A Familiar, White Face
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2009
1
9
11
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Cape Town,
Western Cape,
South Africa
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Had strawberry juice, scrambled eggs and bacon at Mimi's, close to Alex's place at the Observatory. 40 Rands a piece. Chatted for a while about future plans. In a bit over a month, Alex will be out of here. Unfortunately, he will not be able to do the Trans-Siberian trip through Russia, as he had been hoping to. He is out of cash. Instead, will return to his hometown of Minnesota, U.S.A.; find a part-time job; apply to medical school and learn salsa. At med school, he may concentrate on psychiatry. During his time as a graveyard shift care taker, he had observed that nurses were very quick at administrating sedative drugs to their patients
Organic Market
. His goal is to come up with alternative, non-chemical-based solutions.One of Alex's house-mates, Sasha drove me, Alex and Simon (a German friend of Alex's who had a birthday party last night) to Lion's Head. We hiked up all the way to the top of the mountain to see the gradually curving horizon. It took a good 1.5 hours to reach the peak and the sections where you had to climb with the help of a chain were especially strenuous.
After picking up Carolina, Simon's half-African girlfriend, we drove to the ritzy part of the town, Camps Bay where we had ostrich burgers on the pavement. 60 rand. The Sun set behind the palm trees lining the entire coast, leaving prominent orange and dark blue stripes on the sky. This place reminded me of Malibu, California.
I sleep on Alex's floor in my sleeping bag. It's not much different comfort-wise than sleeping at the IHF orphanage, but infinitely safer and more hygienic.
Right now, Alex is planning his biology class for tomorrow. I am thinking about my first day alone in Cape Town.
In this country, mugging has become a daily topic of conversation for the potentially-mugged, and a mechanism of informal wealth distribution for the mugger. Anxiety provoking...
Comments
Hygienic, huh?
You should have seen it before Sweden invaded. Glad you kept my dance moves out of this. Salsa and I don't belong in the same sentence without 'learning.'