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So my first site wouldn't let me post for an unknown reason. I did make it to Cape Town though and it's been pretty cool so far. Sounds like I left the Chicago weather just in time. The apartment I'm in isn't completely furnished yet, but the view is great. Most of the other interns live in the same apartment complex and they're all really cool. I'll be posting pictures and some more details about what I've been doing soon. I'm on skype and check my e-mail at least once a day so feel free to get in touch w/ me.

This week was my first full one at one small seed. I'm starting to feel more comfortable there. It's a really small place, there are only five other people working there. Lately I've been working on a cd design for a compilation of spoken word pieces and a portfolio website thing for a guy who works there and also does architecture on the side. Next weekend is a huge design event in Cape Town called Design Indaba. The actual event is super expensive, but there's also an expo where one small seed will have a booth. I think I'll get to go with and help out. They're doing a pretty cool promotion where you go into a booth and a professional photography takes a picture of you while you take a shot of vodka, so you get some pretty interesting expressions. Then they take the picture and put it on the cover of the magazine and give it to people to take with. I'm glad there's some kind of event coming up so I can get to know the people at the office better.

This weekend there's a planned trip to Cape Point. We're also going to some beach to see african penguins. It should be a good time.

I also set up a photo album, so if you want to check it out just click on the "cape town" link under photos on the sidebar. I'm hoping I can change the look of it at some point, but for now it'll do.

In general I’ve been kind of disappointed at how Americanized TV and music are here. On TV they’ll have the Tyra banks show and Gilmore girls and different soap operas. There are some shows that are south African, but clearly take-offs of American shows. They have deal or no deal and shows like MTV’s TRL for kids after school. All of their movies on TV are old American ones that are usually bad or didn’t seem to do too well in the states from what I remember.

Today I did see a random show called “taxi to” I think it’s supposed to be like taxi talk. But a bunch of people get in a cab and drive around and talk about serious issues. So today they discussed how husbands and wives kill themselves and how it’s a big problem here. Kind of crazy to listen to. The issue is important, but it was weird how they just drove around in a taxi casually discussing it.

It’s interesting to see the commercials here too. There are a decent amount of American products here, so only the voice-overs on those commercials seem to change. Some commercials are a lot longer than ours too and go into abstract stories. Some only show the product name and don’t even say what the product is. They definitely focus more on making a connection to their lives or emotion compared to showing that something is a good deal. Coca Cola is huge here also.

Some shows have a mix of Cosa and English spoken throughout so English subtitles are put in. I still can’t tell how they decide when to switch. I’ve noticed that in some news programs they have sign language along with it. They’re very big on having gluten-free products and listing all possible allergens too.

Anyways, this weekend was pretty fun. On Saturday we went to Cape Point and Simon’s Town. Later on one of the interns had a party in her apartment and then we went out for a bit of dancing. One of my roommates Amanda is out of town for the week for her internship and my other one Kelsey was w/ some family in town, so it’s been more quiet than usual. There’s going to be some switching around this week. Amanda is moving in with Alia once Caudrean leaves, and a new intern, Alison, is moving into my apartment. There aren’t any trips planned this weekend, but I think I’m going to hike up Lion’s head or Table Mountain Sunday. I also have the design expo to go to. I’m hoping I’ll have fun because I’m still not loving work. There should be some cool stuff to see at least.

The quality isn't great, but the penguins are still pretty cute

This weekend was the Design Indaba event. One Small Seed had a booth there with a photography company that was pretty cool. I ran around with Amelia, a woman at the magazine, getting supplies for the expo and stuff. Everyone was pretty stressed out, but I was glad to have something to do other than sit around. What I didn't realize is that the event was opening to the public that night, not the next day. We had t-shirts made and had the magazines for sale too. We weren't going to sell that night, but people were asking, so we ended up having to man the booth until 8pm. Working in rand is new to me, so it was interesting handling the money. The latest issue arrived Thurs. night also, so it was really good timing that they arrived during the first night. Friday was pretty much the same thing all day. It opened up earlier because buyers were walking around starting at 8:30am. I forgot how uncomfortable it is to stand all day. I walked around the expo quickly just to get a sense of the other stuff that was there. It was pretty cool. There was fashion design and architecture. There was one food company there too I think. A lot of places were selling things also. It seems like a really important event for networking because a lot of people are there locally and also internationally. Working the event has given me a better opportunity to get to know Tracey and Amelia, the other people in the office. I think I'll be happier at work because I was able to talk with them more about what I want to do there. The timing I'm here doesn't match up well with the magazine because they do most of the design at the very end and that's when I'll be leaving, so we're going to see if there's stuff I can work on ahead of time. I'm also debating staying a couple weeks longer, but I don't know if that'll be possible.

Sat was another long day at the expo. We had a photo booth set up to take pictures of people while they took shots of vodka. Some people were taking shots throughout the day and by the time the expo closed giseuppe, my boss, was so drunk. Some of the people from the booth near us were also quite tipsy. A lot of people had fun with it though. The printer stopped working at some point, so some people were annoyed they couldn't get their pic put on the cover.

I ended up getting dinner with two of the women from work and then going to a small concert, Max Normal, at a bar in observatory. It was pretty interesting stuff. The guy is from South Africa and I guess the bank broke up for a while and then got back together recently. I'm not sure what genre it is, but it's rap, hip hop, somewhat indie, and usually satirical from what I gathered. He uses a lot of abstract imagery and cartoons while he's performing too.

I didn't go to the Design Indaba today because I needed a break and had already planned to climb/hike Lion's head. I went earlier with Alyson, Kelsey, Roman, and Kang. We had really great weather for it. It was warm and sunny, but still had a nice breeze. Going up it was tricky at some points and definitely felt like never-ending stairs, but I thought going down was more uncomfortable because there are some steep steps that are difficult to make at my height. My knees are definitely feeling it. Besides all that, the view was great and it was nice to hang out at the top. We also saw guys paragliding. It looks pretty fun and you can do it tandem. We ran into the guys who do it on our way down and I think it was around $150. It could be worth it, but I'll have to check out all my options.