Updates

I heard that there is an outcry for more blog entries. Let me give some excuses first, then I will get into the good stuff.
I can only get on the internet every so often and this is only the second time I have been at a hotel with wireless because the wireless modem I have takes forever. I have also not been here a week and am already up to 2 papers handed in (one Friday, one Monday). As you can see, I am a busy gal! Plus, I have to check my email and facebook!!

I will start with Wednesday morning.
We got up and had breakfast by 9am at our hotel which was called Signal Hill (I wanna say Lodge) which was on top of a hill overlooking Cape Town and the harbor. It was a beautiful view and the breakfast was delicious. They had cereal, yogurt, granola, muffins, toast, variety of fruit, cheese and crackers, juices, coffee, tea, and eggs made to order. Who is laughing now?! (We stayed at this hotel from Tuesday night through Friday morning).

We walked down the really large hill for about 1/2 hour to the harbor where we caught the 11am tour to Robben Island. By the way, the hills here are reminiscent of San Francisco--VERY STEEP! (Walking back up to the hotel twice in that day was not fun).

I really enjoyed the tour at Robben Island. It was a 30 minute ferry to the island, then we got on a bus and drove around it. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about every aspect of Robben Island, not just the prison. He also knew a lot about other countries and their relationship with South Africa. He asked everyone on the bus to tell their nationality so he could keep everyone interested and incorporate us into the tour. It turned out that he has met Nelson Mandela many times and he has taken him around the island when Mandela has come back for reunions with the political prisoners who were there during his 18 years there. Our tour guide was the one that gives the tours to dignitaries so some of his guests include: First Lady Hillary Clinton (in our guide's words, Bill was busy at the Whitehouse so he couldn't attend), Senator Barack Obama, Bill Cosby, etc. Quick facts: Nelson Mandela returned to Robben Island 14 times after he was released from prison there. Five years ago he said that was the last time he would ever go back and it is the last time he was there. He spent a total of 27 years in prison: 18 Robben Island, 2 somewhere else, 7 somewhere else. I could go on about the other uses of the island but I will save some for when I return home because it is too long-winded already.
At the end of the bus tour we are transferred from the tour guide to a former political prisoner. The man who took us around was named Sparks and he was in prison for 7 years at Robben Island. He showed us where he stayed in the F block, and of course Nelson Mandela's cell B7.

After the tour we had a quick lunch of pizza and went into the mall on the harbor to try and set up our internet plans. They are very expensive and it was hard to communicate exactly what we wanted since South Africa's system is so different so it took a long time to get that set up but now Lexi and I share a modem.

At 5pm we met with a friend of our professor who does HIV/AIDS research in South Africa so that was a very eye-opening discussion. After that we went to dinner with him to a game restaurant called Mama Africa. We had a great time at the restaurant. I ordered prawn curry because I like to play it safe with my stomach when I am adjusting to food in a new country. A couple of other people ordered the sample platters so we tried each others and I tried crocodile, ostrich, kudu, and springbok...DELICIOUS! The walk back up the hill was fun and then we hung out in our rooms and on the grass outside until bed time.

END DAY 1

Leave comments if you want to know more about something or if you think I may have left out an important part. I am working on getting pictures up but they are not even working with wireless so I doubt they will work at all on the trip. They seem to be too big to upload so you will have to wait until I get back for those unless something miraculous happens! Sorry about my spelling/grammar/punctuation...it is late here!