Catching up! (June 22, 23, and 24)

It's Friday afternoon, almost 5 o'clock. Dirk is outside setting up the braai, and I just finished four essays for my first class. I finally have a little bit of free time and I thought I'd take a few minutes to put out an update.  It's the weekend! Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for a long weekend holiday in Swellendam (the third oldest city in South Africa after Cape Town and Stellenbosch). We'll get back sometime on Monday.






This week has been almost entirely take up by our classwork. Although, as I said in a previous post I definitely made the right decision in choosing my class. On Wednesday we went with Dr. Nox Makunga (another professor at the university) to learn about the medicinal uses of Cape plants. After a several hour hike in the mountains (it was freezing cold and rainy, but it was a good hike) she took us to Cape Town to visit the markets and learn about the plants from the people who worked the stalls. We also got to walk around the old part of Cape Town for a little while. We were able to walk past the Parliament building (only Parliament is located in Cape Town. South Africa has three capitals, one for each branch of government), as well as Cape Town Castle. After that our class went out for dinner in Cape Town. We didn't get back until around 7 that night. By that time it was about time to leave again for quiz night.

 This is the area (in one of the mountains outside of Stellenbosch) where we went on our hike. You can see the clouds coming in. It was so cold and windy, but it was a really good hike with an incredible view. There were parts where we were walking through plants that were at least two feet over my head!









There was a small waterfall coming down the mountain. It fed into a little spring that we had to cross. I almost fell in, but didn't! That would have been cold! The steam was a few feet wide. Wider than it looks in this picture.





















At the beginning of the week each student got assigned a native South African plant genus to study. Lucky for me I got the Proteaceae! The King Protea is the national flower of South Africa and is as important to them as the Bald Eagle is to Americans. This isn't a King Protea, but it is a close relative. Protea are really common in the Fynbos! I took this picture on the hike to use in my presentation.

After the hike we went into Cape Town to visit the traditional markets. We talked to a lady who sells the plants for a little while, then we had some time to walk around the city before getting dinner and heading back. Here's Parliament.

 This is a picture of Cape Town Castle out my window in the van. When we were actually walking past it it was pouring rain and I didn't want to get my camera out.

 A statue of King Edward left over from British rule (ending in 1961). Queen Elizabeth II was the last queen of South Africa.

 A monument to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

We ate in downtown Cape Town at a Cuban restaurant on Long Street.
















When we got back we had to almost immediately leave again, because we wanted to make it to quiz night. Dirk and his mates make up a team called "The Naked Man" who win almost every week. Last week was no exception, although my team did win one round of the game!

On Thursday our lesson was over the commercial value of South African plants (specifically Proteaceae). Our professor was Professor Lynn Hoffman. Every day after tea break (around 10:30) everyone else had to go back to their lectures and we got to go on one of our excursions. Unfortunately on Thursday it was raining. We were supposed to go to a Protea farm and watch them harvest, but they don't harvest when it's raining. (The Protea are very sensitive to moisture, and if they harvest during the rain they will go bad really fast). Instead she took us to a florist/bakery out in Franschhoek (the next town over) to look at some of the plants. They also had a big bowl of free cookie samples, and we tried a lot! After that she took us to her farm to meet her pet zebra, Kevin. That was one of the best things that has happened so far in Africa! I got to pet a Zebra, and his name was Kevin!

 She and her husband adopted Kevin. He is a rescue Zebra. They have about six horses too. When we first got there Kevin was way on the other side of the field. We were trying to call him with clicks and things but he just ignored us. "How do you call a zebra?" I asked. One of the South African guys, Charl jokingly yelled "Kevin!" but Kevin actually came running when he heard his name.

 He really liked the girls. Prof. Hoffman said that when he was a baby the group that took care of him were all girls. He doesn't trust guys as much.













That's Kevin and his friend. Prof. Hoffman said that they are inseparable.

Me and Kevin! I actually got to pet a zebra. I think that's pretty cool! So this is Africa!














Today we had to do our presentations. Although our class is very informal, it was almost a little bit intimidating. Dr. Dreyer was there, as well as Francois and Kenny (Drs. Roets and Oberlander who took us to the beach at Royals earlier in the week). Nox was there, and Professor Hoffman too. Five professors for six students! It was fun though, the class was very informal and the teachers liked to joke around with the students. We are in this tiny little room, almost a closet, and we had to get up in the front and present our power points.  They all turned out really well though. After tea break today Kenny and Dr. Dreyer took us out one last time to an orchid farm/vineyard to see the different species of orchids. Although this class had nothing to do with my major (actually hardly anyone in that class needed it. We had an engineering major, international relations, criminal justice, education, etc) it was a really great class and I learned a lot. I'm really glad that I took it, because I got to do things that I wouldn't have gotten to do otherwise. I mean, I got to pet a zebra! I think everyone else was pretty jealous when they found out that we did that!