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April 29, 2005

Academics and Exercise

I rarely do any of my studying or reading while I'm exercising, 1) because I find it hard to read if I'm running on a treadmill or bouncing up and down on an elliptical, and 2) because I generally don't have so much work to do that I can't get it done during the 23 hours of the day I'm not exercising. However, due to an entertaining evening last night with Frances and Crystal, I didn't get as much studying done for my combinatorics final than I initially anticipated. Thus, I spent my 45 minutes on the bike this morning reading proofs on permutations and combinations and reccurence relations and all sorts of fun stuff. I couldn't read while I lifted, although I suppose you could call that my "processing time". 8 reps again at the new-and-improved heavier percentage. Might it be 10 next week?

Posted by rgutwin at 05:58 AM | Comments (0)

Another Friday Already?

My combinatorics exam went spectacular this morning, which concluded my studies of mathematics here at the University of the Western Cape. And I received some wonderful news this morning: Hobart and William Smith Colleges are going to grant me a full semester's credit for my half-a-semester course! This means that I don't need to scramble to take an extra math course my senior year. I'm very excited about this.

After some quality Crystal time this afternoon (tennis and a walk to Spar are currently in the books), I'm spending the evening indoors doing work. Tomorrow, Shaun is taking Niki and I to a cheese and wine festival! I'm also very excited about this little excursion, especially since I can taste as much cheese and wine as I want for a mere R70! I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to share... On Sunday, more work is on my schedule, and Monday might involve some kind of exciting mini-trip off campus with one of my classes. Knowing the way South Africa functions, however, I don't expect all of these activities to actually occur, but who knows? Maybe I'll have a (busy) excellent weekend!

Posted by rgutwin at 05:50 AM | Comments (3)

April 28, 2005

Back to the Asphalt

I decided to run yesterday, because the only other alternative was swimming, and I'm not particularly a fan of both embarassing myself in the pool and then smelling like chlorine for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, there was something going on at the track for the day, so I spent 40 minutes running around campus.

This morning, I decided to run again as an alternative to swimming and biking, but this time I spent about half of my 45 minute run on the track. My shin pain is somewhat bizarre: it comes and goes during my run, and only feels particularly excruciating when I stop sometimes. I don't get it...

Posted by rgutwin at 05:15 AM | Comments (4)

Freedom Day

I forgot to mention that yesterday was a South African national holiday, which meant that the entire campus shut down and thus prohibited my internet access. It was a beautiful day outside, and lots of people took advantage of the weather and the free time by participating in various activities around campus. It reminded me a lot of Labor Day in the States, what with families hanging around, having braais and such. After my run in the morning, I walked around campus to take some pictures and soak in the South African weather and community. Part of me wanted to join in everyone else's fun activities, but I realized that that would both be semi-inappropriate and probably-not-so-fun for me...

After my final combinatorics exam tomorrow morning, I will conclude this week filled with four papers and over 300 pages of academic reading. Actually, everyone else around me seems to be stressing out, but I don't know what all the fuss is about. I like all the work I have to do, because it distracts me from the alternative boredom of having very little to do.

Posted by rgutwin at 04:41 AM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2005

Pool Time!

I went swimming for 40 minutes this morning, because I don't think it's great for my shins if I keep running on them, and I feel like I've monopolized the bikes in the weight room enough... I alternated 10 minutes of aqua jogging with 10 minutes of freestyle (sans goggles, which means that I looked rather...silly). Now, six hours and one short, cold shower later, I still smell like chlorine. Ah, the joys of swimming.

Posted by rgutwin at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

Trapped on Campus

I'm starting to get somewhat concerned about how I'll spend my time during my last two weeks in South Africa. All the HWS classes I'm taking will have ended, meaning that I'll have no courses or course work to occupy my time. The taxi system here is somewhat sketchy, and in light of the recent taxi wars and shootings, I'm even more hesitant to cram into a minibus filled with a dozen or so other people. Thus, I forsee the very real possibility of hanging out on campus every day except for Saturdays and Tuesdays, when the school has arranged rides for us with Calvin. (We had to switch drivers: the whole Roger thing fell through. It's a really long story involving lots of money lost by HWS, which means even less money in the budget to organize any more trips for us.)

What am I going to do on campus almost every day for two weeks with no classes? My daily workout can only occupy so much of my time, and then it's probably going to be a lot of DVDs and reading for Becca. The weather is going to be really cold and rainy, so I can't go to the beach or enjoy the lovely outdoors. Museums will entertain me for approximately one day. I don't really have the money to travel around to other cities, and even if I did, I don't think I would want to do such a thing by myself. I'm thinking of talking to my professors about my options around Cape Town, because I really don't understand why we're staying here for two extra weeks if there isn't anything for us to do, and we can't get out of the barbed-wire fence surrounding the campus...

