A Race Against the Clock

My last week in Cape Town has been crazy! Besides exams and studying, I’ve been attempting to finish off the bucket list. All the things in the area that I never got a chance to do before. I’m realizing that there actually not that many, but enough to fill up every day. I’ve also had to say a lot of goodbye, whether to fiends here who I won’t see for a while (if at all) and friends from my program who slowly trickle back to the States.

Back to the bucket list, there are only a few major things on my list (besides shopping for gifts). I wanted to go to Bo Kaap, which is the Islamic district in the center of Cape Town. We ended up going one evening and had dinner at the great little Dhaba-esqu restaurant called Bismillah. It was fantastic! There was only one thing on the menu I could actually eat, but the people were great, the chai was fantastic and I haven’t had a roti that good since India. Needless to say, I was quite impressed.

Besides the food, the house are super adorable. The are little box type apartments painted in bright happy colors. It makes the town like a rainbow under the mountain.  At one point when we were walking along being tourists we came across a mosque and decided to stop and look at it, while we were waiting on the corner the evening call for prayer began. They have these megaphones that play the sounds out into the whole district. It was beautiful standing there at sunset listening to the chants. I really wanted to go in, but I don’t know there rules and didn’t want impose.

The next day (June 2^nd) we were planning on going to the beach for a last surf day for my good friends pre-birthday. When I woke up I looked out the window and sadly it was cloudy and drizzling… no beach for us.

Instead, we decided to go up to Groote Constantia, which is in the shadow of Devil’s Peak. It is the first winery in all of South Africa (Africa in general). Wine lands are unbelievably beautiful, than add the mountain and the sunset and you have a triple threat. It just makes me appreciate how amazing of a place Cape Town is with its contrasts and colors. Sometimes these things create problems but for me diversity is one of the most phenomenal parts of humanity (wow, that got deep real fast…).

June 3^rd was a good friend of mines birthday. Get this; her name is California Marine Cravens… right? Pretty cool. There were many festivities and much drama that ensued, but it is not mine to tell, sorry.

I had another exam (on the 5^th) and than miss, California and I went down to the waterfront to do her favorite past time—watch the boats. It was lovely but the waterfront is seriously ritzy. I don’t think I could deal with going down there too often, no matter how much I like the boats (and the seals). We had a nice dinner to celebrate the end of my exams, bought some Vuvuzela’s (the horns that became famous after the Soccer World Cup), and went home.

The next day (since it was raining again, apparently in the winter in Cape Town that happens all the time!) I went to the Irma Stern museum. She was a modern artist who lived just down the street from my Cape Town home. Her old house has been converted into a museum with tons and tons of ethnographic artifacts and a good amount of her work. It was a nice relaxing day. Wake up late, walk to campus, and look at art.

I woke up on Thursday (the 7^th) to rain… again. I was planning to go to the beach… again. My plans in that sense haven’t really been working out. Instead, Pete (another friend) and I went to the District Six Museum. We had so much trouble finding it, mostly because of Charley’s Bakery. We were walking, on the right track to the museum when we spotted a big brightly colored and pink building. Someone had told me to try it when I went to the museum so we stopped in. The red velvet cupcake was really weird but the pie was fantastic! Apparently the museum was on that road but when we left the Bakery we by-passed it and ended up walking up a giant hill, in the poring rain.  I had my doubts about our direction (because Charley’s was supposed to be right by the museum) so we turned back. We ended up finding it and kicking ourselves because it was RIGHT THERE.

I only have two more full days in Cape Town and I still want to make it to the beach again. Hopefully the weather co-operates. The last thing on my bucket list is hiking Devil’s peak. At this rate, I don’t think that is going to happen… but hey, there has to be at least one thing I haven’t done to give me a good excuse to come back. On Sunday I’ll pack and leave at night. If all goes well I’ll be home Monday afternoon. It’s hard to believe I’ve already been here for almost six months but it’s even harder to believe that this journey is ending.

I have met some fantastic people, had some extraordinary experiences, and grown as a person. At the risk of sounding super cheesy, Cape Town and South Africa in general will always have a place in my heart. It is hard to say good-bye but I know I’ll be back, so it’s actually more like see ya later.