A view from the the hill at the vineyard in Franschoek yesterday

I wish the weather looked like that again today. It's another day of crazy Cape Town weather, and it happens to be our day off. It's raining sideways onto our covered patio. The wind is blowing so hard that the sliding glass doors shake from time to time.

On Monday of this week, we visited the prison/museum at Robben Island. We saw Nelson Mandela's cell, walked through several of the other cells (which had moving stories posted on the walls, written by their former inhabitants), and visited Robert Sobukwe's house. Lots of history and learning. Our guide through the prison was actually a former political prisoner on the island. I didn't catch his name, because it was a hard-to-pronounce African name. He shared some really moving insight with us about what it was like to actually be a prisoner there.

Tuesday, we had class, then some people went to tour the World Cup Stadium. I decided not to go- I think I was too tired to go that day, but I hope to before we leave in a week. Wednesday (yesterday) we went to Franschoek, made wine in a vineyard, and ate some incredible food in the town. (Half Indian chicken, half banana and bacon pizza, an incredible layered eggplant something, and white truffle with coffee gelato.)

Because of the weather, plans for the day have been cancelled in favor of staying in and writing the paper we have due this Sunday evening. I'm sitting at my kitchen table eating a folded-over peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast. My roommates are still asleep. All I can think about is that today is the last day before the countdown to home moves into the single digets.

Things I'll miss about Africa:
New friends. Having our incredibly smart teachers around. The interns. Mountains everywhere you look. The ocean outside my apartment. In fact, the scenery everywhere- Kirstenbosch, the Garden Route, Stellenbosch, Franschoek (where we visited the vineyard yesterday), and so on. The people I met in Sir Laury's. The food... all the food. Our cab drivers, Lantz, Bradley, and Corbis, and our goofy transportation coordinator/savior, Ish. Going to the Old Biscuit Mill market every Saturday for breakfast with friends. The South African accent. The kids at the Amy Biehl after school program in Gugulethu. Actually delicious instant coffee at the Lagoon House, where we have class. Rugby, and being applauded when I wear my Stormers jersey. Working out in the apartment with my roommates. Making dinner with my roommates. Pretty much everything about my roommates- who go to Auburn and Wake Forest, both at least 4 hours away from Athens.

Things I'm looking forward to in the States:
Old friends. My family. Going to my favorite band's show in Athens 3 days after I get back. Being in Athens again, in general- though I'm not living there this summer. Not paying for a cab every time I want to go somewhere. Being able to row and run again. Hot weather- I'd take southern humidity over Cape Town wind any day. Painting. Playing music. Living at home, and not in a city. (Mixed feelings about that.) Nutrition facts I can understand. Miles and pounds and dollars. Kevin and Patrice's cooking. (And I can help now that I've learned, while here, I'm not a hopeless cook after all!) Planning another trip back here...

I was just telling Sammy yesterday how I feel like this trip is my own personal Eat Pray Love. Exhibit A: that conversation took place on the way from the BEST pizza joint I've ever been to, going to a gelato shop, with the Bhagavid Gita, an ancient Hindu scripture, in my book bag.

Eat Pray Love wasn't my favorite book I've ever read. I didn't like a lot of it. It was a struggle to read, sometimes. I did like the way the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, phrased a lot of the more enlightening and cultural concepts. I learned a lot about different cultures- Italian, Indian, Balinese, even American- which I really like doing. And I learned a LOT about yogic spirituality.

Eat. Boy, do we eat here. The restaurants I want to visit outnumber anything (everything) else left on Cape Town To-Do List. Since I've been here, I've had food from South Africa, Italy, Greece, Thailand, and the Kurdish region, to name a few. Some of my favorite meals here have been a grilled mushroom kebab at the Old Biscuit Mill (and I usually don't even like mushrooms), eggs benedict with salmon at the OBM, naan-wrapped, yogurt-covered grilled chicken at Mesopotamia (the Kurdish restaurant), bacon and banana flapjacks in Stellenbosch, sushi and steamed dumplings at the Waterfront here, and Indian chicken flatbread pizza yesterday in Franschoek. There's also this chocolate pudding- basically molten chocolate pudding underneath a thin cakey crust, served with a solid chocolate or caramel spoon and a scoop of white chocolate ice cream- at our hotel restaurant/bar that I would be content with having as each of my remaining meals here. We're all making little jokes about "the Cape Town 15"... but it's becoming too real. We're all going to go back to the 100 degree southern summer weather, winter-weather-pale and with a whole lot "more of us to love".

Pray. I'm not a religious person, but I'm really interested in the study of religions- especially Eastern. While I've been here, I finished Eat Pray Love, read a book on Taoism (Tao Te Ching- the 82 verses of Taoism), and started the Bhagavid Gita. I read them just because I'm interested in learning about the religions- not because I'm looking for any sort of religious guidance from them.

Religion here- like, I guess, in every other place on Earth- has its diversity. There are some people, like the Soup Moms in Sir Laury's Pass, to whom their Christian faith is everything. There are many others, like some of the teenage boys we met in Sir Laury's, who don't believe in anything. This could be for any number of reasons, or for no particular reason at all, but a lot of the atheism we've encountered in the township has been reported to be because of the hard life that the people have lived so far. There's moderate religious conflict between Christians and Muslims- and probably among other religions/sects, but that was the only one I had direct experience with. Being here has given me a new perspective on religion in the "real" world. Religion is something I thought a lot about this past year, so I've been very aware and conscious with my experiences with it here. Just some things to think about...

Love. Everyone I've met in the past month. Figuring out more about what I value, how and why I think the way I do, what I want to "do with my life". A growing scope for and appreciation of humanity. It's almost too big and too conceptual of a topic to write about at all. I'll at least leave it for another day. It's almost 1pm here- I've been working on this blog for over two hours as it is.

In other news, for anyone who's interested, I think I found (again/for now/I think for real this time) "what I want to do with my life"! Or, at least, I finally found a name for everything I've ever been interested in: ethnomusicology, the study of music as an aspect of culture.

Best wishes and jealousy to all my friends going to the Bonnaroo music festival this weekend,
M