#ishaanbhatt

[umichenginabroad]

Week 7 in Hermanus - SAIP.

This is it everyone. It's presentation time. This is a jam packed week so lets get right into it.

Monday.

Monday started with Hudson and I going out for brunch! We checked out of the hostel, but since we still had some time left before we had to uber to SAIP (it was at like 2), we left our bags there and went to get food. We found this place that was literally across the street, and I am not going to lie, it was amazing. I really loved the Banana Tiramisu smoothie I got, definitely one of the best smoothies I have ever had. The vibe there was really chill too. What a great way to end our trip in Cape Town.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel to just kill time playing table tennis. We played it so much we tried new variations in grip and even without a paddle. At one point I slammed the ball onto Hudson's side while not even looking and just based on reflex, so I hit a quick thwip to make sure I wasn’t Spiderman.

Soon after our Uber arrived and we made the journey to the University of the Western Cape. I was super excited to see what university outside of the US is like, since I had never seen one. Upon arrival, we checked in at the reception and took a shuttle to the dorms. They were pretty nice, with a nice common room with a massive cooking range.

However, one thing I did not plan for was the lack of soap. Now I am not sure if this is a common thing here, but I was expecting soap to be in the dorms, so I didn’t pack it. This led to me going the majority of the week without soap except for when I was on campus. It also is probably a big reason for why I got sick, which I will mention later. Anyway, we relaxed until it was time for the Opening ceremony. We met up with the SANSA students and took a shuttle back to campus for the ceremony. There were a lot of opening remarks, and it was cool knowing that everyone here was interested in physics. After the ceremony, it was time for the reception. I honestly was like a lost puppy, since everyone was connecting with former colleagues while Hudson and I did not know anyone. We met a few cool people, however, and we introduced ourselves to them and how we got there. One thing was that the opening ceremony was at 6 and the reception at 8:30, so I thought dinner would be served afterwards. Unfortunately for me there was only finger foods at the reception, and only one of them was vegetarian. They were being served on platters as the waiters came out of the kitchen with a random platter of them. This led to me only leading a few quiches, so I was pretty hungry for the rest of the night. It didn’t help that I had my presentation the next day, so I was up late working on it. Anyway, this was a super eventful day, so let’s get into tomorrow.

Tuesday.

Alright. Today is the day of my presentation. It was also the start of the regular format for the conference, so I will briefly go over it as it was repeated for the next couple days. The usual schedule was like this: morning plenary, parallel sessions(bunch of different talks on different topics in different buildings/rooms), morning tea(will be important), more parallel sessions, lunch, afternoon plenary, more parallel session, then a poster session (today and wednesday only). After that was dinner at the dorms at around 6 pm. I was presenting in the second parallel session today, so I was getting ready for that the night before and this morning. We got up early for breakfast then headed to campus for the talks. The morning plenary and first parallel sessions were pretty cool, but honestly my head was focused on my presentation later that day. I had never presented in front of real professionals like that before, so I was quite nervous. However, on my darkest day, an angel appeared. Morning Tea. I went into it expecting just some tea and maybe some biscuits, but nothing fancy. I was wrong. They had the BEST assortment of pastries I had seen. Everything was BANGER. I was extremely happy.

Now with my nerves gone, I was ready to present. After all was said and done, I thought it went pretty well! I have attached a photo of my presentation below for those curious where I was presenting.

It was basically a lecture hall where the presentation was being projected on the wall behind me. Afterwards, I was very relieved since it was basically smooth sailing from here. There was a special plenary I was planning on attending, and I was intrigued as it was a special talk (it seemed similar to the other plenaries). After attending, it turned out to be a really interesting presentation! It showcased a bunch of new research studies in physics, and how they can be pursued further. It honestly made me want to research the subjects on my own. For example, one of the technologies discussed was the application of special materials to help with thermal regulation indoors! I thought it was super interesting and I will be looking into it further. After everything was done on campus, we headed back to the dorms for dinner. Hudson and I made a new friend named Ben who was also attending SAIP from a university up north, and so we got dinner together. We chatted about what brought us to SAIP and we learned that he is really into basketball! I also discovered that I really liked the vegetarian sausage that they had for dinner!(at least they said it was vegetarian, I could never really know for certain) After dinner we decided to rest for the night. Side note: I was watching the world cup this night, but apparently my stream had a delay, so I heard screaming throughout the dorms like a minute before anything happened. I was quite confused.

Wednesday and Thursday

Now Wednesday and Thursday were very similar to Tuesday, so I won’t go into too much detail these days. Wednesday was Hudson’s presentation, so after he was done we were both off of the hook. The plenaries were all pretty interesting, as each division within the conference (astrophysics, nuclear, materials, etc.) had their own plenary. I also learned a lot within my own division through the parallel sessions. On Thursday, Hudson and I went on a nature walk on campus! We had to sign up beforehand since it was during lunch, so they would have to pack lunch for us. It was a nice, calm walk through the fynbos, and our tour guide was very informative.

