...To Show Dad I Am Not A Fool

I see more people walking around on upper campus between classes than even go to Pomona. Literally thousands of people flood the main walk, and I recognize (if I’m lucky) 3 of them. It’s really intimidating. And it’s even worse during lunch. Every Thursday during lunch (which they call meridian, and is a period scheduled into the class day) there’s a concert right on the Jammy steps, the most central location on upper campus. There must’ve been 3000 people there yesterday – the entirety of the 30 rows of steps was filled, plus people standing around about 20 deep on the sides. To say the scene was hilarious is an understatement. Coming from Pomona, a school where the buildings are so small that they’re almost personal, to this is the furthest departure I could imagine. And I’m loving it.

The whole UCT schooling system is totally different from schools in America. You enter university having already selected a major and a certain path in that major, and you can only take the exact classes designated for that path. For instance, a philosophy major could not take a math class. Though there are several different paths within each major, once you pick a path you’re sticking with those classes all the way through. University is only three years, with a fourth year graduate degree and a fifth year masters optional if you do well enough. When I’m sitting in my 3^rd year economics class, I’m sitting amongst students about to graduate who have taken at least 20 other econ or econ related classes already. Still, the classes aren’t that bad at all. It’s very different to go from a class of 20 to a class of 120 (my biggest class), but I’ll get used to it quickly.

The makeup of courses is also different here. Even in econ classes you don’t get problem sets. Instead, there will be a combination of papers and tests throughout the semester, never totaling more than 50% of your grade. The final is always worth at least 50% of your final grade. My econ class doesn’t have a test until September 20^th, after mid-semester break, so I will have absolutely no work besides reading for that class until then. I’m taking two music classes, neither of which has any outside work: African Music Ensemble and African Instruments. The second is a 6 person breakdown session of the entire ensemble. The only thing we do is bang on drums and other crazy instruments. It’s gonna be dope. My last class is called Culture, Identity, and Globalisation in Africa and studies the misrepresentations and misconceptions the west portrays about Africa: if the exist, why they exist, and to what extent them existing is a reflection of reality. Kinda cool, but also kinda fluffy. It’s alright, though. There are only 5 or 6 Americans in the huge economics class and a couple other Americans in the Ensemble class, but the Africa class has 60 kids, 90% of whom are American. Funny how that works. My schedule is the diggity-dank. I never have class before 2 (except on Tuesdays, when I go bang on drums from 11 - 12:45) and never have Friday class. Loving it.

I’m definitely going to be doing the majority of my learning outside the classroom here. On that note, a few other random observations about UCT / South Africa on…

• Race. People here are more comfortable talking about race than anywhere else I’ve ever been. As I mentioned earlier there are three main races here: white, black, and coloured (mixed race, though you can be coloured by culture as well). I think that as a result of apartheid people became more open to talking about racial issues. They want people to understand the complexities between the races (even within a race there are several different types of people, for instance, blacks in South Africa are Xhlose, Zulu, or one of 11 other types of race) and to understand their history, and the best way for them to do that is to talk openly and honestly about it. Race is a part of every day life here. It’s reality. They embrace it. Keep this in mind, as I’ll be using a lot of racial terms, but none of it is racialist (I hope you’re reading this, Dad, I threw that in there for your sake).

• UCTs student body. It’s about 50% white and 50% black, coloured, Indian, Asian, or (their last category) other. The overwhelming majority of whites are from South Africa. There are so many hot blonde Afrikaans girls walking around it’s almost a joke. The overwhelming majority of blacks are from outside of South Africa. One of my flat mates is from Zimbabwe. I’ve met people from Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, and I don’t even know where else. Many of the coloured people come from Cape Town (including one of my flat mates). Almost all the Indians are from Durban. This sounds really racist and like I’m labeling and over-generalizing, but it’s a reality. The dorm I live in, Liesbeeck Gardens, has over 600 people in it. One guy I was talking to at a bar last weekend told me that housing is “randomly” decided but that pretty much only blacks live in Liesbeeck. I didn’t believe him at first but I have not seen one white student (other than the other 33 Americans living here) either in the computer labs, walking around the dorms, or getting on the shuttle from the dorms to go to campus.

