This is Home now

It’s been a while, hey? Hi all. The days are flying by, I tell you.

There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time. ~Napoleon I, Maxims, 1815

The past month has been a whirlwind of glamour mixed with indelicacy, topped off with a surprisingly wonderful feeling of normality. Who knew that Cape Town could not only be a place of vacation and luxury but also home? I surely did not, but it has been a welcomed truth, and, unfortunately, it means that, the more that time passes, the closer I come to leaving what is now home.

To keep from writing another novel, I will glance over my life in the past month here. Hopefully my love for this city will become apparent as you read. In 30 days I have…

Spent one hilariously random night at Clifton and Sea Point with a jolly crowd. Before we left, Jo, Simon, Matt, Rafe and I shared in some laughs at Stones, waiting for Mike to get off of work at Pancho’s. Then we all laid on the beach until the wee hours of the morning, when a local left the warmth of his bedroom to tell us how loud we were being. We left for sea-point where I learned how to properly use a see-saw. The night ended around 4 in the morning.

Travelled to Clifton to soak in the last summer days of brilliant, scalding sunshine.

Eaten my body weight of samples at Old Biscuit Mill. One wonderful morning, Sierra, Mariah, and I ran a long 9-mile run on the coast and then went to OBM for brunch. It was a sweet reminder of Sunday Brunch at Tufts.

Hiked table mountain at least once a week, often with Taylor but also with some folk who had never hiked it before. Nursery Ravine, Skeleton’s Gorge, India Venster, and Platteklip Gorge. Taylor figured out that hiking on the exposed edge means we can wave to the cable car, so we now have to allot at least 30 minutes to that activity every time we hike. Another day, Taylor and I encountered a kingdom of dossies about 20 minutes from the summit. We stopped dead in our tracks for about 15 minutes, trying to decide how to continue and contemplating turning around for fear of our lives. If you don’t know what a dossie is, don’t look it up, for our sakes. Their eyes could cut glass, I tell you. In total, I’ve probably hiked Table about 15 or so times.

Spent time with Elizabeth Schulze (Katherine Perry’s freshman and sophomore year roommate) and Northwestern friends who are here for the quarter, completing their journalism internships.

Shipped out on a sunset “booze cruise” on the waterfront to Camps Bay and back. The pilot of the ship had to remind a small group of us that the catamaran was, in fact, NOT a trampoline. He also was not pleased when a friend and I thought climbing onto the roof seemed like a grand idea. By 11 pm, I was exhausted and managed to watch about 15 minutes of Despicable Me with Mike and Rafe (who came to fetch) me, before falling asleep.

Watched the rugby finals (UCT vs TUKS), sitting above the field, feet hanging off the edge, with Mike, Rafe, Izzy, Lans, Taylor, and Eliza. The finals were away, but broadcast live on a huge screen on the field, as if we were all watching a drive-in movie. The difference is, there isn’t a cash bar at old-school drive in movies.

Spent many a night at the Strubens Rd digs, watching youtube videos about sharks with Byron, listening to music with Mike, riding towards campus early morning with Mark, doing homework with Rafe (aka half working, half goofing off), attending Dan’s homegroup, reading FMLs with Matt, laughing hysterically-about anything really- with Nandi, and watching Jenna bake marvelous sweet treats.

Cebrated: Cinco De Mayo with a Pancho’s dinner and many margaritas, Mariah’s birthday with a dinner at Café Paradiso, Brittany’s birthday with a day cruising kloof street, lunch at Rick’s, and a nap on the beach, James’ birthday with an American-themed BBQ (think jorts), Byron’s birthday with an eventful night at tin roof and then an evening of singing and dancing at Polana, a restaurant on the waterfront with live music on Fridays (this eventually led to a conga line and a huge dance circle with some 50 somethings), Lisa’s birthday with a beautiful 21^st, vintage-themed, and then late night at Rafiki’s afterwards. Twenty-first birthdays here are celebrated much differently than they are in the states. Lisa’s parents even surprised her at her party, driving to Cape Town from Jo-Burg, where Lisa is from. It was wonderful!

Made dinner (chicken wraps) and talked about life with Tom and Nandi.

Attempted to: hike Devil’s Peak without a guide (people got nervous when they started to doubt my directional skills…sounds about right), summit Lions Head twice –once Niqui, Mike, Storm, and I stopped for health reasons, and the next Eliza and I had to hike down due to poor weather—, win the program vs program soccer tournament (we were clearly the underdogs), boycott the farewell dinner (I don’t want to say farewell), become best friends with a musician in Goldfish- a band I’m obsessed with, here- when I saw him at Mercury where my friends in the band Rosemary Towns End were performing live, and beat the crowd down lion’s head when Julia, Isaac, Taylor, Scott, Ilana, James and I hiked up for sunset.

Went to a wine and cheese festival in Stellenbosch for the day. Geo, Sam, Mariah and I ate a life’s worth of cheese bits, and I particularly enjoyed the Rosè…from every possible taste venue, before meeting up with the other 9 people we had travelled with. We danced, nibbled, drank, and attempted to find the best and worst mullet at the festival. We made “friends” with locals and tried our best to seem Afrikaans instead of American “naughty girls” (a brand of wine, don’t worry).

Finally got to be on tea and coffee duty at church only to stupidly leave my phone at the top of my bag on my chair. Someone capitalized on the opportunity and snagged it, but all is not lost. I’m down a bit of mula, but I’ve got a new mobile. AND, I completed the foundations course at Church on Main!

Went to the airport with Mike to pick up Rafe after he’d been away. I’m a much bigger fan of hellos than goodbyes. It was so nice to go to the airport to greet instead of wish farewell. Of course, we spent the evening NOT doing work, eating pizza (you know better than to order jalapeno, now), and drinking tea/eating rusks with friends. I even tried to learn guitar, but stuck to familiar tunes (wink wink). Think, "We're the 3 best friends that anyone could have..."

SPENT THE WEEK WITH MAMA KASS (that I will devote it’s own entry to).