Unfortunately, this is also the day I started to get sick. Given the fact that I wasn’t getting enough sleep, didn’t have much soap, and was meeting a bunch of people, it honestly makes sense. 

Friday

It's Friday! You know what that means! It’s……..My birthday!! Yay! Yes, for those who don’t know, today is my birthday! Guess how old I’m turning! 20! And coincidentally, today is the last day of SAIP, which means that there is a Gala Dinner tonight! This is actually a really funny coincidence that I found out about a few weeks ago. Not much happened before the dinner, so I will skip right to it. Hudson and I boarded a shuttle for the GrandWest Casino, where the dinner was held, at around 5:30 pm. It was supposed to be like a 15 minute drive, but it turned out to be like 30 minutes (not sure how that happened). Once we got inside, it was genuinely like a wedding reception. I was not expecting something of that scale, so I was pleasantly surprised. Once the program started, it was very similar to the welcome ceremony. It started a bit late, so the food was served while the announcements were still being said. For the starter, I got a salad, which was ok. Then came the main, which was a pretty good ravioli. But finally, the literal cherry on top, was the dessert, which of course, was the Malva Pudding. This was my birthday cake. It was so good that I ate it within like 2 minutes. Amazing. After dinner, they started to announce awards. Hudson and I didn’t compete for a prize, but a lot of the other SANSA students did, so we were rooting for them. Luckily for us (and them), our friends Zothile and Sanele both won prizes in their respective fields! Congratulations to them! After the awards and the dance floor opened, Hudson, Ben, and I decided to explore the casino. It actually was pretty cool, since I haven't seen many expansive casinos like this one (don’t worry I did NOT gamble). It even had a skating rink for the kids! When we were done exploring the casino, it was about time to go home, so we hopped back on the bus and headed back to the dorms. Overall great day and fantastic end to SAIP!

The Weekend.

Saturday morning we had to check out of the SAIP dorms, and I had a welcome surprise picking up: my family! They had just flown in the day before, and we had planned to go on a trip around South Africa once my program ends. We were planning to meet up yesterday (on my bday), but the timing with the flights and the dinner didn’t work out. The plan now was to stay with them for the weekend (in contrast to going back to SANSA with the rest of the students). I'll go through everything that we did over the weekend quickly since we did so much: We went to Table Mountain, Boulder Beach, Robben Island, Chapman Drive, and Camps Bay. All of these are must do’s for anyone wanting to come to Cape Town, but I especially loved Robben Island because it puts into perspective how the apartheid era really was. Overall I had a super fun and educational weekend with my family!

That is going to be it for this week! Next week is my last week at SANSA! Time really flies. I will see you guys next week for my final blog post (other than the reflection one)!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week 6 in Hermanus - Cooking, Cape Town, and the Calm Before the Storm

Hey hey hey everyone! What’s up! I hope everyone is good. This week was a BANGER, so make sure you read till the end. Research update time! Now we are really getting into crunchtime since SAIP (South African Institute of Physics conference) starts next week. This week I have just been finalizing my presentation and getting everything ready. Now onto the events of the week!

The Beautiful Game. 

The round of 32 is over! Unfortunately, South Africa lost to Canada at the very last minute, which was very annoying. This means that South Africa is out of the world cup. No!! It’s ok. It was a good run while it lasted, and I am so proud of the South African team for going so far! On the flipside, the US beat Bosnia and Herzegovina! On to the round of 16! Since South Africa is out of the world cup, I may stop or write less about it in the blogs, however I may mention something if it is super exciting or relevant. 

My last meeting with my mentor!

This week was also a bittersweet one since it was the last time I would see my mentor. She was taking a leave on Friday and she won’t be back until after I leave, so we would have our last meeting this week. We talked about future plans and what I will have to do once I get back from SAIP (I will have a few days before the program ends). We then took a picture to commemorate my time here and said our farewells. It was great getting to work with you! 

Dinner with IPE Staff!

This week we were surprised with the arrival of Joshua Monthei and Aline Cotel, who work at the IPE office! I had heard about their trip a couple days before from Hudson and his mentor, but it was still a welcome surprise! We met up during the day on Thursday to discuss Hudson and I’s work and overall experience at SANSA and how it has helped us grow in many ways. At the end of the discussion they even offered to take us to dinner, which was very nice of them! They asked us to pick a place, and after careful deliberation(we had this place on our to eat list), we decided on a Mediterranean place named Theo’s Tavern. It is the only Mediterranean restaurant in Hermanus, so I was super excited to try it! We met up outside the restaurant and went in, and unfortunately they were hosting some sort of event, so they only had outdoor seating. It was pretty windy, but the staff offered us blankets which was very nice. We chatted more about our time in Hermanus and other IPE related programs, and the food we ordered was very tasty! After dinner, they were kind enough to drop us back off at SANSA. Overall, we had a great time talking to some familiar faces in Hermanus!

Friday night Braai!

