Wait you have to a STUDY in Study Abroad?

Day 2:
The jet lag hasn't entirely subsided, but a good nights sleep is definitely easier to have the second night. But up before the sun, we made our way down to breakfast bright as early. I'll refer to "we" a lot because as we learned at our 9am group meeting, Meaghan and I were lucky to have each other. As the only two grade students on the trip, and 10 years older than the rest of the students, most just finishing their freshman year, we were stuck between the class and the professors. So essentially, the Megans, who are older and didn't travel to Cape Town with the group, we're definitely the outsiders of the group. Again, good thing we have each other, because what 18 year olds want to do on a study abroad trip is vastly different then 28 year olds. Generally. I have a better understanding of the large gap in the Peace Corps volunteers now.
Anyway, Day 2 began with our first day of class. There are 5 students in our class: 3 undergrad and 2 graduate students. With 2 presentations and 2 exams, the class is manageable, until you realize as a grad student you add a paper and lead another class and do it all in 16 days. Manageable, but not a cake walk study abroad class. Like actual class. I am also studying for my MPH comprehensive exam while I'm here. This is a cumulative exam over 5 core courses in Public Health that I've taken over the past year. Not an easy exam. Especially when you're frolicking around Southern Africa for the month prior. Oh well. Therefore, our nights are filled with lots of studying and reading and decent bed times to fight the jet lag. Party animals. Quite a change from my last trips to Cape Town. We all grow up sometime. Part of the reason I wanted to come back to Cape Town was to have an entirely different trip than I had on most of my other trips here. Most were characterized by filling the void that rural African life leaves in your American life: McDonalds and beer, with a sightseeing as a second priority, and only the free or cheap sights as we were paid $300 a month as PCVs. This trip I knew would hit many more museums, sights, and cultural experiences that I wasn't able to five years ago.
As excited as I was to have more tourist experiences, I was not excited to "be a tourist" something I seriously avoided as a PCV, taking public transport, avoiding the gaudy tourist buses and overland trips. But when you go with a group of 33 young Americans, most who have never been out of the country before, that feeling is inevitable. After class on the first day we were sent off to partake in the ultimate tourist experience, the Hop On Hop Off bus tour. Mercifully, they let us go off in separate groups, and not as a whole group. Meaghan and I quickly took off while everyone else was getting their group together. For all its gaudiness(apparently that's not a word but I'm rolling with it) the bus does offer a nice overview of the city and its history. We rolled through the colorful houses of Bo Kapp and up Table Mountain (we didn't get off because we'll take a group excursion there soon), and around the backside of the mountain to Camps Bay. Car-less as a Peace Corps volunteer, I never made it to Camps Bay. Settled between the backside of the mountain and the ocean, Camps Bay is the beach town of Cape Town and therefore home to lavish beach houses and delicious beach side restaurants. We "hopped off" the bus in Camps Bay, stuck our toes in the water, and meandered up and down the street and found a good looking Greek restaurant. Meaghan got her oysters (6 for $8, apparently that's a steal) and I found some good looking, fish free food and we enjoyed the beach side location, wrapped in blankets - it is winter here after all. We hopped on the next bus (after a discussion with our waiter about how sad he is that Obama is leaving office) and headed up the coast and the backside of signal hill. It was amazing to see the houses built into the cliff side rocks, squeezed together to make use of every ocean front property. 100 years ago, it was all just farmland. The familiar view of Cape Town stadium remind me of the World Cup atmosphere we were lucky to be apart of all those years ago. The bus talked of the vuvuzelas that filled the stadiums. I remember the vuvuzelas filling the airport and our homesteads as we watched Spain win the cup. We hopped off at my favorite spot in Cape Town, the water front, and moseyed through the mall. We finally stopped at the local brewery where the waiter came too quickly and I couldn't finish my warning to Meaghan that essentially every South African beer was the same, watered down type. She ordered a Hansa and said, I feel like I just ordered a Bud Light. I nodded but told her she had to try it while she was here. I ordered the brewery's pale ale and enjoyed the beginnings of the budding craft beer culture Cape Town was sorely lacking 5 years ago. We headed back to the bus to catch the last one back up to Long Street, only to find the place closed up. Somewhere between military time and winter hours, we missed the last bus. Fortunately, the cabs were near and he whisked us back to our hostel with no one the wiser. Settling in for some pizza and studying, we called it a night.

