You did what now!?!

I have started to write a few entries over the past week and everytime I start to read it over I realize there crap and of no importance to anyone or anything so I scrap them, so like the little train that could I will try again because I figure that if I don’t keep writing people will stop reading

One thing that I'm very grateful for is the considerable array of people, friends and acquaintances that I interact with. The other night (last week when I started to write this) I went out to hear some live bands play at a local club, we knew one of the acts so it was a good opportunity to go, it was blues but really good blues. But sitting there not really with my 'usual' gaggle of friends and I looked around I realized I was the youngest one there, which made me realize that I have a very diverse and interesting group of friends. Diverse in the fact that they range in age from 20 to 70ish (at that point it’s just not polite to ask), there is every colour and nationality under the sun. How cool is that. This leads to the interesting part of these people (you know who you are), I mean the life experiences that all these people have and some in very trying times just amazes me. When I get into a conversation with someone about the weirdest off hand things somehow someone always has an incident/ antidote which applies.

A group of us had some how managed a conversation about gun running, I have absolutely no clue how we would’ve have gotten on this topic but I digress... so one guy I know fairly well pipes up and says that when he was working with the SA military a few years back and they were patrolling the border (with Namibia) and started to describe the different ways he’s seen people bring in weapons and guns. I just sat there almost dumb founded thinking well first this guy in the military and second of all what are the chance that someone in a group of 6 random people would actually have some real life experiences to inject into a conversation about gun running, seriously.

So if I get nothing else from my time here I have to say I have meet and talked to some of the most interesting people I think I’ll ever meet.

Arbitrary Things Cont'd

7. The rainbow nation: SA is known as the rainbow nation, and one of the major reasons I love this city/ country so much. The number of languages I hear on any given day can be upwards of 15, no joke. SA alone has 11 official languages although around Cape Town one usually only hears three. I know this is mainly because I live in Obz and go to university that I'm around a lot more international people, but still last week on the shuttle I heard 5 different conversions in 5 different languages. I'm only slightly embarrassed of my non-poly linguistic language abilities.

8. 'Rush week': I dislike the fact that are the students have come back and have taken over the campus and thus making me wait in lines for food and help. But I am so impressed with all the clubs and groups here that set up booths for a few days around campus. They had climbing walls, a bar, trampoline and so much more. It was a lot of fun and some very cool groups: surfing, underwater club (scuba), ballroom dancing, mountain and ski club and hundreds more. If DAL had this many groups and clubs I definitely missed that, but than again I'm such a joiner.

9. Colour Pens: I have taken a real liking to brightly coloured pens, pinks, greens, blues, purples etc... Main reason people don't steal them as much and those who do are easy to catch.

10. Film festivals: There are so many film festivals around Cape Town - and most are free!!! Canadian film festival starts today hopefully it will be good because after the Israeli one we went to the bar is set high.

Abitrary thoughts...

Here is a collection of thoughts and products I love, just don't understand, or things that aggravate me. I'm sure in the future when my imagination has run dry that I will expand on some of these things.

1. Zam Buk: the most wonderful cream like substance its like a wonder-drug. I just discovered it a few months ago it cures everything skin related. Cuts, burns, scratches, blisters anything and seriously within 2 days cleared up. Its not sold in Canada I already checked, so I'm planning to return with a life time supply. Interestingly enough they sell Zam Buk in Australia and England as well but not the same formula, I guess that one is not as good or so according to the message boards.

2. Leaded gas: This country still sells leaded gas!!!WTF!! They have to because there are so many cars that require it - they last that long, its amazing what the lack of winter and therefore the lack of salt does for a cars longevity. But leaded gas!?!

3. DDT: Yup still using good ol' DDT here. Again there is a good reason, the more DDT used the less cases of Malaria (by a whole lot- will actually find the statistics, they were in the paper a while back), but there has to be another way! Mind you with the amount I'm getting bitten less bugs and less Malaria the better, but DDT seriously!

