Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Last Entry (probs)
Hey people, sorry I haven't updated in a bit but it's crunch time here on IHP, ya know..papers due, presentations, whatnot. Basically last weekend was a holiday/3 day weekend so me and some friends went to a remote island and had some good times and some less than good times. This weekend we go on a retreat for some finish up and bonding and then I come back home. I don't feel like posting pictures cuz it's such a process and I don't feel like paying for more internet so...this is it! Thanks to everyone who read and commented, see you back in the states!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Pictures
Hello, so I have finally got some pictures up! but first, an update.
So last weekend my darling roommate was gone and I pretty much just hung around town and did nothing. Saturday I went to Lenin monument to observe skateboarders and then bought a Marukami book from this chill bookstore. This week we're doing case studies and my group is doing it on the Long Bien market which is this wholesale fruit and vegetable market that is from midnight to 6 in the morning. SO, wednesday morning I woke my butt up at 3:30 in the morning to get a cab at 4 and meet people at 4:30. This girl came to be our interpreter at 5 and for the next hour we walked through the craziest most chaotic place ever. And it was dirty to boot because if you think this market is inside, think again. It is outside on top of MUD. Then we had to wait around until 10 for an interview with the manager so we walked across the bridge to this island that has a farm on it and wandered through it talking to workers, petting puppies and geese at someone's house and taking pictures. Fun! But we were tired for sure. We had our interview and then me and Elana had good veggie lunch and I came home and passed out. Oh yeah, when I woke up at 3:30 in the morning I went to pee and found a MOUSE in the toilet. Alive. I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to flush him so I just left him there and figured someone would deal with him but I got home and no one had so I fished him out and let him go in the alley but he was so sad and soaked and he could barely walk from being so traumatized. )-:
This is my roommate Kimberlynn, wearing the masks everyone here wears cuz of pollution. And that's Kiko.
This is the dining room on our boat at Halong Bay. That's Coral and Yeseul.
Suntanning on the deck of our boat
Sorry this picture is sideways, but that's a boat and the communist flag!
The crappy, Disney cave at Halong Bay
Our boat, the Dream Voyage
This is a floating fishing village, yup
Some of the girls doing Capoeria outside Lenin Monument
Drinking beers at a Bia Hoi-13 cents each!
So last weekend my darling roommate was gone and I pretty much just hung around town and did nothing. Saturday I went to Lenin monument to observe skateboarders and then bought a Marukami book from this chill bookstore. This week we're doing case studies and my group is doing it on the Long Bien market which is this wholesale fruit and vegetable market that is from midnight to 6 in the morning. SO, wednesday morning I woke my butt up at 3:30 in the morning to get a cab at 4 and meet people at 4:30. This girl came to be our interpreter at 5 and for the next hour we walked through the craziest most chaotic place ever. And it was dirty to boot because if you think this market is inside, think again. It is outside on top of MUD. Then we had to wait around until 10 for an interview with the manager so we walked across the bridge to this island that has a farm on it and wandered through it talking to workers, petting puppies and geese at someone's house and taking pictures. Fun! But we were tired for sure. We had our interview and then me and Elana had good veggie lunch and I came home and passed out. Oh yeah, when I woke up at 3:30 in the morning I went to pee and found a MOUSE in the toilet. Alive. I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to flush him so I just left him there and figured someone would deal with him but I got home and no one had so I fished him out and let him go in the alley but he was so sad and soaked and he could barely walk from being so traumatized. )-:
This is my roommate Kimberlynn, wearing the masks everyone here wears cuz of pollution. And that's Kiko. This is the dining room on our boat at Halong Bay. That's Coral and Yeseul. Suntanning on the deck of our boat Sorry this picture is sideways, but that's a boat and the communist flag! The crappy, Disney cave at Halong Bay Our boat, the Dream Voyage This is a floating fishing village, yup Some of the girls doing Capoeria outside Lenin Monument Drinking beers at a Bia Hoi-13 cents each!Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Halong Bay
So this computer seems to be sucking and my pictures won't load. But I'll post anyway. Last weekend i went to Halong Bay, a requisite trip for anyone coming to Hanoi. Me, Elana, amanda, katie, coral, jack and yeseul got in a bus with some others to drive 4 hours to halong bay saturday morning (though they almost wouldn't let us go cuz noone told us we needed our passports!) We got there and of course, ran into other IHPers. We got on our boat and had lunch and then sailed around the bay to some caves which were...kinda corny. They had all these different colored lights lighting it up to give it like, this disney effect. Honestly, I've seen better caves. My guide told me to go throw some money into this pool because I don't have a boyfriend and I guess it'll give me one....I threw in a 5 centavo coin which in brazilian terms is the equivalent of .025 cents. Hope my boyfriend doesn't end up being cheap.
Then we sailed some more and went to this floating fishing village. These people live on houses that float on the water and row out to each others houses and go fishing for a living. We got off the boat and looked at all the sea life and if peope wantedj they could pick something for their dinner. pass.
Then we sailed until the spot we would be anchoring for the night. All the other boats were there too and we all just sat on the deck looking at the beautiful bay (Halong Bay is currently applying to be one of the wonders of hte world). We came down to dinner early to celebrate Coral's birthday 4-year old style with confetti, hats, party favors and games. Then we went to hit the sack. BUT when me and Elana came in our room we heard this weird noise which we found was a busted pipe in our bathroom and was leaking through the wall on the other side. Distressing. So we calljed in some boat guys to fix it who pretty much just shoved some towels in the wall. Then the water started leaking on the floor throuh the wall that we share with the engine room and the engine started making all these weird noises and their solution was to ...unplug it. Reassuring. The rest of the night wasn't too great either since our bed was on a slope and thus elana rolled onto me all night.
We woke up and had breakfast pretty early and then hit the awter in some kayaks. We had an odd number so I went alone but it was still pretty (aside from the trash in some parst of the water, like a dirty diaper!) WE also ran into other IHPers there. Then we hopped back on and booked it back to shore for lunch. AFter lunch we had a miserable ride back to town with no air conditioning and while we were pulled over the driver started hosing down the engine because it was smoking. hmm.
Yesterday we took a tour of the Ho Chi Minh mauseleum which has his preserved body inside. Yikes.
Vietnam is going okay. Things are a little stressful with cabs always trying to cheat you (even the metered cabs have this secret button they push to jump the meter up), motorbikes are always trying to hit you (everyone uses motorbikes here and there are no traffic laws), everyone is always laughing at your or taking your picture, etc. My family is cool although I'm not really diggin all the crazy varieties of fake meat they have here. I've eatin veggie shrimp (which I swear I thought was real it was so convincing) and veggie chicken stomach. no lie.
That's all for now. Sorry about the pictures, they're really beautiful. I'll try to post again soon!
p.s. anton and tara-i never got that package...how long ago did you send it and through what carrier? Things don't get to vietnam in a very timely manner and if you sent me anything anti-communist, no chance!
Then we sailed some more and went to this floating fishing village. These people live on houses that float on the water and row out to each others houses and go fishing for a living. We got off the boat and looked at all the sea life and if peope wantedj they could pick something for their dinner. pass.
Then we sailed until the spot we would be anchoring for the night. All the other boats were there too and we all just sat on the deck looking at the beautiful bay (Halong Bay is currently applying to be one of the wonders of hte world). We came down to dinner early to celebrate Coral's birthday 4-year old style with confetti, hats, party favors and games. Then we went to hit the sack. BUT when me and Elana came in our room we heard this weird noise which we found was a busted pipe in our bathroom and was leaking through the wall on the other side. Distressing. So we calljed in some boat guys to fix it who pretty much just shoved some towels in the wall. Then the water started leaking on the floor throuh the wall that we share with the engine room and the engine started making all these weird noises and their solution was to ...unplug it. Reassuring. The rest of the night wasn't too great either since our bed was on a slope and thus elana rolled onto me all night.
We woke up and had breakfast pretty early and then hit the awter in some kayaks. We had an odd number so I went alone but it was still pretty (aside from the trash in some parst of the water, like a dirty diaper!) WE also ran into other IHPers there. Then we hopped back on and booked it back to shore for lunch. AFter lunch we had a miserable ride back to town with no air conditioning and while we were pulled over the driver started hosing down the engine because it was smoking. hmm.
Yesterday we took a tour of the Ho Chi Minh mauseleum which has his preserved body inside. Yikes.
