4/4/2010

EASTER!! We were “woken up” by Melissa jumping and screaming in our room that the easter bunny had come (we were all already awake). We ran outside and hunted for marshmallow eggs, as well as bigger prizes for lucky people. There were 4 boxes of dark chocolate Ferrero Rochers, and 3 big boxes of regular Ferrero Rochers. Guess who got a big box. This guy  After the hunt, it was just another day of reading and note-taking. We found out yesterday that we have another assignment due on the 6th, so that’s coming up quickly and is something I have to work for….and there really isn’t anything else interesting I’ve done today. Just studying.

4/3/2010

Today was FFP analysis for those who had FFPs these past few days. This means that I didn’t have anything to do except for work, and who wants to do that. I spent most of the day reading articles for the four different things we have due in the next week and a half. Evan T made lunch today, and it was delicious. I already knew he liked to cook, but I didn’t know he could ACTUALLY cook :P Aaaaaaaand then the rest of the day I studied and took notes. It’s a hard knock life.

4/2/2010

Today was my day for dung. We didn’t leave, as they had everything they needed already there. We worked on sexing the beetles, then measuring them. After we had measured them all, we entered in more data from the weighers. We then watched dung beetles on dung, which was extremely boring. They didn’t do anything. Apparently, it was very unusual for that to happen. After that, we washed all of the materials, and then went to the beach for lunch. When we came back, we had two lectures, and then got back our ecology exams, which is our first grade we’ve received. I got an A-! Then I spent the rest of the evening hanging around and deciding whether or not I want to stay for an extra couple days to go see a wild dog reserve. More to come.

4/1/2010

I realized I forgot to tell you guys what happened when I went to the dentist. They said they thought that I had a tooth parasite living underneath my wisdom tooth. Cool, huh? They think I got it from eating raw seafood in Cape Town (I’m a bad jew), and they gave me some pills to help kill it.
APRIL FOOLS! (Doesn’t translate as well over a blog and 2 weeks late) This is the joke that I played on the group, and I fooled SO MANY PEOPLE. I was so proud of myself 
For real though, today was my day to go out for marine. We drove about 45 minutes to get to the beach, and then donned our wet suits to go run biodiversity surveys in the tide pools. I was helping with the actual experiment, and so was looking for 6 different taxa (well, technically 7) – sea stars, sea cucumbers (which we replaced sea stars with), fish, abalone, sea urchins, whelks and crabs. I caught 4 fish using just a jar and a lid. Go me. After we had caught the sea critters, we put them in jars with ambient and de-oxygenated water to see their respiration changes. Then we headed back for a late lunch, more work on our FFP, and a lecture.

3/31/2010

Today started the FFPs 7 and 8 – marine and dung beetles. We each go out 2 days (one marine, one dung), and then have one day off. Today was my day off. I spent the morning working on data analysis for our FFP, and really didn’t get anywhere. We have a lot of data, and none of it correlates at all. Grr. After lunch, I went into town with Melissa to see a dentist, because my jaw was hurting. While in town, we also went to a café so Melissa could do some emailing, and I read a book for my history and culture project. We had a lecture when we got back, and then we spent the evening working on our FFP again. Can’t wait to turn that in.

3/30/2010

Today we left Cape Town  but we’ll be back! We packed up and left around 9, and drove along the coast for a nice scenic tour. The weather was not terribly conducive to this, however, and it rained the entire drive. We got a chance to stop at Laurence’s mother’s house, and they had cats. I know, I’m obsessed. We stopped for lunch at a strip mall with a grocery store, so a lot of us just got simple things like bread and cheese for lunch. We finally got to the De Hoop Nature Reserve around 4 or 5, and then hung around until dinner. It is very cold here, and none of us really have anything warm. Of course, by really cold, I mean it was about 60. After dinner, people worked on homework and just relaxed. I worked on the FFP draft that is due on Friday.

