...I'm in the mood for a list.
1. The locks. Marita's flat is in Rondebosch, a middle class suburb that is known to be safe. But there still seems to be a culture of security and fear about crime. To get into the flat you must use a different key to do all of the following: unlock the gate to get into the complex, unlock the door to get in the building, unlock the door in the stairwell at the top of the stairs, and unlock the door the the flat. Once in the flat, you need a key to unlock the bars on the windows, as well as the gate on the door that goes to the back patio. You must also use a key to unlock the door to leave the flat and another key to unlock the gate to exit the complex.
2. No such thing as no shirts, no shoes, no service. People shop at the grocery store barefoot. In general, there tend to be alot of barefoot people.
3. Marita's new favorite quote. Pinotage is the juice extracted from women's tongues and lion's hearts. After having a sufficient quantity one can talk forever and fight the devil.
4. Speaking of the wine... and food. So cheap! We were at a wine shop just earlier and a really fancy and really expensive bottle of wine with five gold labels was R165 ($16.50).. and that's practically unheard of. A super fancy gourmet-esque dinner can be around R80 ($8). Four of us went out to dinner last night and between us we had 2 bottles of wine, 5 or 6 beers, and each of us had a curry entre. The bill was R456 ($45.60 --- you guys get it now, right? Just divide by 10, I'm going to stop putting the dollar amount).
5. Table Mountain. It took my breath away the first time I saw it (from the plane). It has taken my breath away each morning since, when I step outside of the flat and look to my right. It's enormous and hovers in a protective kind of way. No matter where you are in the city or the western Cape, it's there. It's been here since the beginning and has remained steadfast through both the crap (apartheid) and the celebrations (1994, etc).
6. Lee Anne. She got an emergency passport this morning. (Does anyone else think it's somewhat odd and fantastic and frustrating that passports can be produced within 2 hours? Like, you can make them that fast and you still make us wait a few months to get them in the mail? Hmmm.) So she leaves JFK tonight and will be in Cape Town tomorrow night (Wednesday). I'm excited to see her and relieved everything has worked out!
7. I miss people. I'm not home sick, but I'll see something or hear something or have some cool experience and wish my people were here so I could share this experience with them. I'll be people watching and my mind will wander to this person or that person and wish they were sitting next to me. Or when I had an interesting conversation with someone about the economics and politics of South Africa I thought, "oh man, Hondo would totally be into this, he should be here." That kind of a thing.
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