final post!

In case anyone's still reading, I am back in the u.s. of a. I had a great last stop in London where I stayed with my wonferful long-lost cousin Elizabeth (who's actually not that long-lost since she is my mom's 2nd cousin).

I really liked London (despite the fact that it is a more expensive ny with ruder people), and saw the majority of tourist things.: changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (obviously overrated but I'm glad I went); the British museum; millions of places with "square" at the end; the Tate Modern; Big Ben (ony from the outside, i was not paying for that tour); the Globe Theare.And I saw my first opera, with Elizabeth! It was about Ganhi in South Africa, so that was a nice full-circle thing.

And I had a lovely time with my friend Yuxing, who's spending a quarter in London, and she took me on the Notting Hill movie tour and ate bangers and mash and Indian food (not together). We also went to pubs and met library students who told us about how the dewey decimal system is outdated.

The flight home was kind of awful and included an already unnecesarry layover in D.C. that became 8 hours. But then I got home after an incredible journey. And now I'm on a mini-vacay in Chicago. And in a week I enter the real world

Some days are like that, even in South Africa

I'm in Cape Town for a few days, staying on the couch of my friend Deepa, who's on TM and living on Long Street. This morning I woke up to gross weather, (killing my plans to go to the beach). I had an interview with an important source but I didn't want to take the train and since Deepa owns every episode of Gilmore Girls I said somewhat jokingly, "I kind of want to just stay in and watch Gilmore Girls." Be careful what you wish for.

Deepa left the key for me downstairs, but the maid took it, thinking it was left there by accident. And of course my cell phone wasn't working. So I stopped a stranger and asked to use her celll to call Deepa and cancel my interview. Then the cell phone started working. But I was out of minutes on my cell phone. So I took my chances and gave money to a stranger to buy my airtime. But then the airtime wouldn't work. So I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls. But then it did, so I called Deepa and she gave me the number of the landlord who let me out.

So I got out, rescheduled the interview and even got to sit in on a TAC court hearing. So all is well in the world.

I leave for London tomorrow! I'm ready.

hi from Zambia

Our journey to Livingstone, Zambia was long. Very long. On Thursday Tina and I arrived at Johannesburg International Airport a good hour and a half before our flight (because I wanted to) only to learn that our Zambian Airlines flight to Lusaka had been canceled. The budget airline kulula.com we booked through never informed us of this. So we waited at the airport until 6pm when we could finally board the plane. We hung out with a Zambian guy who offered us a ride from Lusaka to Livingstone, and while we initially accepted, realized that he would be awkward to ride with , so just never called him once we got to Lusaka.

Once in Lusaka (after a horrid flight with the most annoying children EVER surrounding us) we arrived at our hoste at about 9:30pm. Lusaka is the biggest city in Zambia, which isn't saying that much, and it's definitely not a tourist city. Nonetheless, these Zambian guys at our hostel took us out and I had probably the most fun of any night here. Zambians are SO friendly, and mostly in a good way. They pride themselves on being the "friendliest people in Southern Africa" and while I have no way to quantify if that's true it makes sense. I actually enjoyed dancing which is odd for me. The guys wanted to take the bus with us to Livingstone, but because of issues with what they had to do in Lusaka they couldn't. This was just as well. One of the guys was kind of in love with me and it could have been an awkward situation.

Friday at 10am on the dot we arrived at the bus station to take our coach bus to Livingstone. Silly us. We forgot about Africa time. They waited for the bus to fill up (in the mean time dozens of peopel came on to try to sell things and one guy came on to read the bible) and we didn't leave until noon. Tina and I thoguht we'd each have our own row so we didn't sit together and I was squished in with a son and father coming from school in Lusaka to home in Livingstone. I was one of three white people on the bus and Tina was the only Asian. THe drve was pretty ok. I enjoyed seeing the countryside, since Zambia is how I imagined Africa looking in my imagination.

By 7pm we arrived in the hostel, which is quite nice. Again, how I pictured hostels being in my imagination. This is the first time we wer in a hostel more than one ngiht too (other than Cape Town which was not a good hostel experience). There is a pool and lots of outdoor couches and everyone is really friendly and social. All for $8 U.S. a night. We are in a dorm with 8 beds. The first night was awful because there was a man who snored the loudest of anyone I've ever heard in my life. Since his friends weren't correcting the problem, I got out of bed and politely asked Snorer to turn over.

