i live in virginia now

it’s been a while since i last wrote, so let me see if i can’t catch you up before i forget it all.

my last week in cape town was definitely a strange one. it’s hard to put into words the emotions involved in saying goodbye to somebody who you don’t know if you’ll ever see again – and, even if you do, you know that it will be a very, very long time from now. it’s not like at the end of last semester, when we were all preparing to leave for our respective semester abroad programs and we had to say goodbye to each other then – we knew we’d all be back together again come january. even my best friend brittney, who i never see enough of save for the infrequent trips i made to north carolina to see her – i know that it’ll never be too terribly long before i see her again.

but in regard to individuals like kwadwo, adrian, nwabisa, adam, sakhile, neema, tendai, and so many more – it’s hard for me to say when, if ever, i’ll see them again. i was able to have a goodbye lunch and/or drink with most of them, but each of those occasions were nevertheless solemn – i mean, these individuals opened their lives and their hearts to me, and i don’t know how i’ll ever be able to repay the favor.

as i said goodbye to each of them, i told them, “this isn’t goodbye forever,” but i just have to wonder – is it? even if i do make it back to south africa, it won’t quite be the same. i won’t be living there – i’ll just be another one of those tourists whose antics we used to mock, knowing we were so much more engrained into south african society than they’d ever be.

to be fair, i could have feasibly opted to spend this upcoming semester at the university of cape town, and honestly, i’d considered it, but in the end, i decided against it. not only was i running out of money (there’s no way i could get a south african work permit), but i have requirements for my baccalaureate that i need to fulfill back at gwu. besides, at any rate, i went to south africa to learn about the country, its politics, its culture, its people, et cetera. i succeeded in that. mission accomplished. not to say that there isn’t always something to learn, especially living in a city like cape town, but in the end, i determined that it was best simply to return to the united states.

so, now i’m back. but before that, brigid and i opted to spend our last day as capetonians together. in truth, brigid proved to be my rock throughout my semester abroad. i knew it would be hard not to have her as a constant character in my life anymore, and lo and behold that’s proven true. at any rate, after checking out from our not-so-lovely abode at liesbeeck gardens (my least favorite part about living in south africa!), we enjoyed a lunch together at one of our favorite restaurants downtown. i definitely miss their milkshakes. ;)

then, we took the cable car up table mountain. i think that that was a great activity for us to do on our last day in cape town. the view, in a nutshell, was outstanding. it was phenomenal, being able to identify the various parts of the cape peninsula, where we’d gone, what we’d done there, et cetera. we ran into an older couple there, incidentally from arlington (at the corner of carlin springs and leesburg pike – so close to where i live now!), and i definitely took pride in pointing out which was the indian ocean and which was the atlantic, where we’d gone to school, et cetera. indeed, it was such a change from last july, when we went to a club on the top of the absa building (the tallest building in cape town) and gazed at the unfamiliar (yet nevertheless beautiful) city. the city still came across as beautiful to me, but i had come to understand its intricacies.

after that, we met up with sara in company’s gardens, and from there we went to the airport for our respective evening flights home (via heathrow).

i spent the first week of mine back in the united states in california. it was nice to be able to spend my initial period of “reverse culture shock” in a relatively placid environment such as thousand oaks. plus, of course, it was nice to be with friends and family. then, after that (on november 28), i flew back to dc. i’m happy to report that i’ve done pretty much everything that i’d set out to do in my pre-spring semester period back in dc. after what felt like an undeservedly arduous housing search, i found a great apartment in the crystal city neighborhood of arlington. i love my apartment. i live with kasandra, a classmate of mine at gw. it’s a 1 bedroom + den + 1 bathroom unit (in an extremely large apartment building), and i use the den as my bedroom. it’s actually a very nice room, even though it’s relatively small (8 by 9 ½ feet). i have a great big window, which i enjoy. :) the apartment itself is very nice, and kasandra already had a lot of furniture for it – the only problem (if you can call it one) is that the walls are a little barren, so i need to get posters and other wall coverings for them. :)

i’m also back at my old job at dsw, which is a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment (no need to metro!). it’s been great to be back at dsw, not just because of its proximity to my house or the fact that i’m earning a lot of money because of all the hours i’m picking up (about 30 a week), but the fact that it’s so familiar to me: reverse culture shock hit me like a ton of bricks – specifically, how there’s so much that has changed – and it’s nice to have a stable entity in my life to come back to. there’s a new manager, sure, and some new employees as well, but retail is constant.

i’m also getting back into doing extracurricular activities at gw. i went to a couple of meetings for a newly formed organization gw liberty society, which i enjoyed. i’ve also been getting increasingly involved in my honors fraternity, sigma alpha lambda, and to that end i helped out a lot with the holiday fundraiser and clothing drive that we did. i’ve also gone to a few socials by dc’s various think tanks, non-profits, etc., and it’s been great to have met like-minded individuals in that capacity. finally, i’ve gone on a few internship interviews; still waiting to see what comes of those.

despite the pride i take in all i’ve accomplished in the short time i’ve had since getting back to the united states, i nevertheless miss south africa immensely. despite the myriad hardships that studying abroad in such an environment befell me, there’s something about the easygoing nature of south africans that i find myself missing on a daily basis. as i was checking in for my flight at cape town international airport, i was able to joke with and to laugh with the security officials. indeed, that would never exist in the united states. washington is an extremely high-strung town, and i have to admit that i myself am also extremely high-strung, but it was nice to have – just for a while, at least – been around a less tense populace. as washingtonians (not to mention americans in general), we are so lucky to have what we have. meanwhile, in cape town, there is so much poverty and sadness – so much to lament – and nonetheless, the people are, on average, so much more uplifting than anyone i’ve ever encountered in dc.

today, i flew to california for christmas. i’ll be back on the east coast on the 29th to go back to work, to (hopefully) start an internship, and to enjoy my life there even more.

being back in dc is an extraordinary feeling

it's hard to remember how it felt before
now i found the love of my life...
passes things get more comfortable,
everything is going right

and after all the obstacles,
it's good to see you now with someone else...
and it's such a miracle that you and me are still good friends
after all that we've been through...
i know we're cool

i know we're cool...

we used to think it was impossible,
now you call me by my new last name...
memories seem like so long ago
time always kills the pain

remember harbor boulevard,
the dreaming days where the mess was made...
look how all the kids have grown,
we have changed but we're still the same
after all that we've been through,
i know we're cool

and i'll be happy for you,
if you can be happy for me
circles and triangles, and now we're hangin' out with your new girlfriend,
so far from where we've been...
i know we're cool

i know we're cool...
i know we're cool...
i know we're cool...

musings from heathrow

i sit here in heathrow airport, dumbfounded.

did that all really just happen? did i really just spend the past 18 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes living in south africa?

i'm not quite sure what i feel right now. i guess it hasn't hit me in its entirety quite yet. i mean, i cried as we took off from cape town airport, and i've cried thinking about all the amazing souls to whom i had to say goodbye, but i can't help but feeling like i haven't left cape town for good quite yet. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer be crammed into a 15-seater minibus taxi with 30 other passengers. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer be served entrées consisting of no fewer than 2 varieties of meat. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer look to the west and see table mountain towering over the city.

it's been quite an adventure, and as such, it's had no shortage of its ups and downs. i'll try and remember to post a 10 to 1 list for this past semester, but the point is that being in south africa proved itself to be quite an invaluable learning experience for me. and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this stage of my life has, already and so suddenly, come to a close.

ciee's goal for this semester is to transform us into "global citizens", and while i'm still not 100% sure of what that means, i think i'm well on my way to becoming one. i've had to become accustomed to a multitude of seemingly bizaare (and, dare i say, foreign) customs held by south africans, from overlooking personal space, to not saying "bless you" after a sneeze, to clipping one's nails in public (i still think this one is gross, though). i've learned how to successfully dial an international call, and that we're the only ones who pronounce the letter Z as "zee". even the metric system has begun to make sense to me.

but, i think that another integral part of becoming a global citizen involves learning how to take on unique challenges, ones seldom found in the first world. it's no secret that south africa is lacking in sufficient infrastructure (albeit better than those within most african countries), and as such, i've found myself repeatedly challenged by occurrences within everyday life. once i figured out to overcome those, however, i became able to appreciate south africa, its landscape, its culture, and its people for the wonderful things they truly are. :)

that all being said, it was certainly sad for me to leave south africa. even though i'm excited to see my friends and family, i found it tough for me to say goodbye to cape town, making it a very bittersweet circumstance for me. unlike when i visit home after a semester at gw, i can't pop over to south africa whenever i'd like to say hi to my new friends or to be reminded to all the nuances of south african life that i've grown to love. indeed, it'll be a long time before i can return to the mother city.

