Ryan on some of his favorite things

Last Night, one of my favorite places in Cape Town, the “On a Roll Dog Kitchen” closed down for a few weeks and wouldn’t be open again until May 2^nd, long after we’ve left. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal when a dog joint/bar closes, but I feel like a little part of my heart has closed down for a while.

The reason this is such a big deal goes back to the very first day we were here. We had landed a couple hours ago and were walking to Chai-Yo a Thai place for our first meal in Cape Town. We passed by the dog kitchen and joked about how awesome the concept of gourmet hot dogs sounded. Somehow we came across the subject of going their every week and calling it something stupid like, “Hot Dog Tuesday.” Bam. Just like that a tradition was born. We had gone to the Dog kitchen almost every Tuesday since arriving here. We would go so far as to call ahead after our Tuesday class to put our classic order of “3 Pavement Specials and a ‘Hard Days Knight” before the kitchen closed.

Beyond Hot Dog Tuesday, we also went to The Kitchen every Wednesday for trivia night. We had a standard team of 6-7 people. We even affectionately named our team “The Vernon Roses.” We were not a team to be trifled with either. We took no prisioners and frequently nailed the bonus questions. We had won Second place twice and even came in First one week. People at Trivia night knew us by our name and winning streak.

We had become regulars at a restaurant, the chef and a couple of the waitresses knew us by name. It was a bitter sweet feeling to have our drinks on the house last night for their closing event. But I realized that this was what the trip was all about. Its not about doing touristy stuff at the waterfront, hitting Long Street or posting pictures of yourself with African animals on social media. It was about finding the hole in the wall places like little Mowbray and becoming regulars. Not only finding a place that we would miss, but finding a place that would miss us back. I think Hot Dog Tuesday will be one of the things I’ll miss most about Cape Town.

Enjoy your break Dog Kitchen, you earned it.

Ryan's excursion

Johannesburg was a strange city. To be completely honest I didn’t really like it. I know that’s kind of unfair to judge a city after only a week, but comparing it to Cape Town, Johannesburg came up short. And to be fair, we didn’t even really go into the city, which was disappointing. We stayed in a hotel in Sandton, a smaller very business oriented town outside the downtown Jo’burg. There were shopping malls and large sky scraper sized buildings, but other than that, not a whole lot. I wish we could have spent some time in the downtown area so I could make a fair judgment of the city. We did go to a lot of historically relevant places, however, what I found funny was that everywhere we went, there were venders. Outside Sharpeville, the Hector Peterson memorials, everywhere we went were people selling us stuff. I found it to be a little uncomfortable to be honest. It’s like these people are taking a tragic event and then trying to make money off it by selling “African trinkets” outside. It reminds me a little bit of the whole “Boston Strong” movement. People took a tragic event such as a bombing, and now sell T-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains and anything else they can put a logo on. In the meantime, none of the profits go towards victims of the bombing. Wire figures and ebony salad spoons are in no way the same as a Boston Strong T-shirt, but they both made me feel the same way.

However, Kruger National Park was my favorite part of the trip so far. I am a person who loves animals, I like to be off the grid, and I don’t mind not having an internet connection as much as some of my other co-educators. So naturally, Kruger made me feel right at home. We stayed in rounded huts with thatched roofs, and a screened in kitchen, perfect for reading in. The bedrooms were air-conditioned and the beds were comfy. My favorite part was the Game Drives. I could have stayed a Kruger for months, going on game drives and never get bored of it. But one of the best experiences was while sitting by the river at the camp. While sitting and reading, I spotted and elephant across the water. I followed the path to be as close to it as possible. While the Elephant was shy, it did eventually come close enough to the water to drink and eat, giving me the opportunity to take some really great pictures.

While I was a little disappointed with the city of Johannesburg, Kruger National Park made up for all of it. Resulting in an overall very pleasing excursion.

