and balsamic vinegar rice salad with leftover tuna and rice casserole
Tomorrow’s Breakfast: more vegetable fried rice
Tomorrow’s Lunch: still more tomato and balsamic vinegar rice salad
Tomorrow’s Dinner: I think you get the idea.

In between this rice cooking I spent the day lying on the grass drinking coffee and reading...aren’t I just the cutest thing since sliced bread. I finally finished As I Lay Dying, so yay!!!! Took me long enough...

Sadness

I almost forgot to tell you. Someone stole my beaver at the IFE. Who goes around stealing people's cartoon beavers?!?! Horrible, horrible people that's who...saddest moment of my life...

International Food

I don’t know what feat of mathematics had me convinced that I needed 7 kilos of dry rice to make 200 100mL samples. Let me try a reenactment:

1 cup of dry rice makes 4 cups (1000mL) of cooked rice, so each cup of dry rice should feed 10 people 100mL samples. 200 people divided by the 10/cup of dry rice means I need 20 cups of dry rice or just under 7 kilos (3 cups to a kilo).

Now somebody please tell me where I went so horribly wrong that when I got home last night I had 5 pots of rice to contend with...

I had got off work later than I intended due to an unexpected work load 15min before I had planned to leave...unfortunate. So when I got home I had to run around borrowing pots and elements from people as I only had 1 of the former and 2 of the latter. I scrambled together 5 pots and my cooking partner had another two. The elements I borrowed, however, were scattered all around the building requiring me to run up and down floors checking on 5 different pots of rice in various rooms to prevent burning and boiling over, and occasionally running to the other building to check on how my cooking partner was doing. It got to the point where my fellow Canadian said to pick two more pots that were almost done and stop cooking the rest of them. This resulted in my apartment being covered in 5 pots of half cooked rice. To my extreme pleasure by the time I got home at 10, they had finished cooking them selves and I didn’t have to worry about throwing out 5 pots of half cooked rice!

My fellow Canadian had about as relaxing an evening as I did in his attempt to obtain and cook the fish. We decided that fresh fish was a necessity, so he had to drive out to get it, then de-scale, gut, and de-bone it. All of which is easier said than done if all you have is a little paring knife.

I would say we could’ve benefited from a little more planning, but the food was made and enjoyed. Now I just have to deal with all this rice...ideas?

Rice-matics

I went to the grocery store today to stock up on rice for the International Food Event, but I made the mistake of not calculating how much we would need before getting to the store. It didn’t help that for some reason doing math in my head was just not working out for me. So I ended up sitting on the floor of the grains aisle surrounded by all different kinds of rice counting on my fingers.

Missing Sockeye and Cheese Curds

This is much harder to update this blog now that I have, as the kids say, irl (or "in real life") friends and am less desperate for people to listen to me ;) But I’ll try to do better and I know you all still love me.

Now I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to find out if my team won the potijkos competition? I hate to break all your hearts, but unfortunately we did not. I’m just going to blame drunk fire fighters for that one. They kept taking the mini-hose on all the chefs thereby killing the fire and causing distraction due to extreme anger and frustration. It’s good to know the city is in safe hands, hey? Anyway, our potjikos was absolutely delicious. Although I like to think that was all my doing, I can barely take any credit for cooking as all I did was hold a spoon and chop mushrooms…on separate occasions (the mushrooms were cut with a knife). We made an asian, chicken noodle type deal. I see why South Africans like potjikos though…it’s the same reason they like braais. They take so long to cook and get the fire just right that you spend most of the time drinking wine and socializing…kind of the perfect meal.


My next excitement of life is the International Food Event. I was originally going to make poutine for this because, really what’s more Canadian than cheese curds with gravy over fries…I’m inclined to say nothing, but bannock probably is…Anyway a fellow Canadian shot down this idea because to make poutine we would have to use baked, frozen fries, from powder gravy and some non-descript white cheese thereby making it not real poutine. Besides that’s really a Central Canada dish and we’re both from the West coast. So after hours of debate we settled on salmon and wild rice, unfortunately we have to settle for local salmon…it’s a little hard to get sockeye around here…mmm sockeye.

