Special Day!

This post should serve as a notice that today, April 24, is a very important day in the life of all of you! Why, you ask? Because today, not so many years ago, Laurie Glenn was born! That’s right, today is my wonderful mother’s birthday! Many of you know that my mother is my best friend and probably my favorite person in the whole world. You also know that I’m not sucking up when I say that! My mother is an incredible person, and today is a day that I wish I could be at home to give her a hug and tell her myself. Luckily for the 21st century girl, I can almost do that in the form of a blog post! You’d like to join me, you say? Okay! Just post a little comment here to my mom telling her happy birthday. It doesn’t matter if you know her or not, it’s just exciting that she’ll get little notes from around the world. Thanks for indulging me. And now, for a blast from Lisa’s past:

That pretty much sums up all of my childhood. Thanks, Mommy. By the way, nice haircut! Funny story: one day my mom came home from getting her hair permed and asked me what I thought. I told her she looked like Gene Shalit, my favorite Today Show movie commentator. Not a complement? Of course it was! It meant that her hair was REALLY curly! I never did have a lot of tact...

While we’re on familial notes, you should know that my dad, the bigshot met with the Governor of Tennessee recently, blah, blah, blah, my sister, the bigshot, has finished her prom preparations (collective sigh of relief), blah, blah, blah, but the big news lies with Carl. Carl, the total bigshot, played percussion for SHERYL CROW last week! Ok, it was tambourine, but he was still onstage with Sheryl Crow! He's taken to calling himself "Carl the Percussionist," as Sheryl called him. So, a family of bigshots. What can I say? We raise them right.

My love to all four of you today! Go out and enjoy the birthday celebration. Mwah!

Cape Town--Part 3

As you read this, I want you to imagine me with umbrella and galoshes because that’s exactly what I look like today! It has been COLD and rainy. Yuck. I have never been so thankful for galoshes in my entire life! But I digress…

The rest of my time in Cape Town was spent mainly visiting with friends—not nearly as much tourism. Wednesday, Niv and I went to see The Syrian Bride at The Labia Theater (pronunciation is KEY on that one!) which shows foreign films. It was a great film which I would highly recommend! After this, Niv, Jon David, and I went to dinner and (of course) got into the Israel discussion (Niv used to work for APAC, a pro-Israel lobby) and then (of course) onto the religion discussion. I think that one thing that many of us could say after this week is that we’re painfully unaware of others’ religion, but also not nearly educated enough about our own. After talking until almost 3 a.m. we decided to give up the ghost until another day.

On Friday we had planned to go to Robben Island with a friend of Jon David’s who was a prisoner there. Unfortunately, the wind was terrible and ferries didn’t run. I’m hoping to make it to Robben Island when Mommy and Katie come, but at this rate, it’s not a very good bet. Instead, Niv, Elliot, Jon David, Ted, and I trekked to Kirstenbosch Gardens, as Niv had not yet seen the gardens. I know that I have described them before, but I must say again that it’s like the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on speed. Absolutely incredible! We ate lunch at the café there and Niv and I shared a pot of tea, tea sandwiches, biscuits, and chocolate cake. It was really lovely. The rest of the day was spent helping Elliot and Niv prepare for seder and then visiting Wasabi, a sushi restaurant in Cape Town.

To retire the story at this point would be remiss, however, because after our dinner at Wasabi, we were in for quite a South African experience. If you’ve ever wondered if security features on cars which are supposed to keep thieves from stealing your car actually keep YOU from stealing your car, the answer is YES! JD has what is called an immobilizer, where the engine will not start with just the key, but also requires a signal from a little clicker. When this clicker doesn’t function correctly, let’s just say you get another 4 hours of quality time with your closest friends! The five of us waiting for hours suddenly turned into camp with games of Miss Mary Mack, slapjack, and Black Magic. So, crisis averted and a good time had by all—except Jon David, of course, who was a little concerned about the car.

The next morning, we found that JD could transfer a battery into the clicker, and all was well. I then went to help Elliot and Niv with seder preparations. It was Elliot’s first time to host a seder, and I think we can all agree that it went very well. For those of you who have never attended a seder, it is a Jewish meal designed to celebrate the Passover story. There are symbolic foods, prayers, and acts which are intended to educate those present about Passover and the Jewish faith. Of course, you can’t have any normal seder with Elliot and Niv, and it was really more like Jewish Whose Line Is It Anyway, with skits and reading parts, etc. We all learned a lot, which was good since only one of the 14 guests were Jewish! Though this story is a part of my own faith tradition (and even a popular Vacation Bible School story), I must say that I had never paid nearly this much attention to its content, so I was glad to have a chance to learn a little more about the story.

