Cape Town: And then, on the seventh day, God made metaphors

This week was rough. It was my midterm evaluation and just a long week in general. There's not a whole lot to speak of on the journalism front, in terms of interesting things.

Yesterday (Friday) we walked down to the Waterfront with Dan, which is one of the more touristy areas of Cape Town and is where a lot of the classy boats and seafood shops are located. It was a long but nice walk and just perching on the dock and eating ice cream, we saw multiple seals and some jellyfish in the water.

In the late afternoon, we committed to climbing Lionshead, which is one of the main peaks in the Table Mountain chain. Five minutes in, we were already tired, but as I said, we were committed, and kept going. I pushed forward at the head of the pack, less from fitness or determination than an unwillingness to let anything or anyone stop me from getting what I want (barring malaria, my father and any math that involves anything more difficult than division). This may seem like a good quality, but when your adversary is a million-year old mountain, it's a stupid way to look at your life.

When I say "climb" I mean that there is actual rock-climbing involved in this ascent. The first stage is just walking uphill, but eventually you do reach rocks that you have to climb up. The way can be treacherous if you're an asshole who has no real rock-climbing experience, like me, but I still led the way, puzzling out difficult stretches of rock and hoisting myself up. At some point, we reached a fork in the path with a sign that said, "You can either walk this way up or you can actually climb, but if you die, it isn't our fault." Naturally, I looked at the metal rungs and chains embedded in the rock on the climbing way up and was like, "I'm doing that." The others took a look and disapproved of my plan. I went anyway.

It was really fun, but it was somewhat dangerous. I essentially pulled myself up a sheer rock wall by some metal climbing aids and by being able to find footholds/handholds. I made it up and a while later the others decided to follow after watching me. Soldiering on alone, I climbed the rest of the way up and made it to the top just as the sun was setting. I perched on an outcropping and watched it sink below the sea.

Not that I want to get too poetic here, but  it was definitely one of those moments of peace that you don't find often in life. I was sweaty and exhausted, and I had almost thrown up a couple of times on the way up from pushing myself so hard, but I made it to the top of Lionshead all by myself, and the views of the ocean and the city were beautiful. I feel like it was a metaphor for my internship--I climbed Lionshead, so I can climb the proverbial mountain of this job. Or whatever. Something like that.

The other three (Zach did not come to Lionshead with us) made it up a few minutes after me and were not pleased with the difficulty of the climb. We started down soon after that because it was getting dark. Abby and I ended up ahead of Lauren and Nina because Lauren wanted to take the easier way down the mountain due to her perfectly legitimate fear of slipping and falling in the dark. The two of us hauled ourselves down the mountain and actually had a really good time getting down, talking and making friends with a man from Salt Lake City. Eventually we got back home to Daddy Long Legs, and I was entirely satisfied with my day.

Today we went with Dan out to Bellville, which is a 45-minute train ride out of the city, and had a braai with his friend Jade. A braai is like a barbeque on steroids. You have tons of different meats, mainly braewors (South African equivalent of bratwurst), chicken and beef. It was delicious and we got to play with Jade's dogs! They are both pitbull mixes; Tequila is older and is one of the most well-behaved dogs I've ever seen and Pancho is a hyperactive puppy. All in all, it was a nice day, especially since it's so rare for us to get a complete home-cooked meal here. Now I'm chilling at home...I need a night off.