Thursday, February 17, 2005
Waa waa weekend Part II
Saturday dawned on my alcohol induced slumber at approximately 8 am. As usual, I stumbled out of my door to breakfast and found Amy there. Since we both had nothing to do we took out my Time Out guide to Cape Town, and after some consultation, decided to go to Stellenbosch, a town not far away. It looked like quite an interesting place, with a nice old town and a nature reserve. So we were thinking that we could walk around the town a little bit, and then head to the nature reserve for a good 3 hours of hiking and bird/animal watching. The Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, according to my guide, is
a lushly green area of leafy countryside that rambles past mountain pools, forest and distinctive mountain peaks. There's loads to do for lovers of the outdoors: two waterfalls, as well as opportunities for fly-fishing, hiking, mountain biking and some beautiful picnic spots.
Sounds wonderful, eh? So after breakfast we packed up, got on the hiking boots, packed 1.5 litres of water and headed for the train station. The train ride was interesting. I mean train rides in Europe aren’t all that boring. I mean, they have scenery, and who doesn't like scenery? On this train ride, however, I saw the following: zebra, springbok, kudu, ostrich, buffalo and a man reading a saucy magazine. Okay, so I lied about the last one. Still, it was a good bunch of animals to see, and all on one train ride too!
We reached Stellenbosch in due time, and after walking around the town for about 30 minutes (it’s quite quaint and pretty, but nothing overtly special) eagerly headed for the nature reserve. At the entrance we spent quite a bit of time applying sunscreen and getting ready for what we expected to be a somewhat arduous hike. From the entrance, the park looked rather big and we were worried we were going to get lost. Just as we were pondering whether to a) turn back b) just wing it or c) leave a trail of breadcrumbs a couple of girls walked by. And this is where the doubts began, for they were dressed in like tank tops, shorts and flip flops. Shortly after, a couple walked by, also dressed in rather casual wear. And we wondered how they managed to hike in such attire. Undaunted, we asked them if they had trail maps or any map of the reserve.
The answer was no, accompanied with extremely strange looks. Apparently the park was really small and there was no way we could get lost. Puzzled but hoping they were wrong, we set off into the park. Within 15 minutes we realized a few things:
1) The area was arid and COMPLETELY FLAT.
2) We were at the other end of the park (i.e. we could see a road)
3) There was no animal life anywhere
4) There were funky new age art structures inside the park.
What.the.hell? As you can imagine, many questions raced through our minds. Where was the leafy countryside and the waterfalls? Or the fly-fishing? What were this metal sculpture and these giant snail shells doing in the middle of a nature reserve? And aren't samurai the coolest thing ever? We kept walking, hoping that the environment would drastically change and we would find ourselves in some Eden full of lush vegetation, exotic animals, frolicking women, and stealthy samurai but alas, after 45 minutes of walking, all we found was the very entrance we had come in from and we were rudely re-deposited on the road.
Fortunately, we managed to find other things to do. We walked around the residential area of Stellenbosch which was rather picturesque, and popped into the botanical gardens for a bit too. Oh, and managed to spot an African Olive Pigeon. So the day wasn’t a complete waste.
I am, however, going to write a letter with some choice words (that rhyme with luddy bliars) to Time Out. This I swear. Samurai's honour.
nayko |12:48 AM
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Waa-waa Weekend (Part I)
I had big plans for this weekend. Yes, I did indeed. I have a bunch of academic research that I'd like to do while I'm here - some stuff on the economics of land restitution, and finding economically efficient solutions to land reallocation in South Africa. I also have to do some stuff on the political history of the Chinese in South Africa. So on Thursday I had the following plan for the weekend:
Thursday Morning - Take mid-term (1 hour)
Thursday Noon - Lunch
Thursday Afternoon - Research at Cape Town Library
Thursday Night - Sleep Early
Friday Morning - Field Trip to Robben Island
Friday Afternoon - Research!
Friday Night - Opera at the Waterfront
Saturday - Read some documents on land restitution
Sunday - Relax & do class readings for Monday
So it was a good, solidly academic plan. I would get lots of work done, and refrain from spending money. After all I've spent quite a bunch of cash here already, so saving money would be good. On Wednesday night I studied for my exam, spoke to Zhihui, and went to bed feeling pure and academic.
Then came the midterm on Thursday. The question was at least 10 lines long and had like 4 or 5 parts. And we had 1 hour. So I thought, okay, this isn't too bad, and started writing. Then I realized I needed a good introduction to frame my argument, and started composing a nice elegant (I hope) introduction for my question. This of course meant that I needed to plan my essay beforehand, and so I did. And I started writing, and after some time hammered out a somewhat crappy introduction (it's a bit hard because most of the time I don't know where my final argument will lead me). Anyway, after this lovely introduction I start on my first point (out of about 5) and then I hear this:
Prof Kruger: Okay, you guys should be starting on your last paragraphs now.
Shit.
I look at my watch and like 1/2 hour has gone by. What's going on? Then I read the instructions, and there on top of the sheet is this line:
"Answer ONE of the following questions. You have a total of FORTY minutes."
I scribble the rest of my essay in a frenzy with my life flashing before my eyes. I must say it's quite an experience writing about South African politics in District Six and remembering the time you were three and allowed to wear civvies to school for the first time.