• Cooking. This might be the area in which I learn the most while I’m here. Though our first week was very mediocre (including a botched attempt at vegetable pasta, but a semi-successful attempt at mashed sweet potatoes), the second week of cooking has been outstanding. We’ve made delicious risotto, pesto pasta, tuna melts, and garlic mashed potatoes this week. We haven’t fucked up one meal. We’re on a roll. I also made marble square brownies. The first time I made them I used too much butter (the butter here is way stronger), so I toned it down this time and they’re delicious. I’m gonna come back as a master chef, at least of some dishes. Definitely garlic mashed potatoes.

• Minibus culture. I go through periods of both loving it and hating it. Basically, minibuses with four rows drive a pre-prescribed route all day and you can jump on or off wherever you want. We were warned that minibuses are very dangerous and to not take them (especially alone or at night), but we’ve been taking them in groups and they’re far cheaper than taxis. If you want to get a taxi to downtown Cape Town from here it’ll be at least R100 (about $15). If you hop on a minibus it’s R6 (less than $1). They’re also really fun / funny inside: they blast music and fit up to 20 people in the space created for 12. The thing I HATE is that any time they see you walking down the street they honk at you and yell where they’re going, i.e. “Cape Town” or “Wyneberg” or whatever, in a really annoying voice. Sometimes I love it and think it’s hilarious that they’re doing it. But sometimes I just want to smack them and tell them to shut the fuck up and that I can clearly see that they’re there and I will use them on my own volition. Them yelling at me where they’re going isn’t a deal breaker.

• Homeless people. You literally cannot walk more than 4 blocks without getting asked for money. Every single day on my walk to lower campus (about 15 minutes from the dorm, where I either hop on a shuttle to upper campus or walk an additional 25 minutes to upper) I get asked at least twice for money. Walking in the streets of downtown Cape Town is even worse. When we were at Mzoli’s last Sunday we were having a beer with one of the local dudes from the township we were in. He taught us a famous Xhlose saying, though I forget how to say it now. Translated into English it means, “when I see you, I see money”. This is referring to white people. When I’ve walked around with my local friends I actually have not been assaulted. “When I see you, I see money.” Damn, that’s some real shit.

• Lingo. The terminology here is so different from in the United States, but that was to be expected. Instead of someone telling you that you need to do something they tell you that you “must” do it, i.e. “You must go to Mitchell’s Brewery.” You don’t “want to” do something here, you “are wanting to” do something. Food isn’t “tasty” or “delicious”, it’s “nice”. “Cool” is “lekker”. “Bro” is “bru”. It goes on and on. One of my favorites is that my flat mate, Babalwa, says something is “hectic” when she thinks it’s cool or funny. So far from the English connotation with hectic, but I like it.
  

Holy shit. I didn’t realize how much I was rambling. If you’re still reading after 1500 words of me blabbering then you’re a real trooper or really bored. I don’t think I’ll ever write another blog entry this long (or this informative) so cherish it while you can. I’m off to go to a rugby game tonight, though I don’t understand the rules of rugby in the slightest, and shark cage diving tomorrow. Gonna be another hell of a weekend.

The Madness Never Stops

You know those days where you’re not quite sure what you’ve experienced until you look back on it? Today was the prime example of that. We went to this restaurant called Mzolis, but it was about far more than just the food. This was the single craziest block party I have ever witnessed, even crazier than Dave Chappelle’s “Block Party”. Combine $1.30 quarts of beer with $4 for (essentially) all-you-can-eat of the tastiest meat in the most savory sauce ever and imagine 400 other people joining you in the exact same activity and you have the framework for Mzolis. I cannot possibly do an adequate job of describing the atmosphere in this place no matter how many superlatives I use, so just take my word for it: I’ve never experienced anything like that, and I WILL be back.