4. Cheddar Cheese Simbas: Who would have guessed that these crisps would be so good and so addicitive. I just discovered them. Last week I went to the Boer wors stand to get a late night snack and they were the only crisps they had that didn't have meat or meat flavouring. So I grudgingly took them and TA DA, I have a new love.

5. Warm milk: Steamed milk in coffee is nothing new I realize, but most coffee places ask if you want cold or warm for your coffee. I have really taken to this, for some reason the coffee is richer and sweeter too, so much so that I actually use less sugar. Yummy!

6. Sour Milk: Nothing disgusts me more than sour milk, I think most people would agree with me on that front. But for some reason a lot of blacks here actually purposefully drink sour milk, ewww. I complain (yeah I do complain a ever now and again) about the expiration dates on the milk in the stores because it is always so close to the date. Than someone explained to me that they do that on purpose so people won't have to wait long for their milk to sour. The other day I had actual bought milk, only use it coffee so I don't buy it much, and of course it went off before I had a chance to use it all. I thought about and felt really guilty about giving it away to one of the berkies because it just seemed wrong to give sour milk to someone but I did it anyway knowing that may people like sour milk. I gave it to one of the berkies I know and told him it was sour and he actually said he preferred sour milk! He was really happy and even shared it with his friends.

7. To be continued....

I am NOT an American!

I soon as I open my mouth most people assume I'm an American, that's okay I would prefer if the didn't but what can a girl to do. Some people do ask where I'm from and when I say Canada I believe every single time the response has been Ohhh, which than is usually proceeded by a much friendlier interaction with the person. One of my favorites is a guy that runs one the food shop things here on campus. During the summer vacation they were one of the few places open so they got to know me. He was always friendly and chit chatted a bit, than a little while ago I was talking to someone else in line and they asked where I was from and when I told him the guy behind the counter kind of perked up and said I thought you were American (he's Lebanese - may have something to do with it) and ever since then he has been overly nice to me. He has given me discounts on my coffee so I didn't have to break a bills and stuff. His son is the one who owns the place, and his father just runs it and in the mornings his son is there before he goes to work, the first time he was there and I went in the first thing the guy said was you know she Canadian not American (he said this in English to, so obviously he wanted to me to hear it), and his son has been nicer since as well.

I don't hate Americans (especially now that I'm related to 1) but why do they have to keep re-enforcing the horrible stereotypical American. The reason this is coming up now is that the new term is about to start and a lot of Americans come to UCT for a term on exchange. I do not want to be associated in any which way with them, and I think I will start carrying a rather large Canadian flag with me. I ran to the mall yesterday and was on the shuttle coming back to school and there was the most stereotypical young American boys sitting in front of me. I was embarrassed for them, if they want to the idiots they are than fine, at least keep your voices down so the rest of the shuttle doesn't have to be subjected to the inane blatherings of young stupid Americans.

I always thought that at least the ones that travel are not so... stereotypical because obviously they have some inkling of the world around them because otherwise they never would have left. But sadly no. Out of the ones I meet here I have liked a grand total of 1, she was super sweet but she was living here doing her PhD so she was bit older and had done a lot of travelling before. To bad she's left, I really enjoyed her she was a very strong female and incredibly intelligent and great to argue with. But the same can't be said for all of the others, an 'acquaintance' of mine (through my old roommate's, friend's roommate- don't want to be associated to closely) was the worse I think so far. She was from Iowa but talked like a valley girl, and was so ignorant of South Africa and the world in general it astounded me that she was actually able to fly to SA with out the aid of parents or some type of qualified professional.

I do tend to meet a lot of Americans because as soon as they here my accent they jump on me. Because why would you want to interact with people from the 50 other nations sitting around you when you can talk to a fellow American. When I was on the shuttle with the 3 American boys someone had ask me the time, when I answered I was very quiet because I was only 2 seats back and I know they would have started peppering me with questions if they heard me - and I didn't not want to get involved in that. With this new influx of stupid Americans I have to be a bit more careful. Don't get me wrong in general (I think) I really don't a have a problem with Americans (just the government) and I would never judge anyone because of that, its just why are they soooooo stereotypical, when they leave does the government give them a list of things to say and do so that everyone within a half mile radius of them will know they are American, I just don't get it. Proud to be Canadian - and not having to be embarrassed by fellow countryman.