more on all of this later. my flight to los angeles is about to board.

bloemfontein

i’ve been really bad about updating this blog, but i’m gonna go ahead and blame africa for this one because i haven’t really had time to sit down and hash out an entry detailing on what i’ve been up to. either that, or i’ve been too lazy. or the internet here’s too damn slow. either way, let me see if i can’t rehash the events of my trip to bloemfontein (i’ll cover more recent stuff in a later entry).

given how crazy everything is here, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the trip that april, brigid, and i took to bloemfontein on october 8 (yikes, it’s been a while) turned out to be more hectic than what i’d bargained for. the three of us took an overnight bus from cape town to bloemfontein, and along the way we learned that the bus line on which we’d booked our return tickets was horribly dangerous and not recommended whatsoever, so upon arriving in bloemfontein we had to purchase new tickets through a more reliable company (which turned out not to be terribly expensive, but still, it’s hard to see money fly away like that). i’m a little surprised that nobody in cape town had said anything about it, even after we’d submitted our itinerary to the study abroad office, but anyway. we got to bloemfontein and the owner of the b & b we stayed at picked us up from the bus terminal. he drove us to the establishment (located in the upper-middle class neighbourhood of dan pienaar) and it was absolutely gorgeous! the owners (a husband and wife) couldn’t have been a nicer couple of people, and the property itself was beautiful. they couldn’t have been more accommodating and even said they’d let us take an extra single room so we wouldn’t all be “crammed” into the same room together (which we graciously declined, partly because we wanted to stay together, but mostly because our room was already plenty spacious). the husband was a white man from zimbabwe (which, interestingly enough, he continually called “rhodesia”) and the wife a white woman from swaziland.

after checking in, we set off for the main part of town by foot (2 kilometres away, downhill). it was pretty much immediately that we realised we weren’t in cape town anymore. first and foremost, there are no minibus taxis whatsoever. we found it odd not to have anybody yelling “wynberg!” or “kaapstad!” at us, trying to get us to board their vehicle; in fact, the drivers passing us by seemed bewildered that there were pedestrians within their town at all. to that effect, secondly, bloemfontein isn’t as much of a walking town as cape town is. not that i consider cape town terribly pedestrian-friendly, especially after dusk, but bloemfontein was definitely lacking in sidewalks. third, afrikaans is definitely, by far the principal language spoken in bloemfontein. even though south african law dictates that all public signage must be written in at least afrikaans and english, that law doesn’t extend to signage by private companies, and to this end, while most private signage in cape town is written in english, most of bloemfontein’s was written in afrikaans.

anyway, we got to the central part of town, and the first thing we did was stop by a lord of the rings-themed inn. j.r.r. tolkein was born in bloemfontein, and apparently the town tried to capitalise on the popularity of the movies with tourist attractions, but it’d largely failed in that regard. anyway, the inn wasn’t much to see (it was basically a regular-looking inn with some ivy and a sign that said “hobbit hole” or something dumb like that), so we proceeded over to the big mall in town, known as the waterfront (bloemfontein is entirely landlocked, but the city has an artificial lake beside which the complex sits). it was there that we had some pretty amazing pizza, although in retrospect i think we were really just hungry. then we walked around that area for a bit before going back to the b & b to rest for macufe, the cultural festival that had brought us to bloemfontein (a town otherwise deprived of tourism) in the first place.

so, anyway, we went back to the waterfront a little bit later and went to some café for dinner where we enjoyed amazingly delicious lemonade for 5 rand (although i got mine with vodka, so for me it was technically 14 rand). anyway. then we headed over to macufe, which was in the park right beside the waterfront. hmm, how do i begin to describe macufe? well, out of the tens of thousands of other attendees we saw, i think we saw only about 3 or 4 other white people there. also, the event was sponsored by jack daniel’s, and to that end they had a trailer set up there for “the jack daniel’s experience”. you go in, they give you a little tour where they tell you about the history of jack daniel’s as well as how the concoction is made, and then they give you a novelty plastic cup with a sample shot of it inside. it was gross, but whatever, there were a couple of bars set up throughout the venue so we weren’t terribly despondent. anyway, there were several random music groups performing, none of whom we knew but all of whom had female dressers who were dressed notoriously inappropriately (i could tell that women’s studies major brigid was dying a little inside, hah). somewhere in there, we went to use the portapotties (which were surprisingly clean!) and a random drunk guy decided to talk to me, give me a hug, and have a picture taken of the two of us using april’s disposable camera. it was magical.

and then… t-pain. that’s right… macufe, south africa’s cultural festival, was headlined by none other than the floridian rapper, in the flesh. i have to say, though, that i think we were all relatively disappointed in his performance. he was only on stage for an hour, and for a good chunk of that we was sitting down. i think he must have been sick or something. at any rate, he was lipsyncing the entire time, which i found disappointing, but then again, i shouldn’t have been surprised, either. interestingly enough, however, his back-up dancers were the least skankily dressed of any of the groups’ that night. we left the venue just a couple of minutes before t-pain’s stagetime ended, which was fine with each of us because we wanted to avoid the drunken crowds. that didn’t really seem to work out terribly well for us, though, because the cabs we’d theoretically believed to be sitting outside the venue waiting for us were nonexistent. we eventually managed to find one, but that’s not before some drunk guy decided to grab my crotch. it was magical, and by that, i mean it was not magical.

we woke up on saturday, which we’d planned to spend in maseru (mainly so we could say we’d been to lesotho as well as to have that extra stamp in our passports); our study abroad programme director had told us that we could easily find a minibus to transport us to maseru, we had no such luck, so we decided to spend the day attempting to partake in tourist activities throughout bloemfontein. unfortunately, like i said, bloemfontein really doesn’t cater to tourists, so we didn’t have much in that regard (heck, there was hardly anything open as it was), although we did see the capitol building of free state province as well as the supreme court building (which, incidentally, was an unmarked and rather disappointing edifice). we also saw the national library for afrikaans literature, because apparently, the afrikaans language has enough literature to fill an entire building. oh! and we also almost got locked into a mall. we’d been looking for a restroom and so we went into a mall downtown (anchored by shoprite, which says it all) but apparently 3:00 in the afternoon is when malls in downtown bloemfontein close on saturdays we we narrowly escaped what would’ve been an interesting story in its own right. i think we made our way back to the waterfront at some point for more 5 rand lemonade as well.

somewhere in there, we found the crafts market associated with macufe, and we bought some cool african-looking accessories made by local sotho and zulu women. i got a bracelet.

we went back to the b & b and hung out on the poolside for a little bit before going back into town. our plan was to eat dinner at the waterfront, then go barhopping on 2nd avenue, which, according to our hostess, was where all the anglophone bars are located. so, we got to the waterfront, and everything was closed. all the restaurants, all the cafés, everything. and it was only 8:00! apparently bloemfontein isn’t too keen on staying open after dusk (although april and brigid think it has to do with the macufe events, which we’d opted not to buy tickets for, going on that evening). we wandered the streets of bloemfontein looking for food. my eye caught sight of a seemingly hopeful mcdonald’s, but luckily, it didn’t come to that: we went to the 2nd avenue café instead and had pizza. april didn’t really care for it, but brigid and i thought it was all right. that was, however, when we learned that 2nd avenue is, actually, where afrikaans speakers go out (i think we were the only english speakers there). all of the afikaaner guys had repulsive mullets and kept on high five-ing each other in a heinously suggestive top gun-esque style. gag.

after we finished dinner (well after 10:00), we ascended to the dance floor, where we saw plenty more afrikaaners drunkenly dancing, but given the bar’s 10 rand special on rum & coke we decided to join the fun for a little bit. after a while, though, we realised that the scene wasn’t really happening, so we went down the street to a bar called stone’s (which is actually a chain of bars throughout south africa). the demography was the same but the scene was a little better, except for the fact that for some random reason it was prohibited to bring drinks onto the dance floor. anyway. the dj kept on playing covers (and not very good ones at that) of american songs from the 1950s, but we had fun nonetheless (i started dancing with this chick who kept on talking to me in afrikaans, and i tried to explain to her that i don’t speak afrikaans, but that was a failure and eventually her boyfriend got jealous and dragged her away anyway). then, april met a boy! now that, that was magical. he was 19 and attends the university of the free state, and apparently he decided to make a point of telling april of his heinously racist views (e.g., that black people shouldn’t be allowed to own land, blah blah blah). he seemed cool with the fact that i was gay though (he wasn’t sure if i was her boyfriend or not, so i told him i’m gay, a fact that apparently isn’t obvious to afrikaaners). we danced for a little while but then that guy’s creeper status became apparent so we bounced.

