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This past week was pretty low-key overall. At work I finished up a cd/digipack design and have been going through all the "bear expression" vodka shot pictures from the Design Indaba event to put on the web. Next week I'll finish that up and work on a myspace website I think. The only dramatic thing that happened at work is that someone stole 19,000 rand cash from the Design Indaba money. That's around $2,700. It's pretty stupid that the money wasn't put in the bank right away and just left in the office. One guy thinks it's the woman they hired a month before I arrived. She called in sick Friday, but I think it's kind of rash to automatically accuse someone of that. They reported it to the police and everything, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

There's also a human rights org called Wola Nani that I've been in touch with. I don't really want two jobs here because it's difficult to coordinate w/o a car, but I'll try to meet w/ them.

Yesterday I went with Aly and Kelsey to a safari that was two hours away. We had to leave a bit before 6am so I was a little groggy, but it wasn't bad. It was through Aquila safari and it was a really nice place. We got there at 8am and they gave us champagne right away. A bit early for that, but it was nice. They had a nice breakfast buffet too. The weather was cold a little rainy at first, so I was worried it would ruin the safari. By the time we left on the safari it cleared up a bit. We did the safari on horseback which was cool. I don't know how to ride a horse, but it was okay most of the time. My horse, brandy, liked to get out of the line a lot and go eat or would want to go run through the water, so I was a little stressed about it. It was also really hard to take pictures while trying to stay on the horse. On horseback we saw some zebra and gazelles I think. We could go off the trail more w/ the horses, but certain animals you couldn't get close to with them. We saw some hippos also. We took the horses back and then were taken on a truck to see the lions and elephants. Apparently a lot of the animals are extinct in South Africa, so they were brought in from other areas. This place wasn't as authentic as I expected, but definitely neat to see. The guides called over the elephants to the truck, so they were sticking their snout in and everything. They also had some domesticated baby cheetahs we were able to pet.

The weather has been cold and rainy, so nothing is really going on today. I couldn't even rent a movie because they need official documentation of my address. Kind of crazy for a video store, but oh well.

There are some new interns coming, so next weekend is another planned trip. I think it's a wine cellar tour which isn't the most exciting thing, but it's usually really pretty in the wine country, so at least that'll be nice. I'd really like to try paragliding, so if the weather is nice I think I'll go next Sunday w/ Aly.

I also found out that there isn't any housing available in may w/ the program i'm here with, so I might not end up staying any longer. I'll have to do some research and see if it's worth the hassle.

Yesterday I ended up going paragliding last minute. Definitely more exciting than being at work all day. I had seen the guys who took us when we hiked up Lion's Head a couple weekends ago and it looked really fun. I ended up going w/ Aly in the afternoon and we also jumped off from Lion's Head. It kind of faces Camps Bay and the Clifton beaches. It really wasn't scary because I was in a harness that was connected to the guy controlling the parashoot. He wanted to go from a higher up jump off point, so there was more climbing/hiking involved than I had expected. It was pretty cool though. I felt like I was in a postcard. I didn't want to do any acrobatics, so it was more gliding around and some bigger turns and dips. I don't think we were up there for long, but I could see how you could just stay up there and glide around for hours. Aly was actually done before I jumped off, so she got some pics of me while I was landing. The guy took some pictures of me when I was up there too, so once I figure out how to get a roll of film developed here I'll have those.

That was the most exciting thing I've done recently, but over the weekend we went to a wine cellar in Franshoek for a small tour and tasting. It was more fun than I thought it would be. The guy giving the tour was drinking full glasses while we were having tastes, so he was getting pretty amusing. After that we walked around Stellenbosch for a little bit. Other than that the weekend was pretty uneventful. There was a big bike race here called the Cape Argus. It goes around the entire cape and there are thousands of bikers, so most of the main roads were closed off. It looked cool from the TV though. Oh, and we saw The Last King of Scotland sunday night. I wasn't sure what it was about going into it, but it ended up being really good. Pretty intense, but interesting.

I'm not sure what I'll be up to this week besides work. I'd like to go to the botanical gardens in Kirstenbosch, but I don't know if I can leave work early on Friday. I also have no real update on the whole robbery thing at work. My main boss is back, so I'm assuming it'll get figured out at some point.

Nothing too exciting happened this past weekend. Thursday night we had a drinks night w/ all the interns in Camps Bay. Some of us stayed down there and tried out a club called Ignite. It's kind of a rich/touristy area, so it felt like people were more into how they looked than having a good time. It was cool to check it out though.

Work was mostly uneventful until friday. I worked on some letterhead and started to organize my own web portfolio. My goal is to update that before I go home. I made a profile on the AIGA site, so that's something. Friday I finally got a more significant project to work on. If it works out I'll get to help create an ad campaign for the magazine. Today was a frustrating day at work though because I had to wait forever to get any feedback and then my boss barely listened to my ideas and told me he wanted it in a more professional proposal form. It would have been nice to know that while I was sitting around doing nothing. His brother also took over my computer because for some reason he decided to use mine for his architecture rendering stuff. The magazine is really cool, but I honestly don't like the work environment and don't think I'd stay there if it were a real job of mine. It's a small company, so you'd think people would be open and chatting, but it's pretty much silent all day long. It's just not a fun place to work and it's frustrating on my end when I need to get feedback in order to move on, but my boss is too busy to care or think about it. I don't think I'll ever get used to the whole "now" meaning "in a while, but undetermined amount of time" thing they having going on here. If the ad campaign works out I'll at least feel like I didn't waste my time with them.

