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February 28, 2005

Bad News for Becca

I have further progress to report on my walking-to-Spar experiment. Crystal and Nicole walked the 3 miles the other day without me, and Crystal reported that she only got 4 honks total, drastically fewer than the 30-something we received. Thus, her conclusion was that it was most definitely me who was attracting the attention. I tried to reason that it was at a different time of the day and thus not comparable, but she said that there was actually more traffic than when we went in the middle of the day.

My theory is that it is mostly because I am tall that I am receiving so much attention. Being tall definitely has its advantages sometimes, but it's rather annoying to stand out all the time. I'm still convinced that it was my attire that attracted some of the attention, so the next time Crystal and I journey over to Spar, I'm going to make sure that every inch of my skin is covered. I will probably overheat and dehydrate and need medical attention, but I can't leave an experiment inconclusive!

Posted by rgutwin at 02:46 AM | Comments (3)

Oops

After taking Saturday off, I went for a run yesterday around 10:00. Just before I stepped out of my room, I strapped on my heart rate monitor for the first time since I've been here, just to get a ballpark figure for what my heart rate has been. I averaged 180 for the 40 minunte run, which was extremely high considering that I was running almost 1:00 slower than my normal pace. I don't know if I should slow down and train for my heart rate, or if I should ignore the fact that it's beating so fast. I have a feeling that it isn't the latter.

I woke up at 7:15 this morning and jogged over to the weight room, which is supposed to open at 7:30. No one was there, and after waiting around for 30 minutes with a bunch of guys, I headed back to my dorm. Hopefully someone will be there when I return this afternoon. It's hard for me to imagine something like this happening at HWS, although it seems like opening times in general are a lot more relaxed in South Africa. But then again, probably every other country seems relaxed compared to the United States.

Posted by rgutwin at 02:35 AM | Comments (3)

This is getting to be a pattern...

Alas, my hiking excursion on Saturday evening didn't work out because 1) Calvin's taxi service was all booked, 2) Roger was going to charge just Frances and I for the whole bus, and 3) it was going to take too long to take regular taxis into Cape Town. So Frances and I stayed in, got some work done, and watched some TV series on DVD. Hopefully we'll really go hiking next weekend up Table Mountain...

I called Calvin again to make sure that he could take me to the Craft Market on Sunday morning, and it turned out that he was out of vehicles for Sunday, too! So I spent literally all of yesterday in my room, except for my trips down the hall to the kitchen, a run mid-day, and a walk around campus to photograph various skylines on a clear day. If I don't go hiking next Sunday, I'm going to find a way to get to Green Point Craft Market... Maybe my professor will take me.

So, needless to say, I got a lot of work done this weekend, although I still have a few hundred pages to read before classes tomorrow. I wish that I had a car here, although I guess that would be a bad idea since I really don't know how to drive on the left side of the road. There's going to be a complicated adjustment process once I get back to the United States. I am most definitely looking forward to regaining my independence as a licensed driver.

Posted by rgutwin at 02:28 AM | Comments (5)

February 26, 2005

How Did I Get So Busy?

I had a great time at my professor's house last night: she fed me quiche and salad and tropical fruits, and we played two games of Scrabble! The first time, she beat me by 80 points, but I narrowed the margin in the second game so that she won by a slightly-less-humiliating 60 points. We made quite a few good words and had a fun time. I will beat her by the time I leave South Africa...

I have a whole novel to read this weekend, which ordinarily wouldn't be such a big deal, but it's more difficult because I'm also doing things like hiking and visitng a craft market. So hopefully I can get a good chunk of it read before I go hiking from 4:00 to 10:00 tonight, and then I can finish it after the craft market tomorrow morning. I've started reading it, and it's full of lots of South African names and myths and such, making it very difficult for me to follow. It's interesting, though. Just hard for me to read.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:02 AM | Comments (6)

February 25, 2005

What? A Girl in the Weight Room?

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I haven't seen any other girls in the weight room here (except for the one who works at the desk...). I guess I don't see that many girls on the actual weights at HWS, and since UWC has a (very) limited supply of cardiovascular equipment, the lack of girls makes some sense. But it's still weird to be the only woman in a room full of 15 or 20 men, all lifting super heavy weights and making rather interesting faces.

After my 45 minutes on the bike this morning, I decided to add a few activities to my list of lifts. I did 10 x 3 on standing row, leg press, seated row, leg extension, hamstring curl, and tricep press. I am not free squatting at the moment because 1) if there are really heavy weights on the bar when I get to it, and I need to remove 30 kgs from each side, the bar tips over when I take of the 20 kg weight, which is really dangerous, and 2) the leg press looks to me to simulate the rowing motion much more closely. When I do my heavy lifting this summer, I'll probably add the free squat back in.

Posted by rgutwin at 04:28 AM | Comments (2)

More Fun Activites (Tentatively) Planned

First, I need to mention that I paid a visit to the library this morning. I had heard that UWC is a very underfunded university and that it's in desperate need for book donations, but I didn't realize how severe the crisis was. I was looking for Anna Karenina, because there wasn't enough room in my suitcase for me to bring it over, and I found that they don't have a single Tolstoy book in English! Perhaps I will have to buy the library a copy of Anna Karenina. I'll look around.