brigid and i wanted to go home at that point, but april was still insistent on having some more fun, so she dragged us on over to another bar that was having a form party (yuck) and paid our covers. we refused to interact with the form, the jacuzzis it was coming out of, or the individuals within the jacuzzis in any way, shape, or form, so we went inside to the dance floor, which was too crowded as it was. we also couldn’t help but notice that all of the foam-goers were 20-year-old fake blonds and creepy 40-year-old guys, so we didn’t stay long at that place and by then we all decided to go home.

it was raining when we exited that establishment, but it wasn’t a torrential downpour as we’re used to in cape town, so it felt very nice. we called our favourite cab driver to come pick us up (not the quickest of ways to get a ride home, but at least we knew we could rely on him), but guess who should make a special appearance on the corner we were waiting on? creepy afrikaaner guy from stone’s! he offered to give us a lift back to our b & b, which april blatantly declined due to the fact that he was wasted (oh, and creepy). after what felt like forever (but was really only 15 minutes), our cab arrived, and we left the puzzling afrikaans-speaking nightlife scene behind (the guy decided to give april a call after we got back to the b & b, but that turned out to be more of a source of amusement to us than anything else).

we woke up the next day (sunday), and it was right then and there that i knew i was getting sick. still, i wanted to complete our weekend, so we went into town to attend a soccer game at vodacom park. we thought it would be really packed, but i guess everybody was planning on attending the match later on in the day so the stands were fairly sparse for the noon match (plus, it was raining). the game was a lot of fun to watch, but they seemed to ignore all legitimate rules of professional soccer. mainly, the timing of the match was rather unconventional. “halftime” was about 20 minutes in, and the match ended like 80 minutes in, too. also, the players kept on slipping on the puddles throughout the field and falling down, which was actually more hilarious than anything else. haha.

after that, we walked back over to the waterfront, where we caught a showing of the “district 9” movie. it as pretty atrocious, as i was expecting it to serve as a social critique but it was basically just 2 hours of violent shit. it wasn’t a terribly realistic depiction of south africa either, but whatever, johannesburg is different from cape town so what can i say. we grabbed some ice cream after the showing, which i of course enjoyed. :)

soon after that, we went back to the b & b to relax for a little bit, then we packed our bags and went to the bus terminal, which was largely a fruitless endeavour given the weather had transformed into a particularly heinous rainstorm and our bus was some 2 hours delayed coming in from pretoria. our bus finally arrived, and soaking wet, we boarded it. the bus wasn’t as comfortable as the one we’d taken to bloemfontein, but i was able to sleep nonetheless.

we arrived in cape town the next morning -- late, of course, and because of that i missed my urban politics tutorial (which, as i later found out, got cancelled anyway). i was definitely sick by that point, much to my chagrin, but nevertheless i can say that i definitely enjoyed the weekend -- even though there was no shortage of strange characters or random events! still, it was nice to get out of cape town and see another part of the county. sure, it wasn’t durban or port elizabeth, but like when we went to northern cape, i’d like to think it gave us a more “authentic”, locals’ perspective on what south africa is really like. that being said, i still hold that bloemfontein is certainly not for the tourists. ;)

more to come.

musings on healthcare

lately in my sociology of industrialisation class, we’ve been discussing the issue of national healthcare, and as if this weren’t already such a contentious issue in the united states, it truly rises to the forefront of individuals’ attentions, minds, and hearts here in south africa. in 2007, the expenditure for public sector healthcare totalled 59 billion rand, serving 40 million denizens. on the other hand, the expenditure for private sector healthcare totalled 67 billion rand, serving 7 million of the country’s wealthier residents. put another way, in 2007, the 8.5% of south africa’s gdp spent on healthcare; 3.5% of it went to public sector healthcare, whereas 5% went to private sector healthcare. the annual amount spent per person within public sector healthcare is 1,400 rand, whereas the annual amount spent per person within private sector healthcare is 9,500 rand.

the extreme disparity in the amount of money allotted toward healthcare in the public versus the private sector has resulted in a remarkable gap in the standards of health between south africans – and understandably so. after all, medicine has undergone a process of commodification – the result of this being that, if you can afford it, you can obtain the best healthcare possible. if you can’t, then you’re screwed.

this issue certainly sparked a debate amongst the students in my sociology class, and quite frankly, i wasn’t too enthused about the solutions they proposed for remedying the situation. one of the more outlandish (in my opinion, at least) solutions proposed was a reassignment of white medical staff to facilities in majority-black neighbourhoods, and vice versa. i wasn’t terribly keen on this pitch, namely because it works under the presumption that all white people are rich and all black people are poor (a supposition that’s becoming less and less true in post-apartheid south africa), but also because it presumes that whites inherently provide better healthcare than blacks (it should be noted that the author of this suggestion, in fact, is black).

another suggestion that i was equally nonplussed about, but seemed to be met with a greater level of amenability by my classmates, was that of eradicating private healthcare altogether. under this proposal, all of south africa’s medical staff, facilities, and programmes would be state-owned and state-operated. the 7 million denizens currently subscribing to private sector healthcare would be reassigned to public sector healthcare (against their respective wills, but that’s another issue).

it is indisputable that private sector healthcare triumphs over that of the public sector, and the 7 million south africans presently subscribing to private sector healthcare receive a far superior quality of medical care than the 40 million utilising public sector healthcare. if this is the case, then why should south africa bring an end to private healthcare altogether? while it’s lamentable that optimal healthcare isn’t readily available to the entire south african populace, realistically speaking, it’s better that this higher standard of healthcare be available to at least some of the population, rather than none at all.

eliminating private sector healthcare in south africa altogether is a very dangerous concept. while decent healthcare is at least somewhat attainable in south africa, a complete transition to nationalised, public sector healthcare would eradicate any semblance of this. if private sector healthcare is allowed to remain, then it will eventually make its way throughout south african society – private firms, advertising a dramatically higher standard for healthcare, will entice consumers of all socioeconomic statues, and eventually the private sector will become the de facto option for medical services. if private sector healthcare ceases to exist in south africa, however, then there will be no chance of this, and the standard of living in this country will significantly suffer.

as the united states finds itself in the midst of this litigious issue in the context of its own population, it is important to remember that countries like south africa, despite a smaller population, have far less capital to spend on medical services as well. the discrepancy in healthcare amongst americans seems small in comparison to that amongst south africans. the existence of private healthcare, even in a minimal capacity, within south africa not only provides a greater quality of healthcare for denizens than would otherwise be possible, but also serves as a promise for a greater standard of medical care for all south africans in the future. by nationalising healthcare in its entirety and eliminating private sector healthcare, this possibility will be exterminated.

if you see her, say hello

i know you all were expecting a post on bloemfontein. and i'll get there, i promise. but i just wanted to share some of my recent musings.

so, i've got this problem. i'm always thinking ahead. which doesn't sound like such a dilemma, unless you factor in the fact that its consequence is that i'm never content with the here and now. like, last semester, i was fixated on the prospect of going to cape town, and this one, all i can think about is everything i've got going on next semester. i mean, i'm gonna get involved in chad's new liberty society club at gw; i'm gonna be doing stuff with ΣAΛ, my honours fraternity; i'll likely be back at my fab job at dsw, at least over christmas; i'm gonna find a great internship, which shouldn't be too difficult considering employers like hiring interns with at least junior standing, which i've got now; i'll be taking classes at gw again, which will be such a breath of fresh air since uct's coursework doesn't challenge me whatsoever; and, most crucially, i'll be back with all my amazing friends. right now, it all sounds pretty sweet.

and yet, even though i'm sure this semester will be over before i know it, i've still got a ways to go (33 days, to be precise) before i leave cape town. i've carved out a niche here and established a modus operandi for myself here: indeed, i volunteer, i intern, i go to class, i go to on-campus clubs, i explore the city. and yet, i can't help but feel listless toward my being in the present day.

were my expectations far too unrealistically high for cape town, and ergo i'm not suffering the consequences of such thinking? or, am i merely fated to live in a state of being in which i am perpetually excited for what lies ahead whilst remaining nonplussed toward my present status?

there's arguments for both, i guess. one element that's certainly served to the detriment of this current semester is the lack of genuine friendships that i feel i have here. the truth is that i really don't have any south african friends, and the overwhelming majority of my friendships with americans feel trite and contrived; those that might have a little more meaning, well, they simply haven't been able to replace the ones i left behind. the last time i felt this way was in 2nd grade.... i had no friends then, either, and the prospect of moving to thousand oaks made me feel extremely hopeful. now, 13 years later, i find myself in the same dilemma.

