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(note: this is one of my pre-scheduled posts set to appear at 5:00am EST each morning I am in a port city. I will post follow-up information about each trip once I am able to get back on the computer.)
I don't have any trips planned for today either so I'm going to play it by ear once again.
I do know that I'll be going with the Global Nomads Group guys to the broadcast they are doing today and I'll be taking some of the students from my "Mass Media Systems Around the World" class along too. We will leave the ship at 3:15 pm and probably get back by around 7:00 pm at the latest.
Update:
Since I missed the city orientation tour the first day, I decided to do the hop-on, hop-off bus tour that cost 100 rand this morning. I just stayed on the bus the entire time and took photos (it took about two hours to do the entire loop).
There was a guide on the bus with a microphone who talked about the various things we passed and when we got to the Table Mountain stop, we could get out for about 10 minutes and take some photos. The cable car going to the top of the mountain was closed due to the winds (apparently it is closed frequently due to weather and wind), so I wasn't about to hike the mountain. It takes about two hours to get to the top if you hike it and from what people have told me, it is quite a strenuous hike, even if you are in good shape. The view from where the bus stopped was adequate enough for me - you could see most of the city from that vantage point.
me at the base of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa
We also passed the beach areas and since the water is freezing cold since it comes up from Antarctica, anyone who goes to the beach is pretty much just sitting on the beach. There was a beach where some surfers were, but they all had on wetsuits.
After the bus tour, I walked around a bit in the waterfront area (there is a big mall there and lots of places to shop). After that I made sure I got back to the ship at 3:15 pm to meet up with whatever students would be coming along to the Global Nomads Group thing (Mark and Joanna had left earlier in the day to set up all the equipment for the broadcast) - we (me, Julie, the ethnomusicology professor, and whatever students were coming) were going to meet up with a taxi that Mark's taxi driver arranged and that driver would know where to go. All I knew was that we would be going to a place called Pinelands Baptist Church and that it was near Pinelands High School.
It turned out that only Julie and one student showed up so the three of us went to go find the taxi that would apparently be waiting for us. We waited for about 10 minutes and no one was there. Julie and I decided to run back to the ship to try to find her book that had maps in it (with some listings of churches) and I ran back to get my phone and to get the business card that I remember Mark had on his cabin door. I know there was a cell phone number on his card so after doing that, I tried to call him but apparently the cell phone number was an old one and I got some woman in NYC who told me I had the wrong number.
Julie, the student and I and ended up getting a taxi driver on our own to take us to the church, but he wasn't entirely sure where it was. We had to make a stop for him to ask someone where it was and we eventually found it. When we got to the church, we found Mark and Joanna and they were apparently having problems getting the satellite connection working. The broadcast was supposed to start at 5:00 pm and it didn't end up actually working until about 5:40 pm. The South African students that were participating were able to talk to the three groups of American students for about 20 minutes, instead of an hour.
After the broadcast, we (me, Julie, Mark, Joanna and the student with us) all piled into the cab that Mark and Joanna had been using (they hired a guy named Lloyd to basically be their driver for the days they were in port and they were paying him by the day for his services - he was the one who was going to arrange for the second taxi to get me, Julie and the student earlier, but I guess there was some confusion about that - apparently there was a driver looking for us, but I have no idea where that person was). With four people crammed into the backseat of the taxi and one person up front, we headed back to the ship where we saw a huge long line of people waiting to get back on the ship (apparently a field trip had just gotten back). Instead of going inside, we dropped off all the equipment that Global Nomads Group was using at the little security station and told them we would come back shortly. With Mark, Joanna, Julie and the taxi driver Lloyd, we went to a German restaurant on the waterfront and got some food there.
dinner in Cape Town, South Africa (left to right: Global Nomads Group editor Joanna, Global Nomads Group director Mark, South African taxi driver Lloyd, ethnomusicology professor Julie)
After that, we headed back to the ship and then I helped Mark and Joanna carry all the equipment back on the ship.
Some links relating to today's trip...
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