3/29/2010

Today was our last day in Cape Town  We started off pretty early with Hannah, Elizabeth and I taking a very expensive taxi out into Noordhoek to ride horses on the beach. We got there for our 9:00 booking, and got excited for the ride ahead. I haven’t ridden in a while (well, hadn’t), so I was a little bit nervous. We got our horses (mine was Maestro, Hannah’s was Cognac, and Elizabeth’s was Habana), and set out on the trail. It was 5 of us, including the three of us, our guide, and some dude who just likes to ride, apparently. It was a 2 hour ride, and it was a gorgeous day to go. I wish I had given her my camera, the beach was amazing. We trotted and cantered a little bit, although Maestro was gung ho on beating everyone else to the finish. We walked a beautiful fynbos trail back to the stables, and then dismounted after a few pictures. We took another expensive cab ride back, and ate leftovers for lunch.
After a relaxing afternoon of music loading, we set off for Robben Island as a group. We took a ferry there, which was about a half hour. Once there, we loaded onto busses to get to the actual prison, where we were taken around by one of the inmates from the time of use. We went to see Nelson Mandela’s cell, as well as many of the other cells with very intriguing stories inside. We went inside one of the communal cells to look around, and also talk about life as it differed between coloreds, Indians and Africans. We then took a boat tour of the island, stopping at a few choice locations. I kicked myself for most of this section, as I had forgotten to switch my camera battery before we left, and it died soon after the prison tour. Luckily I got pictures of everything in there. After the island tour, we made a quick run through the gift shop, and then headed back to the harbor on the ferry. A bunch of us went to dinner at the Ocean Basket again (more oysters for me!!), and then headed back for one last night at the backpackers. Here ends my blog for the next two weeks, so I will see you all again in the middle of April!

3/28/2010

Today, we actually had a schedule (weird). We left at 8 to start our trip to cape point, and stopped very shortly in for coffee and snacks. We first went to Laurence’s house, which I am moving into. It is right on the beach, surrounded by mountains. We then went to another beach to have a lecture on the fynbos. Laurence is back now, which is really nice. I love the way he lectures. We moved around a bit in the quantums, looking for different areas to talk about. Then we went to Cape Point, which is a very beautiful area in the very south of ZA, though not the southernmost point. We then went to the beach, and swam and surfed. Well, tried to surf. The waves were so big, they would just knock me right over. Then we went to a penguin reserve, and looked around a bit at the African penguins. They are called jackass penguins because they sound like donkeys when they make noise. I’ll see if I can post a video later. We then went to a bar in the area for dinner, and headed back for the rest of the night.

3/27/2010

We started out the day by shaving Benjy’s beard :P We tried to go for the pencil thin beard to make him look super sketchy, but it didn’t really translate. Oh well. After, we ended up going (again) to the Green market square. I stopped in a book store to pick up something for my project, and when we came out, we ran into Elizabeth and Jay on their way to the same place. We went over there and spent a few hours walking around and shopping. We went to Nando’s for lunch, then came back and did a turn around to go to the train station. We then went to a rugby game, Western Province versus an Argentinean team. We won, of course. Hannah had a great time talking to one of the players, the one who plays her position. For dinner, we all went to a thai place that took over 1 ½ hours to bring us our food. Frustrating. Bed!

3/26/2010

Today was Table Mountain day. A lot of people had already gone, so Hannah and I decided to go just the two of us. We left around 1130, and started up the mountain. The total hike took us about 1:45, but it felt like years. We kept turning around to see how far we were, feel good for a second, and then turning back around to see how much further we needed to go. Ahhhh. We finally got to the top, after seeing a mountain goat and dassies, and it was 100% covered in fog. Woo. We walked around for a while, and got to the tourist area for a late lunch. When we went into the cable car, we could finally see down, and got some great pictures. We got back around 4, and watched a movie with some people. For dinner, Hannah and I ordered pizzas from the backpackers, and then got ready to go hang out at Nick’s digs for the night.