Saturday, July 18, 2009

Paddle, bitches!

Yesterday was an interesting day. I didn’t have classes (don’t hate) so I slept in until around 11. Jamie and I had already decided that we would be going to Muizenberg for the day to learn how to surf. So I got myself ready, made pancakes for myself and the girls, and went to the ATM so that I’d have cash for the day. There was however lots of confusion because our program director was supposed to be stopping by the house to give the girls who had just arrived the night before phones, chargers, etc. In addition, some more girls were supposed to be arriving as well. It worked out fine though the girls couldn’t leave the house really until they got their stuff so Jamie, Adam, Andrew and I ended up going to the train station by ourselves because everyone (i.e. the new girls and Joe) had to stay home for whatever reason.

Now this was my first experience on the train, so of course there was difficulties. First off, we miss our first train and not because we were late or anything but because we bought first class tickets and first class is the back and we for whatever reason sat waiting for the train in the front. So when the train rolled in we had to run all the way to the back which of course didn’t work. After missing the first train, we discovered that the next train wasn’t for another 40 minutes so we wondered around the city and found this cheap place that sold fish and chips (aka French fries). Jamie and I got calamari and chips for 25 rand which is a little over 3 American dollars and this wasn’t cheap really crappy fish that you could get sick from (at least I haven’t gotten sick yet), it was really good, fresh fish that cost almost nothing something I have never been able to find in the states especially living most of my life landlocked. The food took a little longer than expected but we got it and were able to make the next train in time.

The train ride was beautiful: mountains and water are either side of us. South Africa has got to be one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been. I like to know where I am so every time we’d stop, I’d look out the window and look for the sign that told us where we were. Most of the time it would just fun trying to say that name of place like Steurberg or Valbai because most of the names are Afrikaans and no, I haven’t picked up on any of that yet. Most of the people I encounter speak Xhosa, which I want to learn but I’m not sure how to go about that.

Moving on, we got to Muizenberg and are immediately greeted by the ocean waves and lots of surfers on the beach. We set about finding surfing lessons which wasn’t hard at all. It took us about ten seconds to find the place we were looking for, but first we had to find the best price. The first place we stopped at charged us 170 rand for an hour and half lesson which another place was 220 rand. Needless to say we went with the first place. Our instructor was awesome. His name was Clint and he was hilarious. He is in fact the one that I named this post after because at one point he definitely told us to “paddle bitches.” Since Adam didn’t want to surf, he was our photographer for the day and he got some great shots (thank you Adam).

Surfing was really fun, but I’m not sure if I have enough coordination to do it. Clint seemed to think that my excitement about surfing in general kept me from standing up for very long. Don’t get me wrong, I did stand up several times but never for very long. He also said that I have a tendency to rush things which I know is true. I get so excited about the thought about standing on top of a wave that I barely take enough time to go through all the necessary steps to get there. But it was a blast. I love being in the ocean so much. It is one of my favourite things in this life. The water was pretty cold but we got wetsuits so it felt pretty good after you got moving in the water. I kept on drifting and struggling to stay deep in the water. The lesson was an hour and half long and it seemed like forever. Surfing takes a lot of energy. I ended up getting out early, which is very unusual for me in water, because I was so exhausted from the whole ordeal.

After we got out, Adam took more pictures and we rinsed off and walked around the beach some before our train came. Oh and we stopped at this restaurant called Knead. I had a chocolate chip muffin (I felt I deserved it) and some tea since I was freezing and the sun was starting to go down. It sucks because since its winter here, the sun goes down super early. Like today we went outside to take pictures and the sun had pretty set by 6:30.

After we got back to Mowbray (that’s where we live), I took a shower and then it was pretty much time for dinner. Arcadia sponsored this really nice dinner at this small restaurant where we were the only ones there and they cooked our meals to order. It was delicious. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that the dessert is called malva. It’s a great pudding unique to South Africa. It was like heaven. I’m going to try to find the recipe so I can make it myself. It was way too good.

After dinner, I pretty much went home, watched Scrubs and talked to Loren. I was exhausted after surfing and wanted to get some good sleep in for the long orientation that I just got back from this evening. Unfortunately my roommates had other plans. They came home pretty early like around midnight but didn’t go to bed rather they stayed out on the porch not exactly mimicking a church mouse. I felt bad but finally around 2:30am, I asked nicely if they could move somewhere else so I could sleep. They were really nice about it and there were no problems. I just hope that it doesn’t become a habit because that would not fly well especially once school starts. But I do understand. Most of them just got here and are totally excited to be in a country where the drinking age is 18. Hopefully it won’t turn into a problem. I have more to write about but that involves today so I’ll end here. I might write more later tonight. Night all

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