On Friday, the students got together and hosted a braai for us! For those who don’t know, a braai is a traditional South African custom that is similar to a barbecue (grilling meats), but focuses a lot more on the social aspects of it. It was mostly for Hudson, since I don’t eat meat, but I was still invited! I forgot what time it started, but I remember going out and seeing everyone gather around the fire that they had made. There was a lot of smoke, so I didn’t stay for very long, but it was cool seeing everyone! At one point they burned a plastic bag to keep the fire going, which I am not too sure was the best idea, but they eventually got more firewood. Overall it was a cool little experience to round off our last full week in Hermanus!

Cape Town Trip!

This weekend Hudson and I went to Cape Town! We decided to head there a little early before SAIP so we could explore the city itself, since we haven’t gone since we got here. We took an uber there at around 10 am on Saturday (side note: the uber we SCHEDULED got cancelled literally 5 minutes before, so we were scrambling to find an uber once again. I do not like uber.) and the drive there was super scenic. We were blessed with good weather our entire time there, as you will see in the pictures.

When we got into Cape Town, we left our bags at the hostel we were staying at (since it was too early to check in) and went out for lunch. We found this really cute cafe called The Ladder, which had a pretty nice vibe.

We then set out for our main attraction for the day, the aquarium! It is a pretty well known aquarium, and I haven’t been to one for several years, so we were excited to go. Overall the experience was super cool, and we saw a bunch of cool looking fish and even some sharks! Another highlight was the penguin exhibit. We were lucky enough to catch the staff feeding the penguins, which was really fun to watch.

After we left the aquarium, we went back behind the building to see the harbor. When we glanced over the edge of the railing, to our surprise we saw a group of seals! They had been very quiet so we didn’t even notice them until we saw them. They all seemed to be taking their afternoon nap, while a couple of young ones were playing around. Seals are my favorite animals so this was amazing to see.

We then walked around the Waterfront for a bit, which has a lot of shops and restaurants and overall has a great vibe. We then headed home and rested up for the next day.

On Sunday, we woke up before sunrise to catch an uber to the cable car station on Table mountain. We were planning on taking the cable car up, but ambition took the better of us (mostly me, Hudson was down for anything) and we ended up doing the hike. Big mistake. At this point I think I overestimated myself and underestimated the hike simultaneously, as nothing could have prepared me for what was next. This was by far the most strenuous hike I have ever done in my life. I thought my fitness had improved from the last two hikes, but apparently not. Along the hike, however, we made some friends from Brazil! So that was a plus. At the end, when we had finally made it, I realized it was worth it (mostly). We had the most breathtaking views up there, and we stayed all the way until sunset. Once the sun was setting we took the cable car down and ubered back to the hostel.

Tonight we ate at this really good Italian restaurant (forgot the name, sorry guys!) which was kind of in a sketchy place, but it was BANGER.

We then headed home for the night. Overall this was a super fun but also tiring trip, and I am excited for SAIP to start tomorrow!

This concludes another week everyone! I will see you next week for what might be my longest blog ever(based on the amount of activities planned). Bye!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week 5 in Hermanus - Food, Frequencies, and Flippers

Welcome back everyone to your favorite show, the Hermanus show with your host Ishaan! The special this week: penguins! Ok sorry I couldn’t really come up with a better intro than that, so you are going to have to deal with it. There isn’t that much to go into this week so lets just jump right into it.

^EXTREMELY intense game of pool between me and Hudson

Research Seminar

Woah research gets its own section this week! So cool! That is because this week we had our research seminar for SANSA! Hudson and I were both presenting, so we put together a slideshow for our progress so far. It was on Thursday, so we had the week to prepare. When the time came, we presented to a room full of SANSA faculty and students. We presented alongside other students, all of whom had interesting projects in which I learned a lot about the ionosphere and different fields of study within it. Overall a very productive and efficient week in research!

WCWCWCWCWCWCWC

This week were the final group stage matches. South Africa was playing South Korea! Battle of the Souths. I would have loved to watch this game if it wasn’t at 4 am for me. It didn’t matter anyway as I would be awoken during the game after South Africa took the lead. Even though the match was at 4 am, the other students here at SANSA are very committed to supporting the country so they woke up to watch the match. Let’s just say the energy was through the roof. Just as I was falling back asleep, I awoke again when I heard an even bigger surge of energy pass through the residence hall a bit later. I had no idea what time it was, but I had an idea of what had happened. I opened my sleepy eyes and searched up the score of the game, and South Africa had won! With this we had made it to the knockout round! I let out a little celebration and then went back to sleep. We are not talking about the US this week. Importantly, the US is through to the knockouts!

Saturday

Saturday was a pretty chill day, as we took it easy in preparation for the upcoming conference that will keep us busy. That is what I thought, at least. Hudson and Zothile woke up at 7 and went for a hike in the mountains. Good for them. I woke up at a leisurely 10:30 am and had a slow start to the day. After they were done with their hike, we met up in town for lunch. We wanted to treat Zothile, so we took him to THE place. You already know. STACKED. Ok I am not going to lie I didn’t really want Stacked at the moment (I know! Blasphemy!), but I took the opportunity to try something new. I got Waffle Sticks with Ice cream, which may have ruined my diet for the week (I do not regret it.). We talked more with Zothile and we learned more about each other's cultures and how he grew up. It was a really nice lunch and I hope to have more like this in the future!

