Addo Elephant Park-Video Blog

While Grandpa Gary and Grandma Connie were here, we made a trip to Addo Elephant Park, a national park about an hour outside of Port Elizabeth. We were pleasantly surprised that is was National Parks Week, so our admission into Addo was free. The original elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only 11 elephants remained in the park area. Today, the sanctuary is home to 450+ elephants, cape buffalo, black rhino, a variety of antelope species, as well as the unique flightless dung beetle and a variety of other animals. The 2 videos below are from Addo Elephant Park. Port Elizabeth is known as The Windy City and my camera really picks up the wind, so your volume on your computer may need to be turned down while viewing the video footage. Enjoy!

A day in the life of me

Picture on bottom: Grandpa Gary and Grandma Connie at the Addo Elephant Park watering hole. (*2 elephants at the watering hole between them in the picture.)

Picture on top: Grandpa Gary, myself and Grandma Connie posing in front of the Port Elizabeth World Cup Stadium.

Now that Grandpa Gary and Grandma Connie have left back to the States, I will have to push myself a bit more to come up with blog topics and to keep up on the blog. Having them here kept me really busy, showing them the sites and travelling around. We had full days planned everyday, which always left me with plenty to write about at the end of each day. We had a really great time, and I am glad to have been able to be a part of their first African journey here in South Africa.

So now that Grandpa and Grandma have departed S.A. and I am back to work at my internship, I decided to take my blog topic ponderings out of my head to seek feedback from my Facebook friends about what I should be writing about in regards to my experiences here in South Africa. I have decided to take on the challenge of writing a blog about each suggestion made. The idea for this particular blog about what a day in my life in South Africa looks like, came from my aunt Lori (loyal supporter of my blog), as well as my friend Ashley, who I consider to be a blog diva! Ashley has close to 700 blog followers and is generating income from her blog. She might not know it, but I have adopted her as my blog coach. Thanks for the inspiration Ashley! To read Ashley's blog, Confessions as a First Time Mom, go to: http://myconfessionsasafirsttimemom.blogspot.com/


So, a day in the life of Lexi in South Africa:





Well, it depends on if it is a weekday or weekend. I'll start with weekday. I work at my internship Monday through Thursday, some weeks I also work Fridays, if there are special events or a heavy workload.


I wake up in my flat, which I affectionately call my hut, in Annie's Cove. Annie's Cove is pictured in the picture below:






I am awoken by my faithful South African Nokia cell phone alarm. My Brookstone travelling alarm clock sleep sound machine ran out of battery juice and because we prepay for electricity, I too cheap to plug the alarm clock in. My workday starts at 8 a.m., so I should be up and at it by 6:30/7ish, although I seem to be notorious for pushing it until as late as 7:30. If I can be out the door by 7:30 a.m., I can walk to work, but if I leave much later than that I need to catch a minibus taxi to work. Minibus taxis will have their own blog, because I have plenty to say about those! The pictures below are of minibuses at the minibus lot halfway between Annie's Cove and campus.

After getting ready, making breakfast for work and packing my lunch, I head to work. If I walk, it is about a 20 minute walk. A straight shot down one road, take a right, and a straight shot down that road and I am pretty much there! The picture below are of the final stretch of my walk leading on to campus to Embizweni, the big tall building where I work.




























Once I am at work, my workday can look a variety of ways. When I get to my office, I check my email, eat my breakfast and make my coffee. Water for coffee, which is instant coffee-VERY common in S. Africa-is boiled in the "tea kettle", an electric water boiler. I am very used to instant coffe, and enjoy my daily cup of joe, but will still enly getting back to the States to some strong brew! A workday can be any given combination of facilitating workshop, attending meetings/supervision, covering reception and developing events/documents.


Tea time (10:15 a.m.) is customary in South Africa, although I tend to work through tea time and drink tea whenever I feel like it. Lunch time is at 1 p.m. and lasts 45 minutes. I pack my lunch and eat in the main meeting room with my co-workers who are also on a lunch break at that time. Depending on the day, lunch may not always happen right at 1 p.m.