Vietnam is going okay. Things are a little stressful with cabs always trying to cheat you (even the metered cabs have this secret button they push to jump the meter up), motorbikes are always trying to hit you (everyone uses motorbikes here and there are no traffic laws), everyone is always laughing at your or taking your picture, etc. My family is cool although I'm not really diggin all the crazy varieties of fake meat they have here. I've eatin veggie shrimp (which I swear I thought was real it was so convincing) and veggie chicken stomach. no lie.
That's all for now. Sorry about the pictures, they're really beautiful. I'll try to post again soon!
p.s. anton and tara-i never got that package...how long ago did you send it and through what carrier? Things don't get to vietnam in a very timely manner and if you sent me anything anti-communist, no chance!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Vietnam
hello out there! So I'm in Vietnam now and have finally found a computer (my homestay doesn't have one. And I've finally posted some pictures! So we arrived in Vietnam after flying an hour 1/2 to Jo-burg, waiting there an hour 1/2, flying 13 hours to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, waiting there 4 hours and then flying 3 hours to Hanoi, about 24 hours total of travelling! Yikes. We got there and drove about an hour into town past all these rice fields and people working in them. We stopped the bus a few blocks from our hotel/backpacker place and then had to walk the rest of the way cuz the streets are so crazy. There's motorbikes, bicycles, women with baskets on their shoulders, people selling street food, people walking, animals, etc. so there realjly is no room for a bus. We got our rooms and unfortunately as it turned out me and 3 other girls were accidently assigned a 3 person room (but we didn't know til we left) so 3 of us ended up in one bed and one girl in the other really small mattress on the floor. The first night we had a buffet arranged for us and then afterwards a few of us went and enjoyed drinks on the roof of a building.
The next day a few of us set out for the Perfume Pagoda, one of the oldest pagodas in Vietnam. WE took a bus 2 hours and then got out at a river that was full of long, wooden boats being rowed by women who rowed us for an hour to get to the pagoda. We banked and walked alongside a bunch of make-shift restaurants and continued walking up the cobblestone path that leads to the base of the mountain. The path up to the pagoda is about a 45 minute hike but it's all along a cobblestone path so it's not that rough, although it's humid as hell here and ergo, i was sweatin like a beast. All along the path are people selling you things all the way up and there's resting stops with fans if you're willing to pay for them. At the top you descend down some stairs into a cave which houses the pagoda and once inside the cave you can pick various relics to offer money to so that you can always have love or money or food or something. I didn't offer any money cuz frankly I didn't really understand waht I was supposed to do...we left the pagoda and some of us took the cable car down which was really beautiful. Then we left, went back down the river, got back to Hanoi, went to a killer veggie restaurant and hit the sack.
The next day me and Elana wandered around Hanoi, walking through the food market that has all kinds of crazy foods like pots of eels, fish, crabs, squid and then caged dogs, cats, mice (yeah, they eat em) and then wandered around looking at stores. We came back to the backpacker to get picked up by our families. Me and my girl Kimberlynn (vegetarian from San Fran who goes to Barnard, just like my last roommate) got picked up by our host mom whose name we can't pronounce so we call her Miss Moon. She's cute and she lives with her really old mother, her 15 year old niece Miz and her sister. There's a few other various people who come in and out of the house but we're not too sure who they are. The house is 4 stories like a lot in Hanoi because they're only about 8 ft wide and the plots of land are so small you have no choice but to build up. We have to take off our shoes before coming in and then one wears slippers around the house. Me and Kim are living on the 3rd floor with Kim taking Miz's room and me sleeping in the library/tv room. The whole family is really nice and they make me tofu, veggies and rice with soy sauce so that's working out pretty well. Gotta watch out for food and water here cuz that stuff can make you siiick. Especially the kids trying the street food (which is pretty much all there is here) cuz that can really make you sick when you're not used to it.
So people in Vietnam stare at us constantly cuz we are just a crazy alien species. They take pictures of us too. There ARE other tourists in Vietnam though, so don't be thinkin things are like when we were in Brazil. And the majority of the population speaks English (it's required to be taught in schools now) so the language barrier isn't too rough. We are learning vietnamese though, 30 minutes every day and I've been making flash cards cuz I really want to try! It's a hard language though, it's tonal and there are 6 different tones and if you don't pronounce something with the right tone people have NO idea what you're saying.
On the subject of weird things people eat here, nearby is a village known for its uses of snakes including cutting open a snake and placing its still beating heart into a glass of rice wine and drinking it whole so that the snake heart is still beating in your stomach. Apparently it makes the boys more potent and gets you drunker than shizzle. I for one will not be participating.
Oh yeah, another weird thing here: the showers. The showers stick out of the side of the wall by the toilet and you just like, shower in there and the water gets everywehre and the floor is always wet. Who designed this system? And there's really nowhere to stand and you're holding th shower thing with one hand and trying to do everything else with the other and it's...hard.
So on to the pictures!
This is my family from the Bo-Kaap, Moena and Achmat. I can't remember if I posted this already.
This is Siziwe, my host mom from Langa
From the first day of Spring break. There's a lot of babboons in south africa and sometimes they're in the road. Sometimes there's 24 of them in the road.
Spring break, me feeding elephants!
Spring break at Monkeyland, lemurs!
At bird land, the bird that was trying to eat my dad's glasses and wouldn't get off him.
The street my hotel in Vietnam was on
These ladies are everywhere, carrying pineapple and who knows what. If you stop to look at them long enough they'll try to put this on your shoulder to show you how heavy it is.
The river we went on to the perfume pagoda
River again
More river
Descending the stairs to teh cave of the perfume pagoda. those are prayer flags coming out from it
Inside the cave, various things like this
The cable car ride down from the pagoda
A temple at the bottom
Remember those restaurants by the shore of the river we walked by? They all have dead dogs, cats, deer, whatever hanging outside. Some are whole like the dog on the left but some are chopped off bits at a time to cook like the dog in the middle. It was so sad and disturbing, but I had to take a picture so people would BELIEVE that this is real
And sadly, a lot of restaurants near where we're studying (inside the Ho Chi Minh museum) tie up live deer, chop off their antlers, and either wait a bit to kill them like this poor deer that's been tied to this lamp post for 2 days or wound them and wait while they slowly die on the sidewalk and then they cook them. Yup, Vietnam.
The next day a few of us set out for the Perfume Pagoda, one of the oldest pagodas in Vietnam. WE took a bus 2 hours and then got out at a river that was full of long, wooden boats being rowed by women who rowed us for an hour to get to the pagoda. We banked and walked alongside a bunch of make-shift restaurants and continued walking up the cobblestone path that leads to the base of the mountain. The path up to the pagoda is about a 45 minute hike but it's all along a cobblestone path so it's not that rough, although it's humid as hell here and ergo, i was sweatin like a beast. All along the path are people selling you things all the way up and there's resting stops with fans if you're willing to pay for them. At the top you descend down some stairs into a cave which houses the pagoda and once inside the cave you can pick various relics to offer money to so that you can always have love or money or food or something. I didn't offer any money cuz frankly I didn't really understand waht I was supposed to do...we left the pagoda and some of us took the cable car down which was really beautiful. Then we left, went back down the river, got back to Hanoi, went to a killer veggie restaurant and hit the sack.
The next day me and Elana wandered around Hanoi, walking through the food market that has all kinds of crazy foods like pots of eels, fish, crabs, squid and then caged dogs, cats, mice (yeah, they eat em) and then wandered around looking at stores. We came back to the backpacker to get picked up by our families. Me and my girl Kimberlynn (vegetarian from San Fran who goes to Barnard, just like my last roommate) got picked up by our host mom whose name we can't pronounce so we call her Miss Moon. She's cute and she lives with her really old mother, her 15 year old niece Miz and her sister. There's a few other various people who come in and out of the house but we're not too sure who they are. The house is 4 stories like a lot in Hanoi because they're only about 8 ft wide and the plots of land are so small you have no choice but to build up. We have to take off our shoes before coming in and then one wears slippers around the house. Me and Kim are living on the 3rd floor with Kim taking Miz's room and me sleeping in the library/tv room. The whole family is really nice and they make me tofu, veggies and rice with soy sauce so that's working out pretty well. Gotta watch out for food and water here cuz that stuff can make you siiick. Especially the kids trying the street food (which is pretty much all there is here) cuz that can really make you sick when you're not used to it.
