Jobbie Job Job

I finally got one. I had a temporary position, working for Sebastien's firm. I mostly pulled together AutoCAD drawings and worked on 3D virtual models of an office. Not grand in scope, but this allowed me to (sort of) set my own work days, ideally approaching companies on my days off to find a job. The woman I worked for (Seb's boss) is great. --Not "great" in the sense that Thia is great (my first boss), because Thia isn't even to be compared, but "great" in the sense that she is fun and flexible and let me work for her office, giving me nice experience. So, long and boring story short, I applied to quite a few firms, got interest from many of them (lots of building being done here), worked two days conditionally at an office, got offers at two which I turned down, and finally got a job that I am very excited about. I am working for a firm called ARG Design, which specializes in sustainable architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture. This is rare here in South Africa. They are, in fact, the only firm I found in Cape Town that even considers environmental design a viable option. I asked every firm I talked to how much they considered the environment in their design process, and every other firm said that clients won't pay for it (which sadly is usually true). However, and I am so happy about this, ARG is committed to educating clients about human and environmental impacts of design. It is so refreshing. In fact, my second day, I was asked to do research on new water systems that are ideal in New Urbanist communities (of course the client is now fighting for a mall, instead of mixed-use streets with a neighborhood center, but....)! At any rate: so far, so good. They are an entirely Mac-based office, so if anyone has any ArchiCAD hints, I would love to hear them (I am not doing any drafting right now, but it would just be good to know).

Biking....to the End of the WORLD

So, we have started to pack as much physical activity into each weekend as possible. A few weeks ago, we went on a bike tour, which was the perfect beginning to our activity regimen. We were picked up at our house by Louis, the tour coordinator, in a van trailed by about twenty bicycles. We were the first ones picked up, so as we drove around town, picking up about seven other tourists from all over the globe, Louis told Sebastien and I about himself, and places we should go while we are here. He was from Zimbabwe, or "Zim" as everyone here calls it, and like many others I have met, as soon as he moved here, he knew he was home. At any rate, we drove the van around the city, and then past all the popular, touristy beaches, and then kept going to Chapman's Peak Drive, which winds around the Peninsula. On one side of us is a rock wall, and on the other side is a large, imposing cliff and then the rocky coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We drove through towns we had been through before with our roommate, Ryan, like Noordhoek and Haut Bay (in Dutch, "haut" mean's wood), and then drove on to Simon's Town, South Africa's premier naval base town. We got out of the van and went through a park, down to a beach that has a penguin colony of about 3,000. It seems that 20 of these little guys just decided, in the 1980's, that they too needed a change of pace, swam hundreds of miles from islands off the South African coast. They are one of only two mainland penguin colonies in the world. The townspeople think they are pests, and the fences around the beach where they live is as much to protect them from predators, as they are to keep them out of the town. We sadly saw one in the gutter on our way to the beach, who made the sewer his home. We had heard that these penguins are fondly called "Jackass" penguins, because of the sound they make, and when we saw them, it was unbelievable that something so small and cute could produce such a noise. We met back at the van, and within a matter of minutes, Louis had stopped so we could watch a whale off the coast. It was going much faster than he expected it should, this time of year, and we had to start and stop the van a few times to catch up with it. When we finally caught up with it in the bay, it stayed to feed, so we were able to watch for quite a few minutes. Mostly what we saw was its back above the water, and spurts of water coming up from the surface, but it was amazing. They are huge, and to be this close was really wonderful.
We continued along the road until the Cape Peninsula National Park. Here is where the story gets crazy with baboons ("don't feed them"). Baboons on the road, baboons jumping on cars, baboons trying to get into windows to eat a sandwich. Don't feed them. They get angry. They are awesome, and very much like people in ways, but they are quick, and they are hungry, and they get what they want. So, shortly after seeing all the baboons along the roadway, Louis let us out of the van, gave us each a bike, warned us again not to feed the baboons, and off we went, on a narrow road, with small shrubs and protea on both sides of us, and the possibility of seeing animals. We unfortunately didn't see any, but the smells were intoxicating, and the landscape was gorgeous and vast. As I rode, I was amazed that everything smelled like honey. On thinking about this now, I think I was mostly just hungry. After lunch we re-boarded our bicycles and cycled along the same road to a path that leads to the Lighthouse of Good Hope (I made that name up, actually, but I like it). There was one pretty steep point in the road, but it did me some good, and besides - how can you argue with the ocean to look at the entire way? We hiked up to the lighthouse, which is now defunct because it wasn't bright enough, and then over to the new and improved lighthouse, seeing many black lizards on the path as we went. When we met with our tour leader again, he showed us the trail to the actual Cape of Good Hope - the one you used to read about in 6th grade geography - and it was beautiful. We walked on a path of wooden planks, and I worried about people slipping when it is rainy (we were there on a gorgeous day). The planks keep you from tromping over the landscape, and, as I am sure over a million people go there every year, and it is a crucial place, Earth-wise (fact: the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve IS classified as one of the Earth's few ecosystems), I didn't stray from the planks. It is like the moon. Boulders and sparse plants were all that was there besides the lizards. I am sure there were plenty of animals there too, but unfortunately (or probably fortunately), they were in bed under the boulders in the middle of the day.
On the trip back, we saw springboks playing in a field near the Cape, and zebras and water buffalo up the street from our house (at the nature reserve). So, all-in-all, it was a very eventful day, full of lots of animals, and thankfully, some exercise.

