My last post

This is my last blog posting. I am going to get on a plane at 1:50 PM tomorrow to leave for Joburg. I leave Joburg at 6PM, will stop over in Dakar, then eventually arrive in DC at 6AM. It will be 15 hours of darkness. I will get into Houston around 11 AM and then will have a drive to Corsicana afterwards. Nice long 30 hour travel period.

Camps Bay on my birthday.

This last week at work there has been a fairly substantial assignment I have been working on which, apparently, I was supposed to be working on for quite a while. News to me.

My birthday was Tuesday. It was also Cary's last day, and ODAC gave us a very nice going away lunch. It also counted as my birthday lunch, as Cary had bought me a cake earlier.

I cut out of work an hour early and met up with Hirsh. We went to Camps bay with a Frisbee and some wine Cary got me for my birthday. We threw the Frisbee and watched the sun set.

After watching the sunset, we went down to the waterfront and Cary joined us at a nice restaurant outside. I had Kudu, Springbok, and Impala venison cutlets.

Fola and a date joined us, and we went to see Inception. Because there is an independent theater right next to Saasveld that shows old movies, and the fact that we had seen no movie posters or movie theaters, we just assumed that South Africa didn't get American movies for months. This is, obviously, a ridiculous thought. There are Aston Martin and Maseratti shops at the mall at the waterfront, I think that they would have movie theaters.

On the day of my 21st birthday, I went to see The Dark Knight, the last Christopher Nolan film. I figured it was a good birthday activity to keep up.
So now it is just Hirsh and me left in Cape Town. Hirsh is staying here for another week or so.

22 was a good year. Stressful, but I made a ton of new friends and saw a large part of the world I had never been exposed to before.

This trip has been excellent. I went to 8 World Cup matches and watched almost all of the tournament. I made quite a few friends and became closer to several of my Harvard buddies. My roommates and I roadtripped across country. I learned a lot from my position at ODAC, wrote part of an Amicus brief, watched Parliament and possibly influenced some legislation, learned a ton about South Africa, played with lion cubs, saw the Cape of Good Hope, elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebra, impala, rhino, and sharks. I know Cape Town really well, better than I know Boston or Dallas. And Harvard paid for much of it. Kingman out.

Last Weekend in Cape Town

This past weekend we had grand plans of taking care of everything remaining on our lists, but of course what we actually ended up doing was much different.

Saturday morning we had planned on going to the Old Biscuit Mill market, then hiking Table Mountain. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and wet. We ate our fill from an incredible selection of food at the market, then split ways to go shopping. I bought a bootleg Chelsea jacket for under $20.

Dave and I went to the SA National Museum. It was mainly a natural history museum. It was a bit of a let down- there were a few really cool skeletons of blue whales, though.

The site of the Fanfest. Much different now.

Biscuit Mill

Afterwards we decided to hit our last big Long Street night. We did so in spades. Some Russians started talking noise to me about America. What began with a countercriticism from Soviet fascism and murder turned to Russian keptocracy in one of the longest streams of insults and nationalist slurs I think I have ever mustered. I was pretty proud of myself.

On Sunday, Hirsh, David, Dave, Nick, and I went to Kalk Bay, a small beach community about an hour long train ride away. The one bar was PACKED on Sunday afternoon in the winter. We watched the surfers and ate, then went to the beach to play frisbee in the late afternoon. We waited for the return train from a Cuban bar on the beach.

Bar overlooking the bay

Walking to the beach along the sea wall.

Another beautiful beach.

There are probably not any other big adventures in store, as I will be going home in just a few days. David went home today. Dave is leaving Tuesday. Cary is leaving on Wednesday. Hirsh and I will be the last ones here, holding it down.

Table Mountain

I cut out of work early and took the cable care with Calleigh to the top of table mountain. It has been operating for 80 years, and I can't believe it took me this long to go up here.

This beaver looking thing is 1200 meters up and basking. A Dassie.

Cape Peninsula

That is ocean on the other side of these mountains.

Lions Head, Robben Island, Signal Hill, Cape Town Stadium, City Bowl

The sun was in my eyes, but the city is great.

Another thing great about the city is how well you can eat for relatively cheap. The HLS crew went to Auberginie, a really nice restaurant for my birthday/going away dinner. It is not for a few days, but everyone will be leaving either on my birthday or right after. For $50 we ate like kings.

