The art of the city: Kampala Taxi Park

Today I found myself reminiscing about my short sojourn in Uganda three years ago, when my camera was stolen on the journey from Kigali to Kampala and so I unfortunately couldn't record the trip in pictures. (Luckily, a while later, I did manage to get a few photos from people we had run into along the way: here.) Uganda stays in my memory as one of my favorite trips, even though it didn't have the most promising of starts.

So today I found myself traveling back in my mind and planning a hypothetical trip, deciding step-by-step where I would go and what I would see. I decided to fly into Entebbe, go see the Botanical Gardens and take pictures of the spider walk (where I so desperately wanted to take pictures last time), then ferry across Lake Victoria and lounge on the Ssese Islands for a few days. Then a ferry back to Entebbe, and a short bus ride into Kampala, where you are jolted from your laid-back Entebbe/islands mood as you are deposited directly into one of the most bustling parts of the city, the taxi park.

And here, in my mind, I got stuck. I imagined leaving the taxi park and heading out to find a room for the night, but my mind kept drifting back to the park. I think it remains one of the most thrilling sights I've seen in Africa - a huge square packed to the gills with little white minibuses, bound for all corners of the country. Getting into and out of the park, on foot or in a taxi, is an adventure, as you are dodging taxis, taxi conductors, sellers, other passengers, all while trying to find the specific taxi you need or the specific exit to the outside world that you need. If you can keep your head about you it's a thrilling experience, especially for those of us from places where we are used to seeing signs and schedules pointing us in exactly the direction we need to go.

So with my head stuck on the taxi parks of Kampala (there are two: the Old Taxi Park and the New Taxi Park) I decided to hunt down some photos. In the process I found a few interesting representations of the parks.

First, a photo:

From Parking in Africa (this site has an interesting article about the politics of the taxi park)

And, from above, courtesy of Google Maps:

I found a very interesting-looking trailer to a documentary about Kampala's taxi parks (below). Has anyone seen this? Know how I can get my hands on the actual documentary?

And finally, I found two lovely artistic representations.

Here, an illustration by Ingo Giezendanner that became the cover of a book called GRRR30: Urban Recordings, which sadly has gone out of print, but can be viewed online here. (Anyone have or know how to find a copy of the book?)

A detail: 

And here, a Ugandan batik artist named Lukandwa Dominic has represented the taxi park as a batik and documents the process on his blog: http://batikartist.blogspot.com/ (go look, it's a fascinating process). I think this is a really beautiful piece:

We've spent some time in class discussing the idea of "sense of place", the qualities of a space that make it identifiable and unique. Part of this discussion has centered around the loss of sense of place in parts of the world, as mass production and globalization and other various factors have an homogenizing effect on some areas (i.e. the strip mall, suburbia). When I think of Kampala, the taxi parks always spring to mind. When I see pictures of the taxi park, I think of Kampala. I haven't seen anything exactly like it anywhere else, although most cities have some version of it (i.e. Nairobi, Kigali, Tokyo, Seattle).

I'm also becoming more intrigued by the representation of the city in art. Expect to see more on this topic; I'm finding especially interesting the creation of art in and about the more mundane and every-day aspects of life. To me, it's beautiful that someone can take something as practical as a transportation hub and turn it into a work of art, representing the aesthetic, social, economic, and political significance of the place.

Do you have examples of art in the city in everyday life? Send them, I'd be happy to see them!

Mini Cape

Tilt-shifted video of Cape Town:



UCT is briefly shown at the 1:17 mark.

Kony 2012

Acholi Boys - image found at http://www.uni-muenster.de/Ethnologie/ProjForsch/RelPol/project2.html

Ok, I've jumped on the bandwagon. But just because I think this is an important issue to address. For those of you who don't recognize what I'm talking about, Kony 2012 is a 30 minute documentary about Joseph Kony, the erstwhile leader of the really horrible Lords' Resistance Army, formerly of northern Uganda. This documentary was made and is distributed by Invisible Children, an organization that's been around for a few years.

I'll start by saying what's good about this documentary. It brings to light a very significant problem that has been affecting communities in central Africa for decades, a problem that Joseph Kony has been largely (although not entirely) responsible for. Kony has been heading up the Lords' Resistance Army (LRA) since the late 80s, and in that time has managed to abduct tens of thousands of children and completely destabilize communities (mostly the Acholi people) in northern Uganda. He abducts children for a couple reasons - one, to provide fighters and sex slaves for his army, and two, to indoctrinate and establish a society based (very loosely) on the Ten Commandments. Children are initiated often by being ordered to return to their communities and kill their families, or risk being killed themselves. They are also made to mutilate or kill other children who don't follow orders. This serves both to instill fear in the kids so they follow without question, as well as to potentially turn communities against these kids. Thus, if and when children are freed, they often don't have a home to go back to, either because their families are dead or because the children themselves are alienated for effectively being the enemy. Some of these kids, for lack of a better option, then are made to fight for the Ugandan military, which to some extent makes the military hardly better than the LRA itself.

Another essential issue in northern Uganda has been the destablization of civil society. Whole communities have been torn apart, and those that have survived and remained outside of the grips of the LRA have found themselves in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, that lack security, services, and food. Women have been routinely raped and brutalized when they leave the camps to search for food and water. People have been unable to sustain themselves with whatever livelihoods they had before, and social order has broken down. I suppose this is what happens when the youth (albeit severely coerced) rise up and battle their elders.

