Long Street - Cape Town's Main Vein

LONG STREET

“Whichever way you approach Long Street you’re in for an interesting journey". It was said that Long Street has the potential to be one of the greatest streets in the world. It is described as the heart line of Cape Town. Long Street is alive, night and day. It is possible to find anything here – if you want it; you will find it. The architecture along Long Street span the early days from colonial times to the present. Long Street was not always the way it is today. It has become a more up-market place. In the 1960’s Long Street was filled with ‘whorehouses’ and sleazy alleys. A lot of that is gone, but can still be found there today. I have been offered drugs walking down Long Street before, but I never took or bought any. These are the car guards protecting our cars that are in the trade. People trade openly in the street – police do not care. Long Street was declared a white area, but that is gone now. Many Jews lived there in the past and religion is long part of Long Streets history, it was also once part of the city’s Islamic headquarter. It was a place where Muslim, Hindi and Jewish people lived in peace, however, most of them moved to the Cape Flats. Democracy changed Long Street completely, and that is why today you will find clubs, bars, etc. in the street. Someone who knows Long Street for a very long time said that "the liquor stores in Long Street are taking away its character”. In the 60’s and 70’s theatres played anti-apartheid plays, these places have now been turned into clubs, restaurants etc. However, Long Street is changing for the better.

Zula Sound Bar
Now, personally, Zula’s is my favourite place in Long Street, and you all should know that if you have read my last few entries. I’ve seen amazing bands perform and had great experiences at Zula’s. The vibe is great and it’s one of the few places where I feel comfortable when I go out - I mean, where people do not stare at you. I never know what they are thinking.

Zula Sound Bar uplifts music and 100% of the entrance fees goes to the artists – so we support South African music by going to Zula’s. And even if you are not into the live music, you will definitely have a good time anyway, because the atmosphere is wonderful. Although the music is quit different to a lot of clubs (I don’t really consider Zula’s a club, it is more like a lounge) they play music which you can dance to or just sit and mellow.

The people that go to Zula’s have no niche and they are relaxed. There’s no discrimination: black, white, coloured, gay, lesbian, straight; it does not matter. One of the owners describes it as “a home for everyone”. If we do not support places like this, corporates will move in and it would be a crying shame, said another of the owners. And I agree.


Some quotes (describing Long Street):

“Main artery of Cape Town’s cosmopolitan culture”

“Every 15 years Long Street reinvents itself”

“In the night time, it’s daytime – 24 hours”.

Registration

I registered for my final year of university last friday. I was a bit excited, but also a bit afraid. The night before (actually around 01.00 the morning) I had Beth Orton’s ‘Daybreak’ stuck in my head and it was making me a little emotional. I don’t know why, it is only third year. And I keep saying that my friends are all in the same year, they will be there with me. But that makes me think, is it more than just leaving university that is making me afraid? It could be that I now have to grow up, start a life on my own and no more time to ‘lay on [my] back on the grass/silently watching the rain clouds’ as Beth Orton’s lyrics go. I think it’s also because I am putting so much pressure on myself to get really good grades for all my subjects. It was an extremely long holiday, so maybe it is also that that is making me worry – will I be fit to study as much as is needed (and more).

As my friend and I drove in Stellenbosch, close to my campus, our other friend gave a missed call on my cell phone (my friend knew that is was that specific friend because she always either gives a missed call or sends a ‘please call me’ – and it was her) probably to let us know that she is there already (at the parking she said she was going to be at). I actually wanted to park at student parking, but I decided to take a turn past the shops’ parking where my friend said she was going to park at (and where she wanted me to park as well) and then we saw her walking along the shops – she waited for us there while I parked the car. It was great seeing her again, I only saw her at her work in Tyger Valley Shopping Centre and I called her yesterday to invite her to ‘Vensters’ (see previous post), she had to work so she couldn’t come along. Also, I was happy she was there so that I’d have a friend to stand with me in the registration line. We got past the formalities of greeting and headed straight for the registration line. On the way we met another of our dear friends (who I was so happy to see, because she actually graduated and although I saw her during the holidays she wasn’t sure if she was going to return to Stellenbosch – but she’s back for another year). We had to say goodbye to my best friend as she only registered at 9.00 (this was at 07.20) and we proceeded to the lines, which already had about 20-30 students in it. Luckily we came a little early (our official registration time was 08.00) and lucky for us that we were in the first group for registration (my friend who registered at 9.00 took over 2 hours to get done with registration; we only took about 30 mins, from 08.00). In the line I realized that I forgot my student card at home, luckily that wouldn’t affect the registration process; I just couldn’t get my card activated – to get into certain areas. There are people that help you choose your subjects and explain certain things that are unclear regarding subject choices. I was the lucky one to be the “guinea pig” for somebody who has never done this before, the woman standing there pointing to a free person told me, ‘Jy kan die ‘guinea pig wees’ (You can be the guinea pig). So I had to sit there while this woman was explaining to another woman how to do certain things. I was sitting there thinking, I could have showed her that. The woman teaching told the other woman that ‘H’ stands for ‘Hoofvak’ (main subject) but the woman wrote ‘Hoë vak’ (High Subject) on her notes, I just thought it was funny, sitting there bored. After the woman teaching her left, it took longer for her to get my subjects ticked with ‘H’ or ‘A’ (additional subject): two of my friends left from their subject choices before I was done. I mean, I could’ve just told her what to do, but I rather let her do everything (slowly) so she could learn and then maybe the next person would get through the process much quicker. Every year something strange happens to me at subject choices. In my first year I couldn’t decide if the person helping me was a man or woman – she turned out to be my female philosophy lecturer (and she was in one of our South African magazines), you can’t really blame me because she did look like a boy and she didn’t act like a woman either. She was cool though. Last year, my second year, there wasn’t really anything strange, just that the woman who helped was in the Linguistics department and she told me as I left, “See you in linguistics” (which happened once only). But my friend kept saying, ‘there’s your friend’ whenever the woman passed in the passage or something. Anyway, so I went to get myself a new student card but when I got to the room the woman told me she needed my old student card, which was at home. Then she said I should bring my card later to be activated otherwise I’d have to pay a R50 (for a new card) and I told her it would be fine, but she just looked at me and I said it was fine I’ll bring my card another day. Then I went to get my car a parking disc (which went up another R40 from my first year to R120, it was R80 last year and R40 the year before that), but I couldn’t remember my car’s number plate (I was really hopeless that day). So I decided to get my friend outside and we went for a drink at one of the restaurants in Stellenbosch. I had an iced tea. Then we decided to go to ‘Humarga’ (our computer lab) to get some more information on our classes and stuff like that. When we got into our Arts building we saw a flatscreen TV on the wall – which was new, and it was off, and then in Humarga all the old computers were replaced by new flatscreen computers. There we also found another of our Varsity friends. It was great seeing all the people from our classes, even people I never spoke to greeted me and others came to speak to me. I got two of my Chinese classmates. They were very clever in class, they knew I was very good in Chinese and whenever we were split into groups they begged to be in my group – which was usually the winning group. I’m not bragging, I’m just telling the truth. But there is this one crazy girl in our Chinese class, who’s really competitive. One of my classmates asked me if I won the ‘Character Championships’ last year, I said no, that crazy girl did, and they knew who I was talking about, one of them called her a freaky chick. She’s nice but can be too much sometimes, very intense. So on Monday I’ll be seeing these people more often. I really can’t wait to begin university.