After my three-hour Combinatorics lab this afternoon, I'm heading over to my professor's house to play Scrabble! I'm very excited, because I haven't played any games since I've been here, and Scrabble is most definitely one of my favorite. Depending on whether or not I get back in time, I may or may not head into Cape Town for the evening.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading out at 9:00 to spend the day in or around Cape Town. There's a lot to do in Cape Town, and it would be interesting to find a museum or aquarium or something to go to. In the evening, I'm trying to coordinate a hike up Lion's Head with a few other girls, because the moon is just past full and it would be a beautiful hike. Hopefully that will work out better than last weekend's attempted adventure.

On Sunday morning, I'm taking a taxi to the Green Point Craft Market to a) do some research on Arts and Crafts in South Africa, which I have to present on in a few weeks and b) look around for cool South African crafts that I might want to buy! But I don't really have that much room in my suitcase to bring things home, so I have to budget my space. If anyone wants me to buy them something specific from South Africa, now's the time to speak up.

By the way, it is very important to note that I received two items via the postal service yesterday! Diana sent me a letter, and Miss Jenna Rose Katz made me a Valentine's Day card! It makes me very, very happy to get things in the mail, partly because they help decorate the bare walls in my room. So I have gotten four things from four different people: will you be next? It only costs $.80 to send a card! I feel like I'm worth $.80...

Posted by rgutwin at 04:15 AM | Comments (6)

February 24, 2005

Running...Indoors

The gym opens at 7:30, so this morning at 7:35 I walked into the Sport and Rec building, put my books in a locker, and headed out to the track. I figured that since I was running, I would rather run around and around on the same track for a while instead of up and down on a treadmill indoors. Unfortunately, people were setting up for some event on the track, so I was forced to head to the weight room and spend a quality 35 minutes with the treadmill. The interesting thing about the excercise equipment here is that everything is in units of kilograms and kilometers rather than pounds and miles. There's also a cool button on the treadmill that says "5K": if you press it, you're put through a hilly 5K course. I would not want to run a 5K on a treadmill. But for that matter, I wouldn't want to row a 5K on an erg, either...

Posted by rgutwin at 04:18 AM | Comments (0)

Editorials + My Group = Danger

We had our bi-disciplinary course again last night, which meant that we had 25 rather opinionated students in one room for three hours. For the first hour and a half we discussed geology, so the environment was deceptively calm. After our 15-minute break, the professors gave us articles that they cut out of the latest edition of the Mail and Guardian, one of South Africa's more progressive newspapers. We split into groups, read the four different articles, and came back to class enlightened and prepared to present.

The article I was assigned to was one on the question of land in the Kruger National Park. There have been claims made to a quarter of the land that currently makes up the park, and the government must decide whether to hand the land over to those who were unfairly pushed off of it during apartheid, or to honor the land claim in a different way that would still allow for environmental conservation. The Kruger National Park is home for quite a few plants and animals that don't exist elsewhere in South Africa. Personally, I feel like the government should find land elsewhere to give to those who are laying claims to the land in Kruger, because people will most likely try to make money off the land in and around Kruger, turning it into another "Sun City" or something of the sort. I tend to be pro-environment over pro-humanity, though, so I can see where the opposite side of the argument woukd come from. Unfortunately, many students in our class get rather defensive and take debates somewhat too personally, so the tension was rather high last night.

There were three other articles that we discussed, although since we spent so much time debating the land in Kruger, we couldn't get into very much depth on the other subjects. At least our class was debating issues that really matter this time: the constant uproar over drop-off and pick-up times is getting rather annoying.

On a completely different note, when I walked into my Combinatorics class this morning, a girl I was passing said something to me in a different language. I said, "What?" and she replied, "Don't you speak Afrikaans?" She assumed that I was a white Afrikaner, so I explained that I was from the United States and that I didn't speak anything other than English (and a little bit of French, but I decided that wouldn't be an important contribution to the conversation). She said, "You should learn it, because they all speak it," referring to the majority of the white population. Her native language is Tswana, but she speaks English fluently and can get by in Afrikaans. It's so strange to be in a country where there are 11 national languages and it's common for someone to speak two or three of them. I wish I were multi-lingual, but I don't think that three months is enough time for me to pick up anything more than a few phrases here and there...

Posted by rgutwin at 03:47 AM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

Rest Week is Over!

I like it when I reach the end of rest weeks, because after about 7 days of doing absolutely nothing athletic, my body gets rather anxious and excited to start moving again! So I spent an hour on the bike today very lightly, because the point of this rest week / rest days is to see if I've been overtraining and to try to help the situation.

I also lifted at around 55%, although the percentages and weights are very approximate because a) I usually lift in pounds, not kilograms, and b) since a kilogram is about twice as heavy as a pound, 5 kilograms is much more than 5 pounds, and there are no weights in the gym that are less than 5 kilograms. So I will be making a rather large jump when I eventually increase my weights. We'll tackle that hurdle when we get there, I guess.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:32 AM | Comments (0)

Visual Confirmation

I sent film into Snapfish last week, and they've already put my pictures online! So now everyone can visit my album and receive visual confirmation that I'm actually in South Africa. I like Snapfish, although it was somewhat expensive to mail my disposable camera from South Africa to the United States. I think I'll just bring home the other two cameras in May, so this might be all of the pictures you get for a while...

