My bags finally came so I don't look like a homeless person anymore! I had my first minibus taxi experience a couple days ago…it was nuts. Minibuses are old vans that drive up and down the main road from downtown Cape Town all the way across the cape. In them is one driver and his mate. The driver drives crazily and the mate yells out the window and recruits people to come in their minibus taxi. Most seat about 15…even though they should probably only seat 8, and they will not drive unless it is full. Once it is relatively full, they pull out and start driving and the mate screams out the window at people trying to get them to fill the one or two empty seats in the taxi. It is nuts! And if for some reason the driver wants to stop for a snack or simply doesn't think there is enough people in the taxi, he just pulls over and gets out of the taxi and waits with no regard that the people in the taxi have places to be. Its odd, but it is a very interesting and unique experience. We took the minibus to the Cavendish mall and our driver actually raced another taxi, it was terrifying, but we made it! The mall is very fancy, with really nice stores and two movie theaters…so whenever I feel homesick from America, I can go there and it will take me back!

After the mall I walked down to the holistic fair right by my house, which comes to town once a month. I bought some awesome home made candles, a hand carved wooden Buddha, a sarong, and a hand made vase for decorations for my room and despite my pathetic rhythm, I learned how to play a didgeridoo (which could quite possibly be my favorite word in the English language)!!!Then we met up with a group of 15 students from the University of Illinois who are here visiting for a few weeks. With them, we went down to Camps Bay for "sundowners", which are sunset drinks. We went to a place called La Med on the beach, watched the sunset, had woodfired pizza, and drinks. After the sun goes down, flocks of the most beautiful people I have ever seen in my life flood the bar and it turns into a nightclub. South Africans don't seem to care what day it is…they will party. This was a Sunday night and it was just as crowded as a Friday or Saturday. I came home relatively early because I was supposed to be starting my job on Monday morning, but my boss told me to take one more day off and go to beach and explore (and who am I to tell my boss no?)!!!

On my day off, Peter, Jenica, and I went on an intense adventure to the Waterfront (a super fancy, upper class, tourist mall and boardwalk area). We took a minibus about 15 miles to the main station in Cape Town, which is very "dodgy" (the South African word for sketchy). We then had to walk a few blocks and catch another minibus to the Waterfront. When we got there we went through the mall and then had lunch out on a deck over the ocean and watched the sailboats go by…it was gorgeous! Cape Town is such a cool place because you are right in the thick of a giant city, but you just look behind you and there is Table Mountain looming above in all her glory. It is like no place in the states… a mountain as beautiful as Table Mountain would be covered in a thousand houses and little lights, but not here! After the Waterfront we went to a 21st birthday party for one of the University of Illinois students at their 15 bedroom house. It was crazy fun and at midnight we went to Stones to celebrate even more. I played a game of pool against a local South African and won! My goal is to come home from SA a bad ass pool player…and considering my skills last night I would say I am well on my way ;)

Peter also took to me to the University of Cape Town campus, which is close to our humble abode and it is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It is situated at the bottom of the mountain above Obz, and the view from the center of campus looks over all of Cape Town. I fell in love with it, it reminds me of Hogwarts, or something of the sort. All the buildings have red roofs and ivy cultivates the sides of every building.

So now for the real reason I am even in Africa….my internship! I started work this morning and it was great.I work in a very fancy building called the Waverley Business Park, which is protected by gates on either side. My office's architecture is very modern and has a bottom floor with an open area, two conference rooms, and then a loft up above. I get to work in the open area and have my own computer at a little desk…it is very official!I got to work this morning hardly knowing what to expect and left this afternoon with my first project successfully completed…victory! I first met with Sean, my boss, who oriented me with the office, and told me what was expected of me, then he put me staright to work. I am in charge of going to backpackers hotels and hostels all throughout Cape Town and talking with them to make sure the backpackers book their scuba adventures through Obzside. So today my project was to make a display for the brochures. Sean showed me my computer and told me to get to work…I sat their starring at a blank screen for a solid 20 minutes considering why I didn't brush up on my Photoshop skills before I came to work… "oh THAT'S right….I have NEVER USED Photoshop!" Sean nonchalantly mentioned that he thought it would be nice if the project was completed by this afternoon, and so there I was again having another "oh s*** I am in Africa" moment… feeling lost, beads of sweat starting to form on my upper lip, and looking at the plain white, empty document gazing back at me from the computer screen, when all of a sudden, James (the only other employee of Obzside) asked if I wanted to go catch some lunch. I think I was out the door before he even finished the question. I am sure he thought I was the fat girl who had only been in the office for an hour and already jetted for the door when there was mention of "food" …but oh well…I wasn't going to get anything done sitting at that desk, might as well have a scrumptious snack to kick start my brain-right? Well, I got back from my lunch break and got to work, starting to push and play with random buttons in Photoshop and decided to use a combination of old Obzside projects from the computer AND my creative juices. Needless to say, I finished the brochure display by 4:30 pm and was very happy with the work (I am going to try to upload it to the blog so you all can see).

When I got home from work my two new roommates had arrived. It is a couple from Denmark, Scott and Janette. Janette is here to work with a program for Muslims with AIDS called Positive Muslims, and Scott is going to study music at UCT (he plays the trombone). I am convinced my new didgeridoo skills paired with his trombone will make for some fantastic jams J! Janette is not an easy name to pronounce, at least not the Denmark version of the name. She introduced herself and I had to have her repeat her name about 6 times, and every time I repeated it back to her, she shook her head and tried again. After about the 5th time it got a little painful, embarrassing actually, so I pretended to understand and just moved on. I still don't know how to pronounce it, but I couldn't bare to make an ass of myself any longer.

I am going to bed because I have to be at the Dive Shop at 8 am because I am going on my first dive in the morning!!! Also, a note to my readers (if I have any): This blog is doubling as my journal because I don't want to have to write everything down twice, so if it is a little too long, or certain parts seems unnecessary to you, just skip it and move on!!