December 29, 2003
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Topic: Craving the hostel culture
After a week of amazing home hospitality by my friends Kelly and Avra from camp, I decided I needed to get back into the backpacking world. So, I got dropped off at a place on Long Street this morning, one of the main streets in the city center of Cape Town.
In my dorm was an Englishman, which was clear from his awful sunburn on his pasty white body, and from the fact he was still hungover at 1pm. Anyways, James and I hit it off, and decided to head up Table Mountain today.
This mountain is the entire skyline of Cape Town. We took a cable car up, and spent 2 hours just wandering the top, gazing out at the Atlantic Ocean to the east, where the sky and sea looked reversed. Above the horizon was nothing but blue, below were white clouds covering the shimmering water. It was pretty.
As we walked to the other side, we had an amazing view of Robben Island, Lion’s Head, the city bowl as the city is known as, and the Waterfront. Around 6pm the clouds started to pour in, and I mean pour. James and I got some Amstel’s from the bar, and watched the clouds roll off the top of the mountain like Niagra Falls, it was really quite an unexpected and amazing site.
Being a completely independent traveler is really what it’s all about for me, and today was just an amazing day. The hostel has a balcony overlooking the street like something you’d see in New Orleans. That’s probably where i’ll be spending my new year’s, along with grilling some meat, and enjoying a few cold ones with some camp friends and whoever else I meet in the next couple of days.
New York Times Article:
I just sent a letter into the NYT, but didn’t here back which means I’m not about to become famous just yet. But last weeks article about how my university, Washington U. in St. Louis has climbed the rankings, and how our chancellor has a plan to be “America’s best university” solely from its fundraising, with no mention whatsoever of its education, is truly disturbing to me. I was excited to see the a spokesperson from Sarah Lawrence threw a jab at Wash U. An article just a few weeks before in the NYT education section asked the question what do you get for $40,000/year. Surprisingly, at Sarah Lawrence you actually get a lot, including a massive effort by advisors to make sure you’re not pissing away your time or money, rather, that you’re taking classes and doing meaningful work. How ’bout that.
Well…it’s almost 11, time to head out of this internet cafe and go explore some Long Street night life.
-Dan
