CAPE TOWN: The Anti-Bucket List but AMANDA BLAIR SUSSMAN

As many of you are aware I wanted to skydive AND shark dive in Cape Town. Mom and Dad- I respected your wishes and DID NOT skydive in Cape Town though it could have easily been made a reality. Just know that a lot of my friends did not understand why I wouldn’t just skydive and then tell you both but I resisted peer pressure and did not jump. I wish the peer pressure was more effective. In regards to shark diving (cage diving in the ocean with great white sharks) I was scheduled to go on Sunday, my last day in Cape Town. Unfortunately all of the diving trips were called off that day because the weather was not shark diving weather. Bottom line, Cape Town the land of the supposed to be bucket list has now turned into the anti-bucket list and I have big plans for my 22^nd birthday. Skydive Ann Arbor! Dad- you’re invited.

Right after I got back from the safari I quickly packed and made my way to Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town where Amanda Blair Sussman is living. Luckily a couple of my friends on the ship were staying with their Boulder friend in Cape Town who happens to be close with Amanda so all of us taxied there together. Seeing Amanda for the first time abroad, in a non-Michigan, non-NELP setting was amazing. It was so great to see her Cape Town life, the town she lives in, the restaurants she eats at, and the places she goes. This was my first experience of actually seeing a friend abroad who had immersed herself in the culture and country as opposed to our sweet life of traveling. Mands- you really have a good deal going on in Cape Town and if I wasn’t on Semester at Sea I’d be a little jealous…

Amanda’s house was awesome and homey. There were nine students living in it, three stories tall, nine rooms, two bathrooms, and a general common room and kitchen. All of the kids were really friendly and welcoming. After settling in for a couple minutes we got ready to go out for the night. As if everyone doesn’t already know this but it really is a small world. Amanda is close friends in Cape Town with Annabelle and Justine among others. Annabelle (who also goes to Michigan) and Justine both went to Beverly with me. Seeing them all together was literally a combination of both of my worlds- home and college. It was a little strange but at the same time makes complete sense. Annabelle, Justine, and Gabby all came over before we went out and it was great seeing familiar faces.

Long Street is the Lan Kwai Fong of Cape Town mixed with a little NOLA. The street consists of about three or four blocks packed with a large variety of restaurants and bars. Needless to say this is where every Semester at Sea student spent the majority of their nights in Cape Town. I went to Dubliner’s for the first time followed by a couple other bars. Honestly it was just great being with Amanda and being out with her. A little taste of Michigan for ya. At about 12:30, exhausted from the previous two Safari-filled days I told Amanda it was time to leave the festivities. On the way back to Rondebosch I left my mark on Cape Town. I hope that last sentence was ambiguous to everyone but Sussman.

The next day Amanda and I went to Table Mountain to go abseiling also known as repelling for all you Americans (which are all of you). We were in Cape Town over Easter- this means that like Disneyland on Christmas, places were crowded and lines were long. After being told to go in the line that did not already purchase online tickets, Amanda being the savvy individual she is, bought us cable car tickets online from her blackberry allowing us to cut the line. Unfortunately we missed about ten cable cars going up the mountain for various reasons or more accurately one specific reason due to yours truly. After struggling to make it into the cable car, we FINALLY made it to the top of Table Mountain which is a huge accomplishment in itself. It was a gorgeous day and the range of visibility was insane. NOTE: just take a look at the main picture for this blog post.

Time for the abseiling story. I have been repelling many times in the past and since I love rock climbing and anything related to it I was really excited to abseil off Table Mountain. The guys harnessed us up and explained the process of how we would descend. Sussman after realizing that we would be controlling our own descent, to be put nicely, FREAKED OUT. I have never seen her so scared in my life- and this fear was coming from a girl who has been bungee jumping twice. After we began to repel off the side, the guys running the show yelled down to us “enjoy the surprise!” Amanda had been semi-calm for the past two minutes but after hearing this, the freak out ensued. Unfortunately she had no choice but to go down. I was going quicker than her and got to the “surprise” first. The surprise- a complete drop off from the mountain, as in there was nowhere for our feet to go and we were legit hanging mid-air. Me, being the great friend I am, yelled back up to Amanda, “Sussman, you’re not going to like this surprise at all.” I enjoyed the harnessed free fall and took advantage of my new found swinging abilities. Poor, poor Sussy- she did not like the surprise. Anyway we both made it to the bottom and were safely on the ground. The guys above told us we would have a 20 minute stroll back to the summit. That was possibly the biggest lie I heard in my life. Amanda and I literally HIKED UP Table Mountain and it took much longer than 20 minutes.

After our abseiling experience we went back to Rondebosch for a quick lunch. Oh the wonders of technology. I had an interview with the psychology department at Michigan and was able to perform the interview via g-chat (skype for some reason wasn’t working). My interview went wonderfully and I am now officially a Psych Peer Advisor for next fall. Woooooo. Amanda and I proceeded to watch Friends in her bed, and honestly we could have been anywhere in the world.

That night for dinner we returned to Long Street to eat at Mama Africa’s. Amanda met a lot of my SAS friends but more noteworthy than that was the food that was consumed. At this restaurant I tried the following: ostrich, crocodile, kudu, and springbok. Believe what you want (though you really should believe me because I did try all these things). Jackie- when you go on Semester at Sea you have to go to this restaurant. My Michigan/SAS/Beverly worlds collided for a bit longer that night. All of us went to The Waiting Room, a bar that the local Cape Town abroad kids attend regularly. Sussman and I both decided to go back early because there was an off chance that we would be waking up early to go to a township to spend the remainder of the day on a yacht.

