Clearly I was not made to keep blogs. And so I apologize to all those who were waiting for a new entry eagerly for the past 3 days (cue cricket sounds). But your wait has finally come to an end, and after 13 hours of sleep, a ridiculously good omelette and with a big cold glass of coke in my hand, i give you a recap of what i've been up to:
Monday, June 7th
First day of International Volunteer Training!!! There's was over a hundred of us in this training session in Cape Town, and they come from all over the world: Canadians, "Americans" (they refuse to say they're from "the States"), Austrians, Koreans, Costa Ricans, Argentinians, Mexicans, and some weird Peruvian chick... people think she's related to Hugo. You could always tell what nationality's people were just by the sort of questions that were asked: the Latin Americans all wanted to know how they could sneak in free to the games, the Americans (TEXAS, BABY!) wanted to know if stun guns were legal in South Africa. After receiving a weirded out "no," she proceeded to look around to her fellow panic-stricken Americans and mumble something about taking it around with her anyways.
I met a whole bunch of people, but the best part was sneaking out with a couple of them to go check out the stadium. Let me just say this, people: Soccer City (Jo'burg's stadium) has got NOTHING on Green Point. It was finished in December 2009, and has a capacity of 64,100 people. It's easily the most artistic of all the World Cup stadiums, but more important than that I think is what a friend told me: it has this inviting glow, this homey look that makes it look welcoming and motherly. Fitting for Cape Town, also known as the Mother City.
Anyways we went into the dressing rooms and stuff, sat in the benches and acted like big superstars. It was awesome. After that it was a pretty chill day... it was raining horribly so the girls and me decided just to have a chill day. We went to the mall and watched Prince of Persia (phwoaaar, Jake Gyllenhaal... plus it was a pretty cool movie lol) and then just came home and chilled with the family.
Tuesday, June 8th
Tuesday was absolutely beautiful outside, sunny and breezy... a good mix for walking about. The girls and me left the house relatively early and started out tour with the Castle of Good Hope. The Castle is the oldest colonial building left in Cape Town, and it is the seat of the military today. It looks absolutely beautiful from the outside, and it's totally worth the visit to see the views of Table Mountain from as well as some cool war exhibitions... plus we got to see the change of guard. Other than that there's not much else to see. We did get some cool pictures though.
After that we walked down to Iziko Slave Lodge Museum. Now that is a museum worth visiting. This used to be the Slave Lodge of Cape Town back when slavery was still taking place. It's extremely well presented, interactive and very very stirring. Their main exhibition is obviously about slavery, but they also have another one about Nelson Mandela, which is sure to stir up some strong emotions.
After Iziko we walked past Parliament (and the balcony where Mandela gave his first speech from after being released), down Company Gardens (where the squirrels come shake your hand... literally) and all the way to the Iziko Natural Museum of South Africa: and awesome exhibition of everything from whale bones to huge dinosaurs, and a cool planetarium. Nothing short of the Natural Museum of America in New York... except maybe in fame.
It was starting to get colder then, and we were pretty tired, so the girls and me walked all the way back to the V&A Waterfront, picking up a lost American tourist on the way haha... Oh yes, I picked up my England-Algeria ticket on the way too! Coolest thing, I can't wait for the games. At the Waterfront we shopped around until we got picked up, and then came home.
Wednesday, June 9th
Aquarium day! I woke up super late, but it was OK cause I was on my own for the day. Tommy dropped me off at the Waterfront around 3, and I went straight to the Two Oceans Aquarium, famed for its over 3,000 species and... it's Predator Tank: 2-million litres of water, 28-cm thick viewing panels, short-tailed sting rays (the largest of the stingray species - at least 4.3m), and 3 2m-long jagged-tooth sharks... oh yes, and I'm diving in the tank this Saturday.
I spent over two hours in the aquarium, taking pictures and enjoying the sight (while blaring music on my headphones.. Class A Tourism) and then toured around the Waterfront and Victoria Wharf (awesome mall). Got myself a huge German flag, and - picture this - Kanye West Germany sunglasses. They. Are. Ballin.
After getting picked up from there by Johnny (Tommy's friend) he took me down to Long Street, Cape Town's nightlife area. South Americans have taken over!!! Football fever is BLAZING, there we people with drums and vuvuzelas, singing in spanish and portuguese, and all you could see was jerseys form the South American national teams. Argentinians and Brazilians are the loudest... but it was me, the tiny Peruvian, who was easily the most excited... and proud as hell to be Latin American.
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