Sunday was Easter and Jon David (who is Presbyterian by way of the Charismatic church) was gracious and allowed me to choose the church service. Missing Highlands and the Rutter Requiem, I chose St. George’s Cathedral, the Anglican Cathedral which is the seat of the Anglican Diocese in South Africa and former home to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I got to hear the Mozart Missa Brevis, so I was relatively satiated. By this time, our friend Ben had arrived from Grahamstown, and was with us for church, as was Niv (his first Christian service!). It was different than all of us were used to, but a beautiful service all the same.

Jon David, Ben, and I chose to share a little of our culture with our friends in Cape Town, and invited friends over for Southern Sunday dinner in honor of Easter and of South African Family Day (the next day). We spent the day making macaroni and cheese, banana bread, peach cobbler, green beans, corn, and brought in some KFC! You know you had KFC on Easter in the park, don’t lie. And, to top it all off, we made some super-sweet sweet tea! It was really a lot of fun. To top the evening off (after another long religious discussion—we’re good at these), we watched Big Fish.

Monday was just a wrap-up day. I had brunch with Elliot and then went to the internet café while JD slept and studied (he had quite the presentation later in the week). The treat of that night was going to Africa Café with Katy and her friend Jeff who were in town on holiday! Africa Café serves a little of all kinds of African cuisine and includes singing and dancing! It was great to eat with friends! JD and Jeff even got to reminisce about Alabama (while Katy and I gagged).

I left on Tuesday with rain overhead and returned to a busy, sunny Jo’burg, and there I’ve remained! Hope you’ve enjoyed my adventures! Extra notes for today include that I have the best friends in the world: a postcard from Lenor in DC, a postcard from Allison in Las Vegas, and pictures of daffodils from Natalie--you all know me and love me so well! Also, my brother got to play tambourine with Sheryl Crow last night. He's a big deal. Now, as Daddy always tells me, “get back to work!”

Cape Town, Part II

On Monday morning, we were scheduled to go to Robben Island for a tour. Elliot and Niv had planned to meet us, but weren’t assured of getting tickets, as you have to book WAAAY in advance in order to be sure of getting tickets. As things went, the guys couldn’t get tickets, so JD and I decided to renig on ours in order to spend the day with our friends. We wandered around the Waterfront and showed Niv the sights since he hadn’t even been in town a week—not that he really needed our help, it was just more fun that way. We browsed the CD store considered to have the best selection of African music around (I bought Norah Jones, Oliver Mtikudzi, and Amandla!, a compilation of music of the apartheid struggle) and then headed to a long lunch and discussion. As always happens, JD and I were called upon to be the voice of the South—too bad we don’t form much of a unified voice, as I consider myself mostly a Democrat, and he mostly a Republican! Regardless, it’s always nice to hear what is thought in another part of the U.S. since we don’t get much differentiation of thought in the South sometimes.

After lunch, we wandered over to the aquarium which, while it doesn’t even begin to rival Chattanooga, was really nice. There was a huge shark tank (I thought about you, Katie) with manta rays and sea turtles (and you, Mommy), as well. If you’ve never taken a five-year-old to the aquarium, a good substitute would be taking Elliot, who was fascinated by all of the nerd wisdom supplied by myself and Niv. I have a feeling that Niv and I spent similar childhoods reading ridiculous books and going on field trips with our parents…anyway, it was great! We saw Flotsam- and Jetsam-style eels, huge crabs, tiny seahorses, and even got to touch sea anenomes! We had a great time, even though we had to cover it all in an hour—quite a push for us!

Tuesday was definitely my favorite day, by far. We set out at 9 a.m. for Boulder’s Beach and the Cape of Good Hope. Those of you who have been cheating on facebook have already seen pictures of this, but it’s worth another look. The drive to Boulder’s Beach took us about 45 minutes, and we spent it playing ridiculous music (think Toto’s Africa, etc.) and singing.

We were fortunate when we arrived to meet a parking attendant who directed us away from the main penguin colony to an area of beach where you could actually get really close to the penguins. It’s situated under a few houses (oh, to have an ocean and penguin view!) and was relatively deserted. This was great for me! Those of you

who know me well can imagine me traipsing through the knee-deep water taking pictures of sea life, penguins, and the ocean. Niv, JD, and I took a quick trip to childhood, singing “It’s a Jolly Holiday with Mary” and dancing like penguins. I even got some great penguin waddling footage which I will post if I can ever convince the powers that be at Wits that video isn’t sooo bad for taking up bandwidth.

After probably an hour or more of hanging out with the penguins, the guys suggested that we go (I was still in the water at this point) in order to get to Cape Point for lunch. I relented, but really could have stayed in that spot for another two hours or so.

