I've been back in the USA for quite some time now. Made a couple grand as the Inst. Lt. at Malibu pool where I got to enjoy the TOH from a completely new perspective with a new crew, which helped to make the short time go by quickly.
But here I am back in Washington, DC, up late when I should be sound asleep getting ready to dive into the pool at 7:30am for my make-up practice with Jess & Rick. However, I have come up with a delightful new idea to help me prep for potential interview questions in the coming months while on the hunt for jobs/interviews.
My goal is to answer one interview question every other night via this blog to help me prepare responses if an employer were to throw a more thought-provoking question my way. I would appreciate all and any feedback you can give me. Beginning tomorrow night...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Minibus Diaries continued...
More times than I can count I have been told not to go into the Minibus Taxi's if it is either (1) dark outside or (2) there are no other passengers inside of the Minibus.
Well one morning last week while catching a minibus on the way to work, Alexis and I were caught in the typical conundrum of picking between two taxi's who pull up to pick us up at the same time and yell at us to jump in their taxi in order to get our business and detract us from the other taxi. This particular morning Alexis decided to take the reigns on the decision and started walking to the first taxi that pulled up. As I started to follow her, I realized that there was no "caller" by the door of the car and only one other passenger sitting in the front seat next to the driver. I called over to Alexis telling her that we should go over to the second minibus, but she was already on her way into the first taxi...
I figured it really couldn't be that bad... Right?
We both hopped inside to find the minibus literally carpeted from floor to ceiling in SHAG. Green shag carpeting on the floor, seats, walls, and yes, the ceiling. Immediately I thought, "This is how I am going to die."
About 5 minutes into our ride, the other passenger in the front got out of the minibus. The driver's accomplice was gone. Alexis and I were alone to fight off the driver to our deaths on some South African side street.
Sadly, the highlights of this story end here, because less than 10 minutes later the minibus pulled over on the side of the street at Long Street, our stop. We jumped off the bus and made a pact never to ride on an empty minibus taxi again.
Well one morning last week while catching a minibus on the way to work, Alexis and I were caught in the typical conundrum of picking between two taxi's who pull up to pick us up at the same time and yell at us to jump in their taxi in order to get our business and detract us from the other taxi. This particular morning Alexis decided to take the reigns on the decision and started walking to the first taxi that pulled up. As I started to follow her, I realized that there was no "caller" by the door of the car and only one other passenger sitting in the front seat next to the driver. I called over to Alexis telling her that we should go over to the second minibus, but she was already on her way into the first taxi...
I figured it really couldn't be that bad... Right?
We both hopped inside to find the minibus literally carpeted from floor to ceiling in SHAG. Green shag carpeting on the floor, seats, walls, and yes, the ceiling. Immediately I thought, "This is how I am going to die."
About 5 minutes into our ride, the other passenger in the front got out of the minibus. The driver's accomplice was gone. Alexis and I were alone to fight off the driver to our deaths on some South African side street.
Sadly, the highlights of this story end here, because less than 10 minutes later the minibus pulled over on the side of the street at Long Street, our stop. We jumped off the bus and made a pact never to ride on an empty minibus taxi again.
Lame excuse for a shot inside of a crowded minibus taxi...
Table Mountain
Look at any picture of the Cape Town landscape, and you cannot miss it--Table Mountain towers over the city and is a beautiful juxtaposition to the violent Atlantic Ocean surrounding the cape. I had been told by so many people, past tourists, Captonians, and other South Africas, that you just can NOT go to Cape Town and not climb up Table Mountain. Past students in the program even advocated taking off days of work when the weather was beautiful to go. Any many students in the program did just that. But just about everyday someone skipped work to go, I felt obligated to go to work for some reason or another. So it came down to last weekend, and there was still a group of 5 of us who had not climbed. The weather was said to be iffy, but we decided we'd aim for climbing on Saturday.
Well, mother nature must have known how badly we wanted to climb, and left us with a gorgeous day. There was some light fog covering the middle of the mountain, but the traditional "tablecloth" covering the top of the mountain wasn't in sight. We received approval to climb from another climber who gave us some tips and we were off!
Tim & I led the pack and we all had such a blast climbing. We took our leisurely time and made it to the summit in about 1hr 40minutes. Even though there were low-lying stratus clouds, the view was remarkable and definitely worth the wait.
Well, mother nature must have known how badly we wanted to climb, and left us with a gorgeous day. There was some light fog covering the middle of the mountain, but the traditional "tablecloth" covering the top of the mountain wasn't in sight. We received approval to climb from another climber who gave us some tips and we were off!
Tim & I led the pack and we all had such a blast climbing. We took our leisurely time and made it to the summit in about 1hr 40minutes. Even though there were low-lying stratus clouds, the view was remarkable and definitely worth the wait.
Halfway to the summit
Ashley & Tim at the top of the mountain
Lion's Head and Signal Hill - Sea Point is on the other side of Signal Hill
(and I thought the hike up Lion's head was a tough one!)
Cape Town City Bowl
View up Table Mountain after we took the Cable Car down to the base...
Friday, June 19, 2009
I Know My Status - Do You Know Yours?
Taylor & Team behind him completing Skillz activity
Grassroot Soccer held its first VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) Skillz soccer tournament in Cape Town, South Africa on June 16, 2009. It was held on Youth Day, a national holiday in South Africa. Although GRS has held VCT's before, this was the first one held in Cape Town.The tournament was held at Luhlaza High School in Khayelitsha. Over 140 kids ages 12-18 played on teams and went through the Skillz tournament and activities. By the end of the day 87 people were tested for HIV/AIDS and an additional 100 went through general health counseling.
