Oh Canada Part I While my mom was visiting the Pacific Northwest, we decided to get some use out of our passports and head to Victoria, BC, for a girls weekend. We made our way from Seattle to Victoria on the Victoria Clipper and I have to say it was a pleasant experience once I got the tip to pick up our boarding passes as early as possible to avoid the cattle drive that happens when they announce the boarding groups. In true "first-in-line" fashion, I picked up our boarding passes a full 6 days early, so that we were in [View Full Entry]

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A.K.A. Long Live the Bacon Maple Bar Jeremy and I headed to Portland, Oregon for the long Presidents' Day/ Valentine's Day weekend. Neither of us have spent much time in Portland, even though it's only a few hours away from Seattle, so we wanted to see a little bit of everything, and as always we mostly love to eat and drink things. We enjoyed the drive through Washington and then battled the traffic through the southwest Portland area to experience a few wineries. We stopped at August Cellars, where we tried at least 4 of their wines, as well as 4 [View Full Entry]

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9/16/08 & 9/17/08 Another early morning, another tour bus-- this time headed to the winelands with a German couple and a couple from New York traveling the world for a year (so jealous!) First stop: Nelson's Creek in Paarl. One of the winemakers, Lisha Nelson, led us on a cellar tour and tasting while her dog, Tyson, followed close behind. 5 half-glasses of wine and some cheese later and we piled back into the van for the 20 minute drive to Franschoek. In Franschoek, we visited La Corrone for another 5 wines and, thankfully, lunch. Courtn [View Full Entry]

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9/14/08-9/15/08 I love bargain shopping. This is why Court and I were ready to wheel and deal at the Green Point Market, which is held each Sunday across the street from our guest house. Philip told us to haggle-- in fact, he told us to halve their asking price, then halve it again as a place to start, but that seemed extreme (we're new at this...) As we walked around the market, we got better at it, buying all sorts of gifts and mementos. In fact, we got so good at it that after a few hours of browsing and bargaining, [View Full Entry]

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Friday 9/12/08 An 8 hour bus ride from Kruger, and it was time for me to say goodbye to the UW crew at the airport. I felt like a lone farewell committee as I hugged almost everyone, then headed to my gate alone. It's a strange thing to slip back into single traveler mode after traveling with a group of 37 for almost two weeks. I was pondering the differences at the gate when one dreaded word popped up next to my flight number: DELAYED. As it turned out, I didn't have to beat myself up over having chosen a low-cost [View Full Entry]

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I Spit Poop, and Other Stories Thursday morning, I put on my swimsuit, grabbed sunblock and my book and headed to the pool at Sefapane. Halfway between my hut and the pool I noticed that it seemed very dark for 9am. Did I read the clock wrong? I looked up to see an overcast sky, and it honestly took a moment to process. There hadn't been a visible cloud since I arrived in South Africa 9 days ago, and the 100 degree heat we battled yesterday was now working overtime to hit 65 degrees. It was windy. It was cold. Swimming [View Full Entry]

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5am. Somone is knocking on the door to my hut. I opened the door to see two large security guards with a clipboard, and just as panic began to rise, one of the guards said, "Wake up call" in that delightful South African accent. Time to get ready for our first drive into the Kruger National Park. (As a side note, I've been here long enough now that I'm starting to talk to myself in a South African accent. Is that wierd? Probably.) I grabbed a pre-made breakfast at the lodge and boarded our new, hopefully improved, bus. Sefapane Lodge is [View Full Entry]

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"A man without culture is like a zebra without stripes" Days 5, 6 and 7 (September 7 - 9) Sunday morning we had free time in Soweto. The parading musicians rounding the neighborhood since before dawn led some students to attend church services, others relaxed at Lebo's, and I joined 7 others on a bicycle tour given by Lebo himself. We learned a bit more about Soweto and had a good time darting through traffic (at least I did-- others weren't so sure.) Lebo is a celebrity in town, so everyone was smiling and waving at us. When the tour was [View Full Entry]

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Soweto, continued... Day 4 Saturday (9/6/08) we had set aside for service opportunities in Soweto. My guest house group was late to meet up with everyone at Lebo's because the van sent to pick us up was in a vehicle accident on the way to get us-- a common occurence in Joburg. When we finally arrived, we set off in two groups on walking tours of the township we were in, called Orlando West. Our group brought donations for the children in the area, so our guide, Philip, told us to bring pens and pencils with us to hand out, but [View Full Entry]

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Sawubona! (hello in Zulu) -- Days 2 though 3 The past few days have brought two extremes-- elite wealth and absolute poverty. Because this is a business-focused UW course, we are visiting multiple companies throughout South Africa, which the students have all studied and prepared for. We added to that knowledge by meeting with a lecturer for the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) to talk about the challenges and opportunities facing South African businesses. This provided a solid base for questions and understanding at our first company visit, to First National Bank in Joh [View Full Entry]

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