So people in Vietnam stare at us constantly cuz we are just a crazy alien species. They take pictures of us too. There ARE other tourists in Vietnam though, so don't be thinkin things are like when we were in Brazil. And the majority of the population speaks English (it's required to be taught in schools now) so the language barrier isn't too rough. We are learning vietnamese though, 30 minutes every day and I've been making flash cards cuz I really want to try! It's a hard language though, it's tonal and there are 6 different tones and if you don't pronounce something with the right tone people have NO idea what you're saying.
On the subject of weird things people eat here, nearby is a village known for its uses of snakes including cutting open a snake and placing its still beating heart into a glass of rice wine and drinking it whole so that the snake heart is still beating in your stomach. Apparently it makes the boys more potent and gets you drunker than shizzle. I for one will not be participating.
Oh yeah, another weird thing here: the showers. The showers stick out of the side of the wall by the toilet and you just like, shower in there and the water gets everywehre and the floor is always wet. Who designed this system? And there's really nowhere to stand and you're holding th shower thing with one hand and trying to do everything else with the other and it's...hard.
So on to the pictures!
This is my family from the Bo-Kaap, Moena and Achmat. I can't remember if I posted this already.
This is Siziwe, my host mom from Langa
From the first day of Spring break. There's a lot of babboons in south africa and sometimes they're in the road. Sometimes there's 24 of them in the road.
Spring break, me feeding elephants!
Spring break at Monkeyland, lemurs!
At bird land, the bird that was trying to eat my dad's glasses and wouldn't get off him.
The street my hotel in Vietnam was on
These ladies are everywhere, carrying pineapple and who knows what. If you stop to look at them long enough they'll try to put this on your shoulder to show you how heavy it is.
The river we went on to the perfume pagoda
River again
More river
Descending the stairs to teh cave of the perfume pagoda. those are prayer flags coming out from it
Inside the cave, various things like this
The cable car ride down from the pagoda
A temple at the bottom
Remember those restaurants by the shore of the river we walked by? They all have dead dogs, cats, deer, whatever hanging outside. Some are whole like the dog on the left but some are chopped off bits at a time to cook like the dog in the middle. It was so sad and disturbing, but I had to take a picture so people would BELIEVE that this is real
And sadly, a lot of restaurants near where we're studying (inside the Ho Chi Minh museum) tie up live deer, chop off their antlers, and either wait a bit to kill them like this poor deer that's been tied to this lamp post for 2 days or wound them and wait while they slowly die on the sidewalk and then they cook them. Yup, Vietnam.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
More Spring Break
So I just finished a week of spring break with my lovely parents. Unfortunately I'm not posting pictures cuz it takes way too long here but apparently in Vietnam our homestays have way fast internet so maybe I'll post some then.
Our first stop was Swellendam. We drove there through some beautiful country side and stopped for lunch at a vineyard that looked like it coulda been straight out of Napa Valley. Swellendam was a really cute little town and we stayed at the cutest little bed and breakfast. The room was really as cutesy as it gets. We went to dinner at a place that was empty except for us but had good food and ambiance so we stumbled home with full bellies and went to sleep.
The next day we drove to Knysna which should have been a cute town but was just...not. although our B and B was very cute. We went and checked out the waterfront which ended up being too touristy for us to eat at and settled instead for a cheap ass indian restaurant. We filled ourselves with ciders and lentils and then went home and watched a Chuck Norris movie, Lone Wolf McQuade.
The next day we drove a little outside Knysna to an elephant santuary where we got to pet and feed previously abused elephants. It was fun and...kinda dirty. We drove on to Plettenberg Bay, a town by the sea and bought books and ate fusion food at a place called Fu.shi. We continued on to Monkeyland, a monkey sanctuary for abused monkeys. It's a forested, gated area you walk through and see all kinds of crazy monkeys, apes and lemurs. Cute! Across from that was Birds of Eden, a santuary for abused birds (who are these people abusing all these animals? we even drove by a PORCUPINE sanctuary) and saw all these beautiful birds like parrots, flamingos, bats?, etc. As we were leaving this beautiful little bird came flyin straight at us and I yelled "duck!" but it flew right to dad and landed on his shoulder and wouldn't get off cuz it was determined to eat his sunglasses. We sat there for a while waiting for it to leave so that we could leave and eventually we had to just make him get off. Sad. We drove back to Knysna and went to dinner at this place, 34 South and had lovely mediterranean tapas and I bought some hummus for the road. Protein!
The next day we left Knysna for Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of South Africa. Oudtshoorn also happened to be having the biggest Afrikaans music and arts festival in south africa while we were there which turned out to be pretty much a hick kinda festival. White chicks walkin around in cowboy hats and jean mini skirts, country music, bad art, hot dog vendors and lots of people selling crap. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We bought nothing and watched no music but...it was internesting to walk around in. Our bed and breakfast was the only place in town we could get on such short notice since the whole town was booked for this festival so the B and B ended up being the most expensive place in town. It was nice and I had my own room. It had a pool and we played some dominoes and swum and just hung out. Our dinner the first night was recommended by our host (who we think perhaps was paid to recommend it) and was pretty lackluster. The next day we did a long drive over this pretty pass and then went to the Cango Caves which you can tour through. When touring the caves one can do the standard tour or the adventure tour in which you go through all these small little tunnels crawling on yoru stomach and stuff. For reasons beyond me, mom adn dad opted for the adventure tour. It was pretty rough I would say! They lead you to these realllly tight little tunnesl that you are crawling on your belly through and then there's this part called Devil's Chimney where you enter a hole in a wall and then you have to climb up through a tunnel and it's sweaty and damp and..ugg. But we all made it (although someone on the tour in front of us apparently got stuck). We got out of there and went to a safari place to get a little safari tour but we missed it so we had to settle for getting a drink on the water front and watching hippos. That night we went to the best restaurant in town and had a grand ol time.
The next day we had to leave Oudtshoorn for a long drive through wine country to Franshoek. We stopped at the side of the road at a nice little lunch place on a vineyard and enjoyed food and wine while we played with the owners dog. We arrived in Franshoek about 4:30 which gave us little time to hang out and enjoy the really cute little cottage we were staying at. We went into town, walked around, and had drinks while we waited for dinner (Singapore Slings and Caipirinhas anyone?). We went to dinner at this asian place that was so good. I got some pad thai and soup and whatnot and tried to enjoy the last night of break with my parents. Overall, it was a pretty good break.
This morning we woke up at 5:30 in the morning, yikes! to head back to Cape Town/the airport for my parents. They dropped me off at the backpacker I'm staying at and peaced out. Now I'm just biding my time today until everyone else gets here and we go to Vietnam tomarrow!
Our first stop was Swellendam. We drove there through some beautiful country side and stopped for lunch at a vineyard that looked like it coulda been straight out of Napa Valley. Swellendam was a really cute little town and we stayed at the cutest little bed and breakfast. The room was really as cutesy as it gets. We went to dinner at a place that was empty except for us but had good food and ambiance so we stumbled home with full bellies and went to sleep.
The next day we drove to Knysna which should have been a cute town but was just...not. although our B and B was very cute. We went and checked out the waterfront which ended up being too touristy for us to eat at and settled instead for a cheap ass indian restaurant. We filled ourselves with ciders and lentils and then went home and watched a Chuck Norris movie, Lone Wolf McQuade.
The next day we drove a little outside Knysna to an elephant santuary where we got to pet and feed previously abused elephants. It was fun and...kinda dirty. We drove on to Plettenberg Bay, a town by the sea and bought books and ate fusion food at a place called Fu.shi. We continued on to Monkeyland, a monkey sanctuary for abused monkeys. It's a forested, gated area you walk through and see all kinds of crazy monkeys, apes and lemurs. Cute! Across from that was Birds of Eden, a santuary for abused birds (who are these people abusing all these animals? we even drove by a PORCUPINE sanctuary) and saw all these beautiful birds like parrots, flamingos, bats?, etc. As we were leaving this beautiful little bird came flyin straight at us and I yelled "duck!" but it flew right to dad and landed on his shoulder and wouldn't get off cuz it was determined to eat his sunglasses. We sat there for a while waiting for it to leave so that we could leave and eventually we had to just make him get off. Sad. We drove back to Knysna and went to dinner at this place, 34 South and had lovely mediterranean tapas and I bought some hummus for the road. Protein!