Watch where your stepping...

I broke my flip flop getting off the shuttle this morning :( but lucky I keep shoes in my office, so my only problem was to go from the shuttle to my office. The options I had at that moment were to do the one foot hop or just walk in my bare feet, I chose the bare feet of course. There is a few reasons for this (everything I do is a well thought out plan you see...), first off my hopping ability is fairly limited especially the for the distance I needed to travel, and secondly everyone walks around in their bare feet.

I really appreciated this when I first got here, as my hatred for shoes and socks has not been diminished. There was a few problems with this for me though, there can be lots of glass on the roads/ sidewalks around obz, a student area with lots of bars (no one will care if you walk around with bottles), and car windows get broken quite frequently. I have gone to the grocery store a few times without shoes but I spend the entire walk staring at the pavement looking for glass, so not really worth it. Additionally my feet are wimps. When I was young I could walk over gravel and pavement without a single utterance of owy, but now the few hundred meters to my office caused about 4 owies to come out. I do occasionally run to get a coffee without shoes just for the simple fact I don't want to put them on, and around the department I have no problem (my wimpy feet can handle tiled floors). I think I need to toughen up the ol' footies because this whole shoe thing really doesn't appeal to me, I don't have any real problems with flip flops as they protect me from the owies and don't make the feet feel claustrophobic but they have been know to break at unfortunate times.

There was this professor at DAL who always walked around with bare feet, I'm thinking he was probably a SAer, make sense now. A lot of people poked fun of him, I'm glad I didn't (but this had more to do with my aversion to shoes, than just being kind, so I kinda of got it) because I think that I may have the same issue upon my return - good lesson to be learned don't make fun because one day it could be you.

To Awkward to be Rich

I don't have a domestic worker, I do my own (and unfortunately my roommate's, a lot) cleaning. At times I'm very embarrassed of this, not the fact that I can't afford it or for the 'status' but because I probably could afford it and it means I'm not providing a job. A lot of people who are quite capable and willing to clean their own homes take on domestic workers just to provide a job for someone, its crap money but still its money and there are so many people who need whatever they can get.

This being said, I'm way to awkward to have someone clean for me. It just feels wrong. Take the cleaners here at school for example. She comes in (there's a few in the building but they have their regular floors) and empties the garbage everyday and about once a week will sweep and mop the floors of all the offices. Everytime she empties my garbage I always thank her, which she seemed a little surprised at at first. When she cleans the floors though I usually leave, first off its easier with me not around but I just feel so useless, there is absolutely no reason why I couldn't do it myself, it would take a few minutes once a week. I'm not to good to do my own cleaning. I almost feel like I should get her a gift or something but she's doing her job and I don't know if it would offend her or not.

At my old place they (we) did get a cleaner in occasionally, when it call for it or when everyone had a bit of extra money. But she was never there when I was, and she only came a few times during the period I lived there. My roommate has someone he calls when he needs to, but since I moved in the place has been clean enough not to have to, thankfully. If we needed to I would make my roommate deal with it, because at home you really can't leave the person alone (you can once you know them, I don't know how well my roommate knows his person). So what do you do, sit on the couch and watch them clean your place, and move occasionally to allow them to clean where you are. I'm sorry I don't think I could do that, its my mess if I can't clean it up myself I shouldn't make it.

If I ever get rich I couldn't become one of these lazy ass rich people who can't do anything for them selves except pick up a phone to get others to do those things that I deem to belittling or beneath me because simply I'm too awkward to just sit there and watch others do for me. Maybe this just means I'm a communist at heart, to bad that communism just doesn't work when put into practise, well at least on a large scale. Anybody know a nice commune that needs a geologist?