Posted by rgutwin at 08:15 AM | Comments (3)

April 25, 2005

Lack of Precision is Frustrating

I ran another timed mile on Sunday (yes, even though my shins are still bothering me. They weren't too bad, though...), and I'm starting to realize how frustrating it is to try to time an approximately-one-mile route. Usually, a difference in up to 100 meters or whatever isn't really a big deal, but when you're trying to compare times from week to week, it gets challenging. The reason I'm so frustrated is because I ran a 6:15 mile yesterday, while last week I finished with a time of 6:14. I'm convinced that I ran for a few extra seconds this time, although it's hard for me to tell because I'm usually so out of it when I finish that I can't remember exactly where I stopped. I always start in the same place, though. Maybe sometime this week I'll clock the course while walking, and then just run by distance instead of time from now on.

Another monotonous 45 minutes of biking, 20 minutes of lifting this morning. I'm up to 8 reps of the super heavy weight, which is somewhat difficult. I'm hoping I'll build lots of muscle fast so that I can bump up the weights one more time before I leave.

Posted by rgutwin at 07:31 AM | Comments (5)

Beautiful Fall Day

Although the past week or so has been rather chilly and rainy, autumn in South Africa is just as beautiful as you would expect it to be. Today, the sun is out, the air is crisp, and I acutally see birds migrating in the correct direction! (In Geneva, they always seem to be really confused. Some fly east, some fly west, and some really confused ones fly north. Very few actually fly south...) Shockingly, I spent the entire weekend on campus because my Table Mountain plans fell through yet again. It wasn't a bad weekend, though, since Crystal was around to keep me company, and we got a head start on all the work that seems to be coming to an exhausting climax right before the end of the HWS semester.

Oh, and just for fun...

Posted by rgutwin at 07:16 AM | Comments (2)

April 22, 2005

Resting is Effective

After feeling progressively worse throughout the day yesterday, I woke up this morning without any sign of the illness that threatened me yesterday! So I spent 45 minutes on the bike and lifted the heavier weights that I've been lifting this week. For some reason, it's surprising to me that I took a rest day and it was actually noticeably beneficial to my health!

Posted by rgutwin at 06:27 AM | Comments (1)

Another Friday Upon Us

I have come to the end of another week, and yet again I have no concrete plans for this weekend (not that they tend to carry much weight in South Africa anyway...). I do have a paper and a half to write and lots of reading to get done, so hopefully I'll be able to fit it all in with my (prospective) climb up Table Mountain on Saturday. The weather is supposed to be nice, so if Shaun doesn't make any other plans, he'll take us up the mountain. It's so hard for me to believe that he's lived in Cape Town his entire life and hasn't climbed to the top of South Africa's most famous mountain yet. There's a first time for everything, I guess...

Posted by rgutwin at 06:21 AM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2005

Cecil Esau B Block Kitchen

A few people back in the States have expressed curiosity as to my current food/kitchen experience, and I figured it might be interesting to take a few pictures of what I cook in every day! First of all, it's important to note that there are ten students in B Block, and one (rather small) refigerator to share. The result is that I currently only have an onion, a block of cheese, three yogurts, and some mayonnaise stored in the crowded refigeration unit, and nothing in the freezer (note the missing freezer door...).

The main thing about the kitchen is that it's not really big enough for one person, let alone multiple people all trying to make their dinner after class at one time. This picture basically shows almost all of the kitchen: the door is to the immediate left of the fridge, and the sink area is right behind me.

As a side tangent here (not that there are any other sorts of tangents...right?), I got out of bed to go take these pictures around 10:00 at night, and when I got into the kitchen, one of the burners was on, the light was off, and the door was locked! So I'm very glad that I happened to wander into the kitchen that night. I'm convinced that we're going to start a fire in there before we leave. We've already blown a fuse multiple times, and I think I've encountered forgotten hot burners at least three times.

So here's the sink. I have two issues with the sink. The first is that there are separate faucets for the hot and the cold water, so you can either wash your dishes in an unsatisfactory chilly stream of water, or a scalding one. I tend to opt for the scalding one, and I've definitely burned my fingers plenty of times. The second issue I have is that the sink is about the size of an Altoids tin. Okay, well, it's a little bigger than that, but not by much! It's tricky to wash pots in a teeny, tiny sink without getting scalding water all over the place...

I have to be careful about complaining about our sink, however, because it is better than the community sink in the room right next to our kitchen. This sink is prone to clogginess and general ickiness. Yes, it's completely flooded in this picture, with lots of food particles swimming around. By the way, you can click on any of these pictures to get a larger view.

Okay, so now we're moving away from the kitchen into my room. I like that we have a gate on the outside of our suite, because the rest of my classmates only have a wooden door with a padlock for security. I feel special with a gate and everything. Except it's somewhat strange that the gate locks and the door behind it doesn't, so that when we get our weekly supply of toilet paper, the cleaning ladies open our door and push it through the bars of the gate.

