24 hours in the Motherland

well, i am back in cape town for nearly 24 hours now. i have to say, i am certainly seeing a side of the city i didn't quite get to experience last time- white, liberal, south african university students. it's quite the scene. nice though, relatively familiar which makes the fact that i am half-way across the world (or nearly) seem a little less daunting. the house is also equipped with all sorts of amenities that make living life much simpler (washing machine, internet, cable tv, phone, etc.) but it is still cape town, make no mistake. this evening i took a walk along the promenade at sea point. it was sunset and lion's head was just peaking out from behind the tall apartment buildings that line the street in that part of the city. it was crazy to be back there... remembering my first time there, at the winchester hotel with jan and all his silly afrikaner friends drinking white wine and champagne and toasting the orange-red-purple sunset. then it was off to long street for dinner. we went to caravan cafe, closer to lower long, where patrick, a young man who moved here from Congo to study mechanical engineering, serves moroccan/congolese food and has only mixed berry coals for his hookahs. i ate bbq fish, whole, with cous cous and roasted vegetables, and some parsley-filled stew which is apparently all the rage in Congo. we were accompanied by a couple from Paris, talkative, friendly and politically aware. there is nothing better than chatting, really. it's one of the huge differences i find here... people are so open to talk and just be friendly. you forget what that's like actually, being away from it for so long. but it's truly the case.
so, i am settling in i suppose. i spent the day today unpacking, organizing myself and figuring out what it is i have to do. buy trashcan. hooks for the wall. hand towel. food. pay andrew the rent money. real shit to do. crazy. my room looks at least slightly lived in now though- photos on the wall and clothes in their proper places. i did some rearranging, which i think makes quite the difference, and the faces of my loved one are plastered all over. and of course, i miss them all.
but no turning back now; the adventure has begun.