But back to Cape Town: wine, sun, and lots of white luxury compact cars. My first few days there I laid low. Like I said, I got there on a Thursday (the evening of 13 April to be exact). I settled into a nice backpackers' place (for you Americans that probably don't know what a "backpackers'" is (don't feel bad, I had never heard of this kind of establishment before I came to Africa), it's similar to a hostel, where you can sleep in a dorm-style room, self-cater if you want, meet other usually slightly strange travelers, and pay relatively low prices) called Atlantic Point Backpackers. It was a good place for me to relax and get focused for the real reason I came to Cape Town: to take the infamous MCAT.
I was set up to take this test on Saturday morning so, upon arriving, I had about 36 hours before I went to war with the computer on the third floor of 80 Strand Street, Cape Town, South Africa. On Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to go and check out 80 Strand Street and make sure things were ready to go for 8am Saturday morning. In the afternoon, I showed up at the exam center. I presented myself at reception: "Hello, I just want to make sure that I'm at the right place for my MCAT exam tomorrow." "Ummmm, tomorrow is Saturday, and we're closed on Saturdays." This is the point where I almost fainted. I was further informed that I should have received a conformation number from the private company that runs the MCAT all over the world. "No, I never got an email like that." "Okay, let me call them. Please have some coffee and take a seat in the waiting room." The last thing I needed while having a nervous breakdown was coffee. I waited for about half an hour, trying not to have a panic attack in front of everyone. The receptionist then asked me to give them a few hours to figure things out. "Please come back at around four. We should have things figured out by then." So I wandered around the city for a few hours, wondering if this was going to turn into a disaster. I had been studying for over three months, spent lots of money on plane tickets and such, and the only other way I would be able to take this exam for the upcoming admissions cycle was to go back to the North American continent. I went back at four. The receptionist was on the phone, and she gave me the most beautiful thumbs up I have ever seen. After finishing the phone call she told me that she would come in tomorrow morning (Saturday) to administer the exam and that she cleared everything up with the folks back in the States. What a relief. All that stress, and I hadn't even taken the exam.
The next morning everything went well. I showed up early, went through the necessary procedures, and beat my brain to death for about four and a half hours. I felt as confident/uncertain about my answers as when I was taking my practice tests, and since I was doing good enough on those practice tests to get into a medical school, I am hoping that I will also do good enough on this "real thing" (yes, I am knocking on the wood of my dining table as I type this, better safe than sorry, and I'm not ashamed to say that I have become slightly more superstitious after living in Africa for well over two years now). As the website says, I'll have the results back on May 17, 5pm Eastern Time. I am waiting anxiously.
After getting the MCAT out of the way, it was time to start being a tourist. There were only a few things that I really wanted to do while I was there, and I didn't want to (nor did I have the patience or money to) linger around for days on end drinking to much and getting sun burnt on the beaches of the far east Atlantic Ocean. I trimmed the trip down, miraculously booked flights back to Malawi on Wednesday right before Easter weekend, and had some abbreviated fun seeing the stunning Cape Town area. I went on an interesting historical tour of Robben Island. This is where Nelson Mandela, amongst countless other political prisoners, was detained for 18 years during later years of the apartheid era in South Africa. This is where the Nobel Peace Prize winner spent most of his time:
In the wake of last year's World Cup, Cape Town has been jazzed up a lot. They now have an open-top double-decker bus that you can ride for a cheap, two-hour tour of the city. I did this one afternoon, getting lots of great pictures and a burnt red nose.
South of the city stretches Cape Point, which arbitrarily distinguishes the boarder between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The southern portion of the point is a protected national park with great views, shrub land, and lots of little critters running around. The park ends where the continent drops off into the ocean, where you think you can see Antarctica but that's crazy since it's hundreds of kilometers away. I went on a day trip in the park with an operation that offers "alternative tours" of the point. This included some hiking and biking, and there were a handful of interesting people to bum around with.
I also went on a wine tour. Like I said before, I quickly realized on this trip that traveling alone isn't for me. I thought the wine tour would be awkward with me guzzling reds and whites and ports by myself amongst other people separately having a good time. It turned out that although the others on the tour were in little groups, they also had the intention of getting their money's worth of alcohol, and it was therefore easy to fit in and have a good time. I don't plan on making a habit of downing a glass of champagne in the middle of the morning and then drinking through the afternoon (it makes for a drowsy evening and an early bedtime), but I thoroughly enjoyed touring the wine farms of the region, hopping from drink to drink.
That was about it. Again, Cape Town is a beautiful, fully developed city. It was like being back home in the States where things are expected to work properly (as opposed to a place like Malawi where it is a pleasant surprise when something works as it's supposed to). Besides the scare on Friday with the test, I had a great time. It was nice being somewhere where diversity is the norm and people don't hoot and holler at you while you walk down the street just because you're a foreigner. There is a lot of money in this city: sick cars, multi-million dollar (rand) beach houses, and even skyscrapers. Here's a perhaps controversial message to all you taxpayers back in the States: "Maybe South Africans can (or should be able to) take care of themselves, and there is no need to have hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers farting around in the country." Certainly there are problems there, but at some point, with all the millionaires cruising around in their Ferraris; Audis; and BMWs, we should probably just let them take care of their own problems since they are clearly able to if they only had the compassion for the poor that us Americans have (I'm not sure if my sarcasm is coming through here). I'm not saying that Peace Corps Volunteers don't fart around in other countries (for example Malawi, you could argue that I'm farting around right now), but I feel that our farting around is more useful in places the don't have Apple computer stores and eight lane highways and World Cup Soccer stadiums. Or maybe I just don't have a good enough perspective on things.
Anyways, it's good to be back in Malawi without that damn test hanging over my head. I'm looking forward to the next eight months here before I come home (hopefully just before the holidays). We have a bunch of work stuff and fun activities in the pipeline so I should be staying busy. However, after getting a taste of the developed world, I can't tell you how excited I am to get back to America. In the meantime, I'll be chugging along here.
"Progress consists, not in the increase of truth, but in freeing it from its wrappings. The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn't gold." Leo Tolstoy
2 comments:
Please let us know as soon as you find out! We love you. Aunt Joletta
I am also waiting with baited breath. That doesnt sound so good but I am anxiously waiting.
the other Robin Williams
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