It’s almost impossible to be complacent in Cape Town. The past week I’ve visited Camps Bay, The Cape of Good Hope, two different townships (Ocean View, where we’ll be doing home stays in mid-August, and Guguletu, where Mzolis is), Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been), Green Market Square, Old Biscuit Mill (a delicious food market with about 30 different stands where you can sample almost any type of cuisine you want), and hiked Table Mountain. In fact, we got such a late start on Table Mountain that we wound up hiking down the last hour and a half under the stars. I can’t get over how cool Table Mountain is – it literally rises out of the ocean out of nowhere on the back side, and falls just as quickly on the other side feeding into Cape Town. It’s really amazing to have such a badass mountain overlooking such a thriving city. Though it’s a hard hike and I underestimate it every time, I will be making it at least 5 more times throughout this semester. The views on top are breathtaking – you can see the extent of the Cape Flats, the 12 Apostles (twelve jagged pieces of Table Mountain extending down the coast line), Robben Island, Camps Bay, and the Soccer Stadium from the top. It’s really a trip to be on top of the mountain looking down into a huge city. By the end of my time here I’ll probably have over 200 pictures of / looking down from the mountain. It’s just that cool.

After exactly one month of being in this beautiful country I’m about ready for classes to start tomorrow. I need something to keep me occupied, and though going out 5 nights a week is a lot of fun it gets to be too much after a while. Is it possible that I’m about to start my junior year? Where the hell did time go?

Peace and love from the coolest, most diverse city in the world.

Welcome to UCT

I cannot believe how I continue to get so hooked up for housing. I’m living in the dorms in a 4 person flat, along with one other CIEE student and two South African students. Most people are living in CIEE houses and will only get to interact with other Americans; meanwhile I’m going to be getting a full on cultural experience. My room is probably almost 200 square feet and has a balcony (unfortunately with no view of Table Mountain, but I can’t complain about a balcony). I’m not really going to decorate it, so it’s going to feel really empty, but I will never complain about having a gigantic room.

The last few days of orientation have been surprisingly good. We had 5 different organizations come talk to us about volunteer opportunities, and yesterday had the chance to visit three of the volunteer sites. I think I’m going to be volunteering at the LEAP school, a kind of charter school for solely black Africans (that’s not racist). There are three main races in South Africa: white, black, and coloured (mixed race). Schooling for blacks is amongst the worst in any country in the world with an incredibly low literacy rate. LEAP takes exclusively black students and focuses on teaching them math and science, the two most under-taught subjects in public schools. I’ll likely be tutoring several kids, but my real role will be to interact with the students and serve almost as a mentor. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m really excited to volunteer here and hopefully make a difference in these kids’ lives. I’m choosing LEAP over several other worthy organizations, most notably a children’s TB hospital. I thought I wanted to volunteer there, but after visiting I realized it’s too sad to watch these kids so young suffer from TB; I wouldn’t be able to take it.

I’ve been loving the nightlife in Cape Town and have been down to Long Street three nights in a row with huge groups of CIEE students. With such a large group of people, any bar we enter is always a blast. On Thursday night, we met two cracked-out Namibian guys who I could barely understand, but they told us they love Americans because of American Pie. Funny how we loathe Americans for the same reason. I’m far more comfortable being in a group of Americans in a foreign country than I was a few days ago, but I must say I still prefer meeting locals and talking with them at bars. I can drink with Americans all I want in America; I’m going to make the most of my time here by trying to meet as many locals as possible.

Hooray, USA?

