No Zebras Were Harmed In The Making Of These Pancakes

We are heading to Etosha National Park this weekend, which has a variety of exotic animals you only see on National Geographic. This will be our first vacation/ break in over two months, so in honor of our fabulous trip, I have decided to make some themed pancakes!

Want to make them yourself??? All you need is pancake batter- they don't have pre made batter here, so I made mine from scratch... either will probably work- and red, blue, green, and yellow food coloring.

First, prepare the batter. (Use about two cups of instant batter) Turn the stovetop on to medium high heat.

Next, separate about 1/4 the batter in a small bowl. Now add food coloring until you make a very dark green. I found out the hard way that it is impossible to make a black color, so don't worry yourself over it. The color will be even darker after you cook.

Once you've created that, check to see if the pan is hot enough by flicking a drop of water on the pan. If it "dances" around on the pan, you're ready to cook. 

Add butter to the pan, enough to coat. Take frying pan off heat. Then ladle 1/2 cup of normal, UNcolored batter onto frying pan, and tilt the pan so you create a circle. 

Still off the heat, take a fork and dip it into the colored batter. Apply it to the normal batter, making a V shape that continually gets longer and larger as you go up. You may need more batter, which is fine. With the left over space on your pancake, just apply lines that are parallel to your V shape. 

Reapply the pan to the heat, and cook like you would with any old pancake. ((For those of you who don't know, that means you wait until your pancake bubbles, and when the bubbles don't close up again, you flip the pancake with a spatula. Or use some mad skills, and don't use a spatula, just slide it, toss it up, and hope it doesn't hit the ceiling. ))

Repeat this for the rest of your pancakes, and violá! You have Zebra Pancakes! Enjoy with Nutella, syrup, whipped cream, or whatever you fancy. Hope you enjoy it :D I'm considering posting more crazy recipes like this one, and I'd love to hear any ideas you might have, so please comment! Thanks.

Hip Hop in Africa

I found a dance class at the multi- cultural center as well. Of course the dance isn't exactly what I'm used to. It is more of the african traditional style mixed with hip hop, which is really fun. If you didn't know, the traditional African dancing is what evolved into the hip hop and breakdancing of today, so it's kind of like a history lesson every time I go there.

Everyone there is really friendly, as well as curious about my dance style, so I'm currently teaching them all to six-step (a basic break dance move which, coincidently, involves six steps). 

Helping Out

We found a multi- cultural center only a block away from where we live! Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday my dad, brother and I head over there to help out and play with the orphans. It's a great program actually. From 2-5 in the afternoon the kids come to the multi cultural center and are served soup. They also get help with their homework, and play games.

On Wednesdays and Fridays, my dad and I teach a couple of 6th graders guitar. They pick up things really fast, and for not ever using a metronome, they stay in tempo with each other quite well! I even started bringing in my violin, which they had never seen or heard before. Turns out I'm the only violin in the entire northern region of Namibia!

I recently taught the kids to play one of my favorite games, which they all enjoyed a lot! The game is called Rock Paper Scissors Shoe: Anything You Wanna Do. I learned it while I was in the Amazon jungle two years ago, and it is quite similar to the normal game, except you can be anything you come up with. Not just paper rock and scissors. All the kids got involved,whether they were playing against me, or voting on whether a springbok or a gemsbok would win in a duel!

(I apologize for not having any pictures for this post, but when we head over there, we're usually busy!)

Finally... A real house!

We finally moved into an actual house! Sure, it's by a bar and a market, but it doesn't matter because the thump of the music is barely noticeable by the third day! And we get to see lizards like the one below every time we go for a walk in the neighborhood.

Hotel Life (part 3)

Destiny Hotel was a short walk away from anything and everything. There was a playground just across the road, some great sunset views, cows that roamed the area, and a school that I got to try out!

Cattle are everywhere in Ongwediva!

Trying Out a Local School...