The rest of my essay is as long as my introduction, and the only good thing I could possibly imagine that came from that exam was that pretty much everyone was equally affected. I mean, when Kristin Love, yes Kristin Greer Love of the genius historian club says the exam was bad, then that's exactly what it was.
After the exam I was considering going to the library and carrying out the rest of my brilliant academic plan. Then Meghan and Kristin ask if I want to go to the Bo-kaap (Malay Quarter) and the Water Front. Now at this point, I think to myself that I have a lot of work to do. On the other hand, I've just written the worst essay of my life. In an exam for a core class. Since my life is over anyway, I go shopping. We have a really lovely time at the Bo-kaap, and have a great lunch. And go crazy at Cape Union Mart at the Water Front - they have really nice and (relatively) cheap adventure-themed gear. And that night we head out for everyone's favourite pastime - alcoholic coffee. We glug copious amounts of caffeine and Irish cream and basically I go to bed at 1.
So that's Thursday completely gone. Never mind, I think, there's still Friday. The Friday field trip starts at 745 am, so we all have to get up at 7. Now Robben Island is famous for being a political prison during the aparthied era, so most of us are imagining this field trip to be a quick trip to the prison, checking out the cells etc and heading back quickly. As it turns out, we are horribly wrong. We go for a special double tour - encompassing not just the prison but also the history and ecology of the island, and this involves hiking around the island through lovely fynbos and looking at limestone quarries and scrub fields and former leper colonies. We only get back at 330pm, and by the time I'm showered and not disgusting its 350. I tell myself that I'll take a 10 minute nap and run down to the bookstore to read some books before it closes.
The next thing I know, its 6pm. And we're leaving for the opera in 30 minutes.
Basically, the opera is great, and we go out for drinks afterwards, and we end up sharing a bottle of wine between 3 people because its cheaper, and I get 4 glasses of wine in one night. I'm telling you, sleep becomes so easy with wine.
Ok, it's getting late so I shall stop here for now... stay tuned for Part II - waawaa saturday!
nayko |1:26 AM
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Hmm, it's been almost a month since I last wrote in here. A month since I landed in sunny Cape Town. What have I been doing instead of updating this blog, you may ask? The answer is painfully clear - obviously, I have been busy hunting giraffes and getting AIDS. At least, from the questions I get asked that seems to be what Africa is all about. So in case anyone was worried that I was getting any real work done and finding out that South Africa is indeed a richly diverse country with a highly interesting history, and that it has a good deal of greenery and that Africa is not just about safaris and animals, don't worry! I would hate to dispel any stereotypes.
In any case, life here is pretty much like regular school (less 5 layers of clothes and the down winter coat, of course)... class from 930 to 1230 on Mon, Tues, and Wed, and 530 - 7 on Tues and Wed, and field trips on Friday. We get like 100 pages of reading a day, so, clearly, thats 100 pages of reading not done. Shame. Weekends are usually relatively eventful - some trip to somewhere, like the beach or whatever. This weekend, however, we had a "long" weekend (and by "long" they mean 'Friday off'). The perfect weekend to chill and relax after 5 weeks of work! So I did the only thing any sane person would do - went on a 9 hour hike up the Twelve Apostles and back with John and Amy.
Now, hiking may seem like an easy thing to most people. I assure you, it is not. Do you have any idea how long it takes to pick a pair of socks that match with your boots?? And since most boots are clunky AND ugly, you have to pick appropriate clothing to go with THOSE too. Ugh. It almost makes me ill. Seriously though, hiking is pretty hard work, especially when you're going uphill for like 2 hours and the sun is overhead (yay, sun.) So after maybe 2 hours of hiking we get to the top of the mountain, and commence on phase II of our plan - hiking to some obscure peak about 4-5 km away. The trail on the map looks rather straightforward and so we think, hey, we could be back in 2 hours max.
Then we start walking.
Now, let me explain something about South African mountaintops. They are covered with native South African vegetation, which they call 'fynbos'. Fynbos is prized in South Africa as being, to borrow from a horrible tourism campaign in a country-that-shall-not-be-named (rhymes with Pingapore), 'uniquely South African'.
I'm not sure what fynbos means exactly. But after today, I'm convinced it means 'prickly devil from hell and beyond'. I mean the leaves of some fynbos species are REALLY hard, like holly or something, and they're EVERYWHERE, all over the paths, and so everywhere we go we get our shins lacerated by the little bastards. John in his wisdom (or sheer luck) wore trousers, but Amy and I cleverly wore shorts, and got, well, suffice it to say my shins look like one of my handwritten essays under exam conditions. Or better yet, Zorro's wall before he learnt penmanship. You get the idea from this:
Amy: You know, on the way up, I was trying to be careful not to step on the fynbos.
Me: And now?
Amy: Now I'm like DIE you little shits DIE
Anyway, we never make it to the peak because the trail becomes impassable. So we turn back, and basically we're back at good ol Parker Cottage at 7pm, 9.5 hours after we left. And I'm sitting on my bed writing this, and I probably won't upload this entry till like Friday, when my legs finally regain feeling again.
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Hmm, Petunia Clark's 'Downtown' just played. I ripped this from Agnes' jazz CD.. and it's like one of the Rawa 02 CDs (along with Robbie Williams). The people who were there.. those were good times. The Rawa mountain is a much easier climb. Even in shorts.
nayko |1:45 AM