Penguins!

On Sunday, we went to see penguins! We had wanted to do this excursion for quite some time now, but we just always had something come up. Luckily this weekend Hudson’s mentor John Bosco offered to take us, which was really nice! Unfortunately, the one thing that we couldn't control decided to have its WORST day ever. I am not even joking when I say this, but I genuinely thought I was in a hurricane with the sheer amount of wind and rain. Hudson and I also did not come prepared. Except for the poncho I brought! Please disregard where it is from. But alas, the poncho could only do so much. On the bright side, we did see penguins! They seemed very much less affected by the weather than we were. I was jealous. We didn’t spend too long there due to the weather unfortunately, but it was fun while it lasted! I hope to see the penguins again!

Extras: Bites of the week

Since it was a short blog post, here are some of the things I had this week! Very polarizing week, as the egg croissant and protein shake were AMAZING while the very beautifully presented malva pudding with ice cream wasn't the best.

That’s going to be it for this week guys! I know this was a shorter blog post since we didn't do much, but I think next week will be a lot more interesting so stay tuned for that! 

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week #4 in Hermanus - Sharks, Stars, and Shin Splints

Welcome back everyone! I just completed my fourth week here at SANSA! I can’t believe it's already halfway done, it feels like it has only been like a week and a half. I think this week was probably the most eventful week thus far, so the blog post might be a little bit longer than usual. This week Hudson and I have started playing catch. Yeah I know that sounds weird but it is actually so fun. I forget why I stopped playing it. Anyway, Hudson and I just try to throw the ball around once everyday just for fun. The picture below shows the my fantastic view during it. Now for a quick update on research: It is going great! I had a meeting with my mentor, Mpho, on Monday, and we just went over my current progress and next steps. We have a research seminar where we are going to  present our projects next week, so I am getting all of my stuff in order to be able to present there. Now, without further ado, let's get into this week (get hyped)!

Swimming with the fishes (don’t worry I’m safe)

Ok when I first saw Elise’s post (blogger at SANSA last year) about her going shark cage diving, I was like there is NO way I will be doing that. After a bit of convincing from Hudson (all he asked was would I be down to do it), I ended up deciding that it would be fun. This Tuesday was Youth Day, a national holiday in South Africa, so we used our day off to schedule the dive then. We went through the White Shark company, one of the many companies that hosts shark cage diving. They picked us up at 10 am and we went to the site, where they provided a small meal before we departed on the boat.

We then took a short boat ride (which was unexpectedly pretty bumpy) to the dive site. On the ride we saw a couple of sea birds, which we learned are a sign that whale season is starting soon. We then suited up in wet suits and hopped in a cage which was hanging off the side of the boat. Hudson and I had oxygen flowing through a mouthpiece, so we were able to stay underwater the entire time. The worst part that I felt as soon as I got into the water was just how cold it was. This side of South Africa is notorious for having freezing cold water, hence why the wetsuit was necessary. Once we got in, they started throwing bait to attract the sharks. It didn’t take long for them to come, and we saw some beautiful bronze whaler sharks. The water was pretty murky, so we could only see around 5 feet in front of us. This was kind of cool though since the sharks would appear out of nowhere and surprise us. They were around 3 meters long, which was pretty big considering we saw them only a couple feet in front of us. I would also like to mention that I played Hudson in a game of rock paper scissors underwater and won. We stayed under for around 20 minutes (estimating, I didn’t have a clock). Unfortunately there were not really any opportunities to take photos during the experience, but we took some before we hopped in. Once we came out, we went back to shore and had a small lunch that was included in our package while learning about what we saw during the dive. We then got a ride back to SANSA and had the BEST showers of our lives (me at least, not sure about hudson). Overall this was a once in a lifetime experience and I am super glad that we tried it out!

BIGGEST football fan in the world comments his views on recent games section

This week South Africa played against Czechia, and it was a close game! We were down for most of the game, but when we thought it was all over we scored a penalty in the 83’ minute!! When this happened, everyone cheered so loud I am pretty sure you could hear us from the actual pitch in the US. This goal led us to a draw, which meant that we were not out yet. We still have one more game to play against South Korea, so I hope for the best. Now, for the USA. This is what I like to see. Two-nil against Australia. I am so happy. Let's go Team USA!!! Let’s win this! (there is no chance) (but I have hope)

^Everyone's reaction to South Africa's goal from the penalty kick

Friday

Friday was a pretty relaxing day. The weather was nice out, so Hudson and I went to the cliff path to check out the views. From there we went to town for dinner, and we settled on a place called Char’d. When we got there, they unfortunately had a 45 minute wait, so we sadly sat down nearby waiting for a spot to open up. Luckily for us, we only had to wait like 5 minutes before the waiter came outside to tell us a spot was open!. This place definitely had one of the best vibes out of the restaurants we had been to so far, and they also had really good mac and cheese balls. Overall, nice day!

