Christmas in Cape Town

I'm still not used to a warm Christmas. Even though Portland, Oregon doesn't usually snow on Christmas it's chilly, so its hard to believe it's Christmas when its over 70F outside. Strange that this year Portland was covered in snow. Strange in an ironic sort of way, that one of the years I am gone is a white Christmas, though from what I heard it was more hassle than enjoyment.

The States put Christmas on steroids, so everywhere else Christmas seems much less fanfare. Here, the malls had some decorations, and there were some wreaths and tinsel around. At the airport, the gates had some tinsel. There were a few small desk-sized plastic Christmas trees here and there, but no one does the traditional Western tree thing. If they did, it would have to be a plastic tree. Last year, I saw the flower stalk of the agave plant decorated like a tree. That was the most exciting.

So even though I don't get into the Christmas spirit much normally, I got into it even less this year. But it's a good opportunity to at least have the treat of a nice meal. So that is what we decided to do, to go out to a fancy restaurant and celebrate.

We flew back to Cape Town from Durban on Christmas Day, and spent a long time calling around to see who was still open, what they were doing and how much it was going to cost. Jared was feeling unwell, so I wasn't even sure we were going to be able to go.

In the end, we went to Haiku, an Asian tapas place downtown. Tapas are a good idea in theory: that the portions are smaller, so you order a bunch of different items. Of the handful of tapas places I have been, they are always in the end more expensive than a restaurant with one item. The food was really good, and the waiter really accommodating with our veganism. They even took back the spinach that had cream cheese in it and replaced it with something else. The waiter had checked with the kitchen to see if there was dairy in it, but since the spinach filling was premade, they hadn't realized. Having not eaten dairy in nearly 10 years, I can pick out the taste and I don't like it. Dairy also makes both Jared and I sick. It was wonderful to have a waiter that was accommodating to our veganism. Good Christmas treat.

When I got back to our little room at the backpackers we have been staying at until we find an apartment, I called Oregon to say Merry Christmas to my family. Skype is a great thing. Using my computer, I called my folk's landline and chatted for 30 min for less than $1. No phone card is that cheap overseas! Calling their computer is free, but their internet was down. Since bandwidth is expensive here, I do pay per MB when using the internet. But, its so convient and still cheaper than a payphone and calling card.

Now its time for New Years. What to do? We haven't decided yet, but I'm excited that with the changing of the calendar will come a new year of great things.