on the other hand, what if i am not so lucky as to be chugging toward a blissful dénouement? indeed, what if i am doomed to wander the earth, cursed by my own today, never truly able to reach that golden tomorrow? it's entirely possible: reflecting on my previous blog entries, i find myself constantly discussing my then-seemingly exciting future plans whilst lamenting past decisions leading to my then-present. will this pattern lead to an eternal listlessness on my end?

in truth, i imagine that the answer lies somewhere between the two. as quinton has said, studying abroad in cape town is not solely about learning about south african culture, customs, politics, society, etc.; it's about becoming an increasingly global citizen, and to that end, becoming more aware of my own identity as an american. indeed, it'd be impossible to say that this semester is just like any other semester during my undergrad. the lessons i'm learning are far more momentous than ones i've learned in semesters past.

so, let's take a look at what i've figured out.

first and foremost, i am utterly, indisputably, and irrevocably proud to be an american. south africans wishing to travel to the united kingdom must obtain a visa, through their local british consulate, before departing south africa. when i went to the united kingdom, all i did was click a few buttons on orbitz, take a sleeping pill, and off went the plane. (brangelina were crazy to deny their swakopmund-born daughter an american passport in favour of a namibian one.)

when my greatgrandparents left german-occupied austria in 1941, their voyage took them sprinting through the fields of western europe, carrying my grandfather in their arms as they ran, for fear that the nazi soldiers chasing them would catch up to them. i'm an american thanks to their willpower.

second, as much as i complain about it and ridicule it, the truth is that i absolutely love attending george washington university. not to sound terribly conceited, but people tell me left and right that i could've gotten into georgetown with my sat scores. it's a great school, but egad, why would i want to go there? i get to go to school in the same neighbourhood as the naval hospital, the state department, and the world bank. my freshman dorm was 4 blocks from the white house. i could see the washington monument from my sophomore dorm. the tv sets in my student union play cnn and msnbc, not espn. there are busts of our nation's first president scattered throughout campus. classes are tough, but i always walk away from any given semester having enjoyed at least a couple of them. and most importantly, even though i chastise gw for not playing an active role in my pursuits, it's still helped me nonetheless in obtaining employment (via the very pleasing line it adds to my résumé), exploring dc (thanks to its conveniently placed metro stop, proximity to the mall, etc.), and making friends.

that brings me to my final point. when i left california in 2007, i couldn't believe what i was doing... how could i say good-bye to the 10 years i'd spent formulating friendships in thousand oaks? then, i got to dc, and i find myself in a world in which i could walk down any given sidewalk and assuredly run into someone i know for a quick hello. i certainly see a lot of faces to which i'm averse, too, but nevertheless, i've been very blessed to have encountered a wide and warm social circle over my 2 years in dc.

if there's one lesson i'd like to take away from my semester abroad, it's to never, ever take the individuals in my life for granted. they're all too important and too precious to be overlooked or dismissed. being 12,000 miles away from them all certainly has stressed the importance of this credence for me.

on the one hand, i'm sure that, in the future, i'll succumb to my natural process of longing for the future whilst listless toward the present. on the other, i feel as if my experience studying here in south africa has somehow been too monumental to regard as "just any other semester", and consequently, i hope to be able to cherish these elements (my country, my school, and my life) of my life, as well as many more (my family, my job, my travels, god, etc.), with much more fervor than ever before.

i know that, as i sit here, alone in my room on a saturday night, i certainly do right now.

your mother should know

remember back in sixth grade, when it was all the rage to let your pants sag and have your boxers exposed? i did that once, and my mom saw me and man oh man was she pissed. in retrospect, what in god's name were we thinking?

so, apparently, my e-mail address is circling its merry way around nigeria.

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙

from: yourcareer@shilty.com
to: Michael Ross
date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 2:17 AM
subject: Michael Ross, a vacancy of Part time position for a student may be interesting to you

Hello, Michael Ross! I found your resume interesting. Our company needs Part time position for a student. Salary - 14.000 USD. Our site address - http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4.


Sincerely yours, HR-director.
Cilicia Miller
Shilty Company
http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙

umm, first of all: SHITTY company!?!!!?? that should be anybody's first clue. i shan't dwell on the myriad grammatical, uhh, points of interest, but note "cilicia"'s usage of the decimal comma, as is common in anglophone african countries such as nigeria, as opposed to the decimal point as used in the united states.

in other news, i went to the beach at fish hoek yesterday afternoon. i took metrorail, which offers beautiful views of false bay since the track hugs the shoreline, but unfortunately, i had a stomachache whilst there. :( also, it got cloudy. meh.

the sims 3

the best part about studying abroad in cape town is also the worst part: no matter what the task or action, everything spontaneously becomes an adventure. even for tasks as seemingly simplistic as running over to the supermarket, it's your best bet to devise not only an intricately formulated plan for yourself, but a back-up plan as well. so, when i decided to go across town today to century city, over the northern suburbs (as opposed to my own suburb of mowbray, in the southern suburbs), the action i took was anything but straightforward.

not even a month ago, EA released their newest computer game, the sims 3. i've loved the sims series since the original version of the game came out 9 years ago, and i've been playing it - off and on - ever since. my dad gave it to me as a gift when i was 11, and my mom, displeased by the ESRB "teen" rating, made me promise i wouldn't make my sims have sex. so, i just trapped them in a room and burned them instead.

now, at age 20, i have decided that, despite the rapidly increasing number of the responsibilities that i've got here, i want to start playing computer games again. i don't have a tv, and the internet is ridiculously expensive here, so i decided to obtain a copy of the sims 3. miraculously, EA opted not only to produce this programme so that it could played on either PCs or macs, but also to release it here around the same time as in america. both agnes and jeffrey have purchased it and have raved about it for me, so i decided to forego fighting off my attention deficit in favour of purchasing the programme.

the only problem with this, of course, was the price. R350 is certainly a lot for me to spend, especially when my income is zilch. however, agnes informed me of gumtree, south africa's answer to craigslist, so i opted to check it out in hopes of finding a cheaper version of it in this way.

well, i was right. a woman decided she was too busy at work to play the game (whoops), so she decided to sell her copy. she listed the price as R200... i negged her down to R150, and that was that. the problem: she wanted me to come pick up the programme from her in century city, where she works. yikes, that's quite a distance, especially sans automobile.

nevertheless, enchanted by the notion of saving a cool R200, i opted to traverse the city via public transit in order to get to century city... a task easier imagined than completed. the majority (60%) of commuting capetonians travel via "taxi" (known in america as a jitney or a shared taxi), so after failing to find any clues online regarding how to get to century city via train or municipal bus, i opted to travel via taxi.

the problem with this: taxis function within an extremely decentralised system, so there's no website elucidating taxi routes and whatnot. ergo, i left my building around 2:30 with a strategy in mind of touch and go. i rode a taxi on the only route i'd ever taken before (main road toward wynberg) into cape town, to the central taxi terminal. i've always been fascinated by this structure; it's bustling with an indescribable amount of activity. my favourite part, however, is the series of 30ish lanes, each signed to indicate the final destination of whichever taxis pull into the given lane. it creates the illusion that transit in cape town is simple.

since i didn't know which taxi route i'd want (since they aren't listed online) before i got to the terminal, i walked down the (very loud) row of lanes, reading the signs posted at every lane, trying to determine what my best bet would be. no routes terminated at century city (as i'd guessed), but one goes to the neighbouring community of milnerton. i decided that milnerton would be my best bet.

since i'd been staring at my street map prior to my journey and knew the basics of century city/milnerton's geography, i told the conductor of the taxi in the front of the lane that i wanted to go to milnerton mall (i'd decided to walk to century city from there). well, in typical TIA (this is africa) ridiculousness, no one had any idea what i was talking about. great. i finally found somebody who knew what i was talking about; apparently, the shopping complex had been renamed centre point mall. so, off i went.

the taxi passed through brooklyn along koeberg road. soon, we reached milnerton, and i was let out in front of centre point mall. great, now what? i was feeling rather calm at this point, though; the northern suburbs have a reputation for being safe and comfortable, and lo and behold, this held true in my eyes. (for those of you at home getting antsy reading my words, take solace in the fact that i'd NEVER conduct a journey like this in a rough neighbourhood. again.) looking at my map, i determined that cutting through a neighbourhood, named tijgerhof, would be my best plan. so, off i went down degrendel road.

