Calliope
Saturday, February 18, 2006
More Beach Photos - Muizenberg
Me, Monica, and Suzy at Muizenberg Beach.
Sara, Morgan, Monica, Nate, and Me.
Wine Country
At the hostel.
Wine Tasting at Simonsig.
Me hugging a newly purchased bottle of delicious white wine.
Here are some photos from our adventures in Stellenbosch, the wine region about 45 minutes away from Cape Town. If you've ever had South African wine, chances are it came from one of the vineyards in Stellenbosch. We went on a wine-tasting tour of four vineyards, it was really nice, but I was trashed by lunch. I guess it's a good thing that the wine was best at the first vineyard (Simonsig).
South African Wine 101:
The warm climate in South Africa is not conducive to making dry white wines. The sun brings out more sugar in the grapes, so the white wines produced here are more fruity. The warm climate is really good for full-bodied reds, like shiraz, and an original South African variety called pinotage.
The four vineyards we visited were Simonsig, Fairview (their Goats Do Roam line is widely distributed in the States) in Paarl - another important wine region, not far from Stellenbosch, Boschendal, and Delaire. The town of Stellenbosch is really cute - very quaint, very European/Dutch. But it's overwhelmingly Afrikaner, and very wealthy. Because of the University, there's also a lot of college kids there, so we had a fun time going out.
First Day of School!
So ended my 8-week vacation. I spent today mourning on the beach. More mourning will follow tonight at a club down town.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Beauty Not Readily Apparent
I know it’s probably a little early to be bringing out the heavy stuff, but I’d like to record this experience while it’s still fresh. I’ve been uploading pictures of glorious beaches and doing my best to put this amazing paradise to words, but the truth is, there’s more to it. South Africa is an incredibly complex place. Fascinating, interesting, but complicated. Beside great wealth exists great poverty. And I’m not talking about the couple dozen homeless people sleeping on benches outside Trump Tower. I’m talking about Khayelitsha, one of the townships about 20 minutes drive from down town Cape Town. There are many such townships in South Africa - the sad relics of Apartheid, when blacks and coloureds were forced out of their homes and condemned to shanty towns on the outskirts of the city.
We went to Khayelitsha as part of UCT (University of Cape Town) orientation, to visit the facilities run by SHAWCO, the university’s main community service organization. I have never seen poverty like this before. We know NOTHING like this in the States. It just goes on forever, as far as the eye can see. And you turn your head to look away, but there’s more, and there’s nowhere else you can look. Row after row of – literally – shacks. Made from scrap metal or wood or any available material. One million people live in Khayelitsha. It is not the only township. I’ve never seen anything like it. Vast.
I didn’t bring a camera, I felt it was inappropriate. Some kids did, I think they’re dumb. We got off the bus at the SHAWCO center and stepped into a throng of schoolchildren. There were so many, and they were so excited to see us. Smiling, laughing, shyly turning away, proudly shaking hands. As I made my way through the crowd, I was overwhelmed with emotion, and tears came to my eyes. I went to grab my sunglasses to hide my emotion, but something in me refused the glasses. I wanted to see the world around me as it was, untempered by barriers. I can compare the feeling only to a similar rush of emotion I had at places like Dachau and Omaha Beach. But this time it was a little different. Dachau and Omaha Beach are places of death, but Khayelitsha was filled – to the very brim – with life. There was so sorrow, no shame, just life. All this poverty, but amidst it all – life. It was a beautiful place. Not to say that poverty is beautiful, or that I’m trying to exoticize it. But maybe just that it was not ugly, as you might expect it to be. Beauty in South Africa is different from beauty in the US or Europe or anywhere else. It’s a different kind of beauty, more subtle, harder to see. Beauty not readily apparent. It takes the eye a bit of time to see it.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
South Africa!!!!
Wow. I don't even know where to start. Except to say that it's SO incredibly beautiful here! (digital pictures to follow eventually). The weather is PERFECT, and there's ocean and beach and mountain and blue sky and hot South Africans playing rugby. I've barely been here for 5 days, and I already feel like I've seen so much of the city, and had some really cool experiences. This is the strangest place I've ever been. But, like, in a good way. It feels like the strangest combination of every place I've ever been in my entire life: a little Australia, a little Europe, a little New Zealand, a little Florida, a little Southern California. It's crazy. The kids I'm living with are REALLY cool, I can see part of Table Mountain from my window. I have a really tough life.
I have to take a minute to tell you about these crazy taxis that we've been using to get around. (It's really interesting, because some parts of SA are so modern and developed, and then some others are totally 3rd world...and I guess these "minibuses" would probably fall into the later category. It costs 3.50 rand to ride (which is like $0.50) and there are hundreds of them all over the city, and one guy's driving and his "assistant" is hanging out the window, shouting at pedestrians to jump in and where they're headed. So you find one headed in the direction you want to go, and you literally jump inside and they speed off. But, like, these are like little vans - not even 15 passenger - but they cram like 20 people inside. It's absolutly CRAZY. But it's cheap, and highly entertaining. The whole country feels like barely controlled chaos - like, just a little bit wild.
The campus is absolutely gorgeous! In some ways, it kinda makes Yale look like Walmart. Ok. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but it's AMAZING. It's up on the moutain, and all the building are like this neo-gothic architecture that had like a very Africa/South Asian flavor to it. It's absolutly gorgeous.
I'll upload digital pics to make you all jealous pretty soon.