Ryan & Savannah on trip home from excursion

 

Ryan's home stay

The Homestay weekend was one of the events on this trip that I had known little about. I was apprehensive about it at first. Before the weekend we were told very little. We knew only that we would be staying in Ocean view with a family. When Chantel came to talk with us about it, she told us to not expect anything too fancy from our host families. This is all I had to go with. However when I walked into my family’s house after our first dinner in Ocean View, our host sister was sitting on the couch watching “Long Walk to Freedom.” The house we stayed in was great. It had everything I could ask for in a home, a bed, a bathroom and food.

Sitting down with my host family and watching TV was great. I hadn’t watched TV since leaving the US. It didn’t matter that we were watching an Afrikaner soap opera, it was still nice to sit down and relax in front of the TV. Another enjoyable thing was that after working at the crèche, I took a long nap, and woke up to some chicken sandwiches already made for me. For the first time after being in Cape Town, I was both well fed and well rested.

Ryan volunteer at crèche in Ocean ViewThe next day we took a trip to Fish Hoek beach. I had forgotten to pack my watersport trousers, so my host father went and bought me some. They were red with yellow lettering down the side of it. They were a pair of lifeguard shorts. The whole time we were at the beach, I kept getting funny looks from all the lifeguards. My host family kept joking around with me, pretending to fall in the water and asking me to save them. At one point, a random guy came up to me and ask “Sir, that yellow net out there, is it a shark net?” I told him it was and then turned to my family and asked “Why did he ask me, what am I, the authority on the beach or something?” About halfway through speaking I realized what I said and my family had a really good laugh.

Ryan's first impressions and one he'll never forget

Ryan applying his musical talents
by learning to play the Khoisan bow

Before this trip I had never been off the continent before. I had been to Canada once after graduating high school but that was the only time I had ever left the United States. So while flying, I was not sure what to except. I remember desperately searching out the window for any sign of solid ground, which did not start appearing through the clouds until early Tuesday morning. The first thing I could see was a road. Just an ordinary dirt road. But because it was so alien to me, it filled me with so much excitement. I was in total awe of the landscape when we first landed. I had seen so many picture of Table Mountain and Devils’ Peak but seeing them in person was something no picture could truly capture.

But my first experience with the people of Africa was much more lasting than my first encounter with the continent itself. While walking through the city of Cape Town I noticed how people do not have a problem with staring at strangers and it was amazing how easily they could pick us out from the locals. Maybe it was our clothes or our sunburns that gave it away. But everywhere we walked when I made accidental eye contact with someone instead of giving me a dirty look like I was used to, I would be met with a wave or a nod, just some kind of acknowledgement.

The real friendliness of the people became apparent to me while I was in the train station. The whole day beggars approached our group because of how easily we stood out while walking around. I had left our group for a brief second to buy a bottle of water from a store in the train station. When I came out of the store I realized I was alone and that my group had left me behind. Suddenly beggars started to surround me because they saw I had change from my purchase and that I was alone. At this point I was starting to get a little freaked out. Then one beggar came directly up to me. I had already spoken to him earlier so I was kind of worried. He came up to me and said “Hey, your group went that way” and pointed me in the right direction. I thanked him profusely and followed his guidance and sure enough I found my group. This man had asked me for change and I turned him away. But when he saw that I needed help he still helped me out and I will never forget that.

Ryan is stoked to have this opportunity

Hello! My name is Ryan and I am a sophomore music education student hoping to get in to the Neag School of Education. 

I’m not exactly sure what it is about Cape Town that drew me in. Something about it seemed so mysterious and unknown. Ever since I was little I was always interested in Africa. I found myself mystified by all the culture and music that seems too different from ours. I’m a person who really enjoys the outdoors and from all the pictures Cape Town looks even more beautiful than I could ever imagine. The opportunity of the internship was also a major factor in my decision. All I want to do is teach music. I once said that I would go to the ends of the earth to teach music, but I never dreamed that I would get the chance!

I am so stoked to have been accepted into the program. From the very second I saw the table at the study abroad fair I haven't been able to stop thinking about going. It hasn't really hit me fully that I’m going to be in a completely different part of world but I’m slowly  starting to comprehend it. I know that there is so much I can learn from this trip and I cant wait to find out what else is in store.