The yacht was an off chance (actually it turned out to be a reality for Mands later) and being realistic, we both slept in. That morning Amanda took me to Old Biscuit Mill a type of famer’s market that occurs every Saturday. On the way we took a Mini-Bus to the market. A mini bus consisted of a big van that would pick people off the street and drop them off at desired locations- in a sense it was a public taxi. In my mind it was kind of like a party bus because music was literally blasting and the car was filled with random people. Note: Semester at Sea tells us specifically not to ride in the mini buses because they are not completely safe. However since Suss lives in Cape Town and is familiar with the system, I was all for it. Old Biscuit Mill had a huge food section with lots of different foods, cheeses, sauces, etc. and a completely separate large shopping area. Old Biscuit Mill is where up and coming Cape Town designers sell their clothes and jewelry. The whole scene was really cool and really made me aware of how fashionable young Cape Towners are. These kids were really trendy and well put together- Sussman obviously fit in perfectly. For some reason the fashionableness of Cape Town kind of took me by surprise.

After Old Biscuit Mill we made our way back to downtown Cape Town for a Township Tour. Amanda being the wonderful friend she is booked and accompanied me on a township tour even though she volunteers in a township twice every week. Before the tour departed we made a quick stop at the Long Street Market which was more souvenir-y and what I was used to. I successfully purchased my South African flag along with three very cool paintings- happy birthday Sami and Jackie. The Township tour took us to two different townships- Langa and Khayelitsha (the township Amanda volunteers in). We toured the Black areas and the Colored areas and were able to enter certain hostels that were built prior to and after Mandela’s presidency. I tried local township beer (it kind of tasted like a hot dog in beer form) and visited a successful bed and breakfast whose profits are donated to children in the township. After seeing extreme poverty in almost all the ports, the townships hit me as less of a surprise. In a sense I was expecting what I saw. Despite that expectancy it was still a slap in the face reality check when I actually processed everything. My room in my house was often times bigger than a single family shack. The townships kind of resembled giant jungle gyms were hundreds of little children ran around in packs, independent of any adult supervision. Other observations included HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns all over as well as condom use promotions. I understand that it takes a very long time to reverse the effects of apartheid but it’s been 16 years. For a majority of South Africans to be living in this situation is horrible and change is long overdue.

After the township I packed up my clothes and Amanda accompanied me back to the MV Explorer- I wish she was allowed on the ship but unfortunately the ship has strict rules about not letting “others” on the ship. I said goodbye to Amanda and made my way back to my room to get ready to go out with other SASers for my last night in Cape Town. A bunch of us went to Fork, a tapas restaurant for dinner. It was amazing and I had the best tapas beef eggs-Benedict ravioli thing ever. After our prolonged dinner we walked back up Long Street for our last night in Cape Town. I left the night a tad prematurely because I thought I would be waking up two hours later to go shark diving. Unfortunately I did wake up at 4 AM only to find out that shark diving was not actually happening.

The last day in Cape Town consisted of hanging around by the waterfront- a really awesome place where the ship was docked. Since it was Easter Sunday some of the restaurants and stores were closed but overall the majority of things were still open. Ivy, Jill, Luke, Ricky, and I had a really nice breakfast on the water and proceeded to walk around the waterfront. I was in soccer heaven in the world cup store and proceeded to purchase the COOLEST South African Havaianas ever in addition to a couple legit 2010 World Cup shirts. Happy Birthday Daddy. Luke, Ivy, and I then went to the aquarium (we weren’t able to make it to the Cape of Good Hope and Boulder Beach where the penguins live because the cost was double to taxi us down there because of Easter). The aquarium actually turned out to be pretty cool and I did end up seeing my penguins. After the aquarium we got a quick bite in the mall area and walked around a bit more. I headed back to the ship for on-deck time and proceeded to sleep for the next four hours.

Cape Town is one of the coolest places ever and I had an amazing time. Amanda- once again thanks for everything, I hope you know how much fun I had with you and how much I love you. I feel like I really got a good overall feeling for Cape Town and was able to do a lot. I highly recommend everyone to visit Cape Town and possibly turn my Anti-Bucket list into a legit Bucket list destination. By the way, everyone should download Shosholoza- best song ever.

A couple side notes: the weather was VERY windy on Sunday, the day we were supposed to leave and as a result we were docked for a whole extra day because it was too windy for us to safely leave the channel. It was possibly the biggest tease in the world to have to sit through a day of class when you are able to look out the window and see Table Mountain. What a sick joke. Sorry for my delayed blog update- I actually had a legit paper and presentation I had to work on. Apart from literally spending the past week working on this paper/presentation, IM soccer (3 v 3) started on the ship and my team is in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Our team is called the Big Ten because I go to Michigan, Sam goes to Wisconsin, and Lucas goes to Penn State- I thought it was creative.

The past 3 months have gone by SO quickly and I can’t believe we are already at Ghana. I hate to say this but we’re coming home. Ghana on Sunday, crossing the Atlantic, Brazil and the Amazon, and Fort Laudy. The last noteworthy thing that has gone on in my life: YESTERDAY I REGISTERED FOR MY LAST SEMESTER IN COLLEGE (actually Joanna registered for me because I didn’t want to risk it with the unstable internet). Could that be any sadder or scarier? Fact: it’s all downhill after May 5^th.