Touchdown in the Mother City

Greetings from Cape Town!

It is Day 2 in the city - I wanted to post and update yesterday, but it took some time to set up everything. So I finally made it after a 16+ hour from JFK to Johannesburg, which ended up not being so bad when I ran into Temi and Star at the gate, who happened to be on the same flight for their trip to Mozambique. And here you can see they are very happy to be getting off the plane:

Mount Sinai representin'

From Johannesburg it was a 2-hour flight to Cape Town and a 20-minute drive to the place I’m staying in Observatory, which is a neighborhood in Cape Town. The cab driver was explaining to me how divided the country still is even after the end of apartheid, which you can definitely see in where people live in the city. The townships right next to the airport are where mainly Blacks live. WARNING: YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING HERE, PROCEED WITH CAUTION. There is an interesting distinction between Blacks and Coloureds in South Africa stemming from how people were racially classified during the apartheid era. Blacks (or Africans) are people whose ancestors are from the native African population of the area before the European settlers arrived (eg, Xhosa, Zulu). Coloured refers to people whose ancestors were not native to the area, and were probably brought to South Africa as slaves from some other place, including other parts of Africa. (If you are interested in learning more about South Africa, I highly recommend A History of South Africa by Leonard Thompson.)

World Cup Stadium - if only I was here last year...

This reminds me: PLEASE DONATE TO GRASSROOT SOCCER!

Observatory is a pretty young area filled with students (including many international ones), and it is where the University of Cape Town is located. There are a good amount of cafés and bars in the area that cater to students, but I still need to be careful about being robbed, which unfortunately is not uncommon (hasn’t happened to me, knock on wood). I’m staying at The Green Elephant, which I would describe as an environmentally conscious hostel. I thought it was cool that they use the used water from the washer for the toilets (and I’m grateful it’s not the other way). There’s a lounge and a nice bar/patio outside too. My room is pretty modest, but the view of Table Mountain is nice.

My room = alright...

 The view from my room = SWEET!

The people I’ve met here are all really nice. The staff is extremely helpful and friendly, and the other people staying here have been great. I’ve met a group of 12 Norwegian medical students who are here for 3 weeks volunteering at a clinic and 2 British medical students who are on what I guess we would call a rotation, but from the sound of it it’s just a vacation). These guys are all pretty entertaining (and check out my video blog for more once I can figure out the Internet here):

 Norwegians and Brits, all medical students

OK, I don’t want to make this too long. You can check out more of my pics on Flickr. I’m already homesick and miss you all!

Take care,

John