Two movies, two meals, and a longgggg sleep, I woke up in Cape Town. The weather is agreeable, the air sooOo fresh.

Friday night I checked in at a hostel called "African HeART Backpackers", one of the cheapest hostels in Cape Town at an astonishing rate of R90 (7.3 Rand = 1 CDN Dollar) per bed in a shared facility. Don't let the price fool you, it's a very nice and clean hostel. There were a few others here, mostly "one-nighters" ;) and some med-school students from England doing their internships at a hospital nearby. They've been here for 7 weeks already.

Today is Saturday, my adventure began by taking a mini taxi bus, as they call it here, to Cape Town (10 mins away). At Cape Town, I walked around the town square, the little streets, and going by the little shops to familiarize the city. I got a good idea of the price levels for things in local currency. My mission for the morning was to find a bank and exchange some currency, I had absolutely no rands at all. Sure it sounds like an easy objective in the city ready to host the World Cup, but things just have to become "interesting".

The local banks here don't do exchanges, I had to find exchange houses. Once I found one, they required me to have my passport, which I didn't carry with me. Without the passport, they can't do anything, not even to find their manager as I have requested. Furious, I went to find the Canadian Embassy to see if they could offer some help; good thing I memorized its address. However, once I found the place, the lobby security told me the Canadian Embassy has been relocated to another city. To shorten the story, I got back to exchange house just before it closed, and I charmed a local Cape Towner to exchange money for me. Minus the "transaction fee" and "commision rates" and "hidden charges", I ended up exchanging $40 CDN for R220 - a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE deal. Where's an Ally Bank when I need you?

To give an update on my financial situation. Since I leave my project site on Friday afternoon and return Monday at dawn, for 30 days (3 days x 10 weeks), I have a total of $105CDN to spend on meals, transportation, tours, and whatever else I buy. So $3.5 per day, that's a lot higher than what average African lives on. As Lindsey puts it, T.I.A. This is Africa.

The afternoon adventure was a lot more exciting. I spent it in the South Africa National Arts Gallery. Although not as big as the Canadian or American one, it housed many interesting works! At around 5:00PM, when everything is about to close, I found my way to the train station, and bought a Third-class (lowest, cheapest) ticket back to Observatory, the part of city I stayed at. The train ride was quite memorable. I finally understood why in my information pamphlet from the Greenheart Travels it stated that "volunteers should NEVER take the train to get to places."

But, I'm still alive.

Once I got back, I went to pick up some "groceries" and cooked my first meal - instant noodle with spice and nothing more. To survive on $3.5 a day, starting now, I have to train my body to become more calorie-efficient. After dinner, I planned to visit the S.A. Observatory near by, but instead, I went to see a lame-version of hockey - field hockey - game. What a day for a first-day!

P.S. About my internet situation, I should be able to upload some logs once every week under normal circumstances. Pictures will have to wait, it takes seriously wayyyyyyyyy too much time to upload anything. The picture in this note took a good few minutes to show up.