Julian on eventful weekends

Sizwe, Julian, friend, Logan

Two weekends ago we had a human rights training program that lasted from Friday to Sunday. I didn’t learn too many new things about human rights, but I did learn a lot more about things I do know; perspective being the main point. Vincent, the facilitator of the program, had a quick point to make about perspective from the start. He had one person face a poster board and one person with their back to the board. When he asked them where the board was one person said in front of them and the other said behind. I liked the example because it shows how people can see the same thing in different ways. Later that night I experienced a true difference in perspective that put this example into practice. I stayed up until about two in the morning talking to South Africans about gender roles and homosexuality and how equality doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. I was baffled at how we were at this human rights conference and how equality in their minds wasn’t actually equal. I was forced to step back and think about Vincent’s example and wondered if I would think the same way if I was born in their shoes (I still don’t condone their views on the topics). I hope to say that I would think the way I do now, but how could I if I was taught something else from the time I was born.

This last weekend was definitely one of my favorite because of how culturally rich I felt afterwards. I started off strong with a pina colada crepe at the Old Biscuit Mill market. This place is basically an enormous food fair with tons of free samples and too much good food to try it all (my kind of place). From there we hopped into a couple of mini taxis that eventually brought us to the world cup stadium where a gay pride parade was going down. This wasn’t anything too new for me because my family visits Provincetown pretty often, but this parade was still pretty off the hook. The group got tired after marching in the parade for an hour and decided that we needed to experience a little more culture. Naturally, we ran to the nearest McDonalds and refueled with Fanta and fries. I forced myself to refrain from a Big Mac because I had eaten three of them in the two days before that. We decided to extend that meal over at the Italian restaurant Giovanni’s across the street where I had some pesto pasta salad. Another quick mini taxi ride brought us over to the company gardens where we strolled through the park and topped that off with a little bit of sushi (I just realized how much I ate that day). And to top it all off, I had the time of my life at a dance show where we saw krumping, break dancing, hip hop and everything else of the sort. And we went to open mic night at a bar on Long Street (very scary place). That was Saturday; I had plenty of culture for one day.

But not enough for the weekend. Sunday we woke up and hurried to get ready for Mzoli’s where we met up with our friends from the human rights weekend. Mzoli’s is a cross between a club, a restaurant and a market. It was BYOB (bring your own bread; and booze for those who drank). We ate unhealthy amounts of meat and danced until we couldn’t dance no more. Then we went to Kirstenbosch for a Goldfish concert and danced even more! The weekend wore me out but I’ve never experienced anything like it. I can only hope for the rest of our time here to be as eventful.