I am starting to go into internet overload, and I've been spending less than half the time online here than I do at HWS. The rule that students are only allowed one hour of internet per day is apparently rather difficult to enforce, so if I go into the lab and just sit down at a computer that happens to be unoccupied, I can stay there until the next person kicks me off. And I can go at multiple times of the day. Seeing as how there isn't much else to do on campus, I've been surfing the web more than I probably should. But the extra time comes in handy when I actually need to get things done, like caption my photos on Snapfish!

I wish that I could post photos on my blog, but I think the firewall here or the slow server makes it rather difficult. I will eventually find a way, though. I think.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:24 AM | Comments (3)

February 22, 2005

Real Food

Last night I made pasta for dinner, which takes relatively little culinary effort but produces a type of food that I haven't had in weeks. As you can tell, I am very excited for my newfound freedom as a result of our (rather small) kitchen. Feel free to post any recipes that don't take much prep work (I'm sharing the kitchen with 15 other students at the moment) and that are yummy for vegetarians to eat!

So, I have a question: why is it called a "Combination Lock" and not a "Permutation Lock"? Because a combination would imply that the numbers would work in any order, whereas that is obviously not the case. It seems to me like whoever named the Combination Lock didn't take a Combinatorics class... Either that, or I'm being rather dense and overlooking something fairly obvious. Unfortunately, that happens more than I'd like to admit.

Posted by rgutwin at 02:40 AM | Comments (7)

February 21, 2005

A Culture Lesson In Math Class

Who has ever said that Mathematics has no real-life applications? Well, probably no one who has ever studied Applied Math, and certainly no one who is in my Applied Math 251 course here. The professor is constantly trying to relate relative counting principles to the lives of the students, usually to be met with much laughter and confusion. For example, today our professor wrote the following mathematical phrases on the board:

Nguni Ç South Africa = Zulu, Xhosa
Nguni Ç Zimbabwe = Ndebele
Nguni Ç Malawi = Ngoni

I don't know much about the references to Zimbabwe or Malawi, but Zulu and Xhosa are different "tribes" in South Africa. (The explanation of the use of my quotation marks there requires more time than I have at the moment...) So I got to learn about traditional South African culture in my Combo class this morning. It was very interesting. Many things here are very interesting.

The weekends, however, are not. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday in my room getting work done for classes. I don't think I've ever been so caught up on work in my entire history of education. It doesn't help that the library isn't even open on Sundays... The highlights of my weekend were the computer lab on Saturday, the grocery store on Sunday morning, and my dad calling on Sunday afternoon. I need to get some friends to talk to so that I don't run up more 1-hour-international-phone-bills with my father! It was very nice to talk to someone from home, though, as the only phone call I've had to the United States since my arrival in South Africa has been a 2 minute conversation with my advisor at HWS.

Note that I have added my mailing address to the sidebar at the right, so anyone who is still desperately searching for some way to mail me something can now do so. I have not yet received any packages, so the rush is on to be the first to send me something and get mentioned on my blog! Not a great incentive, you say? You underestimate the vast quantity of people who are reading my daily words of wisom, I respond...

Posted by rgutwin at 08:44 AM | Comments (1)

February 19, 2005

Fun Activity Cancelled

My hiking trip to Table Mountain today was disappointingly cancelled. For the first time in about two weeks, it is a rather cloudy day in Cape Town, South Africa, and thus it would be too misty on the mountain to make the trip worthwile. There are quite a few upset students at the University of the Western Cape today...

So the day will be spent trying to find something to do. I will most likely end up doing some of the work that I have assigned for next week, but I also might end up in Cape Town or Belleville or something of the sort. It's kind of nice not to have things scheduled for every hour of the day. And while the ordinary person might be bitter about waking up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning for no reason, I am glad to extend the day of laziness. Having no direct purpose is refreshing.

Posted by rgutwin at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

It Feels Like Home

So the Combinatorics exam I had today made me feel like I was back at Hobart: I finished in about 30 minutes, and the entire class looked at me like I was some sort of foreign object when I walked out as they were still on the first half of the exam. And even though I technically am a foreign object, I think the whole idea of someone finishing so early was rather astounding to them. Who would have thunk that a class of Computer Science majors would have such difficulty with Combinatorics proofs? It's good for them, though. My class next term will be interesting because all of the Computer Science students won't take a non-mandatory Applied Math course, and I'll be able to see how many fellow Math enthusiasts I have around me. My guess is that I am one among few...

Posted by rgutwin at 08:22 AM | Comments (6)

Fun Things Planned

I don't have a lot of time, as I have spent the morning in an AIDS workshop and have an exam for my Combinatorics class this afternoon. Unfortunately, the computer lab closes at 5:00 on Friday afternoon! My group is headed out to Cape Town this evening, and I am debating whether or not to join them. We get a free ride into Cape Town every Friday night, and I am rising rather early tomorrow morning to join my professor on a hike up Table Mountain. My guess is that I won't end up going, but you never know...

So I'll be hiking all day on Saturday, which I'm looking forward to immensely, and I'm spending the day on Sunday catching up on work and going shopping for food. The kitchen situation should be solved by then, so I might get to start cooking next week! How exciting.

Posted by rgutwin at 05:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Some Accumulated Perceptions

On Wednesday nights, the entire group from HWS meets as a class for three hours. We have quite a few logistic things to work out in terms of group excursion times, and we spent most of last night's class talking over one another in essentially a completely chaotic and unproductive environment. Either this group will learn to work together within the time span of 3.5 months, or I will return to the United States very glad to be completely independent from 24 other students.

