Everyday Life in Cape Town

So here are random descriptions, observations, etc. etc. about Cape Town...

-It is a very WINDY city!! Especially in Obs, my area of town; it's incredibly windy. All the women know to hold onto their skirt or dress as they walk around, and I haven't even bothered to style my hair in any sort of way that wind could mess it up.

-Not all, but the majority of keys are skeleton keys..meaning they actually look like those old-school keys, and work like them too. I'm just now getting used to turning the key all the way around in my front gate and door, instead of turning it back to the right.

--There is a point when you're driving through the mountains that you can look in front of you and see the Atlantic Ocean, and look behind you and see the Indian ocean. Two oceans at the same time. Incredible.

-Food is overall cheaper here, but most clothing places are more expensive than the US. It's the only time in my life where going out to eat is actually cheaper than grocery shopping; it will be a rude awakening when I go home!I am actually really liking the food; it all tastes a lot fresher here. One of my favorite foods back home is Greek yogurt,but its about 2.5 more times expensive than regular yogurt. Here it's not at all! So I get a quart of Greek yogurt (yoghurt here)and have some every morning! The strangest fruit I've eaten yet is a litchi. It's a small maroon fruit with a hard, kind of prickly shell. You peel it and inside is a white, fleshy little fruit that you can just eat in a few bites and discard the seed. It's tasty though!

-I take a taxi, or minibus, to UWC on Monday and Tuesdays. It's hot, and it takes forever to get there,but in a sense I feel like I'm getting more of a cultural experience, or what life is like for South Africans, by doing this. They fill these buses in as many seats as can hold, and we're off, starting and stopping, whistling to people walking on the street to see if they want on. Not the most safe driving,but I just go with it.

-Alot of people here say "Howzit?" kind of as our "whats up?" It still kind of catches me off guard, and while I've never said it, I almost always think "how's what?" before I remember just to reply how I would to a "whats up".

-Electricity is bought as you use it. Instead of signing a contract with a company, and getting a bill every month, you buy some at the local grocery, or petrol station (gas station). You buy as much rand's worth as you want, and they give you a bunch of numbers to plug in back in your box back home. No one informed us of this though, so we Americans figured it out when all our lights turned off one day :) It makes sense for the electrical company in this society, that way people can't pay bills at the end of the month--if they don't have the money, they don't buy any electricity.

-Since people try to make their electricity go father, hardly anyone here uses a dryer. All the laundry goes up on the line outside. As silly as it is, I really do kind of miss the convenience of just putting my clothes in a dryer, and them being soft and not stiff. The nice weather here allows for them to dry quickly though.

-Same goes with phones, you buy "airtime" as you go. You can get airtime anywhere--grocers, convenience stores, petrol stations. You don't use any airtime when someone calls you, but you do if you call anyone. Texting is alot cheaper option here, and everyone texts. However, its called "Sms"; I'm starting to get the hang of it to say "I'll sms them" instead of "Ill text them"

-When telling the time here, it's always "Half past" or "quarter till". You wouldn't say, "let's meet at 9:15" but "let's meet at quarter past nine". There's also time..and then there's Africa time. For someone who generally has never liked being late, I'm realizing how really everyone is always late here, and that's Africa time. Classes and formal meetings start on time, but that's about it.

-Internet is still more of a luxury here, and is by far the most expensive thing I spend my money on. It's a bit of an adjustment for Americans and Europeans who are used to unlimited bandwidth when we get here, because it's not unlimited here! You buy an amount each month, and when that's used up, then you're out of luck. You simply can't watch alot of youtube videos or listen to music online, because it uses so much bandwidth. My skyping has also had to be really rationed, as that uses alot of megabytes. This is my least favorite thing so far.

-I was told a few weeks ago, "Cape Town has a weather pattern, and then Table mountain has an entirely different one". That's really true, it can be the bluest, sunniest day, but when you look up to the mountain, see it covered in clouds and it looks really stormy..but regardless of clouds or sun, it is the most majestic thing I think I've ever seen.