Relaxing but Fun Weekend

There is not much to say about the weekend. It was a pretty typical late semester weekend with Saturday activities and Sunday productivity.

Saturday morning we had kids from the Christine Revell Home over for a Halloween Party that included a Mac'n'cheese lunch, mask making, pin the tail on the black cat playing, as well as a candy hunt. Oh, lets not forget the witch, witch, monster duck duck goose game that we played. The kids were absolutely adorable and so nice to have over!

Saturday night, my advisor here took me out for an amazing 6-course dinner that expanded the palate a bit. My first and most likely last experience with beef tartar. I also had some delicious spicy apple with salmon soup. And some warmed roasted cheese with fig and caramelized walnuts for dessert. OF course there was much more in between, but with good food and great company--7 SIFE students joined us--it was a nice night out!

Sunday was a project day for which I accomplished two and started a third. Not to mention baked peanut butter cookies as a thank you to all those I have worked with this semester. The day ended with a variation on family dinner and the concoction of a new lentil salad recipe! All in all a great weekend!

End of Semester

Well today is the final day of classes at UWC and this means for me too. Today is my last official day at UWC, although I will still be on campus sporadically over the next couple of weeks wrapping up projects that I have started. As I took down photos in my office this morning, I thought this occasion warranted a little reflection.

I have several large remaining projects including final reports for the International Relations Office on International Students' Expectations and Satisfaction and for the Center for Student Support Services on my overall internship experience. I also have to complete diary (student calendar) edits and photos for the upcoming publication.

The other two remaining projects include data analysis. I will be helping to code data to help analyze the latest SRC election as well as doing a micro-literature review on voting trends for SRC elections in South Africa. Finally, I am assisting the Office of Student Development (similar to Career Services) with their planning for next year which includes looking at survey data to assess strengths and areas for growth.

That sounds like a lot hey?

Eh, it is not too bad and I am looking forward to hibernating over the next couple of weeks at my favorite cafe in my neighborhood, Observatory, Obs. for short. For as much as I like the beginning of a new school year and the buying of school supplies, I equally like the end of the semester...especially the fall semester.

Both have different energies, but the end of the fall semester is always full of such excitement for the holidays. I love sipping warm tea, listening to Christmas music and typing away, digging into material and knocking out projects. Admittedly, it is a bit off this year without the chill in the air and frost on the ground, but I am confident that the next two weeks will be filled with anticipatory energy and the thrill of finishing major projects. There is the additional bonus of flying home which I am also looking forward to.

I do not think that I will ever cease to enjoy the college environment. I have discovered, and readily admit to being a bit of an adrenaline junky. I love the waves of stress that challenge one and push them to new heights. I love the lack of routine that allows one to most effectively utilize one's own natural rhythms of energy and to take advantage of a variety of opportunities. And most of all, I love learning.

I will try anything once and that includes learning about a topic that I never had interest in before one conversation or another and riding that wave until it reaches shore...only to swim back out to find the next big wave.

This semester has been most rewarding and full of projects and endeavors that I could have only imagined 4 short months ago. I look forward to working hard over the next couple of weeks and packing in between breaks! Not to mention still sneaking in one or two Cape Town adventures--including surfing, strawberry picking, and abseiling!

The Best is Yet to Come

Well, I am sitting here tapping my toes to Mr. Sinatra as I write today. I am happy to report some good news. I will be home in 3 short weeks! That is right, 22 days and I will depart for the good ole US of A.

Yes, I know this is unexpected. I was supposed to come home in December after a visit from Chris. But please do not worry, he will be visiting me next semester...sometime around March I suspect.

As you have probably deduced, I will be coming back to South Africa for another 6 months starting in early January. And now you are probably asking why...

Well, I have been offered and accepted a position as Student Advisor for Stanford University. Like Marquette, they run a Service Learning Program in Cape Town for undergraduate students. I will oversee the residence as well as coordinate cultural trips and outings. I look forward to this opportunity to put my M.Ed. to work---yes it is a paid position! I am also looking forward to returning for the South African summer and missing the snowy, cold days of a Wisconsin winter; but that is just a bonus.

While this is a win-win situation, it is not a win-win-win situation as Michael Gary Scott would like for it to be. (It is an Office reference for those of you not obsessed...) The third win is missing, because while this will be a fun and worthwhile opportunity, it is lacking the friends and family that I miss while I am away. I will take this opportunity thank everyone for staying in touch and tuning into this blog to know what I have been up to. I will also promise to stay in touch as much as possible while I am away next year.

