Table Mountain

Like most of my posts this will be short and sweet.

On Sunday, a bunch of us got up and hiked Table Mountain. It took us about 2 hours to get up there and the path was super steep.  It didn't help that we were out the night before and the climb was exhausting. I was drenched before we were even half way up.  But nothing has ever been so worth it.  The views along the way and at the top were incredible. I didn't think it could get much better after hiking Lion's Head, but it just did.  As we approached the end, the mountain rose above the clouds and at some points we could barely see the bottom. But then at the top everything cleared up and the sun was radiating over all of Cape Town.

At the top of the mountain there is a cool little cafe where we stopped and ate lunch.  As much as it would have been fun to hike another two hours down the steep mountain with full stomachs, we instead rode the cable care to the bottom.  Compared to the two hours it took us to get to the top, it only took five minutes to get down.

I've done a bunch of other little visits to different places.   My friend Perri (in the picture above ) and I went to the planetarium last weekend because it was raining out.  There were all these different types of stuffed animals including sharks, fish, whales, and like every other type of mammal.  We also saw a half dome planet show of the various constellations.   We both fell asleep, but it was still a great visit.

Tomorrow is Perri's birthday so we are going out tonight to celebrate for her 12:01.

More to come.

Nora

Cecil Rhodes Memorial

Finally getting into the swing of things here in Cape town.  This was the first week of school...aka the start of junior year...scary.  My classes are pretty interesting.  I take Xhosa every morning at 9 am and its kind of a nice start to each day.  It makes me feel very cultural.  The various clicks are not that hard to do but when you have to combine them with words I always get tongue tied and can't speak.  Rachel is in my class and we love to click at each other.  I  haven't started Dance yet but I think its going to be awesome....embarrassing but awesome.  South African Political Thought can be a little dry at points but its really interesting.  We've been learning about Cecil Rhodes, a really famous South African politician, which is really cool because a couple of my friends (Perri and Alex) and I went for a small hike last night up to his memorial.  The view was gorgeous.  His memorial is about a fifteen minute walk north of campus, so when you got to the top you could basically look down on the university.  It was also perfect timing because the sun was just setting as we got there.

So far classes aren't too bad.  The walk up to upper campus is fairly strenuous..not gonna lie.  Sometimes I take the Jammie shuttle but I've been walking a lot.  Its literally like we hike up to class so hopefully by the end of the semester I'll be in great shape.

On Sunday we went to this beautiful restaurant on the waterfront called Sevruga.  They have some really amazing restaurants down there.  At Sevruga you can chose between a three or four course meal and they bring you the most delicious food.  The wine there was also incredible...i've been drinking a lot of red here.  The waterfront is probably my favorite place to eat.  I've also been to this restaurant called Quay Four which has unbelievable seafood.  Its like a little taste of Chatham.

Doing my best to keep up with the blog.  I'll try to keep posting pics and continue the updates.

Classy....

Today was registration day for classes.  Fortunately I got into all the ones I signed up for so it was a fairly easy process.  This semester I am going to take....

Xhosa
African Dance
Third World Politics
South African Political Thought and Traditions

Fingers crossed I picked the right ones.

After a long day of waiting in lines, a couple of us decided to go to one of the farmers markets in Woodstock called Old Biscuit Mill.  Even though the big day that all the vendors go is on Saturday, it was still really fun.  We stopped at a chocolate shop where they had the most amazing truffles.   We also hit up a pretty cute boutique where we all ended up buying scarves.  Mom you would have been proud.

It was a fairly short but pretty sweet day.

Little kids and big mountains

Today was what we would call in Boston wicked awesome.  It really was truly amazing.

We started off the day visiting and touring a school in one of the townships nearby. When we arrived at the school we were greeted by a huge group of young students.  They were adorable and incredibly friendly.  I made friends with a few of them, in particular one beautiful six year old who was so cute.  We played games and talked about our favorite things.  She even braided my hair.  All the kids were so friendly and are always hugging you even before they now your name.  I had a really fun time and am excited to go back.  I am hoping to join a program that goes there at least once a week where Ill be able to help out, tutor, and hang with these amazing kids.

After we got home, a few of us decided to hike up Lion's Head.  My first hike!  It took us a few hours to go up and down the mountain but it was so worth it.  It was a bit of a work out and some parts of the mountain were slightly scary to climb.  The views on the way were gorgeous, but once we got to the top I don't think anything could compare.  As cheesy as it sounds it felt like you were on top of the world.

My camera died on the way up but lots of people took pictures.  More to come.

And so it begins

First time blogger...bear with me

Quick recap. The first week has been awesome here in cape town.  Despite numerous traveling struggles and a really long plane ride we have finally settled in.  The first couple of days were filled with orientation events and touring around cape town.  It felt a lot like the first week of freshmen year...lots of get to know you games, info sessions, group activities.  Everything was fairly structured....nothing really worth sharing.  We stayed in some dorms on campus, and I roomed with another girl Robin.  Contrary to previous roommate issues...we got along really well.  She's one of my better friends here.  One of the best parts about orientation was a dinner at Moyo in Stellenbosch.  We drank a ton of wine, ate African food and danced to African music.  It was pretty cool. 

On Saturday we moved into our house/apartment.  In our apartment there are several flats basically right next to each other.  They have two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and living space.  All together there are 13 people but in my flat I live with two other people...one guy and one girl.  We have  pretty decent space.  I'm into it.

On Sunday we took an all day peninsular tour along the coast of cape town.  It was kind of rainy but it really was exceptionally gorgeous.  I think Midd is one the pretty places on earth but this probably takes the cake.  I'll post some pictures later.  We stopped in places like Camps Bay, Scarborough, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point....unbelievable.  The views are incredible.  

Its nice to be finally settled in.  Everything here is pretty inexpensive compared to America.  But it almost makes it harder to save money.  I haven't quite figured out the food situation yet.  We eat out a lot.  Probably need to be slightly more frugal.

The night life is so much fun.  Its a lot different than Middlebury.  We've been out nearly every night.  There are a ton of bars and clubs that are fun.  We go to lots of places on Long Street.  I've been to a Reggae bar and last night we went to an Irish pub.  On the 4th a lot of us went to this club Tiger Tiger. Although it would have been great to be in the states and going to the parade, this lived up to a classic American 4th of July.  

So far so good.  I'm blanking on some of the other things we've done but I will try to keep posting so you guys can hear about my travels.