The schools here are way different than back in the states! Maurits Devonish is the name of the school I tried out, and it was much, much different than what I've been used to. Everyone wears uniforms to school, and sports are mainly segregated by gender and grade. Of course, we did get to play volleyball with the boys, which was fun. I played volleyball for three years back in the states, so the teacher used me as an example most of the time :)

Each morning, everyone lines up- based on gender and grade- and sings the school song, national anthem, and prays. The schools here are mainly all Catholic, and religion is a big role in many lives in Namibia. Through this part I just kind of stood there awkwardly trying to figure out how the songs go. Parts of it were in Afrikaans, which is the language many kids were brought up with, so I had no idea what they were saying.

Every day, there are nine periods. School starts at seven a.m. sharp and ends at 12:50, except for Monday, which ends at 2:00. The nine periods change daily, and I can't tell you the daily schedule, because I was so lost with it I just followed everyone else in my class around. But I can tell you the subjects. We had Math, Physical Science, Life Science, Life Skills, Geography, Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Afrikaans, and English. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have p.e. which is either fitness or sports.

The classes are all over the place compared to America. In math, I was so far ahead that it was just review. I was tutoring and helping people who sat next to me most of the time, which was fun. 

Accounting and Entrepeneurship are a totally different story. The teacher was very understanding when I told her that we don't have either of those classes in America, which is good because I still dont get exactly how to do a Balance Sheet. And that's after two weeks of trying out the school!

Geography was a bit confusing. Especially when you join in during the last months of school. To make it even more of a challenge, the geography was focused on Namibia! It took a while to understand what mahangu was, or mopane trees. 

My favorite subject was English. It was fun back in the U.S. too, but it made my day when I got to experience it Namibian style! English is more of a second language in schools here, although it was changed to the first language a couple years ago. Once again, I was much farther ahead in the subject, but I think that's kind of what made it so great. I joined Devonish when they had begun reading aloud a book about the holocaust, and the teacher asked me to read. When I finished, the whole class got into a bit of a riot- I was reading too fast. So, the next girl who reads decides to mimic me. She reads as fast as humanly possible and the whole class bursts out laughing!

On the last Friday of the month, also the last Friday I attended Maurits Devonish, many of the teachers were gone. In America, if a teacher is gone, they have a substitute to take their place. But in Namibia, they may or may not have one! We didn't have many lessons to do either, so we spent much of our time arm wrestling each other. Or the kids in my class would ask me about America. Back in Cali, we had to write a journal entry about stereotypes. All the stereotypes about us were true here. I even got a couple more to add!

Just in case you were wondering, all CA natives:

-see a lot of celebrities

-live by the beach

-have huge parties like the movie Project X

-surf

-say "dude," "brah" and "radical"

-know a lot of celebrities

-are rich and get tans

-only wear bathingsuits and sandals

After that Friday, we got a house, and found out I had to discontinue school there. But I still keep in touch with my friends at Devonish. If you guys at Devonish are reading this, hope you like my American take on my experiences!

Hotel Life (part 2)

We lugged our stuff into a car and got dropped off at Destiny Hotel. They had a family room and an included breakfast, so we were sold. But eventually, you get tired of eating out all the time and not having your own home cooked meals (Zach and Cody had a kitchen!). The next time we went looking for houses with Sean, and our drivers/former safari tour guides John and Ramos, we stopped at an outdoor mall for an hour and found just what we needed... And some things that probably don't taste good, no matter how many times you cook them!

All these foods look like those fake internal organs that are at Halloween party stores. They don't have Halloween here, but if you want to step up your game this year, come down to Africa and grab these decorations! Its not my fault if you have a whole bowl of candy left because all the kids ran away though.

Cow lungs... how these sound appetizing to someone, I don't know.

 If you couldn't tell, this is cow tongue.

 The worst part of this has to be seeing all the cattle that roam around the area and thinking that they all end up here. Well, its good to see they don't waste parts I guess.
 above: cow intestines. below: cow stomach lining.

