Tom from Durban

In case you all were wondering,
Yes, I do have some free time down here in Cape Town.
It’s all been a little complicated, however.
You see, the school has been extremely cautious—even paranoid—about our safety since we arrived last Saturday evening. That night, groups of students were each assigned a cultural mentor, a local student who is more or less paid to hang out with us Americans while we are in Cape Town.
Now don’t get me wrong.
All of them have been great.
Many of them are from countries all throughout Africa—Tanzania, Lesotho, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and others—and it has been so great to get to know a little of each of them.
It’s just that Cornerstone (the school where we are staying) has essentially used them as an excuse to not let us go anywhere on our own.
And I mean anywhere.
For the entire first week, Cornerstone was extremely uptight about Americans never being outside school grounds without a cultural mentor.
And I’m talking not even across the street.
For the time being, it was understandable.
We were all in completely foreign territory.
Knew absolutely nothing about the city.
And of course, being Americans, we stand out like Stephen Hawking in a barbershop quartet.

Yes.
I did spend a good five minutes finding a workable alterative to the tired sore-thumb-analogy.
I must say I am quite pleased with the result.

But back to cultural mentors.
By now, the time for handholding has come and gone.
We have been in the city for nearly two weeks and are fairly acquainted with the do’s and don’ts of South African culture.
But most importantly, we are all grown, at least semi-responsible adults.
Over half of the students on the trip are 21 or older.
And ages range all the way to 27.

I do understand, respect, and even—to an extent—appreciate Cornerstone’s concern for our safety.
But there comes a point where caution and over-protectiveness can become damaging to one’s experience.
And that’s been the story of Cape Town so far.
Well, maybe not the whole story.
Just an interesting subplot.

Still the results have been rather frustrating.
It forces us to travel most places in extremely large groups (sometimes as many as fifty strong), making the already-difficult task of inconspicuous living downright impossible.
And it has a habit of turning the smallest trip to a restaurant into a two-hour long headache.

All venting aside, I have been rather fortunate through this whole situation.
I—along with a small group of other APU students—have hit it off rather well with one of the cultural mentors here at Cornerstone, Tom.A native South African born in Johannesburg, Tom hails from Durban, and has the kind of accent that instantly renders him forty times more attractive to every American girl that crosses his path.
Luckily for Tom—as a cultural mentor—this path is crossed often.

Anyways, in addition to being great company, Tom has been an ambassador of sorts to world outside of Cornerstone College.
And let me tell you.
It is absolutely gorgeous.

Because of the amount of time I spend with Denise and Jacob—or as Jordan and I prefer to call him, Japie—I only have two excursions worth noting:

1. Kalk Bay:
My first sighting of the ocean came on Wednesday afternoon with the first decent day we had in Cape Town. It was a green, beautiful drive to this small town just south of the city. With only two hours of time, we meandered through small strip of antique stores right on the bay before ruining dinner with an ice cream cone that was impossibly out of season, yet delicious all the same. Adam took some great pictures of the scenery, and we all resolved to return on Saturday for a longer visit. These plans, however, altered as plans often do, and instead on Saturday we found ourselves at…

2. Llandudno beach:
Simply put, more beautiful than words can describe. The drive itself was breathtaking. Climbing a mountain road through beautiful wine country. Winding and falling and climbing once more. Around a bend. Nestled between two mountains. Just over a hill. You see it. The most beautiful blue ocean—the furthest corner of the earth.
As I said earlier, words cannot do it justice.
And nor could a picture.

In regards to the latter, however, I will try.
As I said earlier, Adam has been taking some pretty solid pictures.
I would love to be able to upload them to the website, but with the internet being so slow here, it does take quite some time.
But I will have them up as soon as I get the chance.

Talk to you all soon.