Yesterday Tina and I went on an all-day canoeing trip down the Zambezi river. It was quite fun. Since Tina and I lack at paddling they matched us up with two buff British guys who were the chief rowers. Tina and here guy hit a tree. Me and my guy saved Tina but unfortunately we couldn't save her sandal. My camera unfortunately somehow got wet but I'm hoping it will work. We saw elephants! We sort of saw hippos! The buff British guys left so I was in a boat with the tour guide (Potato is his name) who basically did all the paddling. Life's hard. Tina too, went in a big boat and got to be the Queen of Sheba as well (they also saw giraffes)

Potato and the other tour guide Jonathan took us out to dinner where they explained how men need to give a woman's family cattle in order to marry her. The only two other white people at the restaurant were the people from the bus. That's waht's cool about Livingstone, even though it's really touristy, most thigns are still populated by locals (except for blatantly tourist things).

Snorer and friends left and things have since gotten better and we made friends with 6 of the 8 people in our room. We all hung out last night playing cards, going out and staying up late talking. These people are a British guy and girl who are nursing students finishing observing a peer education program in Zambia, a British guy on the first leg of his year long travel around the world and a Canadian guy doing a 6 month trip from Cape Town to Cairo who met British guy in hostel in Cape Town. There's just such a comfort level with peopel who are of the same culture.

Today tour guide Jonathan took Tina and I to buy cheap crafts so we wouldn't get ripped off as Americans We finally have a non-sketchy Zambian friend! The craft market was prettty overwhelming. Even though I think I got good deals (the exchange rate is also good for us here) I definitely bought things I didn't need just because peopel kept pressuring me. But in total I spent 8 U..S. which isn't bad. Then we went on the hostel bus to Victoria Falls. Jonathan came too and our little group included the Canadian from the dorm room. Vic Falls is BEAUTIFUL. We got very wet and also climbed down to see the falls from a different angle. Amazing. The only downside is my camera is still wet, so I'll have to rely on Tina's pics

After Vic Falls Jonathan took us to see the luxury hotels in Livingstone. They are amazing. At $400 a night there are tame GIRAFFES and ZEBRAS just roaming the premises.

So, yeah, I really like this trip. I've met great people and it's just such a cool country. I like the feeling of being in Africa as stupid as that sounds. SA is awesome of course, but so Western. This is more mixed.

I'll be going back to Lusaka tomorrow, then Cape Town then London then home. wow.

Rent-a-wrecks and AJCs

All's well in Johannesburg. Steph left for Cape Town, which is sad, but life goes on. Today Tina and I went to Nkosi's Haven in Hillbrow, this group home for HIV-positive women and their children, as well as orphans of HIV positive women. We "volunteered" to use the word as loosely as I've been using the word "research." Basically, we played with adorable children. Tina set a no-camera rule, which I followed and she very much didn't, so we do have pictures of cute African children. We picked out the AJCs, Angelina Jolie Children- a word I just coined, to mean the most adorable child in a group of underprivileged children. Basically, the ones Angelina would have taken from the bunch. We accompanied the mothers and children to a church program, where I had a sleeping child on my lap which was a good way to get out of professing my love to Jesus. The kids were adorable and volunteering here wasn't very different than any place I'd been to in the States. I'm just always struck in these environments how differently these kids grew up then I did- with lots of other children around, but not so much individual attention. I always wonder how they will be when they are older.

In other news, we are on our THIRD, count 'em third, rental car in 5 days. Granted we rented from a company called Rent-a-wreck (since we needed an automatic car, which is quite rare anywhere not in the U.S.) so a normal rental car would have been way expensive. But the first car had engine troubles, the second didn't accelerate, and now there's this one which is adequate. And I really hate driving/getting lost which happens all the time here. Someone told me J'burg reminds them of L.A. the way it is a drving city which I hate.

Last night, after having a lovely dinner with Tina's Cameroonian friends who goes to Wits and his nice friends and relations, Tina and I went out (with friends we met at a Jolly Rogers, a local bar! who we promptly ditched when we got to the club since one of the guys was the most boring person EVER! we're bad people!) and then got lost on the way there AND the way home. le sigh. The club itself, Manhattan, was pretty ok, though I counted THREE non-service people black people. I'm so conscious of race here, I'm going to keep counting when I get back to the states.