Later on in the evening, we split up into smaller groups and addressed some issues that the professors have noticed in terms of how people are perceiving cultural differences and (at least somewhat) integrating themselves into South African culture. Personally, I have remarked earlier how surprised I was that many South Africans seem either disinterested in or wary of me, and that I have made fewer South African friends than I had expected. Granted, it's only been two weeks since classes started, but I can easily see this trend continuing for a few months. Perhaps once I start to get involved in more things on campus, I will meet more people who want to talk to me about the differences between South Africa and the United States and help solidify some of the things I've been reading about in my textbooks.

Surprisingly, quite a few people last night mentioned how a certain group of people here get offended when they're referred to as "so-called Coloured". I don't know how many of you are familiar with race relations in South Africa, but during apartheid basically all the people who weren't classified as "white" or "black" were thrown into a category called "coloured". It's hard for me to imagine the context in which such conversation would arise, but apparently many of the students here at the University call themselves coloured, without any "so-called" or quotation marks. (For those of you who don't know this as well, the University of the Western Cape was founded to be a higher learning institution for "so-called Coloureds", and has recently been integrated since the end of apartheid in the 1990s.) It's interesting that we have been so educated by professors and textbooks to never refer to people as coloured without adding "so-called", although I don't forsee myself walking around and asking people in South Africa how they racially classify themselves...

The thing about "race" dynamics in South Africa is that they're not perfect, but there is an active nationwide awareness of the issues and constant political and private attention directed toward the amelioration of the situation. The United States is far beind South Africa in recognizing the discrimination based on a person's skin color and proposing viable solutions to the problem. South Africa is so not perfect in so many ways, but it's so great to be in a country where people are actively paying attention to a sensitive situation and not just sweeping a lot of it under the rug. So, if I don't find a lot of South Africans who want to be my friend, I can just back up and observe interactions that take place between the people around me. I sound a bit more like a sociologist than I'm comfortable with there...

Posted by rgutwin at 03:18 AM | Comments (5)

February 16, 2005

Okay, Fine...

My coach has strongly encouraged me to take a week off from training and return with potentially less of an aversion to overtraining and injury. I have reluctantly conceded, as being able to train has given me at least a slight purpose here at the University. Also, all of the people who gave me funny looks in the morning as I ran around campus will now miss my sweaty face!

Before I got Sandra's email this morning, I spent 45 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes lifting. Since I haven't lifted for a while, my quads have rather noticeably diminished in size, and my pants are about 3 sizes too big. I'm hoping that my muscle will return to me soon (after I take a week or two off, that is...).

Posted by rgutwin at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)

Sleep!

Due to the fact that I've been running at 6:00 am, I had developed somewhat of a sleep deficit. So last night, I crashed around 9:30 and didn't get up until 7:00. I had forgotten how much better the world seems when one is well-rested.

With my newfound energy, Crystal and I walked to the Spar again this morning. I decided to perform some sort of a controlled experiment, as my professor mentioned after our trip last week that it was probably my shorts that provoked much of the attention we received. Therefore, I wore the same shirt and put on a pair of pants this morning, and Crystal concluded, "I think it's because you're tall and white, Rebecca." We received 19 honks on the way there and 13 on the way back: it's my goal to dress modestly enough to get only 5 displays of attention (one-way, though... I have to be realistic). I'll keep you updated on the advancements to this very interesting study of South African culture.

I had to go to Spar today because I once again ran out of food in my rather pathetic pantry. We still don't really have kitchens yet, although there is a refigerator that works and a very small stove and microwave that have been crammed into an even smaller room. Unfortunately, the microwave and stove will remain unfunctional until the University approves the fire safety of the room and buys an outlet extender for the other two plugs. Therefore, I will continue to live off of food I can keep on the shelf in my room, as there are about 19 people sharing an incredibly small fridge at the moment, and I would be concerned for the safety of my food.

So, in response to the quality and variation of South African food, I must confess that most of the food I've eaten recently has been peanut butter and biscuits. I don't eat out in restaurants because a) I don't have access to any, but b) I spent more money on food during the first three weeks of the trip than I initialy expected, so I am now budgeting my limited funds. When I can use the stove and actually create dinner, I will experiment with different South African recipes. Until then, I will remain very hungry for some real food.

On a completely unrelated topic (I didn't feel like investing any energy in an appropriate transition...), I have my first test in Combinatorics on Friday. I think most of the students are rather lost at this point, as my 300-level analysis course that I took last year has come in very useful for me, and I'm in a class required for the computer science major. You finish the math... I don't yet have the textbook, because apparently they don't stock it in the bookstore, as it isn't assumed that most students will want to purchase the book. I'm debating whether or not to get it, as ordering it seems to be somewhat of a process, and the course ends in 5 or 6 weeks.

The professor is interesting: he's one of those rather subdued guys that cracks himself up, and most of the students' laughter is directed toward him rather than with him. He seems to expect a lot more from the students than he should, as many of them don't have the background or interest to make the leaps in understanding that he encourages. The class is oriented heavily around getting the students to participate, which basically means that I end up doing a lot of the talking in a class with over 50 students. It will be interesting to transition to the Number Theory course next semester, as most of the students currenly in my class will not continue on with the math module.