Day 3: The Tourism Continues
Our orientation to the city continued after breakfast as the group trekked down Kloof Street causing craning necks along the way, as giant groups of Americans do everywhere. The professors probably should have looked at a map before heading off as we stopped and turned around a few times, causing Meaghan and I to hang our heads low and pretend we weren't a part of the typical American tourist experience. We finally arrived at the Slave Lodge Museum at the end of the Company's Gardens. The Slave Lodge was where the Eaat India Trading Company brought the slaves they picked up in India, Indonesia, and Madagascar. Cape Town in that time was just a fueling stop for them, but soon grew with the bustling slave trade. The museum also served, as many do, as an Apartheid Museum. This one paid tribute to the newspaper The Guardian and the journalists that worked as activists first, journalists second. From the 1940s and 50s they fought against in NP, and in the 1960s and 70s when things turned violent towards the peaceful protestors, many of them were banned. It was interesting to see stories of people other than Nelson Mandela who took on the Apartheid in those times.
Next we wandered through the Company's Gardens, a small version of a Central Park, with fish ponds, vegetable gardens, sweeping views of Table Mountain, and a giant statue of Cecil Rhodes. It'll be interesting to see how much longer that statue stays, as protests at the University of Cape Town last year cause his statue to be removed from campus. We headed towards the Iziko Museum, essentially the Smithsonian of South Africa. This one was the South African history museum, with stuffed animals that roam the African continent and swim near its shores (safe to say there was a large shark area and plenty of talk of shark cage diving. Of which I will do a hard pass once again). We wandered through the ancient cave drawings and through a history of the continent itself. There were displays of the many tribes of South Africa, and I was pleased to read about the Swazis there as well. There was even a display on the Great Zimbabwe as well (see my picture around September 2012 in this blog).
We broke for lunch and headed to a burger place next to our hostel that served South Afican style burgers. Lots of blitong (their type of jerky) shavings, peri-peri sauce and other interesting combos. It was very delicious. We spent the afternoon in class and a group meeting before settling down with a cappuccino and some biostatistics in the cafe below the hostel. If that is the theme of the next few weeks, it would be a nice routine to settle into. Sight seeing in the morning, class in the afternoon with coffee and studying in the evening. There are many coffee shops around, that might be a nice niche to explore.

Ta-fa for now. It's a foggy Day 4 in Cape Town. Looks like a trip up Table Mountain will be postponed. I wonder what Plan B will be...

Here I Go Again...

Here we are again friends.

It's been nearly 4 years since I left Africa and since my last blog post. I've had many American adventures since: moving to California, leaving and moving back to California, a few cross country vacations and a few mountains climbed. But the travel bug is real, the wanderlust is real, and it was calling me back to a crazy venture to be had.

So when I found out my school was offering a class in Cape Town, I jumped on it and knew I'd do whatever it took to get there. It was only a bonus the class offered was an International Health class. I probably would have gone regardless of the class. ;)

I've met a lot of people in the last four years, new people I've described my African adventures to, who joined my friends and family who took the first journey to Africa with me in showing exactly zero shock in learning I was going back. Zero shock, but all excitement. So I thought I would restart the old blog, especially for those who aren't on Facebook (MOM) and show everyone the Africa I'm so in love with, and my second "crazy venture beneath African skies."

I'll be here in Cape Town for 3 weeks, then mosey back over to Swaziland for a few more weeks to meet up with an old PC friend for Bushfire and some Swazi adventures before heading down to Magubheleni to kaShabalala to see my family that I stayed with for 2 years there. It'll be a great time and I'm so stoked to be back. Here's how the trip has gone so far.

The Flight(s)
The journey started early on Saturday morning from San Francisco. (Huge thanks to B for making the late night / early morning trip with me and for his bro for putting us up for the night.) The last time I went to Southern Africa, we spent the night in Atlanta, then took the 17 hour flight to Joburg, where we spent the night again before hoping on the plane to the Swaz. Needless to say the breaking up of the trip was important - and was lacking in this current trip. I flew direct from SF to NY and for those who have done that trip, you know how long that is. With the early start, I slept for a bit, chatted with the guy next to me who was headed to Milan, read the chapter for the first day of class on Tuesday, put some flash cards together for my comprehensive exam in June, and by that time we were maybe over Denver. *ugh* Fortunately those long flights have personal TVs and I was able to catch up on a few episodes of Downton Abbey before I landed in NY. I hoofed it across JFK with enough time to snarf a pizza and send some final love from America before I was on the next plane within an hour. No bueno for the legs, but I just wanted to get there. For as long as O thought the NY leg was, the Paris leg was much longer - again, zero recollection from the last trip across the pond. Maybe it was the time difference that made it drag on. This "overnight flight" that left NY at 5pm and landed in Paris at 6 am, was really a late afternoon, evening flight Pacific time. We landed in Paris at 11pm Pacific and I had now slept a total of 2 hours tops when it was technically the next day? Who really knew where I was and what time it was, but there was no time to wonder and I hustled through security and back onto the Air France flight to Cape Town. Fortunately this one was delayed a bit, so I could pace by the gate trying to do the math on what time it actually was and how long this flight would be. Surely it wasn't really 12 hours, was it? There had to be a time change in there... No? No. No there wasn't. There was, however, no one on the plane. And no one in the entire row with me. The travel Gods were definitely looking out for my jet lagged self. I struggled to stay awake long enough to be served lunch (no I don't want more aperitifs French man, just give me the damn food so I can go to sleep!!) Mercifully, it came and on went the eyeshades and earplugs and out went Megan. A four hour, glorious nap later and we were still in Northern Africa. Fine. With slightly less enticing movies as Delta, I spent the rest of the trip (another 6+ hours) alternating between studying and sleeping and pacing the plane to circulate the blood in my legs that were tired of sitting for the 30th hour. But soon the lights appeared below: first, the familiar glow of fires that burn the grass in the villages (what do you do when you don't have a lawn mower?), then the larger, grid like lights of the townships, each light barely enough to cover 10 houses, and finally the lights of the city, the freeway and the airport. It was pitch dark when we flew in, but the lack of lights in the middle of the city told us the unmistakeable mountain was there. As Ali said, they didn't move it while I was gone. ;)

