Haha "Party Animal" is probably a bit of an overstatement but I for the past 2 weeks I ended up exploring cape town with my friends practically EVERY day..and a lot of nights. I can't complain except now that all my University friends have started on January 31 I've been suffering withdrawl...that was 2.5 days ago people. So I guess I'm definitely going to have to update you on what I've been up to!
January 20:
The First Experience of the Waterfront:
I think I may be in love with this country. One of the first things I noticed about Cape Town is how similar it is to Canada in the layout and partially with the climate. The Waterfront can be compared to Vancouver area where everyone lives in bellville and beuford. Most of the people around here tend to live about a 40 min drive from the waterfront which can be compared to Cloverdale area :D They have mountains and an ocean...two things I love!
January 23..?:
Clifton Beach:
In my outsiders opinion. This beach is AMAZING. The sand is super soft, like that stuff we canadians dream about but the water is COLD. Clifton is near waterfront located near Lions head which is the mountain I mentioned in a earlier post that we climbed up :) We ended up going with a couple of my really good friends. Pieter, Albert, Henri, and Irmarie. So far on my vacation I've been spending a lot of my time with Irmarie since she's the only girl here that's 18 and not in school. It usually ends up being her and me and a whole bunch of guys which have been dubbed our "bodyguards" since..well..we're in South Africa. It's not really THAT dangerous here but it's definitely more of an issue than in Canada. We also ended up going to Clifton a week later with the Young Peoples.
This is Irmarie and I :) I think you can really see the epic tan here...just saying...
I've also started volunteering at Tygerburg and Chrismar (Both are the places deanna volunteered when she was here) I've had a lot of interesting comments that make me laugh a lot. Almost every Black person that I meet thinks I look like an actor from Sevre de Longue - I have no idea how to spell it (An afrikaans show that EVERYONE watches here..everyone..) It's very amusing because I've explain quite a few times that I'm definitely not an actor and I actually don't speak afrikaans at all and I'm from Canada.
I had my first time experience with the the Stellekies (I'm 99.5% sure I totally just spelt that wrong so I'll have to show you how you say it) Stell (Like in Stellar) uh (like in Uh oh) keys (like...keys...hahah) It was really interesting to see the amazing things these people can make. It was a little sad because if you look slightly up on the hill you can see the hundreds of shacks that they live in. I attempted to do some bargaining an actually did pretty well at it :D When you think about the people selling their goods you have to imagine the pushiest salesman you've ever met. Even with that frame of mind I had to get used to saying "no" very firmly! I ended up buying a painting and some earrings. Jerome and I discussed what I had paid for later on an I had definitely ended up getting the "tourist price." I wasn't too bothered since paying 5 extra dollars for an amazing painting is very little for me but an exceptional amount to these people. I really hope that we end up going again except that I really have to moderate what I spend since I have the mindset that "I'm buying souvenirs!!" Really though..how many souvenirs could you possible need :P
January 20:
The First Experience of the Waterfront:
I think I may be in love with this country. One of the first things I noticed about Cape Town is how similar it is to Canada in the layout and partially with the climate. The Waterfront can be compared to Vancouver area where everyone lives in bellville and beuford. Most of the people around here tend to live about a 40 min drive from the waterfront which can be compared to Cloverdale area :D They have mountains and an ocean...two things I love!
January 23..?:
Clifton Beach:
In my outsiders opinion. This beach is AMAZING. The sand is super soft, like that stuff we canadians dream about but the water is COLD. Clifton is near waterfront located near Lions head which is the mountain I mentioned in a earlier post that we climbed up :) We ended up going with a couple of my really good friends. Pieter, Albert, Henri, and Irmarie. So far on my vacation I've been spending a lot of my time with Irmarie since she's the only girl here that's 18 and not in school. It usually ends up being her and me and a whole bunch of guys which have been dubbed our "bodyguards" since..well..we're in South Africa. It's not really THAT dangerous here but it's definitely more of an issue than in Canada. We also ended up going to Clifton a week later with the Young Peoples.
I've also started volunteering at Tygerburg and Chrismar (Both are the places deanna volunteered when she was here) I've had a lot of interesting comments that make me laugh a lot. Almost every Black person that I meet thinks I look like an actor from Sevre de Longue - I have no idea how to spell it (An afrikaans show that EVERYONE watches here..everyone..) It's very amusing because I've explain quite a few times that I'm definitely not an actor and I actually don't speak afrikaans at all and I'm from Canada.
I had my first time experience with the the Stellekies (I'm 99.5% sure I totally just spelt that wrong so I'll have to show you how you say it) Stell (Like in Stellar) uh (like in Uh oh) keys (like...keys...hahah) It was really interesting to see the amazing things these people can make. It was a little sad because if you look slightly up on the hill you can see the hundreds of shacks that they live in. I attempted to do some bargaining an actually did pretty well at it :D When you think about the people selling their goods you have to imagine the pushiest salesman you've ever met. Even with that frame of mind I had to get used to saying "no" very firmly! I ended up buying a painting and some earrings. Jerome and I discussed what I had paid for later on an I had definitely ended up getting the "tourist price." I wasn't too bothered since paying 5 extra dollars for an amazing painting is very little for me but an exceptional amount to these people. I really hope that we end up going again except that I really have to moderate what I spend since I have the mindset that "I'm buying souvenirs!!" Really though..how many souvenirs could you possible need :P
Notice the guy in the middle. A lot of the people here with dreads have these HUGE hats they put them in :D
I also had a couple of first time experiences! Being legal has some serious advantages :P We went out a couple times and I still feel very strange handing over my drivers license. Most of the time it takes a couple seconds for the guy to figure out where the date is and usually he makes some comment about how I'm from Canada :) We tend to play a lot of pool and foosball...two things in life that I can honestly say I cannot do. This picture will probably be a little blurry but you can see me contemplating my next miss :P No really...we played a couple games and Henri ended up sinking every ball. woops...
I also had a couple of first time experiences! Being legal has some serious advantages :P We went out a couple times and I still feel very strange handing over my drivers license. Most of the time it takes a couple seconds for the guy to figure out where the date is and usually he makes some comment about how I'm from Canada :) We tend to play a lot of pool and foosball...two things in life that I can honestly say I cannot do. This picture will probably be a little blurry but you can see me contemplating my next miss :P No really...we played a couple games and Henri ended up sinking every ball. woops...
Finally the day before Irmarie left for Holland we went to Waterfront and Robben Island with her cousin and her cousin's husband. I found it really interesting at Robben Island because we had an ex convict giving us a tour guide. Really..isn't that cool! He had stayed in the jail from 1980 to 1987! A lot of the people here really love Mandela (Most of you probably know who that is from the movie Invictus) Mandela was kept in the Robben Island jail for a long period of time for terrorist acts against the government. Mostly he was in jail for being a supporter of the discontinuation of apartide. It was really an interesting tour! If you want some totally accurate details you'll have to ask jerome since my memory for facts is..dismal to say the least.
Hopefully that was a long enough post! I love reading blogs but it takes an age and a half to update them!
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