The next day we left Knysna for Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of South Africa. Oudtshoorn also happened to be having the biggest Afrikaans music and arts festival in south africa while we were there which turned out to be pretty much a hick kinda festival. White chicks walkin around in cowboy hats and jean mini skirts, country music, bad art, hot dog vendors and lots of people selling crap. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We bought nothing and watched no music but...it was internesting to walk around in. Our bed and breakfast was the only place in town we could get on such short notice since the whole town was booked for this festival so the B and B ended up being the most expensive place in town. It was nice and I had my own room. It had a pool and we played some dominoes and swum and just hung out. Our dinner the first night was recommended by our host (who we think perhaps was paid to recommend it) and was pretty lackluster. The next day we did a long drive over this pretty pass and then went to the Cango Caves which you can tour through. When touring the caves one can do the standard tour or the adventure tour in which you go through all these small little tunnels crawling on yoru stomach and stuff. For reasons beyond me, mom adn dad opted for the adventure tour. It was pretty rough I would say! They lead you to these realllly tight little tunnesl that you are crawling on your belly through and then there's this part called Devil's Chimney where you enter a hole in a wall and then you have to climb up through a tunnel and it's sweaty and damp and..ugg. But we all made it (although someone on the tour in front of us apparently got stuck). We got out of there and went to a safari place to get a little safari tour but we missed it so we had to settle for getting a drink on the water front and watching hippos. That night we went to the best restaurant in town and had a grand ol time.
The next day we had to leave Oudtshoorn for a long drive through wine country to Franshoek. We stopped at the side of the road at a nice little lunch place on a vineyard and enjoyed food and wine while we played with the owners dog. We arrived in Franshoek about 4:30 which gave us little time to hang out and enjoy the really cute little cottage we were staying at. We went into town, walked around, and had drinks while we waited for dinner (Singapore Slings and Caipirinhas anyone?). We went to dinner at this asian place that was so good. I got some pad thai and soup and whatnot and tried to enjoy the last night of break with my parents. Overall, it was a pretty good break.
This morning we woke up at 5:30 in the morning, yikes! to head back to Cape Town/the airport for my parents. They dropped me off at the backpacker I'm staying at and peaced out. Now I'm just biding my time today until everyone else gets here and we go to Vietnam tomarrow!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Spring Break
So you may have noticed I changed the name of my blog...this seems to be how I am most of the time and this is also what people think I should name my vegan bakery some day so...yeah.
My parents are here! Yay! They got here a few days ago and I showed em around the town. They came out to Langa for this thank you party we did with our Langa homestays and our Bo Kaap homestays. That was chaos.
We left Langa yesterday for the first day of spring break. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but some stuff definitely went down. This kid Frank got jumped by a guy who was trying to steal his money and stuff and the two of them ended up wrestling in the street and almost getting hit by a car and the guy eventually made off with Frank's phone.
Another incident happened as well to my best friend on this trip Joanna. She was walking across the street to school a few days ago when a combi (a van taxi that can hold 16 people) came sailin down the road at a good 40 mi/hr and struck her left side. She broke her femur and her nose and some teeth and bruised her lungs. She's in the hospital now but I went to go visit her and she's in high spirits. Unfortunately there is no way that she will be able to continue this trip with us and now I am sad. )-:
On a happier note, last Sunday I went with 2 other IHPers and this group called Abseil Africa to do some crazy adventures. We drove about an hour away to this national park place and then hiked for an hour and a half to the top of this cliff. At the top of the cliff one of the guys rigged up all these ropes and knots and caribiners for us to go belay down the cliff/waterfall running under it. Oh jeez. The cliff/waterfall was 64 meters (..uh..about 200 feet?) and I was almost in tears at the top looking down at what I was about to abseil/belay down. So the guy rigged me up and then is like, alright, start walking down backwards. WHAT. So I did even though I was pretty srue I was gonna die and I'm holding the control rope with my arm so hard. But I made it and it was fun and I went through the waterfall and it was awesome. After that we hiked a little more to some pools that people cliff jump off of. The cliffs are of various heights, 4 m, 7 m, 12 m, 17 m and 23 m. Jumping off them into the water is called Kloofing and was indeed part of our excursion but the highest I went was 4 m cuz it was scary. the end.
So last night me and my parents went to this awesome pan-asian tapas restaurant, Haiku. We drank wine and made merry and ate tofu. Today we're leaving to start our spring break adventure. We rented a car and are driving to various places around outside cape town which have ostriches, wine country, arts and crafts fairs, babboons, craziness. Yay!
My parents are here! Yay! They got here a few days ago and I showed em around the town. They came out to Langa for this thank you party we did with our Langa homestays and our Bo Kaap homestays. That was chaos.
We left Langa yesterday for the first day of spring break. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but some stuff definitely went down. This kid Frank got jumped by a guy who was trying to steal his money and stuff and the two of them ended up wrestling in the street and almost getting hit by a car and the guy eventually made off with Frank's phone.
Another incident happened as well to my best friend on this trip Joanna. She was walking across the street to school a few days ago when a combi (a van taxi that can hold 16 people) came sailin down the road at a good 40 mi/hr and struck her left side. She broke her femur and her nose and some teeth and bruised her lungs. She's in the hospital now but I went to go visit her and she's in high spirits. Unfortunately there is no way that she will be able to continue this trip with us and now I am sad. )-:
On a happier note, last Sunday I went with 2 other IHPers and this group called Abseil Africa to do some crazy adventures. We drove about an hour away to this national park place and then hiked for an hour and a half to the top of this cliff. At the top of the cliff one of the guys rigged up all these ropes and knots and caribiners for us to go belay down the cliff/waterfall running under it. Oh jeez. The cliff/waterfall was 64 meters (..uh..about 200 feet?) and I was almost in tears at the top looking down at what I was about to abseil/belay down. So the guy rigged me up and then is like, alright, start walking down backwards. WHAT. So I did even though I was pretty srue I was gonna die and I'm holding the control rope with my arm so hard. But I made it and it was fun and I went through the waterfall and it was awesome. After that we hiked a little more to some pools that people cliff jump off of. The cliffs are of various heights, 4 m, 7 m, 12 m, 17 m and 23 m. Jumping off them into the water is called Kloofing and was indeed part of our excursion but the highest I went was 4 m cuz it was scary. the end.
So last night me and my parents went to this awesome pan-asian tapas restaurant, Haiku. We drank wine and made merry and ate tofu. Today we're leaving to start our spring break adventure. We rented a car and are driving to various places around outside cape town which have ostriches, wine country, arts and crafts fairs, babboons, craziness. Yay!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Langa
So I don't have any computer access in Langa, but I happen to be in town doing my case study so I'm bloggin. What's up people of the world? So Langa is good, way better than I thought though it is kind of a dangerous place still. I don't feel that unsafe though and there's a bunch of other american kids here cuz SIT (IHP's home institute) is in Cape Town too. My homestay is great. The house is better than my one in the Bo Kaap. My roommate is Logan, a lovely little vegetarian girl straight out of the yay area who goes to Barnard. Things are a little hard cooking wise since she's veggie but eats fish, but she also is allergic to gluten. So the first night I got there I couldn't eat a single thing that our host mom had made. But luckily I brought lots of snacks with me! My home stay mother is named Siziwe, I think she's in her early thirties. Her sister lives there too and is sharing a room with her since they wanted to give me and Logan our own rooms. We each have queen size beds and there's a tv in Logan's room-no complaints! Siziwe's cute 15 year old niece Nono comes by often and she's so fun.
So on Monday we had our first class at this place called LoveLife. A guy came and talked to us about the Green Point Stadium (which was helpful since that's what my case study group is studying). We had class in which Meika yelled at us for throwing away readings from the other countries. At lunch time it became known that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing for a vegetarian, let alone a vegan, to eat in the area so I'll be brown baggin it. I skipped lunch and the rest of the day though to go to the doctor since I've been coughing so much that if I didn't know better I'd say I have T.B. (I don't.) I got a bunch of meds from the doctor and then me and Nikhit went across the street to my favorite vegan place, Portobello and got lunch from my favorite ladies who work there (they love me). Came back and had a walkaround Langa and learned about the area. Over 50% of the residents of Langa have HIV, sad. We visited an orphanage too and looked at all the little kids while they were napping. Me and Logan came home and luckily Siziwe had made some veggies and lentils. Yay! Siziwe has decided after our coming that she wants to diet for the next 6 months and is starting by only eating what we eat this week and only drinking water like we do. Okay Siziwe....
