Shark Diving!

Thursday was pretty uneventful, just class and some reading. Therefore, I will skip over Thursday and move to Friday when we spent the day diving with a Great White shark!

Friday, July 1, 2011
We left before the sun rose and drove about 2 hours to Gansbaai for our dive. We were all jumping with excitement and couldn't wait to get out on the water! We were served breakfast as we got a briefing on the dive and then headed out to sea. The boat took us about an hour along the coast to Dyer Island where the sharks are. Dyer Island is covered in Cape Fur Seals, so the sharks spend much of their time there lying in wait. Along the way we spotted two Southern Right whales (in the distance) and then saw a shark swimming right next to the boat! It was a very exciting boat ride. When we stopped, however, one by one, we started feeling sicker and sicker. There were large swells that just lifted the boat up and then down. This was not good. I got so sea sick I threw up over 10 times and after we had sat for an hour waiting and still hadn't seen a shark I just wanted to get back on land! We finally moved to another location where we saw a shark within 10 minutes. However, I was still feeling so sick that I did not even care. I was not going to get in the cage, because it did not sound appealing at all, but Adam got out and said, "Diana, get in there!" I did and it was the most amazing thing! The water was freezing and a rush of adrenaline took over my entire body! It was a combination of nausea, fear and excitement and my breaths were short and quick. As the shark came by they told us to go under and we looked down with our snorkels and watched as a 12 foot female Great White swam at us with open jaws. It was amazing! We were in for maybe 5 minutes and by the time we had to get out, I just wanted to stay in and keep watching. I got out and was so happy that I had gotten in! As the adrenaline wore off, however, the nausea returned and I threw up some more as we made our way back to the docks. I spent about 2 out of 3 hours throwing up, but that 5 minutes was worth every bit of pain! I am so happy I had Adam there to get me in the water, thanks Adam! You're the best roomie a girl could ask for! :)

 This rainbow stretched across the sky and was so big I couldn't even fit the whole thing into the picture! They are literally everywhere here!

 The rainbow literally dropped into the ocean, so cool!

 A few minutes later, it was a double rainbow!

 Excited for sharks! (Before the nausea set in...)

This is the only pic of the shark that I have on my camera. I stood up to take it, but felt so sick I sat down again and did not care to take another. Our guide took a bunch more and I will post an underwater one when I get it!

Cape Town Townships

Well, initially I had intended to update this every day, but obviously that has not been the case... With schoolwork and field trips and outings, somehow the days have just flown by! I will write an entry for each day from the last post until now and upload pictures for that day. I will begin where I left off last.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
We spent our afternoon visiting a township about 20 minutes from UCT. The townships here expand in all directions for miles. So much so that, even at the top of an overlook, we could barely see the outermost shanties. Our guide told us that people arrive and add onto the outskirts every day (literally) and build shanties out of whatever they can find. I was nervous about going to such a poor area and how we would be perceived. These tours, however, have become fairly common and so most of the people just gawked at us as we walked by gawking at them.
We started at a welcome center where there was a Marimba band. They were awesome! They taught us some Xhosa words (with clicks and everything) and then had us play some of the instruments and sing a song. It was a lot of fun. We then headed out to our walk through the township. The government has started building homes for people that have lived there for 10-20 years, so there are some actual houses, but a lot more shanties.
I was most surprised at how homey the shanties felt. It makes sense, looking back, because they are these peoples homes, but it definitely made me appreciate everything I have even my cold little dorm room at UCT! Another thing that surprised me was the amount of kids running around unsupervised, some of which were maybe 2 years old. We were told that there is not really a problem with kidnapping, except when witch doctors (mostly from the Eastern Cape) come and steal kids to cut up and use their organs and bones for potions. This does actually happen. A township specialty is sheep's head, which we did try. I just had a small bite of meat that looked most like regular meat, I think it was part of the cheek. It was interesting... We also tried some sorghum beer, which they brew right there in the township, which tasted very much like yeast bread dough.
At the end of the tour we visited a local witch doctor, or Sangoma, who was very interesting and might have been drunk... All in all it was a good day and an interesting experience that really made me appreciate my life of privilege.