For those of you wondering and asking, "What about the wedding?", rest assured that it is not too far off into the future, although we are refraining from setting a solid date for the time being. Chris and I continue to support each other from afar--thank you SKYPE--and are dreaming up great ideas for the big day in the meantime.

Normally, I would not be so excited to return from a trip abroad earlier than expected, but this time it is balanced by getting to come back and I cannot wait to celebrate all the holiday traditions between Thansgiving and Christmas. Not to mention meeting my new niece, Simone, and celebrating Tye's birthday. I am especially looking forward to cooking and baking with family and friends...I am craving some pumpkin delicacies that is for sure. Here in South Africa it is primarily served as a vegetable and that is simply not as fun, although still good.

In any case, I will be home soon and cannot wait to see everyone!!!

A Whale of a Weekend

Hermanus, located on the southern coast of South Africa, is known for the many whales that inhabit their bay during this time of year. The town lived up to its reputation this weekend! The sparkling blue water was disturbed only by the spouts and jumps of whales as well as swimming dolphins.

While this was not the primary reason for our trip south, it certainly was a nice bonus to an already full weekend. Near Hermanus sits Volmoed. A retreat center whose history paralleled the theme of this get-away--RECONCILIATION.

We were there to engage with author and well-known theologian, John De Gruchy, about reconciliation in the context of South Africa during the country's transition, the TRC and now. There was ample time for speaking with him and asking questions that shed light on humanism and life's journey.

Additionally, we had time to explore the property which was absolutely beautiful and full of diverse plants, birds and bugs. I especially liked the gi-normous red and black grasshopper that looked more like a Power Ranger than an insect. And by liked, I mean was equally fascinated and disgusted at the same time.

The trail to the waterfall was probably my favorite mini-adventure. Once we found the hidden treasure, we were sure to jump into the freezing water from the muddy and untamed banks. Once in, and having touched the waterfall, we quickly swam back to shore to realize that there was not an easy way out of the water. Genius, I know. So we struggled to get footing to hoist ourselves out. We managed, but not without a skinned knee. Which seemed to fit the occassion.

I felt like I had traveled back about 15 years to our cabin in Sugartree. We were running around the property like children without much concern for anything other than having fun, hiking and swimming. At night we utilized our wood-burning fire place that filled the room with a familiar scent and we spent time just talking and laughing over casual dinners. The bruised knee, just seemed to fit with vacations from my youth and it added an extra special touch to the weekend.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my time away and now feel recharged for the week that will be spent finishing all the projects I have started at UWC.

Rainbow Reflection

As I mentioned earlier, last night we attended the public debate on "Rainbow Nation: Myth or Reality?" sponsored by the Desmond Tutu Peace Center downtown at the Slave Lodge. It was a great discussion, but I will not bore you with details. I do want to highlight one of the speaker's remarks. Antjie Krog is an Afrikaans-speaking author, poet and professor. And she is absolutely brilliant.

Her 10 minutes of remarks challenged those in the audience to really consider the messages hidden within the Rainbow Nation metaphor. She masterfully and eloquently explained how the scientific principles that make a rainbow possible apply to South Africa. It was absolutely engaging and relevant.

I highly recommend perusing her books; namely, Country of My Skull and Begging to Be Black.

Afterward, we walked up to the nearby McDonalds. My first visit to this local establishment. I confess that could not resist an Oreo McFlurry any longer!

Three in One

On a picture perfect spring day, we took advantage of every hour possible. On Saturday we woke up to a perfectly blue sky, a gentle breeze, a bright sun and moderate temperature. After morning errands, we took a stroll over to Kirstenbosch—a large botanical garden sitting at the base of Table Mountain just down the Skeleton Gorge.

This well manicured garden welcomes with exotic plants and meters upon meters of green grass and bushes all set against the backdrop of the towering mountain. As I entered the space, there was a sense of awe that did not seem to cease for the five hours we stayed there.

We took a picnic and enjoyed the shade of a tall tree hiding playful birds. We walked along paths and saw a garden of King Protea, the national flower, a garden of useful plants, and a garden of statues. We also stopped for an afternoon tea, which just so happened to come with a few sweet desserts and scones.

Afterward, we drove to a conference deciding Rugby game—our team, Western Province, played the Sharks and won clinching their bid to the playoffs. We were on field level at the end of the field..which was great for seeing all the action! On the way, I bought humor for 0.50R.