Last night, in preparation for the IFE I had an arts and crafts night with myself. I’m not going to lie, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I painted a flag and Doug Fir tree as well as making a little hippy beaver sidekick for us potentially named Mike from Canmore, but it’s still up for debate. I’ve never considered myself artistic, but the beaver turned out well…you can tell it’s a beaver and that’s really all I was going for. I even got together a bunch of Canadian music to showcase our country’s talent and came to the conclusion that most of what I listen to is Canadian. How patriotic am I?!? I’m just walking proof that the Canadian content law really works!

Finally, I came to the conclusion that all people should speak in their non-native languages by directly translating from their native tongue, that or without the use of verbs as both ways inflict the same level of hilarious confusion – This revelation brought to you by my new Belgian office mate.

Leprechauns from the old country

Ahhh people wearing green and bonding over a common love of spending countless hours in a haze of blissful delirium.

Hmm It’s like a forestry party.

The Wilds of Life

I forgot to tell you about my trip to Cape Point on Sunday. Some of the people I met at the braai on Friday invited me to go with them to Cape Point. On the way there, they were asking what I wanted to see in SA while I’m here and what I’ve seen already. I haven’t seen much yet, but the two things I really want to do are A) see penguins, and B) hike Table Mountain. So we went to Boulder beach on the way there to see all the penguins. Penguins are the most wonderful creatures on Earth…except for the biting. They were chasing each other around and splashing in the water in acts of utter cuteness. I also learned that they lose a lot of penguins when it’s hot out because they don’t know enough to just go into the water when they’re hot. Proof that nature says you can’t be both cute and smart at the same time…


As fantastic as the penguins were, seeing a man get chased by a baboon was possibly better. See baboons are like the seagulls of SA…except there are seagulls here, too. But what I mean is that if they see food, they’re going for it. So, this one baboon was chilling on the roof of a car and a man walks past thinking to himself, “Neat! Wildlife!” because most tourists think in one word sentences (I say that as if I’m not one, but I was guilty of holding a camera myself). Unfortunately, for the man he was holding a delicious looking empty pop bottle, which the baboon went straight for. This caused the man great distress and he proceeded to run around with his pelvis out to ensure it remained as far from the baboon as flexibility permitted. Needless to say I was extra stealthy getting into the car with my full water bottle as there was a baboon sitting on the car next to ours.


In other news, I’m getting an office mate today. I’m so excited, I love potential new friends!

Baby's First Braai

I got invited to my first braai, which is what the crazy people of this lovely country call a BBQ, on Friday, which was very exciting. I decided that I should combine my first braai evening with my first time eating ostrich, so it could be an exciting night of firsts. I go to the grocery store, my mind awash with the giddy excitement of 6 year old’s first day of school, to get ostrich. I bee line for the raw meat section and then the hunt begins. Beef. Lamb. Pork. Chicken. Ostrich? No luck. Finally I stop awkwardly wandering around and decide, in an unaccustomed moment of genius, to ask someone where the ostrich section is. After a confused look, she takes me to the “ostrich section”, which consists of one or two packages of ostrich hidden amongst chicken and various marinating meats. I pick up the package of ostrich and there are instructions on the back. Possibly the most intimidating instructions I’ve ever seen on a package of meat. Cook using olive oil. Make sure ostrich steak is 13.65 cm from the flame. Flip using tongs made of steel forged in the heavens. Needless to say I walked back over to the safety of beef. One can only take so many firsts.

