Safely Arrived

Wow! Finally here. The two month journey across the Atlantic was really grueling. Just moored the sailboat in the harbor a few days ago and am now getting settled into life here in Africa. (but really, sorry for the delay)

Anyways let's get to it. Sunday was the 108 km "Cape Argus (Cape Town's biggest newspaper) Pick n Pay (supermarket) Cycle Tour," the world's most populous bike race with 35,000 people participating this year. Every year there is someone famous who participates. 2009 was Matt Damon, 2010 Lance Armstrong! Wanting to get a feel for what it's like to be be a spectator at the Tour de France, I woke up on Sunday at 6:15AM and jogged down to a corner of the course near my homestay. I saw a helicopter up above so I figured I was just in time to see Lance go whizzing by.

Instead the first group that goes by consists of about 400 overweight, middle-aged riders. I turned to the woman next to me to figure out what was going on.

"When is Lance going to pass these deadbeats?!"

"Oh, you missed him by thirty minutes."

Oh well. I stuck around for a couple minutes anyway. The amount of people going by was pretty amazing. Due to the staggering of the racers, every few minutes a tightly packed group of several hundred riders would go past while a new cluster rounded the corner a kilometer back. A few riders, either attempting to move up a group or straggling behind theirs, would be buffeted by the wind in between.

I ended up making it back to the pad in time to watch the final twenty minutes of the race on TV. Lance ended up ninth because the race was decided by a sprint between the breakaway pack of twelve riders.

Now a few random pictures and explanations. Below are Alex (left) and Harold, four and twelve years respectively. These are my "host brothers." I tried many times to get a picture of the two of them in normal, sitting positions, but Harold's personality made this impossible. You see, whenever you pay any attention to Alex, Harry has to show he's alpha-male by sifting through Alex's fur with his mouth. Alex is a very good sport about the whole thing. Harry is a dachshund which is pronounced "dotson" in America. Not sure what Alex is.

This guy was outside my window a couple nights ago...



My friends, Joey and Liz, and I found this abandoned zoo near campus. It was closed 20 years ago, but the lion cages are still recognizable. Cecil Rhodes, the late 19th century diamond tycoon, was responsible for founding it, like most of UCT.

That's it for me. Hopefully it won't be another two months before the next post.