Here's my half of the room that Frances and I share. We have bars on the outside and the inside of our room, which is pretty cool. I'm standing with the door right behind me, and our wall of closets is opposite the wall with all my lovely decorations.

I took a close-up of everything that's on my wall so far. Thanks to everyone who sent me something, because it's helping to make Frances and I feel more at home! Well, some of it might be making Frances feel somewhat unloved, because I've gotten all these nice things in the mail and she has yet to receive anything, but I still think she appreciates the decorations!

That't it for now! Let me know if anyone wants more pictures of anything in particular, because I tend to forget that everyone back home has very little of a sense of what daily life is like for me here! And a huge thanks goes out to the nicest girl in the world, Crystal, for letting me use her laptop to take all this time to put up all these lovely pictures!

Posted by rgutwin at 04:24 AM | Comments (7)

A Rest Day?

For the first time in a very long time, I decided to pay attention to my body this morning and forego the daily morning training. My shins have been bothering me, I'm extraordinarily sleepy, and I'm also coming down with some sort of stomach/sore throat/general ickiness feeling. It was hard to force myself to stay in bed this morning, but I reminded myself that a sick Becca trains much less effectively than a healthy one. I wish that I had a coach around to command me to take things like rest days, because it's rather difficult for me to convince myself that I shouldn't complete a workout just because I don't feel like it. I'm hoping that I can nip this illness in the bud so I can start doing more speed training soon.

Posted by rgutwin at 04:12 AM | Comments (0)

Autumn? I'm Waiting for Spring...

While spring may have sprung in New England, the days are starting to get substantially cooler and damper here in Cape Town, South Africa, and it's surprisingly chillier than I expected. Granted, I'm not one of those Capetonians walking around bundled up to the extreme in a winter hat, scarf, and down jacket, but even coming from autumn experience in frigid Vermont, I must admit that this South African weather is pretty darn cold. It snowed (on the mountains, of course) the other day, and I'm starting to regret the fact that I only brought one sweatshirt, one fleece, and no winter hat in terms of warmer clothing. Poor Frances has a shelf full of tank tops that she's probably not going to get much use out of for the remainder of the semester. I'm guessing that this week has been unseasonably cold for Cape Town at this time of the year (from all the newspaper headlines and South Africans walking around like the world is about to end), so hopefully I have a few warmer days to look forward to before I depart this beautiful country in a month.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:56 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2005

Those Weights are Heavy!

An hour on the bike this morning followed by my increased weight percentage, still at 6 reps. All of this heavy lifting better be building me some useful muscles!

Posted by rgutwin at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

Lots 'o Work

If I complained earlier about being really, really bored with only three classes, I momentarily retract that statement. The past two weeks have been plenty filled with projects, reading, and papers, without much of an end in sight. Actually, my three classes with the professors from HWS end at the beginning of May, so I'm going to have an interesting final few weeks on the UWC campus without any pesky classwork to distract me...

Posted by rgutwin at 10:27 AM | Comments (1)

April 19, 2005

A Nuisance

My shin splints (or whatever the heck they are) are back again, unfortunately in what seems like full force. I've been trying to be so good about only running on soft surfaces, but it doesn't seem to be helping! I braved the rainy weather this morning and spent 40 minutes on the track (gasp! without my Forerunner!), until the pain in my shins got so bad that I realized it would definitely be a bad idea to continue. I don't know what to do, because biking every morning doesn't sound particularly appealing to me. Work with me, legs!

Posted by rgutwin at 12:04 PM | Comments (1)

Uninspired

I find it important to note that I have currently been uninspired to make different meals. I'm tired of rice and pasta, and working with the kitchen I have is getting rather frustrating (I took some pictures last night and will post them when I get the chance...). I went to Tyger Valley today and bought lots of bread and eggs, so it looks as though this week will be rather lacking in culinary adventure. Oh well.

Posted by rgutwin at 12:01 PM | Comments (2)

April 18, 2005

Timed Mile and Such

I've been running timed miles on Sundays to try and simulate some of what my body would be going through if I were at home and racing. A few weeks ago, my time was 6:26, then I went on spring break, and the following week I ran a very disappointing 6:28. This Sunday I resoved to not miss a season PR by only a few seconds, and was excited to see 6:14 on the clock when I passed the one mile mark. Hopefully I can get my time under 6:00 before I leave for home.

This morning I spent an easy 45 minutes of steady state on the bike and then (finally) increased my lifting percentage. Unfortunately, that meant that I also had to decrease my reps to 6 on most of the exercises, but I can work on getting those back up to 10 again. So now I'm lifing 25 kilograms on the upright row, 60 kilograms on the leg press machine, 37.5 kilograms on the seated row, 25 kilograms on the hampstring curl, and 52.5 kilograms on the tricep press.

