(1/28) Fresher Braai

(1/28) There is a rumor in Cape Town that on a windy day one can be quite literally blown off Table Mountain, and in one day 3 people had been blown to their deaths. After today, I must say that I am sure it is true. Although no one was blown of the mountain today, the gusts were so severe on upper campus (1/4 up the mountain top) that I was being physically pushed. This wind unfortunately dampered the mood at the Fresher braai, UCT held for the over 5,000 (700 accounting for international students, the rest first years) students attending their first semester at UCT. The rugby field was packed with barbeque pits, a stage with local djs, and students, everywhere.

This morning; however, was not windy. Cape Town has proven to be a city with enchanting weather; however, it is not surprising for rain, intense sunshine, and mist all to occur in the same day. As long as I am escaping the 8 degree, -15 with wind chill weather back home, no complaints here.

Tiffany, my neighbor, and I headed out for an early run to avoid the heat. We managed to get back in time to run errands before most of our roommates woke up, including purchasing our J&B Met tickets. Despite having to make our way to an off-site betting house to purchase the horse race tickets, it was a part of town I hadn’t ventured through yet. There are some intense Afro Braiding shops in the area, depending how this semester goes I may come home with a weave or dreads (trust me I won’t, but it is hilarious to think about). The J&B Met is an all day horse race event, one of the must do’s of the end of summer season. Basically it sounds like another ridiculous party and I am pumped to attend.

We made our way to Cocoa Wah Wah for some smoothies and free Internet time. Everything in Cape Town is pre-paid; the phones, Internet, electricity, you name it. For Internet, one doesn’t pay for time, but instead the amount of mega bites one uses by uploading, downloading, and refreshing pages. I literally think in mega bites everything I am online. I never want to have more than one tab or web page going at the same time. I write my emails and blog in Word documents before uploading them. While it is nice that I am not wasting time surfing the web, I do miss CNN and Wikipedia way too much. In addition to my lack of Internet browsing, the television doesn’t work, so this is going to be an intensely technology reduced semester. Not surprisingly, I am almost done with book 2 of my stay in Cape Town.

After Cocoa Wah Wah and a slight breach in communication, I remained home alone while half of the group headed to the beach and the other to the mall to find dresses for the J&B Met. I set up our porch with a towel, boom box, and book, and was able to get some quality reading time in while getting a tan. Success. The alone time was desperately needed. Besides sleeping, I don’t think I have been alone for more than 10 minutes since being here, and sometimes it is nice to be able to just hear yourself think.