Routine

We are establishing routines.  I get satisfaction from this because the routines make us feel like we've successfully negotiated life in South Africa. We go to school and work, pay bills, exercise, socialize, and relax. Our routines here are different from those we had in the United States. Sometimes for the better, other times for the worse. In this post I report on our routines, and how they make us feel.

A view from the trail we've been jogging on.

We've been early risers. At first, it was because we lived on a street that was loud, but the habit stuck. Julie and I are out of bed by six, and like to go jogging. This is a change for me, but Julie's been running for a while. I like the feeling I get from it. The neighborhoods are pleasant, and morning light is enchanted. Our best runs take us up on the side of Table Mountain, where wild flowers and low clouds grace the experience. As we round the final corner, we see the ocean beyond the city center.

We all eat breakfast together. The boys like a banana flavored cream of wheat called 'pro-Nutro'. I like a dense whole grain seed seed bread with peanut butter and chili jam. Chili jam is a real find, lekker (Afrikaans for good)! I've switched to tea; English breakfast with milk and sugar. Julie drinks Illy coffee and has a little 'double cream' yogurt with Cape Fruit. Breakfast is better here, as is most food.

View of the morning commute to the Grove Primary School.

We have to drive the kids to school. It's about 6 km. With traffic, this takes a total of 20 minutes. There's nothing like public radio here. Just hyper-commercial crap, which the kids have taken a liking to. There's nothing good about this routine, count one big one in favor of Missoula. I do miss the chill morning walks and bike rides to school with the neighbors.

Then comes work for me. As with in the US, I can walk. This is a very positive thing, something impossible to monetize, but worth 'a lot' to me. Here, it is 12 minutes, up a hill. I get into a good sweat, walking up the 291 stairs. Once there, there are few distractions, and I can focus on research. Overall, I miss some of the distractions. Teaching always provided me with something to escape from.  I do love the time and the focus, but don't know if I could sustain it for much more than a year. There is tea though, ten and two. Tea is social, and can last far too long.

Speeds from a higher order momentum balance on an unstructured grid.

I should say something about what I've done. People ask, and it's sometimes embarrassingly hard to explain, and makes me feel like 'research' is a euphemism for surfing the internet. I've accomplished two things that are worth mentioning. First, I've got an ice sheet model that accounts for pushing and pulling of the ice that can occur down stream of flow. This would usually be the influence of the ocean. There are several ways to do this, but because at the heart of things, the physics is no longer strictly local, or linear, none of them are especially easy. I've elected to use one that is computationally efficient, robust, and supporting unstructured meshes. Amazingly (for me) it works. As is typical (for me) it took a long time to get here. Now I'm trying to compute the temperature of the ice. More months...

Drainage network analysis of Greenland.

I've also convinced myself that the surface morphology of Greenland, or the features on the surface that channel water downhill, are fundamentally different than the surface features that channel water downhill on land. Maybe that isn't very surprising, but as we begin trying compute the surface runoff of Greenland, or somewhere upwards of 50% of the mass loss, we will not be able to utilize the concepts that are used form computing runoff of overland flow. That could be significant.

Abe in chess club.

Abe playing in cricket. I have no idea why he's running.

Meanwhile...the kids are in a number of activities, and there's a fair amount of moving children around. Julie does most of this, and tells me that the social scene on the sidelines is pleasant, but the driving kids from place to place is awful. This counts as a big negative for Julie's routines. The kids probably like it better. Cricket!

Evenings are quiet and TV free. We're reading more, and the kids usually have homework. I love reading to the boys, and am very happy to be back in that routine. While I like the details of the evening routines a little better (reading instead of TV), the setting is not as nice. Home is home. The house here is perfectly acceptable, but not home. In the evenings I notice the lack of a comfortable bed, or couch, a favorite painting, or even a likable color of paint on the walls. A comfortable home is a nice thing to have, but you don't notice it until its gone (insert 80s ballad rock).

We do live for the weekends. I'm pleased to say that we've made some friends here, and treasure the time spent with them. South Africans are very open-hearted, hospitable, and accommodating people. Actually, the degree of hospitality they routinely show makes me  embarrassed about all the times I've dropped a visitor off at a hotel. South Africans are also curious about the world around them, and introspective about their unique experiences with apartheid and living in the most diverse country in the world. Getting to know them is a pleasure. As we've fallen into social routines, there's been a slight regret about not getting out to do more sight seeing. It has been all too easy to fall into poolside chats, pizza parties, braais, sushi dinners, and kids' birthday parties. All giving us an accomplished sense of having 'integrated' in a way, but diminishing our accomplishments as tourists. Oh well. If I'd wanted to be a tourist, I suppose I could have found the money to come here for a couple weeks a long time ago. In no particular order, a few of the highlights of our social life follow.

The top of Lion's Head with the Ramblers Club.

The kid's school has a 'Ramblers Club', or a group of parents and students that like to hike together. Wonderful group of people, and hiking is a nice way to meet folks. Here we are on top of Lion's Head on what would later be a full moon. On top, we enjoyed snacks and wine with the group. After sunset, the local astronomy club had a telescope and kids got to see the moons of Jupiter. The atmosphere after dark was very party like and social. Walking down was fantastic, the city lights inspiring a dizzying vertigo. Or was that the second hand ganja smoke?

Poolside in the summer.

A swimming pool is a fine thing in this climate. Here we are sitting around a friend's pool. There's a lot of activity. Dogs, kids, snacks, conversation, cell phones, and swimming. A terrific way to spend an afternoon.

Greenpoint stadium, wow, it's big.

We went to see the United States soccer team play Bafana Bafana (the boys), the South African national team. The venue was the 66,000 seat Greenpoint stadium, constructed for the 2010 World Cup. I'd never been to something like that, and am inclined to think that the value of an experience is inversely proportional to the number of people its shared with. But, what do I know? 65,999 people think otherwise. Vuvuzelas are loud, and one can't hear anything. Unlike what I've heard about the US, beers were only a couple of dollars, at the atmosphere was very upbeat. I liked it alright, and the kids liked it more.

Zach tells mom about putting chickens to sleep.

 To say we stay in Cape Town on weekends is a little bit of an exaggeration. We did get to the Whipstock farm a few weeks ago. This 'farm stay' has great hiking a short distance away. While staying in a cottage there, the hosts cook hearty country dinners and breakfasts, and the kids pet and feed the animals. There is a irrigation dam, and kayaks to use. Almond trees and citrus line the estate. Another very pleasant time.

And, that's life in South Africa lately. Next weekend we look forward to a ramble in an area north of here. Soon enough, we'll indulge in a (blog worthy?) long Christmas holiday. For now, the routine is feeling good. And it's summer, how can't you be happy in summer?