Rasta Away!

So the Rasta in a community just north of Cape Town are becoming their own little crime fighting consortium. There is a tik (crystal meth) problem in many areas in and around Cape Town, especially the poorer communities. As with any highly addictive drug tik usually causes more problems by the way of the user indulging in criminal activity to pay for the habit. So a group of rastafarin decided that the tik problem has become to bad and the cops aren't doing enough so the decided to do something.

First step they blockaded the known tik dealers homes and everytime a customer would come up they told them that the dealer was out of business and they should really stop doing drugs. The blockades lasted for a few days and now the rastas are working with the police (just take a second to appreciate that......) to help them locate the dealers and shut them down. I just love the idea of a strung out junkie coming back from scoring money somehow and trying to score from their dealer when a large group of rastafarins tells them that the dealer is shut down and to get off of drugs... i would have loved to see the look on the junkies face when the rasta guys are telling them to get off the drugs now that's priceless.

I have to say my impression of many of the local rasta dudes is very good, they always seem very involved in the communities and in general just nice people, and always great for a random conversation. Well not always great some you can catch at a and time and the conversations are not quite what I would call stimulating, at that point you just stay out of the way of the munchies and all's good.

Meat flavoured meat

Recently I've been lacking on the time front, as well as the imaginative and creative front as well. Therefore leading to a slight decline in the amount and quality of cede posts. Enjoy...

In general, South Africa is not the easiest place to be a vegetarian. I'm sure there's worse and in the last 5 years here I guess it has gotten a lot better but still. Thankfully I'm in Cape Town where the selection of non-meat foods is pretty good but I'm still surprised almost on a daily basis with what a meat culture it is.

Biltong, some form of dried beef, much like beef jerky but it doesn't quite resemble meat as much, you find it hanging in all the grocery stores, biltong booths set up and even the stalls on the side of the road. You have several flavours of biltong such as Peri Peri, biltong flavour biltong, chicken flavour biltong and so on. You don't just find meat flavoured biltong you also find meat flavoured with biltong and other meat flavouring. One of my favorites that I have seen (wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole even if I did eat meat) is biltong flavoured braai (bbq) sauce, that's right your pound of steak wouldn't be the same with that extra meat flavouring. Anything you want you can get in a meat flavour, such as crisps, we have these in Canada but not to the same extent, it is actually easier to find meat flavoured crisps/ crackers than non-meat flavoured. Any Afrikaner that finds out I'm a vegetarian always asks 'or so you only eat chicken and fish'. They tend to be very astonished when I tell them no, and than there is usually some stammering involved and the inevitable questions 'but but wait, what do you eat, why?'

A few more questions I get a on regular basis... 'where are you from', when I response, 'do you speak french', 'are you from Vancouver or Montreal' (take that Toronto... see not everybody thinks your the center of Canada- most don't even know about you - ha). On finding out I'm Nova Scotian, 'that's really north isn't it', 'wow it's really cold there right'.

With a side of extinction

I have been having some difficulties publishing my posts, sorry to all those eager beavers who wake up every morning just to read what I have to say.... :).

I was reading today that conservation groups have gotten the rebels in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) to agree to stop killing gorillas. These particular gorillas are of the silver back variety (as seen in Congo the movie) and are extremely rare, something like 700 left in the world with over 300 of them in this particular forest in Eastern DRC. What brought this about is that the rebels have killed 2 gorillas and than ate them. At least they ate them, they didn't go to waste but its sad because these 2 were apart of a habituated group, meaning they were comfortable with humans and would allow them to come very close therefore making killing them much easier.

I am very impressed that such a deal was made, these are very vulnerable animals that are most likely going to be extinct within my life time. But something just seems off about this whole thing. The conservation group were able to sit down with the rebels (living in and around the mountains) and relay the importance of these animals and how important they are and they rebels agreed no more gorilla for supper?