July 13

It’s 10:30 pm on my last night of freedom. It was really strange to be surrounded by such a huge group of Americans today. Though it was nice to meet a lot of new people, I can tell that my time in South Africa has already had a huge effect on me. It was easy to see how different my mindset about living in this country was from those of my new friends, and how I’ve already learned to take so much less for granted. After sitting in one of the UCT computer labs and having slow internet I couldn’t help but overhear several people complaining. Dinner was served half an hour late, and there was plenty more griping. I realized that only slightly more than two weeks ago I was in the exact same boat as they were – frustrated by lack of access to things we take for granted in the United States. At this point I have learned to accept the way that people live here and embrace how it is different from our own culture. I feel far more aware of myself now than I did just a short time ago. People were leaving their padlocks off of their doors and telling everyone where they lived – two huge no-no’s in Cape Town. Our housing director pick-pocketed several people during our first orientation discussion to prove a point: how unaware Americans are. Meanwhile I’m afraid to go to the bathroom at night, and I check my pockets every five minutes to make sure all the stuff I brought with me is still there. I’ve never in my life been so cognizant of everything going on around me. This trip is going to do wonders for me.

In and Around Cape Town

I'm finally blogging live! Matt left last night for Joburg, and Michael left this morning to go back to the US, so I'm now on my own in Cape Town. The last few days of our travels were some of the best, and I'll be sure to return to the sites we saw around Cape Town before my time here is up.

We traveled Wednesday to De Hoop Nature Reserve, about a three hour drive from Cape Town. I was passed out for the entire ride and missed a lot of the beautiful scenery entering the park, but once I got there I knew that this place was special. Combine the unbelievable sand dunes of Death Valley with the bushlands of Africa and put it all together on the coast overlooking the Indian Ocean and the highest density concentration of whales around South Africa and you've got De Hoop. The pictures do not do this place justice. It is simply the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. We chilled Wednesday afternoon on the beach, hiked around the reserve on Thursday morning, and spent Thursday afternoon exploring the rugged coast line and the majestic sand dunes. We saw probably 5 or 6 whales, which was cool, though I still don't quite understand the appeal of whale watching - it seems like a ridiculously snobby activity to pay to see a tail for about 5 seconds. Walking along the sand dunes and overlooking the ocean was one of the most relaxing and serene things I've done in my lifetime.

Thursday night, after a 2 and a half hour drive, we arrived in Stellenbosch. Though most people will scoff when you tell them you're in wine country in South Africa ("no way it compares to France"), they are all horribly mistaken. Some of the best wines in the world come from Stellenbosch, and it's in an incredibly beautiful setting surrounded by mountains and rolling plains. We took it easy Thursday night in preparation for our big day on Friday - the wine country tour. We visited 4 different wineries and sampled at least 25 different wines. We also had a cellar tour, where we learned about how wine was made and what gives different wine different flavoring, in addition to a cheese tasting at one of the wineries. We also got a fat lunch (with more wine, of course) and got driven around all day - all for the price of $45. Luckily no one else on our tour (2 Germans, 2 Brits, and 2 Canadians) was a wine snob, and I don' think one single tasting was spit out the entire day. By the end of the day we were all feeling very warm and fuzzy and friendly and loving life to the fullest. We passed out very early Friday night (partially by choice so we could get up early, partially because of the wine), but the wine tour was maybe the highlight of the trip. Though I still find it incredibly pretentious that people are wine connoisseurs, I can understand that there are definitely vastly different tastes to wine and can see how it can be made into a hobby.

We awoke Saturday morning with miserable weather - raining and no visibility - but decided we would set out for The Cape of Good Hope anyways. We didn't really expect to be able to see much because of the weather, and upon arriving at the park it seemed like it would be the case - we were the second car to pull into the lot. We waited for about an hour for the storm to die down a bit and set out to walk up towards the lighthouse, when, much to our surprise, everything started to clear up. Though still cloudy, we had stunning views of "the end of the world". This is another place where pictures cannot possibly do justice - if you visit Cape Point in person you'll know what I'm talking about. It's crazy to think that we were at the most southern point in all of Africa, and there was nothing for more than 8500 km south of us until Antarctica (and who really cares about Antarctica anyways?) A truly majestic place, and it surpassed all expectations.

Today I'm going to check into my orientation hotel and then meet up with Will Hummel to go to watch the Spain v. Netherlands game down at the Fan Fest at the waterfront in Cape Town. I cannot imagine the party that is going to ensue after this game, but I'm sure it'll be insane. Go Dutch!

