Day 113: Final Days in the Mother City

I had to take a break from packing. I should not be taking this break, but, ya know, reflection time is important too. I leave tomorrow for my safari. My last few days in Cape Town have been so full of highs, lows, emotions, stress, excitement, victory. I finished my last assignment for school on Thursday, so I am DONE and will officially be an MS(S)W (thanks for the extra ‘S’ UT, I always hated it) on 18 May! But Thursday was also my last day at Southern Hemisphere, and that was sad. It was rainy and gloomy. After having a couple of weeks of summer-like weather, winter returned. It matched my mood perfectly. I’ll miss that place. Luckily, the people I work with have let me borrow several things like a sleeping bag, books, pillows, etc. for my trip, so I’ll have to go by the office and return them before I go!

Friday was a very fun day for me though. I have been getting a weirdly large amount of sleep lately, accompanied by a lot of bad dreams associated with leaving, oddly enough. But anyway, I wake up early Friday with a full day ahead of me – lots of errands to run. First stop, drop my laundry off. I’m going to miss the laundry lady and the extreme convenience she affords me for a very low cost. Then, instead of heading straight to my next stop, I go to my favorite coffee house just up the road, Truth. I get a flat white and decide I may as well get one of those pastries sitting out on the counter, calling my name and asking nicely for me to eat them. I pick a buttery, almond croissant and nearly die from fat and happiness as I read the paper and enjoy my goodies. Then its off to the pharmacy to get malaria meds which cost TOO much money! I was going to shrug off getting them at all, but my coworkers bothered me enough about it and everyone seemed to know someone who’s caught malaria (self included) so I decided to go for it. That sets me back about an hour waiting and $100. Whatever, just put it on the credit card and deal with it later.

Next up, Woolworths to spend the R 250 gift card Southern Hemisphere gave me. YAY! I walk downtown to the big Woolies and have a blast picking through the racks. I collect quite a stack of things before going back to the fitting room to take an inordinate amount of time figuring out what to buy. It comes down to these amaaazing jegging capri things that cinch at the bottom of the leg and a nice ecru peasant-style blouse that I can wear just about anywhere. After much ado, I decide I must have both of them because when the heck will I ever shop at Woolies again?? So that comes out to R 625 (oops), but the gift card brings it down to R 375 and I end up spending about $20 per piece. Not bad! I leave the store very pleased.

As I’m walking to the post office, I think about how fun life would be if I didn’t have to work and I could just run errands around Cape Town all day. Its even beautiful and fun in crappy weather. I will miss very much walking around this city.

After posting some mail, I go back to St. George’s pedestrian mall looking for this beauty salon Alison raves about. She went there to get her eyelashes tinted and it was only R 40, so I decided I would see what this was all about. Mostly because I will be on safari for a month and not wearing make up and maybe this would make me look like I have on mascara in my photos. Also because I’m just curious as to how they dye your eyelashes. I go in and lay on a table in the spa while she puts these big cotton pads under my eyes and then smear stuff on my lashes. Wait 15 minutes. Then she comes and smears the stuff off. It burns. She gives me eye drops. Tah-dah, now I have blacker eyelashes! It drove me nuts laying there while it set, my eyes didn’t know what to do. You can’t even see it well on me because my lashes are pretty dark anyway. Oh well, it was an interesting and cheap experiment (would’ve cost a lot more at home).

My last stop of the afternoon (besides picking up the laundry) is to Charly’s Bakery to buy something for my roommate, Biva’s 21^st birthday. Its this famous bakery in my neighborhood that everyone loves to go to and take pictures of things they make because everything is ridiculously cute. The building is pink and looks like a unicorn threw up on it because there are rainbows and flowers and hearts and stuff everywhere. And no kidding their tagline is “Mucking Afazing Cakes.” Bunch of hippies. I can’t find any cute birthday-specific cupcakes so I settle on buying this cute cookie shaped and iced to look like a cupcake. That’ll do. Then I get the heck out of rainbow unicorn barf land. As I’m walking home, I realize I live in such a cool neighborhood. Not obviously cool to the passerby, but hidden cool. I wish I would’ve explored it more.