Also annoying about driving in J'burg? You have to pay car guards, unpaid people who "watch" your car. Occasionaly they are helpful, but sometimes they are worthless. Yet I feel bad, sicne there are so many poor people here and I'm so rich. People I d0n't feel bad for? All the people who try to get bribes. I forgot to get my ticket stamped after an interview and a guy tried to get me to pay 25 rands ($3.50) instead of the usual 7 rands. I said no.

What else? Steph and I did a tour of Soweto, which is a booming former township where Nelson Mandela once lived and Desmond Tutu and Winnie Mandela still do. It was interesting, and we had a great lunch, though I was very uncomfortable with the whole part which is "look at the poor people like it's a zoo." Not uncomfortable with it? The bratty British family who was part of the tour. The daughter reminded me of that girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After the tour me and thsi French woman I met walked around down town and went to the Johannesburg Art Gallery (pretty good) and the African Museum (pretty bad). Coincidentally, this woman who's 26 and went to Stanford was staying with her friend in Joburg who's from Briarcliff Manor (the town next-door to Ossining). I didn't know him, he went to Hackley (which means he shoudl have gone to Ossining schools, prob), but small world.

I love Jozi

Except I can't call Johannesburg Jozi, since I'm not from here and am just a tourist. And love's a strong word, but I definitely like Jburg a lot. It's no Cape Town, but what is? And I definitely feel safe, especially in the posh suburb of Parkhurst we're staying in. Our accomodations are AMAZING, kind of thanks to me. Well, really thanks to my long-lost cousin whose daughter's best friend Di, the coolest woman ever, is putting us up. I feel like I'm in a B&B, complete with washed towels and tea in the morning. Tina and Steph are staying in the cottage (which is normal here, supposedly) and I even have my own room which is nothing short of incredible. And while my longlost cousin said money was tight for Di, it's loose enough that she has a maid, who did my laundry, to my awkwardness.

We rented a car from a company called Rent-a-wreck, so the car is about as nice as it sounds. This is actually our second car since the first one was a bit too much of a wreck. I finally drove on the left side of the rode! Since my driving skills are often lacking, the prospect of this scared my, no joke, more than bungee jumping. But it's actually not that hard and kind of fun.

Jburg is definitely a big city, and we need to be alert, but it's definitely much less scary than everyone in Cape Town said. It's kind of like if you ask people in San Fran about L.A. their reaction contains much more hatred than appropriate. We drove through some of the sketchier parts, and it didn't seem worse than some parts of New York or Chicago. I take for gratned being comfortable with big cities the way a lot of people aren't.

Last night we went with Di, and my long-lost cousin's daughter Christine to see Soweto Story, which is Romeo & Juliet set in Soweto, a large township outside of Jburg. It was a blatant rip-off of West Side Story, but worse. We've only gone out once to a "college night." Unfortunately, college night was more like high school night with the average bargoer being about 14.

bungee jumping and more

So I've been a negligent blogger, and probably will continue to be for the rest of the trip, a heads up. We just got back from driving the garden route, a BEAUTIFUL drive in the Western Cape. Our friend Sarah joined us and we rode ostriches (weird but fun), went wine tasting (cheaper than Cali, but not as good an experience), zip lined (again, super-fun). Coolest of all: Sarah and I went BUNGEE JUMPING! Bungy Jumping Garden Route which is the highest bungee jump in the WORLD! It was super-scary, and didn't actually stop being scary. I had to go first, since I was one of the fatter people and they were doing it by weight which they marked ON MY HAND. Anyway, after swinging and swinging UPSIDE-DOWN I didn't realize a guy was supposed to come down and get me so I thought I did something wrong and he was rescuing me.

Other stuff happened. I will maybe write later.

some more Cape Town

Just to clarify last post...It's ot that there are only white people on Long St., far from it. We've met tons of black and colored (NOT a racist word here) in Cape Town But a lot of restaurants and bar tend to lean touristy and/or white, especially a lot of the restaurants we go to. I totally admit to living the western tourist lifestyle here.