 

Hotel Life (part 1)

At this point in the game, we didn't have a house yet. So that meant we got to live in the hotels for a month! Yaaaaaay!

 In Suite Life of Zach and Cody, they always make it seem really fun to live in a hotel. I got to put this to the test.

We spent most of our time poolside for the first week until we could adjust. After a while we learned not to go Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. This place is a hub for wedding photos and parties. How do I know? I got to participate in the wedding photo shoot once, no joke!

 

I also found a couple photo ops myself, like the spider who joined us for dinner one night. The wasp that landed on my hand and didn't want to go anywhere else for a while... Or the bee I grabbed from the water.

 It looks small, but this spider was actually a good inch and a half wide, and flat as paper.

 

 While I was busy standing still and telling my dad to flick it off, my little brother decided that this was the perfect time for a wildlife photo op. Thanks, Jason.

A black bee I found in the pool. And this wasn't the only one.

 

After three weeks of living in this hotel, we still hadn't found an available house yet, so we moved to a different hotel!

We only stayed in that hotel for three days before we had to leave for our final destination, Ondangwa. Right before we left for the airport, we headed out to lunch with Sean and Laura, my mom's co-workers. We ate at a place called Hartlief, which is also a big commercial meat producer for Namibia and South Africa. I don't think there was one thing on the menu which didn't have some sort of meat in it. There is no possible way that ANYONE could ever be a vegan in Namibia! They love their meats here with a smoked, grilled, fried, seared, and raw passion. Chicken is practically a vegetable!

Sean headed to the airport with us a couple hours later, and our flight was delayed for a whole hour because the plane hit a flock of birds before take off! The plane food was kind of suspicious, but it didn't matter because at that point I was starving.

 We had turbulence during the flight, and I was not about to lose my food because it fell under my seat. This seemed like a pretty logical way to keep it from harm, wouldn't you agree?

My brother would like you to check out his blog, and he keeps telling me to promote it :) if you want to check it out:  namibianstyle.blogspot.com

 

The hotel in Windhoek was, to my surprise, very modern. The place could easily pass for an American hotel:

The only difference was the menu items. The sheer amount of meat you could order was impressive, to say the least!

Don't forget to check out namibianstyle.blogspot.com !! Its my brothers blog.

Finally, we took our flight to Namibia. And don't worry, we were on time. But the fun didn't end there.

Our welcome to Namibia wasn't exactly the best. All we had to do was make it through the immigration check, but the lady on shift didn't seem to want to let that happen. The second we walk up to her, she starts yelling at us. My parents hadn't even spoken a word. We were held in the hot and dry airport for over an hour while the lady raged on in a thick accent... something about needing a visa. When we explained this to our driver who took us to our hotel in Windhoek (pronounced Vind-hook), he laughed hard, and told us, "Welcome to Namibia."

The hotel turned out to be one of the more relaxing parts of our flight experience. It was near a golf course and across from a dog shelter, but the rooms were quiet, and that was all that mattered.

 Our hotel's lobby, which was empty, besides the friendly manager and staff.

I think I slept through most of our stay here. When I did wake, it was 1 a.m. in the morning, and no one else was up yet. I had to survive five more hours until breakfast time with fruit wraps, instant tea, and a newspaper- which was actually entertaining, because it included a whole article dedicated to the redundant first world problems in America (ex. My wallet wont close because there's too much money in it!).

From there we headed to the royal gift shop. Royal is quite suiting for the prices they were charging. I saw some of the most expensive spoons, kitchen towels, tea sets, chocolate coins, and shot glasses that I have ever seen in my life!

 These spoons were 79 euros. If I do the math, that's around 100 American dollars. For tea spoons, really? I guess the fact the box says the royal collection must make it worth the money somehow.

