South Africa

Landing in Africa was a remarkable feeling. Stepping onto a new continent always is. While driving to our house, mountain ranges stretched as far as I could see. The landscape, from the highway, was truly majestic. Cape Town is a beautiful place.

So was our house. It was in a part of Cape Town called Camps Bay. Camps Bay is a beachfront 90210 type place and everyone you pass looks like an extra from a movie about Spring Break.

I spent a lot of time looking at the ocean. It was hard not to. It was just... there. Outside the window, in the backyard. I'm scared of the ocean. It's like an endless void that could just swallow me, reduce me to nothing. Like I never happened.

The beach house was an opportunity to catch up on work that had piled up. Having a communal space to live in made it much easier to communicate and work within the group. It was a productive time, sort of.

The best party in Cape Town was the MTV Smirnoff Division 7 party. Primarily this was because of the military theme. The venue, from the outside, looked like a base - but I think it was actually an old cracker factory or something. Inside, there were army crates and coolers used for seating, camo netting, security in uniform. Visually, this was a tight party, and audibly it was good too. The DJ was spinning a combo platter of old school, top 40, some mashups, etc. More than dancing, I had fun watching other people dance. Some fine, fine moves.

Johannesburg was a blur. We didn't have as much time as we did in Cape Town, but we made good use of the time we did have. We went to a Braai. It was delicious. Akona's father and sister both came. It was so cool to meet them. Akona's talked about her family quite a bit on the trip, so to finally put a face to them was a relief to my ever speculating brain.

Another great part the city was Soweto. It's where Nelson Mandela is from. We actually drove by his old house on a historical tour. People took photos, Kareem made a KareemTV video, but I was accidentally in the background and he got all angry. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself. I'm still working through it.

Soweto was also the site of the Smirnoff Ten welcome party. It was in a really minimal, vast space with three levels. Great furniture and lighting. I met some great people, had some great cocktails, and just had a great time. And when it was time to go, we just had to walk across the courtyard to our hotel.

Like any other destination this year, our departure date rolled around and it was back to the airport for us.