An odd-looking bird...

After spotting these bizarre birds on campus, in the Company Gardens in Downtown Cape Town and in other random places, I just finally looked up the species: Egyptian Goose. From my experiences with them, the Egyptian Goose is an interesting animal that tends to stand and observe, and quacks a unique noise quite sparingly. Apparently, it's the "most commonly encountered waterfowl" in Southern Africa, which makes sense since I see them all of the time.


To learn more about this goose or listen to its "quack," click here!

Afternoon in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Hiking to the top of South Africa

I truly felt like I could see all of South Africa. Anywhere I've visited since living in this country, I tried to find, but everything looked so tiny. An odd quietness overcame Anna, Jenni and I when we finally reached the top. I could barely believe that we made it to the top. My legs hurt and I felt tired, but the spectacular view made those feelings temporarily disappear. We finally made it to the top of Devil's Peak.


The hike took us seven hours round-trip, which including a brief lunch and photo break at the top. On the way up, we made a couple stops to take photos and regain our breath. During parts of the hike we wacked away bushes and spiky plants and climbed vertical rocks knowing that one clumsy move would result in a steep tumble down the mountain. Had it not been a perfectly clear and sunny day, the hike would have been terrifying. My legs were a bit scratched and my legs, and whole body, were sore for two to three days after, but I could not have been more happy about my pain. 


Knowing that it would be impossible to visit every inch of Cape Town while here, I can now say that I've truly seen all of Cape Town.

This is just the beginning. The peak on the left is Devil's Peak, and so far away.

The only way to get through was to clear our own path and suffer a couple of scratches.

We hadn't been hiking for that long when we reached this point to stop and take a photo through the trees.

From this point, we still had about an hour of hiking until we reached the top. The island in the distance is Robben Island.

The red conglomerate of buildings in the bottom of the photo is the University of Cape Town campus.

Jenni, Anna and I at the top overlooking downtown Cape Town and the World Cup stadium in Green Point.

Easter in South Africa

Beautiful brown eggs that my roommates and I successfully dyed pretty colors on Easter. 

Easter treats I made courtesy of a delicious Cadbury recipe: Yum Yum Balls! For those who are fans of the Samosa Girl Scout Cookie, make these! (no baking required)

Tastes of Stellenbosch

Part 1: Fantastic flavors

Eager to take advantage of a day off from classes, seven friends and I hopped on a train to Stellenbosch on Good Friday. When we arrived in Stellenbosch, the town seemed abandoned and that remained true for the entire day. We were still able to find an open restaurant to eat lunch, visit the botanical gardens (and almost get locked in after closing), go out to eat for dinner on the empty main street of town and relax afterward at the only bar that seemed to be open. Mostly everything was closed because of the holiday and we were told that many of the students at the University of Stellenbosch went home for Easter weekend.

Even though we were in a ghost town, we enjoyed a full day of wine tastings and tours on Saturday. The eight of us rode around on a bus for just our group with Neil, our tour guide for the day. Neil picked us up just before 10 a.m. and first took us to Kanonkop Vineyards. When entering the vineyard, we stopped along the driveway to look at the beautiful land. At Kanonkop, the primary grape grown is Pinotage, a genetically engineered grape created by a South African professor many years ago. Pinotage is a cross-bread of Pinot Noir and Hermitage and grows as small bushes, in comparison to many grape vines that grow upwards like small trees. 

During the cellar tour, we learned about the importance of the barrel in the wine making process. Once a vineyard harvests the grapes and makes the wine during a several-month-long process, the wine sits in huge wooden barrels for anywhere from a few months to several years. During this time, the oak wood emits tannins into the wine, which give it a slight wood flavor.

Yet, the type of oak is what makes this flavor possible. Oak in Russia for example is too hard and does not emit tannins into the wine. South African oak also cannot be used for wine barrels because the wood is too soft and cannot even be constructed into a stable barrel. All of the oak barrels used at Kanonkop are from France, and on average, each is used twice before being sold or recycled for things such as furniture.

After tasting one rosé and four red wines, we headed to the next vineyard: Glenelly, a vineyard owned by an 85-year-old French woman. Aside from the quaint formal tasting sitting in a modern, all-white room with glass doors overlooking the vineyards, the most amazing part of the experience as Glenelly was gazing out at the endless vineyards and mountains. The land was absolutely beautiful and full of grapes to produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay.

We then went to Le Pomier, another winery, for lunch and a glass of wine before going to our third winery, Tokara, for an informal wine tasting. At Tokara, we tasted many different white wines, a couple reds, and also their whole line of extra virgin olive oil. I had never thought of wineries producing olive oil, and here they had just less than 10 different types.

At our final winery of the day, Solms-Delta, we walked through the vineyards before sitting at a huge table outside and tasted about five different wines while enjoying several cheese platters. We were so full of food, cheese and wine by this time of the day, but the sense of humor and charisma of the man serving as our wine during the tasting helped us stay alive and continue to enjoy all of the wines.