March 29 (continued)

Mama Africa was sort of underwhelming, although ostrich meat was quite good (like steak, not chicken). The we hung out with the Medill kids interning here at their super-posh apartment and at a bar on Long St. THEN I was tired (from the hike, you might remember) so I went home early , and went to bed around 1am. Shortly there after when I was trying to fall asleep a man and his girlfriend (who I'm going to assume are German unless I hear otherwise) just WALKED INTO MY ROOM! They just started going on the balcony only accessible by my room. ummmm, not ok. I told them this and the man explained "it's the only way to get there." I told him it was not ok to walk through my room, and kindly suggested they use the public balcony. "It's too noisy there" he said like that was ok. Later they climbed out the window of their own room to get to the balcony. ugh, some people are so rude.

March 30

We woke up early and took the train to a beach in Muizenberg. Public transportation here is suppoosed to be horrific but the train wasn't worse than the L in Chicago (though that's not saying much). The water was warmer there, though it was still a little cold.

At night we went out with the son of a woman Tina knows in Joburg. He goes to University of Cape Town (UCT) and he and his friends were very nice and nerdy (in otherwards, people we'd hang with at Northwestern). We went to Cubana (different than the other one we went to- apparently a chain) where there was drinking and dancing, thoguh the Cuban food is more like Mexican.

I'd like to note that I ask people here a million questions about their culture. Yet people here know so much about the U.S. their questions are hyper-specific and really just clarifying what they've learned from the media. Per example, one of his friends, who was black and quite well-off himself, asked me if black people in America are as spoiled and materialistic as they appear on tv, particularly music videos. I said no, some people are spoiled and materialistic of course, but rap videos don't speak for everyone.

more cape town

Tuesday March 27

I woke up early to go to a Parliament meeting. A source of Steph suggested she go, and Tin aand I went, thinking it would be interesting. It wasn't, but now I can cross South Africa parliamentary meeting off my to-do list. I also had an interview with a nice man at a government think tank who put AIDS activism into context. At night Steph and I had sushi dinner with a nice (but boring photographer)


Wednesday March 28

Early interview with an American working on AIDS activism in the am, who discussed the comparison of U.S. and South African activism. Then Steph and I attempted to
go to Robben Island. Unfortunately, tickets were sold out. We bought tickets for Monday am, and went off. Steph was meeting someone at 3, so I went to the beach. Lovely of course. Since I've been spending sooo much money, on the way back I took a mini-cab,
which is a group taxi that has stops. I was one of three white people, and the cab got dropped off in a neighborhood not far from where I'm staying. It was weird, because everyone was black, which is normal for South Africa, but most of the people on Long Street are white. It's a pretty segregrated city. But so are most cities, I guess.

At night we went to a club Fashion TV where all the beautiful people of Cape Town go. The cigarette promoter who doesn't' smoke got us into a VIP room. This jappy (jsappy?) woman started talked to me at one point about how she's going to the U.S. and already has lined up Jdates in three cities.

Thursday March 28

I climbed Lion's Head. Which is a mountain (not Table Mountain, the bigger mountain, we're all doing next week). If you know me, you know I'm not exactly a hiker. But I realized I had never climbed a mountain by myself, and I wanted a solo activity. So after a small snafu (the cab driver thought I wanted to go to Lion's Head LODGE instead of the mountain) four hours late I had been up AND down a beautiful mountain. all by myself.

And tonight we're having dinner at Mama Africa and I will finally get to eat ostrich!

update

Nothing ridiculously thrilling the last couple days, but I'll still blog:

Sunday March 25:

More beach! Because South Africa's very Christian, almost everything was closed on Sunday. We went to the beach, and walked to another beach to eat lunch. Our first waitress was very tired since she worked two double shifts. Our second waiter was very excited we were from the U.S. even though he wanted to kill Bill Gates because he had too much money. Said waiter wants to go to the U.S. and visit 1) New York and 2) Michigan since that's where Eminem's from.

After beaching it, we ate an unsatisfying dinner at Lola's, with a rude waitress who took an hour to bring food, and then went for some drinks at Long Street Cafe with Scottish Laura.

Monday March 26:

I woke up at 7:30am for an interview. Yes, I'm actually doing a bit of work! I had a nice interview with D, who Steph connected me too, and we discussed the recent changes in activists' relationship with the government regarding their position on HIV/AIDS (my topic).

Then I tried to take Tina to the coffee shop where I met my Zimbabwean friend, but it was farther than I remembered so we turned around. Instead we read and had delicious milkshakes at Long Street Cafe.


Right when we were discussing how we need to make friends, Tina's friend's friend called and took us out for a drink. He works for a cigarette company (though he doesn't smoke), and basically throws parties so he's a good person to know.

