Yesterday I went to the Pottery
Cafe, where you get to paint a piece of pottery and eat delicious food (we got
pizza!). It was such a nice place and a great way to relax. I like doing small
things like this around Cape Town. I didn't come to Cape Town with much of a
bucket list and didn't have any extreme activities I particularly wanted to do
like others did (skydiving, bungee jumping, etc.). But after hearing about
other people's bucket lists, I've found myself getting more into that mindset
of needing to get a lot of activities done (especially big or extreme
activities) and to fill every moment of free time doing things. However, my mom
gave me some really good advice that grounded me a bit. When I told her I
wasn't going on the Garden Route and was kind of regretting it, she said I can
still find fun things to do this weekend and that they didn't have to be
anything big; it could as simple as enjoying the weather or having a casual
picnic. I definitely needed to hear this and I realized how true it was. I
agree that it's good to enjoy some low key moments and not rush around doing
everything. It's nice to just sit back and truly soak up Cape Town as it is.
Honestly I think I'm more of a chill-activity person anyway as I prefer things
like picnics, free concerts, markets, and more. So it was good to hear that and
made me realize I don't need to be doing a million things to have a good time.
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| From left clockwise: Amelia, Paige, Mary, Maria, Alex L at Pottery Cafe |
Another interesting thing I wanted
to touch on was about diversity and race. We talked about it in our discussion
class and I've also witnessed issues relating to it myself. One thing I noticed
(more so the first few weeks here) is that people will call me
"China." Sometimes it sounded like they were using it as a simple
descriptive characteristic, sometimes it was in a racist way, other times a
more curious way. I've gotten many comments about this. I've been called
"China" by many South Africans, whether it be people in
taxis/minibuses, women selling fruit on the street, kids in schools, people in
clubs on Long Street, and more. Sometimes they say "ni hao" to me or
bow, or ask where I'm from or comment on how I speak English. Honestly I was
really surprised how blatant they were and how ignorant people could be. It's
also wrong to assume that any Asian person you see is Chinese (they could be
Japanese, Korean, etc). Like for me, I was born in China but I'm American. I
don't really like being singled out of the group and being labeled like
this. I was honestly disappointed because I thought South Africa of all places
would be more tolerant and accepting of different races, especially after
apartheid, but maybe the effects of that have made people notice race
differences even more. I also attribute a lot of it due to lack of diversity. I
know SA is known as the Rainbow Nation and known for being diverse, but I feel
like there actually aren't many other races represented besides white and
black. I rarely see Asians, Latinos, Indians, etc. I think lack of diversity
can make people uninformed and even hostile towards outsiders (see xenophobia
issues in SA). This is why diversity and tolerance is so important! Overall
it's been an interesting experience to say the least, and it has made me
realize the importance of diversity even more. Although I don't appreciate the
names on the street, even if they aren't meant in a negative way, I think I am
learning a lot from it and reflecting even more on race/diversity, including
it's role in different societies and the reasons why.
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