Arrived in Cape Town!

I'm here. It's dark. It's cold. It's raining...BUT I'M IN AFRICA!!

I wrote this blog when I was on the plane from Amsterdam to Cape Town. Talk to you all soon!!!


Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:41 pm somewhere over Africa
And thus it begins...here I am sitting on my flight to Cape Town from Amsterdam. Only 3 more hours to go in the air...thank goodness!! Mom dropped me off at the Detroit airport around 2pm yesterday...and we had a bit of an ordeal checking in. The lady at the desk could hardly speak English and when my bag was 2lbs over limit she wanted me to fill up another one. Then the check-in wouldn't read my passport...and it was just a big cluster, but I managed to get through it and only had to take out some granola bars to stash in my carry-on. I said good bye to my mom (thanks for the awesome card, mom!) and made my way through security. No problems there. Then I began pacing the McNamara terminal. With the forthcoming 19 hrs on the flight, the LAST thing I was going to do was sit down in the airport. I think I went back and forth at least 3 times...which was a good walk! I got to the gate and they started boarding REALLY early. Only then did I realize that I was at the wrong gate for the flight to Amsterdam that was leaving an hour and a half before mine. Thankfully I realized it before I went to board! I finally found the right gate and met up with my new Wisconsin friends, John and Elayna. Elayna and I became faceboook friends, so we've been talking about the trip for weeks now via the internet. We finally boarded our flight and we were off!
These long flights are BRUTAL. My add is seriously kicking in. I've tried watching movies only to doze off and then wake up in a contorted position. I did manage to make it through The Reader and I enjoyed that very much. The first flight to Amsterdam went pretty well. I managed to change my seat to an aisle at the last minute, and luck have it, I ended up sitting next to another person from my program – John – from Wisconsin. We talked a lot about the trip and shared our love for cheesy 80's music. I managed to get about 1-2 hours of sleep on that flight. Once I finally fell asleep (around midnight our time), they turned on the lights and served us breakfast as we were preparing to land. After finally getting off the plane, we ventured to our gate and met some of the group. I am really excited for the group – everyone seems very friendly and excited. The group is primarily females (probably 65% or so) and there is a range of ages, but most of us are late 20s – 30s. I can't wait to get to know these fascinating people!
The best part of the flight was when we boarded our 11.5 hr flight to Cape Town to find a practically empty plane. We were able to move seats and I have an entire row of three just for myself. It is probably the best gift I've ever got from an airline! Thank you to everyone out there who decided NOT to fly Amsterdam – Capetown on Wednesday June 24! I was finally able to get some good sleep all sprawled out on my seats. I actually slept for 4 hours straight! Hopefully this will help with the jetlag. We land in Cape Town at 9pm and then have to go through customs and catch the bus to our hotel (about a 40 minute ride). By the time we check into the hotel, I hope that I'll be able to sleep because we have an early morning tomorrow heading to the university for a full day of orientation...
I still can't believe I'm almost in AFRICA!!!! Later, kids! :)

Send me on my way...

I'm busy putting together the Stugo E-board gifts while my itunes is on shuffle.  Rusted Root "Send Me On My Way" just came on.  I forgot how much I love that song.  And, it's pretty apropos because I just received my hotel reservations for South Africa!  Here is the planned itinerary: 

2009 NEH INSTITUTE 

Tuesday, June 23

Fly to Cape Town via Amsterdam. 

Wed., June 24

      Arrive in Cape Town. 

Thursday, June 25

      Orientation at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). 

Friday, June 26

      Seminar 1: History

Saturday, June 27

AM Visit Robben Island in Cape Town harbor.  A prison here dates from the days of the East India Company and lasted until the mid-1990s.  Nelson Mandela was its most famous inmate. 

PM Greenmarket Square to visit the Saturday market where wares from all over the continent are for safe. 

Sunday, June 28

AM Free 

PM Visit the Castle of Good Hope.  This is Cape Town’s oldest building, completed in 1679 and which for 150 years served as the heart of the Cape administration and the center of social and economic life.  It now contains a Military Museum, the Secunde’s House (deputy governor) with original furnishings and paintings, and the William Fehr Collection, one of the country’s most important exhibits of decorative arts. 

