We had classes at the house this Thursday, so there was no reason to go to UCT. I believe in the afternoon I got out of the house and went shopping in Claremont, a nearby suburb. I traveled there via train, one of my favorite pastimes, though I realized minibus would have been a lot faster.
On Friday I again headed out of the house late, and this time took the train to Kalk Bay, a little beachside town down on the Cape Peninsula, just past Muizenberg. I had a lot to think about, and was very mindful and insistent on spending a lot of time in my head musing certain things over, including my experience in Cape Town so far, my relationship to other people on the program, my plans for the summer, and reflections on my coming 22nd birthday. I brought my medical anthropology textbook and a fair amount of food with me, and walked to the Kalk Bay tidepool, which is a swimming area built right into the beach and rocks. I expected the water to be warm here, and there were families and children nearby, but my expectations were clearly too high. It was pretty freezing.
Afterwards, I stretched out on the nearby rocks and felt the warmth of the sun-baked and salted rocks on my back. It was there, while laying there in the late afternoon, that I received a call from my father and we talked for the first time in nearly two months. We had struggled with web chats and phone cards for several weeks, but this time he was able to get through. It was wonderful to be able to talk and share news, and get his thoughts on the things I was musing over. I took photos of my location to send to him, stuck there in cold and hellish Connecticut. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday surprise.
What David Does 