Putting on My Dancing Shoes

I’ve done a surprising amount of dancing since I’ve been here. Since dancing is such a huge part of my life back home I thought I’d highlight some of these experiences in South Africa. Way back during our first two weeks here we went to a church one night and had a dinner cooked by some of Corvell’s family members. A couple of them sang for us, we played a game, and Corvell’s nephew Jesse taught us some dancing. Jesse’s mom owns a dance studio and he knows a lot of traditional South African dances and also more modern dancing. He taught us a style of dancing called gumboot dancing which involves a lot of stomping, hopping, and smacking your hand against the bottom of your shoe. A lot of the moves are syncopated so it’s difficult to stay on the beat with the dancing. We were all laughing at ourselves the whole time as we kept getting our feet twisted up. After that they put on some popular music and our group just started dancing around on our own. When they played Shakira’s new song “Waka Waka” we got really excited and started singing at the top of our lungs. This song was written as the 2010 World Cup theme song and it’s extremely popular in South Africa right now. Not surprisingly it’s also become a bit of a theme song for our study abroad group as well. Seeing our excitement, Jesse decided to teach us some of Shakira’s choreography for the song. We were tired and sweaty from all the dancing that night but everyone agreed that it was some of the most fun we’ve had in a long time.

I hardly ever go clubbing back home, but I’ve been taking out clubbing three times here already. Since the women I live with are still in their 20s, they still enjoy going out every once in a while. A couple weeks ago they took me and a few other girls from my study abroad group out to a club in Cape Town called Tiger Tiger. This was what they call an “English” club, meaning it plays music in English, although it’s basically a normal type of club like we’d find in the U.S. Being in a place like that I almost forgot I was in another country since it was so similar to something I’d find back home. However, people tend to get dressed up a lot more when they go out here than they do in the U.S. You can still wear jeans there though and not feel completely out of place. You just can’t wear tennis shoes. A week later I went back to the same place with my entire study abroad group. You can imagine what a group of loud, boisterous American college students would be like here compared to the South Africans who are a little more conservative. That aside, it was fun to have the chance to let loose with my friends and celebrate how much we’ve been enjoying South Africa.

My hosts also took me to an Afrikaner dance club called Opskop, which was a very different experience. Here I was exposed to an Afrikaans style of dancing called “langarm,” which is a type of partner dancing that is like a very informal waltz. At this place, when Afrikaans music is played this is how people dance, but occasionally they play English music and everyone dances like I’m used to in the U.S. For the Afrikaans dances, girls are expected to wait off to the side until a guy comes to ask them to dance and during the dance itself the guy leads the girls through the different moves. Sunet, Rika, and Janci (my hosts) explained to me that every guy has his own style and the dance will be slightly different depending on who a girl dances with. Most people seem to come to these clubs as large groups of guys and girls, which is what we did. The single guys will usually make a point to ask every girl in their group for at least one dance to make sure everyone gets a turn for a few dances. I got a chance to dance a few times with Sunet, Rika, and Janci’s guy friends on the night they took me. It was a different experience and something I had never done before, but I liked it. The gracious and chivalrous behavior that guys are expected to display at this club seemed unusual and old-fashioned to me since this environment is very rare in the U.S. I felt a little bit like I was in the middle of one of the dances described in a Jane Austen book, where guys invite girls to dance with them and girls sit around and talk about how guys dance afterwards. Hahaha. I kind of wish we did this kind of dancing back in the U.S. It was fun to have nice guys glide and twirl me around the dance floor. Lucky for me, I had dance and music training so I was able to pick up the steps pretty quickly and not embarrass myself by tripping over my feet too often.