I left our daylong wine tour with two bottles of great wine: 2009 Chenin Blanc from Tokara and Cape Jazz Shiraz, a sparkling Shiraz wine from Solms-Delta, both of which I hope to have enough will power to save and take home back to the states with me to enjoy with my family.

Part 2: Frustration

While the vast vineyards and picturesque mountains amazed me, I found myself pondering the topic of my senior speech: “checking the other box” on applications, standardized tests and other forms that make me categorize my race with one check mark…

After spending the majority of my stay in South Africa in Cape Town, the idea of an obvious racial divide in this country is foreign to me. In Cape Town, I see white, black, coloured, Indian, and occasionally Asian people every day. I have noticed that some people tend to stay closer to people of their race or culture, but in general, I observe so many different races that I don’t think about, or notice, a segregated society (if it exists).

Before arriving in Cape Town, my family asked me what I expected going to South Africa as a biracial, or as I like to call myself “halvsie,” young women in a country that openly discusses race and is still very much aware of its young history as a former apartheid country.

Throughout my life I have been asked if I am almost every race from Pacific Islander to Mexican to Indian and more, so I honestly did not know how people here would “classify” me. I quickly learned though that I am “coloured” according to South African race categories. I am a child of black and white parents and I clearly look mixed, so to many people this is an obvious race classification. Yet, I never really felt “coloured” or even felt like any particular race until I visited Stellenbosch.

Stellenbosch, which is located about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town, hosts a large Afrikaner population who are primarily white descendants of the Dutch colonists of South Africa and speak Afrikaans. The University of Stellenbosch attracts Afrikaners, which works particularly well because many of their classes are taught in Afrikaans. While many coloureds speak Afrikaans as their first language, from my short visit in Stellenbosch, I mainly saw white-speaking Afriakaners (although I did see black and coloured people in the town near the shops).

When my friends and I went out to a bar in town near the university’s campus, there was one coloured guy (yes, only one) in the bar, and he “happened” to come and talk to me. While he was a nice guy, he was incredibly frustrating. After introducing ourselves and spitting some small talk, he said, “coloured guys must talk to you all the time.” All I said was, “well, I don’t know. I talk to anyone who talks to me.” Then, he began to tell me that it must be coloured guys who talk to me all the time, especially when I’m out, because that’s exactly what he did: a coloured guy sees a coloured girl who he finds attractive and that’s that. I couldn’t believe he was analyzing my life and the people who talk to me, and hit on me, based on my race.

I understand that people have “types” and sometimes a person’s type is defined by race, but I am not one of those people. Usually when a guy talks to me in a bar, I do not pay attention to his race, I just see him as a typical guy who is most likely hitting on me while making typical, boring small talk. I felt that this guy assumed so many things about me and believed that we had so much in common because we are both “coloured,” and because of that he continued to talk to me on-and-off throughout the night, despite my efforts to simply hang out, away from him, with my friends. He was perfectly friendly, but I just did not relate to what he thought was a “coloured connection.”

I consider the coloured race as more than just hazelnut brown skin with dark hair. I believe that to identify as coloured, one must be South African and possess a particular culture of a multi-racial family in a country that is still changing since the days of apartheid. I might identify with coloured physical features, but if someone asked me, “what are you,” I would never respond saying, “coloured.” If I labeled myself as coloured, I feel like I would be changing my identity.

Yet, while I’m in South Africa, I blend in because of the way I look. I look coloured and because of that, people can easily assume that I am South African. As one of my history professors told me, it’s only when I start speaking with my American accent that I am obviously not South African.

Since making my senior speech about checking the “other” box and attending college in California, I have not thought much about my race and how I see myself versus how others see me. It’s always an interesting game when people try to guess my race, but in general, I don’t think about my race much, because that is not all that defines me. While I am proud of my biracial identity, I’m more than a kid with parents of different races, and I would like to think that South Africans — coloured or not — would talk to me in a bar even if my skin was purple with yellow polka dots.

No directions. No map. No reservations.

The plan for spring break was essentially not to have a plan, at least according to the boys: Phil, Brett and Pete. Masha and I on the other hand were quite keen on having at least a rough plan, so before leaving for our 10-day trip, I wrote an itinerary with a schedule and all important phone numbers and addresses. Once we arrived at the airport, and Brett told me that he printed the itinerary and driving directions, but left them at home, I knew that I was embarking upon an adventure. We started in Cape Town, flew to Durban, then drove through Swaziland to northern Mozambique and back without directions, a map, reservations at hostels, or much of a plan...


Day 1: Cape Town to Durban

Masha and I learned to love, or at least tolerate, the back seat for the whole trip, since the truck was manual, which only the boys could drive.  The truck, which they loved more than life during our trip, was also the boys' pride and joy, and it kept us safe on the many bumpy, dirt roads in Mozambique and our self-guided safari in Swaziland.