Posted by rgutwin at 05:05 AM | Comments (6)

No Table Mountain

So, as could be expected, my weekend plans fell through. South Africans don't really seem to be into the whole "planning" thing (or at least the South Africans I've met...). However, I had a good weekend despite not leaving the UWC campus: my professor brought Anna Karenina back from the United States, so I've had a lot of pleasure reading and homework to occupy my time. I'm kind of getting used to relaxing on the weekends and accepting the fact that I really can't find many ways to procrastinate. My grandparents from Vermont called last night, which was quite a pleasant conclusion to a relaxing weekend. I can't wait to get home soon to see everyone!

This week looks relatively uneventful. I have the highlight of my week tomorrow (grocery shopping, of course), a presentation on Wednesday, two papers due on Thursday, and potentially a combinatorics exam to schedule in sometime. Oh, and lots of Tolstoy to read. :-P

Posted by rgutwin at 04:58 AM | Comments (1)

April 15, 2005

Interval Work!

This morning I did four 600m intervals on the track, which was definitely a welcome break from all the long, steady running I've been doing. I'm not sure how accurate my Forerunner was in measuring the distance, because I think it's a 400m track and my little buddy wasn't giving me exactly 400m every time I went around, but it's not so much about the specific distance than it is about the general time and speed. After the 4 x 600m, I did 1 x 200m and then headed into the weight room to get my lifting in.

Posted by rgutwin at 05:58 AM | Comments (3)

Finally, Table Mountain!

I've been meaning to climb Table Mountain ever since I got here, and it finally looks like it's going to happen! Shaun has (somewhat hesitantly) agreed to hike up the mountain with Niki and I tomorrow, and I found a few routes that won't be too taxing for the two non-rowers... I've been to the top before, but our group cheated and used the cable car. We might take it down tomorrow, but hopefully Shaun and Niki will be up for hiking the descent, too, especially since Shaun's car will probably be at the bottom of the trail we take, not the lower cable car station. We're not going straight up the mountain like Anna's ideal path would be (I saw people rock climbing on the way down in the cable car, and it looked pretty intense), but we'll get up there nonetheless.

Posted by rgutwin at 05:46 AM | Comments (2)

April 14, 2005

Yay! A Package from my Grandparents!

The package count continues to rise as I received a package from western New York this afternoon! My grandparents thoughtfully sent me some books, which will definitely help with the whole boredom-from-only-three-classes thing... Getting packages makes me feel so loved. I only have a month and a half left here, so for those of you who were wondering when to make your move, now's the time. :-P

Posted by rgutwin at 12:11 PM | Comments (2)

The Track is my Friend

Another 45 minutes this morning running lots and lots of circles around and around on the track. I was going to extend my run to 60 minutes, but unfortunately the pain in my shins strongly encouraged me not to do so...

Posted by rgutwin at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)

Paper in the Bathrooms

I want to discuss the issue of toilet paper and paper towels (or lack thereof) I have encountered at UWC, despite the fact that it's somewhat of an odd subject to expand upon. I don't know if it's "a culture thing" or just a "UWC thing", but my first observation is that I have yet to find any toilet paper in an actual toilet stall: if there is any at all, it is in a dispenser in the main area of the bathroom. It took me a while to get used to this, and I went through quite a few tissues I conveniently kept in my backback before I got the hang of it. Furthermore, I have found that the supply of toilet paper is diminished rather quickly, and that the Univeristy seems to have a difficult time determining how long a supply of such paper will last. Thus, I have called upon my handy tissues on plenty of occasions where normally-provided toilet paper is not present.

Finally, once you exit the stall and proceed to wash your hands at UWC, you encounter not only a universal lack of soap, but also an absence of paper towels or electronic devices with which to dry your hands. Luckily, I have a lot of (very absorbant) curly hair that comes in handy in times like these, but I find it rather strange that this seemingly obvious problem has not already been resolved at the Univeristy. Consequently, this leads me to wonder whether other (South African) students find such a phenomenon perfectly normal, or if they are just as perplexed as I am. Perhaps I shall embark on a research project...

Posted by rgutwin at 08:30 AM | Comments (4)

April 13, 2005

Bet You Can't Guess

Another 45 minutes of steady state on the bike this morning, with some harder intervals mixed in for a bit of fun. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm actually beginning to miss erging to the extent that I wish I could erg instead of bike. I'm sure that I'll get my fill of it this summer, though, training hard enough so that I can PR this fall.

I lifted at the same percentage today, which still doesn't feel particularly light, but which I want to increase hopefully next week. I'll just have to improvise with the whole "you can only increase by 15 pound increments" thing.