The rest of my day, I clean, pack, cook, etc. Then Biva comes home and we get ready to go out. We have planned a BIG celebration for her birthday and my last night out in Cape Town. We’ve been meaning to go to this club called Tiger Tiger because everyone says it’s the greatest, but its all the way out in a suburb called Claremont. Why you ask? Well because that’s where UCT is and so all the hip young folk have easy access to Tiger. So we never felt like making the trek out there, but tonight is a special occasion! We both wear black and gold. She wears these crazy shiny gold shorts and I wear this ridiculous gold sequins cape thing I bought for New Years last year. Oh yea, we look good. We drink pink champagne and eat the cupcake thing and then hit the club.

Oh my gosh, it is a wonderland! WHY have I never gone out in Claremont before? Good music, cool space, and gorgeous boys everywhere!! I won’t bore you with the details, but I did meet one who was in the X Games once. Hahaha, the best. Unfortunately, Tiger closes at 2, at which point I expect we will go home. But the birthday girl is feeling way too good, as she should, and wants to go to Stones across the street. She walks up to the front of the line and somehow talks the bouncer into letting all seven of us in our group into Stones without paying cover. Winning. Then we stay there until I get hungry and want to go eat, so me and X Games boy and his friends go to this magical gas station down the road that has a late night bakery and a Steers (nasty fast food, not worth mentioning really). WHY is Claremont endlessly amazing??! So we stuff our faces with mini pizzas, spinach and feta focaccia, chicken and herb roll things, and jelly tots until its 4:30 in the morning and we all just clearly need to go home.  Thus ending a beautiful night.

I wake up this morning to the sound of cheers outside, who knows what that’s about, then look at my phone and see its 11am already! AHHH Home Affairs closes at noon and I HAVE to go there to get my visa today. Last chance! I shoot out of bed and clobber a bowl of Frosties while getting “dressed” (if you can count putting on sweatpants) then race to the office. Luckily, Saturdays is collection day only so its like Home Affairs light and I only have to wait about half an hour. When I get up to the counter, I am shocked, amazed, and thrilled that the guy actually has my visa and sticks it into my passport. Hooray! I’m not an illegal alien anymore!

Then I go to the blend and have a delicious omelette by myself and reflect on Cape Town and leaving and just think a lot until I’ve cleaned my plate. Afterward I go home and apply for my first real, full-time job. Wish me luck there folks! And I promise myself I won’t stress about it while I’m in the middle of Africa enjoying life and creation and stuff. Now I’m here. Getting closer and closer to go time. Not packing, but desperately needing to. So I better get up and go ya’ll. This will be my last post. Ew I didn’t want to say that. Maybe I’ll do a bonus post of some safari adventures or my real last weekend in Cape Town in June. Eee!

Signing off for now, much love!

Day 110: Gotta Get Down on Braaiday

This weekend was another marvelous montage of beaches, penguins, sunsets, staying out too late, etc. It also included the South African Cheese Festival. Winning! We drove out to Stellenbosch for the day and had tons of cheese and wine tastings, plus lounging and dancing to live music. The best part was playing a game where we all split up and each bought an item to R 20 to bring back to the group to share later. I bought a bottle of white wine, it was actually R 35, but it was so good I figured I didn’t mind paying $4 instead of $2.50. We brought back a nice spread – two bottles of wine, a wheel of camembert, a wheel of brie, a slice of chocolate cake, and a jar of pesto to go with the bread we brought from home. Not to shabby. Oh wait, I think maybe the actual best part was that a lady was selling these lanyard things that hold your wine glass for you. So you can WEAR you wine glass around your neck. I obviously seized this opportunity immediately. Although it turns out wearing your wine around your neck can be quite dangerous. Don’t set it down while your sitting and then make any sudden movements. And don’t walk around in hands-free mode if its filled up too high, or your shirt will pay for it. Basically, I recommend only putting white wines in your wine necklace glass. But definitely wear it proudly.