The Sunset Moonrise Tradition

One thing I really like about Cape Town is how outdoorsy it is. Hiking remains a pretty bougie activity, but it is still great. A tradition is that on the three or so nights of the full moon, people climb the Lion's Head to watch the sun set and full moon rise, drink some wine at the top, and climb down by moonlight. And flashlight. This, objectively, is AWESOME. I can only imagine during the summer.

You can see the crowd ascending the mountain.

With the sun setting over the Atlantic.

Group shot, taken by one of the astronomers that lug up the telescopes every month.

LR- David, Cary, Adam, Josh- Adam's friend and Cary's former boss, Sarah- Josh's fiance, Calleigh-intern from UVA, and me.

People were just chilling out all over the rock.

David. The stadium is on the far left.

Cary will be mad at me for posting this.

CAPE TOWN

Supercheesy. We just have too many normal pictures.

I am really proud of myself for this picture. The full moon rising to the left of Table Mountain.

Red Red Wine- Wine Tasting in Stellenbosh

We went wine tasting on Saturday. The Western Cape includes the wine country surrounding Stellenbosh. We took an hour-long train ride out there and paid 400R for a 4 farm tour including lots of wine tasting. Lots.

Simonsur- #1

He opened this champagne with a sword. Which is awesome.

And a random Chameleon loved this guy.

The second place had something about goats in play.

Someplace dealing with wine production.

Everywhere we go, David wants a picture of his Barack Obama pose.

Cary is a super lightweight, so I played cleanup on her wine. There are sober kids in America.

Farm 3

I think this is actually what Hirsh's world looks like.

Farm 4. Cary still can't relax.

I put the camera away after this.

The wine was great. And inexpensive. But bringing it home would be a huge pain, so I will probably just buy it in the States.

We took a very sketch train ride back to Cape Town after grabbing a pint with some English guys we met studying at University of Edinburgh.

After the Burger Joint, it was definitely bedtime.

On the Job

After the World Cup ended, work has been a bit of a drag. The place where I work is very loud with everyone shouting into phones, and I have taken to wearing headphones.

The Protection of Information Bill is going through Parliament, and ODAC is one of several organizations trying to change some of the awful parts of the bill. The ANC has a huge majority in the parliament, and can basically do whatever they want. Watching them, most seem to be like the itinerant members of city councils or local governments who stridently and incoherently attempt to retain and secure their own power by railing against the past. Under the auspices of 'national interest' the government should be able to prevent any information from being released that it chooses. There was much comment about 'democracy being built on trust' and how the government should be trusted to do the right thing.

It is as if reacting to the exposure of all the rampant corruption in SA, they are trying to limit exposure rather than cut corruption. There were no claims of libel by the media or anything like that. This blog posting sums up my fascination well.

It strikes me as the type of bill that the Nixon administration would have tried to push if the Republican clout had been so substantial to eliminate possible impeachment proceedings and Tricky Dick had not resigned. There are not enough people angry about this. Imagine if Woodward and Bernstein had been publicly villainized by the government?

The ANC reminds me of the worst part of both parties. The xenophobic nationalism and appeal to cultural superiority of right-wing Republicans with the big government, race-conscious, and poor-pandering populism of the Democrats. In other words, the exact opposite of the brand of sensible libertarianism that I believe in and will stunt any political ambition.

Here is The Economist on the ANC.

Shark Cage Diving

David, Cary, and I called it an early night on Saturday because we had arranged to go shark diving on July 18th (Mandela day). We were picked up at 5:30 and driven to Gaansbai, 2 hours away. There was a terrible skipping dvd with music too loud on the way there, but once we were out on the water, all was well. We met some nice Canadian brothers doing a cross-Africa road trip.

Whale, diving.

Divemaster Steve.

It took a few hours, but we saw about 4 or 5 sharks. These things are freaking huge.
They baited them, just like in the Discovery Channel.
It was at the same spot that the sharks breach in Planet Earth.
We were the last group to get into the cage, and we had sat around for hours.
We felt like it was going to be amphibious assault.
I bought an indestructible, waterproof camera last summer.

But unfortunately there were not sharks right in front of me.
It still was a cool experience, though cold and uncomfortable.


We got unlucky. But it is like big fishing, but just with you as the bait.

We were tired and headed home. They played Transforemers on the way back.