Saturday

This Saturday was a busy one for us. We were greeted by a nice warm day, so Hudson and I decided to walk to town for lunch! We went to a place called Groves, which we honestly didn’t even know existed and must have missed, but I am glad we went! It is similar to Stacked, one of our favorite places here, so we knew it was going to be good. I got a Caprese sandwich and a dessert waffle, both of which were amazing. I think this place was probably the closest to American food you can find here, which was nice.

After lunch we took an uber to the beach to capitalize on the weather. This time, we decided to explore the lagoon that is connected to the ocean. It got pretty deep at some points, but it was all relatively pretty shallow (<1 foot).

We walked around the perimeter for a bit then took an uber back to SANSA for a party for Professor Snow. He is retiring soon, so the students got together to host a party for him! We came back, got ready, then headed over to the Space Weather Building, which is where it was hosted. It was a surprise, so Professor Snow came in after everyone and was shocked! We then played a game called 30 seconds, which is popular here in South Africa. It is basically Taboo but in board game form. I got lucky with a bunch of US based things, which I was familiar with. There were also a lot of South African things which I didn’t get, but luckily I never had to explain any of them. A couple people then gave speeches on what Professor Snow meant to them, and even though I had just met him, everyone made him seem so fun to be around(which I picked up too last week during the board game lunch if you remember!). We then all ate pizza, which was pretty good. This was a nice little party, and I had fun!

The Cabin.

So, there was a plan that I didn't tell you guys about. Hudson and I have wanted to go stargazing for a while, and we decided to do it this weekend. We were going to do it Friday, but I wanted to watch the USA vs Australia game (Lets go USA!!), so we decided to go on Saturday. Hudson found a chalet in a mountain reserve around a 45 minute drive away that had availability that night (same day by the way, so we got really lucky), so we planned to go ahead with that. We also invited Zothile, Siyanda, and Sanele, the main group we have been with so far. I scheduled an Uber for 7, since the party started at 5 so we thought 2 hours would be enough. However, it ended up going until about 8 pm, so I had to reschedule the uber to 8:30. Now, we were already pretty tense since it would be hard to secure an Uber to such a remote spot, but we had a driver ready for us if we had left at 7. Now that I had rescheduled, we didn't get a driver and were kind of panicking. Luckily for us, Zothile knew a number for the Tuk Taxi guys (I think?), and they were willing to take us for around double the price of what we had for the uber (better than wasting our reservation). The Tuk Taxi guy said that he was ready now, so we all bolted towards the rooms to pack everything to head out for the night. Once we got in the car, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some food for that night and for breakfast the next morning, then headed to the reserve. The road inside the reserve was completely dirt, so it was a pretty bumpy ride on the way to the chalet. There was one part where we were driving through a kind of mini forest which was kind of scary, but we eventually got to the chalet at a bit past 9 pm.

The key was already in the door (since it was so late the reception was closed), so we just walked in and settled down. The chalet itself was really nice! It had 3 bedrooms with a grand total of 7 beds (one queen and six twins), a big living space, and even a small upstairs attic with games like foosball, darts, and pingpong. Once we were settled, we went outside to see the stars. It was a bit cloudy, but you could still make out some constellations. We went back inside to wait for it to clear up and play some games. Hudson and I played this game on the fingerboard, which we had never played before. We played a couple other games then went back outside. This time, it was super clear and we could see a bunch of stars. After our eyes adjusted, we could even see the Milky Way(first time seeing it)! I absolutely love stars, and it has been a dream of mine to see the Milky Way, so I was beyond happy. We then relaxed and just watched the stars until it was time to go to sleep. Wow. Amazing night.

P.S. Hudson found a massive spider on the ceiling above his bed in his room, so he moved into my room for the night. The spider was gone in the morning.

A Farewell to Legs (Sunday)

Good morning! I woke up at around 9:30 to a beautiful view from my room.

Since it was Sunday, we had the chalet until 3 pm, so we decided to go on a hike. It looked like it was only around 5km, and there were a couple points of interest like a cave and waterfall, so we set out soon after for this pretty decent looking hike. Let’s just say “decent” was not the right word for this hike. By the time we got back down, I thought my legs were going to fall off. I genuinely think I had to awaken 120% of my potential to finish this hike. The most brutal part was the ascent. My calves almost broke on the way up. It didn’t help that I was hiking with the superhumans that are Hudson and Zothile, as they both literally ran up the mountain (not breaking a sweat). The way down was a bit easier, but the rocks were pretty slippery so it was kind of dangerous. There were also these super spiky plants that could stab you through your pants, so for part of the descent I was getting slashed to bits while trying to not twist my ankle. It was brutal. At this point we had got to the waterfall, which was a welcome break in all of this. The cave was also nearby, so we hiked up to it and just relaxed for a bit. There were these cool cave paintings that the owners claimed dated back thousands of years ago. At this point it was me, Hudson, and Zothile, so we waited there for Sanele and Siyanda to catch up. Once we had regrouped, we began our descent back down. At this point, I’m pretty sure I achieved a runner’s high. I felt like my third eye had opened and I could see everything clearly. Before I knew it, I was matching Hudson and Zothile’s pace and was literally running down the mountain. I felt like I was one with nature. It was definitely an experience. Once we got back though we had to pack up pretty quickly since our uber was arriving in around 20 minutes(i actually managed to schedule one this time). We packed everything up and said goodbye to the chalet. Once I got home I took a much needed shower and relaxed for the rest of the day. All in all this was a very eventful weekend but it was also super fun. Thanks to everyone that made this happen, and I hope for many more fun experiences to come!

