Hello, Bear fans! Or as they say in South Africa...hallo! That's right, it's still pretty much the same word, since English is one of the official languages here in the Rainbow Nation, as well as Afrikaans, an English-Dutch hybrid language.
As you may already know, this week we set off on international tour to the beautiful country of South Africa. Take a look at our first few days:
We left the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon and didn't arrive in Cape Town until Tuesday evening - a total of 33 hours of travel! Our eye-opening experiences began as soon as we got on the plane, which was a HUGE Emirates airbus with TWO levels. Thankfully, we were all near each other, which helped pass time during the 15-hour first leg. We landed in Dubai, where we had an eight-hour layover, meaning plenty of time to explore the airport. In that eight hours, some of us even ran into some members of our #CalFamily - we met several people heading back to Bahrain after attending Cal's commencement ceremonies!
We boarded our flight around 3 in the morning, and after another 10-hour flight, we landed in Africa.
"After over a day and a half of travel, we finally arrived in Cape Town! We gained our second wind walking through the airport and were greeted by our guide for the week, Anelia. We got on the bus and after being a little disoriented as we drove on the other side of the road, we were able to see Table Mountain and the coast of Cape Town. We then headed to the waterfront mall to get all of our travel needs in order and grub on some delicious food. We rounded up the troops and headed to our hotel in Greenmarket Square. The square was filled with a local flea market where we were able to buy souvenirs for our friends and family back at home. After a few hours of appreciated sleep in a real bed, we enjoyed some South African cooking for dinner." - Lexi Collins
The next morning (Wednesday, for anyone who might already be as lost as we felt after nearly two days in the air), we set off for our first full day in Cape Town. First thing on the agenda: get our bodies moving at practice!
How beautiful is this view? We got to train in the shadow of the famous Table Mountain.
We were all smiles after being able to stretch our legs a bit.
Afterward, we headed to the waterfront to catch a ferry to Robben Island. If the name sounds familiar to you, it's because Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly 20 years. Now, Robben Island Prison is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and tours are conducted around the island.
All of the tour guides in the prison are former inmates. Our tour guide, who asked us to call him Ma, was a political prisoner who was there for five years. Education was a privilege, not a right in the prison, and we also learned that even within the walls the inmates were separated by race. We learned so much about and had so many questions for him, and it was very emotional to hear him talk about his firsthand experiences there. To this day, he still has days when he feels unable to visit certain areas of the prison because of his history in those areas.
The photo above was Nelson Mandela's cell for 15 years.
Safe to say we were physically and emotionally exhausted after an enriching experience on Robben Island!
We headed back to the hotel for a few hours of rest before playing the first of four matches during our time here, against the Western Provinces field hockey club.
Although we lost the match 3-2, it felt amazing to be back on the turf competing again. Hockey is an internationally renowned sport and is very popular outside of the U.S., so it's a great challenge for us to play against athletes who have been so embedded in the sport since such a young age.
We're looking forward to exploring more of this beautiful area! Stay tuned for more photo diaries, and make sure you take a look at our Facebook (www.facebook.com/CalFH) and Instagram (@CalFieldHockey) for more highlights.