tijgerhof was an odd mix of swakopmund and the san fernando valley. most of the street signs in the area were in the distinct style that swakopmund's and windhoek's were in, and frankly, that made me feel even more at ease. tijgerhof had some condominium complexes resembling the (seemingly tunisian/moroccan) architecture prevalent throughout swakopmund, but the houses looked as if they belonged in canoga park. one of the roads i needed to take was unpaved, which threw me off, but that was only temporary, and i continued on.

traversing tijgerhof, however, i suddenly became aware of how late it had become: it was suddenly 3:45! i sent an sms to the woman i'd be buying the software off of, asking her if we could push our 4:00 meeting back to 4:30. she was amenable. i got to the other side of tijgerhof at ratanga road, and unfortunately, it was here that i made a crucial error. i'd planned on turning right down ratanga road and turning into century city not too far down. however, i saw signage announcing the entrance to century city right in front of me, so i proceeded straight into the community.

century city is an oddity for cape town. it's a master planned community, and as such, it's made to look dazzling and pretentious. i proceeded down century boulevard, becoming increasingly reminded of wood ranch (for those of you native to ventura county) as well as exhausted from walking. signage indicated that canal walk (the mall where i was to meet my seller) was "ahead", but all i saw were more master-planned neighbourhoods of cookie-cutter houses. indeed, like most master planned communities, century city would've been far easier to traverse by car.

after a half hour, i reached a more commercial section of century city. now, the urban landscape reminded me of las vegas. the architecture certainly opted to make its buildings look larger than life, and i immediately felt an intense of aura of elegance pervading the neighbourhood. i continued walking, by this point not only exhausted, but baffled by all the "century city shuttles" i saw running. oh well, i figured i couldn't be that far off, right?

i hit canal walk right on the dot of 4:30. had this been our original plan for meeting up, i'd have been quite proud of myself. the seller showed up at 4:45 (quite good for africa time), and we completed the transaction. at last, i had the sims 3 in my possession! :D i walked around canal walk for a bit, and it looked like an awesome mall. i wanted to spend more time there, but at the stroke of 5, i started to worry that, since it'd taken me some 2 hours to get here, i wouldn't make it back to mowbray before sunset. so, i left.

upon exiting canal walk, i saw, right in front of me, a bench labelled "century city shuttles pick-up". i figured, "why not?" and boarded it. it didn't take me terribly far, but it only cost R2, and it helped me realise how silly it had been to go through century city's first entrance at ratanga road; there was a much more convenient option not too far from canal walk! i alighted at century city's transit terminal; nope, no luck getting back to cape town, as all the options i saw would have taken me to various locations throughout cape flats (where, presumably, most of century city's blue collar employees reside. i'm not trying to pass a judgment, it's just fact.). fortunately, i was not too far off from tijgerhof, so i made my way through that neighbourhood relatively quickly.

i came out of tijgerhof at centre point mall, and hoping to take the reverse journey of what i'd done before, i caught a taxi whose conductor told me that it was cape town-bound. this was, as i should have expected, false, and the taxi terminated at the maitland metro station. i was disgruntled, especially since i sensed that the sun would soon disappear behind table mountain for the day, but the conductor not only helped me find a truly cape town-bound taxi, but gave some of the R6.50 fare that i'd given him to my new taxi's conductor so i wouldn't have to pay an additional fare. this new taxi rattled more than i like them to, but it nevertheless made its way to the taxi terminal in cape town in due time.

the sun disappeared behind table mountain. crap, time to vamoose. i found my way to the wynberg-bound lane and boarded one of its taxis. it's a popular route, and that was made obvious given the large crowd waiting on the platform to board a taxi as well as how crammed we were into the (supposedly) 15-passenger minibus. i'd guess the true number was somewhere in the twenties.

dusk came about just as i alighted from that, my final taxi of the day, and i hurried down saint peter's and durban roads into my building. i immediately felt victorious, having completed my roundtrip journey unscathed. :)

i suppose that, when i get back to dc, any given situation will seem rather easy to take on, and any given method will seem wholly efficient and effortless on my end. from overcoming a car accident in rural namibia to obtaining a computer game from a woman across town, though, the adventures thrust upon me here in africa make any day become instantaneously exciting. :)

maybe i should send a moneygram to the prince of nigeria, too

my life seems to be continuing in its ongoing saga of being stressful, hectic, and annoying. i woke up to find a nasty, anonymously written comment on my blog entry about stellenbosch (which i promptly deleted.... but don't think i don't know who did it), and during my urban politics tutorial, the tutor got pissed off because none of us had completed the assignment, so she dismissed us rather abruptly (to be fair, we've all been working on our group projects) at that point. given that i'm still trying to settle the bill with budget as well as get all of my electronics back in working shape, school stresses are totally bringing me down (not to mention the fact i'm way homesick). so, when shit like this happens, it doesn't bode well for my mood.

to add insult to injury, i've been surfing craigslist for housing in dc in november, and i thought i was on a lead with a very promising place at 1077 30th street when i came to the unfortunate realisation that the leaser i'd been conversing with is naught but a scam artist. quel dommage.

don't believe me? judge for yourself. (from our google chat conversation today)

me: hi
scam artist: hello
scam artist: i am hoping you could at least send me the signed copy of the lease and maybe a part payment of the rent
scam artist: as agreed
me: well, you need to send me the lease first
scam artist: i mean the informations i requested from you
scam artist: sorry it was a typing error
me: what information do you need from me?
scam artist: if you want me to send the lease agreement to you, i would need these details
scam artist: full name
scam artist: date of birth
scam artist: current address
scam artist: expected move-in date
scam artist: date of departure
scam artist: a scan of an id (if you have one)
me: could you e-mail that list of things to me? and i'll get them to you as soon as i can
scam artist: i will do that right away
scam artist: also can you tell me how you intend paying for the reservation?
me: partly my own income and partly financial aid
scam artist: i see
scam artist: as soon as i can get the lease to you and you are able to sign it, i would prefer if you can send the payment to my lawyer so that he can hold in a kind of escrow till you arrive
me: as in, a deposit?
scam artist: i think i already told you i am away in utah at the moment
me: yeah, you did.
scam artist: i just sent you an email
me: well, i'd prefer to send one of my friends over to the apartment to take a look at it on my behalf before i sign anything or send you any money. and that, i'd presume, would involve you being back from utah (unless your attorney can show my friend the place)
scam artist: yeah well i can fly in from utah
scam artist: but i have to see a kind of proof that you would be willinf to pay eventually
me: hmm how long had you planned on staying in utah for?
scam artist: well at least for the next couple of weeks
scam artist: but i am hoping i could wrap up housing issus soon
me: as am i. well, could your attorney show my friend the place?
scam artist: yeah he can but he stays in ca
scam artist: and i would have to see a proof from you before i can agree to him flying down to show your friend, because there are so much time wasters there
me: what do you mean by that
scam artist: don't be offended
scam artist: there are so many people out there that are just gonna waste time
scam artist: so i need a kinda proof
me: like what
scam artist: do you want your friend sign the lease on your behalf?
scam artist: like making a deposit of the rent payment in a monwygram account and retrieve when you arrive in dc at least that shows you are serious about it
me: no, i don't want my friend to sign the lease on my behalf. and i'm not comfortable with giving you any money before i'm sure i want the place. and the only way i'd know for sure is if my friends tell me it looks like a legit place i'd like to live at
scam artist: you can start looking when you reach dc
me: i beg your pardon? i can start looking for what?
scam artist: when you reach dc you look for your flat
me: no, i want to secure a place before i arrive back in dc... that's the point of you and i conversing. lol
me: and that's funny you should say "flat", i hear it called that all the time here in sa but not back in the us
scam artist: well i just used that because i know you are in sa
scam artist: lol
scam artist: what do you think we should do now?
scam artist: okay i have a suggestion
me: okay, shoot.
scam artist: please this might sound crazy but that is what i want you to do.
scam artist: do you know moneygram service? www.moneygram.com
me: yes.
scam artist: i would want you to send the first rent and deposit through the transfer to your own name as a receiver in dc using the moneygram method, then you can scan and send the receipt to me for confirmation.as soon as i have confirmed it,i would schedule a flight down to dc and meet with your friend
scam artist: then when you get to dc and meet with me, you can retrieve at the nearest outlet
scam artist: and pay cash
scam artist: what do you think?
me: i think there might be a better way of doing this. like, i could just show you a copy of my bank statement.
scam artist: but that only tells me you have the fund but not that you would be willing to pay
scam artist: i think what i suggest might be the best way
scam artist: someone suggested it to me last year
scam artist: she was actually in this type of situation also and was not comfortable paying without seeing or meeting me in person, but that works quite fine
scam artist: she later arrived in dc and we went to connecuite av. to retrieve the payment in exchange for the keys
me: well, when do you anticipate being back in dc?
me: we can just hold off on doing this until you get back from utah. then, my bud can come by, whenever you are free
scam artist: than i might have to sublet to another person
scam artist: am sorry
me: i'm sorry too, but i have got to tell ya, the way you're suggesting makes it sound like a scam money wiring is fishy, anyway. besides, if i wire money to myself, why is that more of a guarantee that i'd pay than if i just showed you a bank statement?
scam artist: that seems to be an insult
me: it's not, and i'm sorry if you take things that way. i'm just going by craigslist guidelines, which speak against money wiring
scam artist: i undestand that is why i suggest to send it to your name
scam artist: not me
me: i still don't understand what good that would do. again, that shows that i only have the money, not that i'd be willing to pay.
me: don't you have a friend or someone, local to dc who could show my bud the apt.?
scam artist: at least that way you can be sure you would retrieve only with your govt. issued id
me: like a dl?
scam artist: yeah
me: i still don't understand what good that would do.
scam artist: i don't
me: why would i wire money to myself?
me: you don't what?
me: also, in regard to your e-mail, i believe i already told you my expected move-in date and "date of departure"
me: and why wouldn't i have an id? you know i'm abroad, i obviously have a passport
scam artist: okay
me: okay what?
me: i don't even know your surname. i don't feel comfortable doing all of these tasks for a stranger.
me: are you still there? i've begun to become rather suspicious of this entire deal.
scam artist: lol
scam artist: i am here
scam artist: just don't know what else i can tell you
scam artist: if you want a scan of my dl or passport i can send to you
scam artist: i am serious about this as you are
me: no, what good would that do me?
scam artist: but honestly i have dealt with so many time wasters in the past
scam artist: well i don't know
scam artist: maybe just some security
me: what is on the same block as the apartment building?
me: hello?
scam artist: am here
me: what is on the same block as the apartment building?
me: well?
me: i'm just becoming highly worried that this entire thing is a scam. in which case, i'd have to report this incident to craigslist.

