WHAT A TRIP

Today, unfortunately, we left our beautiful paradise. We woke up at 10:00 a.m. and arrived at the airport at 11:30. Our first flight was at 1:50. We slept most of the time and I woke up to Carson drooling on me. GROSS. When we arrived in Washington DC (our third flight), Catherine was still asleep when we landed and we left her on the plane! Luckily, I forgot one of my bags so I ran back on the plane and found her there. Pure luck. Our final flight was to RDU, and we arrived half asleep, really itchy, and barely able to walk. WHAT A TRIP!!!

Posted by: Tanner

Sunrise and the Library

This is our very last day in the country of South Africa. I woke up the group at 5:00am, which was difficult. It turned out alright though when I led them to the coast and we watched the brilliant sunrise. There's a thing in South Africa that happens right before the sun rises, where the sky will flash a bright green. (Pirates of the Caribbean anyone?) This occurs when a part of the sun reflects different color rays.

We sat on the beach and drowsily leaned on each other. Tracing in the sand with our feet, we talked about the best parts of the trip. Unanimously, we decided it was Tanner's sleeping arrangements. We also agreed we were glad we took this trip together, and we had grown to be great friends. I guess you can't really share a tiny room in a foreign country with four other people for two weeks and not feel close. We made our way back to the hotel, crashed, and played cards for the rest of the day.

Around 7:00pm, with our things packed and ready to go, we took a walk out into Cape Town to grab a bite to eat. There we found Cape Town Central Library, which we explored! I really liked the section of African poetry.

"At the end of the dream you will wake up
And count your countless blessings
Like sunshine and braaivleis (if you could afford meat)
But they don't make Chevrolets anymore
And you are content with a bike anyway." 

 --South African poet Peter Horn from "Prophets of Doom and Prophets of Paradise"

We learned that braaivleis was a type of meat cooked over an open fire at a braai, sort of like a South African barbecue. This is usually done on Sundays with friends and family. The main dish is meat, and it is served with potato salad and pudding for dessert. Peter Horn was a South African poet born in 1934. He mainly wrote anti-Apartheid peices. It was interesting to read his poetry and compare it to one of our all time favorite American poets, Robert Frost.

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Posted by: Catherine

Chillin' at Caledon

For the rest of the day, we decided to relax. We went to the Caledon Spa &amp Casino in the Western Cape. We arrived mid-afternoon and hit the spa; we were tired from chasing birds. We started off with some VIP massages and then roasted in the famous hot springs for a while. Ohhhhh the bubbly goodness! They say it's good for your skin, health, and beauty.  Apparently they're all over South Africa, formed from faults in the tectonic plates. It was very relaxing. The girls got facials and cucumbers on their eyes. Afterward, we did that cool thing where they put hot rocks on your back. It felt great to me, but Tanner couldn't take the heat. He's just lying around now with ice packs mumbling about "those stupid stones."  What a great day!

Posted by: Philip

Blue Cranes

Watch out yonder Blue Cranes of the Overberg agricultural region just East of Capetown! The Dream Team is going forth to promote the Overberg Bird Conservation founded in 1991! Prepare to be watched like never before, oh beautiful national bird of South Africa! The 25,000 delicate Blue Cranes residing in the Overberg's agricultural fields are now classified as vulnerable. We are on a Crane hunt by foot through long, narrow streets and flat parks by the coast. With cameras out, we are running over hills trying to catch glimpses of the Cranes. Carson's got a map of the area and is our Crane seeking captain. Tanner's method is to act like a crane and he keeps making this strange honking noise. It's so much fun! I've plopped down on a bench to try to capture our adventure, but they're leaving me behind!
 

Posted by: Catherine

Comedians, Jugglers, and Sandwiches

Today at 10:00am we went to see a comedian named David Newton. I thought he was hysterical, but of course Philip being the "Negative Nancy" didn't like him and kept mumbling about not getting enough sleep. I don't know what his problem is. The show lasted an hour and was great. We were all laughing so hard and I'm pretty sure Forrest wet his pants. Oh, Forrest.

After that wacky comedian, we decided to poke around some of the unscheduled shows: all of the amazing street performers. To me, this part of the festival was by far the coolest. There were jugglers, dancers, magicians, comedians (that weren't lame), and skits of all sorts. I really liked this juggler named Mr. Zak. He showed me over 20 ways to juggle 3 balls: cascade, columns, snake, box, robot, carry, and more.  Later, we ran into a magician who made Carson's hair red.  Whoa.

The evening ended perfectly with dinner at a pleasant little diner right outside of the festival. We sat outside watching the lights and hearing the voices of the festival as we munched on our sandwiches--a great end to the day.

Published by: Tanner and Philip

Zoo Story

This morning I got to pick a play for us to see! I chose Zoo Story, an American show written by Edward Albee in 1958. It's a one act with two characters that takes place on a park bench in New York City. Zoo Story has off the wall stories, psychological dialogue, and a violent ending. It deals with issues like human isolation, loneliness, class differences, and violence. It was actually really absurd- like a zoo.

Here's a quick synopsis of the play:

Peter is reading a book on a park bench in Central Park. He is well off, married with children, works at a textbook publishing house, and has two cats as well as two parakeets. Enter Jerry, a dark, strange, low class man. Jerry confronts Peter, starts to ask questions, and tells him stories. Peter is at first bothered, but later he is mesmerized, and Jerry's vivid stories pull Peter into Jerry's world. Jerry makes a point to tell personal details about his life, including the death of his parents and when he was homosexual for a week. Near the end of the sow , after a lot of quick dialogue, Peter has to defend himself with a knife when physically attacked by Jerry. Ultimately, Jerry's plans to end his own life become evident, and Peter is left at his favorite bench in the park.

We all loved this play so much, and it really blew our minds open. After the show, we went to go get some lunch. This was a nice morning. 

Posted by: Catherine

The National Arts Festival

Today the Dream Team embarked on a trip to the National Arts Festival! It's one of the largest art festivals in the WORLD, with two weeks of nonstop theater, dance, operas, jazz shows, music, visual art exhibitions, lectures, poetry readings, musical theater, street shows, and pretty much anything else you can think of that expresses creativity. We all couldn't wait for our two day extravaganza!

The festival is held in Grahamstown, a picturesque 19th century style village. I loved the cottages, stone walls, stain glass, and Gothic style churches. It took us 10 hours to get there by car; the drive was sort of a sight seeing road trip across South Africa. For some pictures of the way there, check out our visual diary. We left at 9am and got to Grahamstown around 7pm to drop off our luggage at Whethu Backpackers, a small hostel close to downtown. Guess what? It had five beds!! Five!

At 9pm with the sun down, we walked through the crowded, tinkering streets and headed over to DSG Hall to see Intergalactic Rhythm Exchange play some jazz. When we got there, we grabbed our seats and settled in to hear some good music. The group was comprised of Norwegian percussionist Ottar Nesje, Dutch flute player Ronald Snijders, Cape Town pianist Hilton Schilder, Johannesburg trumpeter Prince Lengoasa, and Cape Town jazz professor Mike Campbell.

What they played was a form of Afro-Caribbean jazz that Snijders titled Kawinajazz. The music was a little weird at first, but we soon all started to really like it. It was cool to hear each member's musical background and heritage come out in their playing and in the entire group's sound. I'm sure glad we had the opportunity to come to this concert and hear these musicians.

We spent the rest of the night walking through the streets of the festival, looking at handmade crafts, marveling at eloquent paintings, laughing with street musicians, and talking with the vendors. There were so many different kinds of people in one place! We had such a great time celebrating and being a part of the art and culture of South Africa.

Posted by: Catherine and Forrest