Day 2: Durban

The boys taking a break from surfing in Durban, which was very humid and rainy, a drastic change to the near perfect weather we were used to in Cape Town.

Day 3: Durban to Swaziland

Crossing the Swaziland border was simple and easy, something that we took for granted at the time, but learned to appreciate later when crossing into Mozambique.

The typical scenery in Swaziland included grass huts like these and large open fields with mountains in the background.

Once we finally arrived to Hlane National Park in Swaziland, we were happy to find out that they not only had space for us for the night, but that the basic room rate landed us in a two-bedroom cottage with a kitchen and bathroom in the middle of the park. At night, I truly heard nature and nothing else.

Day 4: Swaziland to Maputo

He's hard to see, but this monkey got me out of bed in the morning. I heard rustling in the trees, opened my curtains, and saw several monkeys playing in the trees right outside my window.

On our self-guided safari, we saw more impala than we could ever have expected. Pictured above are female impala. Side note: the boys ate impala burgers from the national park's restaurant the night before, which seemed a bit twisted.

This giraffe was our first real sighting of one of the Big 5 animals of Africa. We stopped our truck and watched him for a while as he walked from one side of the road to the other with a brief stop to stare at us in the middle of the road.

We almost missed seeing these zebra until someone spotted them in the distance behind the trees.

Not exactly what I would consider a big wildlife animal, but this dung beetle caught my attention in the road as it was rapidly running along and pushing the piece of dung in the road to somewhere in the grass.

Like I said earlier, we saw impala everywhere. Pictured above are male impala that have antlers.

Day 5: Maputo to Tofu

In Mozambique, there were very few cities. Driving in the country, we saw many small communities and everyone seemed to walk from place to place. I finally felt like I was in Africa when visiting Mozambique, since living in Cape Town reminds me so much of living in Los Angeles, or really any major city in the U.S.

We stayed in Maputo for one night, but quickly left the next morning after the manager at the hostel told us that there was nothing to see in Maputo except for a crowded, dirty city. So we decided to drive about seven hours north to Tofo, where everyone who has ever visited only has positive things to say about the piece of paradise.

We drove on the same road straight up the coast for hours and hours, mostly seeing small villages like this, and children walking to and from school along the road. All of the children were very friendly, and when they saw our obvious foreigner car blasting music with surfboards on top, they smiled and waved.

Day 6: Tofu

We finally arrived in paradise after many wrong turns, back tracking and stopping to ask for directions, since we had no directions and Phil's Blackberry, which we were using as a GPS, stopped working in Mozambique. We instantly knew the long, bumpy drive was worth it though when we saw our hostel on the beach, Fatima's, which is pictured above.

Masha and I ventured to the town market in Tofo during the day and ended up buying fresh prawns that were caught that day and agreeing to pay a little extra to have the fish vendor's mother cook us dinner in the market square. A man we met at the hostel in Maputo told us that this was a typical gesture and if we wanted to taste the best seafood in the world, we should have a local cook for us. These were by far the best prawns I've ever had in my life. She cooked them on a braai and served them with rice and onion and tomato slices. We happily drank Savanna with our meal and wished that the food would never end. The woman who cooked our food was very nice, but we couldn't tell her how delicious the food was because she didn't speak English. We did learn how to say "thank you" though in Portuguese, the official language in Mozambique: "obrigado!"

When we didn't eat out, we cooked our own food in the hostel's kitchen and enjoyed our food and drink at the outdoor tables. Everything at Fatima's, except for our beds, was outdoors without walls, but in a place like Tofo, one always wants to be outside and experience the beautiful beach life.

Day 7: Tofu

Tofo was the closest to paradise that I have ever visited.

Masha and I walked to and from the market along the beach.

Day 8: Tofo to all over Africa to Durban

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to document this day. We left Tofo in the morning and planned to drive a couple hours south of Maputo to ensure that we would be in South Africa for the night and only have to drive a short distance the following day in order to catch our flight in Durban. However, after being pulled over by the police for I'm not exactly sure what for, paying the police officer a bribe as he demanded, then continuing to drive for many hours as it became dark, then paying our way over the border, because the border patrol officer was not going to let us back into South Africa any other way, we stopped to fill up on gas at the first station over the border only to find out that we took a wrong turn and crossed the wrong border. We were 12 hours away from Durban near Kruger National Park on the other side of Swaziland, no where near our original destination. Luckily, none of us freaked out, because there was not much we could do without directions, working phones or a map. So, the boys stocked up on snacks, coffee and Red Bull and drove through the night.

Day 9: Durban to Cape Town
Completely safe and alive, we arrived in Durban early the next morning only to find a dreary, partially raining city. We were all too tired to care much about the weather and simply walked around the chilly beach until our flight left in the afternoon from the Durban airport. Our trip was truly an adventure, but we were ready to head back to Cape Town. We saw a lot, bonded and learned to never take a long road trip in a foreign country again without at least a map.