SUNDAY, MAY 08, 2005
Sometimes it's easy forgetting to chart your life when you are heads-down living it, and that's where I've been the last month or so.
It's been a heady ride. I'm nearly two months now into a wonderful new relationship I could never have seen coming, especially after chasing butterflies for what seemed forever (and looking quite the fool doing it). I was able to take a once in a lifetime trip to Cape Town, South Africa and see one of the world's most stunningly beautiful cities in a country still defining itself amidst natural beauty. Finally, I've taken serious steps toward purchasing a new home, a thought impossible three years ago this month when it seemed everything and everyone I held close to me abandoned me.
How do you describe a month like this in a few paragraphs? I can tell you of Cape Town: it is a cosmpolitan city which, like many in the US, built its renaissance upon a waterfront and shopping district. It has parlayed its natural resources and outlawed history outside the family of nations into what I saw during my trip: a country and a people trying to define yet promote itself.
That's why prisoners today host tours on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent nearly 20 years in prison and somehow wrote his manifesto and led an prisoner education effort under the noses and guns of South Africa's apartheid government. It's also why any resident of Cape Town will at the drop of a hat tell you what sites to see and restaurants to visit (as a few did during a grueling 23 hour plane ride to and from.) It's also why the port where prisoners were led to Robben Island is today a gift shop, featuring tee shirts and even Mandela's lithograph prints.
I got close-up looks at wild animals like baboons and penguins along the beaches at Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (not, as our helpful tour guide pointed out, exactly where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet.) I got to taste some of the world's finest wines at three wineries along a bus tour, sleeping between to hold myself up from jet lag. I got time to spend with friends (my new love met me too late to join me for the trip and, to be fair, it would have been but our third date.) and felt a sense of comeraderie I only wish to keep.
It's been a heady ride. I'm nearly two months now into a wonderful new relationship I could never have seen coming, especially after chasing butterflies for what seemed forever (and looking quite the fool doing it). I was able to take a once in a lifetime trip to Cape Town, South Africa and see one of the world's most stunningly beautiful cities in a country still defining itself amidst natural beauty. Finally, I've taken serious steps toward purchasing a new home, a thought impossible three years ago this month when it seemed everything and everyone I held close to me abandoned me.
How do you describe a month like this in a few paragraphs? I can tell you of Cape Town: it is a cosmpolitan city which, like many in the US, built its renaissance upon a waterfront and shopping district. It has parlayed its natural resources and outlawed history outside the family of nations into what I saw during my trip: a country and a people trying to define yet promote itself.
That's why prisoners today host tours on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent nearly 20 years in prison and somehow wrote his manifesto and led an prisoner education effort under the noses and guns of South Africa's apartheid government. It's also why any resident of Cape Town will at the drop of a hat tell you what sites to see and restaurants to visit (as a few did during a grueling 23 hour plane ride to and from.) It's also why the port where prisoners were led to Robben Island is today a gift shop, featuring tee shirts and even Mandela's lithograph prints.
I got close-up looks at wild animals like baboons and penguins along the beaches at Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (not, as our helpful tour guide pointed out, exactly where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet.) I got to taste some of the world's finest wines at three wineries along a bus tour, sleeping between to hold myself up from jet lag. I got time to spend with friends (my new love met me too late to join me for the trip and, to be fair, it would have been but our third date.) and felt a sense of comeraderie I only wish to keep.
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