Posted by rgutwin at 06:26 AM | Comments (0)

Organization

Being the incredibly organized person I am, I feel it's important to note the extreme lack of organization I've encountered at UWC, and in South Africa in general. Coming from a society where everything is as fast-paced and efficient as possible, it's strange to be in a country where "7:30" really means "sometime around 8-ish", large functions are usually planned a maximum of 48 hours in advance, and I see the same unshelved book on the same desk in the library for weeks on end. I understand that the United States takes efficiency to the extreme, and that a society in which almost everyone is over-worked is prehaps a bit too stressful, but I'm also learning to appreciate the little things I take for granted back at home (such as restaurants and various offices opening when their posted hours indicate they will do so).

This being said, I know that South Africa is trying to incorporate itself more into the global market, which means that the country as a whole is trying to become more productive and less inefficient in the workplace. Unfortunately, this direcly implies fewer job opportunities for the citizens of South Africa, as retrenchments lead to higher productivity and thus more competition in the global market. The fact that this country is still developing means that organization is definitely not at its prime, and perhaps as the economy begins to grow and unemployment subsequently begins to fall, I'll become slightly less frustrated with the way some things work over here. Until then, I guess I'll just have to learn how to function on "South African time".

Posted by rgutwin at 06:09 AM | Comments (6)

April 12, 2005

Track Running

I have decided that I don't particularly enjoy running around in circles on the track, but unfortunately my stubborn shins have given me little alternative. I spent the majority of my 50 minute run on the track this morning until the presence of two young men who were trying to get my attention became too distracting. Thus, to avoid the attention I was eliciting in my bright orange running shorts, I finished the run through the middle of campus, which definitely wasn't the smartest idea Becca's ever had. "Let's run past a few hundred people instead of just two, because that sounds like it might help the situation..."

Posted by rgutwin at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)

Continued Vacation

So two weeks ago I had my spring break (which was really confusingly 'fall break' here...), and last week one of my three classes was cancelled due to Professor Pinto's attendance at a conference in Boulder, CO. Trust me, life is rather boring when you only have two classes to attend to and nothing much else going on otherwise. I was somewhat looking forward to the commencement of my literature class today, but alas, my professor is stuck in Colorado because of some huge snowstorm! I almost forgot what weather is like for those of you who have to deal with the snowy winter...

Instead of going to my literature class this afternoon, I spent a rather enjoyable few hours in the library, finishing up my first reading of Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I was reading it for pleasure, and yes, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I finally figured out how to check books out of the library, so I'm trying to make the most of my newfound borrowing privileges. Although the library doesn't possess any Tolstoy books in English, I have managed to secure copies of The Grapes of Wrath and The Hobbit before they fly off the shelves. Okay, so prehaps a lot of 'flying' might not be happening, but at least I have ways to amuse myself in the vast amount of time I have between classes...

Posted by rgutwin at 11:35 AM | Comments (1)

April 11, 2005

Changing it Up a Bit

This morning, after I braved the rainstorm raging outside, I spent some time on the bike before lifting. Instead of doing my usual 45-60 mintues, though, I did a 53 minute pyramid. It wasn't as painful as it usually is on the erg or on the water, but it was better than all of the steady state I've been doing.

At Asim's apartment this weekend, I noticed that he had a rowing machine in his game/exercise/telescope room. I wasn't a Concept II, and after I sat down on it briefly, I wasn't super impressed. Something about the whole metal bike-chain thing is much more appealing than a piece of fabric attached to the handle... I guess that it makes sense that Concept IIs aren't super common over here, since they're made in the wonderfully small state of Vermont.

Posted by rgutwin at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

A Wonderful Weekend

Niki, Crystal, and I had an interesting and amusing weekend with Shaun, who has become somewhat of a personal chauffer. Niki took lots and lots of pictures, so feel free to check out her account of the weekend as well.

On Friday night we joined Shaun's friend, Asim, and a few others for an amusing strategy game called Settlers of Catan. Despite being complete novices, Niki and I worked as a team and did rather well for ourselves. After Settlers of Catan, we played Jenga, and then took an after-midnight stroll on the beach right outside of the back door. We spent the night there at Asim's apartment, which made sense because we didn't crash until 4 am, and Shaun wasn't in an ideal state to drive us back to UWC.

I woke up at 8:00 and spent some time reading and checking out the view from the back porch:



After waking a very reluctant Shaun up, we had breakfast at a nearby Mugg and Bean and then drove into Cape Town so Niki could get some shopping done and Crystal and I could spend some quality time at the internet cafe. I can't believe that Shaun allowed us to drag him out of bed (relatively) early in the morning when he wasn't feeling well, and then he spent the morning snoozing in his car while we bobbled around in Cape Town. I guess I'm encountering the generosity of South Africans that our professors raved so much about last semester...

