Day 2

Today I met Lana, a Rotarian friend of Tony’s who took me to the bank to pick up my cards and such. After running those errands, we went to a lovely café by the ocean and had drinks and chatted. She helped me a bit with suggestions for finding flats and things. After my outing with Lana, I walked down to the V & A Waterfront, which is about a 10-15 minute walk from where I’m staying – quite a nice area. I walked into the mall at the waterfront and had to remind myself that I’m in South Africa, not the US. The mall would fool you, though. Immediately to my left as I walked in was an Apple/Mac store. Throughout the mall, I was confronted with American shops like Levi’s, Guess, and Body Shop. I also was pleasantly confronted with some South African (and other) brands and shops that I have never seen before. I walked out of the mall and to the actual waterfront that is still an active port – it was beautiful!! I turned and looked up and was caught with the most beautiful view of the mountain. There was also a cloud coming over Table Mountain, which is called by locals the “table cloth”. It’s really a beautiful sight, the cloud creeps over the top of the mountain and disappears midway down.

Following my visit to the V & A Waterfront, I returned to my flat, rested a bit, and got ready for my outing with Tony and Jill. They picked me up and we went to one of the malls to see a movie. The movie was called Skin. It was a very well-done movie. It was very sad and outlined the story of a dark-skinned girl born to light-skinned parents during Apartheid. The girl’s name was Sandra Laing and the movie is based on the true story of her life. The movie outlined some of the biological ways that this sort of thing can happen. After a battery of tests, doctors concluded that she was in fact the biological daughter of both her parents and that some unique genetic matching allowed her to be born with a very different physical appearance from her parents. An interesting point was made by a geneticist in the movie that most whites in southern Africa actually have some black genes from past ancestors. Please check out the website for the film and see when it will be released in the States. It has won international film awards and is definitely a must-see.

Following the movie we had a lovely dinner at Doppio Zero, an Italian restaurant at the mall. Jill, Tony, and I talked about the film, South Africa, why I am here, my family, my background, their family, etc, etc, etc. It was quite nice. Tony had invited me on a Sunday morning walk with some of his friends on Table Mountain. We figured it would be better that I stay at their house on Saturday night because of the early hour at which the walk would begin. After grabbing some things from my flat, we went to their house and settled in for the night.