Here is the recap of the important events from the week:
Sunday - I had brunch at a cafe called Miss K with S, one of the American University grad interns, and her fellow AU student A. Brunch was delicious; it was my first really good meal here. I got the chilli eggs, which was two poached eggs served with arugula and shaved parmesan over a piece of rustic bread and small dollops of chilli relish on each egg.
I also enjoyed the Miss K breakfast smoothie, which had fresh fruit, greek yogurt, and granola.
The service was not stellar, but we didn't mind considering how beautiful the weather was and we were sitting outside.
After the meal we walked around the city a bit, ending up in the Company's Garden. It is next to Parliament and beautiful. Aside from the nature and statues around the garden, the distinguishing feature is the squirrels. They are crazy. They are so used to humans and being fed by them that they will take food right from your hand. I made the mistake of misleading a squirrel to think there was something in my hand for it; I ended up getting scratched by its tiny little thieving claws. I now have a fear of squirrels. In spite of my squirrelophobia, S, A, and I bought a bag of peanuts and went hunting for squirrels to feed. The craziest squirrel jumped onto S's knee when she squatted to feed it. I screamed and ran away from one squirrel who was a bit too aggressive for my taste. But when I wasn't acting like the squirrels were lions, I had a great time feeding them. Successfully tempting a squirrel to take a peanut from my palm brought a child-like sense of joy. But that feeling could also just be the rabies setting in...
Wednesday - After work on Wednesday, G, the organization's assistant coordinator, and I went to Rondebosch, which is between Kenilworth where I'm staying and City Centre, to watch the second half of the England-Slovenia game. Slovenia's loss means that I now only have one team left from the office pool in the World Cup: Paraguay. After finishing my beer, I left G and went around the corner to have dinner with CSer Adri at Maharajah. This restaurant is awesome. It offers entirely vegetarian Indian food, including some veggie-meat options. I had the veg chicken curry with roti, a potato samosa, and a mango lassi. I should not have eaten all of it, but I did. It's a new experience for me to eat Indian food with roti (though rice is also an option). I only just learned about roti in the last year and thought it was a uniquely West Indian dish. Adri explained that Indian food here is served with roti because the large Muslim population often eats food with its hands.
After dinner, we went to one of the two movie theaters in the Cavendish Mall and bought our tickets to see 'Sex and the City 2.' **Disclaimer: I did not pick the movie; I accepted the invitation entirely for the social interaction.** We had some time to kill and decided to have a drink before showtime. Adri is nice, but there is something about her that rubs me the wrong way. It's nothing so monumental that I won't hang out with her in the future; it's just enough that I don't think a friendship will really develop between us. The movie was complete crap, but I enjoyed myself. There were some funny lines and Liza Minnelli sang 'Single Ladies,' so I can't complain. Interesting note about South African movie theaters: some theaters, including the one where I went, have assigned seating.
Thursday - Thursday night was the perfect example of how much of an old person I am. D, the CSer who hosted me last time, invited me to a Scrabble party at her flatmate's sister's home. How could I, an old person trapped in a 24 year old's body, refuse? Turns out it was a SUPER Scrabble party, which means the board is larger. In the photo, you can see the lighter part of the board is the size of a standard Scrabble board. So much extra space! Prior to the game, we watched some soccer and ate some dinner. There were seven of us, so we played with three teams of two and one team of one. My teammate Mark and I did quite well. We didn't actually finish the game; turns out the extra space also means extra time to complete. Everyone called it quits around midnight. When I usually play Scrabble, I don't keep, or care about, score. I don't look for the triple word or double letter options. I just try and put down a word. Luckily of me, Mark was much more strategy oriented. The game was surprisingly emotional. As soon as our turn was over and we picked new letters from the bag, we started plotting our next word. Our first choice was usually ruined by someone else. I had the most amazing opportunity to use all of our letters - the word: tentacle - but my glory was stolen! After that I had something close to a momentary postpartum depression. My baby was gone and I had no idea what to do with myself or what the point of continuing was. It took Mark and me a bit to refocus ourselves, but when we did, we had our sweet revenge. Turns out, our letters could also be used to spell cleanse, a word that landed on TWO TRIPLE WORD squares. One word=90 points. It was epic. I love Scrabble and knowing that I have fellow old-people-trapped-in-young-bodies friends/acquaintances here.
Today - My plan to hike Lion's Head was once again thwarted by the weather. Cape Town weather is so moody. I was supposed to hike with CSer Nancy and then go to Old Biscuit Mill for a late breakfast/early lunch, but heavy fog and clouds made the trail unsafe. Nancy suggested to go to a market in Tokai, which is about 20 minutes up the Main Rd from my flat. Since I'd never been, or even heard of it, I said yes. I am so glad I did. There are two markets in Tokai, but we went to the Porter Estate Food Market because Nancy knew where it was. The market was listed on the Cape Town Green Map, which highlights green, or eco-friendly, aspects of the city in terms of accommodation, restaurants, transportation, etc. There were vendors selling homemade soaps, hand-woven baskets, and second-hand vintage clothing. Most importantly, there was food: raw onion bread pizza slices, chili sauces and chutneys, fresh produce, felafel (their spelling, not mine), raw nuts and dried fruit, fresh squeezed juices, locally made French cheeses, and beautiful cupcakes.
I used restraint and purchased a bag of flax seeds, to add to my oatmeal in the morning; a bag of dried, pitted dates; a raw chocolate cup with brazil nuts and raisins; and a red velvet cupcake with lemon cream cheese frosting. NOM NOM!
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