We spent the afternoon driving around the Western Cape, visiting some winelands and getting a bit of cheese tasting in for Niki. We stopped at a butterfly farm at one point, but we didn't actually pay the R23 to frolick amongst them. We concluded the day with a visit to Shaun's friend's girlfriend's birthday braai (barbeque, for all you Americans over there), which was..."interesting." Shaun stressed the fact that we were among Dutch South Africans, and suggested that such an affiliation accounted for some of the strangeness we were encountering. Niki and I spent most of the party trying to avoid the loud music and incoherent conversations.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day spent in the room. I got through a fairly large chunk of Pride and Prejudice and watched a bit of the OC with Frances and Crystal. At one point, we noticed that it started to get darker, and the wind picked up and started slamming huge hailstones against our window!



It was pretty cool to see a hailstorm in South Africa. We were wondering if it could have been a hurricaine or something of the sort. Anything to add, Bill Nye? I'll expect one of your Science Corner entries to address the issues of hail in 90 degree weather...

Posted by rgutwin at 06:53 AM | Comments (7)

April 08, 2005

What? Dialogue in the Gym?

I feel it's important to mention that I'm creating these training entries more for me than for you, because I'm keeping no other record of my workouts and it will be useful to be able to look back on what I did this spring. Thus, "another day of 45 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes lifting" is technically all I need to write.

But this morning, something slightly more exciting happened, because someone in the gym actually talked to me! He asked me if I had been hiking, because I still have lots of nasty little scratches all over my legs that betray my whole getting-lost-in-the-woods experience. I relayed part of the story to him, and after further discussion found out that his name is something that sounds phoenetically like "Socks" (which I can remember...) and that he's from the Eastern Cape. I'm sure I'll be seeing plenty more of him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the gym before I leave.

Posted by rgutwin at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

An Open Weekend

Alas, the weekend is upon us again, and I currently don't have any definite plans. I think it's dinner in and a movie for Frances and I this evening, which will be a rather enjoyable break for Frances from all the stress she's had this week. I don't know what's going on tomorrow, as I have several options and an apparent inability to make concrete decisions in advance. I'll probably end up wandering the streets of Cape Town somewhere, or I'll take the day to read and finish my combinatorics project.

On a completely different note, I was wandering around the gutwin.org server a while ago and found this photo:



I miss my Kismet...

Posted by rgutwin at 05:09 AM | Comments (6)

April 07, 2005

So Far, So Good

This morning I spent 50 minutes running on the track (at a slow pace, granted, but it was still 50 minutes of running...), and there was no sign of my pesky shin splints that started to appear before I went on break. Hopefully I can prevent them from getting as bad as they've been in the past, but I don't know what to do about it other than back off from speed and super long distances. Any suggestions, marathon girl? Or marathon daddy?

Posted by rgutwin at 03:16 AM | Comments (4)

Comedian

I went to go see the comedian Marc Lottering last night, which was relatively entertaining. Despite some issues with getting our dinner (which wasn't exactly the well-cooked meal I was hoping for), the company was pleasant and the performance was amusing at times. Marc kept switching back and forth between English and Afrikaans, so it was hard to pick up on what he was saying sometimes. And I felt somewhat awkward, because Niki and I were sitting in front, center stage, and we definitely weren't laughing as much as the rest of the (South African) audience because we couldn't really understand what was going on. It must be very difficult to be a comedian. I've crossed it off my list of potential career options. Not that it was ever on there, anyway...

So I have a class this evening from 6:30 to 8:00, and then I'm free from lectures until Tuesday at 4:00. This whole having-lots-of-free-time thing is going to get very boring very quickly. I finished the math report for my combinatorics professor and will try to take the final exam sometime next week. Now I need to work on convincing the Colleges back home that I covered a semester's worth of material in half the time. Hopefully this won't be too difficult, because I've taken three exams and have lots and lots of notes from lecture and lab.

Posted by rgutwin at 03:07 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2005

The Titles are Getting Redundant

Perhaps I should stop trying to find a title for every training entry I post, because it feels like I keep doing the same thing every day. I biked for 45 minutes this morning, followed by lifting at who-knows-what percentage due to the whole "kilogram" and "the smallest increment you can increase is over 14 pounds" thing. I do still have lots of muscles, though, which I am very excited about. Now the trick is to train my body to actually supply the muscles with oxygen during a workout, which is always a good thing...

Posted by rgutwin at 04:42 AM | Comments (0)

Last Group Outing

I didn't think much about it before I left the United States for South Africa, but travelling in a group of 24 other students, two professors, and their respective spouses is actually somewhat difficult. That being said, I have enjoyed the various field trips we've taken together since we've been here. Tonight I'm joining my fellow classmates for our last field trip of the semester: we're going to some comedy performance at a restaurant somewhere, and HWS is picking up the tab for dinner! I always get really excited for free food here...