Once we returned, Steph was going to interview D (who I interviewed in the a.m.) over dinner. When he saw me, he inivted me to join, which I did hesitantly since I knew Steph needed to interview. But I needn't had worried, since it ended up being a 30 minute interview, joined by a 20 minute car ride to Kalk Bay and a fancy dinner, too much wine, and learning D's life story. Fun fact: Despite the fact that D works in the AIDS world, spent 15 years in San Francisco (in the Mission no less) and referred to his "partner" we learned later said partner was a woman. We were quite suprised.

It's exciting meeting people who are older who have traveled the world and are still doing new and exciting things even though they are adults. It gives me hope for the future.

Diana's birthday, Tina arrives, and more fun

There are three of us now. I (Diana) am way into blogging so I will chronicle our journeys the past few days, and the others can add if they wish:

At midnight on March 23 Steph and I went to the Dubliners, an Irish bar, to ring in my birthday. A Bon Jovi lookalike sang decent covers as tourists danced. A few Kellogg kids showed up, of course, but overall a nice time.

In the morning, when Steph went to prison, Tina, our third musketeer, arrived! We ran errands and went to the botanical gardens where a Canadian commercial was being shot. It was one of many commericals we have since seen, since people apparently fly from all over the world to bask in the glow of Cape Town. Then guess who found us? YES, Steph and my stalker from the first day. This makes four times he has found us. I was quite terse.

At night, for my birthday dinner the three of us went for delicious Kurdish food. There were high school boys smoking hookah next to us, and we felt old. I also danced with a belly dancer.

We then went clubbing on Long Street. This was the first time we went OUT out on our lovely street, and we were not super-impressed. While I enjoyed the birthday drinks of course, the crowd was quite touristy/highschooly. We went to one cool club "The Waiting Room" where we had a view of the city.

Overall, it was a lovely birthday, and super-great to spend it in Cape Town, the most beautiful city in the WORLD.


March 24

While Steph was in prison, Tina and I went to the beach. We first got bikini waxes at this super-fancy hotel (that would cost upwards of $500/night if we stayed there ourselves) and were able to lay by the pool. We kept remarking how lucky we are that Medill is subsidizing our trip to paradise. Then Steph joined us as we lay out on the beach which was beautiful, of course. Though it was slightly annoying that every 4.5 seconds a man would come by hawking water or ice cream or sunglasses. We firmly said NO.

After the beach (and some more Sinfull gelato) we came back and got ready to go out. While we were getting ready, a nice Scottish girl came by our room and asked if she could join us to go out. Apparently, a boy ditched her and now seh was on her own. Of course she could join us! We were quite excited to make hostel friends, since where we are staying the people aren't the friendliest.

Our new friend Laura (21, and staying in Namibia for three months) went with us to the Waterfront for shopping and seafood at Ocean Basket. Beautiful, duh. I need to stop saying that because EVERYTHING's beautiful. I couldn't imagine living in Cape Town forever, and just taking the beauty for granted.

Then we went to Cubana, a cool bar that wasn't super-touristy and a great break from the trashiness of Long Street. Then we danced at Opium. It was ok, though the house music is not my thing. There was a guy wearing a shirt that said "I love beer and girls." Not the way to pick up chicks, fella.

Before heading off to bed, we had falafel from a street vendor, just to make sure our Scottish friend solidified the idea of fat Americans in her head.

Long Street makes us alcoholics

Long St. (aka the Bourbon St. of South Africa) was at it again. We think the producers of Real World seriously need to look into shooting their next season here. But this makes sleeping difficult, and alcohol an essential part of the bedtime routine. Steph had to wake up at 7am to go visit a prison. The alarm didn't go off and she flipped out with curlers in her hair. Steph sent Diana downstairs to fetch Raoul sans glasses or shoes, although he was nowhere to be found.

The reliable R (ethnicity: dutch and just really REALLY tan) took Steph to Paarl, a nice city west of Cape Town famous for their wine vinyards before heading off to a prison. After interviewing two murderers, who only need to serve 12-15 years (scary?!), Steph headed back to a much calmer long street. R shared stories about his wild days as a political activist during apartheid. There was some crazy stuff.

