Real Life Begins...

Ahhh...the touring is over and now the real reason I came here has begun. School. We started on Febuary 16th and luckily things have been going great so far. It is a bit of a trek to get to upper campus where classes are held, but the fact that we have class on a mountain makes it totally worth it. I am taking three classes, they are: African Hunters and Herders (a survey of prehistoric african people), Principles of Oceanography, and Life in the Sea. Naturally Life in the Sea has been my favorite so far, but they are all sufficiently interesting. In-between classes, practicals (aka labs), and homework, my friends and I have been trying to keep busy. Here are just a few photos of some afternoon wanderings.

 Trip to the spa. Complete with fish pedicure.

Of course delicious food.

 A photo from a dive in Shark Alley. We saw at least 10 cow sharks during our 45 minute dive. They have don't have any personal space issues and prefer to swim within inches of your face. It makes for an exhilarating dive though. 

 Rainbow and Devil's Peak on my way to class. 

 Some hiking in Kleinmond on a camping trip I took this weekend. 

Garden Route

Here are some pictures from my garden route tour. We went from Cape Town to Jeffreys Bay by mini bus over the course of four days.

Cango Ostrich Farm

 Ostrich "hug"

 Ostrich eggs are tall enough to sit or stand on.

 We got to bungee jump at the worlds highest bungee bridge!

I would say it was the best thing I have done in South Africa so far, but yesterday I went diving with sharks. It's an easy second though :) 

Also, there are some videos I posted to my youtube channel that correspond with this trip. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWapd-jPVjIJxZ8WxWb_C4w

First off, in my last post I forgot to post pictures of my house. It is located in a suburb called Mowbray, only about 15 minutes from campus. The house was built in the early 1800's and actually has a lot of history to it. In one room there is a trap door that leads to the old slave quarters. Unfortunately our landlord blocked most of the rooms off with bricks so that we aren't able to explore, but you can still see what horrible conditions they were subjected to. 

 My room

The porch that is connected to my room

Since school still doesn't start for another week my friends and I decided to go to one of Cape Town's many beaches. Muizenberg is one of the warmest, and it is only a 30 minute train ride away (for only $2!!). This beach is especially known for shark attacks so they have shark spotters that try and warn swimmers of any potential danger. There are four different flags; green for safe(er), black for unknown, red for prime shark condition, and white for shark spotted. Once a shark is spotted all swimmers have to leave the water for a bit. It happens quite often, but we were lucky that when we went only the green and black were flying. 

Today we went to something I have been looking forward to for a long time, Boulders beach. This beach is home to a penguin colony and the public is able to hang around with the penguins as they wish. 

 Nesting penguins and baby penguins!!

 Crystal clear, but frigid, water!

Soon I will be leaving to go on a garden route tour. So lots to come.

Peace.

Mel.

Orientation Week

Ok so this will be a pretty long post since it encompasses a lot of different activities. I arrived in South Africa on Thursday the 29th at Cape Town International. There were some orientation leaders (OLs) there to pick us up and bring us to UCT. Once we got to campus and settled our baggage in our dorm rooms we went and toured around some of the suburbs of Cape Town that we would be living in. Friday and Saturday were also spent exploring the campus and the city and participating in orientation events like an african drum workshop.

                                          Drum Workshop


                                          Pictures from campus:

                        Aside from the University of Cairo, UCT is the oldest university in Africa

                                          Jameson Hall

On Sunday we got to go on a tour of the Cape Peninsula. Over 400 exchange students piled into buses and went to see some of Cape Towns most spectacular views.

                      Cape of Good Hope - "The most southern point in Africa" (but not really...)

                                          Our favorite OL in Camps Bay

                                          From and outlook at Cape Point

                                         Ostrich!

Yesterday we had an opportunity to travel to some schools that are sponsored my SHAWCO. These schools are in the townships surrounding Cape Town. Most children that grow up in the townships never leave, and SHAWCO is trying to change that. My favorite school of the day was the Menenberg School. All the kids were so excited to see us, in fact at one point I was carrying three of them. Then when I pulled out my camera and asked if anyone wanted to take a picture all hell broke loose. Here are the results....

Getting dog piled. That is a sliver of my face in the middle.

                                      Trying to get a selfie without any thumbs was difficult.

Afterwards all the kids were most excited about getting to see themselves on the camera screen.

Lastly, yesterday night we hiked up Lion's Head to see the sunset and the full moon. It only takes about an hour, but there were some pretty steep parts at the top where you had to actually climb. I was happy I brought my headlamp so that I could see where I was putting my feet. The views were breathtaking at the top, and of course we had to do some of the classic ledge photos.

                                          My housemates


That is all.

Peace.

Mel.