Between facebook statuses and frustrated blog posts, I haven't done the best job of articulating my experience here and letting everyone know all of the great things that are happening. This Summer has not been what I expected nor what I would have tailor made for myself, but it has been engaging. I think I'm learning a lot though I can't yet decide exactly what. Aside from personal growing experiences, my time here has also been great for a number of reasons.
Cape Town is beautiful. Its one of the cleanest cities I've ever visited and the night life is exciting. There are plenty of bars blaring the worst music 1990s USA has to offer, but there's a lot of great live music and interesting djs. The city is also built around Table Mountain, which makes for difficult navigation but gorgeous views. My walk to and from work lets me see it in all states of changing light and reminds me how privileged I am. but in a good way.
Observatory, where I live, has a lot of character. And a lot of back packers. I have a choice of locations for fresh pressed fruit juice and a health food store that keeps in supply of chia seeds and vegetable chips. The other New School students live in the area, too. I recently found out that there's an indoor rock climbing wall around the corner that offers yoga classes in the evenings for relatively cheap.
The home I live in is wonderful. It's freezing but comes with a fire place and a lovely family. Plus, it's been great to live with Jo again, a roommate from college. Other advantages include the outdoor shower in the back yard which is kinda like a courtyard with a bunch of giant bushes, my generously sized room, regular cleaning, and a few in-home concerts. Emma has her masters in identity studies and Kolade is a land economist which allows for intriguing conversation. Kede' has just started laughing so that's been exciting, too.
It's also nice to be somewhere I can easily get along with whatever food constraints I wish to hold myself to. In other parts of Africa, avoiding starches is much more of a trial. Here, there is a local chocolate company that makes raw, organic bars that contain only cocoa, cocoa butter, agave, and whatever additional flavor or texture item. If I go around the corner from work for Durban style curry, they're used to me asking for it without rice. At the saturday market in Woodstock, if I ask for a burger without a bun, the response is "sure, would you like me to make it into a salad for you?" Plus, the seafood is wonderful.
As to this saturday market in Woodstock (whose actual website is more obnoxious than the facebook one): The name, Biscuit Mill, is given since it takes place at an old biscuit mill (much like the hostel we stayed at in Reykjavik). I visited it with Jo last Saturday since it comes with high recommendations. I LOVED it. I have never felt so catered to in my life and it made me highly embarrassed. But not embarrassed enough to detract from how much I loved it. Hand made, organic, fairly traded, assymetrical, local. Elbow patches, KALE (which i haven't found anywhere else), bow ties, smoothies, necklace/locket/watches. And the music was all doo-wop, indie rock, swing. Everything I have on my computer or want to.
By contrast, Hout Bay, which hit me in the middle of my i'm-at-the-bottom-of-a-pile-of-race-based-dissolusionment, just made me embarrassed since one could count on one hand the number of people of color who were not there in a service capacity. AND there were no visible garbage cans.
note: In a country with such high unemployment, it makes some kind of sense to have a ridiculously extensive service industry by ensuring things like: there must be someone there to dispose of other peoples garbage. But talk about reinforcing apartheid-era power/settlement/economy structures. Jiminy Christmas. Biscuit Mill is not totally exempt from this criticism (little I've seen in Cape Town is). But it's better. And you have to throw away your own garbage.
For further contrast, the market in Bo-Kaap takes place in the auditorium of a civic center, indicated only by some balloons tied to the railing outside. It was great though small and I got a GIANT smoked snook that I'm still working on. Freaking delicious. When I was contemplating getting it (intended to share for the 4th of July Braai) an older gentlemen came to the table who comes every month and buys 4 or 5 for him and his family. He taught me how to pick the best ones and set me off with a giant flayed fish mounted on cardboard and foil to take away, poking out of an insufficient plastic bag.
The scenery here is unbelievable. Yesterday, I was able to bike around the coast from Sea Point to a little past Camps Bay until it started raining again. The ocean is incredible. I've also rediscovered my love of rock formations. For the full moon, Jo and I hiked up Lion's Head to watch the sun set. It was cloudy so we didn't get the full view (thank goodness, said the girl who's scared of heights) but got to watch the sun play over the clouds and the clouds play over the mountains and the mountains loom over the oceans. A few weeks ago we drove around the coast to the Cape of Good Hope. There's a really good info board there by the Cross of Vasco de Gama that, quite literally, answered all of our questions.
I have yet to go back to the Kirstenbosch Gardens but was happy to see them (they even have a useful plants section!) on a quick cloudy trip when I first got here. It's beautiful and I'm hopeful to go back before I leave.
I've also had the good fortune to go on a couple wine tastings. I never realized how great South African wine is and now I'm sure I'll stick to it as often as possible.
