Collette making observations on her time here

Now that we’ve been in Cape Town for a while, and our time is (sadly) dwindling away, I thought it might be fitting to make a list of observations. Now, for the most part, these are just things I thought were interesting. Some of them, however, are just words or phrases that people say here.

1. There are no lions walking the streets. There are no lions even readily available for viewing. This didn’t necessarily surprise me, however whenever people ask me what I expected Cape Town to be like, they always think it’s that. So, I guess that means it’s somewhat of a popular assumption. Myth Busted.
2. Robots. I’m not talking about R2D2, or even the basic stuff you would find at a middle school science fair. I’m talking about traffic lights. I’ve been here for months, and I still feel ridiculous telling cab drivers to do things like “turn left at the next robot”. I feel like my next sentence should be “and then continue straight until the next galaxy, then you’ll need to switch into warp speed until the following nebula”. You see what I mean. 
3. “Shame”. It’s the same as at home, except it’s a sentence all on its own. Everything bad or sad warrants a “shame”. It’s actually one of the few phrases that might continue on into the states, and certainly has made its way into our daily vocab.
4. Sunburns. Though it is autumn here in Africa now, it was the middle of a scorching summer when we arrived here. Before arriving, I was warned on several occasions about the sun being stronger here, some even compared it to “our sun on steroids”…you can make of that what you will. Anyway, long story short, I haven’t been sunburned really since I’ve gotten here, despite my meager application of SPF 15. Ask me in 20 years if there were any consequences of that, but as for right now I’m feeling good.
5. “Don’t you want to ______?” See, in the US this is kind of a loaded statement, implying that the person asking for the favor already expects it to be done (ex: don’t you want to go out for a run Collette? You haven’t moved from your bed in days.) Here, though, it is used instead of “would you mind” or “do you”. It took me a little while to figure that out though…
6. Light colored cars are everywhere. I know I’ve probably talked about this a million times, but I still can’t believe how many white cars are here.
7. Iced coffee. What’s that? It’s been so long since I’ve had it, I seem to have forgotten. For a place so hot, you would think they would have iced coffee coming out of the water fountains. Not an issue for me since I love mine hot, but some people are exhibiting signs of withdrawal.
8. Vastness. Immensity. Hugeness. I never had any idea how big this city was. I thought New York was big, but wow. Cape Town could eat NYC for breakfast and still be asking for seconds.
9. Vodacom, Coca-Cola, Woolworths, Castle. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought these companies owned all of South Africa. Everything from water towers to corner shop signs are covered in their logos. 

There is so much more, but to be honest it’s really all escaping me at this point…maybe I need some more coffee in my life.