I have heard that the temperature where most of you are has soared back into the 50s, so maybe you will be as tired of warm weather as I will be when I return! I don't think you're 50s are quite like my 80s and 90s, though...

Posted by rgutwin at 07:04 AM | Comments (5)

February 15, 2005

Unsuccessful Morning

I woke up at 6:00 this morning to go for a nice 8 mile long run, only to discover that it was fairly impossible for me to include my right leg in anything faster than a slow walk. I ran on it for about 30 minutes, which was probably too long and rather damaging to my future attempts to run. I might head to the gym this afternoon, but my coach has advised me that I should probably be taking a week or two off to stave off any potential overtraining.

I must say, I am not a huge fan of getting up at 6:00 in the morning when I accomplish almost nothing before the time in which I could have comfortably slept in...

Posted by rgutwin at 03:44 AM | Comments (3)

Settling In

I have officially settled in to life at UWC: my room is unpacked and decorated, my classes have already started assigning too much work, and I know my way around campus so well that I can even walk around at night and not get lost! But never alone, of course, although I find it incredibly inconvenient and annoying that I need someone else to come with me if I ever want to leave my dorm after dark. Women have a long way to go in South Africa...

I have decided that I'm somewhat tired of standing out as an obviously international student. I dress the same and look the same as a lot of other people on campus, but as soon as I open my mouth, I get the strangest stares from people who are trying to comprehend my accent. The funny thing is that there are 11 national languages in South Africa, so accents certainly aren't unknown to most of the people here, but I guess that an American accent is just too different to be comprehensible sometimes.

For example, yesterday I went to my math class dressed in my windpants and t-shirt, as I was headed to the gym to lift immediately after the lecture. As I sat down, the student next to me turned and started asking me a question. Given that I had been bluntly pointed out as the American student on the first day of class, this guy obviously knew that it has difficult for me to understand what he was saying. Unfortunately, I don't think that he predicted that he would have to repeat himself three times before I understood that he was asking me if I was going to the gym. I wish that I could adopt a South African accent so that I could blend in here, but we all know how well my attempts to blend in usually turn out.

I feel like I should be more involved with stuff on campus, but it seems like I'm always too mentally and physically exhausted to spend the time looking for groups to participate in. Also, last week a few students helped out with Habitat for Humanity in a nearby township, which would have been very interesting. Unfortunately, my 6-hour-a-week math course prevented me from being able to participate. If it's not crew, it's math...I think I'm just too busy to be social and have lots of life changing experiences.

I have a journal to write for the professors I'm traveling with, and I keep some other thoughts in a personal journal, so it's hard for me to remember what I've written about where. Therefore, if anyone has any questions or wants to know more about a particualr aspect of my experience here, just leave a comment and I'll direct my posts towards potentially more interesting subjects. I have sorted through all of the emails that accumulated during my three week absence from the world wide web, so I now have more time to spend on blog postings and keeping everyone updated. I have also discovered that the computer lab is open until 9:00 at night, which means that I can come back after dinner and just sit down at a computer without having to worry about if I signed in for an hour earlier in the day. The nice thing about a majority commuter campus is that a lot more things are available for the students staying in res after everyone goes home.

I hope all is well in the United States for everyone...

Posted by rgutwin at 03:17 AM | Comments (2)

February 14, 2005

Timed 8K

I am not such a fan of the timed 8K, although much of that probably has to do with the fact that I completed it in 90 degree weather, minimal wind, and scorching sun. Yes, I am in South Africa, but I can avoid those elements if I strategically run before 8:00 am. However, it was a late night on Saturday, and I didn't wake up until 9:30 on Sunday morning. Thus, I did my timed 8K yesterday in slightly-less-than-ideal circumstances.

I ran 8K in 40:39, averaging a 5:02 minute km (which comes out to be somewhere around an 8:09 minute mile), which was rather disappointing by my standards. However, it's understandable, and I have no where to go except to get better from here.

This morning I went for a nice 45 minute recovery run, although I'm not particularly sore or affected by the timed run yesterday. My knee and hip flexor are starting to become rather painful, and I seriously hope that they don't give me any problems in the near future... I'm returning to the gym this afternoon to lift and potentially get some more cardio in on the bike.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:22 AM | Comments (2)

Ready for the Week

I had a spectacular weekend, which started off on Friday night with the event which left something to be desired. President Mbeki spoke, but he is a much less dynamic speaker than I envisioned him to be. The crowd obviously shared my sentiments, as they kept talking right through the grand total of 30 minutes of speeches. It was a beautiful evening and an educational experience, so I'm not complaining a bit.

I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to catch a boat to Robben Island, only to discover that the tour was sold out until the afternoon. So we flip-flopped our plans and headed to Kirstenbosch in the morning. Kirstenbosch was gorgeous and I had a great time walking around, looking at all the flora, and chatting with friends. We then left that scene to head to an island where politial prioners were severely mistreated, juxtaposing beauty with incredible injustice--something that is starting to become the definition of South Africa for me.

Sunday was a very relaxing day, since almost nothing at the University is open on Sundays and I was therefore forced against my will to relax and spend most of the day doing work. (I know, Becca doing work? I couldn't believe it either...) In the evening I joined 8 of my classmates for dinner at my professors' flats, which was absolutely the most wonderful thing I've had here in a very long time. I came home with lots of leftovers that won't make it past dinner tonight...