Today was the first day of our case study. We were all put into 4 different groups to do a case study which is where the send us of with no information, contacts, transport, nada for 3 days to put together a 40 minute presentation on our topic. Ours is the Green Point Statdium which they are building for the World Cup (which is happening here in 2010 and is the biggest thing since sliced bread in case you didn't know). Other groups are doing education, gentrification and the CBD (central business district). We ended the day at this internet cafe (well, first I went to Zucchini, my other favorite vegan place and grabbed these lovely chocolate oat bars I'm addicted do and then I grabbed an iced soy latte from Portobello-gotta see my girls). I'm gonna go home and write a paper that's due in 2 days-yikes! I hope yall are having a lovely time in the U.S. and that spring is fast approaching.
My parents are visiting in 1 week!
Oh yeah, about the haircut. I would post pictures but it doesn't really look that different unless it's straightened....basically it's a little choppier and they took about 4 inches off.
Love you all and I've been sending some postcards and such, so hope yall are gettin em!
So on Monday we had our first class at this place called LoveLife. A guy came and talked to us about the Green Point Stadium (which was helpful since that's what my case study group is studying). We had class in which Meika yelled at us for throwing away readings from the other countries. At lunch time it became known that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing for a vegetarian, let alone a vegan, to eat in the area so I'll be brown baggin it. I skipped lunch and the rest of the day though to go to the doctor since I've been coughing so much that if I didn't know better I'd say I have T.B. (I don't.) I got a bunch of meds from the doctor and then me and Nikhit went across the street to my favorite vegan place, Portobello and got lunch from my favorite ladies who work there (they love me). Came back and had a walkaround Langa and learned about the area. Over 50% of the residents of Langa have HIV, sad. We visited an orphanage too and looked at all the little kids while they were napping. Me and Logan came home and luckily Siziwe had made some veggies and lentils. Yay! Siziwe has decided after our coming that she wants to diet for the next 6 months and is starting by only eating what we eat this week and only drinking water like we do. Okay Siziwe....
Today was the first day of our case study. We were all put into 4 different groups to do a case study which is where the send us of with no information, contacts, transport, nada for 3 days to put together a 40 minute presentation on our topic. Ours is the Green Point Statdium which they are building for the World Cup (which is happening here in 2010 and is the biggest thing since sliced bread in case you didn't know). Other groups are doing education, gentrification and the CBD (central business district). We ended the day at this internet cafe (well, first I went to Zucchini, my other favorite vegan place and grabbed these lovely chocolate oat bars I'm addicted do and then I grabbed an iced soy latte from Portobello-gotta see my girls). I'm gonna go home and write a paper that's due in 2 days-yikes! I hope yall are having a lovely time in the U.S. and that spring is fast approaching.
My parents are visiting in 1 week!
Oh yeah, about the haircut. I would post pictures but it doesn't really look that different unless it's straightened....basically it's a little choppier and they took about 4 inches off.
Love you all and I've been sending some postcards and such, so hope yall are gettin em!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Human Rights Day
Hi there! Happy Human Rights Day (the reason my favorite vegan restaurant is closed today). So, big update. On Monday we had site visits and were all split up to go to various townships. My group went to Delft. We arrived at Ma Africa Tikkun, an NGO that is involved in many aspects of the community and thus was assigned to show us around. They first took us to the Delft Farmers Assocation which is a group of people who took a plot of sand by the highway and turned it into a profitable vegetable garden that sells lettuce to grocery stores. Urban agriculture-sweet! Next we visited the TRAs which are Temporary Relocation Areas. This was probably the saddest and worst thing I've seen on this trip so far. The people living in this areas were put there by the government until the gov can get these people houses on the housing waitlist. Some of the people we met there had been on the housing waitlist for 20 YEARS! Housing is a serious problem here. So basically these housing areas are row upon row of alumninum siding shacks that have no windows, electricity or water. There's one out door toilet for every 4 families to share but one can't even use them at dark for fear of being raped. The houses are just 5 pieces of metal put together and are about 15 feet across and 8 feet wide. It doesn't matter how big your family is, you still get the same size house and we saw one lady who had 8 kids living in one. The TRAs are situated on a plot of land that is nothing but a desert of sand and can't grow anything. The people have no kitchens or other way of cooking their food except to collect sticks nearby and start a fire outside their house. And as we walked through and looked in a bunch of people's houses people and kids are yelling for us to take them to America and are so excited that Americans are there because it must mean we are going to help them. This is one of the hardest parts of IHP-coming into these poor communities and giving people the impression that we're there to help when there's really nothing that we can/are going to do.
After this we drove through town observing the different kinds of housing. We also passed a funeral at someone's house where a mother had killed her 22 year old daughter recently. Did I mention townships are extremely dangerous? We visited the police station where the white cops all told us thing weren't so bad and that we should come back and have a BBQ with them. Then we went in a hospital which was also sad because there are just 100s of people waiting in long lines to be seen and apparently some people wake up at 5 in the morning so they can be there when the hospital opens and already there will be a long line.
Lastly we went to lunch which we thought would be at a restaurant but restaurants are lacking in Delft so we went to someone's HOUSE where this big ol lady had prepared a feast for us....a feast featuring chicken in every dish. So the disproportionately high number of vegetarians in the group (4 out of the 10) had nothing to eat.
On Thursday we visited Muizenberg, another township and specifically went to the neighborhood of Vrygrond. It used to be an area only made of sad little shacks (not even made of metal like the other ones I saw). But the government gave them grants or something (I didnt' really understand...) and now the area is much nicer. We first went to an elementary school and went to the recess area while the kids were having recess-CHAOS. These kids LOVED us and they were all clinging to us and playing with our things and posing for picture and running at us and playing with us. Cute little African kids, shucks. Next we went to a scrap metal shop...I guess they wanted to show us how people could make their own businesses there? But it was cool. We visited another school and they sang "The Other Side of the Mountain" and "I'm a Little Tea Pot" for us. Then we visited the library which was...a library. But very small. Then it was lunch time for us and we went to this house (where I feared a repeat moment as in Delft) but it turned out this guy was opening a restaurant in his house and they had made veggie samosas and veggie rice with lentils. The samosas were good, although at one point on of the ladies told me the plate of samosas she had placed before me were vegetarian and I ate half of one before realizing it had meat in it. )-:
After Delft we went to Kirstenbosch which is a huge botanical garden. We listened to a guy give a speech about the loss of biodiversity in South Africa and Cape Town. This area is home to some of the rarest plants on earth but the government does very little to protect it.
On Friday we had a talk from a former IHPer. It was really sad actually-the first part was amount all of the rodenticides kept in peoples' houses that children get into and eat and die. One kind of rodenticide gets covered with food and left on the floor so the rats will eat it but some children in the township are so hungry they eat the food on the floor and then they eat the poison and get sick. One little girl was so hungry so was just LICKING the dust off a rat poison pellet and got sick from it. Another type of poison is a clear liquid put into reused bottles that previously had drinks in them. then they are sold at drink places next to real drinks and when they sell the rat poisson they don't tell people it's not WATER do people DRINK it. Yikes. We also learned about child labor on farms, particularly vineyards and the poor conditions. Many children are sent to work starting at the age of 5.
This is me on my bike, about to bike from Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope.
This is a ray from the aquarium I went to. He's smiling!
One of the lovely little penguins from Simon's town. They love posing for pictures.
Simon's town beach-pengis!
The first part of the hike at the cape of good hope.
YEAH. atlantic ocean.
view of cape of good hope. isn't south africa pretty?
the evil babboons that will steal your camera and beat you up. notice this guy getting the hell away
this sign says "babboons are dangerous and attracted by food"
So that's it for now. Actually, I regret to inform you that I may not post again until...Vietnam? I'm leaving for Langa tomarrow, a township (I know, you're all thinking "why would she go to a township after all the stuff she's just said about how dangerous they are?") and there's pretty much nooo internet there and chances of me getting back into town are slim. And then I'm on a weeklong spring break with my parents so....signing off for now. Love you all!
After this we drove through town observing the different kinds of housing. We also passed a funeral at someone's house where a mother had killed her 22 year old daughter recently. Did I mention townships are extremely dangerous? We visited the police station where the white cops all told us thing weren't so bad and that we should come back and have a BBQ with them. Then we went in a hospital which was also sad because there are just 100s of people waiting in long lines to be seen and apparently some people wake up at 5 in the morning so they can be there when the hospital opens and already there will be a long line.