The afternoon, from 2ish until the end of my workday at 4:30 p.m. can be any given combination of the various tasks and activities that my internship encompasses. Once I get off work, I either walk home, or take a minibus, depending on the weather, as well as how tired I am and how quickly I want to get home from work. Once I get home from work, I make my rounds through Annie's to say hello to the ladies. On any given day I see Ethelyn, Aleschia, Neelu and Alexandra. After hanging out, catching up and unwinding, I head over to my flat to make my supper, which can be eaten either in my room, or with one of the ladies. After supper, I either hang out and catch up some more, or watch a few episodes of any given television series that I have downloaded on my laptop.


At any given time between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. I lay down in bed to unwind, which could be anything from Facebooking to surfing the web to blogging.


Randomly, at any given point, random things can come up that would then be inserted into the above schedule. If I need groceries, I get my duffle bag, round someone up and we make the 20 minute walk to the grocery store, Spar. I don't mind the walk to and from Spar, but I do have to be careful to not buy more than what will fit in my duffel bag. If we are getting close on running out of energy, I round up the money from my roomates and go to the petrol station (gas station) to buy energy. To get energy, I need to bring the serial number for the energy box that is on the outside wall of my flat. When I get home with the energy voucher, I enter a pin number into the energy box. The pictures below are of the energy box. Take note of the bird's nest in the right corner of the box. We had hatchlings to welcome in spring for us!

Robben Island

The picture above is of a community cell room on Robben Island. This is a close up picture of the end of the room. This room held 30-52 prisoners. The prisoners initially only had 2 straw-like material mats to sleep on. They eventually got the beds shown in the picture. Windows also were not initially on the windows, leaving the prisoners exposed to the elements of hot summers, rain and cold winters.

Saturday 10/3/10

Glad I could make Robben Island the title of this blog, because Robben Island almost did not happen for us today. (Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were kept.) We booked it for today, first thing, when we got here a week ago. There was space on Monday, otherwise the next available time was today. Because Monday was our first day here, I decided we should wait to go to Robben Island, in case trading in the car and acclimating to the city took longer than expected on Monday. When I booked the reservation for today, I was a bit nervous that it was scheduled so closely to our departures. I figured what can go wrong though?? I couldn't really come up with anything, and figured as long as we made it to our reservation we would be set.

Well, when we left our B&B this morning, Peter-B&B owner, informed us that the newpapers were reporting that the Robben Island Ferry was broke down and people were unable to go. We left, figuring we needed to go there and check out the situation. When we got to the Robben Island ferry station, there were signs on the doors saying that tours had been cancelled for the day due to problems with the ferry. As soon as I read that, my heart sunk, knowing that this was something Grandpa and Grandma really wanted to see. The sign said refunds could be given, or trips could be rescheduled at the next available date, which I pretty much figured would not be before Grandpa and Grandma leave on Monday. I told Grandma to go over and watch the Robben Island video that was playing because it may be all she would see of Robben Island. The ticket agent took our information and got to work on the computer. Next thing you know, she handed us 3 tickets, and said we were set!!!! Yay! Thankfully, an independent boat had been hired to take people out to Robben Island.

Not wanting to risk any chance that something may come up, we got in line for the tour immediately, which was an hour and a half before departure. It was along time to stand in line, but we did not want to chance not being able to go. Grandma said this was the first time she was first in line for something.

The ride out to Robben Island was a beautiful ride. The ferry usually only takes 15 minutes, but this boat took an hour, which was fine by me, because I enjoyed the view from the top deck of the boat, as well as the sun on my face. Once we were on Robben Island, we started the tour in a bus with a tour guide. The bus took us around the island to see the different aspects, including the Lepers graveyard and the lime quarries where the prisoners were forced to work. The Lepers graveyard is the burial place of people who were sent to Robben Island to live in the early 1900's because they had leprocy, and at the time there was no cure.

After the bus tour, we took a tour of the prison facilities. The tour was led by a guide who was a former prisioner at Robben Island. He had served 5 years at Robben Island because he had fought against his university back during apartheid times, because students were expected to learn in Afrikaans, which was not his language.