That is right, a hawker was selling flyers at the stoplight and I thought why not..one laugh would be worth it. The two-sided brochure was full of fun facts and humor…we had enjoyed reading them along the way. There were the quintessential blonde jokes and old age jokes—we chuckled, as did our taxi driver—and it passed the ride quickly. Well worth the 50 Rand cents.

After the game, we took advantage of the monthly public access night to the Astronomy Observatory that our neighborhood is named after. We listened to a short lecture about the history of the space program in South Africa and took a short tour through their museum. Unfortunately, clouds blocked our view of the stars themselves, but it was a nice to see the facility!

And that was our Saturday. Full of many bucket list items…which was good since Sunday was like a March day at home…blustery, rainy and cold. Made for a full day productivity and tea drinking!

All in all it was a well-balanced and satisfying weekend! Next up—Hermanus!

Rainbow Nation

Today I saw a rainbow that literally stretched from one side of the horizon across the other centered perfectly over the highway that we were driving along. It was gorgeous. It made my day.

Perfectly timed as I am going to a public debate titled, "Rainbow Nation: Myth or Reality?" on Wednesday. More to report on that later.

For now, I am going to keep smiling thinking about the colorful sky.

Weekends...What about During the Week?

One always looks forward to the weekends...a time set aside for catching up on errands or enjoying some leisure time. In the day to day routine of events, it is easy to lose sight of the time one has free in the evenings. That is complicated here due to transportation; however, I got to thinking last week, that I really need to do more with my evenings here in Cape Town. So this week, I have done just that.

Monday, I had the opportunity to go to an improv comedy show called Theatre Sports. This organization is comprised mainly of college students who put on a unique show nightly playing games on stage with the suggestions of the audience. I alwasy enjoy these kinds of shows, because they are simply in the moment, and one never knows just what might come out of someone's mouth. In any case, it was a great way to spend a Monday night---simply LAUGHING. Surprisingly, the humor was not too culture specific but there were a few nuances that provided a little insight into South African culture.

Prior to the show we went to the Eastern Food Bizarre for dinner. This food court of sorts had about 10 different stalls of Eastern food from Indian to Chinese to Turkish and it all looked so amazing it was overwhelming to pick only one dish. I managed though. I enjoyed some lentils and rice along with a Chicken Kebab and it was delicious and I look forward to going back there soon! Bonus: It was another item off the bucket list!

On Tuesday, we had planned to go to a preview of a dance show at the Baxter Theatre, but for a number of reason this did not go as planned, so instead, we went to the Labia Theatre to see Mao's Last Dancer on Wednesday.

This was a great film about a boy selected by the government to be trained as a ballet dancer away from his family in Beijing. Eventually he is selected to study in the States, and after his time there, does not want to return home. I will not give away the entire story because you should either watch the film or read the book. I plan to do the latter in the near future as it was fascinating to get this glimpse into life in China during the 1970s and 80s. Having studied there, I might be a bit biased, but nonetheless, I would highly recommend it!

As for my time at UWC during the days this week, I managed to conduct several focus group interviews, work with the SIFE team for their Green Week activities, speak as an international student at a forum and do a bit of research on student governments in South Africa. Not too shabby I suppose.

TGIF!

Devil's Peak--Another Mis-adventure

Well, last weekend I had another misadventure, although not nearly as epic as the previous one. However, it does involve mountains again. Last Sunday, we thought it would be fun to climb Devil's Peak which sits just to the left of Table Mountain from our neighborhood. On the way up, one passes the Rhodes Memorial--a monument that should not be missed.

I started the day with the intent of knocking two items from my bucket list. Perhaps I should explain the bucket list. Time goes so fast when one is abroad and there is always something to be explored so I have done my best to list out those things for which I must do before leaving Cape Town. Both Rhodes and Devil's Peak were on that list...sadly Devil's Peak remains.

So we hiked up to the monument a third of the way up the mountain and rested and snacked before heading farther up the peak. We followed a path that we thought would take us to the summit and walked a ways before realizing that it did not in fact go up but around...we collectively decided that we would just turn the climb into a hike.

While I was slightly disappointed, it turned out to be a great day. We ended up walking for about 5 hours around the curving path and explored decaying buildings, observed beautiful wild flowers, and avoided a variety of wild creatures including unidentifiable bugs and snakes! It was a worthwhile adventure. As we started to head back to sea level, a cloud started to descend onto the mountain making our walk back a bit more challenging. It went from being a warm and sunny day to a windy and misty afternoon in all what seemed to be five minutes. It was really fun to walk through the clouds!