 Looking out over the townships. The farthest are the newest shanties and more are added every day as people move to Cape Town (from the Eastern Cape) in hopes of a better life.

 Adam and I, excited for the day to come!

 Rainbow! They are everywhere here!

 Everyone learning the Marimba song. I was photographer/videographer/chorus. I wanted to play an instrument, but everyone else jumped up before I could.

 Awesome art made from sand! I wanted the lion one, but it was sooooo expensive and would have been impractical to bring back home.

 Cool dude in the township. I loved his outfit!

 Houses (and boys) in Langa township.

 Cooking sheep's head, a township speciality.

 One of the guys in our group bought a sheep's head for R20 (~$3.00) and we all tried it. It was interesting...

 Unsupervised, tiny children. It was like this on every block.

 Cute little boy got really excited when we walked by. Just had to get a pic! He was really excited to see himself in the picture on my camera. Very cute.

 Township church with government homes, Devil's Peak and Table Mountain in the background.

 This is how most women in the townships carry their babies.

 Sorghum.

 Township boys and toilets on the left, shanties on the right.

The Sangoma and his "office".

Pictures from the first week in Cape Town

At the airport in Johannesburg, about 28 hours into our travel.

University of Cape Town, where I have been living for the last 3 weeks!

The view from my window.

We fit 16 people into a tiny van, the capacity was 15 and there were no seatbelts... it's Africa!

Greetings from Cape Town!

Well, after 5 days of being here in South Africa, I finally have access to internet! I will try to write a paragraph for each day so far. I cannot post pictures right now, but will as soon as I can connect my laptop to the internet. The following will get you all caught up, enjoy!

My trip started Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 6 am. The first hiccup was at check-in at the airport where they insisted that my carry on was too big, even though it was a standard carry on sized wheeled suitcase, and that I should check it. Now, considering I had a $500 camera and a $1500 lens in there, I was not about to do that! After lots of rearranging I figured it out, but ended up having to check 2 bags and have 2 carry ons! When I got to the airport I had one bag to check and two carry ons. I made it work, though and headed upstairs. Frustratingly, half the people waiting to get on my flight had the exact same carry on! I got over it, though, because after all I was on my way to South Africa, which helped distract me from my frustrations. The flight from Sacramento to Washington, DC was an easy one. From Washington, DC we got on South African Airlines to Dakar and then on to Johannesburg. What I didn't realize was that rather than having a little lay-over in Dakar, we sat and refueled for an hour and were not allowed to get off. So, we flew 8 hours to Dakar, sat for one hour and then flew another 8 hours to Johannesburg! It sounds long, but it was actually not SO terrible. I think that I was just so excited to be on my way that what lay ahead made it not so bad. I sat next to a very nice lady from Missouri. Little did I know, she and her husband were on their way to Africa to go on a hunting trip. When I finally found this out (about halfway through the 17 hour flight), she proudly told me they were "working on the Big 5 right now!" Now, for anyone who does not know what the Big 5 of Africa are, they are: Lions, Elephants, Buffaloes, Leopards and Rhinos. She also boasted how they had made a sacrifice by taking a female, rather than a male lion. I have to say it made me feel slightly sick to be sitting next to them and I did not have much to say to them after that. When we finally reached Johannesburg, we had a few hours before our final stretch to Cape Town. I was happy to have a little time to walk around the airport, though, because my legs had gotten mighty stiff on the long flight from the U.S. We arrived in Cape Town and had no problems finding our ride. We got a ride to the dorms at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and were very happy to finally have a bed to lie in! My room has a view that overlooks all of Cape Town, which is beautiful day and night! I slept through the night no problem and was eager to start my stay in Cape Town the next morning! I don't think I realized until the morning that there was absolutely NO heat in my room (or anyone else's for that matter) and that there would be no heat for the next few weeks while I stay here at UCT. It is winter here in Cape Town (winters here are similar to Davis) and the windows are not double paned, so it has been something I have had to get used to. I sleep with 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of socks, a sweatshirt and sometimes even a scarf at night. At least the showers in the morning are nice and HOT!!