The tour was very informative, and being on Robben Island helped paint a more clear mental picture of who Nelson Mandela had to be, what he fought for, and some of what apartheid was like for South Africa and the people who fought for equal rights.

Table Mountain and Wine Country

Today was a day of great scenery and some relaxation too!



We started out at Table Mountain, a Capetown staple. Table Mountain is best known (and named for) being VERY flat across the top, like a table top. When the clouds set in over the top of the mountain, it is referred to as the tablecloth. Table Mountain is 3,564 ft high above sea level. Table Mountain is flanked on one side by Devil's Peak, and Lion's Head to the other side. Grandpa and I rode a cable car up to the top of the mountain, where we stood with stunning 360 degree views of the city and ocean.



The cable car ride was an interesting experience, beyond just the stellar views. Cramming 20+ people from around the world into a cable car that has a revolving floor can make a person a bit clausterphobic. For all of the polite and respectful people in the world, we know there has to be a few others in every bunch (or cable car). The ride is brief though (and enjoyable, pushy people aside). It lasted approximately 5 minutes. Once at the top, the city, Table Bay, Robben Island and the Atlantic Ocean all lie before you to be viewed from the eagle eye view atop the mountain! While a person can choose to hike both up and down the mountain, Grandpa and I felt the cable cars were the most adventurous route :D



After Table Mountain, we met up with the manager of our B&B, Renalta (sp?), and went to Stellenbosch for a wine/chocolate tasting, an experience that I of course enjoyed. Stellenbosch is famous for it's vineyards, and subsequent wine options. Stellenbosch is the 2nd oldest town in South Africa (Cape Town is the oldest). The vineyard we visited was the Waterford vineyard, which was was both grand and inviting in it's presentation. We sat outside on the patio and enjoyed the mild, sunny weather. Informative presentation plates were brought to each of us, with 3 different types of chocolate on them. Each chocolate had a wine pairing, all of which was described on the presentation plate. I have the specifics recorded, of what each of the wines and chocolates were, so I will be following up this blog with another blog about the wine and chocolate tasting, once I am back in Port Elizabeth.



After the wine and chocolate tasting, we went to a Garden Cafe, Romanse, and enjoyed a lunch in a garden setting patio. We all had coffee and sandwiches. Grandma and Renalta had chicken sandwiches, and Grandpa and I had gypsy ham sandwiches. The sandwiches were very flavorful-toasted french bread, rocket, blue cheese crumbles, home made mustard mayo, tomatoes, jellied onion and ham for mine.



After lunch, we came back to the B&B, at which point a took a very restful 2 hour nap! The rest of the evening was spent hanging low, and of course playing cribbage!

Tomorrow is my final day here in Cape Town (fly out Sunday morning), enjoying the vacation and company of Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa and Grandma leave for Minnesota on Monday. I sure have enjoyed my time with them, and hope they have as well enjoyed their first African experience here in South Africa!

On this day in history....

Thursday September 30th, 2010



For no other reason than the fact that I can never think of good blog titles, I have titled this blog "On this day in history....", so On this day in history: We saw a variety of historical and educational sites today.



After breakfast at the B&B and a few different attempts to get money from the atm for Grandpa (finally successful), we went on a guided tour of the Bo-Kaap neighborhood, a neighborhood of cobblestone streets tucked into the fold of Signal Hill of Table Mountain. The Bo-Kaap neighborhood is famous for its streets lined with buildings that are painted in an array of bright colors. Bo-Kaap is a known as a predominatly Muslim neighborhood in Capetown, although there are Christians as well. The community members residing within the B0-Kaap neighborhood tend to be descendants of slaves, who were imported to South Africa by the Dutch, in the 1700's. The slaves tended to be from Indonesia, Java Malaysia and other areas of Asia. They were/are known as Cape Malays, although not all are of Malaysian descent. The slaves were political exiles, convicts, skilled craftsman, artisans, famous scholars and religious leaders.