We stopped at the grocery store to buy supplies for family dinner on the way home. On the way, in a scene straight from a movie, a car, driving obscenely and unnecessarily close to the edge of road, sprayed a huge puddle of water at me. Yes, I was the lucky one in our group of four to take the brunt of this attack. I was drenched from head to toe, which is never comfortable, but especially not when one is already sticky from a day of climbing and covered in a red dust from the trails...

We all laughed, including me, at the situation and kept walking. But it truly felt like a scene from a movie where someone is downtrodden and this kind of incident would just be icing on the cake.

After a warm shower, I enjoyed the always anticipated family dinner and had a productive evening preparing for the upcoming week!

Work Week

It is getting to be that time in the semester when deadlines become fast approaching and you can feel the intensity in the students—both those in the house and those at UWC. I also am starting to feel the pinch at the end of the semester.

Over the course of the week, I managed to spend one full day counting votes from the student government elections. The process here is much more formal and political than any experience I have had in the states and it was most interesting to be involved in that process.

I also designed a few logos for the Office of Social Responsibility and Leadership. I must say that as much as my work is in Higher Education here, I have also developed my skills with photography and design. It has been nice to share this skill with UWC while improving my ability with the technology. A valuable lesson for anyone volunteering or interning with an organization is that it is as much about your own development as it is about serving the organization’s needs. It must be co-beneficial for it to be a true success.

I also spent ample time with the SIFE team developing a presentation for a company’s bid for an entrepreneurship award as well as preparing a brochure for another small business.

I am taking today to enjoy a local café and get some work done. Including preparing for a lecture I am giving to second year education students at the University of Stellenbosch next week, following-up with contacts from the previous two conferences, preparing for focus group interviews that I am conducting next week and updating this blog for all you dedicated readers.

I should note, that I am also blogging for the College of Education at Marquette while I am here. The blog is more academic in nature and speaks more about my internship experiences while I have been here. My entries are posted every other Friday at http://marquetteeducator.wordpress.com. My most recent entry should be posted today!

In any case, I thought I should send a brief account of my work so you do not think that I am only having fun here! Although, the work has been equally enjoyable.

Stellenbosch for the Weekend

Wow, I cannot believe that it has already been a month since the mid-semester trip. What a busy month it has been! Back to back conferences and many project deadlines have kept me on my toes. I am happy to report that I took the long weekend (thanks to the national Heritage Day holiday) to relax.

Our plan was to head to Stellenbosch Friday, Simon’s Town on Saturday and Cape of Good Hope on Sunday; however, we never made it past Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is the wine region near Cape Town. It is surrounded by mountains and covered in vineyards. This area is primarily an Afrikaans region and the European influence is evident from the Dutch Architecture that surrounds the city centre and the University as well as the language of people walking along the streets.

Taking the train out there took a little longer than expected, as did the walk to our hostel. Note: Maps are not always drawn proportionately, train stations do not always have taxis readily available and return tickets are only valid for one day. Also, one can buy anything from chips, chocolate and nuts to vapor rub, credit card holding key rings and nail clippers on the train. Once we made it, we decided to just take in the area with a nice late lunch and walk through the marketplace.

Lunch at the Big Easy was delightful and perhaps a bit indulgent. It was the first time that I had the privilege to order wine for the table, which meant I got to taste and approve before it was served. We felt very proper and sophisticated!

After making one or two purchases from the market, we decided to get some snacks for the room and some magazines and headed back for a girls night. Girl talk and movies consumed the evening and it was quite nice to just relax!

The next day, after quite the adventure, we found our selves on a wine tour of sorts. We serendipitously landed at Beyerskloofs, the source of our wine from the day before. Then walked our way back towards the city to visit another estate: Louiesenhof. Next we had an Italian lunch and people-watched back in city centre.

It was nice to stroll the old streets. Dorp St., esteemed as the oldest street in Stellenbosch, has many cute shops, galleries and eateries. We made sure to enjoy some gelato and again enjoy the nice weather.

Generally it was a laid back weekend with friends that seemed to easily pass the time and I enjoyed the scenery and the conversation. We ventured back toward Cape Town on a rainy Sunday-the magic of the weekend was officially over. We missed mass as a result of the train time, but not to worry, we heard an hour long of preaching on our train car. We figured that would count.