A lot of people were away this weekend for work, so the couple of us who were here drove to the fish hoek / muzienburg area. We wanted to go to the beach, but it was so windy it was painful to stay. Sand whipping across your skin and in the eyes is not fun. It was nice to get out, but the day was kind of a bust. Saturday night was St. Patty's, but there was only one bar celebrating it here. I went with John and Kelsey to the Long St. Cafe for some drinks. There was a guy there for his bachelors party and his friends chained him to a bowling ball and made him carry it around all night. I'd never seen the literal "ball and chain", but it was pretty funny.

Sunday ended up being a beautiful day. I hiked up Table Mountain which was cool, but made me realize how out of shape I am. I was fine with Lion's Head, so I'm not sure why this was so bad for me. I guess it was the never ending stairs. Lion's head was more climbing and had some stretches that were flat. I made it to the top eventually though. I took the cable car down and got some neat pictures from that. As I rode down the cable car rotated so I was able to get a 360 view. After that pretty much everyone who was around went to the beach for a couple of hours to relax. Definitely made up for Saturday.

Wednesday is a national holiday here. I think it's Human Rights Day, so most of us don't have to go into work. I think the plan is to go out Tuesday night and then just hang out on Wednesday. That'll be a nice break in the week especially since work hasn't been the greatest lately. I'm not sure what's planned for the weekend. There might be a fish braai on Sunday. The program coordinator had mentioned surf school and a play or something for Saturday, but I'm not sure that's happening this weekend. I would like to see a local play at some point, so hopefully that'll work out. I'll try to update more often, but if I don't I'm pretty good with e-mailing back here.

This past week started out out a bit rough, but definitely got better. Wednesday was human rights day here, so most of us didn't have work which was great. We all went out tuesday night to some bars/clubs around Long St. It was a late night, but fun. Wednesday I went to the beach w/ some of the girls. It started to get cloudy, so we got some food at a cool market called Newport cafe or something. Then we rented some movies and hung out. Having a weekend tyep of deal in the middle of the week made thursday feel like monday, but at least it's the actual weekend already.

Work was a bit better today also. I don't know if anything is still happening w/ the new slogans or ad campaign right now. I've mainly been working on creating logo spec sheets for them and gathering all their company logo/documents together. I only have five more weeks here, so hopefully the ad campaign will work out...

I'm not sure what I'm doing this weekend yet. I'm currently using the internet in the coffee shop downstairs, but I doubt i'll be here all night. Sunday most of the interns are going to a fish braai, so that'll be fun. If the weather stays cool and rainy I might just check out the museums. That's all for now...

This weekend was pretty good overall. I was feeling a little under the weather so I didn't go out fri or sat night. Saturday I decided to try to finally see some museums. I went to the District Six museum first. It was interesting to learn about this specific aspect to aparteid. District Six was a large diverse community in Cape Town where the people were forced to move out so the wealthy white community could move in and be part of the suburbs. The museum had a map on the floor of where district six was located and it looked like people who had lived in district six came back and wrote in their family name of exactly where they lived. It's a small museum, but had a lot of personal accounts and pictures.

Next I went to the SA National Museum, which is their art museum. I lucked out and went on a day when there was a new exhibit opening. I was just walking through a photography area and ended up coming in right as someone was about to present the new show opening. I got to see the new exhibit which was interesting, but not amazing. It was basically about the artist and his exploration of what it's like for people to grow up without knowing who their fathers are. It had a lot of video elements to it which was cool. I think the space it was in made it difficult to really see all of it because there were so many people walking in front of projectors etc... I think you'd need to really stand and listen to the entire thing. But anyways, there was a little reception in a courtyard area, so I helped myself some little snacks they had. I probably looked a bit out of place, but it worked out.

Then I went to the Planetarium which is combined w/ their regular south african museum. It reminded me of a small scale version of the field museum in chicago. I had good time once again because I walked in just as the Planetarium was having a show and I was able to get a student discount, so for a bit over a dollar I got to see one. Much better deal than any of the museums in chicago. Anyways, the show was interesting because they focused on the sky from the view from Cape Town. There are certain things you'll see here that won't see at home like the southern cross. They also said that Table Mountain is the only land mass that is represented as a constellation. It's not called table mountain, but that's what it's of. After the show i walked around a bit, but it was all pretty boring to me.

The whole area there is around parliament and there's a big garden area and really nice walking street that the government gardens and museums run along. I went to the Slave Lodge because I heard it was a good museum, but all the doors were locked. I know they're open on Saturdays, but I couldn't figure out how to get in if they were. I also need to go to the SA Jewish Museum/Holocaust Museum, but those will never be open on Saturdays. All in all it was a good day and I'm glad I checked them out.

Today a bunch of us went to Strandkombuis restaurant which is a fish braai/beach kitchen buffet. It was basically four hours of hanging out and eating food. They had amazing home made bread at the beginning which I of course stuffed myself with. I was a little full for the main food, but it was still good. Now I'm just back at the apt. digesting for a while. I feel really lazy since I didn't go out fri and sat night, but I guess it's better to get over my cold. Not sure what's going on this week/next weekend yet, but I need to start making sure I get everything in that I want before my time here runs out.