Alright that concludes this very intensive week! I will see you guys next week!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week #3 in Hermanus - Football, Festivals, and Fermented Grapes

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the blog! Feel free to get one of the complimentary imaginary hot chocolates and get cozy! Now for a quick update on research. Overall, it is going pretty good! I am currently working on gathering more data and graphing it to make sure I have the complete picture, to which then I will begin to refine it more. Now let's get into the things that happened this week!

Wednesday Lunch Games

This Wednesday for lunch I was invited by one of the students here, Katlego, to play some board games during lunch time with her and her supervisor, Professor Snow. When I got there, they were playing a game about art. I forget the name, but you basically had to auction off different art pieces and win by having the most money. I honestly didn’t get the rules, so I opted to just watch for the rest of the time. Even though I didn’t play, it was fun watching the others play and it was cool seeing what some people do other than research in their free time.

WORLD CUP

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it's that time again!!! It’s time for one of my FAVORITE world events. For those of you living under a rock who only get a glimpse of the outside world through my blogs, first of all I suggest you consume other media (thanks for the dedication though :)), but the World Cup started this week! It’s the perfect time where I can pretend to have loved soccer (football) my entire life like I was born and raised on the pitch. I have fond memories of the 2022 World Cup, especially watching the games in Spanish class when we would get done early and the teacher would put the game on the Promethean board. Coincidentally, the first game this year was between Mexico and South Africa! It also happened to be at a time that we could watch it (9pm), since a lot of the games are between the hours of 12 am and 6 am for us (I love SAST). All of the students were really passionate and excited for the game, which was really fun to watch!. Unfortunately we lost 2-0, but still a great experience nonetheless! We will see how we do next week against Czechia.

Side note: The US beat Paraguay 4-1!!! Let's go USA!!!

Art Festival + Dinner

On Saturday, Sanele (one of the guys from the hike last week), Hudson, and I went to the Fyn Art Festival in town. It was really cool, as there were a bunch of shops set up in an alleyway with various artworks for sale inside. We walked around for a bit, taking in all of the artwork. We then went outside and walked by some of the other outdoor stands, and ended up at the Cliff Path. At that point we weren’t really sure what to do, so we just started walking. We ended up making pretty good progress on the Cliff Path until two of the other students from the hike last week, Zothile and Siyanda, joined us. The 5 of us have kind of formed our own little group here, as we do a lot of weekend activities together. Afterwards we made our way back into town to grab dinner. We ended up eating at this place called Mozambik, apparently a pretty well known restaurant. We discussed a lot about our different backgrounds and cultures, with me explaining my vegetarianism and Hindu culture and Zothile, Siyanda, and Sanele explaining the importance of connecting with ancestors in Zulu culture. It was overall a really nice day and I had a lot of fun with everyone!

Wine Tour

On Sunday, Hudson and I decided to do a Wine Tour! We used a company called Wine Hoppers, where you pay for transportation between the different wineries. They basically run every hour, so they drop you off at a place, you get to try the wine and relax for an hour, then they come pick you up and take you to the next one. We booked ours for 10 am, as that was the earliest possible slot and we wanted to see as many as we could. Our pick up spot was in the center market in town, so we left about 30 minutes early from SANSA to make it on time. The car we got in reminded me of a safari vehicle due to the open sides, which made the trip to the first winery very scenic and refreshing with the ocean air.

Once we got there, we decided to try the wine. Me, having never tried wine before ever, had no idea of any wine tasting etiquette or what I was supposed to do. There were a couple of different tasting options, each with a different selection of wines, and so I just chose whichever one looked the coolest. Once we finished up there, our driver drove us to the second winery. This one had the best view out of all of them in my opinion, shown below.

