Mingle. Drink. Eat. Mzoli's.

We left the house around 10:30 a.m. to embark on a day full of meeting new people and eating meat at a well-known “restaurant” in Gugulethu, a township about 15 minutes from Rondebosch, where I live. 

Mzoli’s is not a typical restaurant. People go to Mzoli’s for their amazing meat — chicken, steak and sausage — but it’s more than the food that attracts people. Mzoli’s is an outdoor eatery on the corner of a township street that quickly turns into a block party with loud music and lots of fun on Sundays.

I went to Mzoli’s with my house (about 30 people) as an outing arranged by the RAs. When we arrived at, all of the tables were reserved, which seems to be typical of any Sunday when people — black, white, colored, South African, Kenyan, Ugandan, etc. — all flock to enjoy delicious meat served on big platters or large buckets, depending on the number of people at the table. There are no vegetables and no side dishes to order along with the meat. You go to Mzoli’s to make friends, drink, and eat meat only.

The number of people eating at Mzoli’s at once is outrageous and makes the waiting time for the food very long. Like you could have guessed, everyone drinks and mingles to fill the time while waiting. Mzoli’s doesn’t seem to sell alcohol though. People can either bring their own drinks or buy some in the neighborhood, where everything is relatively cheap. There are small trailer-like structures that sell alcohol through small windows with bars, but there are also several people in the area who sell alcohol from their homes.

One of my RAs, Buhle, led us to a person’s house where he usually goes to buy alcohol when at Mzoli’s. It was strange to walk in the side door of someone’s home and into their kitchen to buy a 6-pack of cider from their endless supply; however, the weirder thing was that it wasn’t weird at all. For these people and their kids who are running around the house, this process of selling alcohol is completely normal. This is how they make their money. It’s simply a small business run from their home.

 In addition to alcohol, there are many other things being sold all over the neighborhood, such as hats, sunglasses, cups made from old beer and cider bottles, earrings and more. At first I wondered how those vendors make money, but as the day progressed and more people filled the streets while drinking all day, it became very obvious that a good profit can be made from drunk people.

Once everyone was content with their alcohol purchases, we all hung out, chatted with one another and met other people who were enjoying themselves at Mzoli’s. I spoke with a couple guys from Uganda and Kenya, who are currently working in Cape Town. It was interesting to speak to them, particularly because none of us had ever experienced anything like Mzoli’s before.

Mzoli’s is known for their meat. Everyone who goes to Mzoli’s says that they have never before tasted meat that delicious. I ate chicken, which was very tasty, but in order to enjoy the food, everyone has to overlook the barbarous way in which the meat is served.

For my group of 30, we ate the meat from a large crate that was full of chicken, steak and sausage. There’s no such thing as forks, knives, plates or napkins at Mzoli’s; you just dig in with your hands and forget all manners you were ever taught. Part of the experience is being messy and not judging anyone for having food all over their face and hands.

When all the meat is finally gone, everyone continues to drink and mingle until someone decides it’s time to go home. After impulsively buying red Ray Ban-style sunglasses, meeting a bouncer of a trendy club in Cape Town and feeling full of cider and chicken, I went home with people from my house around 4 p.m.

The whole day was a new experience that forced me to throw myself in a very unique environment rich of South African culture. I ate an all-meat meal without a fork, knife or napkin, which I can say is a first for me.

We’ve already begun planning our next trip to Mzoli’s…

Kalk Bay

Ek is ‘n student aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad.

After three weeks of touring around South Africa, meeting countless people and becoming acquainted with Cape Town, I can finally say that school has begun and I have completed my first week of classes.

Although I’m excited about diving into my courses, I dread the walk to campus every morning. My morning routine back at USC consists of waking up, maybe having breakfast, and hoping on my beach cruiser for a 5-to-10-minute bike ride to class. Nice and easy.

Yet, now, I leave the house about 30 minutes before class begins equipped with a full water bottle and as little as possible in my tote bag to help ease the steep, uphill walk to campus. On really hot days, I feel like there’s no point in wearing cute clothes or spending time on my hair because by the time I get to campus, I look like a hot mess. The walk to campus is much like walking on an incline on a treadmill for 15 minutes; it’s a solid workout.

