Local-like activities

Oy, another week has gone by. How time flies – been here more than 3 weeks already! Since I aimed to get all the touristy things done before World Cup madness, my schedule has since then calmed down. There’s still a couple of must-do’s (Robben Island, wine country, climbing Lion’s head), but I’ve gotta say… I’m kinda relieved that my pace of life is more… “local” now. Disadvantage of this is that my days are blurring together because there’s no major event-of-the-day, but I’ll try my bestest to describe how my time in Cape Town is now spent…

Last Tuesday night, I met up with a local couchsurfer, Adri, and an American CSer, Greg, to go to the nightmarket at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. All these independent businesses set up shop and display their amazing (but out of my price range) crafts. The back section is allll about food and drink. Many glasses of wine were had (2 bottles of which we took back to Adri’s place) and had Kroketten from a Dutch stand! I talked to the Dutch girl in charge of it – she told me she came here 8 years ago for a week-long vacation and well… is still here. I’ve heard variations of this type of story countless times already… seems to happen a lot.

Wednesday was a public holiday, so no work. It’s Youth Day – in commemoration of the youth that stood up against Apartheid at Soweto, many of whom were shot. The message: the youth can make a difference and should remember the struggles of our parents.

Of course, there’s always a game or two or three to watch each day. South Africa played Uruguay and lost… I was with Helena and some of her friends, watching it at 3 Stories in Woodstock, and after the game, there was just general melancholy that swept over SA. I heard in order for us to stay in the top 16, Mexico needs to beat Uruguay and we need to beat France with at least 4 points, ha.

3 Stories is a neat place, I went back there last night for the Brazil-Cote d’Ivore game. It’s a warehouse sponsored by Adidas, filled with art galleries and DJ’s playing during all parts of the day, that hosts viewing parties for the games. A real fun, artsy vibe. Last night they had a Rock-Paper-Scissors challenge for World Cup tickets, ha.

At work on Friday, Gibby drove me to the Health & Nutrition Centre so I could take some measurements. Afterwards, he did the most amazing thing I could have experienced: drove me through all the different townships, the “townships” that the colored people live in (those of south-east Asian and Indian descent, not a derogatory term here) and showed me the contrast on how they were definitely favored by the government during Apartheid. I had wondered for a while where the coloreds lived… since the townships seemed to be mainly black.

The US vs. Slovenia game was on Friday, so watched that with Greg and his friends at Rafiki’s. Almost everyone there was American (I could tell by the flags, face paint, hats they were wearing… easy give-away) and it was a small reminder of home :). Lotsa shouting, jumping around, beers, pizza. It ended up being a 2-2 tie (although we should have gotten that 3^rd goal to count…). Went home, passed out, then woke up for my 2^nd wind and met up with my Long st. pals (Graham and co.) and the Americans for a night in Long st.

Pancakes on Saturday!!! Pancakes (not the American kind, but the thin crepe-like ones) are pretty much my favorite food in the world. Michelle and Debbie had it at their place, after which, Helena, Herman, Myron, and I set out for our graffiti hunt. Cape Town is filled with some awesome art out on the streets, so Myron drove us all over town, while we snapped away. Fun stuff. Afterwards, we watched a documentary on graffiti… so, a very graffiti-filled day.

It was an absolutely beautiful day on Sunday, so I walked alllll over town (all the way to the Waterfront!) and took photos of murals and zebras. Helena had shown me the other day that there is this campaign called “It’s not all Black & White”, where 30 locals artists were given a statue of a zebra and a Nelson Mandela quote. Up to them to interpret it then and decorate it as they’d like. I found 26 of them. Must. find. remaining. 4. Went and got some sushi with Sean afterwards (my first sushi in Cape Town! The eel tastes different… more… oceany), and then met up with Eric and Max at 3 Stories.

Today, I walked to work, got rained on a little, only to discover a dark building and locked doors. Apparently Ikamva decided to take off today. Thanks for telling me, guys. Helena graciously came and picked me up (because I was too lazy to make the 30 min walk back) and now here I am. We were originally going to go to the wine country today, but with this weather… not the best idea. The wine will have to wait.