Visit the District Six Museum, on the site where lived a vibrant community of about 55,000 residents, mostly Colored/Mixed Race people, whom the apartheid government forced to move out.  The entire area was bulldozed, but was never developed.  The museum houses a collection of documentary photographs, a huge map of the area before the bulldozing, and a collection of original street signs.  It’s a most moving experience. 

Monday, June 29

Lectures

PM Visit the South African Museum and the Company Gardens. 

            Visit the Slave Lodge Museum. 

Tuesday, June 30

Seminar 2, Culture and Society 

PM Take the cableway up Table Mountain 

Wednesday, July 1

9:00-10:30 Drive to the Heart Transplant Museum at Groote Schuur Hospital; visit the replication of the operating theater where Dr. Christiaan Barnard and colleagues performed the world’s first successful heart transplant in 1967. 

Thursday, July 2

Seminar 3, Religion and Education

PM  Visit the Bo-Kaap (Muslim) Museum 

Visit St. George's Cathedral (Anglican), which was Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s church before his retirement. 

Friday, July 3

8:30-9:45 4^th lecture 

10:15-11:00 Teachers’ presentations 

  3:00-4:00 Visit the Jewish Museum. 

Saturday, July 4

AM and PM Visit Stellenbosch, one of the oldest towns in the interior of the Cape, established in 1679 by Governor van der Stel.  See the Village Museum which features four adjacent historical buildings in different architectural styles, all well preserved and furnished in period style. 

Go on to Franschhoek, established by French Huguenots at the end of the 16^th century; visit the Huguenot Museum which gives comprehensive coverage of Huguenot history, culture, and their contribution to modern South Africa. 

Sunday, July 5

AM and PM Visit the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point.  At the latter take the funicular to the top of the original lighthouse. 

Visit Boulders Beach (where lots of African penguins frolic). 

Monday, July 6

AM and PM Khayelitsha and Guguletu, two townships near Cape Town where the apartheid government forced Africans and Colored/Mixed Race people to live. 

PM  Get ready to travel. 

Tuesday, July 7

Visit Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point on the continent, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet; climb to the top of one of the oldest light houses in the country and visit the museum. 

Go on to Arniston, a charming fishing village where a row of limewashed cottages is now a National Monument; women of the village will fix dinner for us. 

Wednesday, July 8

Go on to Mossel Bay and visit the Bartholomeu Dias Museum complex which features a replica of the vessel that Dias used on his 1488 voyage. 

Go on to Tsitsikamma National Park on the Indian Ocean. 

Thursday-Saturday, July 9-11

Attend the Grahamstown National Arts Festival (you’ll all find these days a highlight of the six weeks).  One of the world’s largest festivals, it features jazz, drama, dance, cabaret, opera, visual arts, crafts, films, and a book fair. 

Sunday, July 12

Go on to Umtata. Visit the Nelson Mandela Museum, opened in 2000 by Mandela himself.  It’s the most extensive exhibition of Mandela, his life and work, in the country. 

Monday, July 13-Tuesday, July 14

Drive to Durban. Visit a Hindu temple. 

Go on to the KwaMuhle Museum, devoted to 20^th century urban social history.  It’s Durban’s newest museum.  Among the highlights are exhibits showing the methods under apartheid whereby the city council financed African affairs without spending taxes paid by white citizens of Durban.  There are also fascinating exhibits concerning the hated pass system and workers hostels (dormitory-like dwellings where men lived while working on sugar plantations or in the mines, only visiting their homes once or twice a year).  The museum itself is housed in the former Bantu Administration building.          

Visit the Victoria Street Market, center of Indian products from spices and incense to silk, brass ware, and ceramics. 

Wednesday, July 15-Thursday, July 16

Drive to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve It’s the oldest game reserve in the country. (We’ll almost certainly see elephants and other big animals.  There are always lots of giraffes too.) 

Friday, July 17-Saturday, July 18

Drive to Babanango.

Visit the battle sites of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift, the former where a Zulu army inflicted a humiliating defeat on the British and the latter lost 1,200 men; the British defeated a Zulu force at Rorke’s Drift later that same day in January of 1879.  There’s an excellent field museum at Rorke’s Drift. 

Sunday, July 19-Monday, July 20

Stop at Dundee in central Zululand, the heart of Shaka’s empire in the early 19^th century; visit the Talana Museum, consisting of nine historic buildings, still standing from the battle of Talana Hill, the first engagement of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899. 

Go on to Didima Camp in the Drakensburg Mountains. 

