Capetown Revisited

The post is so short, I realize that the whole things are still crappy after apartheid thing must have taken a lot out of me. So I'm supplementing.

There were some goof bits. For one thing, I had the chance to hang out with the friend I was staying with (a friend from college I hadn't seen in quite a while and hadn't spent so much time with for 16 years). Being a writer, he spends a lot of time at home, and is fortunate enough to have a lovely apartment with views of Lion's Head and Table Mountain (the two best known mountains in Cape Town). So on the days it wasn't totally misty (and there were quite a few of those days), there were amazing views to be had without ever leaving the apartment.

I think I didn't mention my friend sooner because he has been the first (and so far only) person I've encountered who has thought that my education reform idea (public boarding schools for the poor) is a bad idea. Who knows? Maybe it is a bad idea (I don't think so, but opinions can differ, and I'm sure there are people who think boarding schools in general are a bad idea, or that the poor are simply uneducatable and that the best we can hope is that they will stay out of our neighborhoods and stay out of trouble). But it's a little disheartening to be shot down by a friend, especially about the thing you've decided to dedicate your life to, and it probably made me less likely to love Cape Town. Not that I was faced with any self-doubt, of course: my decision to pursue a doctorate in education and get involved in public education reform is one of the few things in my life of which I've felt completely sure.

So, with the air cleared, I can recall some other highlights of my time in South Africa. The movies: I hadn't been to a movie theatre since March (once, to see Milk), so that was exciting enough on its own. As a bonus, we went to a show I had ridiculously low expectations of (allowing me to be pleasantly surprised): I Love You Man. Really funny.

The aquarium: I should do this more. Looking at random sea creatures is really, really cool. My favorites: the jellyfish, possibly, because they're just so beautiful and creepy. Sadly, because I don't go to the aquarium enough in the US, I have no idea how many of the things I saw don't even exist in North American waters. I see a trip to the aquarium in Boston in my future this summer...

Table Mountain: the ride up (cable car with a rotating floor so that everyone gets a 360 degree view of the ascent and descent) was cool. But the top was totally freezing (at any rate, the outdoor seating area for lunch was). Table Mountain avoided being as amazing as planned for two basic reasons: (1) the cloud cover was so bad (cold front moving in) that the view of the city, the ocean and the surrounding mountains was severely obstructed and (2) it was turning into winter, meaning that all of the amazing flowers were no-shows. There are apparently more varieties of flora on Table Mountain than in all of England. Not that you'd know it, looking around the brush.

Wine touring: amazing. Not only were the wines great, but the wineries and landscape were ridiculously beautiful. And the other people in the group were surprisingly cool. My favorites: two Japanese friends in their 50s (giving me the chance to use my increasingly rusty Japanese) and an older English couple currently living in a tiny mountain town in Spain (the husband is a sculptor). It's funny, this wine tasting thing: I can drink pretty atrocious wine with just a few complaints, but my palate is still managing to become more discerning... which I guess just means that I'm more aware of when I'm drinking really bad stuff.

Cape tour: this had the promise to be the best thing of the trip (better than the wine tour, definitely better than the highly upsetting township tour). Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, and most of the beauties of the Cape were seen through sheets of really cold rain. Even so, the penguins (although I have to confess that I liked the penguins at the aquarium with their festive head gear better than the penguins in the wild) and the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens were pretty great. Added bonus: I ran into the Japanese women again on a boat (in terribly choppy water) to see the seals. Freakiest people: a Brazilian couple in their 30s who made out and groped each other the entire trip. At one point, I couldn't help myself, and asked if they were newlyweds. It turned out that, while not married, they'd been together for five years and had a three year old kid back home. I guess they're lucky that the magic hasn't gone out of the relationship. Yet. Or maybe she's just anxious to get a ring on that finger...