Okay, maybe not the best title for a blog piece, but I did go back to Africa–Cape Town, South Africa that is. I’ve been here about a week now, and while much of my time has been spent catching up on sleep from the 2 weeks of not sleeping during finals and moving, and then jetlag, I have been having fun. My first night here I got some biltong (south african beef jerky but better) and have been munching on it everyday since then.
The weather is beautiful, much better for me than winter here although cape town is a beautiful city no matter the time of year. The days are incredibly long. It gets bright by 5 AM and the sun doesn’t go down until almost 9 pm, it’s crazy. This past week I’ve done a lot of eating, taken some walks on the beach, gone to long street (a tamer version of bourbon st.) to get drinks a few times, met Efrem’s dog Pluto who is so much fun, visited a beach town an hour away, went back to Old Biscuit Mill to eat some more, and watched a friend graduate from the University of Cape Town.
Let’s talk about that UCT graduation–that was some serious pomp and circumstance. Many things were very different than the multitudes of commencements I’ve gone to. First their gowns are SO English, which, okay, there’s a huge English influence here, not really surprising. But the professors in their robes looked one wand away from being a Harry Potter extra. They don’t wear caps with their gowns until you get a PhD when you get the funky plush hat, and every one has a hood, even bachelor’s degrees (granted none of their hoods are as heavy or elaborate as the ones we get in the US). Second, they called people up from the back to the front, which threw me off a bit. But the best part for me is that the dean or whoever the highest official of the school was, sits the entire time like king, and when students go up they have to kneel in front of him and he basically “knights” them with a graduation cap.
Anyway, hopefully there is much fun in store for the next 4 weeks, some wine tasting, more beach going, maybe some water activities (even though the water is freezing!), and maybe a trip somewhere a short distance away. I’ll keep you up to date. Until then…some photos:
like black butterflies 