So I'm starting to settle in here: the dorm life is becoming more routine, the campus isn't so confusing, and a few familiar faces are starting to pop up. The kitchen situation has almost been completely solved, aside from the fact that we're still awaiting copies of the keys in order to enter. Once I start cooking for myself and shopping on a regular basis, I will have very few complaints about life here.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:10 AM | Comments (6)

February 11, 2005

Interval Work

This morning I was going to complete my workout of 1200m x 3 and 400m x 1 on the track, but when I got there at 7:15, there was a rather large event going on in which I was obviously not a participant. So I used my handy GPS device and ran the approx. 600m loop around my dorm until my Forerunner told me to stop running and start resting. As I haven't done any sprinting work since high school, I don't have a very good sense of my relative speed. Each 1200m piece took me approximately 5:20, and the 400m distance took me 1:32. I don't know how accurate the GPS device is, though, so I don't know if those times translate very closely to on-the-track times.

It felt good to be sprinting again, despite my rather painful quads...

Posted by rgutwin at 03:19 AM | Comments (1)

The Weekend is Almost Upon Us

I have my last class of the week from 2:00 to 5:20 this afternoon, and then I get to enjoy another relaxing weekend at UWC. On Saturday morning we're going to Robben Island and Kirstenbosch, which should be a fun excursion. And on Sunday evening I'll be dining at my professor's flat, which will be an incredibly welcome diversion from my daily diet of lots of peanut butter and bread.

After my class this afternoon, I'm heading down the road to attend a 10 Years of Democracy celebration. Current President Mbeki will be speaking, and it should be a highly educational experience. We're leaving for Robben Island at 7:00 tomorrow morning, though, and this even is expected to run rather late into the evening, so it looks like it'll be a night with less sleep than I've been getting used to...

The first member of our group of 26 students is leaving shortly. Apparently her experience in South Africa wasn't living up to her expectations, both academically and socially. I don't know if I'll have a chance to speak with her before she leaves, but it seems inconceivable to me to try to leave here now and pick classes up at HWS that started a month ago. I hope that she finds herself more challenged when she gets back to the United States. Personally, I'm glad to not have to endure that 18 hour flight again for a few months.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:04 AM | Comments (1)

February 10, 2005

A Familiar Sensation

As a result of my squats on Tuesday and this morning, combined with my daily running activity, my quads are incredibly painful and make even the slightest physical tasks incredibly difficult. This is not exactly what I specified in my application to become a competitive althlete, but at the same time, it feels good to know that I'm kicking at least part of my body back into shape. Tomorrow I'll wean myself from all of this steady state I've been doing and try some interval work, which shall be interesting...

Posted by rgutwin at 07:42 AM | Comments (0)

Mini-Adventures

Crystal and I hiked to the nearby SuperSpar today because I was quite literally out of food. It was less of a hike and more of an adventure than we had expected. Overall, the three miles we had to walk were much shorter than they initially seemed to be. About half of the walk was inside the campus gate, and the rest was on a two-lane highway that forms the main road through Bellville. Needless to say, there were quite a few horn-happy South African citizens who made our walk slightly less enjoyable. All in all, though, we had a good time and, more importantly, bought lots of food! I can't wait until we get weekly rides to the nearby Pick-and-Pay, though, because the selection at Spar is definitely lacking.

I'm taking a trip to my professor's apartment today to help her figure out some computer issues. Lucky me: two trips in one day! It's nice to get off campus once in a while so I don't feel so fenced in all the time. And speaking of fences, it bothers me that there are locked gates across all the exits in my dorm except for the main entrance. I suppose that they don't have the same awareness of fire safety here, as I have yet to see a smoke detector or fire alarm in my dorm, but I'd like to know that if something were to go wrong, like the dryer that caught fire in my dorm a few nights ago, I would be able to escape. Perceived safety comes at a price, I guess.

I bought my return ticket to Vermont today, which has taken up a considerable amount of my daily allowance of 1 hour online. Therefore, I shall keep this entry brief and write later. I hope all is well in the United States...

Posted by rgutwin at 07:28 AM | Comments (6)

February 09, 2005

Weight Lifting

Frances and I visited the gym yesterday afternoon to start lifting again. I was rather proud of myself, having brought all of the weight tables that listed what each of us should be lifting at various percentages. However, my bubble quickly burst when I realized that I am now in South Africa and thus everything is in kilograms instead of pounds. I know rough conversions, but now I need to sit down with my tables and figure out the exact kg weight I should be lifting. Life is never simple, I guess...

I went running for 30 minutes yesterday morning before I was forced to abort my run, so I continued my workout in the afternoon with 20 minutes on the bike. This morning, I ran for 45 minutes around campus, which is somewhat monotonous but decidedly more interesting than running on a treadmill. There's a circular drive that runs along the fenced-in perimeter of the campus which is 1.75 miles long. It wouldn't be a very good idea to run outside of the fence, and the track doesn't open until 8:30, so I have a feeling that I'll get to know the circular drive rather well before I leave. The difference in temperature between 7:00 and 8:30 is astounding: as soon as the sun comes up, the day gets exponentially warmer. Despite spending most of the day indoors and only training outside before the sun gets strong, I have a much deeper tan than I would have expected. At least it's not a sunburn.

Posted by rgutwin at 04:50 AM | Comments (2)

Post! I have post!