Our Corner

Our neighborhood isn't like anywhere I have ever lived. We live about two streets away from "Main Road," where all the businesses are. This neighborhood was historically a place for people in the textile and furniture industries, and there is a brewery (a beautiful one, from what we have seen from up the hill, on this side of the tracks) that we haven't visited yet. This was one of the first neighborhoods that started outside of the city center, and is also one of the closest on the east side. It has always been a very working-class neighborhood, which surprisingly had quite a mix of social groups. There are many Muslim convenience and food stores, Christian churches, and the only Greek Orthodox Church in the whole Western Cape. Simply because of the businesses that were established here, it was a mixed-race neighborhood before Apartheid. When the Group Areas Act was put into place, forcing people out of homes and neighborhoods into areas where they were grouped solely based on race, this neighborhood was deemed for "coloureds." An interesting thing about this neighborhood, though, was that many people just refused to leave. After a while the government kind of left it alone a little, although it did force many people out along the way. A long-time community member and priest was talking about how difficult it was at that time, because family friends would lie to one another about their placement within a race. Say you are born to Malaysian parents, and have mostly "coloured" friends because of it. Suddenly, the government tells your family that you are now "honorarily white," and that you are supposed to leave your neighborhood, no longer associating with long-time friends. Even if you want to keep the friendship up, your friends no longer will associate with you. -So many people just didn't tell anyone about their changes of status, and either moved, but continued to come to community events here, as though they hadn't, OR they evaded the government's attempts to move them. It sounds awful.
Anyway, that is a little glimpse into the history of our neighborhood. It is still a mixed place, but now there are other forces at work. It is a very architecturally nice neighborhood, and it is very close to the city, and housing prices in this neighborhood are CHEAP. So, as logic would follow, people like myself and Sebastien are buying homes here. The neighborhood (at least "Upper" Woodstock, located above Main Road) is quickly gentrifying, and this makes people mad (the fact that people are still being kicked out of the homes they live in also makes them mad). At any rate, this is one of the reasons I don't go out at night, except in the car. It isn't unsafe here after dark, necessarily, but it isn't necessarily "safe" either. Pretty much all the businesses on Main Road close after 6:pm anyway, so it isn't like we are clamoring to get down there past work-hours. What I AM itching to do though is go for a walk, after working at a desk all day, or go for a bike ride, or do SOMETHING slightly active. Almost everyone I know here (and I will say this honestly, because race is such a HUGE issue here: they are all white) goes to the gym. Our roommates go to the gym fairly religiously, before 6:am - I know - I ALWAYS wake up as they are leaving. This is one thing that absolutely drives me batty - I LOVE the outdoors, and want to wander, and sometimes even, want to wander by myself. But (alas) I can't see that happening here. Honestly it would be a dumb idea.