It also had food, which was very tasty given the fact that I did not eat anything up until that point. The third spot we went to was one of the more famous ones, which made me and Hudson especially excited. However we failed to account for the fact that we are not the only people interested in this stuff in Hermanus, so unfortunately it was full when we got there. They did offer me a glass of complementary wine though! So Hudson and I just wandered around outside waiting for the driver to come back until we went back inside to check and it turned out a table had opened! We quickly sat down and ordered what we wanted until the driver came back. The fourth spot was pretty nice, although it was probably the least memorable out of the 5 (not to say it was bad though, all of the wineries had breathtaking views). Lastly, the fifth winery probably had the second best view out of all of them, but I didn’t take a photo since we were too busy talking to our new friends Marvin and Anna! On the way to the fifth winery, we started talking to this couple that were with us on the tour named Marvin and Anna. We learned that they are locals from the West Cape and here for vacation! Marvin was really into American sports, so he even knew Michigan and the Big House! We ended up talking to them the entire time there about how life was in the US and different sports like F1 and the NFL. Afterwards we drove back into town where we said goodbye to our new friends and headed towards dinner. Hudson and I both knew where to go even though we didn’t say a word. We bolted toward Stacked hoping that it was still open (it was 5:45pm at this point, Stacked closes at 6pm). The waiter greeted us with  “Don’t worry! We are still open!” while laughing. And must I say. That was probably the best meal I have had on this trip. I'm not sure if it was our fatigue from the day or just lack of food, but we absolutely devoured everything that was given to us. We then walked home to relax and get ready for the week. Overall this day was definitely one of a kind and I am super glad to have experienced it! These kinds of things only happen when you put yourself out there in these situations, and I am so glad that I did. Once again, great time and I recommend it to everyone who comes to South Africa!

Alright that is all for this week guys! I will see you next week!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week #2 - Food, Hike, Beach!

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the blog! I have just finished my second week here, time is going by fast! We are currently planning on doing something every weekend, so look forward to that in the blogs. For research, it has been pretty good, I am still in the introductory phases of it and gathering data.

Food

I think I have eaten out at restaurants this past week more than I usually do within like 6 months. There is just so much to try, so can you really blame me? First and foremost, we got dinner with Dr. Moldwin on Monday since he is visiting for the week. We went to Pear Tree Bistro, and I was honestly surprised with the quality of the food. They had a unique type of cauliflower that was super good and also my vegetarian burger was pretty good. We had a great time catching up with Dr. Moldwin and telling him about our plans for the upcoming weekends. One of the best foods I tried this week was Malva Pudding, which is a popular South African dessert. I think it is made from apricot jam, but it tastes just like a nice warm chocolate cake. It usually is accompanied by custard or ice cream, which just makes it even better. I recommend it to everyone who comes to South Africa and it is definitely one of my favorite desserts here and maybe even in general!

Small International Changes

Some things that I have noticed over the last couple days are the small differences between South Africa and the United States. For example, here in South Africa people drive on the left. That has been a bit of a challenge to get used to, as I always get disoriented when getting in a car and crossing the road. Another small change is the use of more British/European English, which is pretty similar to American English but with slight vocabulary changes. One thing I have gotten pretty good at recently is converting South African Rand to USD and vice versa. Right now it's around $6 to 100 Rand. Overall the adjustment has not been too bad, and I am getting used to things now.

The Goose

I'm not sure if it is a goose or not but some bird that sounds like a goose always lands right outside my window at like 6 am every day and honks non-stop for around an hour. It always wakes me up and is super annoying when I want to sleep in. The honk is super loud as well so it is not something I can sleep through, which really sucks. I might get my revenge by honking even louder at 5 am.

Weekend Activities - Hike + Beach!

This Saturday we woke up at 7:30 to go for a hike in the mountains! We went with 3 of the other students at SANSA, Zothile, Sanele, and Siyanda. They mentioned they go for a hike every weekend, and so we would just tag along with them. There are hikes in the nearby Fernkloof nature reserve, so we were planning on going there. Little did I know just the walk to get there was a hike itself. It was a pretty fast paced walk at a slight incline for a couple kilometers, which killed my calves. Once we got to the top, however, the views were amazing. I also forgot to bring food and water (which I do not recommend), so I was running on pure determination. The view at the top rejuvenated me, and so I was ready for the long walk back. The downhill section was a lot steeper, and I definitely felt it in my knees afterwards. We descended the mountain into a farmers market, which had a bunch of local shops and restaurants in an outdoor setting, which was super cool! We relaxed there for a bit and got lunch then headed back to SANSA. 

On Sunday, we went to the beach again due to the great weather. This time we had come prepared, as we had bought a small rugby ball to throw around. It was a relaxing day at the beach with me and Hudson throwing around the ball until two little kids (like elementary school age) came up to us and asked if we wanted to play rugby with them. Me and Hudson, having never played or watched rugby in our lives, said of course. We then proceeded to play some form of rugby that we didn’t even know half the rules of with these two kids that knew English as their second language. We ended up losing (bummer), but not without a fight! We lost 14-7. Ok that is pretty embarrassing but I would say pretty good given our circumstances. Despite the various barriers, like age, language, and honestly just physical ability (I was still super sore and broken from the hike the day before), we all ended up having a bunch of fun and we even learned a thing or two about rugby. This experience just goes to show the kinds of things that can happen when you are abroad or just out of your comfort zone in general. It ended up being a super fun (and tiring) day, and thanks to those kids for teaching us rugby!

Overall this has been a super fun week and I am excited to see what we do next week!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week #1 - Life in Hermanus

Hello everyone! For those of you coming from my previous blog post, welcome back! For those new, welcome to my blog! This post will probably not make sense to you, so I recommend you read the one before this first. Anyway, I have now spent 1 week in Hermanus! Wow! I will tell you all about the experience.