Lastly we went to lunch which we thought would be at a restaurant but restaurants are lacking in Delft so we went to someone's HOUSE where this big ol lady had prepared a feast for us....a feast featuring chicken in every dish. So the disproportionately high number of vegetarians in the group (4 out of the 10) had nothing to eat.
On Thursday we visited Muizenberg, another township and specifically went to the neighborhood of Vrygrond. It used to be an area only made of sad little shacks (not even made of metal like the other ones I saw). But the government gave them grants or something (I didnt' really understand...) and now the area is much nicer. We first went to an elementary school and went to the recess area while the kids were having recess-CHAOS. These kids LOVED us and they were all clinging to us and playing with our things and posing for picture and running at us and playing with us. Cute little African kids, shucks. Next we went to a scrap metal shop...I guess they wanted to show us how people could make their own businesses there? But it was cool. We visited another school and they sang "The Other Side of the Mountain" and "I'm a Little Tea Pot" for us. Then we visited the library which was...a library. But very small. Then it was lunch time for us and we went to this house (where I feared a repeat moment as in Delft) but it turned out this guy was opening a restaurant in his house and they had made veggie samosas and veggie rice with lentils. The samosas were good, although at one point on of the ladies told me the plate of samosas she had placed before me were vegetarian and I ate half of one before realizing it had meat in it. )-:
After Delft we went to Kirstenbosch which is a huge botanical garden. We listened to a guy give a speech about the loss of biodiversity in South Africa and Cape Town. This area is home to some of the rarest plants on earth but the government does very little to protect it.
On Friday we had a talk from a former IHPer. It was really sad actually-the first part was amount all of the rodenticides kept in peoples' houses that children get into and eat and die. One kind of rodenticide gets covered with food and left on the floor so the rats will eat it but some children in the township are so hungry they eat the food on the floor and then they eat the poison and get sick. One little girl was so hungry so was just LICKING the dust off a rat poison pellet and got sick from it. Another type of poison is a clear liquid put into reused bottles that previously had drinks in them. then they are sold at drink places next to real drinks and when they sell the rat poisson they don't tell people it's not WATER do people DRINK it. Yikes. We also learned about child labor on farms, particularly vineyards and the poor conditions. Many children are sent to work starting at the age of 5.
This is me on my bike, about to bike from Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope.
This is a ray from the aquarium I went to. He's smiling!
One of the lovely little penguins from Simon's town. They love posing for pictures.
Simon's town beach-pengis!
The first part of the hike at the cape of good hope.
YEAH. atlantic ocean.
view of cape of good hope. isn't south africa pretty?
the evil babboons that will steal your camera and beat you up. notice this guy getting the hell away
this sign says "babboons are dangerous and attracted by food"So that's it for now. Actually, I regret to inform you that I may not post again until...Vietnam? I'm leaving for Langa tomarrow, a township (I know, you're all thinking "why would she go to a township after all the stuff she's just said about how dangerous they are?") and there's pretty much nooo internet there and chances of me getting back into town are slim. And then I'm on a weeklong spring break with my parents so....signing off for now. Love you all!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Cake Town (where my friend Dan thought I was)
hey there,
so sorry for the last blog where i...posted the whole entry as a link. yikes. So this weekend was soop doop fun. Saturday I got my hair cut and it's lookin chic and fab and then I went to the aquarium with my friend who got her hair dreaded at the time I was getting my hair cut (well, hers actually too 6 hours). The aquarium was alright, though it doesn't beat the Newport aquarium for a second. I saw some Steve Irwin worthy rays, some small sharks, crazy eels. I headed home and found that Achmat had bought a hardrive that you can hook up to a tv and has lots of boot legged movies on it. Yay! We watched Australia (which had about 15 climaxes and was a little too long) and Steph came home from shabbot. Moena made veggie ground beef that she had found and it was delishhhh. Me and Steph are really opening up that woman's culinary eyes.
Side note-the internet place I come to here is called the Geek Internet Cafe and there is a backroom that one walks to to get to the bathroom that is only for serious "geeks" aka gamers who are all playing World of Warcraft or something. School got out an hour or so ago so all these nerd boys are here makin a ruckus in the backroom while they play their game versus each other. Funny stuff.
Anyway, on Sunday 31 of the 35 of us got on a private bus tour thing that took us first to Simon's town which has a beach called Foxy Beach that has penguins on it. That's right, penguins. The penguins are blocked off but there's boardwalks that lead to them and you're seriously right next to them and they are so friggin cute. I would post pictures, but it takes a looong time to post here so..maybe next time. Allegedly, the reason for the south african penguin is that sailors on their journeys would take penguins as pets and then realizing they couldn't take them into africa when they got here just dropped them in the water.
After Simon's Town, we got to Cape Point in the far south of south africa and were givin bikes to ride. We all rode (mostly downhill, but some of the ride was hard) to a visitor's center place and had lunch. Then we rode our bikes the rest of the way to the Cape of Good Hope. It was so beautiful and it's really steep downhill so the cool Atlantic breeze is blowin in your face and there's nothin but ocean as far as the eye can see and fisherman/scuba divers are offering you cold beer from their cooler as you pass by....we got to the cape (the southern most part of the African continent) and then started a hike that takes you to various high points to look out over the sea. We saw a few dassies (remember from table mountain?) and we walked a boardwalk high over the sea until we got to a place at the top that has a restaurant and gift shops and stuff. this is the point at which one must be wary of BABBOONS because they are dangerous, everywhere, and will steal your stuff and kill you. and lo and behold while some of us enjoyed our Hunters Dry a babboon came near this family's table to steal their food and they evacuated asap. Those babboons are crazy. We took the bus back to c-town and Moena had found SEITAN (a vegan's dream, what is used to make all fake meats) and made a curry and it was delish. Then me and Steph (and half our class it turns out) watched this movie called 4 Brothers featuring Markie Mark. We all watch the same movies cuz South Africa/our homestays only have about 3 channels.
Today it rained! and was cold! crazy stuff. but I guess summer is ending here so we might have a few more days like that headed our way. I tried lunch at this vegetarian place called Zuccini. I ate yummy veggies, a veg curry pot pie thing, and a really good chocolate oat brownie. I wanted the almond chickpea fudge but those silly people put milk in it.
That's all for now! Peace in the middle east.
so sorry for the last blog where i...posted the whole entry as a link. yikes. So this weekend was soop doop fun. Saturday I got my hair cut and it's lookin chic and fab and then I went to the aquarium with my friend who got her hair dreaded at the time I was getting my hair cut (well, hers actually too 6 hours). The aquarium was alright, though it doesn't beat the Newport aquarium for a second. I saw some Steve Irwin worthy rays, some small sharks, crazy eels. I headed home and found that Achmat had bought a hardrive that you can hook up to a tv and has lots of boot legged movies on it. Yay! We watched Australia (which had about 15 climaxes and was a little too long) and Steph came home from shabbot. Moena made veggie ground beef that she had found and it was delishhhh. Me and Steph are really opening up that woman's culinary eyes.
Side note-the internet place I come to here is called the Geek Internet Cafe and there is a backroom that one walks to to get to the bathroom that is only for serious "geeks" aka gamers who are all playing World of Warcraft or something. School got out an hour or so ago so all these nerd boys are here makin a ruckus in the backroom while they play their game versus each other. Funny stuff.
Anyway, on Sunday 31 of the 35 of us got on a private bus tour thing that took us first to Simon's town which has a beach called Foxy Beach that has penguins on it. That's right, penguins. The penguins are blocked off but there's boardwalks that lead to them and you're seriously right next to them and they are so friggin cute. I would post pictures, but it takes a looong time to post here so..maybe next time. Allegedly, the reason for the south african penguin is that sailors on their journeys would take penguins as pets and then realizing they couldn't take them into africa when they got here just dropped them in the water.