My favorite story lately comes from today though. Today, May 1, is Workers’ Day here in South Africa (sometimes known as May Day), so we get a public holiday. Hooray! This is the first public holiday that I don’t stay home and use as a schoolwork catch up day. Maybe I should have, but, ah well, I have school pretty under control and I couldn’t care less about it at this point. Senioritis. So some friends and I hatch a brilliant plan to go to a famous braai place in a township – Mzoli’s in Guguletu. I have been wanting to go for months but had pretty much given up on the idea, but what better day to go than a public holiday?? So we all pile in the car and head down the N2 into the Cape Flats (the place the guidebooks and proper/scared people tell you to avoid like the plague).

We hang out for a bit and wait for our friend Zelda to get there who is from Gugs (pronounced googs) but now has moved on up and lives in Paarl, and her niece Natalie. Since we’re a little early and are not sure what else to do, we go to the bar next door and get some beers. It is after noon by now anyway. A guy comes around selling sunglasses, so I buy a couple of pairs – one a pair of fake Ray Ban aviators (Roi Bans as Alison cleverly calls them) and this cheesy pair of way farer style glasses with the South African flag pattern covering them. I think they’re hilarious. I supposed I’ll wear them on safari. I also decide to wear them the rest of the day in Gugs just to help myself stick out a little more.

Anyway, so our friend shows up and the braai party begins! Inside Mzoli’s is very much what I thought it would be: a bunch of tables under a tent with a ton of people at them eating meat and generally getting rowdy. But the weird part is that there is a DJ BLARING house music. So its like a bbq place, but also a club. And not the sort of club I would have pictured, because I would fully have expected hip-hop to be blaring. I hate house, but whatever, I accept it. And these people make it fun anyway.

So after we claim a table, we head to the butcher to pick out our meat. We get a ton of chicken so Ines, I want a lot of what I think are steaks (later I think they are actually pork), we get hunks of lamb, and a big sausage for Abe. Cherry wants everything. Ok, I want everything too. We pretty much all want everything, except Ines who only wants chicken. Oh, but maybe I don’t want the sausage. That stuff looks incredibly disgusting, like giant slabs of intestines just sitting on top of each other in the meat case. All wriggly and slimy and nasty. Picking out meat is fun! Then we take it back to the pits for someone to cook. In the meantime, there is drinking to do back at the table. Besides the beer we bought, Zelda has brought sparkling red wine with her. She works at none other than Solms Delta – the winery where we had the picnic from heaven!! I love her.

Soon the meat is ready and it turns out eating it is more fun than picking it out. It is DELICIOUS. We eat meat on meat on meat. So much meat! Like a HUGE platter full, 6 of us can’t finish it all. And it only cost R 220. While eating the meat, I can’t help but bob my head up and down to the persistent beat of the house music. What a strange and magical place. I even eat the creepy sausage, and its pretty darn good.

More reasons to love Zelda, besides the fact that she’s beautiful and fun and sweet, she goes way back with Mzoli. THE Mzoli of Mzoli’s. He comes and talks to us for a bit and has us come sit at his table. Excellent. We take some photos with him. And then its time to dance. Let me tell you, I am so thankful I took that hip-hop dance class when I was a senior at Tulane. It has helped me enormously to dance confidently in cultures that value being able to move your caboose. Once again, it comes in handy. I feel like I should write a thank-you note to my teacher. Natalie and I do lots of booty-bumping and she shows me some dance move where you kick really high in the air. I start showing off and kick really high and almost knock some guy in the face. He looks a little shocked but is good natured about it. Natalie laughs really hard and tells me to tone it down. Then Cherry points out that someone at Mzoli’s told me to tone it down. This is my wild life.

After we dance for awhile, Zelda wants to show us another “posh” bar down the street. It’s a cement building with leather furniture and elaborate crown molding plus some flat screen TVs showing a soccer match that everyone is fixated on. Cool, posh enough for me. Room for improvement in the bathrooms though, that’s for sure. I couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet. Township life.

As we went to leave the bar, someone came out and said, “Wait, Mzoli would like to see you.” So we go back into another room where I see a huge pig roasting in the corner. Mzoli is there and gives us all hugs and tells us to come back. This has been an outstanding day. And then its back to Cape Town.

