time for solitude and time for sharing

So here we are- back in our little Cape St. Francis abode, after a pretty miserable 11 hour bus ride on a very miserable, rainy Monday (getting up at 4am in order to get to the Cape Town bus station on time). It was very sad leaving Cape Town- what a great city. As you can tell from Michaelle’s post- we did A LOT while we were there and didn’t even come close to doing everything we really wanted to. But overall I am very satisfied with our time there. I feel like I got to do everything that was essential for me to do and got to spend time with some really amazing people along the way, so I’m very pleased.

Michaelle didn't talk about her birthday which was June 8th, so I'll just summarize what we did. That morning Nola took Liz, Michaelle and I to the Two Oceans Aquarium to bleed all their penguins, including Ivan- the beautiful King penguin (who despite the name is actually female). Then Nola and Liz went back to Sanccob and left Michaelle and I to explore the aquarium before it opened, then ransack the crafts market nearby for gifts and souvenirs, then check out the local brewery on the Waterfront, then walk over to Long Street to explore it in the daylight. It was a nice, full day and we actually ended up staying downtown until late at night because our attempt to catch a bus home was thwarted when we realized we were stuck in rush hour traffic and wouldn't make it home in time to catch a cab back (since we were meeting people on Long Street for dinner). So we hung out and drank coffee, then met Monique, Steph, and a bunch of Sanccobers at Mama Africa for a great dinner and awesome live music.

Above: left- Ivan, the beautiful King penguin; middle- Nola getting a blood sample from Ivan while Liz is holding; right- at Mama Africa, the birthday girl with some of the band members.

The day that Michaelle went paragliding with Jenny and Judy, I went into Sanccob for a few hours that morning to get through some of the blood smears from the Namibian Islands that Nola wanted us to help her with and I found malaria on a few of the slides which was pretty exciting for me. Well, you know, not good for the penguins on that island, but exciting to find something different than a bunch of white blood cells and Babesia which can become pretty monotonous after looking at 90 slides. Then, as it was turning out to be an absolutely gorgeous, clear day- I left Sanccob around 10:30 and set off to climb Table Mountain. That was my main goal while I was in Cape Town, to climb the mountain at a challenging pace on a clear day. So that’s what I did. And it was definitely a challenge as the climb up is basically big boulder steps all the way, but I kept up my pace, stopping only to take a few pictures and refill my water bottle from the mountain streams. I made it up in about an hour and five minutes which I was pretty proud of, though I did piss off a few Australian guys in the process who were not very happy when I asked to pass them… um, not my fault you’re slow!! Anyway, I had a great time and the view from the top was amazing. I walked around the top for a bit, checking out the views from the various sides, then chose a particular rock to sit on that overlooked the best part of Cape Town and sat there, dangling my feet off the edge, listening to Andrew Bird and just taking in the fact that here I was, on this great rock formation, looking out on this great city and out onto the Atlantic Ocean… in AFRICA. It was just amazing. Then I took the cable car back down, caught a taxi back to the Aviva house and met everyone else before heading out to News Café to watch the opening concert for the World Cup.

Above- at the top of Table Mountain, view out onto the city.

Yeah, so there is this small event happening in South Africa this summer… you may or may not have heard of it… called the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Of course I’m being sarcastic, but really I’m sure no one has heard as much about it as the people currently in this county. It’s like World Cup 24/7. All that’s on the news- what team has arrived, where they are staying, what celebrities are coming to watch the Cup (how many times have I heard about John Travolta being here to support the Australian team? About 20 bazillion), constant analyses of players, teams, coaches, etc, and of course… what foreigners are saying about these freaking vuvuzelas. Okay, so personally I think they are kinda cool and it’s nice to have this one thing that South African fans bond over and can show their support for their team. But wow… those things are annoying. You hear them all the freaking time all day long and late into the night. Gets kinda old. Anyway, so yes, the World Cup is in full swing.

So we went out to celebrate the opening concert that was happening in Jo-burg Thursday night. We were gonna go into downtown Cape Town to the Fan Park to watch it on the big screen, but then we heard that it would take 3 hours just to get into downtown by taxi, so we abandoned that idea and settled for partying at News Café. My goal for the evening was to see Shakira and Freshlyground perform “This Time for Africa” (which, along with the “Wave Your Flag” song, has become the theme song for this South Africa trip). The rest of our group either peaced out to go home or moved on to the next bar before the end of the concert, but Cyril and I stayed to the very end and got to see the Shakira performance, so I got to dance to the song and that pretty much made my night. Then we caught up with the others to continue the celebration.

Me with Cyril- wearing the ridiculous French wig that was passed around between the Frenchies that night.

Friday morning we all had to be at Sanccob by 7am in order to finish work by 3pm so that we could have a braai and watch the first game of the Cup- South Africa vs. Mexico. So that’s where I watched the game while Michaelle, Judy, Jenny and Zach were at the Waterfront. Nola is vegan too so she made sure that we had veggie sausages at the braai which was pretty awesome. That day was also very productive because we bled the 66 gannets again in order to have samples to bring back to Athens to do PCR on. So now we have lots of guano and blood to fill up our luggage.

As Michaelle was saying, it’s kind of hard not to get into the spirit of the World Cup when you’re surrounded by so many hardcore soccer fans. The energy is really contagious. Example: Saturday night (after I chilled out for most of the day while Michaelle did Table Mountain and then Liz, Michaelle and I went to dinner with Nola) we headed for Long Street to catch the USA vs. England game. After only about an hour of being surrounded by various USA or England fans, I was all riled up about cheering for the US and going off on the Frenchies who were all about supporting England. It was great fun, though I have to admit that tied games are somewhat anti-climactic. Post-soccer, we headed to the Rhino Room to dance. And boy did we dance… until about 4am. Well, some of our party left earlier, but Michaelle, Fionnula, Zach and I were a little more hardcore. Anyway, last night out in Cape Town was a blast and it was sad to leave.

But we received a very warm welcome back from our Eastern Cape friends, so that felt good and we’ve enjoyed a great lazy first day back before getting back into our routine here. I’m looking forward to giving my poor, sore legs somewhat of a rest… all that climbing and dancing has left them pretty painful.