that was pretty much it, i told her to shove off at that point, she got defensive, blah blah blah. i can't even deal. how disappointing, especially considering the price was right and it'd have been walking distance to gwu. :(

well, it looks like i'm back at square one. maybe i should take a personal day.

my spacebar is going through menopause right now, so i'm writing this post from the computer lab

list of electronics are mine that are currently broken:

• camera. status: in johannesburg. i sent it in for repair, but i don't know when i'm getting it back.
• blackberry. status: incapacitated until the replacement parts i ordered online arrive. then, i get to play a little frankenstein on my phone.
• laptop. status: sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. when it does, i use it; when it doesn't, it's off to the lab for me.
• ipod. status: waiting to miraculously get enough money to buy a replacement ipod, which currently has a battery life of about 15 minutes.
• ipod headphones. status: why should i bother replacing these when my ipod is in such bad shape?
• lamp. status: it fell off my desk, it no longer switches on, i don't know what to do about it. (yes, i realise that a lamp isn't an electronic, but it still counts!)

obviously, the aggregate of all these damages i find very aggravating, especially considering i'm also trying to resolve the namibia car rental bill situation. oh, and i have to go to school somewhere in there, too.

in the mean time, brigid, april, and i have opted to go to bloemfontein over the weekend of october 10 for the macufe cultural festival. bloemfontein is hardly a noteable tourists' destination, but it's a chance to see another part of the country, and since i'm here for an entire semester, why not? besides, macufe should be fun... t-pain is for some reason performing there. hurrah!!

bloemfontein is not too far from the lesothoan border, so we're hoping to pop on in to lesotho while we're there. for those of you who don't know, lesotho is a country. it has its own flag and laws and everything! :) good for lesotho.

anyway, hopefully camera will be back and alive again come time for bloemfontein. as for right now, i'm exhausted, but i'm dragging myself to class anyway. fml.

having had such an intensely fun weekend makes tonight seem terribly low-key

if i kiss you where it's sore...
if i kiss you where it's sore...
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

born like sisters to this world
in a town where blood ties are only blood,
if you never say your name out loud to anyone
they can never ever call you by it

if i kiss you where it's sore...
if i kiss you where it's sore...
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

you're getting sadder...
getting sadder... getting sadder... getting sadder...
and i don't understand... and i don't understand

but if i kiss you where it's sore...
if i kiss you where it's sore...
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?
anything at all... anything at all?

will you feel anything at all... anything at all?
will you feel anything at all... anything at all...?

i've never been to johannesburg (but that certainly isn't stopping my camera from going without me)

i'm back from my trip to namibia. and man oh man, what an adventure. i could never lie and say that this was the most enjoyable trip i've ever taken, much less the most relaxing. but it was certainly the most interesting. you be the judge...

in typical african fashion, the trip was hectic and chaotic from its commencement. we left cape town on the 5th in our rental car (a bmw... it was by the luck of the draw, but it wasn't too shabby for me!) after liz arose to discover that her camera had been stolen. so, already, we were down one camera. we drove to a small highway town called citrusdal, which unexpectedly had swarms of people in the streets. we eventually chocked it up to the typical south african ideology of camaraderie, but that didn't explain the unusually long line ("queue") at the absa atm. on the block with the visitors' centre (which we instantly dubbed the "white oasis), we discovered a café named die sitrus, in which we enjoyed some delicious margherita pizzas.

after that, we pressed on, eventually having to stop for gas ("petrol") in the town of bitterfontein. we couldn't find a petrol station immediately, so we got out of the car at the visitors' centre. the building was closed for the weekend, but that certainly didn't curtail a swarm of bees from attacking us! we hurriedly ran back into the car, but it was too late: they'd gotten into the car with us! we opened the windows and drove off, hoping they'd fly out as we drove. sara and i retreated to under my jacket for safety. we drove a few blocks to a liquor store, on whose porch several men (one of whom seemed more than comfortable with the fact that his asscrack was hanging out for the world to see) were hanging out and shooting the breeze. i guess they were immediately interested in us, because they started shouting and pointing in every which way when liz asked, "where is there a restroom?" it was chaos. eventually, we gathered that they were directing us down the street to a petrol station. this was a much more preferable part of town: the petrol station was bee-free, had reasonably clean restrooms, and best of all had its own cat! we quickly dubbed this neighbourhood "bitterfontein heights". :) (i hope william appreciates that one.)

from there, we drove on to fonteinjie, a suburb of springbok with a noteable wildflower reserve. i felt rather nonplussed about that excursion given my debilitating allergies to pollen, but we went nonetheless and i turned out to be fine. for me, however, the flowers weren't the best part of the reserve: it was the animals! we saw several springboks and onyxes (both of which are cousins to the antelope), amongst other critters. how appropriate it was that we were listening to the lion king soundtrack at the time! ;)

after that, we drove on to port nolloth, a coastal town which served as our rest point for the first night. we were very lucky to have entered town just as the sun was setting (since the atlantic ocean sits to the west of the town, we got to watch the sun set over the sea). the beach house we'd rented to stay out was charming and comfortable, but certainly not without its secrets. for instance, there were several doors throughout the house that were locked, and they didn't seem to go anywhere logical. there was also a little girl's dress hanging in the utility closet. we immediately concluded that this was all the work of a GHOST!!! and that the house was haunted. that didn't keep us from staying at the house, though.

that evening, we hit up a restaurant in port nolloth called anita's taven. i could not have been reminded more of the krusty krab, with the exception of the food served. in fact, hardly any food was served at all: we were warned when we entered that service is deliberately slow due to the fact that all of the food is made fresh, but we all came to think that waiting 2 hours at a restaurant for your entrée was ridiculous. especially when the food, when eventually served, is mediocre at best and the portions are small. i suppose that this last point was due to confusion on our server's part: i asked for a full portion of the pasta alfredo, whereas liz and sara asked to split one between us; for some reason, for some reason, this resulted in two-thirds of a portion for each of us. we wolfed down the food and left to go back to the house for some shuteye.

we awoke early on the 6th and decided to cross the border into namibia so as to visit the renowned ai-ais hot springs. most of us had never faced an overland border crossing before (when i entered sweden from denmark, we didn't have to show our passports), so it was a unique experience for us. of course, the entire process seemed absolutely haphazard: south africa stamped our passports and told us to go through, so we drove for 1km to the namibian office, where they had us fill out a customs declaration form and let us come in. no checking of our bags, no checking of our car. as the south africans would say, it was all very "hectic." the only redeeming factor was an adorable cat (who we named "customs cat") who seemed to enjoy the attention she got by the passing travellers.