World Cup, Table Mountain, and Cape Town - Oh My!

July 7

It’s 8 pm, we’ve just finished dinner and I’m still incredibly hungover. I have a new worst hangover ever story – the day after the World Cup semifinals. Getting our tickets was incredibly stressful – at first I thought they would be fake, then I thought that they wouldn’t be shipped to us in time. The latter turned out to be true; we had to pick them up at the Cape Grace Hotel about 3 hours before game time. The good news: they upgraded us from Category 3 to Category 2, so we were 15 rows back from the field. The game was a lot of fun – and they have no limit on how many beers you can get at once (we each got 4) – and we got to see 5 goals and cheer on the Netherlands to victory. After the game we went to this crazy club called Fez, where we somehow got in for free and without having to wait in a long line. To give you an idea of the club: after the Spanish national team won their round of 16 game over Portugal this is where they (and Mick Jagger) all went for the after party. Needless to say it was nuts in there, and the next morning I immediately regretted how much I had drank. I slept for pretty much the entire day until dinner and felt horrible for most of it, but it was definitely worth it for the craziness from the night before.

Our time in Cape Town has made me unbelievably excited to live here for the next four and a half months. Our first day we went to Kirstenbosch, a beautiful botanical garden (though we didn’t spend much time there), and hiked from Kirstenbosch up the back side of Table Mountain. It was one of the most challenging hike’s I’ve ever done, as it was basically a straight vertical climb of 1100 meters, including rock climbing up a gorge. When we got to the top of the gorge we broke through the clouds below and had a relatively easy walk to the highest part of Table Mountain. The views you get up there are indescribable, especially with a layer of clouds below you on one side (the ocean) and it being perfectly clear on the other side (down into Cape Town). I know it will not be my last time on top of that mountain, though it may be my last time going up through Kirstenbosch given the difficulty of the hike. That night we went to a bar down on Long Street with our newest travel partner, Matt Misbin, and his roommates’ best friend who now lives in Cape Town. He showed us a good time and now I have a better idea for the nightlife around Cape Town.

Tuesday morning, before going to the game, we walked around all of Cape Town. I have never in my life seen a city buzzing (literally, with the sound of the vuvuzela audible everywhere) like that. It was the day of the last World Cup game in the biggest city in South Africa, quite possibly the biggest tourist day in Cape Town history. We went down to a bunch of local markets and explored, then made our way to the Bo Kaap, which flows right into the central business district of downtown Cape Town. It was really cool to see residential life that seemed so chill flow directly into the city itself, and made me realize how diverse a city Cape Town really is. We were walking through the Bo Kaap and walked through a park where we met a group of 5 local guys about our age and chatted with them for a little over an hour. It was a great way to see some local culture and see how, despite the fact that Cape Town may seem like a big American city on the surface, it is far from it at the heart. I think I’m going to like it here.

Safari Day 2

July 3

First, the bad news: for the second straight day we went without a lion sighting. It may have helped had our guide stuck to our side of the park instead of traversing all the way across to the other side in the middle of the afternoon, it may just be bad luck, but it was definitely a bummer to not have seen any lions. The good news: it was another amazing day. We saw a cheetah, of which there are very few in the park. For the second straight day we almost got charged by animals again – this time elephants. We saw a pack of about 6 elephants – one mom and the rest her children. The mom and the smallest one were on one side of the road, and the other smaller ones were on the other side of the road. I guess because we got caught between them one of the baby elephants flipped out and started to make a lot of noise and started moving towards us rather briskly, followed by two of her siblings. Needless to say we got out of there as quick as we could, but that was definitely a scary moment being trapped on both sides again. The highlight of the morning was watching an array of wildlife – including a huge elephant, two kudu, four zebras, and countless warthogs – drinking and eating around a huge water hole. According to the other people there we had just missed a lion by five minutes. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. That said, it was still another incredible day and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The final list of animals we saw today: giraffe, zebra, kudu, nyala, impala (about 300 of them throughout the day), white rhino, cheetah, wildebeest, baboon, warthog, buffalo, elephant, water lizard, vulture, and countless other birds. Tomorrow we travel back to Durban and continue onto Cape Town, where I’ll be for the next four and a half months. ’Til then…

