Dear tumblr,
I’ve moved! My blog is now at calaandra.blogspot.com, so come join me if you wish!
Love,
Calaandra
some stories don’t
have a clear beginning,
middle, and end. life
is about not knowing,
having to change,
taking the moment and
making the best of it,
without knowing what’s
going to happen next.
delicious ambiguity…
—gilda radner
In the bleak midwinter…
Well, its Christmas Eve, and since it is the first one I’ve spent away from the majority of my family, I’ve been ruminating on the season and Christmas. Its been both harder and easier than I expected. I’ve cried and then immediately appreciated the way I’m celebrating this year. I guess its just all a part of growing up. I’ve been thinking about why I celebrate Christmas, seeing as it is not a holiday of my religion, and I hoped that it wasn’t simply for the presents… I’ve decided its not. Here are some of the reasons I celebrate Christmas:
1. It is a celebration of a wonderful Gift from God that has been and inspiration and hope for many.
2. It is a celebration of Love and Family.
3. The entire season has a wonderful feeling of Camaraderie and Joy.
4. I have such wonderful memories of Christmas from my childhood, which make the day special.
5. I love all the little traditions of my family… Our star/angel, our books, our gifts, our decorations…
6. I LOVE the music.
7. I truly appreciate a holiday that brings such warmth to winter.
Oh and there are many more! I absolutely love Christmas! Merry Merry Christmas everyone!
I do believe in an everyday sort of magic - the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.
—Charles de Lint
Two Weeks Home.
Well, its been two weeks. Exactly two weeks ago I was one hour in to my flight from Cape Town to Joburg. Just two weeks. Its crazy being home. I’m having a really hard time believing that it was all real. Did I really live in Cape Town for four months? Did I really feel at home in South Africa? Insanity. I’ve given most of my presents, told tons of stories and shown pictures, and still the entire experience seems to be escaping me. Its hard to hold on to. And then it isn’t. I see it so clearly in myself; in the ways I’ve changed and grown. It is also my entire frame of reference, so I am constantly comparing and reminiscing. I can still drive on the right side of the road, but every once in a while I pull out to the left, or have a reverse-American moment, and freak out that I’m on the wrong side.
I just feel so much love for home and my wonderful family and friends. I really really missed it all. I also feel so overwhelmed whenever I think about how much I miss my South African life and my wonderful friends who became like family. So I guess the polar opposite emotions haven’t gone away…
Leaving Blues.
Well here it is. My last Cape Town post. Everyone else from my program has left, either for home or for traveling. Owing to a fluke, or just strange reading on my part, I am here an extra day… And boy is it interesting! I am in an almost deserted dorm, in a completely deserted flat, and most (well almost most) of my stuff is packed up. Everything about the last few days has just made it infinitely more difficult to leave Cape Town. This will be long… and mostly pictures…
On Thursday, I finally made it to Muizenberg, which is the main beach on the Indian Ocean side of the Cape Peninsula. It is also the beach that has the colourful beach houses all in a row, so obviously I had to see it before I left. There was a shark spotting while I was there, which was terribly exciting. The sirens went off, and all the surfers got out of the water. Hectic. It was a cold day, but quite nice.
That night we hiked up Lion’s Head (a mountain) to see the sunset and then walk back down in the full moon. It was gorgeous. And difficult to get a good picture.
Meg, Meghan and I rented a car on Friday and we drove up the west coast to the West Coast National Park. It was absolutely amazing! Just getting out of Cape Town changes everything; the land is so wild and there is nothing but tiny towns for miles (or kilometers…). The Atlantic Ocean is ridiculous. It is so foreboding and cold. The waves are huge and it is so powerful. I loved it.
On Friday night we drove to Clifton and watched the sunset. It was lovely, but soso cold.
We started Saturday at the Old Biscuit Mill for the last time, which was sad, but I do feel that I went to that market enough… Then we took off for some peninsula driving! We drove down the west coast of the peninsula and back up the east coast. The west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean, and the east coast is on the Indian Ocean. It is crazy how different it looks on either side! This is Hout Bay:
And this is Long Beach in Kommetjie:
And here’s the little car:
It felt really nice to have a car and get to know the city that way. I drove the whole time because I was the only one who was both 21 and knew how to drive manual. I was amazed at how (progressively) easy it was to drive on the left side and switch gears with my left hand, the only really stressful times were when we were on crazy, skinny, cliff roads… or when I had to turn around on crazy, skinny, cliff roads… Not fun.