Even after just one week though, the walk to campus is getting easier each day and once I’m there, I can only be happy walking between the beautiful ivy-covered buildings and seeing a panoramic view of Cape Town from the middle of campus.

This semester, I am finishing my international relations minor by taking two upper-division elective courses, in addition to two more courses of my choice:

            HST 3024F: War and Genocide

            HST 2032F: Southern Africa to 1900

            SLL 1042F: Afrikaans Intensive A

            MUZ 1201F: African Instruments (for study abroad students only)

**”F” stands for “first semester.” The seasons are opposite hear so our spring semester is their fall, or first, semester.

So far, Afrikaans is my most fun class. Everyone in the class has zero experience in the language and is open to learning by making silly pronunciation mistakes every class. Afrikaans is similar to Dutch and sometimes sounds just like English, but with a South African/Dutch accent. For example, “what” translates to “wat” and is pronounced phonetically like “vat.”

The best thing about the language is that the verbs are not conjugated. There is one verb for a particular meaning and it keeps the same form for every subject. Also, some words in English are the same word (but said with an accent) in Afrikaans. For example, “student” translates to “student,” but the “-ent” part of word is pronounced harsher and emphasizes the “t” at the end. (Look at the title of this blog post for a complete sentence in Afrikaans using the word “student.” It reads, “I am a student at the University of Cape Town.”)

The professor promised that we would be fluent by the end of the course, which I’m not sure if I fully believe, but I have definitely learned a lot in just the first week. I even read a candy bar at the grocery store the other day that was written in Afrikaans.

During orientation, CIEE and UCT scared us by saying that courses here are very difficult and we cannot afford to slack off, which I agree with; however, after reviewing the syllabi for all of my courses and going to several classes, I do not think there is any reason to stress about these classes being more difficult than what I am used to at USC. Of course, they are college-level courses, so they are not going to be easy, but I feel prepared and am actually excited to learn and take these unique courses that I could not have otherwise taken at USC.  

Living the hostel life, riding an elephant, and eating ostrich

After a week of CIEE orientation and another week of UCT orientation, I finally had one week free of obligations. As everyone who previously studied at UCT has said, a trip on the Garden Route is a must while in Cape Town.

The Garden Route is a route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth that showcases some of the most beautiful coastlines and mountains in South Africa. Along the route, there are countless outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking and cycling and many thrilling activities such as bungie jumping. The route also features many animal reserves and parks with zebras, elephants, monkeys, lions and more.

My friend/housemate Masha and I planned a 5-day trip on the Garden Route and gathered a group of 10 great people.  We decided to purchase a hop-on-hop-off ticket for the Baz Bus, which took care of our transportation for the entire trip (or so we thought…details to come).

Day 1: The day we met Sydney

The moment the Baz Bus arrived, that’s when our crazy day began. Sydney, the driver, is definitely the most outrageous person I’ve met so far in South Africa. He’s a ball of energy full of jokes, sarcasm and fun. He made sure to start off the trip by laying down the rules, but we quickly learned that the only rule of the Baz Bus was to be decently behaved while having fun.

Since we only had five days to tour the Garden Route — many people choose to do the Garden Route in seven, 14 or even 21 days — we decided to drive to our farthest destination on the first day and then work our way back toward Cape Town for the remainder of the trip. First stop was Jeffrey’s Bay, a 12-hour drive from Cape Town. (Note: the Baz Bus stops almost every hour, if not more, so Jeffrey’s Bay is probably only eight hours away.)

Our group of 10 filled a little less than half of the bus, leaving room for other study abroad students traveling on the same route and anyone else exploring the Garden Route. A few hours into the trip, the bus was completely full of passengers and entertainment specially provided by Sydney.

Sydney would switch between loud, dancing music (usually with a techno beat) and strange violent movies, several involving vampires. Sydney also was a fan of Shaggie, known for his hit “It Wasn’t Me,” which we all sung along to and greatly enjoyed.