Tuesday, July 21-Thursday, July 23

Drive to Johannesburg. Visit the Apartheid Museum 

Visit Soweto and see the Mandela house, now a museum; the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum; and the Regina Mundi church. 

Drive to Pretoria; visit the Union Buildings and the Voortrekker Monument and Museum.  Then back to Johannesburg. 

Friday, July 24-Saturday, July 25

Go on to Gaborone, Botswana 

We’re still working on what we’re going to do in our brief visit to Botswana.  One thing we’ve arranged is a session with the head of the Peace Corps in the country. 

Sunday, July 26

Leave Botswana and back into South Africa, spending the night in Mafikeng. 

Monday, July 27

Go on to Kimberley. Visit the Open Mine Museum and the “Big Hole.” The latter is the world’s largest human-made hole.  Much of the museum consists of a collection of historic buildings of diamond mining in the 1860s and 70s.  Exhibits also show the diamond mining process and DeBeers Hall displays a collection of diamonds. 

Tuesday, July 28

Drive to Matjiesfontein; this is a small village that has not changed much in over a century; nearly every building is Victorian with a grand railroad station, now an interesting museum, tin roofs, pastel walls, and well-kept gardens.  The Lord Milner Hotel is like stepping backward into another era. 

Wednesday, July 29

Return to Cape Town via the scenic highway leading to Paarl where we’ll visit the Afrikaans Taal Museum. 

*********************************************************

Thursday, July 30

Back in Cape Town. 

Friday, July 31

Seminar 4, Government and the Economy

Saturday, August 1

      To be determined 

Sunday, August 2

AM Visit Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, among the most outstanding gardens in the world.  Featured are fynbos, plants native to the Cape, the most famous being the proteas (South Africa’s national flower). 

Monday, August 3

 Retrospective Look 

Tuesday, August 4

Leave for home 

One Month to Go!

When I applied for the NEH Summer Institute in South Africa grant back in February, I never thought I'd be on my way to South Africa just 4 months later.  Applying was a long shot; I couldn't decide between applying for a Steinbeck institute in Salinas, CA and the institute in South Africa.  As much as I love Steinbeck, I figured I might as well go for broke and apply for South Africa.  

On a Monday at the end of March I was home sick from school with a cold/sinus thing.  I had a kermit the frog voice and I had just returned home from the doctor when my phone rang and said "Unavailable."  I contemplated not answering it, but I am sure glad that I did.  Upon picking up the call, I was greeted by Rich Corby's voice and was told I was chosen as one of the 25 applicants to attend the Seminar.  I immediately started dancing around my kitchen and instantly felt better!  Rich probably thinks I have some deep manly voice due to my cold at the time!  After hanging up and contininuing my happy dance, I immediately called my mom and told her the news.  She was beyond excited as well and I think more in shock than I was!  When I called my dad, his first response was "so I guess that means I have to cut your grass this summer!"  Haha, he knows how much I HATE cutting the grass, and now he has to do it for 6 weeks!  Yes!  I received the confirmation paperwork a few days later and sent it back.  Lo and behold, I was South Africa bound!  

Over the past 2 months I have been dilligently researching and preparing for my trip.  I've been toiling on what to pack/bring with my on my trip.  With only one suitcase and a recommended packing list of just 3 pairs of pants and 5 shirts, I am having a packing crisis!!  I guess I really have to narrow down my 3 closets worth of clothes (ah the perks of living alone!) to decide what to bring.  Shopping was necessary, of course!  I'm still playing with the idea of getting a HP netbook to take on my trip to make blogging and communicating easier(not to mention to curb my facebook addiction!)!  I bought the required books....too bad I've been too busy with school (darn research papers!) to truly put in the time to read them.  Good thing I have a 19 hr flight... I've been to the doctor and been turned into the human pin cushion to get all my required shots so I don't catch any heinous diseases while out in the bush.  Lets just say that getting three shots on the same day is NOT fun.  I felt like I was punched in both arms, and it lasted for 3 days.  OH well, it will be worth it.  I've also received all my prescriptions (no malaria for me!), and I'm pretty much ready to go.  

So with that, I have a month left, and I know it's just going to fly by and keep me crazy busy with all of the lovely end of the year finals and classroom close-out.  Before I know it, I'll be boarding my flight to Amsterdam and I'll be off on my adventure of a lifetime.  I can't wait.