Sorry about the lack of updating - the South African internet provider my house uses has disabled the use of all google applications including Gmail (and my USC email) and blogger.com. I'm stealing a few minutes between classes here on campus to update using the UCT network.
Fall is slowly settling down here in Cape Town, and days are getting rainy and shorter. We still do what we can to get out and do interesting things. Last Monday night we went down to Long Street to hear my friend's brother perform stand-up comedy at Zula Lounge. Parts of it were pretty darn funny, and it was definitely something different. During last week very little eventful happened. There were TWO public holidays...one last Monday and one on Friday. On Friday my house had a huge braai to celebrate. We were only allowed to invite South Africans (no other study abroad students), so it was a great way to meet people. The party started at around 10:00 in the morning with a pancake breakfast with my housemates. Other people started trickling in around noon, and the meat was cooking on the braai from 1:00 to 5:00. Braai is an amazing word. It's an adjective (as in braai meat or braai seasoning), a verb (let's braai or I'm going to braai up this lamb), and also a noun with several different meanings (the braai is the grill itself as well as the process of having a barbeque). All in all the day was fun and relaxing.
On Saturday a few of us tried to go scuba diving near Simon's Town in False Bay. Now I knew the water was going to be really, really cold, but I could not possibly have expected exactly what the experience of diving in that water would be like. I've dived in San Diego before where the water was around 60 degrees, and that was painful. But when I first rolled off the boat and hit the 46 degree water of the Western Cape, I had to stifle a scream. I basically had a miserable time and thought I was going to die the entire dive, and my buddy and I had to come up early together because we were just too cold. The worst part was we couldn't see anything. There was some pretty soft coral and a few sponges, and that was literally it. Although we had signed up from a second dive, not one of us could face going in that water again, so we all went and had lunch while the rest of our group dived yet again. In our defense, the other people we were diving with had dry suits, while we were outfitted in old smelly wetsuits and weren't even given gloves. Oh well, it was a crazy experience and definitely rivaled the bungee jump in terms of wildest things I've done here.
On Saturday night my house went to a fun African drumming concert at a cool venue called The Assembly in downtown Cape Town. Everyone had a great time, and we all went for some late night falafel on Long Street after the show.
I'm definitely getting a bit antsy now that the weather is cooling off and the end of the semester is in sight. As much as I love Cape Town, I'm really beginning to miss my independence. As a girl, I'm getting tired of not being able to take public transportation by myself or walk anywhere after 6:00 PM (which is when it gets dark now). I've experience most of the easily accessible things that there are to do and see around Cape Town, and I have to say I'm itching to go farther afield and have new experiences. Unfortunately, this would require getting a liked-minded group of people together, and everyone is quite busy with the last three weeks of classes coming up.
It's time to go to my philosophy class and debate about free will and Schopenhauer. Hopefully it won't be so long until my next update!
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