Safari Day 1

July 2

Holy shit. I was going to write one entry for both days of the safari, but after today I realize that each day needs its own. We arrived at Hluhluwe Park at 6:00 am and it was fucking freezing. I mean wearing two sweatshirts and two blankets and still shivering freezing. In fact I wore a sweatshirt the entire day and regretted wearing shorts. I never imagined I would be on safari freezing my ass off, but given how cool it was it didn’t even matter. My brother and I were the only two people on the safari today; in fact we were the only two people in our entire bushcamp hostel last night. A list of the animals we saw today, in no particular order: buffalo, nyala, zebra, giraffe, white rhino, warthog, vulture, elephant, wildebeest, spotted hyena (two of them sleeping on the side of the road right when we entered the park), crocodile, rain bird, guinea fawn, and impala. Seeing animals in their natural environment and up that close almost diminishes all previous zoo experiences. The early morning highlight was definitely seeing a giraffe and a pack of four zebras less than 10 feet from our van. That was our first up-close encounter with the animals, but it wouldn’t be our last.

After stopping for lunch we started making jokes about wanting to see roadside rhino (which we decided either sounds like a really dirty sexual favor or a punk-rock band, don’t steal the name) but given that we had only seen rhinos from a distance in the morning we figured it wasn’t going to happen. After a long lull from seeing any wildlife we spotted two rhinos in the woods, waited patiently, and lo and behold they made it to the middle of the road. We were sitting less than 10 feet away from the rhinos and watching them for a bit when one finally turned and faced us and started walking towards us. Our guide put the car in reverse and started backing away and we were fine, but we didn’t even realize that there were another two rhinos in the road right behind us. We were caught in the mixer, but came out just fine.

After escaping that encounter we decided we didn’t want to see roadside elephant, and that seeing them from the distance was just fine. Minutes later we ran into a pack of about 15 elephants right on the side of the road and watched them play in the water for a while. It was almost surreal; I cannot describe in words how cool it was. We thought that this was going to be the highlight of the day, but just before we exited the park we saw a watering hole showdown between three rhinos, a pack of wildebeests, and three zebras. The baby rhino was chasing the wildebeests away from the water and marking her territory, and the zebras observed this and decided to walk around to the other side. Seeing all the different animals interact was really cool, and clearly the rhinos are the dominant species. My brother put it best when he said “I’d like to think I’ve done a lot of cool shit in my life, but this may just be the coolest.” Amen, brother. Amen.

SCUBA

July 1

It’s been pouring rain for the past twelve hours, and it’s really windy and cold, so we decided to bag our dives for today. People who did dive told us that if we had ever gotten sea sick in our lives that we would have been today, so it’s probably for the better that we skipped our dives. Still, the past two days have been incredible. We had four dives. The first was to Ramsey’s at 8 Mile and we saw a huge school of game fish, a bunch of angel fish, and countless others. We were under for 45 minutes and went down to 18 meters. Our second dive was to Anton’s at 2 Mile, highlighted by paper fish, a tortoise, and really cool reef formations. That dive went to 14 meters and lasted 55 minutes. After that dive our guide told us that he had once seen a whale shark bite off a turtle’s leg while he was with a group of divers – I can only imagine what that must’ve been like. Our third dive was to Porthole at 5 Mile, since it was too choppy to reach 7 Mile. We saw a bunch of king fish and a school of triggerfish, amongst others. We were supposed to go be able to go through an opening in the reef (hence the name Porthole) and swim into a cave down there but missed it because the current was too strong. Still a great dive though, and we logged our deepest dive at 22 meters. The last dive was my favorite, as it was just my brother, three guides (two of whom were coming along just for fun), and me. We learned a bunch of funny dive signs, including “I need to go to the bathroom”, “I’ve already gone to the bathroom”, “fuck off”, and “quit fucking around”. There was great visibility at 14 meters, and we saw the widest variety of fish of any of our dives, including three gigantic king fish and one scorpion ragu fish hiding in the reef.

