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.