After the braai, we went to club where I was told there would be sokkie or a sokkie or whatever is the grammatically correct way of saying sokkie was involved. Either way, it was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever experienced! There were boys…dancing. Not only were they dancing, but they were enjoying it. This wasn’t club dancing where you’re minding your own business one minute and getting assaulted from behind the next. This was the kind of dancing where you are held in a formal position and get spun around the room narrowly avoiding smacking into other people doing the same. In short, it was heaven. *sigh*

However, there was also normal dancing. At one point I’m dancing like a lunatic…as per usual, and this woman comes up to me and says something along the lines of “I like your dancing, but since you can’t actually hear me…” *thumbs up* I smile, nod and say thank you. Thinking this is the end of the conversation I turn to leave, but she grabs my arm and says something else. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you.” Nope. Can I spin on my head?!?! Whatever “dancing” I was doing before was a far cry from spinning on my head let alone any type of break dancing. The next question, actually posed as more of an order, can I do the splits. Ha! Unfortunately not, but she doesn’t seem to believe me. Now, I’m not going to lie, if I could do the splits I would work it into every conversation I had just so I could show off my skillz. We back and forth for a while about my lack of talent and her lack of understanding of this, until finally I just give in and show her my inability to do the splits. Bad idea…

Sometimes

I like to make Canadian bird calls to the South African birds to see if they're confused...I think it works

Pretty Kitty

I woke up this morning opened my window and there was this cat staring at me. “Awww,” you say, “how precious” And you’d be right. This was an adorable, kitty except for the massive bone hanging out of its mouth. Ok, I get that cats are carnivores, but this was no mouse or even a rat bone. It was, at the very least, the bone of a small child.

But what is the question?

In an attempt to meet people here, I’ve decided to join some clubs and maybe take some sort of…class. So I looked on the school website for what clubs they had and found out they had, among others, a dance society. I emailed this dance society along with a bunch of other clubs saying something along the lines of

“Hi! I’m Canadian. What do you do and how do I do it too?”

I got a reply back from the dance society (and the other clubs too, but we’re focusing here, people!) with the basics on how to join. Then I realized that I had a bunch more questions, so I kept emailing this guy back and forth. I really don’t know how he put up with me, but now I’m really excited to meet him. I’m not going to lie…a big part of that excitement is that he got my Hitchhiker’s Guide reference. But really now, it takes a special person (I know, I tested this by making the same reference to a bunch of people and receiving only confused looks in return). Yay for potential new friends!

More burning

Sunday March 8, 2009


Is it just me or is it bad when you can see a forest fire from your bedroom window? I don't think I've ever been this close to a burning forest. I was having dinner saturday night and I glance up from old episodes of Degrassi High to see a red glow from behind the mountain, "oh dear" I think to myself, "how unfortunate." Halfway through episode 2 I glance out my window again to see the flames peering over one side of the mountain. To put this into perspective Degrassi High episodes are 22min long without commercial breaks, so that fire is moving really freakin' fast. Anyway today, the entire upper ridge of the mountain is in flames. Now this is a small mountain by Vancouver standards, but it's big enough that I don't giggle when I say mountain. If I was able to get my pictures from my camera to my computer I would show you just how massive this fire is. I'll tell you one thing, I would not want to be one of the brave people fighting that fire tonight.

Side note: I feel like my feet are constantly dirty. I think it's the linoleum. I've never missed carpets' uncanny ability to lock in dirt more than I do now.

PROTEIN!

Something struck me today. I was working, editing a forestry handbook, and I noticed something very different from forestry in Canada. When they go into the human labourer aspect of forestry, it’s not just making sure your employees are comfortable and trees don't fall on them. It's make sure they don't get HIV/AIDS. I mean obviously, I knew AIDS was an issue here before I came, but it didn't occur to me just how much it affects people's everyday lives. Especially to the extent that you would have to worry about something that huge, as well as all the normal hazards, while you were at work.

I think the reality of all of this hasn't sunk in yet 'cause I'm not in real Africa...I'm in tourist destination Africa.

On a happier note, some relatives of mine from England are coming to visit! Small world, hey? They’re coming to do this million km cycling race that everyone I talk to seems to be doing. It was 41 degrees today, so I’ll be impressed if they get half way through it without collapsing. Some people are just crazy and I’ll never understand it. In actuality it sounds really cool. My supervisor and his son are doing it, too. I went with them to the registration place yesterday. There were all these booths set up selling cycling gear, vineyard tours and protein bars. There was this one protein bar about the size of a smaller end chocolate bar, maybe a bit smaller than a Mars bar, which these people were trying to claim constituted a meal due to the 10g of protein it contains. I’m sorry, but I would not be able to get over the psychology necessary to make having one bar be my entire meal. No thank you. I will have the 10g of protein found in a delicious steak instead. Slightly less creepy and vastly more delicious!