Twelve hours later, we arrived at our hostel, Island Vibe JBay, a beach-side, surfing-culture hostel where everyone hangs out, lays on the beach, and just chills.

Day 2: The day we were beach bums

The day was simply great. We woke up, ate breakfast, relaxed on the beach, ate delicious seafood at a restaurant overlooking the beach, read and took an afternoon nap on the beach, ate dinner at the hostel with many interesting people and had fun at the hostel bar.

Day 3: The day we hated the Baz Bus

To keep it short, the Baz Bus is a very deceptive company. We planned to hop-on and hop-off the bus “anytime” along the Garden Route as their slogan indicates; however, “anytime” to Baz Bus means once each day at the specific time that they stop in that city. There were several things we wanted to do that day on the way from JBay to Knysna, and the Baz Bus was just not going to work, so we rented a car for the day to go bungie jumping, to the Knysna Elephant Park and finally to our hostel in Knysna.  Although the woman at STA Travel scared us into thinking the Garden Route was a very windy, dangerous road of which she would never dare to drive on, it’s actually a very easy, not windy road that was easy to drive on, even driving on the opposite side of the road.

Our first stop was bungie jumping at the highest commercial jump in the world. I wish I could say that I jumped with ease, but I, along with Masha, actually watched our friends scarily jump. They all said it was an amazing experience, and I hope that I will gain the courage to do it before leaving South Africa.

Our second stop was the Knysna Elephant Park, where Masha and I, along with two other friends from CIEE who we ran into, rode elephants, fed them food and learned interesting facts about elephants. Fact #1: elephants spend 18 hours each day eating. Fact #2: elephants can eat up to ¼ of their body weight. Fact #3: When a human rides an elephant, it’s like an elephant wearing a purse — the person is lightweight and can hardly be felt by the elephant.

Day 4: The day we could have done more

We had about half a day in Knysna, but by the time we all woke up and got ready to leave our hostel, there wasn’t much time left before having to catch the Baz Bus. We found a cute breakfast spot near the waterfront and then walked around the Knysna lagoon until we had to leave. Once on the Baz Bus, we had a six-hour bus ride to our final destination: Hermanus.

Hermanus Backpackers was our favorite hostel, not only because it was the cleanest, but also because of the building design, the location and the chill people. The hostel hosted a braai, where we ate a delicious dinner. My main meal was chicken, but many of my friends ate ostrich sausage, a typical delicacy here. I tried a piece of ostrich, which was a bit strange, but tasty. (Random fact: an ostrich’s brain is smaller than one of its eyes.)

Day 5: The day we absolutely enjoyed

Hermanus is a beautiful little beach town. The blue-teal ocean breaks against a part-sand, part-mountain coastline, which follows the town, which is full of cute restaurants and small shops.

We went sea kayaking around noon with a guide for about two hours. It was amazing. The ocean was full of huge kelp plants, which we had to paddle through to get to open water. While out kayaking, I tasted the kelp, after our guide said it was edible, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It was chewy, salty and just not very tasty.

The first animal we saw were African penguins, also called Jackass penguins. Three of them swam alongside us as we kayaked and then they swiftly disappeared, only to pop up out of the ocean later. We also saw a pack of seals that hung around our kayaks for a while, before we paddled away.

After our kayaking adventure, we ate at a delicious restaurant along the ocean, where I ate a scrumptious ciabatta-bread sandwich with locks of salmon, cream cheese and capers.

I wish we had had more time to truly see all of the Garden Route, but I definitely enjoyed every moment of the trip and grew even closer with all of my friends.

"This is Africa."

Registering for classes at UCT is by far the most stressful part about studying abroad. Before coming here, students from my school had warned me that the registration process is a headache, and now I know that they were right.

Registration begins with the pre-approval process. For most courses, with the exception of 1000-level courses and those in the history and sociology departments, a student must retrieve a pre-approval form, then go to each department where he or she wants to take a class, talk to the department head and have that person sign off on the class.

Being a study abroad student who is not yet familiar with the campus and generally how things work at UCT, running around campus trying to find various departments and then waiting in a “queue” of students who are also trying to get forms signed is quite tiring.