Day 1:
The travel Gods were with me again as I was put in a dorm room of the hostel with no one else. Perfect to quickly shower from 40 hours in the same clothes and pass out. For a few hours anyway. It was just beginning to be morning in California as my head hit the pillow in Cape Town. So my eyes thanked me for the nap and at 330am I was wide awake. After tossing and turning and trying to sleep, I got up and was down for breakfast at 7am when they opened. The hostel provides breakfast (score!) Greek yogurt and muesli (granola) or a croissant and a coffee of your choice. Flat white for me please (Starbucks pretended they invented a new drink that's been in every other country forever. And better) The class wasn't coming until late that night, so I ventured off into Cape Town with my list: Rand, adapter, towel. Kloof street turned into Long street snd I saw the familiar sights of my trips here in the Peace Corps. McDonalds, obviously, turned into the familiar cafes and bars next to various hostels that brought back many memories. I walked to down town and was reminded that thought this is Cape Town, it's still Africa and nothing goes quite how it should here. I walked into the first Bureau de Change to find out they were out of Rand. I was reminded of the restaurant AMG and I went to in who knows what town in what country of Africa and the restaurant we went to for lunch was "closed for lunch." "But you're a restaurant!" She said, "I thought I'd seen it all..." An exchange place out of cash, I thought I'd seen it all. She helpfully pointed me to an American Express exchange place. I walked to the counter to a nice lady who smiled and said, "we are offline, sorry angel." No idea what that meant, but I took her compliment, looked to the sky, found the tallest bank building and walked towards that. Good old Standard Bank, I knew they wouldn't fail me. Rand in hand I wandered around to where I thought the PEP store was in the map in my mind. You can tell how this story is going: they must have moved the streets. But I wandered into a Clicks Drug Store for towels and, I couldn't believe I had forgotten about them, a Top Deck chocolate bar. White and milk chocolate Cadbury in a delicious bar. Mmmmmm. I was back in my happy place for sure. I wandered back up the streets of Cape Town (and past the PEP store in its obviously new location, lol) and back to the hostel. Tired from jet lag but determined to push through, I grabbed some food at the restaurant below the hostel and enjoyed the sounds of Cape Town while I waited for the group: the South African accents, the kids screaming in the school across the way, the sounds of horns "tooting," and the khumbi conductors driving by searching for passengers...
The rest of my school group arrived that night, frazzled and jet lagged. The travel Gods smiled again as the other grad student, also named Meaghan (we'll forgive her the spelling) also from California, and I were given (accidentally I'm sure) a dorm room to ourselves. Our mouths have stayed shut since as we've enjoyed our extra space.

I'll update on yesterday's events and today's later. But now it's breakfast time for Day 3 in Cape Town.

Lots of love from the Mother City!

Equator Time.

Sorry for the lack of updates. My phone doesn't do mobile posts anymore... But now you know where I am! Back in the Northern Hemisphere!

Lake Malawi

This is now the third time I've written this blog update, so hopefully this actually gets uploaded this time. Silly African Internet...


We had a great two weeks in Malawi - week and a half on the Lake. We spent time in Cape Maclear on the south side of the lake, and Nkhata Bay on the north. We kayaked, snorkeled, scuba'd, and obviously swam. A lot. It reminded me a lot of a tropical Lake Superior, and coincidentally, both lakes are in the top 10 biggest lakes in the world!