Thus, we began the drive to Cape Point, another 30 minute drive or so. This drive follows the coastline where with a little fog, we saw some of the most amazing views yet—keyword yet. JD had suggested that we eat at the restaurant at Cape Point, which was definitely a good choice. It looks out over the bay from about halfway up the mountain and served some wonderful cuisine including ostrich fillet and biltong salad (biltong is a specifically South African delicacy. It’s basically jerky of many different types). We then set out on the trek up the mountain to the lighthouse at Cape Point. It only took about 30 minutes and was a beautiful hike (though it’s paved, it’s incredibly steep). I stopped at every lizard that I saw (which was a bunch) and made the guys stop while I took pictures of aloe for Carl. No, Carl’s not really interested in aloe, but after doing a long research project on it, I felt like he deserved to see that it really does exist in Africa. The view from the lighthouse was beautiful, regardless of the fog all around. In fact, I think the fog added to the mystique a bit.

The most important part of the day, however, was seeing the Cape of Good Hope which technically lies below Cape Point at the water’s edge. This was important mostly because Daniel taunted me with pictures of BSC students at the Cape for my entire last year at BSC. I insisted that we go and I get my picture taken with that sign! On our way to the waterfront, we saw a huge backup of cars and began to get really excited. In this area, the only thing that a backup of cars can mean is baboons! And we were lucky—we saw about five baboons sitting within feet of the road. That made JD a little nervous with all of our windows down, considering that baboons are the African equivalent of wild dogs. As we continued on our drive downhill, we found ostrich—about five of them—and a few by the water. I think the picture of an ostrich grazing by the ocean is just ridiculous, you know? I mean, how Alice in Wonderland can my life get?! We also saw eland, but they were so far away that we never would have gotten pictures.

The Cape of Good Hope is situated under a large cliff where the water crashes against the rocks and creates a magnificent spray. Someone (I think Niv) noted that the boulders and rocks all around looked like rainbow sherbet with their striped color variations. We all sat on one of the large boulders and took in the scenery. We realized while sitting that we were on top of a large colony of some kind of insect closely resembling a roach. Instead of being repulsed, we were of course fascinated and began to taunt them by waving our feet nearby at which point the bugs would scatter and fall like a waterfall all over the rocks. I don’t have any pictures but Niv does, so maybe eventually you’ll get to see. I’m talking millions of bugs, here!

After taking a picture with the sign (I wore my BSC shirt just for this occasion), we retreated to the car to begin heading back to the Mother City. As we were leaving the park, we saw a wildfire and water bombs being dropped by helicopters. It was really pretty cool. We continued toward town by way of the Atlantic seaboard and saw some of the MOST beautiful vistas of the entire day, the best of which was the Chapman’s Peak Drive.

We stopped in at Hout Bay to see what all the fuss was about with this area and to get a little snack of fish and chips. We couldn’t see much since there was such a thick fog by this time of day, but we were still quite entertained. We happened to run into these two girls:

The Doublemint Twins, you ask? I would agree. They were raising money for a local hospital by presenting their very own variety show and selling small grandma-esque trinkets to passersby. Their entire schtick was in unison—the entire thing! They offered to sing in Afrikaans, English, French, Spanish, Xhosa, Hebrew, etc., etc. Being our feisty selves, we decided on Xhosa (the African language with the most click sounds) and Hebrew (Niv and Elliot are Jewish and speak good Hebrew…ok, that’s an assumption on my part, but suffice to say that they would know good versus bad Hebrew). The girls were really pretty terrible on both accounts, but considering their efforts and the fact that it was entirely in unison, we were really pretty impressed and donated what change we had. It really was very funny.

Obviously, Tuesday was a really fun day—the highlight of the trip for me—and so I think I’ll leave you with that for a while. The rest of the week includes less dramatic interpretation, but was still enjoyable, and I think I can finish it in just one more post, we’ll see. In other news, I am taking the job at McAuley House School, so as Katie says, welcome back to 1956! Actually, it’s not that antiquated, but there will be sewing and cooking. I have also managed to get another 2 80s on papers, so I’m feeling good about my academic standing and my ability to take on another responsibility and still do well. We have new ducklings (I think for Easter), and though it’s getting colder, it’s still quite nice. Think September weather. I have had irises for the entire time I’ve been here, so I’m pretty happy about that, though I’ve seen not a single daffodil. I do love daffodils. All is well here. Love you all so.

Cape Town Fall Break, Part I

Table Mountain from the airplane


A vacation in Cape Town was a very good thing for me. I haven’t felt truly relaxed and as if nothing matters to be finished in quite some time. So, this trip was a very good idea. Jon David was extremely gracious, even going so far as to let me sleep in the bed and he on the air mattress in the living room; in other words, I was definitely pampered. Not to mention that his apartment has a view of the ocean right out the front door and Table Mountain out the back windows! I am pretty jealous. It’s probably a good thing that I don’t live there, considering that I might never get any work done.