I finish up my internship tomorrow. We had my goodbye tea yesterday, which I should write about, but its sad. The ladies gave me some gifts and a giftcard to Woolies to prep for my trip. I’m going to miss Southern Hemisphere a lot! I leave for my safari in 4 days. Wow it really is the end now. I’ve had a lot of nervous energy getting ready for this. I’m not ready to leave. Can’t believe its gone so fast.

Anyway, watch this excellent Rebecca Black "Friday" parody called "Braaiday" :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLyLvCXYKUg

Day 102: "We Are The Girls"

My weekend was so incredible that I’ve spent the day today in that funk you get after you go on a really good vacation. Christy came back in from Joburg on the good ol’ Intercape bus Friday morning. Love that bus. I make sure to stock up the day before on food and drink, so when I get home from work we have a leisurely evening baking chicken and veggies while having cocktails and getting ready. Too bad my cooking skills are a nightmare, I keep trying to pull it out of the oven too soon and almost give us salmonella. We survive dinner and head out to my fave spot, Club 31 of course. We’re on a mission to mac on boys so all sorts of shenanigans ensue. My favorite is when Christy tells a German boy that he needs to take social responsibility for the holocaust (something about owning your whiteness) and as he storms off another guy comes up to her and says, “My girlfriend and I think you’re cute.” HAHA. Meanwhile, I have no idea where she is and am getting this Dutch boy’s name (not number) so I can find him on Facebook (oops, still need to do that), and am then intercepted by a British boy who says he can help me find Christy, or something like that, while thrusting a bottle of Grey Goose into my arms. Thank you? We find Christy by the bathroom and I decide its time to split, we do have a big day tomorrow after all.

I have planned a very promising wine tasting day in Franschhoek, the best wine valley ever, for Alison, Christy, Biva, and me. Alison found a driver for us named Lemon (!), who agreed to take us around for the entire day for R 800. Pretty darn good. I printed tons of maps and directions and phone numbers of wine farms to be over-prepared for navigation so even a child (or drunk person) could do it.

We’re meant to leave at 9:30 so we can get to the first wine farm, Boschendal, as I’ve booked a 10:30 cellar tour. We do pretty well getting ready I think, all things considered. But then Christy gets distracted by tiny pizzas on the way to the atm and buys one for everybody. It’s a nice surprise, but we get to our first wine farm a little later and miss the cellar tour. Oops, guess we’ll just have to start drinking! They give us a list of wines to select from and we each get six glasses. This place makes an amazing blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, it was one of the most interesting wines I’ve ever had! And we’re all very taken with a white blend called Le Bouquet, which we end up buying three bottles of. Then its time for the 11:30 cellar tour! We learn on the tour that we’re at the second oldest winery in South Africa – founded in 1685. We see the place where they crush all the grapes and about what they do with grape skins and things like that. At the end of the tour, we go to this place called the wine library we’re the wine makers sit around and drink wine surrounded by all their fantastic creations. I find myself wishing very hard that I had a wine library. Maybe someday.

Next we find Lemon and head to the next winery for our lunch reservation. I found a place online that does gourmet picnics on their beautiful grounds. You should seriously check out their menu, the amount and variety of delicious food they give you is unreal (www.solmsdelta.co.za). And you get a bottle of wine per two people on the picnic. As we pull into the farm, some guys in the lane look at us. Just then, Christy pops her head out the window and chirps, “We’re here!!” I nearly die laughing. Then we get to the restaurant and there are our beautiful baskets waiting for us with my name on them. I’m so proud! We pick a bottle of sav blanc and rose’ to accompany us and then we’re told to follow the person carrying off our baskets. She leads us to a trailer attached to the back of a tractor and sticks our baskets on it. I nearly lose it, WE’RE GOING ON A HAY RIDE! And its in the most BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE WORLD. Seriously. There are majestic mountains and grapevines turning a shade of gold in autumn, drenched in sunlight. The lawns are green and the weather is perfect. The tractor pulls us through the fields and past a pond covered in lilies, then over a bridge to a grassy knoll. You can hear a creek rushing by. We pick a nice spot on the grass under a big oak tree and spread out our blankets. I could cry I’m so happy. We all look at each other knowingly, this really is a special day. Then we pig out and drink lots of wine.