I happened to have a horrible experience during my pre-approval process when speaking to the head of the political studies department, who told me that UCT is not afraid to fail students, it happens often, I’ve only had a “dog’s breakfast” worth of experience in the subject matter, my GPA is inadequate, I’m not prepared for classes at UCT, and the physiology course I took first semester freshman year (and did not do very well in) is why Americans look stupid according to their transcripts. Despite all of this, she signed off and gave me approval to take the course.

 I would have liked to believe that I was the only one who had a bad experience, but every other American student I’ve talked to had a similarly traumatizing experience with the same woman in the political studies department. That was not a fun day.

Once receiving signatures for all classes, then there’s actual registration. (Note: online registration is what I am used to, but nothing about registration is online at UCT.) During the allotted time slot, I went to register, filled out a form, met with someone who then goes over my form with me to make sure I have the correct signatures. Then I walked to a different building for “data capture” where I gave my form to someone who then entered the information into the computer.

Although after the registration process is over, records and information relating to classes is online, to add or drop a course is the same system of retrieving a form, getting a signature and then submitting the form to a particular department.

When talking about or asking why the registration process is not online since it would make everything easier, locals would often respond, “This is Africa.” Apparently inefficient, sometimes confusing ways of doing things are simply normal in Africa.

Side note: “Africa time” is the normal clock that people go by here. Africa time is synonymous with “late” and “if you run into a friend on your way somewhere, you are going to stop and chat with them for however long despite having to be some where by a certain time.”

What I’ve learned in South Africa…

-Food packaging is extremely efficient.

-Baby African penguins that are black and white as adults are brown as babies.

-Napkins are rare and hard to find.

-Reusable shopping bags are the norm.

-It’s quite difficult to find a trashcan and when you do there are usually five different cans for different types of trash and recycling.

-Paper towels are also hard to find.

-Girls only drink cider, not beer.

-Most often soap dispensers don’t actually have soap in them.

-Driving is definitely crazier than in L.A.

-Undergraduate college is only three years.

-Girls are so friendly in the line for the bathroom.

-Baboons are everywhere on the Cape Peninsula!

-South Africa does NOT have Cheez-Its.

-There are no dryers. Everyone hangs their clothes on clotheslines.

-There is no underage. No one is ID’ed.

-Clubs play a lot of American music, especially old school jams.

-Every day around 6 p.m., the winds are incredibly gusty and the weather seems like a hurricane is about to unleash, but it actually doesn't even rain.

To be continued…

All moved in!

I could not be happier about my new home for the next four and a half months in Cape Town. My house is by far the nicest housing I have ever lived in while in college. I live with 27 other American students in my program and two resident advisors, Martina and Buhle. It might sound overwhelming, but we are split into three separate houses that are all on the same property.

There are 12 of us total in the “A” house, which is by far the best house. We have hardwood floors all over the house, a huge kitchen, dining room and living room. Everyone has a single room and I lucked out by having the best room in the house, according to my housemates.

I live on the third floor, which is the attic and looks like it has been recently remodeled. The attic is the only area in the house with wall-to-wall carpeting. In my room, I have a wardrobe, desk, bed, bookcase and two skylights. I brought a duvet cover and throw blanket from home and have already hung up many photos of my loveable friends and family. If you look out my skylights, you can see the entire UCT campus and Table Mountain.

My house is about a 15-minute walk to campus and we are right around the corner from Main Street where I can go to the grocery store, pharmacy and a couple cafes with good food and free wireless.

The security for our house is intense, but should make everyone at home feel at ease about me. CIEE really takes care of us here. There is an electric fence around the property and a security guard who sits in little part of the front of the house from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. everyday. To get into the house, we have to use a tag sensor to open the gate, a key to open the security door, a key to open the front door and another key to open our individual bedrooms. I feel safe here to say the least.

Aside from how great the physical house is, the people are also awesome. I really am happy to be living with all of my housemates! I happened to meet several of them before moving in during orientation, but I have met more people since then and can tell that we will all become great friends. Our house already feels like a home with a fun-loving family.