we pulled off the main highway (which had notoriously barren, with ample open spaces) and drove along an untarred road (there was no other route) for some 60km before getting to ai-ais. the compound was definitely not like the rest of namibia; in fact, it looked like a resort plucked out of palm springs. there were spa facilities, a hotel, a restaurant (which we had lunch at), a gas station, even a small supermarket. the one thing it lacked, however, were the actual hot springs themselves. we made a few laps around the compound and, not locating the springs, settled to go into a very pleasing and soothing swimming pool (i don't think we were actually supposed to go in, but it felt so good!). we swam for a little bit before getting out again to look for the hot springs.

we eventually happened on what turned out to be little more than a puddle surrounded by a chainlink fence. however, we decided that it, unlike anything else we'd seen, must have been the springs, so brigid, liz, and i looped our legs through the fence and dipped our feet in. yikes!!! 65° celsius (about 150° fahrenheit) is a lot hotter than we'd presumed. we took an agonising photo of ourselves with our feet dipped in, then ran out so as to let our feet detox from the scorching heat.

after that, we drove back to port nolloth (reentry into south africa went without a hitch) to spend the late afternoon/early evening on the beach. the sunset was beautiful (though not as much as the night before), but unfortunately high tide left brigid and i stranded on a rock out at sea for a few minutes. once brigid and i made it back to the beach, we went back to the house for a delicious pasta dinner, courtesy of sean.

on the 7th, we woke up and packed our belongings back in the car for the long drive up to swakopmund, namibia. the landlady of our lodging in port nolloth called to tell me to leave the R700 in rent in the microwave, but as we were on the road to the border she called back to explain that she'd meant to say R800 and that we were R100. annoyed at this, i told her that we were already en route to namibia and that i'd wire her the R100. our expenses climbed higher as we got to the border: no customs cat this time, but for some reason the namibian border guard told us that we'd have to pay an entry fee of 180 namibian dollars (henceforth represented as "N"). we weren't sure why, as we hadn't had to pay the day before, but the border guards didn't seem to care and so we shelled out the N180.

we drove to keetmanshoop, where we stopped for both petrol and lunch, which we enjoyed at a café named the ell-na coffeeshop. we stopped a couple more times for petrol and such on our way up to swakopmund, and fortunately we were able to bypass the traffic of windhoek by taking a beltway-esque road. unfortunately, however, the road entering swakopmund was laden with construction (not to mention misleading road signs), so we didn't arrive in the town until relatively late. despite both this and the fact that brigid's camera had given up on her somewhere along the way, we were all in high spirits, singing abba all the way to swakopmund. furthermore, luckily for us, however, the landlord of our beach house in swakopmund met us at the entrance to the town and led us to a steakhouse named spur for dinner. like the rest of the town, spur had an entirely american feel to it; it's no wonder that brangelina chose swakopmund as the town in which to have their baby. the streets were well-paved, the shops had familiar names, and all of the patrons we saw at spur were white. frankly, i don't think they saw an accurate depiction of the country. ;)

anyway, the food at spur was tasty, but even more amusing to us was the fact that our server was clearly gay. for those of you who don't know, homosexuality is illegal in namibia, and needless to say this regulation captivated both my interest and my concern. i was tempted to question our server about his experiences, but i eventually decided that being too forward would only land me in water hotter than ai-ais's. ;) after that, we retreated to the beach house (located in a suburb of swakopmund named vogelstrand), which may have been smaller than port nolloth's, but was also more contemporary, more comfortable, and most importantly not haunted. i opted for the futon, whereas liz and sean took one bedroom, and brigid and sara took the other.

the 8th proved to be probably my favourite day of the trip, and i probably owe this to the fact that we did the least amount of travelling on this day. we awoke and went to the visitors' centre for pricing options on skydiving, but we determined that N1900 was more than we could afford. then, we asked about parasailing: the price was N900, so we agreed that that was much more reasonable and so the associate tried calling the parasailing instructor. no answer. she left him a voicemail with my phone number but gave his to me so that i could try again myself later. after that, we walked around downtown swakopmund for a little while longer, doing some shopping and splurging before reconvening at the village café for lunch. this proved to be everyone's favourite restaurant of the trip: the patio was sunny, the decorations were funny, the food was delicious, and the existence of tip jars and our server's offering us separate cheques were both extremely agreeable to us.

after lunch, we drove 30km south to walvis bay, which proved itself to be a rather disappointing town. it was mostly industrial in its zoning, meaning that its enjoyability was rather low. i looked for a pay phone at which i could try calling the parasailing instructor again: i first went into a yacht club, at which the receptionist's surly attitude toward me made it abundantly clear that i was not welcome whatsoever, and then i tried at a public hospital, in which i freaked out over the seemingly abysmal level of healthcare that i observed. i became full of concern, both for that hospital's patients as well as for my fellow americans, grappling with an increasingly socialising healthcare system. (more ranting on that one later, though.)

in any case, since walvis bay turned out to be a disappointment as far as cities run, we drove out to the gigantic sand dunes outside of town for some observation and exploration. the dunes were definitely something to write home about: they're MASSIVE!!! the fine sand is abundant and comprises the breathtaking and impressive landscape. we explored for a short while, but unfortunately, there was a rather debilitating sandstorm in process, causing the wind to blow virtually sideways... into our eyes and, even worse, into our hair. i tried taking a time-lapse photo with my camera of us on a dune by placing it on another dune, but unfortunately, the sandstorm blew too much sand into the lens, and it became unoperable instantaneously. so much for taking photos! :( for those of you who are counting, that makes 3 cameras that we were at that point collectively down by.

we cut our losses and drove back toward swakopmund. upon arriving back in vogelstrand, we opted to spend dinner at a restaurant called the wreck. the building was situated on a cliff over the atlantic, and since we were there at sunset, we were able to observe the dusk from our table. honestly, however, in comparison to port nolloth's sunsets, we felt rather nonplussed, and we had mixed reactions toward our meal (i felt that it was relatively poor overall and rated it a 3, whereas brigid was impressed by the cheese in her pasta alfredo and rated it a 10). after that, we returned to our beach house and, after brigid and i watched the pilot episode of an absolutely intriguing bbc programme entitled miss naked beauty, i went to sleep.

in contrast to the 8th, the 9th proved to be an entirely stressful and exhausting day. i woke up around 5:30am to watch the sunrise over the sand dunes with brigid and sara... a task better accomplished had we had a functional camera! (sara had a rather obsolete film camera, but it wasn't quite the same.) then, since we hadn't ever heard back from the parasailing instructor, we stopped by the visitors' centre yet again to see if he'd called them, but to no avail... parasailing just wasn't in the cards for us. getting my camera back up and running again was not an option, either: i talked to an associate at swakopmund's camera shop, and he informed me that the damage would require the camera to be sent in for repairs at nikon's regional office in johannesburg. definitely an fml moment!!! :(

i cut my losses and, after stopping by the supermarket, we went back to the beach house, where i prepared a breakfast of scrambled eggs for the 5 of us.

we then checked out of our beach house and set out on the road to keetmanshoop, where we were planning on spending the night before returning to cape town. (this is where the story truly gets interesting) however, due to our liberal time frame as well as our curiosity to see more scenery, we decided upon a longer and more adventurous route to keetmanshoop via namib national park. BIG mistake. the roads were much rougher and more dicey than we'd anticipated, and the journey proved to be much more unnerving than we'd expected. nevertheless, sean, as our fearless driver, continued on, and we were only 1km away from reaching the B1 (the paved and preferable highway) when

BANG.