It's strange to have no classes at the university. I've had lots of semesters with four classes, and one with five, but never any with only three. I'm going to have to find some way to volunteer somewhere on campus soon, because I think that I'll get rather bored with all the extra free time I have on my hands. I still need to finish some stuff up from my course last term (namely, my final exam), but after that's all done, I'll have no math exposure. Perhaps some sort of personal independent study is in order.

Posted by rgutwin at 04:26 AM | Comments (3)

April 05, 2005

Photos Uploaded!

I have uploaded some of the photos from my break! You can go to Snapfish to see all of them. In the meantime, here's one of my favourites (hand-picked especially for my sister!):

Posted by rgutwin at 02:37 PM | Comments (2)

Starting Slowly

After a return of my shin splints a week and a half ago, I decided to take the week of fall break off from running and then to ease back into it this week. This morning I made my way over to the track and spent a quality 45 minutes jogging around, completing the workout accidentally with an exact distance of 5 miles and consequent average pace of 9:00. Okay, so it wasn't as easy as I initially intended it to be, but hopefully it wasn't hard enough to aggravate my shins again.

Posted by rgutwin at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

Another Package!

Today I was gathering bread and eggs in my room to head down the hallway to make some French Toast, when Aisha walked into my room to deliver a package from Mom just in time! Enclosed was a small jar of Maple Syrup, which was definitely exactly what I've been desperately missing over here. Also included was a photo of Kismet and one of his feathers, and I'm excited that my wall is beginning to get rather full with everyone's cards, pictures, and newspaper clippings. I'll have to post a picture of it soon.

I'm sorry to announce that I've been having a bit of difficulty with my class registration and enrollment opportunities. First of all, my combinatorics course at the university here ended before fall break, and I was planning on taking another course, Intro to Number Theory, for the second half of the semester. Unfortunately, as soon as I saw the professor and sat through the first lecture, I knew that it wouldn't be a very enjoyable term for me if I remained in the course, as the professor is someone I don't have much desire to spend loads of time with. Therefore, I now need to convince HWS that my 7-week combinatorics class is equivalent to a semester-long course I would take back in Geneva. Honestly, I feel like I've learned a semester's worth of material, but I'm not sure how much it'll take for registrar to believe me...

The second issue is that I can't take acting in the fall, which was a rather disappointing realization for me. The computer system wouldn't let me register for it online, and when I tried to contact the professor, he basically told me that I should look elsewhere to fulfill my performing arts goal because he doesn't want to invest in a senior who won't contribute more to the theater program at the colleges. Frankly, this seems like an unfair discrimination to me, but I don't particularly feel like pursuing it further because it probably wouldn't be that pleasant to spend a semester with this professor who doesn't really want me anyway.

Therefore, I'm taking Tibetan Mandala Paining in the spring (hopefully) to fulfill this graduation requirement that is threatening to get the better of me. I thought of taking Intro to Drawing, but after hearing numerous horror stories, I decided to try my luck with potentially the most popular class on campus. I really hope I graduate in 13 months...

Now I need to decide what I'm going to take in the fall instead of acting. I've narrowed it down to Mathematical Logic, Accounting I, Rethinking Jesus, and potentially Creative Writing instead of banking so much on the Mandala Paining course. Let me know if any of you have any comments or suggestions, as these courses might close within a few days when more classes are allowed to register from HWS. I'm still really upset about the acting course, but there are enough interesting courses at HWS that I'm sure I'll have an enjoyable senior year.

Posted by rgutwin at 11:09 AM | Comments (9)

April 04, 2005

Return to the Gym

After a week off from training (not counting the 6.5 hour hike and 4 hour, rather tense and lost hike through the forest), I jumped on the bike again this morning for 45 minutes, followed by another 20 or so on the weights. Two people asked me what was going on with my legs, because I have about a million and one scratches all over them from the thorn bushes yesterday. I felt kind of weird explaining that I got lost in the woods...

Posted by rgutwin at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

Home Sweet...UWC...

After a rather eventful fall break excursion along the Garden Route, I have finally arrived back at my trusty dorm room on the UWC campus. I'll give you the day-by-day walkthrough of the journey, because I have too much to say to embark in an unorderly fashion...

First of all, Easter Sunday was nice: I woke up before the crack of dawn and headed to the north-east corner of campus to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely amazing with lots of orange and pink and blue and gold and yellow and the like. It's not the first South African sunrise I've seen, and it probably won't be the last, because we're heading into winter and the days are getting shorter. By the way, due to the Daylight Savings Time in the United States and the lack thereof in South Africa, the time difference between us is now 6 hours instead of 7.