After Simon's Town, we got to Cape Point in the far south of south africa and were givin bikes to ride. We all rode (mostly downhill, but some of the ride was hard) to a visitor's center place and had lunch. Then we rode our bikes the rest of the way to the Cape of Good Hope. It was so beautiful and it's really steep downhill so the cool Atlantic breeze is blowin in your face and there's nothin but ocean as far as the eye can see and fisherman/scuba divers are offering you cold beer from their cooler as you pass by....we got to the cape (the southern most part of the African continent) and then started a hike that takes you to various high points to look out over the sea. We saw a few dassies (remember from table mountain?) and we walked a boardwalk high over the sea until we got to a place at the top that has a restaurant and gift shops and stuff. this is the point at which one must be wary of BABBOONS because they are dangerous, everywhere, and will steal your stuff and kill you. and lo and behold while some of us enjoyed our Hunters Dry a babboon came near this family's table to steal their food and they evacuated asap. Those babboons are crazy. We took the bus back to c-town and Moena had found SEITAN (a vegan's dream, what is used to make all fake meats) and made a curry and it was delish. Then me and Steph (and half our class it turns out) watched this movie called 4 Brothers featuring Markie Mark. We all watch the same movies cuz South Africa/our homestays only have about 3 channels.
Today it rained! and was cold! crazy stuff. but I guess summer is ending here so we might have a few more days like that headed our way. I tried lunch at this vegetarian place called Zuccini. I ate yummy veggies, a veg curry pot pie thing, and a really good chocolate oat brownie. I wanted the almond chickpea fudge but those silly people put milk in it.
That's all for now! Peace in the middle east.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Hout Bay and Bjork like sounds
Hello all, it's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Cape Town. Yesterday we visited Hout Bay which used to be kind of an artists colony area where a lot of surfers hung out. It has a harbour and generally teh whole area reminded me of the oregon coast. I saw some seals (including a dead, headless one on the beach-sad) . We were all split into groups to visit various thigns and I went with the environmental issues group. It was like a middle school fieldtrip: we tested the Ph and the phosphate levels of the river at 3 locations and learned how polluted it was at various parts. Science is fun! By the way, I don't know why the computer is underlining everything I'm typing...so we looked at the river and then went to have lunch which was hard for thsi vegan to find (dad-imagine that you're on a street and there's nothing but Moes everywhere). I managed to find a place though and surprisingly it was freezing down by the water. Last night a bunch of us went to this music venue called The Assembly which has a lot of cool bands that play there. We picked last night randomly and there was some band playing but when we got there we found out that it was a pretty popular band and the last night they would EVER play so the line to get in was loooonnnnggg. But we got in and watched the first band, which was kind of a pirate band (think Tenacious D meets The Decemberists) and they were alright. But the band that everyone had been waiting for turned out to pretty much be Evanescence and not that good so we went home. Oh yeah, points to Mona for making Falafel AND homemade spring rolls last night. I love that woman.
this is the steet my house is on in the Bo Kaap district
this is me at the top of Table Mountain!
that fat little scurrying creature is called a Dassie. I don't really know what it is...but it lives among the rocks.
View from Table Mountain!
Unfortunately, this is the only picture my friends have put up from Carnaval. This is some of my outfit...
this is the steet my house is on in the Bo Kaap district
this is me at the top of Table Mountain!
that fat little scurrying creature is called a Dassie. I don't really know what it is...but it lives among the rocks.
View from Table Mountain!
Unfortunately, this is the only picture my friends have put up from Carnaval. This is some of my outfit...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
oh yeah
Addresses:
For those interested in sending me letters or...magazines! I would love a New Yorker (or the new Nylon, Lisa!) or just draw me a picture, send a postcard. Whatever! These are my mailing addresses, though it takes a little while to get to me so send accordingly.
While I'm in Cape Town, South Africa (March 5-April 9)
Hayden Seder
c/o Sally Frankental
Department of Social Anthropology
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7701
SOUTH AFRICA
While I'm in Hanoi, Vietnam (April 10-May 15)
IHP c/o Hoai Anh Tran
For Hayden Seder
E4 Ciputra Rum 804
Phu Thuong Ward
Tay Ho District
Hanoi, Vietnam
For those interested in sending me letters or...magazines! I would love a New Yorker (or the new Nylon, Lisa!) or just draw me a picture, send a postcard. Whatever! These are my mailing addresses, though it takes a little while to get to me so send accordingly.
While I'm in Cape Town, South Africa (March 5-April 9)
Hayden Seder
c/o Sally Frankental
Department of Social Anthropology
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7701
SOUTH AFRICA
While I'm in Hanoi, Vietnam (April 10-May 15)
IHP c/o Hoai Anh Tran
For Hayden Seder
E4 Ciputra Rum 804
Phu Thuong Ward
Tay Ho District
Hanoi, Vietnam
Woodstock
So I was going to upload pictures but was just informed that USB cables don't work here and the process to get pictures up is too much for me and my 26 minutes left on this computer. SO. Yesterday was neighborhood day and my group went to Woodstock, an allegedly (and turns out truthfully) dangerous neighborhood where people buy Tik (crystal meth, it's big here) and commit a lot of crimes. Lots of assaults and killings basically. So of course IHP sent us there with no super vision. So we took a taxi-van which are these informal (i.e. illegal) taxis that are vans that fit 16 people and charge you about 50 cents a piece. They have certain routes they follow so you walk to the street you want to be on and get one of these to the other end. They honk the whole way as a means of getting people to get on their van and they drive crazy dangerous so they're not recommended but, it seemed fine to me. We got to Woodstock and wandered around a really long time (we were there 6 hours). It was pretty much like being in Queens or deep in Brooklyn: a lot of factories, warehouses, wholesale retailers and crappy stores and restaurants. I ate some yummy curry for lunch and we talked to a police officer for about an hour about the area and all the crime they have-which is a lot. Last night Mouna made our first form of protein, lentils, and it was awesome. It's hard not to eat just carbs here seeing as how Mouna pretty much feeds us rice, bread and pasta for dinner. yikes. Last night we went out to some bars on Long Street (the happenin, hip street). Drank some Savannah Drys which are a local hard cider produced in South Africa. They are good and I will miss them. We came home early so I could wake up and be POD today!!! POD is Person Of the Day which means you are the leader that day and you have to keep track of time, form sign up sheets, clean up, and it's generally assumed you will do a fun activity so I looked up everyone's name on urbandictionary and read it to them. Fun times. We had our neighborhood presentations today, which went long, but it wasn't as hot today so not as bad. For lunch I went to this burger place that has about 20 or 30 types of vegetarian burgers. I got a burger made of falafel that had hummus on it (hold the bun please!) and it was delicious and gave me protein. Tis all for now folks.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
C-Town
So im in Cape Town...sorry I haven't updated in a while, but no computer in the homestay and...im just busy! So we got to Cape Town and went to a really sweet Backpackers hostel for a few days...it was hot as hell in those rooms in our bunkbeds, but fun none the less with the bar/pool table room upstairs and a pool outside. We were also only a few blocks off Long Street, pretty much where the cool scene is in Cape Town. I spent three days pretty much hanging out on Long Street, eating good vegan food since all menus in the area mark their vegetarian and vegan stuff and theres a lot of it! I bought some stuff too since Long Street has lots of vintage stores and local south african designers. Everything is wayyy cheap for Americans right now since $1 equals about R11 (11 Rand). Ill put this in some perspective. When we go out to dinner we always order the most expensive wine on the menu which is usually no more than 180 Rand...or...$18. Yowza! So everyone's been going crazy shopping and whatnot. Last Saturday the majority of us woke our butts up at 5:30 in the morning to climb Table Mountain which is a mountain smack dab in the middle of Cape Town. The hike took about an hour 1/2 and the losers who took the cable car to the top met us. It was really beautiful and i'll post pictures at a later date. On Sunday our homestay parents picked us up in the Bo-Kaap which is a muslim community and ergo, all our homestays are muslim. Were actually only a few blocks from Long Street again which is fun, although a little dangerous at night. Its actually a rule on the program here that were not allowed to go anywhere alone...ever. And at night we have to take cabs home from Long even though its only a few blocks. Anyway, my homestay parents are Mouna and Achmat and they are so sweet. They are grandparents and within a few minutes of getting to their house Mouna was showing us every photo album she has and pictures of her grandchildren, children, and trip to Mecca. Her and Achmat (mostly Achmat) love watching Cheaters and Cops and our first night we watched some crappy Steven Seagal movie called Mercinary for Justice...Our first night for dinner was a little tricky cuz me and Steph (my lovely orthodox jewish roommate i had last time) dont eat meat or cheese (and me with even more restrictions). Mouna is like, "Do you eat meat? I made meat curry, meat samosas and bought sausage" and were just like "oh...they didn't tell you?..." we explained our dietary restrictions and she whipped up some pasta for us and we told her of the magical world of soy products. She has since bought soy milk for us and me and Steph actually found some tofu (at this place called Wellness Warehouse. Imagine the beauty part of Whole Foods and a little food but for dirt cheap. South Africa is amazing). So today was our 2nd day of school. Our classes are in this church hall that has no fans or air conditioning...bleh! (SA is going through a heat stroke right now) so thats a little rough. Tomarrow is neighborhood day. Next weekend I might do this thing where you jump off cliffs of different sizes into bodies of water. and then you abseil down a waterfall! yikes. Not sure about this weekend except that Im getting an edgy haircut from a bougie, ultra hipster hair salon for the equivalent of 20 bucks. Gotta love that exchange rate. So Ill try to update this as much as I can while in this neighborhood, but in 2 weeks we leave the Bo-Kaap and start staying in a township (where many blacks were relocated during apartheid and couldn't afford to leave) so I will definitely not have computer at least in my homestay and I don't really know what the area is like. After 2 weeks there I have spring break and my parents are coming, yay!
