Alive in Cape Town

First few days here....

So being in South Africa so far, the past… three days has been terrifying, creative, awesome, elite, idealistic, earth shattering, fantastic. Really there are not enough adjectives to sit down with and really pinpoint. I’ve learned a lot in the last few days on a lot of levels, for sure.

Coffee, first off, kicks ass. It’s espresso coffee so it’s really just like having a lot of espresso, super strong and New York bitter. It’s great. The food on the other hand, heh. It’s a hit or miss really. The produce is great, it’s cheap and fresh. Ceres juice, in the States it costs about $8, the same size here costs about $2. We’ll touch on groceries later though, I really don’t want to get ahead of myself.

The plane ride was better than expected. Very long and extensive, with crappy food and poor service and tinier bathrooms than Southwest offers. When I arrived in Johannesburg, I was barricaded with a porter, who I was later informed helps you with your bags and hurries you to your next location. We got off the plane and there were a sea of people holding signs and screaming in tons of different dialects, none of which were English. I was confused and that was when the porter came by and ripped my luggage from my hand and screamed, “You go SAA, jaa?” He shook his hed and rushed forward. “We take you there, come weth me.” He scurried past the crowd and ushered us upstairs. I felt in a lot of ways like a celebrity, but in others like something bad was going to happen already. Andrew and I were exchanging looks as confused as confused can be—we were brought to the check-in and he spitted, “Tiep generously, mah sista!”

“What?” I was taken back.

The two porters spoke in some language and he repeated, “Tiep generously, mah sista, 50/50 credit,” he motioned towards his partner who helped Andrew with his luggage. He rubbed his fingers together and he gave me the deepest and scariest look I’ve seen in my life. I handed over R100 = $10 and screamed, I need R20 in change,” I handed him my sparkly new R100 and prayed for the return demand. That would leave both of them with about R40 each = $4 in tip. He spitted at the floor, handed me my change and dropped the bag on the floor. They were never seen again.

Other than luggage issues, the terminal was filled with other international students that were overtired and just as eager as I was. I met a lot of people there waiting for our two hour flight. Which wasn’t a bad one.
We landed in Cape Town around 1pm here. Don’t forget the six-hour time difference! So about 7 am in the States. The sky was clear and the atmosphere was chilly. I was exhausted. I didn’t eat much on the plane or sleep that much so I was completely as jet lagged as it can get. We were met by orientation leaders after we claimed our luggage and rushed into a Cape Town Shuttle, that was illegally parked and being honked at and now had about 30 kids loading their baggage and themselves on it. Not very happy people were surrounding us.

Welcome to Cape Town.

We sat on the bus waiting for others to get off their flights, others coming from all over. I’ve met people from Germany, Norway, all over the States, France, Denmark…etc. We were driven into town where we passed shanties and slums and then mansions and the great Table Mountain that the tour guides give it NO justice. That mountain gives every other mountain I have ever seen to shame. It’s amazing.

This part of the trip gets boring because the orientation students didn’t really know what they were exactly doing so we were as lost as they were and we really just didn’t know a lot about where we were and most of us were exhausted. I slept in my temp dorm and just ate whatever Special K bars I had left over from the plane ride, thanks Jen! They really did save my life.
The fun didn’t really start until yesterday. A bunch of us went to walk around on Main St. where we found an Internet Café that has amazing java and biscotti for only about $1.50. You can use the Internet for about 2 hours or 40 mb. So if you go on Facebook or Skype it eats through your usage and your time. I was kicked off after about an hour, so that’s not too bad.
We went out to Long St. last night. We met up with a girl who has lived in South Africa before, but from Denmark and she kind of cradled us through things. Long St is the nightlife and where all the bars are and most of the University students. If you say college, they think you’re high school. So we called a taxi and went to The Waiting Room on Long. It was packed with locals, malls, shops, vendors, bars, clubs, record shops—SO MUCH FUN! The Waiting Room was nice, kind of like Bombers in Albany, but just a bar. They had a 3 floor balcony you can see a lot of Long st from and drinks were pretty cheap. A vodka/Redbull was R37 = $4.50. A vodka tonic was a bit less. And yes, I only had two drinks.

They play mostly American music, but from like 1996, so N’SYNC is the shit over here. They put deep African beats to it though, so it’s the same but much cooler. Dancing is big. Very big and amazing to watch people really get into Justin Timberlake in his limelight.

