The first impression you gather about anything is telling. It takes a fraction of a second to form that impression. It is almost always right and often you can't explain why that is your impression until you can gather more information.
I got off the plane in cape town and took a bus to the central business district (downtown.) On my bus ride, and being able to see the city for the first time, I had a great first impression of this city. I knew that Cape Town is referred to as the mother city and I learned that South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation. What a perfect name for this place. I found myself thinking about what the Rainbow can represent and how that lends itself to this beautiful city. When I thought about it, it all comes down to one word. Diversity.
The most glaring use of rainbow and speaking of diversity is that of race. The more I have travelled the more it is reiterated that separating/judging/classifying/segregating etcetera on skin color is completely moronic. I won't go into the reasons it is moronic but seeing people who have pigment in all different shades going about their business and living peacefully with one another is so refreshing to see. Especially, when so much media (at least in north America) have so few examples of black people thriving and far too many examples of the effects of marginalization masked as a negative stereotype.
The 'rainbow' also represented itself to me by way of art. The visual art was colorful, the music was enchanting, the food was diverse (and the standard of food quality in cape town is amazing). There's a certain vibrancy that is threaded in all forms of art in Cape Town that injects itself into you. I found myself walking with an extra bounce in my step and smiling more often.
Speaking of smiling, the people. The rainbow is a band of color that lights up the sky. The energy of south Africans was the same. I won't turn this into another rendition of my last post detailing the South African smile the way I did about Sri Lanka but what I loved most about was how animated it was. All positive emotions were displayed over the top making it a joy to be around such positive energy. I saw business women dancing on their way to catch a train while listening to their mp3, children singing and dancing with enthusiasm, and people curl over in laughter on a simple joke. How animated south Africans were was one of the more subtle elements I will remember most about this great city.
My first impression of the city was amazingly accurate and I knew I would like the city before hardly experiencing it. The rainbow nation had opened its arms to me as it has for so many others, making it a world class city.
I got off the plane in cape town and took a bus to the central business district (downtown.) On my bus ride, and being able to see the city for the first time, I had a great first impression of this city. I knew that Cape Town is referred to as the mother city and I learned that South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation. What a perfect name for this place. I found myself thinking about what the Rainbow can represent and how that lends itself to this beautiful city. When I thought about it, it all comes down to one word. Diversity.
The most glaring use of rainbow and speaking of diversity is that of race. The more I have travelled the more it is reiterated that separating/judging/classifying/segregating etcetera on skin color is completely moronic. I won't go into the reasons it is moronic but seeing people who have pigment in all different shades going about their business and living peacefully with one another is so refreshing to see. Especially, when so much media (at least in north America) have so few examples of black people thriving and far too many examples of the effects of marginalization masked as a negative stereotype.
The 'rainbow' also represented itself to me by way of art. The visual art was colorful, the music was enchanting, the food was diverse (and the standard of food quality in cape town is amazing). There's a certain vibrancy that is threaded in all forms of art in Cape Town that injects itself into you. I found myself walking with an extra bounce in my step and smiling more often.
Speaking of smiling, the people. The rainbow is a band of color that lights up the sky. The energy of south Africans was the same. I won't turn this into another rendition of my last post detailing the South African smile the way I did about Sri Lanka but what I loved most about was how animated it was. All positive emotions were displayed over the top making it a joy to be around such positive energy. I saw business women dancing on their way to catch a train while listening to their mp3, children singing and dancing with enthusiasm, and people curl over in laughter on a simple joke. How animated south Africans were was one of the more subtle elements I will remember most about this great city.
My first impression of the city was amazingly accurate and I knew I would like the city before hardly experiencing it. The rainbow nation had opened its arms to me as it has for so many others, making it a world class city.
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