Life in the ZA

Hello, all! Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this blog. Hopefully I will be able to keep on top of it enough to make it worthwhile. I left for South Africa 1 week ago today, which seems unfathomable because I have already experienced so much it feels as though I've been gone for at least a month. Left Detroit last Saturday afternoon, connected through Atlanta and Johannesburg before finally arriving in Cape Town late Sunday night SA-time (GMT + 2, EST + 7). There were a few setbacks in Johannesburg when I realized I was not on the same flight as the rest of the group to Cape Town (despite congruent departure / arrival times) and after narrowly dodging solicitation for bribery and a flight delay, I made it to a fantastic hostel where Mischelle (another Madison intern) and I spent our first night in SA.

I can't believe how many people I have met from literally all over the world since being here! Lots and lots of Europeans at the hostel, such as a crazy Dutch freelance journalist, Norwegian and Danish grad students, Irish, British, etc.

The next day we taxi'ed to the Perspectives Apartment Complex where I will be staying for the next 3 months! Met with Melanie, the Connect 123 (internship broker organization) coordinator who gave the MSU group a brief orientation to the city and apartment, then moved all my stuff in. I'm on the 11th floor of the building, and my apartment unit has a sweeping view over the downtown Cape Town skyline. The other side of the building has an even more stunning view of both Table Mountain / Lion's Head Peak (i think that's the name???). Met my roommate, Walt, who is also with the MSU group but is actually 27 yrs old. Apparently he graduated from Madison (PTCD) several years back, worked as a ski instructor at Aspen for a while then various other jobs for the next few years. Now he wants to apply to grad school for Int'l Studies, but the schools told him he needs more international work experience, so he went back to talk with @GrantLittke who told him the available internship options through JMC. Seems like a pretty nice guy. We are getting another roommate this upcoming week from Switzerland (though I think it is a Swiss student orginally from Norway) so that should change things up a bit, too.

South African society is even more fascinating than I had anticipated. It seems to defy easy categorization as either a developed or developing country with enormous social disparities among its populace. Race is very real here, in discourse as well as practice. Terms such as "Black," "Coloured" (Mixed race) and "White" are in turn complicated by the very significant pluralities of Malays, Indians, multiple African ethnic groups, and British/Afrikaaner differentiation. A ten minute walk from my apartment complex to an ultra-modern shopping centre involved passing quite new building developments, but alongside the sidewalk a couple lay visibly dying of AIDS. The geographic legacy of spatial apartheid is also fairly apparent in the city's racial distribution. There is definitely an increased number of Black Africans present in the higher strata of society, but at the same time I have been hard-pressed to witness any Whites that are not well-off (Note: This is at first glance. Perhaps this perception will change.)

The city of Cape Town is visually stunning . Definitely rivals the south of France as most beautiful place I have ever seen. Probably helps that it is summer, but the mountains, flowers, and sunshine are incredible. We have a rooftop pool deck at Perspectives for which I feel very blessed.....IN-CRED-I-BLE! I have tried to make it up there at least most days. There's also a chill coffee shop ("Mugged") on the first floor with free wifi and a street-side, mountain-view veranda. That's where I am now. haha Gives EL's Espresso Royale a run for its money.

I also started my actual internship last Wednesday, but I will write more about that in the next entry as I don't want to make this one overly convoluted. As the South Africans say, "Cheers!"