Dorms

Hudson and I both got our own rooms, each with two beds in them (I am guessing they had extra space). Each room has a cabinet, a desk, and a bed. The bed is actually amazing, I think I have had some of the best sleep on it. There are bathrooms right across from us, which is pretty convenient. There is a shared kitchen with a pantry and fridge to keep all of our groceries. Overall the dorms are pretty nice, and we haven’t had any big problems so far.

Research

Research is great! I just got started this week, and so far it is going well! My specific project is studying the ionosphere’s response to extreme geomagnetic storms, and I have just started gathering data on that. The work hours here are very relaxed, and people come and go in and out of the office at any time really. Most of my weekdays here were spent working in the mornings and afternoons, and then relaxing in the evenings.

Interesting Things We Did This Week

The highlight of this week was for sure walking the entire cliff path. We had planned to do this as soon as we saw that it ended at a 10-mile long beach, and we were super excited about it. We didn’t really see how far the actual path was, as we saw the beginning of the beach in the distance and just walked towards it. During the weekdays we had tried to make progress on the cliff path as to prepare for the journey, and we did map out several of the legs. On Saturday, when the day came, we set out around 11 in the morning to start the walk. Along the walk we saw a lot of rock hyraxes (pictured below), which are commonplace here. They have been one of my favorite animals in the past couple years, and I had no idea that they were here before we came, so it was a very pleasant surprise. One interesting fact is that the moon is upside down here! Because we are in the southern hemisphere, we are looking up rather than down (relatively) at the moon, so it appears upside down. We then got brunch in the town at a place called Stacked. Stacked has now become our favorite restaurant here. It serves burgers and waffles, which is an interesting combo at first, but quickly became our favorite. When we finally got to the end of where we had made it previously in our preparation walks, we thought we were pretty close, but it turned out we weren't even halfway. After a long and gruelling walk (with pretty views), we finally made it to the beach. I have attached a before and after picture from the walk below. Can you tell which is which? We then spent the rest of the day at the beach, and we liked it so much that we ubered back there the next day as well. Overall this week has been very big on exploring Hermanus and the beautiful nature that it has to offer! See you guys next week!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa

[umichenginabroad]

Week #0 - Arriving in Hermanus

Hey! My name is Ishaan, and welcome to my blog! This summer I am going abroad to conduct research at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa! I am super excited to share my experience with everyone, but first a little about me. I just finished my second year at Michigan, and I am double majoring in Space Sciences Engineering and Engineering Physics. At SANSA, I will be researching the atmosphere and the effects geomagnetic storms have on it. This is my first research experience, so I am very excited to dive into the field! I am also here with another UMich student, Hudson. Funny enough, I know Hudson through a shared class we had together a semester ago.

Reaching Hermanus

This was my first time traveling to the African continent, and Hudson’s first time traveling internationally, so we were both really excited to go on this trip. We organized so that Hudson and I would have the same itinerary to get there, as we would prefer to travel together. Our itinerary included a 2 hour flight from Detroit to Montreal, an 7 hour flight from Montreal to Amsterdam, and then finally a 11 hour flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town. We also had a 7 hour layover in Montreal, so we were planning to go out and explore there. Our overall experience was smooth, and we even got to venture out in Montreal! It was interesting since French is the primary language there, but luckily most people also spoke English. We went out and explored a canal, then also got some good food. I honestly lost track of how much I slept throughout the journey, as we left Detroit on Wednesday morning and landed at Cape Town on Thursday night. Our flight from Amsterdam was pretty good, I slept on and off for the majority of it. We did have a really cool flight path, as we went over a lot of Europe and it was perfectly clear. I also got to see the vastness of the Sahara, and then shortly went back to bed. It was then around a 2 hour drive to Hermanus after we landed, so our traveling wasn’t over yet. The good thing about all of this travelling was that it had completely messed up our internal clocks, so had little-to-no jetlag when we got there.

First Few Days

The next morning we went to the cliff path, which is a walk along the coast, to get into town. Unfortunately it was really cloudy and rainy so it wasn’t the best weather, but we still liked the walk. We then got brunch and headed back. We also signed up for Mr. D’s, which is the Doordash equivalent in South Africa (we will use this a lot in the future). On Saturday we ubered to the mall to get groceries. The mall seemed just like the ones you would see in the US, just with a bunch of different brands that we didn’t recognize. This one store even had a band of animatronic fruits and veggies(interesting). We then relaxed the rest of the weekend and got settled in.

Goals

The main purpose of this trip was to put me out of my comfort zone. This is my first time completely immersed in another culture, and as uncomfortable as that may be, that is how I believe I will grow. I want to see how life is different here than in the US, and I am excited to meet everyone around as well. My goals include furthering my academic knowledge, exploring South Africa, and meeting new people. This wraps up my introductory blog post, so I will see you guys soon!

Ishaan Bhatt

Space Sciences and Engineering, Engineering Physics

IPE: Undergraduate Research Program at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, South Africa