I love Malawi. It's cheap, delicious food - lots of beans for those of us who don't eat fish. The camping was cheap, the beer was cheap, everything was cheap. It was a nice break from the touristy spots of South Africa and Victoria Falls and where we're off to next... Zanzibar. We have been moving around with the same group of people lately. Meeting people in Blantyre and seeing them off and on again along the lake, we're currently traveling with some new British friends to Zanzibar. We ran into someone we met in Victoria Falls, and will see some more in Zanzibar. Africa is a HUGE continent, I don't fully understand how it can be so small, but it's nice to meet new people and hang out with them for a while.

Like I said, we're on our way to Zanzibar now. After a crazy day of boarder crossing to get into Tanzania (full of broken down buses and bus ranks at midnight) we finally got to, and then out of, Mbeya and are currently in Dar Es Salaam. It's a crazy African city. It reminds me a lot of Maputo, just bigger. Crazy drivers, kind of dirty, people of all ethnicities. I love it so far.


Tomorrow we're headed to Zanzibar, another one of the milestones of this trip. One month left in Africa! Crazy to think my time here is ending. It's been so great to see so many different parts of this continent that most people don't get to see. But I am excited to be getting on to Europe, to get home. We've been sleeping in beds for the past three nights. It's amazing. I can't wait until I can do it every night. That's all for now, time to explore Dar!

Lots of Love!

Malawi. Heaven.

Great Zimbabwe

I had no idea what to expect when we ventured into Zimbabwe. I'm not exactly well versed on my African politics from 1980 to present, meaning the end of colonialism and each country's own civil was and how it is currently. But I knew Zimbabwe had had it rough, like most countries I guess. I had just finished reading Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari" where he travels Cairo to Cape Town overland. He came through Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, in the height of the farm invasions and the economic crisis. (If you don't know the President basically told the war veterans that they should take the white farmers farms, and so they did, many times violently.) The currency was horribly inflated at the time and as we all know it eventually got much worse. But that was the time period everyone seemed to be referring to when they said to stay away from Zim. I was interested, and a little anxious to see what it was like now.
We went from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo on the night train, celebrating my "birthday" with some gin and tonics. (i'm the only one without a birthday on this trip, so we made one up) We got to Bulawayo in the morning and after some hassle finding an ATM that would take our foreign cards, we hopped on a khumbi to Masvingo, and arrived in the late afternoon before jumping into a shared taxi to the Great Zimbabwe National Monument 25K outside of town. The public transport system is interesting here. There are a few khumbis for longer distances, hours or so, and taxis for short distances, but for middle, and even short distances, there are shared taxis, which are just 8 passenger mini vans that they cram as many people into as possible. We had 16 people in ours on the way to our campsite. But we made it and walked the kilometer in as the sun was setting. The next morning we rose early, as usual, and set off to explore the Great Zimbabwe. It was an extremely interesting morning, wandering around the ancient ruins of an 11th century city. Archeologists spent 100 years trying to attribute this city to anyone and everyone except the african people, but in the end it has been proven that a great civilization lived in this area far before people had realized. The most awesome part was the city slash fort they built on top of a hill of rock. It was full of so many little passageways and nooks we couldn't help but think how fun it would be to play capture the flag or other random games in it.
We wandered around for a few hours before we hitched a ride back into town on a school bus full of the politest 6th graders in the world on a school trip. They had some sports tournaments in some random towns and were getting in some learning in between their games.
After a stop for some take away of chicken and sadza (lipalishi), we got into a khumbi to the capital, Harare.
We got in at night and have spent the last few days trying to figure out busses and visas to get to Malawi. We'll have to go through the Tete corridor of Mozambique to get to Malawi from here, a grand total of 6 hours maybe, that will cost us $85, four times as expensive as our Mozambican visas for our vacations in Swaziland... "it's called reciprocity" they said with a 'tude. But we were successful in our Tanzanian visas, but not without griping about the $110 it cost to get it.
But tomorrow morning we'll leave Zimbabwe for Malawi, so I guess the question is, how was Zimbabwe? It's hard to say after only a week. The people are the nicest I've met since Swaziland, so friendly and smiling. The only trouble we have encountered are police officers giving absurd tickets to khumbi drivers, to the point where they are losing money on trips with bribes and silly tickets. It's been weird being in an African country and using US dollars. In 2009, the Zimbabwaen dollar had inflated so much, it was practically worthless (i an currently in possession of a 25 billion Zim Dollar note) and so they switched to the dollar. It's weird being on a khumbi in the middle of nowhere and some random grandma from some random town pulls out USD to pay. They don't use American coins though. I had some random quarters I tried to pay with when my total came to $1.50, and the lady said "we don't take that, we only take Rand coins." What?! How can a country use one currency for bills and one for coins and neither are their own? And they usually don't even have coins. Today I got change for my $3.30 in 7 suckers.
But all in all, Zim has been good to us, I've enjoyed my time here. But it's time to move on... Lake Malawi is calling. ;)

BUNGEEE!!