While Steph was in prison, Diana slept, ate, e-mailed sources and shopped. The high point of the day was going down Kloof (as per Josh's suggestion) and eating at The Food Store. Paying for my $15 rand ($2) quiche, the service woman from Zimbabwe commented on how burnt I was. I told her coming from Chicago, I was overexcited about seeing the sun. "Chicago!?," she asked. "Like where Oprah is!" South Africans love their Oprah. We agreed she's way better than Tyra and exchanged numbers to be friends.

When Steph returned, we had an early dinner at Lola's, a cool urban artsy coffee shop/bar. We sipped on mango teas infused with mint leaves and a dash of lime. At night we went to the 13th Annual Gay/Lesbian film festival at a movie theatre in the mall. We learned 1) designer jeans are cheap in South Africa (Steph bought a pair), 2) movies have assigned seats and 3) you can flavor your own popcorn. We prefer cheddar and sour cream. The movie "Unveiled" a German film, was very interesting.

Now we're off to drink ourselves to sleep and celebrate the beginning of Diana's 22nd birthday!

Fight for your right

Tuesday March 20

We were moved into our beautiful balcony view hostel room, much better than the half-Willard sized double we started in.

We met our lovely reporter friend from The Cape Times for a coffee date. He was inspiring. From janitor during apartheid to journalist today, he had so much energy and passion. Too bad we're missing it. Afterwards, we decided to explore the nightlife of Longstreet, supposedly the hotspot of all of Africa where our hostel happens to be (according to our ADD-ridden bartender). We were sipping on 'naughty by nature' mango drinks (4.5 % alc, just enough to get Steph drunk) and chatting with ADD-ridden bartender when walks in a dozen obnoxious, toolerific...KELLOGG STUDENTS. Ugh. Why? In all of Cape Town, we find all 57 of them on the first night they were there. We hope their obviously poor reputation won't reflect badly on us, since everyone will assume we too are Kellogg tools.

After ditching the tools (the girls were particularly bitchy) we went back to our hostel where we met two nice German men (as opposed to other unpleasant German neighbor who wouldn't give us charger back and didn't think we were from "America") who are stationed in Johannesburg doing computer-nerd stuff. They got us REALLY scared for our upcoming stay in Joburg. To cut things short, one of them has three doors to get into his house and says he shuts each one right away. One German's going back to his motherland Berlin, but luckily the other Elmar promises to hang with us in Joburg, despite thinking we're retarded for not driving stick.

Then, having an early day the next morning to go to a Human Rights Day event, we called it an early night a little after midnight. Unfortunately, for the rest of Long Street, Human Rights Day eve, transformed Long Street into Bourbon Street of Mardi Gras or Times Square on New Years Eve. Although Stephanie fell asleep right away (drunk and red-faced on one drink) her snoring was almost blissful for Diana, who was kept awake by the honking and screaming outside the window. Three hours later, and one break to watch music videos with Africans, she fell asleep.

Wednesday, March 21

Today was perfection!

We knew the day was of to a good start when our key actually worked AND we had hot showers. Life is good.

At 8 a.m. R (ethnicity tbd), Steph's contact who is taking her to South African prisons, rolled up in his Nissan with a large toothy black man named Bafana. We drove through the beautiful Cape Town scenery, and despite being on the wrong side of the road and R's crazy driving, it was a magnificent experience. One stop later to pick up a self-appointed African connoisseur from the U.S who worked for a U.S. NGO, we went to Khalyelitsha, an impoverished township 40 minutes outside of the city. R and B's organization was working to promote gender equality and HIV awareness, and this march was in honor of Human Rights Day.

We had wanted to take a township tour, though Diana was ambivalent of the "misery chic" of it all. However, this was a billion times better. We immediately hit it off with the South African teenagers (better than the NGO ladies who acted like they were on a safari, snapping photos from their car). We talked, marched and sang with the South African teenagers and little children. Tina (who will hopefully be joining this blog shortly!) is right: African children made our heart melt. Hundreds joined us as we marched through the shantytown, agreeing with our cries for an end to violence. We were struck by the drama performance at the end about a woman being raped and shocked, as three year olds watched the show. Although we realize this is nothing compared to what they've seen in their lives.

We particularly became bff with four teenage girls native to Khalyelitsha, and were amazed how much we had in common, yet how different they were. Both things we'd want in our lives, like that they spoke four languages and had very high tech cell phones. And things we were saddened by, like that it is so violent and dangerous, they can't leave their homes after 6pm. There are no after school activities and they don't see friends other than school.

