Friday , June 26, 2009

Experiencing different culture is the best thing I would say about visiting new countries. The other day I visited the mall to pick up some rain boots and I learned that South Africans call rain boots “wellingtons.” I also stopped at the food court where I ordered food and then was sent to a table, where they brought my food to me on glass plates with silver utensils. It was an odd experience because in America everything is made “fast” with plastic utensils and Styrofoam or paper containers for the food. It was like dining at a restaurant except it was actually “fast food” that was being served. I went to a place called Steers, a burger place, which many Americans consider the Wendy’s of Cape Town. The differences in culture is evident everywhere. I can observe it from simply shopping at the local grocery stores, which are commonly known here as PicknPay, Checkers, or Woolworths. I tried to buy peanut butter and jelly and the peanut butter I bought was “smooth” but it ended up being hard as a brick and the jelly had actual grapes in it. Everything was a little off from the traditional American PB&J. South Africa also has very unique languages. I had my first Xhosa lesson Thursday. The gap year students at SAEP that we teach gave me a private lesson. Xhosa is the hardest language I have ever tried to learn. I could not get any of the clicking right and I feel so silly trying to speak. The students were laughing at me. That is how bad I was. I told them I would practice over the weekend but I do not know how far that I will get….

I had my first cultural Cape Town social outing today. I went out to dinner with my two roommates Sarah and Liese and Sandile who was supposed to room with us but ended up living a couple blocks away. Sandile is a graduate student in the International Policy Studies Program at Stanford. She picked us up in this beat up old bug that she rented to get to and from work. It is actually quite comical, it sounds like the car is dying, and each push on the gas sounds like its last gasp for air. But it got us to and from where we needed to go. We met with two people, Alex and Sharon, for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. Yes, I ate Ethiopian food, first time ever! Alex graduated from UCT in engineering but currently works in consulting. He talked to me a lot about nuclear power because he used to be one of the primary engineers for the nuclear plants hear in SA but now he is interested in development and eventually using his business expertise to start a project/business to build better infrastructure in the townships. Sharon is also engineering major. She was the former runner-up to Miss South Africa in 2004. She explained her involvement in the pageants as pure luck. She had not had any trainers, never put make up on before the auditions, and had no idea what she was getting herself into. She said she got sucked into the modeling world but realized at the end of her pageant days that modeling meant nothing and in the long run would not take her very far. African families often see pageants as a sign that a woman is not doing much with her life…her dad was so angry with her for trying out and kept reminding her that he had paid school fees for her to education and that she was wasting his investment…

Alex and Sharon took us to a club called Jade in Green Point, this is down town Cape Town. The music and people in the club gave it a very European feel. When I got into the club, I felt very much out of place because I felt so young and out of touch with this type of scene. I went to the bar and I did'nt even know what drinks to get. There was no menu either…. I was just supposed to know….Alcohol for the most part to me tastes like poison, so I want the closest thing to juice! I was successful in finding that but I do not know what it was that I ordered…..Everyone in the club looked like a model and the club was very conservative. No one was grinding on each other. Being traditional westerners, we stood out clearly as non-natives on the dance floor. We were chanting for Michael Jackson and dancing in a circle. Other American in the club started to flock to us. We tried to start a soul train line but no one really understood what that actually was.lol I guess that’s an American thing…. When I heard the first MJ song of the night, it was kind of sad, recognizing that it was the end of an era. But after that all his songs were a celebration. I still cannot believe he died and why did it have to be on Christmas….

After we left Jade, Alex and Sharon got us into this other club for free called Fashion TV. This club was more my type; it has more college aged people. Although I saw some guy who was at least 80 years old, yea this was a little odd. They had a hair straightener in the women’s bathroom that you had to pay a couple cents to the machine to use for 10 minutes. I didn’t see why anyone would need a straightener in a club… It had all the American R&B and Rap music. They also played some South African house music and some MJ. I danced on stage most of the night because I didn’t want any drinks spilled on me or someone to burn me with their cigarette on accident. I met some guy name Emannuel that was from Belgium, him and his friend Damien spoke to me in French while I was there. My French was awful but I needed the practice… unfortunately I could barely hear him most the time. Anyways the night was fun!