Hello, Cape Town, I've missed you!

Although I’ve traveled far, I always hold a place for you in my heart – Tracy Chapman, “The Promise”

After a 21-hour commute that included a layover in Dubai, I finally arrived in Cape Town. Lisa, a co-worker from last year, was kind enough to offer to pick me up, probably not realizing how touching it was to see a friendly face in foreign country, especially after a day’s worth of traveling! As a tangent, I have to point out that Emirates flight attendants are frighteningly uniform: all the details of their outfits are not only perfectly placed, they are identical to everyone else’s, including the elastics that bind the women’s buns!! Lisa and I drove to town, met up with the girl (Andrea) who had the keys to the apartment I will be staying in, and I began settling in.

First, let me say that to be able to unpack everything fully, do laundry, and go to sleep in the same bed I foresee sleeping in for more than a week was…simply…in-cre-di-ble. It sounds pretty trite, I know, and I fully realize that those are purely material luxuries, but I have to admit I felt a warm sense of relief and comfort come over me. Later that evening I walked to the grocery store to stock up on food for the week and I must have seemed somewhat idiotic to the other pedestrians because I was smiling. The air in Cape Town was chilly (it is, after all, winter in this hemisphere), but it also had the distinct smell of bonfires and cold rain; it smelled a bit like Russia and a bit like, well, the Cape Town I remembered from last summer. The stunning mountains I see from my room’s window, the friendliness of the grocery store cashiers, the random shady characters loitering on street corners and walking up too close to you to test your fear response – all the technically good, technically bad, and ever-surprising elements of this city subtly happened all around me…not yelling to be observed, like Italy’s essence sometimes does, especially in the very touristy areas, but simply existing. The fabric of life here amazed me even last summer, how it did not change by my presence but simply shifted a bit to include me in it. The people here remain the most open, amiable, and welcoming I have encountered in all my travels.

I took several days to settle in, sleep, rest, and read. I visited old JWT co-workers on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday – funny how I felt completely at ease and at home. Certain things had changed and all of us had changed as individuals, of course, but on the whole, so much remained unchanged…