World Cup Adventures

We spent a lot of the last two days down at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town where several “fan zones” have been set up for the World Cup. The waterfront area has lots of shops and restaurants, including two malls. (I figured out very quickly just how extensive malls are in South Africa.) The main screen for watching the World Cup is in an amphitheatre outside of one mall and there are other screens in large tents with seating in other parts of the waterfront. On Friday (June 2) we watched the Netherlands vs. Brazil and Uruguay vs. Ghana quarterfinal games in some of these areas. It’s incredible to see how excited and spirited everyone gets during these games. People from all over the world cram into the fan zones, getting there hours early to get a good seat. (We weren’t quite so lucky and found ourselves crowded onto a balcony above.) Others crowd around any TV set they can find in the malls nearby. Everyone dresses up in jerseys, scarves, and face paint in the flag colors and designs of the team they’re supporting, waving flags and blowing vuvuzelas (the long plastic trumpet-like noisemakers that you hear all through the games.) The excitement and energy is everywhere. It’s like game day on MSU’s campus but so much bigger and grander because the whole world is part of it.

Waterfront amphitheatre

On Saturday (June 3), the next quarterfinal game (Argentina vs. Germany) was in Cape Town’s stadium, which meant there were many more people in the city, all trying to crowd into the waterfront. We got down there much later than we did the day before and by the time we reached the entrance to the waterfront the police had blocked off the bridges because there were so many people there already. We ended up wandering around for a while and by that time enough people had left so eventually were able to get through on another bridge. After all of this, we didn’t really get to watch much of the game since the big screen areas were full and huge crowds had even gathered around any TV they could find in the mall stores and restaurants. It was chaotic and very tiring to fight through all those crowds, but experiencing that kind of excitement was really once in a lifetime.

Apart from the waterfront, in the center of Cape Town, a huge flea market was set up with countless stalls selling all sorts of World Cup merchandise and other items as well. Most of the stuff was knock-offs, but since it was cheap and still fairly good quality it was worth it to search for souvenirs there. There were scarves, t-shirts, jerseys, hats, and more all decorated with the names of different teams. There were also the famed vuvuzelas and more general items like jewelry, clothes, and purses. But my favorite part of the World Cup experience was walking down the Grand Parade street in Cape Town, a route that leads from the city center toward the waterfront. The street was packed to the gills with people headed toward the fan zones and it was hard to keep up with our group in the crowd, but it was thrilling just to walk through there with so many people from around the world. All around people were blowing their vuvuzelas and chanting for their favorite teams, and there were also performing groups off to the sides like traditional African dancers and a barbershop quartet. Definitely a celebration for the whole city.

Vuvuzelas

Huge crowd in the fan walk

Three weeks and counting...

As most of you know, I will be studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa for 6 weeks this summer. I created this blog to document this trip and keep family and friends updated on my experiences. I will be leaving on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 and will return to Michigan on Friday, August 13, 2010. (Friday the 13th! Oh dear.)

The program that I’m part of is called Cross-Cultural Teaching Abroad- South Africa. The 6-week program involves seminars at the University of Cape Town (UCT), 4 weeks of student teaching in a South African school, sightseeing, and cultural exploration. On top of all of this I get to earn six graduate credits. Not bad for a month and a half. J Especially exciting, we’ll be there during the end of the World Cup! The quarterfinals and semifinals are being played in Cape Town. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets. (Fine with me. I’d rather not deal with the the crowds and the chaos.) But we will visit the fan park outside the stadium and make time to watch the final match on TV.

For the first two weeks we’ll be staying at a guest house in Cape Town called Deo Gratia. Then we’ll spend a little less than four weeks living with the families of the teachers we’ll be working with. My host and mentor is a 3rd grade teacher who has been teaching in South Africa for two years. Prior to that she taught in the U.K. for two years. She has only been teaching for a few years and I think it will be interesting to work with another young teacher like me and be able to learn about the experience of new teachers outside the U.S.

Only 19 days left until we leave! The whole trip still feels a little surreal right now. I don’t think it’ll quite hit me until I’m sitting on the plane heading halfway around the world. This is probably the most adventurous thing I’ve done in my life. (And I’ve had plenty of adventures.)

To learn more about everything South Africa, check out this site. It’s very comprehensive with information about geography, culture, government, current events, you name it.

Also check out my itinerary page to find out what we’re doing each day on the trip.