Weather: Rainy and Cold
Cost: R700, a.k.a really expensive
Experience: Priceless
Early Monday morning we piled into our vans at 6:00 a.m. and drove for 16 hours to a small town in the Eastern Cape called Grahamstown. We arrived at 10:00 p.m. and settled into our rooms (we stayed in single dorm rooms at Rhodes University). Our hall was an all mens hall, this was made obvious by the posters and stickers on our doors. Chantal's door had a poster that said absurd things like, "I heart beer, I heart parties, I heart sex, I heart everything." The best part of the dorm experience was that we had our own rooms, finally we had some independence! We also had heaters, hot showers, and flush toilets, what could beat that? Perhaps that we were in walking distance from bars, shows, concerts, plays, and shopping markets.
The first night we went to a bar/pub called Parrot and Rat, it was the 4th of July and we wanted to celebrate. Not to mention, Robbie and Jesse brought close to 20 fireworks with them for the night. As we walked into Parrot and Rat (which closely resembled a pub you would see in the movie Greenstreet Hooligans) we ran into another group of American students studying here in South Africa. We joined them at their table with our tower of beer and celebrated the fourth of July in the most American way we could, fireworks and beer. Some of the other students even had necklaces with American Flags on them. We went home at about 2:30 a.m. and got lost on the way back, but fortunately we found our way through Rhodes campus.
The next morning we woke up to rain. Obviously, being from San Diego, rain was somewhat a foreign concept and I failed to bring a raincoat with me -- but don't fear, I bought an emergency poncho and you best believe I got quite a bit of use out of it. We walked around the town trying to find The Cue, a newspaper that has the day's schedule of shows and locations, along with a few reviews. We decided we wanted to see 4 shows that day: Love Affair Dance, Convincing Carlos, Rose Red, and a concert called Late @ the Lounge: U-Turn and 5 Levels Up. Love Affair Dance was about African societies accepting those with disabilities, or rather different abilities. It was a passionate show of emotions, sadness mostly, but it was beautiful. There wasn't too much dancing, it mostly entailed talking and walking around every once in a while. The next show we saw was Convincing Carlos, it was a one man act about an author who wrote a book about a Bufana Bufana soccer fan convincing Carlos Parrera to come back and coach Bufana for the World Cup 2010. I was so impressed by the acting, he acted out every character and memorized an hour and 15 minutes of pure lines. Later we went to see Rose Red, which is one of my favorite shows we saw while there. It was pretty much Wicked for Snow White; the Queen's story of Snow White, why she banished Snow White to go away and how everyone perceived her as evil. It was musical theatre, also a one woman act, but she was fabulous at singing and acting and the script was hilarious. Later that night we went to a concert and saw a band from Cape Town. They performed two original songs and a few covers.
The next day we saw four shows and shopped at the craft market. From about 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. we shopped through the massive market, supporting local craftsmakers and South African companies. I bought a beautiful beaded elephant key holder and a moisturizing bar made out of Soy. At 2:00 we saw our first show called Staff Room. It was horrible. The review said it was about the South African education system, it turned out to be a story about a student sleeping with a teacher, getting pregnant, and committing suicide. Ok, so the plot isn't too bad, the acting on the other hand was, and did I mention that Celine Dion was playing in the background the entire time? Or that the lights were off for the first 10 minutes of the play on accident? Or that there were three side stories that weren't fully developed. Oh well, it was R30 (about $3.50). After that we went to see Beezlebub, on the schedule it said "physical theatre", I had no idea what that meant, but was intrigued. Beezlebub was also very good, funny but profound, and I now understand what physical theatre is...I think (I'll be asking my roommate who is a theatre major about that one). We got out of Beezlebub 5 minutes before the next show we wanted to see, so we ran to the next venue, arrived about 5 minutes late, but were allowed into the show anyways. This show was called Umhlanga (this is a ritual ceremony in Zulu culture, Westerners know it as the virginity test). The dance was filled with men and women in traditional garb singing and dancing traditional songs and acting out scenes of the marriage process and umhlanga in both isiZulu and English. The loud and bright songs and dancing kept us all intrigued and excited about the show. Afterwards we went to see Steel Drums and Bass. We learned about steel drums (did you know they originated in South Africa, not the Caribbean?) After the show the drummers let us play on their drums, and attempted (I could not make one beat) to make aesthetic noises.
The next day we woke up at 5:00 a.m. and drove back to Durban. I was so thrilled to be in Grahamstown and wish we had one more day there, but at the same time my bank account is glad I left. With one week left in South Africa I am faced with writing my final paper, which is really what I should be doing right now...
Next up is a free weekend in Durban, we have two birthdays tomorrow and we are planning on celebrating in Durbs, perhaps some clubbing and beach time. I'll definitely keep you posted!