We came home early, around midnight. We had to wake up early to check out and get shuttled to our individual apts. On the lift up to my dorm, my friend Brittany from North Carolina and I stumbled upon two guys from Northern Africa that are UCT engineering students, Tsepo, Iileka. We ended up talking to them until 3am. We were so interested in each other’s culture that it did not feel that late at all. I learned so much. Their reputation of Americans is that we party and that’s why we come to UCT for the cheap drinks the nightlife. They found that Brittany and I were very chill and very not like what they had met before. So it was good to change a perspective on someone for once into a more positive light or at least a different light.
They told us some interesting things. UCT is equivalent and taken as seriously as Harvard or top Ivy League schools in the US. It’s 152 ranked on the worlds best University’s. So many little things and great differences. The average SA makes about $17,000 and they are well off. They get paid monthly and were shocked that I said I got paid weekly. The telecommunications is obviously aged around 1992 in the US, with the pre-pay system and the slow connections. It’s just a matter of time for upgrades; I can see it coming already. South Africa is very technological aware. Tsepo said that the science buildings have plasma screen computers and very high tech lab work. Once he graduates with his equivalent of a B.A. in America, he will be making close to $50,000. And he said he will be rich. He had no idea or had never known anyone except his professors to receive anything higher than a B.A. A masters or doctrine was unthinkable. Also, as an engineering major he is sponsored by an engineering company to attend school, they pay his tuition and train him to work for them. When he gets out of school, he has a job and is trained for it already. Makes SO MUCH SENSE.

Meeting them was fun! We exchanged phone numbers and all of us plan on going to see a movie sometime. Oh and they almost fell over when I told them that a movie ticket is around $10-$15 = R87-R110. That’s a lot of money!
This morning when we got shuttled over and met our landlords. They were extremely nice and welcoming. They brought us to Groveneveld, don’t pronounce the G and replace it with an H and squeeze the “ve” together, say it super fast. It almost sounds German. Although when I told Ben that, he laughed and said yea, sure!

After we got settled in Ben and I along with our friends down the road in Cobbles, walked into Main St for lunch and groceries. The flat is gorgeous. Around 100 years old. So imagine walking into a hours from the 1900’s, but in South Africa. The bathrooms are tiny and we have an exclusive water head with hot water out backing the yard for some beautiful outside bathing. My room is good sized but COLD. There is no heat and not air conditioning. The windows have a “winter” setting that means they are cracked open at the top instead of the bottom so the rooms have a great cross breeze. After 4:30pm you get chilly though and you bundle up like you would in late November. Yikes, I think I may cave in by next week and buy a heater at the Pick N Pay.

Getting groceries gave me a headache. All the conversions and what I actually was buying was intense. I also had to buy electricity at the market, airtime for my phone and figure out how to access the Internet. Luckily the walk is only about 10 minutes. After buying necessities, like juice, fruit, tea, bread, peanut butter, nuttella, salt, butter, etc, it wound up costing about R250 = 30. I put R100 towards electric and loaded R100 on my airtime. The trip cost me about $54. We ate lunch at a Elmo’s pizza that is wood fried and DELCIOUS. We got garlic pita on the side and life became ok. It’s getting easier to see myself being here for a while but still nothing beats home.

Tomorrow we go to the Peninsula Tour where I meet my penguin friends and take LOTS of pictures. My camera is in overload. I don’t like to take a lot out in public though… looking like a tourist is easy amongst locals. And that is very bad thing you learn very quickly! Walking down the street you think all the buses passing by are hitting on you, as they whistle extremely loud and yell in some dialect unknown to me. It’s really just a taxi service and whistling is their marketing tool. There are only a few taxi places you can trust here and trust that you’re not getting ripped off but that they are going to bring you to where you want. I got the ones I like so far in my phone and it’s much easier.

Bah, I’ve talked SO much. I’m starting to talk in my head in an accent because everyone around me has one and I am starting to say a few words like SAs, which isn’t a bad thing. Assimilation is a good thing, but I also feel like a phony—but I can’t help it! When everyone around you says different terms and different pronunciations for things, you have to say it like they do or they don’t know what you’re talking about. And like the Canadians, saying aye after things, they say, jah. And everyone seems like a question, yeah? (Ignore the “y” replace with a long a)

I can’t write about everything, it would take me all night.

All for now, it’s naptime. Miss and love everyone!
-Mel