Happy Feet

The big perk to this trip was my visit to Cape Town. Friends from Xavier, Brian and Jessica McInerny, currently reside there. Normally Jon and I don’t get much down time on these recruiting trips. So this was going to be a nice break from the constant motion. What is even more amazing about visiting with Jess and Brian is the fact that I went to high school with Brian. He was three years ahead of me at school but we played soccer together and I had always looked to him as a role model. It has always amazed me that I have been fortunate enough to see many places in the world. I remember thinking that I would probably move back to Wheeling after college. Obviously none of that happened, but it is nice to be able to talk about the “good old times” with Mac.

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was like being on the coast of California with the best parts of Mexico thrown in. The weather is absolutely gorgeous and you have the mountains and the water minutes away. Plus you have Penguins! Cape Town is known for having a large population of penguins. I would have never guessed that they thrive in this type of climate, but they are everywhere. We spent the day roaming the beaches for penguins and eventually headed out to the mountains. We climbed up Cape Pointe and visited the Cape of Good Hope. Both played an integral part in the colonization of the country. There was something very humbling about being at the Cape of Good Hope. The wind was powerful and being among the waves and the mountains was just overwhelming. I felt like a very small part of something much larger than I could ever understand.

The evening was spent at a winery/restaurant with traditional South African dishes. The food has been delicious and the wine is amazing. Pinotage is a unique type of wine to the area and I could have finished a bottle on my own. I probably did by the end of the night.

No Oprah

The day started out with a bit of a disappointment. We found out that we would not be visiting the Oprah School here in Johannesburg. I don’t really know why I cared so much, but it is Oprah!!! The day was actually pretty boring as far as photography goes. Liza has revealed that Johannesburg is a pretty violent place. People could just come up and shoot you if they wanted! I took it all with a bit of skepticism. Everything I have heard about this place has been positive. So we drive around the city and visit a couple of schools. I think that it will be a successful visit for Jon and the university of Cincinnati. Liza is very excited to have us here and it shows.

As we drive to different parts of town, I notice more barbwire and electrical fencing. Perhaps there is some truth to what Liza has been telling us. She is very cautious when we pull up to stop lights and at one point fears that we have been followed back to the hotel. So anyone who knows me knows that I tend to freak out at small things. While I don’t know if this is necessarily a “small thing”, I definetly start to become insecure about my safety in town. What throws me off is the fact that the majority of the city is completely modern. There are malls that rival anything in the States. Factories and business seem to be flourishing. Jon and I discuss the fact that we have been to places were there is a lot of violence, but they seem to still be struggling to rise above third world status. Over the next few days I will learn a lot more about this enigma in South Africa.

Despite my lack of confidence in going and taking pictures around the neighborhood, the night ends with warm conversation with Liza and her son George. George is looking to come to the U.S. to study. Of course all this talk about UC has gotten young George very excited about his prospects. Whether it was the alcohol talking or not, I started getting very excited about Cincinnati and how great it is. For those of you that know me, you can imagine how funny this whole conversation might be. Ole “two can Sam” Klenowski! Despite my loud ramblings, I think that will still apply. I do hope that we have the thriving Latin dancing community that I had promised him?

Travel

Traveling across the world can be absolutely brutal. Yes, I know that I probably sound like a jerk with that statement. I have a 5-hour lay over in Detroit. I have another 20 hours of travel ahead of me. So what does one do in the Detroit airport for 5 hours you ask? Try to be as creative as possible!

Detroit has this long hallway that makes me think of some sci-fi movies from the 80’s. You move along the moving sidewalk and lights flash around you and trippy music is playing. I decided that it would be fun to go back and forth and take pictures of the glass that was lining the wall. You can see a couple of my attempts at being artsy.

I meet up with Jon and we board our plane to Amsterdam. I was a little worried when I sit on my seat and the women behind me immediately asks me not to come all the way back. I was a little frustrated since I have pretty long marionette legs. But I tried to be a friendly traveler and didn’t recline that far. The main reason was because the plane was amazing. I have never flown Northwest before, but I am very excited for their merger with Delta. The crew was great, we got free alcohol, and they had movies on demand. I watch I’m Not There (Bob Dylan Bio) and Cloverfield (terrible attempt at a horror movie). The gentleman sitting next to me was pretty interesting as well. I believe that there are 3 types of passengers:1: Normal 2. Sick (weird coughing and clearing of the throat) and 3. Weird (talk to much and ask inappropriate questions). I sat next to a Missionary from Tanzania. He was a mixture of 1 and 3. He started by pulling out his Iphone and showed me pictures of all of his family and giving me the rundown of them. Never did I think that the Iphone technology would be used for evil. It was like looking at distant relative vacation photos. He then started asking me about my political views and I going on about how great the freedom is in Tanzania. His example was that if you wanted to paint your house with purple polka dots, no one would say anything. I wanted to point out that I thought you could do the same thing in America? Instead I pretended to fall asleep and watched movies. I guess it was good he didn’t turn out to be too weird, but I really wanted to start conversations with “ Did I tell you the one about the Tanzanian Missionary?”

The transfer from Amsterdam went smoothly and had another great flight into Johannesburg. After customs and things we met Jon’s city contact. Liza is a Greek woman who grew up in Zimbabwe, but recently moved to South Africa. She came across as pretty intense. Since things close at 9 in the city, we struggled to find a place to eat. Liza wouldn’t be stopped! We found a Greek restaurant right before it closed and got some amazing gyro’s.

Overall it was a great day. Few problems and a comfortable bed to fall asleep in.