Once I got in on Wednesday, JD had a class, so I walked around UCT on my own. Here are some pictures of this beautiful campus:

You walk to class this way every day if you go to UCT! That is Table Mountain hidden by all of those clouds.

Playing fields with Cape Town in the background

Next, we went to walk around the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront a bit. Jon David says it's his favorite place in the city, which is nice since it's within 10 minutes walk of his flat! There is a mall, many shops, and usually street entertainment there. Here are a few pics:

JD and I at the distance sign at the V&A Waterfront. That says San Francisco 16,690km!


Who knew Rotary put up this sign?!

The sea lion that tried to eat JD and me!

On Thursday, we headed to Camps Bay for a little time on the beach. Camps Bay is situated under Table Mountain just through the pass between Lion’s Head and Table Mountain. The beach itself is sandy, but the sand is very coarse, as it has been created by years of weathering of the huge boulders strewn about the shores of the ocean, many of which remain there still. The water is cold or, more accurately, frigid. A trip into the water as far as one’s knees makes one’s legs seem to disappear under her. Most of our time at the beach was spent lying out and watching the group of hundreds of adolescents push each other into the water.

Thursday was completed by going to the beginning of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (the free part) in Green Market Square with Jennifer and Elliot, two of the Cape Town Rotary Scholars and Elliot’s roommate Niv. It wasn’t the best jazz we’ve ever heard but it was a wonderful atmosphere.

Friday was mostly consumed by Jon David’s classes, but we did get a chance to meet some of his friends. One such friend spent a few years at Robben Island and now works there as a tour guide. We also ran into several of the Cape Town Rotary Scholars. It was a very collegiate day, finished by watching The Motorcycle Diaries, one of Jon David’s favorites.

On Saturday we headed to a meeting for Rotary Youth Leadership Association in Tyger Valley and from there drove to Stellenbosch in the Cape wine region. Stellenbosch is beautiful and very quaint, set neatly within the mountains. There are small antique shops and book stores which we browsed for a good amount of time. We found the second oldest church in the country there, a Dutch Reformed Church (of course), and walked around its grounds and cemetery. It had beautiful white spires and stained glass windows and a beautiful view of the mountains. That evening, we met up with Emily A. and Emily K. (two more CT Rotary Scholars) to eat dinner and watch Wit, Jon David’s favorite movie. It is quite good—the story of a professor who studies the Holy Sonnets of John Donne and contracts stage four ovarian cancer. I liked it, much to JD’s surprise.

Sunday we visited the Sea Point Methodist Church—which could be dead within two years if things continue the way they are now. It was a nice service, though, even with a choir of six people who were not getting anywhere except to a joyful noise. We ate lunch with Jon David’s friend Madalitso, a Malawian who now lives in Mozambique (Maputo, no less! Needless to say, we were fast friends) and is studying politics at UCT, and his friend Nema, a Tanzanian also studying politics. I really enjoyed Nema—she is quite the feminist, progressive thinker. We talked politics and religion for about three hours—what a treat! We then went to pick up “the girls” (Jennifer and the Emilies) and headed to Kirstenbosch for the last concert of the summer. Turns out that the band was pretty terrible, so we wandered around Kirstenbosch for a while. After we finished at Kirstenbosch, we headed to the mall to watch a movie. We considered Babel and Volver, but opted for the much more intelligent chick flick Because I Said So, with Mandy Moore and Diane Keaton. I should know better than this—I HATE Mandy Moore. She’s simply a poor actress, and she always insists on singing in every movie. If you want to be a singer, be a singer, not an actress. Anyway, it was, as expected, less than inspired, but a good laugh and a good time had by all.

So that completes most of the first week—I’ll include the second week later. And yes, Elliot, I do plan to finish the “cultural amalgamation” post. Hold your horses. Other big news around here includes Lisa getting a 100% on her first big human rights paper and the possibility of a job at McAuley House School teaching technology (our tech and home ec. equivalent). So, things are getting back to normal in Jo’burg. On a personal note, thanks Mere for the postcard from Santiago!

I'm back!

Well, friends, I have returned to Jozi and am now getting back into the swing of classes. I just wanted to post a brief update to let you know that I am back and checking emails, so I'd love to get some and that I will post pictures SOON! In fact, I tried to do some tonight, and for whatever reason the CD didn't burn correctly. Go figure. So it will be at least Thurs. before it gets done, but it will get done, promise.

Cape Town was wonderful--I will post a real update on that soon, no worries!

My love to you all! Happy Easter! For you HUMC people, know that I was well taken care of for Easter at St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town. Though Desmond was not there, it was still beautiful with the Mozart Missa Brevis and good friends. Emmy sent me pictures of your wonderful service, including Ms. Penny's Easter bonnet, so I was well filled in. Easter far away was just as loving as one at home, though I missed you all dearly. Let me know how your Easter was!