Alexis and I, as well as some of the other GRS staff and volunteers went through the HIV testing, not only to "know our status" but also to see how the process went in order to figure out how the process can be improved upon for next time. The entire process was so quick and made me feel confident that the counselors were well-trained and that my results would be kept confidential. I'm proud to say I am HIV free!
Alexis and I waiting for our test results!
The day was exhausting, but it was so exciting to see it unfold, as we had been working on finalizing details since I had arrived at the GRS office. Over the past two weeks, Alexis and I had been doing anything and everything that the GRS staff needed to prepare for the tournament. From designing T-Shirts, to visiting the site to understand the flow of the event, to ordering toliets--we did it. Lisa was in charge of the testing operations, which led her to meet with New Start, Médicins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), and the City Health Staff.
On the day of the event I did everything from registration, serving food, handing out kids lunches, managing the flow of the testing component, and handing out the awards at the end of the day. It was quite an exhausting day. We arrived at the office at 7am and didn't get back to the Stonehurst Guest Lodge until 8:30pm.
Winning Girls Team Celebrating!
Find the Ball
Sunday, June 14, 2009
What's on the menu tonight?
Stellenbosch Wine Hopping
"Pinotage is my boss, when it speaks I listen." (in Afrikaans)Yesterday we spent the day visiting four different wineries in Stellenbosch, one of the major wine regions in South Africa. We left at 9:15am and didn't return until around 7pm.
We began the day shopping in town and went on our first wine tour at noon in the cave cellars of a nice winery where I pretended to be sophisticated and all-knowing about the flavors and scents of the wines--giving my expert opinion of the quality of each wine. By the time we got to our 4th winery, our group's volume had increased a couple of decibels and we munched down on the crackers intended to serve as a palate cleanser between wine tastings.
I passed out on the van ride home, took a short nap back at Stonehurst, and was changed and ready to go out to dinner, where we proceeded to split a pitcher of strawberry margaritas at a Mexican restaurant - South Africa does not know how to do Mexican food well.
Since we were already out on Long Street (the Adams Morgan of Cape Town), four of us proceeded to meet up with the other Grassroot Soccer interns at The Waiting Room, a bar with a nice laid-back atmosphere. There was a rooftop area with lights overlooking Long Street and good music which led to non-stop dancing. After a while, we moved onto another club, appropriately called "Bang Bang," with all of the GRS interns to meet up with some of their other friends. The night flew by in a blur (literally and figuratively) -- and the four of us didn't get home until an exhausted 3am.
Needless to say, every decision I made yesterday was carefully weighed against the need for me to write a 15-page paper that is due tomorrow. My head hurts. Ready, set, go...
Stellenbosch Winelands
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Minibus Diaries continued...
Surprisingly out of all of the minibus taxi's in Cape Town, we have already managed to hop on the same one twice--of which Cydney obviously made friends with the driver.
While Cydney was joking with the driver, he asked where she was from, and he was SO excited to hear that we were from the states. We have received a lot of praise towards Obama from the people of South Africa, but this man was not phased that we lived in DC with Obama. He wanted to meet Oprah!! He would not stop talking about how much he wanted to meet Oprah--and I'm not surprised. Our B&B has no more than 3 television channels, and whenever it is on, it always seems to either be the news or the Oprah show.
Our driver went on to say that Mandela has a lot of cousins running around Cape Town, and started pointing out about every man on the street--at this point he was getting a little ridiculous.
The second time we were on the same the same minibus taxi, Cyndey starts talking to the driver again, and he again starts to praise Oprah. At some point he begins talking about Jacob Zuma, (the current President of SA), and makes a comment "well now that Zuma is president, rape is legal." Although the intension of the comment was to be a joke, it made the entire van slightly uncomfortable, but Lisa helped to ease the situation by jokingly saying, "okay driver, I think we will get out now!" Oh minibus taxi.
(For those unaware of South African politics, Zuma was brought to court but found not guilty of rape charges. Zuma did not deny that he had sex with her, but made the case that because she was wearing a skirt, it was "his duty" as a member of the Zulu clan. Zuma stated, "In Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready." The woman also was known to be HIV-positive, and after choosing not to use a condom, Zuma "took a shower afterwards" in order to reduce his chance of getting AIDS. Disgusting.)
While Cydney was joking with the driver, he asked where she was from, and he was SO excited to hear that we were from the states. We have received a lot of praise towards Obama from the people of South Africa, but this man was not phased that we lived in DC with Obama. He wanted to meet Oprah!! He would not stop talking about how much he wanted to meet Oprah--and I'm not surprised. Our B&B has no more than 3 television channels, and whenever it is on, it always seems to either be the news or the Oprah show.
Our driver went on to say that Mandela has a lot of cousins running around Cape Town, and started pointing out about every man on the street--at this point he was getting a little ridiculous.
The second time we were on the same the same minibus taxi, Cyndey starts talking to the driver again, and he again starts to praise Oprah. At some point he begins talking about Jacob Zuma, (the current President of SA), and makes a comment "well now that Zuma is president, rape is legal." Although the intension of the comment was to be a joke, it made the entire van slightly uncomfortable, but Lisa helped to ease the situation by jokingly saying, "okay driver, I think we will get out now!" Oh minibus taxi.
(For those unaware of South African politics, Zuma was brought to court but found not guilty of rape charges. Zuma did not deny that he had sex with her, but made the case that because she was wearing a skirt, it was "his duty" as a member of the Zulu clan. Zuma stated, "In Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready." The woman also was known to be HIV-positive, and after choosing not to use a condom, Zuma "took a shower afterwards" in order to reduce his chance of getting AIDS. Disgusting.)
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