SCUBA is kind of like riding a bike in a weird way – once you learn you never forget. I guess that’s because if you did forget and you went out you likely wouldn’t ever return. Everything moves in slow motion underwater, and sound is really magnified. It’s like a different world. The beach was also very peaceful. We spent the first afternoon chilling by the dive site on the beach and the second afternoon we hiked to a really remote area of the beach full of dunes and watched the sunset, which was really serene. Despite not being able to dive today we had a great time here. Onto the safari.

The Most Depressing Day...

June 27

Today we took a tour to Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. Our guide picked us up an hour and a half after he said he’d be there…TIA. I learned about South African history today and am starting to scratch the surface of the intricate and diverse balance of people here. I had read plenty about apartheid before coming to South Africa but visiting the Apartheid museum and learning about the Soweto uprising in 1976 was really eye opening. In 1976 students in Soweto protested the use of Afrikaans (the language brought by the Dutch when they “colonized” South Africa) in schools. What was intended to be a peaceful protest resulted in heavy policy brutality and many deaths, most famously the death of Hector Pieterson. You can see the famous picture of Pieterson’s dead body being carried by a friend below. Really powerful stuff.

The highlight was definitely visiting a squatter camp – a poor part of Soweto where they have no amenities and the government provides housing to families free of charge. No electricity, no running water except for a very few public spouts (for 7,000 – 10,000 people it clearly does not suffice), nothing. We saw the house of a family of 6 and our guide told us they were very fortunate: they had 2 rooms in the house (one for cooking, one for sleeping) instead of one. They also only had one bed. You hear about this type of stuff and it’s so distant that you almost dismiss it, but when you see it in person it’s a totally different ball game. Proximity is powerful shit. Now we’re off to Durban for the night before heading out to Sodwana Bay for SCUBA and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi for safari for the next 6 days. Will report back after.

Here!

June 26

After a LOOOOONG travel day I’ve finally made it to Joburg. Emirates is the nicest airline I’ve ever flown on. They have good food, comfy seats, a badass lighting system that changes the ambiance of the cabin (including stars on the ceiling) depending on the time, and a huge selection of movies. After meeting Michael at the airport we waited for over an hour for our hostel to come pick us up. This was my first “TIA” (This is Africa) experience, and I’m sure there will be many more to come. It will take getting used to everyone being an hour late and thinking nothing of it, but hey - it's not much worse than SoCal.

We went to Soccer City in Joburg to watch the US game where there were surprisingly few people, most likely due to the bitter cold. Despite the loss we had a great time, and the Ghana fans were a lot of fun. One dude in particular told us he loved us several times, and that he was sorry that we had to lose. Our picture with him is below (he's in the middle, obviously) and is HILARIOUS. I can tell already - South Africans are some of the nicest people around. If it can't be America I hope the Cup stays in Africa. They deserve it.

Beginnings

Friends, family, and anyone else who may happen to be reading this:

Welcome to my life for the next 4 months (and previous 2 and a half weeks, but no one's counting). I'll be keeping you all updated on my experiences, stories, and everything going on in South Africa through this site, so if you want to keep up with me / are bored on the internet and want to spend your time reading about someone else's life rather than living your own (just kidding!) / are just interested in reading about what it's like down here, please check back here often.

I'm going to overwhelm you at the beginning with a bunch of retroactive posts from my travels with my brother, Michael, and my friend, Matt, since I was a clown and forgot to set this up before leaving for South Africa. Matt left us today, and Michael leaves tomorrow, but we've had an unbelievable time traveling this beautiful country the past couple of weeks. You won't want to miss out on hearing about our ridiculous experiences.

Cheers!

Jeff