(From April 3)
A packed, educational,
beautiful, relaxed weekend—not a combination of adjectives often uttered in
sequence, especially on an IHP program. Yet, Cape Town provided the perfect set
of activities to compose two days that allowed for a wonderful intro to the
city.
I woke
up (sadly) to an alarm on Saturday morning, a necessity in meeting with my
Neighborhood Day group in order to figure out our presentation. Savannah and I
schlepped down our hill around 10 AM in order to meet with our other group
members and cobble together a coherent idea. We ended up settling down at a
WiFi-generous location called Honest Chocolate Café, at which I was
surprisingly able to refrain from buying any merchandise. Of course, I
literally still had Nutella on my mouth from my breakfast sandwich which Jenn
literally had to point out about a half hour into our meeting, so my restraint
isn’t actually that commendable. Admittedly, I was pretty distracted during
this meeting by my first WiFi access in about twenty-four hours, and the
inundation of Snapchat and Facebook notifications was mesmerizing. I nailed
down my part of the presentation, though, and Jenn and I headed out of the café
around noon in order to begin our real weekend.
We
walked to the Slave Lodge, a museum dedicated to the history of slavery in
South Africa and Cape Town in particular. I was actually really surprised by
this; I had been completely unaware that slavery existed in such a reaching
form in South Africa. It wasn’t actually abolished here until 1834, and its
history here in Cape Town had been relatively ignored and its victims
unrecognized for over a century. The Slave Lodge museum did a really
commendable job at paying homage to the slaves here in Cape Town, their
contributions to the city’s culture, and to the immense hardships they faced.
Saying I “enjoyed” the museum sounds a little weird, but I learned a lot and
was very humbled by the information.
Jenn’s
friend from school, Sarah, met up with us and gave us some insider knowledge on
the city gained from half a semester studying abroad here. It was fun to watch her
and Jenn interact and talk about people and places from back in the US—it made
me excited to reunite with all of my friends and family and attempt to explain
the experiences that I’ve had!! We ate at a cute little café with outdoor
picnic tables and a delicious burger (not as good as the one in Rio, but will
any burger ever be as delectable?). When I tried to order coffee at the restaurant,
they explained that the region had been having so much trouble with the water
pressure that they actually weren’t able to make coffee. Literally, whaaat? My
mind began to race with hypotheses of these ramifications, and how it mirrored
the water crisis in Sao Paulo, and whether people living further from the city
were also having these issues, and how climate change may or may not be
responsible. I guess you could say this program has changed the way I think, as
three months ago, my reaction would have been “f*ck it, I’m going to Starbucks.”
So, I mean, that’s good.
After
lunch, we wandered into a really cool, artsy market, reminiscent of those in
India and Istanbul, in which I spent literally every cent of cash that I had on
me. Woops. Bargaining is a little stressful here in that if you try hard
enough, you can probably get them down to a third of the price they originally
quote. As I’ve established, I am such a bad bargainer, it’s embarrassing, so I
probably pay WAY too much for everything that I buy. Oh well—it looks too cool
to pass up!
I got
back home in the late afternoon and promptly took a nap, because that’s what I
do. Savannah and my homestay parents departed for different evening venues, so
I had the house to myself. I organized my suitcase, watched Night at the Museum (crazy Saturday
night, wooo!), and ate a delicious dinner.
It’s so
hard to describe the food here, but I’ll attempt. I also don’t know how
representative of South African cuisine my homestay’s food is, but it’s
delicious and interesting. It’s like a mix of Indian food and American South
food. One night, for example, we had crispy, finger-licking fried chicken and
creamed corn; tonight, I had a curried beef with roti. Food tends to be really
savory, and I’ve had some great, fresh veggies and fruits. Tea seems to be
really popular here (probably a British holdover), and there are KFC’s—yes, Kentucky
Fried Chicken’s—on literally EVERY corner. It’s like more common than Subway or
Starbs in the US. So hilarious. I’m eating more healthily here than I did in
either Brazil or India, which is a nice change. Meals here leave me feeling a little
lighter, less bloated, and less exhausted, which is great!
After my
wild Saturday (woohoo, Ben Stiller!), I woke up early (aka 7 AM) to meet up
with Izzy and Jenn for a hike up Table Mountain, one of the seven natural
wonders of the world. We weren’t quite sure how to actually get to the mountain, so we stopped at a
nearby Hilton Hotel’s concierge for directions. Serendipitously, a tourist from
DC just so happened to be departing in a taxi for Table Mountain at that
moment, so we hopped in the car with him!!! He graciously paid for the ride,
saying “you’re college students—I remember those days.” We were obviously off
to a great start.
After a
few false starts in attempting to find the trail, we began the trek up the
mountainside—and boy, was it treacherous. We were literally rock climbing—as in, using our hands and
feet to clamber up these giant, practically vertical boulders. After a few
minutes, I was too exhausted to be scared, but we took numerous breaks in order
to catch our breath and appreciate the increasingly stunning views. I don’t
know how tall this mountain was, and I don’t have WiFi to find out, but both
Izzy and Jenn are college athletes, and it took us two and a half hours to get up this freaking mountain. At times, I
literally looked straight up, 90 degree angle, and felt positive, with a
sinking feeling, that there was no way in hell I’d be able to reach the top.
But guess what—WE DID IT. I honestly was so proud of us, and felt super
gratified and rewarded once looking out over the sweeping vistas of Cape Town.
We ate lunch at a touristy but fun restaurant on the top of the mountain, took
numerous pictures at what felt like the peak of the world, and simply enjoyed
each other’s company. It was truly beautiful—company, views, and the endorphins
of physical activity converged in a single moment. ILY Jenn and Iz!
We took
a five-minute gondola back down the mountain, and were kind of amazed at the
difference in experience between hiking and gondola-riding. We agreed that
hiking, while utterly exhausting, was so much more rewarding!!!
Back to
Bo’kaap we went, and back to napping I went. Duh. I met up with Jenn and Eli in
a city-wide search for WiFi—surprisingly, almost all cafes and shops are either
completely closed on Sundays or shuttered up early in the afternoon, so we were
pretty desperate in our search. Eli and I finally settled upon a new-age Irish
pub thing, and my WiFi was actually good enough to videochat with my parents
for the first time in about a week!!! I cried a little bit talking to my dad,
but recovered quickly. I’ll be seriously stoked to see them again. Only
question is whether I’ll cry a lot or a lot
when I land at Long Beach Airport.
Wow, I
am currently exhausted—I guess hiking up five vertical miles can do that to a
girl whose daily exercise has become shoveling ice cream into her mouth! (Half
kidding.) I’ve spent the night reading my captivating novel, working on my term
paper of 3,000 words (which is lol-worthy, considering one of my finals this
past semester was to write TWO 3,000 word essays in the span of eight hours for
a law school course), having heart-to-hearts with my fab roomie, and drinking
cup after cup of scrumptious coffee. Feels like I’ll be able to get to sleep
pretty easily, though, as my eyes are fluttering shut on their own volition. So,
goodnight, dear readers, and I hope your weekend treated you as well as mine
did me.
Peace, love, naps,
Aubrey
PS—I got a fab room back at school—thx for all of the crossed fingers!!!
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