Vitamin D, Tripe, and Cockroaches.

I am just now reaching the end of my first week here in Cape Town, and already I have too much to write about. This week has been a rollercoaster of new faces, foods, and experiences—all of which have exceeded my wildest expectations. I fully admit that I am in the honeymoon stage of this trip. Everything here is more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen, the people have been warm and welcoming, and every day seems to bring more exciting adventures than the day before. I can’t get enough of Cape Town, and I feel so lucky that I get to live here for the next five months. I wish I could share every minute of my time here with everyone, but for now a few of the main highlights will have to suffice.

View From Table Mountain



Front of Kimberely House where I live!

 

 Today was one of two days we have had to ourselves to explore the city, relax, etc. I have spent both of those days at the beach, because it’s my favorite thing to do and the weather here is PERFECT, so I’m trying to soak up as much vitamin D as I can while it lasts. We woke up this morning and went to the local Saturday market where they sell fresh produce, clothing, and miscellaneous trinkets. After a few hours milling around there, we sprung for a taxi and headed to Clifton beach, about a fifteen minute ride east from where we live in Obz. I cannot explain in words how perfect this beach was. White sand, virtually no bugs, hot with a slight breeze, and the ocean right next to you when you need to cool off. It doesn’t take a lot to impress me when it comes to beaches, but this one was phenomenal. If I could, I would fly you all out here tomorrow and take you there. 

Birdseye View of Clifton Beach

                So far, the trip has been more of a vacation and less of a study abroad trip since our classes and service hasn’t started yet. However, we have been exposed to a lot of South African culture through our daily trips around Cape Town. For example, Wednesday night we went as a group (led by our program director Melikaya and our driver Pearnel) to a traditional South African restaurant. Our meals had been pre-ordered for us, so we all just passed around dishes family style and tried a little of everything. On the menu that night was Ostrich, Springbok (South Africa’s national animal), and Kudu. Not being a huge meat lover, I wasn’t incredibly impressed with any of them but felt strongly about trying everything at least once, and none of them seemed to out of the ordinary…until the final meat dish arrived. The aroma of this dish preceded its arrival—before it even left the kitchen we started smelling a mixture of fish and urine and inquiring about what it was. When it got to the table, Melikaya had a huge smile on his face and suggested we all try at least a tiny piece. I put a small piece on my plate but didn’t think I would actually eat it, but Melikaya said he wouldn’t tell us what it was until someone tried it. I am normally not a very competitive person, but for some reason I felt like I had to take one for the team and be brave, so I tasted it. Needless to say it was disgusting and I immediately regretted eating it. Melikaya then told us it was Lamb’s stomach, a traditional African dish known as Tripe. All I can say is that I probably won’t be going back to that restaurant any time soon, but I’m glad I got to have that experience.

The Infamous Tripe...

                Every time we all pile in the van to go somewhere, I find myself looking out the window during the drive and asking myself how I am so lucky to be  able to live in such a beautiful place. In the journal I’ve been writing in to keep track of all we’ve been doing, I can’t stop gushing about how much I love it here, and as I said before I think it’s partly due to the fact that I’ve been waiting so long to start this journey and now that I’m finally here I can’t accept it as my reality. However, I don’t want to sugarcoat anything in this blog, and my intention is to be completely honest in order to paint an accurate portrait of my life here. That being said, I have one complaint: cockroaches. If you know me at all you know that I generally don’t function well around anything that crawls, so you can imagine how I feel about them. I have never seen one before coming here, and my first encounter with one occurred on my first night here before going to bed after over 24 hours of travelling. There have been many more sightings around our house since then, and I don’t see myself getting used to them any time soon, but I was offered some words of wisdom by one of the many fascinating people I met this past week.  During our orientation at UWC, Jan Parsens, the director of the International program was surprised when I told him about my less than enthusiastic opinion of the creepy crawlers. He said to me, “you mustn’t kill the cockroaches, for they are holy creatures. Instead you must speak nicely to them and tell them to please go away, and they will.” So in the spirit of trying new things, the next time I see a cockroach I will politely address it and ask it to vacate the house instead of screaming bloody murder and scaring my house mates to death. Stay posted for the results of this new resolution!