We started the tour at the Bo-Kaap Museum, where we met up with our tour guide, Shereen Misbach-Habib, a member of the Bo-Kaap community, and a political activist who fought to end the apartheid. We walked through the museum with Shereen, sat and talked with her, got a ride to Shereen's car from her daughter to Shereen's car/house, drove around the Bo-Kaap nieghborhood viewing the sites, visited a cemetery in the community, stopped at Shereen's Mom's/Sister's property (restaurant, garden etc.), saw the 12 p.m. firing of the Noon Cannon and went back to Shereene's house for tea and traditional Indian food, consisting of cucumber and tomato salad with ground black pepper and sea salt, veggie samoosas, spinach balls and koeksisters (the sweet donut type dessert I have previously mentioned). We also had red grape juice and tea.


After our tour with Shereene, she dropped us off at the Jewish Holocaust Museum, which ended up being closed because of a Jewish holiday. We walked on to the South African National Gallery. The current display there is of South African art. I was glad we went there and saw it, before the display ends on Sunday. I have really found my enjoyment of art museums to be greater than I initially realized.



After the National Gallery, we walked through the Company Gardens, stopping off at the outdoor cafe for coffee and a snack. The gardens were beautiful, and seemed to be a very popular place for people to rest, work and play. The oldest tree in the Company Gardens was a pear tree, which was 300 years old. The tree was protected by a fence and had large metal braces holding it up. Grandpa, Grandma and myself all agreed that unfortunately, the tree did not look healthy.



After the gardens, we went to the Slave Lodge museum. Over 3 centuries, The Slave Lodge has had a variety of names including Government Offices Building, Old Supreme Court and SA Cultural History Museum. The Slave Lodge, is the original name of the building, and now the current name of the building. The Slave Lodge was built in 1679, and was initially a windowless, brick building.



For dinner we ate at an Asian restaurant, Chef Pon's, which had dishes from a variety of regions in Asia. I had a chicken/prawn noodle dish, Grandma had a seafood mix entree, and Grandpa had wonton soup and a prawn entree.

The night of course ended with the customary rounds of cribbage :D

First few days in Capetown

Well, it sure is easy to fall behind on the blog! Between putting it off, and writing blogs to only end up offline from wireless with the blog not saved, it sure does happen quick, having a few days to catch up on! So this blog will be about the past 3 days we have had in Capetown. We arrived here in Capetown Sunday night and started touring first thing Monday. After a B&B breakfast of fruit and toasted foccacia egg sandwiches, we set out in our rental car to see the sights. The first thing that immediately came up for us again, was the challenge of finding our way around in a new place, which happens to be a city with tight streets, crazy traffic and goofy pedestrians!

We started at the District 6 Museum, an apartheid history museum covering the forced removal of the black residents in the District 6 neighborhood. My favorite aspect of the museum was the story written about the racing pigeons who were let out to fly by their owner. The pigeons were set out to fly from the relocated neighborhood and did not return home as they should have, to the new location. The pigeons' owner, drove past the location of the old home (which had been bulldozed after the forced relocation), and 50 or so pigeons were sitting there, as if that was still their home.

After District 6 Museum, we set out looking for the car rental place, needing to trade in our rental car due to an ongoing problem with standing water on the left (front and back) side of the car. It was during that time, looking for the car rental place, that we decided to for go trading the car for another, and turn it in and be done with driving altogether. We reasoned that a cab would not be much more money, if any, and would be much easier and safer than trying to find our way around Capetown.

After turning in the rental car and recruiting a cab driver (John) for the week, we headed down the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (VA Waterfront). Upon arriving at the VA Waterfront, we went to the Capetown Aquarium, an impressive display to all of us. At the Aquarium, we saw impressive aquariums of both Indian and Atlantic fish, coral and marine life. We also saw a frog display, as well as the penguins. We were pleasantly surprised when the penguins came marching up the ramp we were standing on. They had security guards with them, as well as an entourage of fans following them. They were making their daily transfer from one area of the aquarium to another.

After leaving the Aquarium we went the Hildebrand Restaurant, where Grandpa had veal marsala and Grandma and I had the lunch combo of cajun chili prawn skewers, kingklip fish and malva pudding.

After lunch, we wandered around the water front, taking in the scenes and shops of the waterfront. The evening was finished up with the standard rounds of Cribbage.