In regular day-to-day hippie news, today I was able to concoct the following with random bits i have left in the house, not wanting to risk the rain or my health to go outside:
chia seeds, soaked in hot water for a bit
tahini
garlic, minced
cayenne
salt
cilantro
sunflower seeds
And a little more south african >> english translation
bakkie >> pick up truck
braai >> barbeque
mm >> sound indicating understanding (not displeasure, as you may believe)
mama >> ma'am
sisi >> to address a young woman
baby marrow >> zucchini
how's it? >> what's up?
is it. >> is that so?/you don't say.
hey? >> I didn't hear you, what'd you say?
red skin nuts >> raw peanuts
ney >> no
Cape Town is beautiful. Its one of the cleanest cities I've ever visited and the night life is exciting. There are plenty of bars blaring the worst music 1990s USA has to offer, but there's a lot of great live music and interesting djs. The city is also built around Table Mountain, which makes for difficult navigation but gorgeous views. My walk to and from work lets me see it in all states of changing light and reminds me how privileged I am. but in a good way.
Observatory, where I live, has a lot of character. And a lot of back packers. I have a choice of locations for fresh pressed fruit juice and a health food store that keeps in supply of chia seeds and vegetable chips. The other New School students live in the area, too. I recently found out that there's an indoor rock climbing wall around the corner that offers yoga classes in the evenings for relatively cheap.
The home I live in is wonderful. It's freezing but comes with a fire place and a lovely family. Plus, it's been great to live with Jo again, a roommate from college. Other advantages include the outdoor shower in the back yard which is kinda like a courtyard with a bunch of giant bushes, my generously sized room, regular cleaning, and a few in-home concerts. Emma has her masters in identity studies and Kolade is a land economist which allows for intriguing conversation. Kede' has just started laughing so that's been exciting, too.
It's also nice to be somewhere I can easily get along with whatever food constraints I wish to hold myself to. In other parts of Africa, avoiding starches is much more of a trial. Here, there is a local chocolate company that makes raw, organic bars that contain only cocoa, cocoa butter, agave, and whatever additional flavor or texture item. If I go around the corner from work for Durban style curry, they're used to me asking for it without rice. At the saturday market in Woodstock, if I ask for a burger without a bun, the response is "sure, would you like me to make it into a salad for you?" Plus, the seafood is wonderful.
As to this saturday market in Woodstock (whose actual website is more obnoxious than the facebook one): The name, Biscuit Mill, is given since it takes place at an old biscuit mill (much like the hostel we stayed at in Reykjavik). I visited it with Jo last Saturday since it comes with high recommendations. I LOVED it. I have never felt so catered to in my life and it made me highly embarrassed. But not embarrassed enough to detract from how much I loved it. Hand made, organic, fairly traded, assymetrical, local. Elbow patches, KALE (which i haven't found anywhere else), bow ties, smoothies, necklace/locket/watches. And the music was all doo-wop, indie rock, swing. Everything I have on my computer or want to.
By contrast, Hout Bay, which hit me in the middle of my i'm-at-the-bottom-of-a-pile-of-race-based-dissolusionment, just made me embarrassed since one could count on one hand the number of people of color who were not there in a service capacity. AND there were no visible garbage cans.
note: In a country with such high unemployment, it makes some kind of sense to have a ridiculously extensive service industry by ensuring things like: there must be someone there to dispose of other peoples garbage. But talk about reinforcing apartheid-era power/settlement/economy structures. Jiminy Christmas. Biscuit Mill is not totally exempt from this criticism (little I've seen in Cape Town is). But it's better. And you have to throw away your own garbage.
For further contrast, the market in Bo-Kaap takes place in the auditorium of a civic center, indicated only by some balloons tied to the railing outside. It was great though small and I got a GIANT smoked snook that I'm still working on. Freaking delicious. When I was contemplating getting it (intended to share for the 4th of July Braai) an older gentlemen came to the table who comes every month and buys 4 or 5 for him and his family. He taught me how to pick the best ones and set me off with a giant flayed fish mounted on cardboard and foil to take away, poking out of an insufficient plastic bag.
The scenery here is unbelievable. Yesterday, I was able to bike around the coast from Sea Point to a little past Camps Bay until it started raining again. The ocean is incredible. I've also rediscovered my love of rock formations. For the full moon, Jo and I hiked up Lion's Head to watch the sun set. It was cloudy so we didn't get the full view (thank goodness, said the girl who's scared of heights) but got to watch the sun play over the clouds and the clouds play over the mountains and the mountains loom over the oceans. A few weeks ago we drove around the coast to the Cape of Good Hope. There's a really good info board there by the Cross of Vasco de Gama that, quite literally, answered all of our questions.
I have yet to go back to the Kirstenbosch Gardens but was happy to see them (they even have a useful plants section!) on a quick cloudy trip when I first got here. It's beautiful and I'm hopeful to go back before I leave.
I've also had the good fortune to go on a couple wine tastings. I never realized how great South African wine is and now I'm sure I'll stick to it as often as possible.
In regular day-to-day hippie news, today I was able to concoct the following with random bits i have left in the house, not wanting to risk the rain or my health to go outside:
chia seeds, soaked in hot water for a bit
tahini
garlic, minced
cayenne
salt
cilantro
sunflower seeds
And a little more south african >> english translation
bakkie >> pick up truck
braai >> barbeque
mm >> sound indicating understanding (not displeasure, as you may believe)
mama >> ma'am
sisi >> to address a young woman
baby marrow >> zucchini
how's it? >> what's up?
is it. >> is that so?/you don't say.
hey? >> I didn't hear you, what'd you say?
red skin nuts >> raw peanuts
ney >> no
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