If you can afford the spoons for your kitchen, then you can probably afford the towels as well! 80 American for 2 tea towels. Which are soooooo much better than normal tea towels.

     Care for a royal shot? Hard on the wallet. But easy on the gullet ;)

It's about time someone paid A LOT of money for a tea cup with a unicorn on it!
Talk about a manly addition to your kitchen....

Don't forget to spend 10 American on a souvenir chocolate coin that you can bring back to show your friends how rich you are- or end up just scarfing it down on the plane because they don't feed you enough- because it's just too "peasant- like" to buy regular chocolate at a commoner's store.








I don't know if they were raising their prices because the royal baby was born, or to make tourists spend lots of cash on things I can probably find on e-bay for less. Just to be safe, I'll say it's both.

After that we checked out the sights London is also known for, like Big Ben... the giant Ferris Wheel.. and Nutella filled crepes :)

 Our phones had told us the weather would be a downpour, so the fact I got such a good picture of Big Ben is pretty fortunate!

 I really wanted to go on this giant Ferris wheel, but no one wanted to go with me- too tired I guess.

We found this tiny pancake place near Big Ben, and I couldn't resist getting a Nutella crepe! Besides, what if there isn't any Nutella in Africa?


Tired and half awake, we head back to the airport by Metro. Getting through security took a while- I think they were checking bags in case anyone had stolen one of those oh-so-expensive shot glasses. We had just enough time to eat at the Giraffe restaurant before heading over to check in to our next flight.

This place had great burgers. And interesting decorations. It was called Giraffe for a reason!

But it was the giant sign right before the boarding gates that really made my day (along with someone else's'). All my struggles felt worth it as I stood and saluted to the sign, then Brit-marched aboard the plane, getting the person behind me to crack up.

Once again we flew. Nine and a half hours this time. Talk about exhausted! When we landed, there was a cardboard lion sign set out to greet us. To someone who hasn't slept more than five hours for two days, I must confess that it looks very, very real.

                          I had to take a second look at this guy, making my heart skip a beat.

We sat down for a meal at a restaurant, the name escapes me at the moment, and decided to order their breakfast. It took an hour for our meal to come. At a first glance, the food looked good. But the pancakes were like rubber and the syrup was terrible. Even starving, it wasn't good. Oh well. At least we were full.

 This syrup was definitely not a flavor you would find in an American brand. Ever.

Finished eating with time to spare, we checked out the gift shop. Turns out it's really hard to convince your parents to buy you zebra and antelope pelts for your room. Or decorative elephant tusks.

I found out that it's legal to bring zebra pelts back to America as long as their not made from the endangered species, but that STILL didn't convince my parents to get one for my room!

 I found a stack of elephant tusks. Each of them were hand carved intricately, like this one, by locals.

The shop had plenty of hides, so many that there were piles like this all over the store.

Care for an ostrich egg omelet? Don't worry, with these big guys, you'll never have to use more than one egg for a meal ever again!

These masks must mean the locals have caught on with the trends in America! :P

 

Halfway through looking around, my mom realized the iPhones were late by an hour, meaning we had missed our flight! After several hours of complete chaos and exhaustion, we had managed to schedule a flight for the next day. So we had to stay in a hotel until the following morning.

The Royal Rasberry

The palace is a massive building. The size of two white houses, and that's not including the lawn, Queens Art Gallery, or the museum. The gates are 15 feet tall, and the main ones bear the royal crest.
Inside the gates, far away from the crowds of tourists, you can see the famous British guards. At first, it's a bit disappointing. In every Hollywood movie about London it looks as if the guards are right on the sidewalks. How am I supposed to get my full experience if I cant even get near the guards???
Thankfully, we walked over to check out another part of the palace -the royal driveway or something- and I found what I was looking for! The guards were much closer! REALLY close. Especially when they marched to maintain a perimeter as us tourists crowded as close as we could. But I must say, Hollywood should make their guards as amusing as these two were!