We end up staying at Solms Delta much longer than I anticipated, because it is much better than anyone could’ve anticipated. We explore the paths through the forest, play in the stream, lay in the sun on our picnic blankets, smell some flowers. I think everyone looks like magical fairies here, its so beautiful its surreal. I wonder out loud when an elf is going to pop out of a bush and grant us three wishes. But sometime around 2:30, the tractor comes back to get us.

The next winery on the list is La Motte. When we drive up the lane at this wine farm, we are greeted by a large, fabulous fountain – a woman holding a wine cup that is forever overflowing. I wish I had that cup. We stop and take pictures with her and then head to the tasting room. It also takes more time than I expected as, again, we’re having such a marvelous time, and the tasting here is 8 wines. We actually don’t make it out until after 4:30 when most of the wineries cease tastings.  So we can’t really continue on after that but are more than content with the amazing day we have had. To end the tour, we drive into Franschhoek and take pictures at the monument and do a little exploring around town. Christy buys a box of macaroons for everyone at a coffee shop.

Then we drive back into town for dinner. Lemon plays us his American playlist, which has a lot of Chris Brown on it, while Christy and Biva fall asleep. I stare out the window and watch the sky change dramatic colors over the mountains and vineyards. I am happy.

We have Lemon drop us off at Arnold’s on Kloof. Love that place. They have a special called “Stew 4 U 2.” It’s a potjie which is like Afrikaans (I think) stew. I pronounce is pot-jee and Biva almost falls out of her chair laughing at me because its actually pronounced poy-gee (hard G). She tries to tell the waiter and I cut her off and yell, “NO BIVA don’t tell him!!” because I’m embarrassed. Anyway, the Stew 4 U 2 is two bowls with pasta/potato-y things in them and a little pot of beef stew that comes with a bottle of wine for R 119. Alison and I split it and it is delicious. My little Biva gets a steak and Chrsity goes for kudu. Good stuff all around, and great company. I have LOVED wine touring with these ladies. We literally laughed the entire day, even at the end when we are all tired and hungry and ready to pass out in a ditch somewhere. Still laughing. I love it.

By 10:00 we’re all in bed where we should be. Christy and I sleep for 10 hours before waking up to go to church. I get up and feel like I’m healed, it’s the greatest feeling. After church we run home, make cheese & tomato sandwiches, throw on some hiker clothes and grab Alison to go climb Table Mountain. I haven’t climbed it since February, and I’ve been dying to go up the backside on the Skeleton Gorge trail that starts in the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. The gardens are SO beautiful. We get distracted for a bit in the “smell me” garden because I looove smelling plants. So we smell all kinds of shrubs for good luck and then start up the trail. Literally up. Its just up, up, up stairs forever. At least its in a beautiful magic forest.

After climbing for awhile, we come to this exquisite waterfall. I’m so thankful to see it because, besides being stunningly beautiful, it gives me an excuse to rest for a minute. Then we’re off again, up, up. It’s a very rain foresty climate, thick, lush vegetation and tons of moisture. We finally make it to this point where they can’t even make you climb stairs anymore because its too steep, so you just have to climb ladders. We climb a few ladders and then the trail becomes a waterfall. This makes me SO happy. Its so cool to climb up the cascade for awhile before getting back onto a real trail again. Before we know it, we’re already on top of Table!

Turns out there is a ton of stuff up there I had no idea about. We play around in this reservoir for awhile, its like a strange desert of random rock formations. One of them looks like a skeleton boat, so we climb inside and take pictures. Then Christy tells us some story about when she was driving around with her friend and all their dogs and she got really excited and exclaimed, “We are the girls!” Alison and I laugh at this, but also agree that it makes perfect sense. The rest of the day, we run around saying, “We ARE the girls!!”

