Wah Wah

Hello my lovely readers! Before I start I just want to say thank you SO much everyone for your positive feedback about the blog! Seriously, I write it for you my friends and I've had a great time with it thus far so I'm glad to hear that people are enjoying it (or at least faking... in that case, keep on faking it!) :) Currently, I'm sitting at a small coffee shop and cafe named CoCoa Wah Wah, less than a quarter mile from my house. Wah Wah is a complete staple in everyone’s diet that lives just off of Main Street. The people who work here are amazing, you can add shots to your smoothie if anyone would ever be so inclined to do so, there is free Wi-Fi, and they make the most delicious tomato and cheese toasted sandwiches. In short... it gives heaven a run for its money. Thus, this post title is dedicated to our home away from home... away from home? It's beautiful outside, about seventy degrees (its supposed to be winter here?) and not even one flirtatious cloud in the sky. The weather this week has been unreal, unfortunately I don't think that it will last through the weekend, but all of us have been soaking up the sun while we can. Another bonus to this country is the men... just being honest. There seems to just be a plethora of men who look like Leo D, Hugh Jackman and Tom Welling. I'm in the danger zone here. I'm sure I'll gain weight in this place just off of eye candy. Ha, that might have been TMI but the point is.... they are EVERYWHERE!

So a lot of amazingness has gone down since my last post. And by "amazingness" I mean, I've just continued to tumble deeper and deeper in love with this place. On Sunday, our orientation had all of the international students participate in a peninsula tour for the entire day. I am not exaggerating when I say that that seven am wake up call was a rough one... very rough. Cape Town is seriously a city that never sleeps; there is plenty to do day in and "night" out. We started off in Camps Bay where most of the upscale real estate is. What a gorgeous place! The backdrop of the area is met with the "12 Apostles" mountains. The rocky shores were met with rolling blue waves and gorgeous beaches.  Afterwards, we visited the Boulder Penguin colony where we all got to meet the tuxedo gang on their own turf. What a fratty bunch of penguins. I never thought that I would use the words "fratty" and "penguins" in the same sentence, but they a have such a bro strut and bitty chasing strategy (I'm pretty sure we made it there during mating season...ha). After saying farewell to our new friends, we bused across more breathtaking mountains and shoreline. The most memorable part of the trip is what we did next.

In an abrupt glace out the window, I realized that our bus had found its way into a very rundown neighborhood that seemed to be only a step up from the previous township a couple days ago that we had visited. This, was OceanView. OceanView, like so many other townships, was built to house oppressed minorities during the Apartheid. At the beginning, I felt a little queasy at the notion that 9 coach buses had popped up in these people's home... as if we were "touring" their poverty. But contrastingly enough, the minute we stepped off of the bus, people where shaking our hands and smiling, so happy that we had come to share the afternoon with them. Obviously, it wasn't a good place to wave around your Prada Sunglasses and Nikon, but it was very welcoming all the same. The 400 of us entered a giant dining hall, dressed with old newspaper clippings of the Apartheid and Nelson Mandela. After learning a bit more about OceanView and enjoying some delicious grub, their arts group performed a series of routines for us that were amazing! So much talent. I would have uploaded some more videos but my internet really struggles so unfortunately, I can't really show you all one or two of the acts. We saw everything from singing, to instrumentals, to rapping, to break dancing. They taught me so much about what it means to have pride in oneself, history, and place in their lives.

After that pivotal few hours, the lot of us climbed back aboard the charter bus and traveled over to the Cape of Good Hope where we hiked up and were able to see and unbelievable panorama of views. Unfortunately, we didn't snag a view of one of the native baboons, but I'm pretty sure that we did later that night downtown (metaphorically speaking). That vaguely sums up Sunday, but I was half asleep for most of it on the bus so apologies for the shorthand! Conclusively, it was just magnificent :) I'm sure that I would be able to do it any justice even if I had the words. Between now and then, my friends and I have just been keeping up with the trend of exploring and indulging. We've managed to land ourselves in some pretty hilarious situations and random outings... all of which have been contributing factors to this marvelous time. Yesterday, six of us decided to pay a visit to the Green Market Square where all of the local artists, jewelry makers, etc. bargain their prices to tourists with a pocketful of Rands (their "dollar"). On this journey, I had my first MiniBus experience... in other words, a NEAR DEATH experience. What horrid drivers! For those of you who don't know what a Mini Bus is, its and extremely cramped, loud, and dirt-cheap way of traveling places. We made it all the way downtown for about 99 cents. The buses jet up and down the streets with one driver who hopefully has their license and a man in the back who yells at people, hoping to coax them in. It was actually hilarious and nice on my pocketbook... but a bit freaky. I guess its one of those things where you just have to close your eyes and hope for the best!

The market place was a lot of fun and the six of us just roamed around, managing to stumble into the most expensive five star hotel for a 4pm cocktail. Funny how we always manage to fall into randomly wonderful situations. But in my opinion, that is the right way to travel. Its important to explore, ask questions, and not make overly specific plans. The greatest part about having the opportunity to live and breathe a different place is the fact that you don't have to rush monuments and museums. After all, the greatest sightseeing that you can do is to just experience the people, the landscape, the air that everyone shares with each other (sorry, that was really hippie of me, but I just got out of the gym so my endorphins are pumping... and I'm listening to U2). Any who, I love yall bunches and hope that everyone is having an amazing last month of their summer!

Tootaloo!

Hopper X