This is what I prepared for myself the other day - I just made spaghetti, fried chicken breast, added green pepper and something that looks like parsely, but begins with a 'D'. Oh and soya sauce - I prefer that to Worcester sauce. I just came from taking my mother to the shops at N1 City and I was hungry. I thought it would be quick to get myself McDonald's, but that's not very healthy. So I decided to cook something. I never do this. I was surprised that it turned out to be so delicious and good, because I didn't follow any recipe. I just mixed some things. Anyway, this is what I made the afternoon before I went to my university's 'vensters' performances. 'Vensters' is part of my university's RAG (Remember and Give) which is for charity. The first years perform in 'vensters' (luckily I didn't have to when I was first year - I decided on helping to build the float for my university house). The performances wasn't as good as the other years, even 'The Medics' (Stellenbosch's Tygerberg Campus - Medical Students), who win every year, based their performance on 'The Wizard of Oz'; but it wasn't an exciting performance, but it still was one of the best - they'll probably win again this year. All the 'plays' have to speak about certain topics; like studying, drinking (alcohol abuse), the charities and things like that. They get judged on that.

But for most students RAG is all about partying and getting drunk. I watched a local programme called 'Gons' (it's an Afrikaans programme) and they talked about the real reason behind RAG (the charities). They kept asking every guest, 'hoeveel meisies word swanger by Jool (Afrikaans for RAG)? (How many girls get pregnant at RAG?). Nobody really answered but they said it happens. I met a whole bunch of people I went to high school with and most of them were drunk - some people you'd never expect. I blame it on peer pressure. I will never give in to peer pressure and my friends will never pressure me into doing anything I don't want to. I saw one of my high school mates last week when I went out clubbing (which I don't really like - it was my cousin that wanted to go) and she said she'll be at 'vensters'. I saw her there and then the biggest surprise was seeing a girl I went to high school with that immigrated to New Zealand when we were in Grade 11. I never saw her since. I noticed her because when my friends and I sat down in 'The Neelsie' (our student mall) I heard a girl talking really loudly about how she wasn't drunk and talking about the only time she was drunk. The voice sounded really familiar and I turned to look and it was her, with other people I went to high school with. My friend went with someone to go say hello to other people from high school. They came back to us just to say hi. The New Zealand girl was obviously drunk. She came to us and started speaking, rolling her 'R's' asking if we know any place that sells 'boerewors rolls' (count the 'R's' in that. I get annoyed when South African English speakers roll there 'R's'and some of my friends do it. I expect that from Afrikaans speakers, but If you're English and South African speak SAE). The funny thing was that my friend said outside she was all 'gam' (The way Cape Coloureds from certain areas speak - not me though). I also saw people I used to friends with in high school, but I didn't even know what to say to them. We left Stellenbosch around midnight - it was pointless going to the clubs or bars because they are filled (people have to stand in the streets and according to my brother they closed one of the clubs at 23.00). And anyway, I had my university registration the next morning at 8.00 (but I wanted to leave at 6.50am so that I wouldn't have to stand in a long queue).

This post is long overdue, but I'll try to add new posts regularly from now on. Last weekend my friends and I decided to take our friends (from high school) that just returned from England (they were there for two years but came home over Christmas and New Year's last year). They will be staying for their studies, but they say that they will be leaving the country again after they completed their studies - which is what I want to do as well. One will study Psychology (at my university) and the other (they are also twins) will get her pilot's licence - which I think is really exciting.

We went to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront (which has changed a lot since the last time we were there) for a drink. We went to this place called 'La Playa' (where we took 'the twins' when they came here during the last Christmas holidays). It's great to see that they haven't changed much, even after spending two years in England. But, of course, they had experiences that taught them many things, so they definitely learned a lot. They had to be independent for two years, and obviously that has changed them in a way. One came back with a tattoo on her foot (but I always regarded her as the "wilder" twin - like my brother).

The statues in the picture was covered the last time we came here, we had no idea what they were when they were covered. They are unveiled now and they are the statues of very influential and nobel people in South Africa. Like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, FW De Klerk and can't remember the other one.