Nevermind The Roof

everything is on fire

Orion's upside down and the sky runs with blood

February 27th, 2009

I intended on having an early night tonight since I had to get up early tomorrow, so I was just sitting in the little café underneath the hostel. The room was really busy what with it being a weekend and all, so I just needed some chill time. Then one of the new girls staying in my room came down and we started chatting. Anyway, she turned out to be crazy. She’s this hairdresser, who’s been traveling around South Africa by herself on a two month trip. Just hanging out, meeting people, cutting hair when she runs out of money and hitchhiking to get around. Am I crazy or does that seem kinda sketchy to you? Ok, well maybe she’s not crazy, but definitely more adventurous than me. I must say, I’m pretty impressed.

February 28th, 2009


My supervisor’s wife is an artist and she was having a show at these botanical gardens in Cape Town called Kirstenbosch today. So, they invited me to come along. It was amazing! There was such beautiful art and the grounds were lovely. After that they insisted I come home and have tea with them. I accepted and ended up staying the night and going to a movie with his sons. We went to go see Seven Pounds. That is an intense movie. I really had no idea what it was about ‘cause the trailers were so cryptic. I can see why now, but wow I was not expecting that. We walked out of the theater just looked at each other and “oh…”

March 1st, 2009

My supervisor’s family invited me to stay over for Sunday lunch and I helped them make a cheesecake. My first! It was all very exciting. I love how people keep adopting me into their homes; first Frankfurt and now here. I feel like a well-loved stray puppy.

March 2nd, 2009

I finally found a place to live. Well, actually, I found 3! I was planning on going to see this one place after work, but I thought I’d check at the international office to see if there was any room in the residences over lunch. They had one that just became available, so I jumped on it. As I’m leaving I get a call from one of the girls I had called before saying that not one of the 3 people she was trying to choose between wanted the place anymore. Then, like an idiot, I still went to see the place I had initially planned to see and, of course, loved it. What can you do though…I’m sure the residences are fine.

March 3rd, 2009

I moved in!!! YAY for having a home! It’s not really what I expected though. I have my own room with a bathroom coming of it. Then my roommate and I share a “kitchen” (people do not seem to understand that I kitchen requires a real stove, oven and fridge…I wanna make cookies darn it!). Then the two of us share a “living/dining room” and another bathroom (which nobody uses ‘cause EVERYONE ALREADY HAS THEIR OWN BATHROOM!!) with 8 other people. My roommate seems nice, even though I only met her for about 38 seconds last night…and more importantly hers was the only clean kitchen in our little group of 8.

After moving, in I went for dinner with a friend to a place specializing in burgers. I ordered a double patty ‘cause I’m an idiot and thought I was hungry when apparently I don’t know the meaning of the word. This was NOT a normal burger. It was the circumference of a normal burger…possibly a little on the small side. However, it was at least twice as tall as it was round! It was so tall it needed to be skewered to stand up straight. It fully needed to be fastened to part of a tree in order to support its own weight. I just don’t see how they can expect a person to eat something like that.

After gorging myself and not even finishing half the food, I went to trivia night with 4 of the girls we share a “living/dining room” with. This was fun. I love trivia and all the random research I did with my brother a couple months ago about lakes, really paid off. We lost, but we got prizes for coming dead last, so I think I’m ok with it.

March 4th, 2009

The bank stopped all my various cards. I knew I forgot to do something before I left. Well at least I know they’re looking out for me…hmmm. However, I did manage to get a bank account here. Unfortunately, I am not able to put money in it because of the aforementioned issue. Another problem with this is that I have run out of cash before I was able to find out how to get a long distance calling card…making calling the bank…ahem…difficult.

I will eventually get internet access, then skype, then (hopefully) my precious cards back.