Tuesday 9-28-10
We started out the day visiting the Castle of Good Hope, which was built by the Dutch in 1666 and is the oldest surviving building in South Africa. At the Castle, we came across the Social Project Art Gallery, which had some of the most amazing artwork I have ever seen in my life. We also thoroughly enjoyed the Carnival Display, which showcased the history and tradition of the annual New Year's Carnival season, which starts on Christmas Eve with the Christmas bands/choirs. The Carnival season runs until approximately March. While at the castle, we stopped into the cafe for a coffee break. Grandma and I indulged in some dessert. Grandma had lemon meringue and I had chocolate cake.

After the Castle of Good Hope, we walked to City Hall, a stunning building from the outside. We only made it into the traffic violations/court area, where a security guard told us he could help us momentarily. After sitting on a bench for a while, we decided there were other things to see, and left City Hall in search of the public library. The library was another beautiful building, both similar and different to the Port Elizabeth library, as well as libraries in the US.

After the library, we walked to the Trafalger Flower Market, a place that I was of course in awe of. There were hundreds of buckets of beautiful flowers, all waiting to be purchased. The many varieties of roses were my favorite flowers among the market.

After the city centre area, we caught a cab to the waterfront area, where we took a steamboat harbor tour. The boat we were on is the only steamboat in South Africa. The engine was manufactured in St. Louis, Missouri. The engine ran at 135 rpm a minute. While out in the harbor we saw boats, seals. Specifically, we saw the boat that does the maintenance on the communication cables that are buried in the ocean.

We ate dinner at Mama Africa, a restaurant serving traditional African dishes. Mama Africa is known for it's live music, which was really high quality. Grandma had cheese and spinach pancakes. Grandpa and I had the wild game platter, which had crocodile, kudu, ostrich, springbok and venison sausage. Grandpa said the sausage was spicy and seemed similar to venison sausage in the US.

Wednesday 9-29-10

We went to see the penguin colony at Boulder, a National Park. There seemed to be at least 50-75 penguins relaxing on the beach. On our way to the Cape of Good Hope, we saw many baboons on the side of the road. They were a variety of sizes, featuring 2 little babies! Although the baboons are known to be agressive, they did not show agression towards us, although John our cab driver/tour guide informed Grandma "Mam, please roll up your window". We went onward to Cape of Good Hope (National Park). Along with Cape of Good Hope, we also went to Cape Point (in the same park). During this time, we saw wild ostrich right off the shore. At Cape Point the Atlantic Ocean is on western side and the Indian Ocean is on the eastern side. The most south western point of Africa is at the Cape of Good Hope.

After leaving the Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope, we stopped off at a seaside restaurant, the Blue Bell. Grandpa had hake and chips and Grandma had sole and chips. I had a seafood sampler basket of calamari, hake, crab bites and some other funny (tasted good) seafood rollup tube thingys.

After lunch, we went to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which were well kept, stunning and beautiful. The variety and layout of the gardens was very impressive, and well accentuated by the mountains bordering the park. The gardens were serene and enjoyable, up until I got separated from Grandpa and Grandma. After a good hour of looking for them, with the help of our cab driver on the phone, I was able to track them down and we went on our way. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at the B&B.

Day 2 and 3 driving to Capetown and we've arrived!

Day 2-Saturday 9-25-10


Today (Day 2 of Garden Route journey) was another full day of driving, full of mounainous views and mountain driving. Breakfast at the hotel was the hotel restaurant brunch buffet. We had fresh fruit, yogurt, muesli, eggs, hash brown hotdish, sausage and cinnamon crepe rolls. When we left the hotel in Knysna this morning we set out on the highway looking for George, passing through Wilderness on the N2. George is the town where the 5th NMMU campus is located. The other 4 campuses (South, North, 2nd Ave, Missionvale) are located in the Port Elizabeth area.

For lunch we stopped at a cute roadside restaurant, the Gila restaurant, a family owned operation located in Calitzdorp. I had a salmon salad, which was probably one of the most colorful salads I have ever had. It had a variety of greens, cantalope, tomatoes, dual colored sprouts, oranges, onion, purple cabbage, and lemon. The dressing was balsamic vinegarette and oil. Grandma had chicken pie with salad and vegetables and Grandpa had a traditional Afrikaans dish, ostrich bobotie, a mild curry dish, with rice, slad and vegetables. For dessert Grandpa had chocolate cake, and Grandma and I tried some apple cinnamon fudge.

