Saturday, School, and Coffee

It’s been a while, sorry for the wait. We’re going into the fourth week of classes, I can’t believe how fast this semester is going.
    Things have been good. Actually let me rephrase that, things are incredible, I’m still loving it just as much as the first week here. School is a bit of a drag, I really wish I could just explore and sit on the beach all day. Who knew you’d actually have to study at study abroad?
Since school started its been pretty busy. It was really hard to schedule my classes and took me an extra week, so it’s been switched around a bit since I last wrote. The upper level math class is an ‘experimental course’ and was actually very much based on chemical engineering, which I have no experience in. I dropped it and added two classes, a mathematical computer programming course and a sociology course on crime and deviance. The programming class seems really easy and basic. I already have experience with Matlab so it’ll be a nice refresher. To be honest I’m totally uninterested in the crime and deviance course, but I pretend. I figured pretending might keep me more focused. One of my good friends Ally is in the class which motivates me to actually attend lectures and do the reading. I’ll get credit for it, and I hope the tests wont be too difficult but I’m just not a humanities person so the motivation and interest just isn’t there. Plus its my last class in the afternoon, so it seems very easy to just ditch and go downtown or to the beach. I know this makes it seem like I never go, but I really do, I just wish I didn’t have to.

    Last weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to Old Biscuit Mill, which I think I’ve mentioned before, but in case I haven’t, its amazing. It’s a market that’s only open on Saturday’s and has absolutely everything under the sun. They sell a lot of really cute clothes, and I’ve looked around a bit, but haven’t gotten anything yet. The best part about it, in my opinion, is the food, free samples, and almost real iced coffee. First, let me describe some of the food. If I had a camera I would take pictures of all of it. So the first time I got an omelet from the omelet guys, and it had feta, cheddar, mozzarella, smoked salmon, rocket(spinach), and tomatoes. It was absolutely amazing. That was when Chris was here and we also got some bomb organic Roibos tea,  with mint and lemon in it. It was so good we went back for seconds. Also, since Chris and I know how to work a room with free samples, we went house. Every stand has samples, from dried fruits, nuts, sausage, honey, olives and everything olive related, meats, cheeses, smoothies, lemonade, breads, humus, and last but certainly not least pesto. We pretty much put the pesto lady out of business. She had about 12 flavors of pesto, so we tried each one a few times. The second time I got a falafel, which was amazing, but I think Charlie, the falafel man at UVM, might be a little better. They put more in the falafel here, including eggplant, cabbage, and beets, but it was layered so it wasn’t all together. I know you were all dying to hear about my falafel experience.
Now onto the important stuff: Coffee. There is a serious problem here, worse than poverty, AIDS, and racial tension (Just kidding). They have no idea what coffee is. My morning coffee is instant, sad but true. I have a never-dying love for a good iced coffee, and when I first tried to order it I was asked what kind of ice cream I wanted in it. I went for the next best thing which was an Iced Americano, which is supposed to be expresso and water, but they’re silly and put milk in it. Then there’s a coffee crush, which is like a Coffee Coolata. All I want is cold coffee poured over ice. I even tried Mcdonalds and they were even further off, they put chocolate and whipped cream on it. The hot coffee is pretty much all instant unless its an Americano, which is NOT coffee. I like them, but I want a nice Ethopian Yirgecheffe, or perhaps a French Dark Roast, hot, black, and freshly brewed. I think that I should open up a cafe here, and introduce and mainstream brewed coffee. Anyways, at the Old Biscuit Mill there is a cafe called Espresso Lab, and the line is crazy long, but it was worth it. I got an Iced Americano, but it was the most delicious espresso I’ve ever had. They put the espresso in a shaker with ice and shook it for so long, so instead of the espresso being poured into water, the espresso melted the ice and I think it made a huge difference. It was divine.
    So to continue the story of my saturday we went to the Pride Festival & Parade in Cape Town. It was at a suburb called Green Point, and was a ton of fun. It was similar to the P-Town parade, but the parade was a lot smaller and there were less transvestites and I think less gays. It wasn’t as wild. I think it’s somewhat of a big deal to have a pride festival at all in South Africa. Although Cape Town and UCT is accepting, I’m pretty sure the rest of the country isn’t as keen on the idea. Afterwards we went to a Rugby game, which was so much fun. We had really good seats and I was suprised on how big the stadium was. I would say about the size of Fenway, maybe a tiny bit smaller. I’ve watched rugby before so I kind of knew what was going on, but I don’t know all the rules and I think it was the first time a lot of my friends had seen rugby. During half time I went to get a beer at the bar and learned that there is no drinking in the seats, only in the bar. So it’s basically a room full of people chugging beers, which must be much more unsafe and rowdier than drinking in the stands, so I don’t really understand why thats a rule. Afterwards I went out to the local bar and hung out with some of my friends from SA and Zim. It was a fun end to a great day.

    Sunday was relaxing, I spent most of the day doing work and internship applications. I’ve applied to so many, but the ones I really want are the most competitive. Ideally I would get a position on an REU (research experience for undergrads) team. Hundreds apply, and about 4-12 are chosen for each project. They are all over the country and I keep applying but I can’t guarantee I’ll get one. It’s also a very timely process so I’ve spent a lot of time in the cafe using their internet. The cafe I go to here is called Cocoa Wah Wah, and its about the same distance away as Zia or Henderson’s, which are my two favorite cafe’s in the States, but is a different feel. It’s bigger and less homey than Henderson’s, but there’s a couch that I usually get. I’m also a little biased since I worked at both Henderson’s and Zia and spend more time at Henderson’s than my apartment in Vermont.

We’re also currently planning spring break, which is actually Easter Holiday, since its fall here. I think two of my good friends, Alicia and Alyssa, are going to go backpacking up the wild coast, which is on the east coast of South Africa. We would go from Port Elizabeth to Durban, and there’s a lot of wildlife, culture, and beautiful beaches in between. Some people are going to Botwana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, or Namibia, but I don’t think I’m done exploring SA yet.

Anywho, I gotta get some homework done. I’ll write more often, promise. It’ll probably also help keep them shorter, maybe. Hope you enjoyed my coffee rant.

Cheers