Next we come upon this random museum that’s just sitting up on top of the mountain. No one is in it, there’s just a bunch of stuff they used to work on the city’s water system. The reservoirs up there are very old but still in use by the city today. After leaving the museum we start on the trek to the other side of the mountain where we can catch the cable car to take us down.  Table Mountain looks pretty flat on top when you look at it from the city bowl side. If you see it from Camps Bay though, you can see the 12 Apostles that really make up the top – in other words, it ain’t flat at all. So we basically end up climbing two more mountains before finally making it over to the cable car. We’re rewarded with ice cream! And beer! And a bunch of tourists that we feel better than because we’re all sweaty and worked to get here, unlike all these people that just waltzed up in the cable car.

Again, we’ve spent the whole day laughing, and its magic.

We get down from Table around 5-6ish, shower, then go check out this Italian place Alison and I have been curious about on Kloof. It is delicious! We order a bottle of wine and end up not even being able to finish it. Go figure.

This was probably one of my favorite weekends in Cape Town, it was absolutely perfect. We are the girls!

Day: (My Numbering is All Off) Actual 97 - Final Evaluation

Its so hard to get out of bed in the morning on foggy, chilling days like today. I just want to stay snuggled up under my duvet for another few hours, dreaming about somebody bringing me a hot breakfast in bed or something. Biva and I found a heater, like a big serious heater on wheels, in our apartment recently and have been using it to heat up our bedroom. Best find ever.

Yesterday was much of the same weather, so likewise I get up and drag myself to work in the gloom. I put on a little extra makeup because I’m having my final evaluation of how I did at my field placement this semester for UT. I don’t finish up work for two more weeks, but my supervisor, Nana, is leaving tomorrow to have an operation and will be out the rest of my time in the office.  So we get all the documents ready and doodle around in the boardroom with my laptop all set up, waiting for my UT field liaison to Skype in for my evaluation.  She does and we all sit and reflect together on my time at Southern Hemisphere and in South Africa generally. I have really loved this field placement. They have given me fantastic learning opportunities and the ladies that I work with have been such role-models for me in many ways. They’re smart, ambitious, great at their work, and have wonderful children and husbands as well. Confession: we talk about kids and home/family stuff so much around here that I actually think it would be really nice to have them someday. Like, its something I really want to do. 

Anyway, its been a cool journey here. I did so much in my internship, and did so much outside of it as well and learned a lot about myself as a person and professional. During the evaluation, I enjoy reflecting on that with Nana and my liaison. (They also tend to praise the intern a bit in these social work evaluations, so I like that part too.)

I feel really emotional afterwards. All that formal reflection, woof. And I’m really going to miss Nana. I went to her house for the weekend this past weekend and spent time with her awesome family. We had yummy dinners and lazy days and took a trip to the beach. One of their dogs, Hercules, stole my bra off the bed I was sleeping in and it was so confusing the next day when we looked for it everywhere and couldn’t find it! She came into work the day after and said she had found it in the yard, haha. I’m really thankful for her taking care of me at work and outside of work. She lent me a sleeping bag for my safari so that’s good collateral to make sure we’ll see each other again before I leave.

I come home from work and want to just sink into my couch. Instead, I go out to dinner in Camp’s Bay for a friend’s last night while it pours down rain. I feel like pouting. I get a plate of sushi off the sushi carousel and order a Makers on the rocks (only R 28!!). Then I discover that we are next to a bar that has a (self-proclaimed) world-famous karaoke night on Tuesdays. WE MUST GO. So after dinner, everyone heads to the karaoke bar and we stay out way too late singing and dancing. I decide on singing “A Thousand Miles,” that cheesy Vanessa Carlton song, and “Independent Women” because it’s the greatest. When you finish singing, the host pours a shot of some green apple stuff down your throat, great for your vocal chords. I think my favorite part of the night was hearing Ethan belt out his rendition of “Summer of ’69.” I will admit, it is a pretty epic karaoke Tuesday, and a great way to break the emotional funk.

But yea, so two more weeks of work here and then I’m off for my safari! I’m really excited!! Everything is just about in order with my preparations. I’m also very excited because Christy is coming to visit again this weekend and we + Alison are going on an all day wine adventure in Franschhoek! Including a romantic picnic lunch J Can’t wait.