South Africa

In honor of Youth Day , I dug up my paper from my sophomore year World History II class at SI. The prompt was to pick a world leader or historical figure, and write about how they met or didn't meet SI's grad at grad requirements. I chose Nelson Mandela, absolutely loved studying him, and have been fascinated with South African history ever since. This was the first real research paper I ever wrote, and I remember the stacks and stacks of notecards we had to write and long collection of works cited we had to list, but it was great having such an amazing figure to learn and write about. I am still interested in Mandela and the history of South Africa, and am currently reading his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom", which I highly recommend. Without further ado, I present "Nelson Mandela: A Hero to All Mankind" (keep in mind this was sophomore year of high school!): AMDG Chris Gunther July 10, 2010 WHII Nelson Mandela: A Hero t...

Yesterday after class, I suggested a trip down to the Cape of Good Hope, got 7 others to join me, and off we went to the most South-Western tip of Africa. We ordered the Ubers around 2:00 with an ETA of 3:30, but Chapman's peak was closed again due to rock slide threats. We debated trying it anyway, but in the end decided to go all the way around. Morale was low in the car, as the trip would now take over 2 hours, and we were contemplating giving up for the day and hanging on the beach in Hout's Bay. We persevered though, and would be so glad that we did.  We finally arrived a little after 4, and made our way to the lighthouse overlooking the oceans (Atlantic and Indian) at Cape Point. The view was spectacular, and we took a lot of amazing photos from the top.  On the way back down, we saw a few baboons, including one rogue guy that made a dash for the trash can, dug out a banana peel, and started peeling and eating it (playing into the monkey stereot...

I finished my 2nd week at iXperience with a solid presentation on RealWorld , and what better way to celebrate than with another excursion. The Ghoema group boarded the 6:45 shuttle from Dizzy's and we were on our way to Muizenberg for the surfing excursion. It took about an hour and a half to get there, via shuttle and two subways. Two subways not because of a transfer, but because at one point the train we were on just decided it would turn around. Once we got off at our station, we were told not to take that subway alone because it can get kind of sketchy. Anyway, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a cool place on the beach called Kned that had chandeliers and $3 breakfast sandwiches (only in Cape Town), and then we were on to Surf Emporium where we got dressed up in our wetsuits and headed down to our 9' long boards on the beach. After a quick safety instruction (people are the most dangerous animals in the ocean, sharks are 25th) and a warmup run/stretch (it was freezing!)...

The day came to do the most famous of all the Cape Town excursions, Table Mountain. We started a GroupMe group with a few dozen interested people, but at 8:30 AM when we planned to leave, Katherine, Liam, and I were the only ones at breakfast. So, our trio Ubered up to the base of Platteklip Gorge and began climbing. The whole hike was basically a stairclimber with the added difficulty of making sure to step carefully and not fall off the side of the mountain, and the added benefit of an absolutely beautiful view of downtown Cape Town, Lion's Head, the waterfront, and the bay beyond.   We could see our target from the bottom: a narrow pass between 2 cliffs at the top. It seemed close the whole way up, but it took us a little over an hour to reach the peak, still much faster than the 2.5 hours the sign recommended and the hour and 45 minutes it took another iX group a few days before us.  We only saw a few other people on the way up, and the top of Table Mountai...

Yesterday was our first iX excursion, the cultural one to an "informal settlement" called Langa. After a quick cup of coffee, my first one in nearly 2 years (I was tired at 8:00 AM after the 50 mile bike ride the day before), we started the day with a performance by a dance team of kids and teenagers. They performed a traditional dance that was developed by workers to keep themselves occupied when they couldn't go home. It was a lot like "stomp" - there was no music, but rather the kids created there own music with 3 different sounds: a clap, a stomp, and a slap of their rain boot. The dancing was impressive and the show was fun to watch, and of course, it was our turn next. All the iXers got up on the stage and we were lead through a very basic version of the dance by one of the kids. Next, we split into 3 groups and went off to do different activities. My group started with painting. We walked over to a white cinderblock wall, our blank canvas, ...

Last night after class, I hung around Warehouse17 for a while, talking with Johann about the PM class and how to get the most out of it for me specifically, and then met up with my suite mates (minus Henry) to grab dinner at a great place on the Waterfront called Ginja, and then go to the Cape Town Comedy Club! We didn't have reservations, and weren't sure if we were going to be able to get in, but when we arrived just 10 minutes before the start of the show, we were led to a table right in front of the stage. I think it was a strategic placement for the venue to put the Americans in the front row, so the comedians could make jokes at our expense. And the comedians did make jokes at our expense, talking about how we have land and Trump, in American accents while explaining every South African cultural reference. Griffin (or Kentucky, as he was known by the comedians for the night), who was sitting closest to the stage, took the brunt of it. Overall, we are all pretty laid back ...