Saturday was a pretty mellow day. We woke up and went exploring around campus. I hadn't realized this before, but UCT is right on the base of Table Mountain. We walked up and around the campus and were all happy to be out and about. More students arrived throughout the day. I was able to briefly get online in the afternoon and was looking forward to getting a tour of Rondebosch, the district at the base of campus where one can go shopping for necessities. However, by noon on Saturday, I felt sick and just went back to bed. I slept (and threw up twice) until about 6 pm and felt much better after eating some dinner. By 6 pm it was dark already and I was frustrated that I had slept all day, because it threw me off my schedule. Up until then I had pretty much beaten jet lag, but it knocked me off balance a little bit. I read a bit after dinner and was in bed by 11 pm, freezing under my covers!

Sunday came and I started my day with a nice hot shower! I don't think I would be able to handle it if I couldn't get that shower in in the morning! For lunch on Sunday, we hiked up to the Rhodes Memorial, maybe 10 minutes up the hill, which overlooks all of Cape Town and even lets you see a little bit of the ocean! One thing I hadn't realized was the amount of mountains around. There are mountains all along the northern side of Cape Town, which makes for a beautiful sunrise! Behind Rhodes Memorial is a little hidden cafe, which was very tasty and also very inexpensive. We returned and read until our class meeting in the evening. I thought that maybe the common room would be a little warmer than our rooms, but alas, it was not. After our meeting we walked down to Rondebosch to a place that specialized in wild hog ribs. I was not sure I could finish a whole rack, so I ordered a burger instead. The burger was a burger, nothing special, but the hog ribs were amazing! I tried a bite and they were very good. (I have decided to allow myself to eat meat on this trip, as the meat industry here is much better than what we have back home). We headed back to our dorms, just wanting to get inside where it was warm, but again, that did not happen. I think at times our rooms are as cold as it is outside. I get cold in my house when the heater is on at home, so this is just QUITE an adjustment for me!

Monday was the first day of class and I decided that I needed hot coffee in the morning. I took my Starbucks double walled stainless steel mug with to breakfast and filled it with coffee and was a happy girl all morning! We had a long discussion about history in class. We are assigned 100 or so pages of reading per night, which is hard to get through, because sitting in the cold and reading is just not very appealing. However, I'm making it work and embracing this as part of the culture. After all, these are the dorms that the UCT students usually live in (they are currently on winter holiday). After class on Monday, we got set up with our student cards and then met to head to the train station and into downtown Cape Town. They briefed us during class on how important it is to be aware of our surroundings at all times and that if someone tries to rob you, to just give them what they want or you might end up in the hospital or worse. While it was scary, it is a part of life here in South Africa, that you have to be aware of what is going on around you. I generally try not to bring a bag with me at all, just keep exactly what I need in my zipper pockets and nothing more. Cape Town was an interesting experience. There is a lot of poverty and a lot of people begging for money. We were in a large group of 25, which gave us away as tourists right away. We saw most of downtown and went up Rose Street which is where all the colored houses are. It was very pretty, but I was "aware" all the time of who was watching us and where we were. Table Mountain is visible from just about anywhere in the area. The landscape around the city is just beautiful! We ended our tour at a restaurant where we had "Cape Malay" food, a food from Cape Town with Malaysian influence. It was very good, but very filling! When we headed back, our drivers had two vans. Capacity: 15 people. We loaded in 16 (I'll post a pic as soon as I can). It was a funny sight, but it's Africa, so it's all fine!

This brings us to Tuesday, today. I got up early and ran to the library before class to get online. I know it's pathetic, but I miss technology and being connected to everyone so very much! This afternoon we will head into Rondebosch and then will be watching a South African film as part of class. That's all for now, will update again soon! Miss you all!