While we peppered the girls with questions, they only had one for us: Do black girls in the U.S have real hair?, as our favorite, the chubby bubbly one, pointed at her short hair. Yes, sometimes, we told her, and cited Tyra Banks. We all agreed Oprah is much better than Tyra. They watch both talk shows. These girls are tough, but confirmed we should be scared when we go to Joburg. Steph and Diana, being quite aloof always, are considering themselves fucked.

Afterwards, we went to the Camps Bay beach. It was beautiful of course. Steph describes it as South Beach-esque without the trashy hoes. The breathtaking landscape of table mountain makes everything even better. We walked along the shops (as always, Diana checking out food and Steph eyeing dresses) and were approached for the millionth time by a small child. This happens often in Cape Town, and Diana was struck with how this never happens in the U.S. Steph noted that Child Services wouldn't let this fly. We didn't give money, though Steph kindly give one poor child a South Beach Diet protein bar. Thanks Steph!

We had a great sushi dinner with a beach view (again, we're rolling with the money makers in Cape Town), where they played Kelly Clarkson and had gelato at Sinfull (Steph said it's better then the stuff in Italy).

We are now back and will hopefully continuously keep you updated on our amazing adventures. Steph will be going back to prison tomorrow at 7am (hopefully playing more "Vagina, Penis, Safe Sex" with inmates) so should have stories to report.

"I like Cape Town because we can chill with the rich people"

ED NOTE: This was written by Diana, before joint blog was started.

so said Steph, my traveling companion for my time in South Africa, after our $25 dinner at a fancy Waterfront restaurant (reminiscent of a classy restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf but cheaper). While she actually does research, I figured I'd blog about the journey thus far.

Flight from O'Hare-->Heathrow= miserable. Worst flight attendants EVER. They wouldn't give me a bottle of water even though I was dehydrated. Plus the flight was rocky.

London- We had 8 hours, so decided to be quick tourists in Piccadilly Circus, where a St. Patrick's Day parade was going on. This was my first time EVER in Europe, and maybe not the greatest experience, since I was quite tired/jet-lagged. It was...nice? My quick jaunt reminded me of New York + San Francisco architecture + British accents and a few stores I've never seen. I guess a tad anticlimatic, though I'm excited to get a few days there on my way back. Heathrow was the nicest airport ever though.

Flight from Heathrow--> Cape Town= AMAZING. The flight was underbooked, so we each got our own row of seats and I slept (soundly) 8 out of the 11 hour flight.

Cape Town is BEAUTIFUL. We're staying on Long Street, the central street where all the hostels aret. Steph keeps comparing everything we see to something she's seen, so I'd say Cape Town is like a more beautiful San Francisco, and Long Street is like Jamaica, with white tourists and black service people. Table Mountain is beautiful as is the water, and it's just so spectacular. Long Street is super-touristy and kitschy, but it's fun and vacation-like. Plus, the weather's amaing.

While there has been absolutely no reason to use the mase I invested in, just before I was sitting outside Mr. Pickwicks Deli, this cute deli where I got a mint milkshake, and this man sat at my table and started talking to me. I wanted him to leave because he was sketching me out, but I didn't want to say anything since, who am I to claim a table?, so I just let him sit there and even gave him a piece of paper when he asked for it. But then he started asking for money and I'm like, sorry, no. I felt bad, since I'm a rich American, but I can't just hand out rands to everyone who asks, you know?

Other sketchiness: Yesterday Steph and I got smoothies at a restaurant. Our nice waiter told us a beach to go to. Said waiter then saw us again while we were sitting at this park near all these museums. Coincidence, we thought, until this guy showed up AGAIN this morning and started flirting. He asked for our numbers so he could take us out. Kind of maybe-sketchy. We want friends in Cape Town, so we took his number. But THEN he leaves and brings back his sketchier friend who was WAITING ACROSS THE STREET. hmm, we think he might have been following us. What are the chances of running into him (or rather him running into us) three times?

And my research is, ehh. I should have, I don't know, "researched" more before, but I'm trying to just enjoy Cape Town and not stress about that. And unfortunately for my internet addiction, there's a cafe right under my hostel.

Oh, and I told this German man in my hostel that I'm from America, and he's like "America? You mean the U.S. There are a lot of other countries in America." umm, ok, so I'm ethnocentric.