I was happily surprised by the arrival of two cards this morning as I happened to be sitting in the International Relations office! Mom and Anna both wrote to me, and it was so nice to hear from people back home. It takes an 80 cent stamp to mail a card or a letter to South Africa from the United States, although for some reason Anna's card with only a 37 cent stamp made it to me. I wouldn't recommend trying to save the 43 cents, though, as I have a feeling that not all letters will be as lucky as Anna's was. (BTW, in case you didn't pick up on it, here I am strongly encouraging you to send me mail...)

For those of you who are wondering, I am 7 hours ahead of most of you in the eastern time zone. I tend to do a lot of my online stuff around 10:00 or 11:00 (3:00 or 4:00 in the morning your time, for all you non-math majors), but if any of you want to talk to me online in more of a real-time fashion, let me know and I can get online around 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning (your time). Unfortunately, I don't think that AIM Express works on these incredibly slow computers, as I have tried it several times and had no success...

My schedule is somewhat strange. I usually get up around 6:00 or 6:30 every day to run before the sun comes up. Then, on Mondays, I have a math class from 12:00 to 1:00 and I'm free for the rest of the day. On Tuesday, I have the math class from 8:30 to 9:30 and then two courses with the HWS professors from 4:00 to 5:30 and then from 6:30 to 8:00 at night. Wednesdays are interesting because I get up early to run and then only have one three-hour evening class with the HWS professors from 5:30 to 8:30 pm. Thursday is the same as Tuesday, and on Friday I have a 3 hour lab for my math course from 2:00 to 5:00. Conclusion: I usually don't have much to do in the middle of the day.

I have an update on the kitchen situation. The school has finally found a room to host our fridge and microwave and potentially a stove / oven combination, but they don't have outlets in the room yet to plug all of the appliances into. Hopefully I'll be able to get to the grocery store later this week and then have access to the refigeration unit so I can store yummy foods like cheese and yogurt and milk. Transportation to the grocery store is incredibly problematic at this point, as the man we have contracted for the bus service isn't following through with everything. Hopefully stuff will get straightened out soon, but I have noticed that some things in South Africa move slowly.

For example, as I walk around campus during the day, there are thousands of other students around me with their own agendas and places to go. I can't believe how slowly most of the South Africans walk around here! Granted, I have very long legs and tend to walk rather quickly, but my shorter friends have expressed the same observation. I guess that the lesson here is that American culture teaches us to move way too quickly through life.

I doubt that many of you have gotten this far into the post, but I'll keep writing just in case a few have persevered. This morning, when I was waiting for Crystal to get her unappetizing breakfast of Corn Flakes and warm milk, this guy approached me and asked me what my name was. I know that South African males are more outgoing with women, so it wasn't particularly surprising. However, I didn't realize right away that he had some disability that made him look to the left of my face when he was speaking to me, so for a few seconds I was half thinking that he was talking to the wall behind me. His second question was an inquiry about where I lived, and I was somewhat concerned about his intentions. But it turned out that he has seen me on campus and is a grad student staying in residence studying Physical Therapy. He had to get off to work, but I'm glad to have made another friend, albeit a somewhat interesting one...

Posted by rgutwin at 04:24 AM | Comments (5)

February 08, 2005

Running Again

As of Monday, I've been running in the morning around campus before the sun really rises and makes the day unbearably hot. Even though I'm training with my Forerunner this week, I'm refusing to be concerned about pace or distance, as I have already injured myself trying to run too fast too soon. I also purchased a membership to the gym on campus for R100, so I'll be lifting hopefully on a regular basis. It feels good to start training again, but now I'm really concerned about not being able to get proper nutrition to recover. Protien shakes and energy bars like Clif and Luna bars are nonexistent here, and I had to look very closely to find one grocery store that sells one kind of granola bars. Therefore, I have to be inventive in my food sources, which is difficult when I don't have regular access to a store. Maybe training with lower quality nutrition will make my body appreciate all the good things I put into it when I'm in the United States. We shall see...

Posted by rgutwin at 03:43 AM | Comments (1)

An Advancement!

I have bad news: the fourth season Alias isn't scheduled to appear in South Africa until sometime in April. It would be somewhat difficult to watch it on campus here anyway, because we have one big TV room, and I wouldn't feel like trying to convince the other students in the room that they should watch some incredibly convoluted show in which they would understand almost nothing about what was going on. But I can't wait until it comes out on DVD and I get to watch the whole season without commercials and week-long gaps of time between episodes!

Posted by rgutwin at 03:35 AM | Comments (7)

Another Sunny Day in South Africa

I had my first class this morning, and I'm very glad to be back in the world of math, where there's a right and a wrong way to do a lot of things. It turns out that my course is only a term course, so I'll be taking Introductory Combinatorics this term and then Intro to Number Theory half way through the semester. My professor is interesting and keeps the class engaged, which is important. Note to self, though: don't fall asleep in class if you're tired, as a piece of chalk will promptly be chucked in your direction... Unfortunately, I cannot evade the definition of "American student", and I was asked to rehearse part of Martin Luther King's speech when we were talking about axioms being "self-evident". To my embarrassment, I don't know Martin Luther King's speech any better than the professor did, so we didn't get very far with that train of thought.