Tuesday, March 29: We spent almost the entire day driving today. The description we got on the itinerary lists all of the places we drove through. However, I can't imagine that you all are sitting at your computers anxiously awaiting a list of places you probably can't pronounce anyway, so suffice it to say that we drove past lots and lots of really pretty scenery. We spent the night at the Tube 'n Axe Backpackers, which was a neat little place with rather bland and not-too-efficiently-prepared food.

Wednesday, March 30: Today I went on a six and a half hour, 25 kilometer hike with Niki and Professor Pinto. Niki took some pictures and wrote lots and lots about it, so feel free to wander over to her site and check it out. I was doing okay, but my adventurous (and apparently ageless) professor impressed me with her ability to complete the hike with relatively little complaining. The funny thing was that I saw the hike was so long when I first got the map, but it didn't really occur to me that we would actually hike the whole thing. All I can say is, LOTS and LOTS of bonding time... It was a really good day, and we had quite a few laughs that I'm not likely to forget anytime soon.

Thursday, March 31: We spent the bulk of another day driving, except this time we doubled back and were driving east instead of west. We finally ended up at a farm owned by my Professor Moodie's brother. I shared a cottage with Niki and Crystal and Frances, which was very cozy and made me rather sad to leave to come back to the University. Again, Niki took lots of pictures, and a lot of what she talks about was part of my experience as well.

Friday, April 1: No, I did not partake in any April Fool's jokes today, although I must say that I was expecting many more pranks from my fellow students. The weather was rather rainy and gloomy, so I naturally spent the morning on a dairy farm after breakfast. It was actually really interesting to visit a South African dairy farm and compare it to those that I've been to back in the States. Needless to say, the farms were very comparable. I met some interesting Afrikaner farmers and saw some really cool baby cows, so the journey was well worth it. I just hung around the cottage in the afternoon, playing some games with my cottage-mates and suffered another Scrabble defeat at the hands of my professor...

Saturday, April 2: Bright sunlight greeted my eyes as I awoke this morning, and I had a rather busy day trying to do everything that I couldn't do in the rain yesterday. We hiked around a nature reserve in the morning and spent the (rather cold) afternoon on the beach. Again, I was with Niki, so you can go to her journal to see some pictures of the stuff we saw. Alas, no swimming in the Indian Ocean for me, but it was nice to get down to the coast and enjoy time amongst the sand and the waves nonetheless.

Sunday, April 3: Today deserves it's own whole post, but since I'm really pressed for time, I'll give you highlights now and expand on the day upon request. This morning I went for a hike in the woods with the professor who grew up on the farm, his wife, and two other students (Emily and Leanne). We were going to take a leisurely walk to some nearby tree ferns and then head back to the center of the farm for lunch. We walked to the tree ferns, oohed and ahhed, and continued on the path further to see if there was a view at the top of the hill. Professor Moodie's wife, Meredith, sat down eventaully and told us to continue, because she wasn't feeling as energetic as the rest of us. About a minute later, Emily decided to stop hiking as well, because she was walking barefoot through the forest and was in quite a bit of pain. Thus, Leanne and Dunbar and I said that we would be back downthe trail within 15 minutes or so, as we just wanted to see if there was any sort of a view once we got out of the forest. We made it to the top and out, but the grass was too high to really see anything. On our way back down, we totally missed the trail, and found ourselves wandering through trees and aloe plants and thorn bushes. For the first 10 minutes or so, Leanne and I were somewhat amused, convinced that Dunbar would be able to find the path soon. Almost three hours later, dirtier and adorned with many more scrapes than we had when we entered the forest, we came upon the stream that we knew would lead us somewhere familiar. This was the third happiest moment of my entire life. We then followed the stream for a while, wading through in bare feet and tring not to stumble on the slippery, painful rocks, and then continued to the top of a grassy hill to come upon a vehicle path. This was the second happiest moment of my entire life. Once we knew that we could definitely find our way back to civilization, Leanne and I became much more talkative and started skipping down the road towards the entrance to the trail, rather concerned that Meredith might have taken the truck back to the farm in our three hour absence. Finally, we came around the corner and saw two vehicles, complete with a small welcoming committee! I can't remember if I've ever been so happy in my life. At some points during the hike, Leanne and I were definitely rather scared. It was a bad situation: we were completely lost in the forest with no cell phone, no water, no extra clothing, and a (somewhat aging) professor who wasn't really sure where we were going. Needless to say, I was very relieved to get back on the bus to head back to campus.

So here I am again, only slightly worse for the wear and with lots of stories I'll have to tell for many years to come. By the way, I got a package over break from Dad and Beth full of lots of yummy chocolate chip cookies! I've definitely made a dent in those already... And Grama Jean sent me another card, which racks her tally up to three! I hope that all of you know how excited I get when I hear that I have mail here: you definitely highlight my day (or week, if it's a package :-P). Keep in touch!

Posted by rgutwin at 10:30 AM | Comments (3)