To the Ends of the World (and back?): The local scene

Friday was a relaxed day. I got up and did yoga on the roof. It was so windy that my full water bottle blew over. Needless to say my balancing postures were a joke, and I was a bit worried about my shoes and glasses taking flight. It was still a rewarding practice. Then Laura, Taylor, and I went to central. We took a kombi to the Market Square, where all of the taxis go. It was craziness, but I had a city map, and we made our way to Wezandla, an African crafts store, only asking two people for help. I have found that I am great at finding how to get somewhere, but the real struggle is finding out #1 where I am and #2 which direction I’m facing. I almost always have to travel a bit in one way before I can tell where I really am by my surroundings. Those are not ideal circumstances when I’m leading others… :/ But, we had a fabulous afternoon looking through the crafts store. We had a few more stops to make, but we stayed for so many hours in Wezandla, that we put the other stops off for another time. It was great to get our bearings down town though.

On our way back to Central to catch a kombi back to Summerstrand, the neighborhood we live in, we went through an underground mall much like “The Underground” in Atlanta. But the stores were filled with odd combinations of goods. The clothing store we popped into also had dish rags and chintzy children’s toys. The next one had clothing, a Walgreen’s-type cigarettes and cosmetics stand behind the counter and mountains of diapers (called “nappies” in SA) for sale. I bought these cheap-o shirts, orange and purple, with mesh short sleeves and mesh hoods, with Chinese characters on the tag and a puppy on the front with indiscernible characters below it. I hope it doesn’t say something embarrassing ;) They were cheap (R15 = $2), and Taylor said if I bought them that she would wear them once with me. Haha, that will be an interesting time.

(Next paragraph-Culture for Bruce and Norma)

We made our way back to the kombis and found the one for Summerstrand. Next stop was a haircut. Taylor had scheduled them for her and me, but there wasn’t enough time for me because the stylist wanted to go get her 1 year-old from day care on time and she had been behind when we got there. The stylist said that in three years of working with CSB/SJU students, there had only been one ugly guy. She said that all of the Americans are like super-models and so nice. She claimed that if she had the money she would move to Minnesota in a second because of the representation of the CSB/SJU students and directors. We had no idea what to say. We tried to convince her that none of us think we are like supermodels, but I don’t know if she bought it.

Saturday we took a cab to Seaview Lion Park. They breed white lions and have a game reserve as well. We saw giraffe right by the road and pet some lion cubs. After the lion park, we went to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum to see an exhibit on art in and around PE. The art museum wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, because I was hoping for rooms and rooms of beautiful, diverse art as found in the Minneapolis Institute of Art (also a free museum). But, this was just two rooms. I liked the huge carving of the city seal which I hadn’t seen before and some of the modern sculptures J After the art museum we went grocery shopping and our friend, and I made mushroom and butternut lasagna with spinach noodles and rosé sauce. Even with lack of a recipe the sauce and final product turned out very nicely!

The first giraffe sighting right outside the "wind screen"

No zoom needed for these animals

Out the back window

The "biig papa" white lion

Beautiful white daddy

A lotus, which is absolutely HUGE. At least as big as my hand.

The cubs were chilling

An African wild cat in an enclosure. It looks just like a barn cat to me, but I'm sure it's much more ferocious. Although, after my experiences with Quin's barn cat, ya-the one who killed a rabbit right at my feet- I am not sure this one would be much different than the Wagner barn cats.