First off, these people are poor, starving rebels living in the mountains, I'm really sure that when they see a gorilla and are starving to death this agreement will hold up. But this also brings up a very important moral issue as well though... gorillas or humans. As you all know I don't think it is necessary to eat animals for survival, and in a perfect world (or a first world country) it isn't, but when it comes to somewhere like the DRC... I'm not so naive and I do realize that its not that simple. I can't say how many people a gorilla would fed, I'm sure quite a lot they are big animals, but there is only 300 or so left in those mountains so really how long can a large group of rebels really survive on that. If they do continue to eat the gorillas they will inevitably become extinct, but the people will survive, but for how long - especially if the gorillas are gone, therefore not only killing off all the gorillas but the rebels too. So does that mean you stop the rebels from poaching the animals because the rebels are going to die off anyway once the gorillas are gone? Moral question of the day. I did make that argument slightly sensationalized they do have food obviously because otherwise they wouldn't have agreed to stop killing the gorillas, and there is other food sources in the mountains, but it does still make an interesting argument.

That was my firstly my secondly is the fact that these rebels seem so easy to deal with and open for compromise. Where were this negotiators/ big hearted rebels during the years of war, the DRC just held its first democratic election in something like 40 years. It just seems wrong that the lives of the gorillas can be saved with good ol' talking but it took years of war and countless deaths of people to bring some resemblance of peace to the DRC? WTF!!! Did no one try this approach before? Come on people learn to live with one another, your at least trying to make it work with the gorillas, humans can be that much harder - well... I'll wait and see who it works out with the gorillas first.

Side Note: It got up to 37 degrees and I'm on the top floor of an un-air conditioned building...pity me

Independence Wanted

In general I have to stay I think of myself as a pretty independent person, but lately I have to rely on several other people to get things done and their beginning to piss me off. I have previously mentioned I tend to have difficulties finding people which hasn't gotten any better - just wait and see...

It's registering time again, which means a hell of a lot of work. I'm really missing the simplicity and efficiency of Dal (never thought I would say that). I wonder if it was this bad for international student there, because I can not imagine. I'm filling out paper work to have my international fees waived (a lot of money so worth the work, I think), but this means I fill out 1 form, get a letter from my supervisor, get the first form signed by three different people (in 3 buildings spanning 2 campuses) before it finally goes to the head of the science faculty for finally approval. I do understand that there needs to be safe guards and such but seriously this seems slightly extreme. This is all before I even beginning the registering process. I went to find signature #1 today and guess what, I couldn't find him - which doesn't bode well for the other 2 I have to find because at least this guy is in the same building as me. So tomorrow watch out because I'm not leaving without all 3 signatures- well that's the plan anyway.

My main problem with other people right now though is the Namibians. Not with all Namibians just the department of marine whatever. I'm working with them, mainly for sample collection as apart of my thesis. Originally I was supposed to go out on a cruise in December, which got postponed to the beginning of January because of a contract change with the crew of the ship. The January cruise got cancelled, or postponed to the beginning of February. This cruise, the one at the beginning of February has been on and off 4 freaking times!! Yesterday I was sent a invite letter, which I need to get my visa to get into the country (I was half considering skipping the visa and sneaking in but I figured my corer and cooler might scream non-vacation trip). Today I booked my ticket sent off everything for my visa and book my hotel rooms, was quite proud of myself, got everything done and felt much more relaxed. That relaxed state only lasted about an hour when I got an email saying there's a good possibility that the cruise will be cancelled yet again - it supposed to leave in 8 days WTF!!!! So now I'm trying to stop the purchase of my flight, there is no refund, my visa application has already been sent (which is not cheap). At least none of this is out of my pocket but out of my research funds so its actually not much better. If I could just get my samples myself I would have had them back in December and wouldn't have to worry about any of this crap.

Its nice to ask for help and collaborate on projects but I'm getting really tired of this and just want to do my work. Is this really to much to ask. I just want my independence back, or people that are easy to find and a boat that goes out when its suppose to.