Flowers, Food, and Fun!

These past few weeks in Cape Town have been absolutely amazing! I finally feel like I fit in here and that I know what I’m doing. It really feels like home. I’ve also had some wonderful adventures and many new experiences. Not to mention that the weather is getting warmer and days are getting longer!! We went to the beach yesterday and it was so nice. The sand is pure white and the water is crystal clear but still really cold. Ok, so now for a quick (if that’s possible) recap of the past couple of weeks.

The other night we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was excellent! They served everyone’s meal on one giant sourdough flatbread and then you break off pieces of the bread to pick up the meat. No utensils necessary. The next day I went sandboarding, which is basically snowboarding except on giant sand dunes. It was fun, and much more my style since I hate snow! I actually got down the hill a few times without falling. I have pictures to prove it. Then, about a week ago I went to Stellenbosch for the day. Stellenbosch is the center of the wine industry, with hundreds of wineries. It’s beautiful there. We went to a couple different wineries and did some wine tasting. It was fun to try out a bunch of different wines and see which ones I liked.

The director at the organization I am interning with invited me to a play the other night, called “Mother to Mother.” It was about an incident that happened in Gugulethu, one of the townships here. A Fulbright Scholar, Amy Biehl, was killed in this township in 1993, just a year before the end of apartheid. Amy’s mother then traveled to Cape Town, met her daughter’s murderer’s mother and the murderer, and eventually forgave the murder and started a non-profit organization here. The play was told from the perspective of the murderer’s mother. I think that’s a person we often forget about, what it must be like for her. She talked about how she was blamed, how people shunned her, like it was her fault her son killed someone. It really re-iterated the challenges of living in a township and the tension of apartheid. This girl was killed simply because she was white. The men in the township were sick of being oppressed by the white people, and Amy happened to go into the township on a day when people were particularly angry, and the black people’s anger got taken out on her. It’s sad to me that even here, even where it is 90% black, the white people still have the power, still act as though they are the majority. I thought I might understand here what it’s like to be in the minority, how it would feel. I think I’ve gotten a small taste of that, but not nearly what I was expecting since whites still tend to be treated like the majority. Anyways, it was a great play.

I went to a few more tourist spots this past week, including Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, The Castle of Good Hope, and the District 6 museum. The botanical gardens were beautiful and so peaceful! I got to see the King Protea, which is the national flower. The District 6 museum was also really interesting. There is a section of downtown called District 6, which is an area in which all the blacks and coloureds were forced to leave and re-locate outside of the city.

My birthday was a week ago! All of us Arcadians had a paper due the day after my birthday, so we postponed celebrations for a day. However, my roommates did get me a cake and I got to blow out a lighter since we had no candles. It was fun though! Then, the next day we went out to a Kurdish restaurant, Mesopotamia, and it was really good! There was a belly dancer at the restaurant, and we all tried to belly dance but failed miserably. It’s a lot harder than it looks by the way. Then we went out on the town for the night and had a fabulous time!

I’m in my last week of classes! I can’t even believe it. Where has the time gone? A couple good things have happened in the last week or two. First, my dance teacher cancelled both papers that we were supposed to write! Then, my African instruments professor cancelled the paper we were supposed to write for him! Haha, my school life is pretty great here. Finance still sucks. But this Friday I have a dance performance that I am really excited about! My class gets to show off everything we have learned so far and then there is going to be a bunch of traditional food afterwards. Pretty much my whole house is coming and some other friends, so it will be a good time. And I am getting a DVD of the performance, so I can share it with all of you back home.

I don’t think I have talked about minibus taxis yet, so I must tell you about them. Basically, minibus taxis are old, beat-up vans that run up and down along Main road with a man shouting the destination out the window and the driver honking the horn incessantly trying to entice people to get in it. They are extremely cheap - most rides cost between 5 and 7 rand. They drivers are crazy (thought most drivers here are), running red lights, weaving in and out of traffic, and running over anyone who gets in their way. Normally they are crammed full of people, and the operators always want to fit in more people, so they make you move over and make room. Normally they are blasting music as well, anything from R&B, hip-hop, rap, pop. They can be fun, but it also gets annoying at times because they are constantly pulling over to the side of the road to try to get more people. There are almost always two people running them - one person who drives, and the other one who shouts for people and collects the money. Each ride is a new experience!

All right, a few more random things:

- The other people in my program and I rented a car for the rest of the time we are here! I am really excited, except it is manual, so I am learning to drive it. I am also learning to drive on the left side of the road. It’s really not that hard and I’m really used to seeing people on the left now. One more skill I will have learned here!
- Men here are way more forward and move faster than at home. For instance, you meet a guy and within 5 minutes he will ask for your phone number. If you give it to him, you are basically saying you want to be with him. You will get a text within several hours saying I miss you or I love you. They often say I love you on a first date. Very different than in the US.
- We went and got fish ‘n chips on Sunday, which is a really big thing here. It was pretty good, but I’m still not a huge fan of fish.


I feel like I have grown so much in these last couple of months. I never thought of myself as someone who loves outdoor activities, but I have been having a blast trying things like surfing, sandboarding, climbing mountains, and shark cage diving. I’ve tried so many new foods - many of you know what a shock that is! And the best part is that I actually like them. I’ve also learned to cook more and be more creative in meals. I have learned how to budget a bit more. I’ve stepped outside of my comfort on a number of occasions, pushed my limits, and been excited at the results! It saddens me to think that I have to go back home and won’t have nearly as many opportunities for adventure, but let’s not think about that yet cause I have lots more to do before I leave!