Saturday night we went out to dinner at Fat Cactus, which is the token Mexican restaurant near Liesbeeck Gardens with all of the Americans in the dorm. It was lovely. I am so incredibly happy with the people I lived with this semester and it has been so hard to say goodbye to them. That night we went to see Jeremy Loops, who is a fantastic one man band of sorts who we saw at Rocking the Daisies. It was really fun. Here he is performing at campus last month: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BaDMF2RAfI If you look closely you can catch a few mullets in the background…
Sunday I had to say goodbye to Olivia, at 4:30 in the morning. It was really sad. I’ve been realizing that its not necessarily saying goodbye to the person, because I’m convinced that I will see many of my dear friends from here again, but more the actuality of this wonderful semester coming to an end. And that is ridiculously hard.
On Monday I repeated the performance and hour earlier, and at 3:30 said goodbye to Meg. Its just all so crazy and surreal, especially in the wee hours of the morning… Monday was lovely though. Meghan and I went down to the Waterfront for the last few presents and then to Clifton, which was lovely as usual. In my incredibly disorganized state, I forgot my sunscreen, so I’m a bit sunburned. Still. Oh well.
Yesterday I said goodbye to Hannah in the morning and then I had to start concentrating on moving myself out. I did manage to distract myself for a few hours with a hike and picnic with Julian, which was nice, but basically since then I’ve just been packing and saying goodbye and packing and saying goodbye, and saying goodbye and saying goodbye. Too much.
Now I’m just excited to go home. SO excited for my family, and my Meezee, and my guitar… I’m going up to school next weekend to visit and figure out my academic life, which should be fun and hopefully distracting, and then I’ll be in California for Thanksgiving! It will be great. I’m sure I’ll post randomly over break, and then start documenting next semester in Scotland in January! Until then, I love you all.
Darling USA, I’ll see you tomorrow!
Beautiful South Africa, I’ll miss you so much.
Scenic Cape Town, Prince Charles and Dog+Pumpkin (Meez’s mysterious new friend)
One Week? Oh Wow.
So here I am on another rainy, cold afternoon in Cape Town. I’m sensing a prolonged, unwelcome theme here… Well, I guess that’s just another silly assumption that has been completely disproved. Just IMAGINE I thought it would be warm here! Oh well…
I’m really complaining without sufficient grounds; yesterday was positively gorgeous, and I’m sunburned as proof! I went with Michaela on the sightseeing red tourist bus around Cape Town. It was lovely! We started out in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which is quite dead now, and headed up into the hills of beautiful houses. Before we knew it, we were in wine country, and still in Cape Town! We went to one of the biggest wine estates in the area, Groot Constantia. It was beautiful. We just walked around and enjoyed the beautiful grounds and the view of False Bay. So lovely. We continued on to Hout Bay, which is a little harbour neighbourhood that (somewhat jokingly) thinks of itself as its own country. We wandered around, watched seals, had tea and sat on the pristine beach. We drove along part of the Chapman’s Peak Drive and past the beautiful beaches to Sea Point. We ended up back in town and went to tea at the Mount Nelson. It was a lovely day and a nice little goodbye trip around the city!
Saturday was quite exciting for me! I went to see Prince Charles speak about environmentalism! It was great. He was incredibly well spoken, funny and actually had some great things to say about climate change. I found it very odd that I encountered British royalty here, in South Africa, rather than next semester when I’ll be in, you know, the UK… Oh life!
In other news, I’ve been packing, and spending A LOT of time trying to figure out how I’ve changed, thinking/worrying about going home, freaking out about leaving here, wanting to be home so bad, figuring out how to come back to Cape Town… Its all very overwhelming. I’m incredibly happy to be home and to give everyone great big hugs and try not to bore you all with talking about South Africa.
SOSO much love!