...and, before we knew it, although we were so close to the B1, our relentless car had descended down an impossibly steep hill and met an unfortunate fate with an ill-placed stone in the car's path. it hit the undercarriage of our car, damaging our gas tank, water pipe, and power steering mechanism. the car couldn't be driven after that, but fortunately for us (especially given how rural namibia is), we were able to wave down help relatively easy, and we got the car towed into the nearby town of rehoboth.

hmm, let me back up for a bit and say this: this is certainly not the first car accident i've been in, and perhaps if this had happened in the united states or south africa, it wouldn't have been as hectic of a situation. but we weren't, and it was. we felt fearful that being stranded with our broken vehicle made us susceptible to robbery, making the stopping traffic truly unnerving to us. fortunately, however, this wasn't the case: a few locals stopped and told us that he'd go into rehoboth to fetch a towtruck, a fact to which we were entirely grateful.

while we were waiting for the the towtruck, however, 2 of rehoboth's cops stopped at us in a patrol car, and they instantaneously proved themselves to be utterly unhelpful and aloof. in fact, they were far more concerned with getting our car off the road so as to prevent a traffic jam (which, on a road in rural namibia, is a laughable concept) than with our personal safety or interests. we asked if they'd call to see about the towtruck, but they instead made some displeasing comment like "well, hopefully someone will come by and help you" and drove off. in sum, they were truly infuriating.

then, a local farmer stopped by to offer not only his help, but to put us up for the night in his farmhouse, 30km out of town. this concerned all of us, not excluding me (since i strongly wanted to be as close to the car, given it was under my name, as possible), but he did assist us by giving a lift to brigid, liz, and sara into rehoboth. sean and i, on the other hand, attempted to drive the car, but the rapidly rising car temperatures freaked us out, and so we opted not to drive it. by that point, however, we had turned on to the B1, and a towtruck came by and brought it to deonam auto repairs, a mechanics' garage in rehoboth.

i think we were all feeling rather upset over the situation at that moment, but i straightened up and began to deal with the issue in my typical organised fashion. i called budget auto rental to report the situation, and they told me that not only would i have to acquire a police report (to which i groaned), but i could not have deonam's mechanics work on the bmw. budget's representative, leanne, who was suprisingly helpful and sympathetic, said that she would send a towtruck with a replacement vehicle. the towtruck driver would then give me paperwork to fill out and haul away the bmw.

leanne told us that she would be sending us an suv with manual transmission, a fact that concerned all of us. none of us are particularly effective stickshift drivers, and the fact that the vehicle was an suv only aggrandised our fears. roberto, the son-in-law of one of the mechanics (not to mention an amazing individual who was instrumental in helping us out throughout the ordeal) volunteered to drive us to windhoek (the site of leanne's office) the next day, but luckily it didn't come to that: leanne telephoned back to inform me that she'd tracked down a toyota yaris with automatic transmission at budget's office at nearby hosea kutako international airport, and she agreed to send us it. during this time, i also got into contact with quinton, our study abroad programme director, and he provided me with instrumental assistance as well.

meanwhile, back at the garage, things had escalated to a full-on braai! the mechanics served us a scrumptious barbeque dinner, much to the delight of all of us. we talked into the late hours about cultural differences, societal change, political climes, our uprbringings, and even more. a truly interesting and fascinating discussion was unfolding, which i was enjoying very much. meanwhile, at the recommendations of roberto, leanne, and quinton we decided to spend the night in the local bed and breakfast, so eventually, brigid, liz, and sara, feeling exhausted (and understandably so!) from the experience, went to the b & b to check our party in.

as for sean and i, we stayed at the garage, since the towtruck was supposed to arrive with the replacement vehicle at 11:00pm. 11:45 came around, and the towtruck still hadn't arrived, so deon (the head mechanic) said that he'd lock up, but we could call him during the night if the towtruck telephoned to say it had arrived in rehoboth. deon then dropped us off at b & b, and although i tried to stay awake waiting for the towtruck, this was to no avail, and eventually i went to bed. not too long after that (at 1:30am to be precise), the proprietor woke me up to tell me that the towtruck had arrived. the towtruck driver was furious that we hadn't been waiting at the garage for him, which we felt was rather ridiculous considering he arrived 2 ½ hours late after a 90km journey. besides, leanne had already sent him an sms to tell him that we'd be waiting for him at the b & b. ergo, sean and i felt no remorse for him (i still gave him a tip of N10, but i think that was more than generous). i called deon to ask him to meet me at the garage, and he sleepily agreed. meanwhile, the driver unloaded the replacement vehicle from his towtruck, and sean and i followed the towtruck in the new car back to the garage... well, almost. the towtruck driver led us to where he thought the garage was (and where he'd been allegedly waiting for us), but it was actually a petrol station that had closed for the evening (this isn't uncommon for namibia, and at any rate, i don't know why he'd think that this was the garage). somehow, i miraculously remembered where the garage was located, so i directed both sean and the towtruck driver to it. there, deon unlocked the garage, the driver loaded the bmw onto his truck, and i got to have some good ol' ballpoint fun filling out form after form after form for budget. i think we finally finished with this charade at 3:00am, at which point i promptly went to bed.

i'd meant to wake up the next morning (the 10th) at 6:00am in order to shower and such (given the b & b only had one men's restroom), but 6 quickly turned into 7 and eventually i dragged myself out of bed. deon was supposed to meet me at the b & b at 7:30 to drop off a copy of the bill (even though we'd already paid him in cash, i wanted a legitimate bill to give to budget), but by 8:15 he hadn't arrived (yet another prime example of africa time), so i made sean come with me to the garage. sure enough, deon was there, and he'd informed me that he'd just arrived but that he overslept. understandable, but i still needed the bill. luckily, he had it for me, and he took me over to rehoboth's police station so i could fill out an accident report. this experience dealing with the local authorities wasn't as bad as the last, although our cop's desire to achieve an award for perfect penmanship severely decelerated the rate at which he filled out our police report. the other cops (most of whom, interestingly enough, were females) were extremely friendly and talkative; sean swears they wanted to marry us, but i'm not sure about that one. finally, we finished at the police station and went back to the b & b, where we enjoyed a delicious homecooked breakfast by the establishment's proprietor.

after breakfast, we checked out of the b & b and set off for windhoek, not only so i could communicate with leanne and give her the police report in person, but also so the 5 of us could establish a game plan of how to get home (since we were due to arrive in cape town that very day). we arrived in windhoek and immediately became amused by the fact that its 2 major streets are named after robert mugabe and fidel castro. as a city, windhoek feels like an awkward mix of new york and los angeles; the pedestrian-friendly structure and tall buildings of the central business district reminded me of lower manhattan, whereas the houses in the surrounding foothills look something like out of a south of ventura neighbourhood. it was certainly not designed to be a tourists' destination, but it nonetheless held a distinct beauty to it.

i digress. we got to the budget office, and while sean and i sat down to chat with leanne, brigid, liz, and sara ducked down garten street to do some transportation research at an internet café. the girls returned soon after to announce that they'd discovered a flight on air namibia at 6:40pm that evening for only N2003 per person. it was definitely a bargain for such an endeavour, but sean and i decided to salvage the opportunity for adventure (as well as our monies) and drive back to cape town from windhoek, starting that afternoon. as a result, we had to extend our reservation with budget by a day, but that plus petrol still amounted to less than the airfare.

before we all left windhoek, however, we partook in one final outing together: to the mall!! as far as malls go, it was pretty unimpressive, but it served as a much-needed bastion of familiarity at that very moment. after that, sean and i dropped the girls off at hosea kutako airport (42km east of the city) and set off on our journey toward cape town. the drive was fairly painless and, as liz put it, good for "male bonding time" (i should qualify for those of you reading this who don't know this cast of characters that sean is, in fact, not gay, but rather liz's boyfriend).

we arrived on the 11th after having spent the night in keetmanshoop. upon re-entering south africa, we came upon customs cat again, much to my delight. :) and upon returning the vehicle to budget's office in newlands, we were delighted to discover that, since i'd maximised our insurance plan before leaving cape town, our liability was only about R5500 (ergo, R1100 each). that's a lot less than it could have been! according to felicity, countless ciee students in the past have failed to heed to her advice on this and have subsequently gotten slammed with well over R15000 in liability fees upon getting into an accident. and it was only after that that i could finally bring myself to relax.

well, that's the bulk of the trip right there. i think i left out a few tidbits here and there about all the animals we saw... including springboks, onyxes, baboons, warthogs, and several varieties of birds, one of whom met an unfortunate fate with our car on the first day of the trip and became lodged behind the car's grill. sean had wanted to extract it using tongs, but hopefully, the mechanics in windhoek will take care of that for us. ;)

at any rate, i can actually say that, in retrospect, i enjoyed the trip. i won't discount the fact that dealing with the accident was (and still is) entirely stressful, and the long car rides were not my preference, either. nevertheless, i saw a lot of the beautiful country that is namibia (as well as the province of northern cape), and i think that i learned a lot about different peoples, different cultures, different landscapes, and most significantly, different experiences. sure, having your car break down on you in rural namibia isn't on anybody's to-do list, but we got extremely lucky in that we turned out to be completely okay, and being able to chat with and shoot the breeze with the mechanics in rehoboth was a truly enlightening experience. :)

i'll try to post photos soon... like i said, my camera is off to jo'burg pretty soon, but i'll find someone else to lend me their camera for uploading purposes (since i've still got the memory card). now, the second half of my semester in cape town is about to commence, and with this past quarter having been so eventful, i can't help but wonder what lies in store for me...