Surf and Turf

It's been another busy couple of days, with registration on Friday (a three hour process where everything's done in person, on paper, and then input into the computer... why they don't cut down on the manpower and have the students do the work on the computer themselves is a mystery to me) and several activities put on by the RAs and Housing Committee for the res.
Friday afternoon about sixty of the residents of Liesbeeck were treated to a trip down to the Victoria and Alfred (Alfred was Queen Victoria's son, it's not a typo of her husband's name as many people seemed to think:) Waterfront, where the posh go to eat fresh seafood and do some serious shopping. The group was herded onto a small charter boat that then took us out on the water to get some wonderful views of the city and enjoy the sea air. We all had a great time although the breeze was pretty cool, and many residents ended up huddled in the few blankets stowed on the boat.
That night we decided to get out onto the town, so Farai, one of the RAs, took us over to Claremont to Cubanas, a Latino restaurant and bar. We splurged on fruity drinks (hardly splurging when they run about R25-R30, which is around four bucks!) and some Latino fare, but all-in-all it was a low-key kind of outing. Trying to get a cab back to the res took quite a while however, but we managed with Farai's help.
Yesterday was pretty entertaining, as we were once again loaded into the tour buses (the only way to economically transport 50-60 people, so we always look like a bunch of young tourists) to head over to one of the largest townships in the area, Guglethu, to a restaurant called Mzoli's. What an experience! Basically for R20 (less than three dollars) you get to the restaurant around 11am to get a seat (because if you get there any later you won't get a table, and you have to stand outside the covered outdoor seating area) with your cooler full of your favorite drinks and snacks. The next two and half hours or so are spent drinking and eating, meeting up with friends, watching the late-comers trying to find parking on the narrow crowded streets, and the children and dogs meandering through the crowds. Finally you begin to smell cooking meat, and literally the atmosphere changes: people start to get excited, plates and napkins are passed around, and when the time is right a representative from each table is sent up to the grill with a large plate or bowl or whatever carrying container they may have to fill up with as much meat product as possible. Literally that is the only food you get at Mzoli's: meat, meat, and more meat. The food is passed around from person to person, and everyone digs in. No utensils here.
DJs come in and set the mood, and while we were there yesterday one of the most famous DJs in South Africa, DJ Spu, was working his magic, and the place was literally jumping as everyone got up and started dancing, yelling, and singing along. The CIEE students who came weren't as familiar with most of DJ Spu's stuff, so we felt more like observers than participants, but it was still extremely entertaining nonetheless. After five hours (Mzoli's is an all day affair, but we decided we needed to get back to the res to recover from the overload of protein) we boarded the bus again and barely made it out of the maze of streets because of all the cars parked along the sides of the road. But we did make it and soon enough we were back at the res, satiated and exhausted.
A few of the other CIEEers and I decided that after picking up some essential groceries (mainly fruits and veg!) we would regroup and try this restaurant literally two minutes walk down the main road, called The Fat Cactus Cafe, where supposedly the margaritas were to die for and the food was delicious (I'm not quite sure what's going on with the Latino food theme...). Well, four pitchers of mango and lime margaritas later, between seven of us, along with some amazing food, and we were all convinced that The Fat Cactus was going to be our go-to spot for the rest of the semester. We even have the work schedule of the waiter who served us, who has the driest sense of humor imaginable and loved to mess with us Americans as much as possible:)
Today the RAs and House Committee have a beach day scheduled for us, so now that the clouds are just starting to clear it looks like it's going to be a fantastic beach day. Tonight one of the other RAs, Kensani, has planned a girl's night in at her apartment with a bunch of the CIEEers (she wants to straighten my hair, so we'll see how that goes) which I'm looking forward to, and we're having our own Superbowl party in the basement lounge at three in the morning. Everyone's bringing some sort of food, so I suppose I'll have to come up with something as well, but frankly I feel like all I've done here is eat! I'm going to need some time to recover...