After Calitdorp, we drove onward through Ladismith and then to Barrydale. We planned to stay in Barrydale, but when we arrived there, we decided we wanted to treck on further til Swellendam, because we still enough daylight to proceed.

We stayed at the Marula B&B in Swellendam. Swellendam is the 3rd oldest town in S. Africa, behind Capetown and Stellenbosch. It is full of B&B's and restaurants. The Marula B&B is owned by a German couple, who moved from Germany 3 years ago to start a new life with the B&B. Fillip, the husband, worked in Germany as a motorcycle dealer, and said he needed a change from his work-a-holic lifestyle. His wife, Marion, was a nurse. They remodeled/own the B&B, and Fillip does motorcycle tour guiding. The B&B was absolutely stunning, with decorated with African flare, and a spacious dynamic garden yard area.

For dinner we ate at a local place in Swellendam, called the Woodpecker Deli & Pizzeria. The atmosphere was really unique and quaint. Grandma and I shared a margahreta pizza and Grandpa had pork schnitzel. After dinner, Grandma and I played our daily rounds of cribbage. Tomorrow we will be back on the road for a short jaunt to our destination of Capetown.


Day 3


Today at the B&B, breakfast was fresh fruit, yogurt and museli, toast, eggs and bacon.


After breakfast, we packed up the car and hit the road for the final stretch of driving to Capetown. While we anticipated a short stretch of distance, we did end up with a full days worth of sightseeing, driving and a large/slow traffic jam.


The driving today was less mountainous, although still a good amount, but more rolling plains and vast farmland.



From Swellendam, we drove to Bredasdorp, stopping off at the Shipwreck Museum. I found the Swedish plate money ("coins") to be the most interesting thing at the museum, as well as the extensive curio collection of antique cosmetic, pharmaceutical and beverage bottlewear.


After the Shipwreck Museum, we headed on to the southern most tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas, where we also climbed the lighthouse. As always, from what I've found, the coastlines were absolutely stunning in color and beauty.

From the southern most point of Africa, we drove on to Hermanus, best known for whale watching.We stopped off for a few minutes, and were able to spot a few whales surfacing just a ways out from the shore!

While stopped in Hermanus to see whales, I realized we had missed a call from Conifer Capetown. I called them back and let them known we were en route and getting close. Little did I realize just a ways down the road, we would come upon a series of major traffic delays.

We hit traffic coming out of Hermanus, likely because of both the Whale Festival going on in Hermanus, as well as the 3 day weekend due to Friday's national holiday, Heritage Day. The first stretch probably lasted a half hour, and I was relieved when we started to move along. Soon after we came to another jam, this one going up the mountain and then down to the bottom. We were probably sitting in that one for an hour and a half. In parts of that jam, the visibility was very low, due to heavy fog. The highlight of that traffic jam was the baboons sitting on the guardrail watching the traffic go by.

Once the traffic got moving, we thought we would have a short final stretch into Capetown to our B&B. It was not that simple, as we got lost looking for our B&B. It may have been easier to find had we not hit the traffic jams and arrived in Capetown after dark, but that of course was not the case. After driving all over and calling the B&B a few times, we finally pulled off at the Caltex gas station and waited for our B&B host to come and get us and guide us "home". Once we arrived at the B&B, we ordered dinner from Mr. Delivery, a place that delivers food from a variety of restaurants. We had chinese-chop suey, spring rolls and chow mein. We were in bed shortly after that, tired from a full day.

The B&B we are staying at is a beautiful old Victorian 2 story home that was remodeled last year. Grandma and Grandpa are on the first floor, and I am in a room on the 2nd floor. My bedroom and bathroom and quite the tranquil retreat. I have found the decor of my bathroom and bedroom to be inspiring ideas for decorating my place when I return to the States. My bedroom is spacious, bright and relaxing. The ceiling has a high vault, the floors are wood, and the color scheme is white and gold, with simple wood and orange accents.