Sting Rays, Gardens, Oversized Men, and Mountains

I must be adjusting to the culture down here even faster than I realized, because it appears my internal clock has switched to South African time (no one does very much on time or quickly at all for that matter) because it has been a little while since my last entry. The last week and a half has been busy, with classes every day and lots to explore on the weekends. Even wrote a few papers last week—no small task for someone who was beginning to think they were on a semester long vacation (the verdict is still out on that one). I’ll leave you all with a few highlights:

Last weekend, I went scuba diving with a friend from the program who goes by Coop, and his host-brother, James. James is a scuba instructor and took the two of us out to a place called Long Beach near Simonstown for two days of diving. I’d been thinking about getting scuba certified for a while and when the opportunity arose I couldn’t resist. Turns out it was a lot of fun, pretty exhilarating to breathe under water. The dive site, the area where most people in Cape Town come to be trained, has a number of shipwrecks and some sweet aquatic life. The wrecks have accumulated in this bay over time (one sunk almost a century ago and another was supposedly sunk recently, due to some insurance shananagins). It was great that we got to go straight to the ocean to learn and didn’t have to start at a pool like most folks who are getting certified. Highlight of the diving: a really close encounter with a stingray the size of a small car. A one point it got a little hairy— he apparently wasn’t so happy about our little visit so starting flapping up sand and raised his stinger a bit to let us know. Needless to say we gave Ray some space, but it was really neat to see such a cool animal up close. Yesterday, I completed the written test component and now am entirely done with the certification. Call me Scuba Steve. A shark scuba dive is in the works for next weekend, I’ll keep y’all updated.

After diving in the morning last Sunday, I joined a big group from CIEE and headed to Kirstenbosch Gardens, a beautiful botanical garden at the base of Table Mountain. Every Sunday night during the summer they have a concert out on this expansive lawn overlooking the mountain. Everyone comes out and brings their own picnics and wine and enjoys the warm Cape Town summer breeze. The music was a little funky, a bit poppy for my tastes, but the atmosphere was stellar. I already have plans to go back soon.

This past Saturday morning (yesterday) I forced myself to wake up early to make it to Old Biscuit Mill, this market a few neighborhoods away where they have the sort of shops women tend to enjoy looking through, and two large tents of the most incredible variety of delicious foods. I opted for the steak sandwich, but only after walking around for a while sampling all sorts of things and enjoying the varied smells of the place. It appears that waking up early to eat meat is becoming a bit of a trend. I don’t think I have a problem with that.

Saturday evening I went on another CIEE adventure to my first ever rugby game. The local team, The Stormers, which is supposedly very good, played a team of Aussies. I had practically no idea what was going on, but that didn’t stop me from cheering and jeering as loudly as the locals. The atmosphere was a lot like a football game back home, only here they serve Castle and Black Label instead of Miller Lite and Bud Lite and the sorts of things that drunk people yell out sound funnier down here. A few thoughts on rugby: The guys are big. Really big. Not sure if they’re quite as big as NFL football players, but they don’t wear any pads so the toughness factor needs not be questioned. I’m going to have to read up on the game and make it back for another game.

Sunday morning, (this morning), I finally was able to make it out on a hike. I’ve been trying to find time to hike for a while now, and Table Mountain teases me every time I look up at it. I’ve been gazing at it in awe for too long not to have conquered it. Turns out a trip to the summit wasn’t in the cards today, it was far too cloudy and windy at the top to make it all the way up, but we did manage to take a contour path around half of the mountain. We left from UCT campus, where there are a number of trails, and made our way around the mountain, looking down at the city wrapping around its base below. We made it all the way to Lion’s Head, another peak on the other side of the mountain. As disappointed as I was not to make it to the top, it was really neat to hike in the clouds for a while. It was really windy and moist up there, with little visibility, but every so often the clouds would clear and you would get a few moments of unobstructed blue. I’m determined to try again soon and reach the top. The weather on top is pretty erratic and unpredictable, so I may just need to wait till the next beautiful day and put everything else off to just hike.

Tomorrow I start volunteering for real (we had an orientation last week) and should be meeting the group of students I’ll be working with / mentoring. Can’t wait. It’s been far too long since I’ve done anything of this sort and I’m really ready to get started.

Cheers!