Love you all, comments!
p.s. Lisa- i keep forgetting to bring my list of mailing addresses with me to internet cafes...I'll try to get on that...and I'll try to write some letters. Although letters take like, a friggin month to get there!
p.p.s. Anton-do you still have my book Alphabetical Africa?
Love you all, comments!
p.s. Lisa- i keep forgetting to bring my list of mailing addresses with me to internet cafes...I'll try to get on that...and I'll try to write some letters. Although letters take like, a friggin month to get there!
p.p.s. Anton-do you still have my book Alphabetical Africa?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
MST and Curitiba
Hello people,
So....long story short I was in the countryside and then I got to my host family in Curitiba who must have bought the first computer ever and decided to never get a new one. So now I~m posting the day before I leave for South Africa!
So we left Sao Paulo and went to MST which is the landless peasant movment. They work toward agrarian reform and basically occupy land that isnt being used to the best of its potential and start using it for agriculture and create settlements. So we stopped for 2 days at a settlement on the way to Curitiba which was really cool. they grow 85% of their food and have chickens, pigs, goats, and dogs. They have solar panels that power the toilets and showers and they filter their gray water so it doesnt have an impact on the river when they dump the water there. They have a honey area where they bottle and sell honey, their own radio station, a lake (that we swam in and was nice), an orchard, a garden,...lots!
mst is badass
us meeting in the "school of horticulture"
pigs!
this picture accidently got uploaded....joanna!
this is clovis the goat...clovis was named after one of our country coordinators even though the goat is a girl. Clovis thinks she is a dog and would follow us everywhere, she even accompanied people on their morning runs!
playin spoons at mst
So we got to Curitiba and Unilivre, the free school of the environment. It was built in an old abandoned quarry and is a free school that anyone can come to to do...environment stuff.
so this is the boardwalk I walk to my school called Unilivre, the school of the environment
and it comes out onto this abandoned quarry
and this is the school
view from the top of my school
also view from my school
So Curitiba is alright, although reading about it makes it seem better. We did see though the recylcing program in which people can exchange trash for food, a reading program where kids can bring trash to "Lighthouses of Learning" and get books for school, and one of the best bus systems in the world. I read that instead of using lawn mowers in the parks they use flocks of sheep but...I didnt see that. So my host parents are Ernesto and Rosilene who are in their 60s and have a son who is 27 (and is also one of the top ten best commercial models in the state? hes also kind of a tool). Theyve been hosting kids for 8 years so theyre obviously looking to keep kids around. Rosilene speaks some English, Ernesto speaks none and Steph speaks spanish so we get by. Im living with Gabi, my last roommate, and Steph who is an orthodox jew which when in another country means shes vegan pretty much. They also have a pitbull named Princess who is scared shitless of us for unknown reasons...but shes coming around...now that were leaving. So we only had one weekend here and on Saturday I took this train that goes through the wilderness and is beautiful and ends at this town that is known for its banana stuff (banana chips, banana cachaca).
on the train through brazilian rain forest, pretty, no?
these are pictures of the town, Merretes that was at the end of the train ride.
The next day I went to the big hippy craft fair (and was united with about 20 ihp kiuds through the magic of IHP which always unites us anywhere). Then we visited the Oscar Neiermeyer museum. Hes a famous brazilian architect and the museum had ths awesome exhibit on the Twins. The twins are a pair of famous twin grafitti artists (in my first post in brazil I had a grafitti picture with two heads..thats their stuff). Their stuff is all over sao paulo as well as in other countries where they are now commissioned to do work cuz its so good. I didnt get to take any pictures in the museum cuz i forgot my camera but ill try to post later.
Yesterday we had a site visit to Volvo. Um...enough said for that.
So to sum up, things ill miss about brazil:
-mangos!
-starfruit
-cachaca
-caipirinhas
-voce quer ficar comigo?
-the peanut butter stuff that is not peanut butter, but are candy things
-amendocrem which is like peanut butter with 5x more sugar and is awesome
-Flavia!
-rice and beans
-trashy tattoos
off to south africa! i miss you all, leave me comments!
So....long story short I was in the countryside and then I got to my host family in Curitiba who must have bought the first computer ever and decided to never get a new one. So now I~m posting the day before I leave for South Africa!
So we left Sao Paulo and went to MST which is the landless peasant movment. They work toward agrarian reform and basically occupy land that isnt being used to the best of its potential and start using it for agriculture and create settlements. So we stopped for 2 days at a settlement on the way to Curitiba which was really cool. they grow 85% of their food and have chickens, pigs, goats, and dogs. They have solar panels that power the toilets and showers and they filter their gray water so it doesnt have an impact on the river when they dump the water there. They have a honey area where they bottle and sell honey, their own radio station, a lake (that we swam in and was nice), an orchard, a garden,...lots!
mst is badass
us meeting in the "school of horticulture"
pigs!
this picture accidently got uploaded....joanna!
this is clovis the goat...clovis was named after one of our country coordinators even though the goat is a girl. Clovis thinks she is a dog and would follow us everywhere, she even accompanied people on their morning runs!
playin spoons at mst
So we got to Curitiba and Unilivre, the free school of the environment. It was built in an old abandoned quarry and is a free school that anyone can come to to do...environment stuff.
so this is the boardwalk I walk to my school called Unilivre, the school of the environment
and it comes out onto this abandoned quarry
and this is the school
view from the top of my school
also view from my school
So Curitiba is alright, although reading about it makes it seem better. We did see though the recylcing program in which people can exchange trash for food, a reading program where kids can bring trash to "Lighthouses of Learning" and get books for school, and one of the best bus systems in the world. I read that instead of using lawn mowers in the parks they use flocks of sheep but...I didnt see that. So my host parents are Ernesto and Rosilene who are in their 60s and have a son who is 27 (and is also one of the top ten best commercial models in the state? hes also kind of a tool). Theyve been hosting kids for 8 years so theyre obviously looking to keep kids around. Rosilene speaks some English, Ernesto speaks none and Steph speaks spanish so we get by. Im living with Gabi, my last roommate, and Steph who is an orthodox jew which when in another country means shes vegan pretty much. They also have a pitbull named Princess who is scared shitless of us for unknown reasons...but shes coming around...now that were leaving. So we only had one weekend here and on Saturday I took this train that goes through the wilderness and is beautiful and ends at this town that is known for its banana stuff (banana chips, banana cachaca).
on the train through brazilian rain forest, pretty, no?
these are pictures of the town, Merretes that was at the end of the train ride.
The next day I went to the big hippy craft fair (and was united with about 20 ihp kiuds through the magic of IHP which always unites us anywhere). Then we visited the Oscar Neiermeyer museum. Hes a famous brazilian architect and the museum had ths awesome exhibit on the Twins. The twins are a pair of famous twin grafitti artists (in my first post in brazil I had a grafitti picture with two heads..thats their stuff). Their stuff is all over sao paulo as well as in other countries where they are now commissioned to do work cuz its so good. I didnt get to take any pictures in the museum cuz i forgot my camera but ill try to post later.
Yesterday we had a site visit to Volvo. Um...enough said for that.
So to sum up, things ill miss about brazil:
-mangos!
-starfruit
-cachaca
-caipirinhas
-voce quer ficar comigo?
-the peanut butter stuff that is not peanut butter, but are candy things
-amendocrem which is like peanut butter with 5x more sugar and is awesome
-Flavia!
-rice and beans
-trashy tattoos
off to south africa! i miss you all, leave me comments!
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