In reference to the food situation, it is reaching somewhat of a crisis situation. I don't know how long the body can healthily live on peanut butter, bread, biscuits, dry cereal, bananas, and granola bars, but I don't really have any other options at the moment. We still have yet to see the presence of the refigerators and stoves that we were promised, and since the dining hall doesn't cater towards vegetarians, I am constantly borderline starving. Also, the grocery store is a good 45 minute walk off campus with a friend, so I don't really have the option of running to the store to grab something to eat. That's okay, though: I don't think I'll die anytime soon, and hopefully the promised kitchen appliances are on their way.

With the start of courses and getting some things done on campus, I am finally beginning to settle into life here at UWC. We still have a lot to get sorted out and I have some routines to establish, but the campus is beginning to seem more familiar and I'm starting to learn the names of some of the other students here. Unfortunately, I'm not very good with names, especially South African names that I can't even pronounce, let alone remember. The other students understand, though, and I generally feel very welcome. We met with our group doctor last night, and as he pointed out, South Africans know a lot more about American culture than we do about theirs, as most of their entertainment industry comes straight from the states. However, that also means that they have certain strong stereotypes ingrained in their subconscious as a result of our media pollution. Needless to say, it will be a very interesting semester.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:18 AM | Comments (5)

February 07, 2005

One Week Down

I have my first class at the University in half an hour, so I don't have an incredibly long time online. The way the computer labs work here is that you go in and sign up for an hour time slot and get a computer number. When your time comes around, you go to your computer and kick off the person that's currently using it. Unfortunately, I only get an hour online a day, so everything that I do has to be in little chunks of time. It'll be so different to get back to HWS and have access to the internet 24 hours a day! Hopefully I'll get rid of some of the unfortunate dependecy I have developed for technology.

Yesterday I attended a Mormon church service in the nearby township of Gugulettu, which was a learning experience on more levels than I anticipated. We took a taxi into town, which was basically like a Volkswagon Vanagon with a few extra rows of seats and a lot more people than imaginable. A few other girls from William Smith were with me, as well as two women from UWC. We spent an hour in the actual service and then 2 hours in classes, and as I had never been to a Mormon church before, I understood only a fraction of what was going on. Let's just say that the experience was interesting and informative, but not one that I'm likely to repeat anytime soon.

Since it was about 90 degrees yesterday, Frances and I spent the rest of the day in our surprisingly cool room, trying to get some work done for our classes that haven't officially met yet. I have a lot of running around left to do today, and hopefully I'll find some time tomorrow to get back online and keep you posted on everything that you probably aren't spectacularly interested in.

Posted by rgutwin at 04:24 AM | Comments (3)

February 05, 2005

No News Yet

No Alias in South Africa yet, but I'll keep you posted on any updates! I might just have to watch the season when it comes out on DVD... None of you had better spoil it for me!

Posted by rgutwin at 07:26 AM | Comments (1)

Sad Days

I haven't been doing an incredible amount of training yet, because of various frustrating reasons. For the first two weeks it was simply impossible, as we were staying in hotels without gyms and traveling every day. Three or four days I had access to a pool, so I swam for 45 minutes to an hour even though it only took me 15 seconds to get from one end of the pool to the other. I was very frustrated by not being able to work out, as it is very difficult for me to sit still for days on end. I was looking forward to arriving at the University and being able to use the gym and run around.

I didn't realize, however, that we were arriving at the University basically a week before it officially opened. As it is somewhat unsafe and rather warm to run around campus alone in the morning, I have only been out running two or three times this week. When I can buy a membership to the gym next week and my routine becomes easier once classes start, I'll be running and lifting regularly and posting my progress here. I wish I were in Geneva training with my team, though. Teammates are underrated.

Posted by rgutwin at 07:06 AM | Comments (1)

Adjusting...

I'm sitting in an internet café in Muizenburg, South Africa, because we decided to go to the beach today. Little did we know that it was cloudy and rather windy half an hour away from our sunny University, so I'm being more productive with my time today. Hopefully we'll get some internet access at the University soon, although it is most certainly not anything like the connection at HWS. The problem is that UWC has 14,000 students, and 11,000 of those live in the area and are required to commute to the University every day. Therefore, most of the student resources on campus close around 4:00 or 5:00, and everyone seems to evacuate the area.

I'm getting rather tired of trying to survive on unperishable food, but UWC is still working on getting us refrigerators and stoves. Hopefully they will come soon and be in somewhat of an accessible location, because I'm getting rather hungry. A lot of things like the kitchens and the bus service have been very disappointing to both the professors and the students, and hopefully both will be worked out before we leave here in four months.

Classes start on Monday, and I don't think I've ever been this excited to start studying again. We've been touring around the cape peninsula this week, and next week we'll finally be able to do some settling in and such. Registration was a nightmare and one man in particular made me extremely upset, but hopefully I'll be attending a math course this semester which looks basically like a combination of set theory and combinatorics. The word's still out on that one, though, as I haven't completely squared everything away with HWS and I don't even know when my class meets. As you can probably gather, life is fairly disorganized here at UWC. I like organization.

Again, I miss all of you, but I'm starting to get used to life here in Cape Town. And I'm certainly not complaining about the weather, which has been sunny and in the 80's almost every day. I'm also learning a lot, not only about the culture and environment of South Africa, but also about myself and various areas that can still use some improvement. When I can get online more regularly and without such a time constraint, I'll be excited to be able to tell everyone about what has been going on! I love and miss you all. Keep commenting!

Posted by rgutwin at 06:51 AM | Comments (2)