Here's what's happened lately: over the last few years Kony has fled northern Uganda, and the LRA has been dispersed across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Kony himself has been elusive as of late, and his army has been severely diminished in size, with the top leaders either dead or imprisoned. That's not to say that they are not still terrorizing local communities, as reports suggest they are doing. However, they are not the force they were a few years ago, and they are not in Uganda anymore.

Kony 2012's aim is to make Joseph Kony famous, so individuals can pressure the United States to keep its troops in the region in order to find him and bring him to justice (Kony has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes). The funds Invisible Children is raising through this documentary go toward raising more awareness, assisting the Ugandan military, and providing a bit of assistance to the communities of northern Uganda.

Here are the issues I have with the documentary. First, Invisible Children is providing assistance (both in funds and training) to the Ugandan military, which is itself a corrupt organization that has also used child soldiers (much like the LRA). Invisible Children also advocates for American military intervention in Uganda. How this all will help to catch Kony I don't know, since a) there have been countless unsuccessful military campaigns against him since he started out, and b) he's not even in Uganda. The documentary briefly mentions this fact. Does Invisible Children really want to advocate a cross-border military action by a corrupt army just to take down a single man who is elusive enough as it is? Invisible Children needs to decide if it wants to help Uganda (through grassroots security and rebuilding initiatives) or if it wants to hunt down Kony and how it will do so. These are two separate issues.

The second issue that I have is that Invisible Children misrepresents the issue in so many ways. In their representation the problem is that an evil warlord is abducting children in Africa, and no one is doing anything about it! But we, as powerful Americans, can mobilize and unite and influence our government (which seems to be so deaf as to need tens of thousands of people screaming at it before it realizes it's supposed to do something) to send soldiers over to go get that bad guy! And if we remain silent, then the government does nothing, our soldiers get recalled, and Kony continues unabated. How could we remain silent? When there are children (children just like our own!) dying?

This is at best a gross over-simplification of an incredibly complex situation. Say we send our troops, and they liaise with the Ugandan military, and they somehow manage to find Kony without disrupting the sovereignty and security of neighboring countries, what then? Do they gun down all the kids that Kony will inevitably throw up as a human shield? Are they expected to talk their way into Kony's circle? There's a reason Kony has not been caught yet, and it's not because of lack of effort. There have been (as previously mentioned) numerous military campaigns, as well as peace talks moderated by external parties. This is a conflict that has continued for decades, and people have been trying to find a solution for decades. Do we really believe that a bunch of American college kids marching around their city streets and putting up posters and tweeting politicians have the power to take down one of the most elusive criminals alive today? To assume so belittles every other effort that has been made thus far. Apathy and ignorance plague American society, and I'm glad there's been such a strong reaction to Kony 2012, because we need to be aware of what's going on in the outside world. But just as we have a problem with apathy and ignorance, we also have an over-inflated sense of self-importance. This is all the more clear in how much face time the filmmakers give themselves in the movie. They position themselves as the savior-leaders, the chosen ones to battle this horrible atrocity. I think it's telling that a greater amount of time is spent in the movie showing the filmmaker, his son, the American public, and the government, than anything that is going on in Uganda. It becomes apparent that Uganda is really not the issue here, it's our own belief that we are Helping.

I agree that Kony is a bad man that needs to be brought to justice. And I believe that we on the other side of the world should be aware of these problems and should do what we can to contribute to groups that are working to alleviate these problems. But in this case, a military solution is not a solution at all. Invisible Children owes it to the public (of the United States as well as Uganda) to represent the issue fairly and to not manipulate emotions to produce a one-dimensional outcome that will fail. In addition, Invisible Children's financial practices have been woefully criticized, both for not being transparent as well as for contributing only a small portion to actual on-the-ground work.

If you want to support an organization that is helping Kony's victims, consider supporting World Vision's Gulu project or Oxfam Uganda. Or go search things out for yourself, and find other organizations that are working in northern Uganda. If you want to check up on an organization's transparency and handling of finances, look it up at Charity Navigator.

Here are some more good articles if you want to read further:

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

Foreign Policy - Joseph Kony is Not in Uganda (and other complicated things)

thatneedstogo.tumbler.com - Kony 2012: Causing More Harm Than Good

Jezebel - Kony 2012 Group Responds to Increasing Criticism

Telegraph - Growing Outrage in Uganda Over Film

Blogpost - Invisible Children founders pose with guns: an interview with the photographer

Does anyone have any thoughts on this issue? I don't mean to come down on everyone who is forwarding the documentary. Like I said, I think it's wonderful that people are paying attention, and I believe that this attention comes from a really good place in our hearts. But it's important to look closely at things like this that ask to give over our emotions for a cause. Pay attention in a constructive way. What do you all think?

My brain isn't ready to think again after so long away from school

I just looked at my calendar and realized I’ve only been here three weeks. I was sure it was longer than that. I’ve just finished my first week of classes, and as can be imagined it was long and full and tiring. I doubt I will get much less busy in the months to come, but hopefully I will at least become more used to the pace. So here is a rundown of the first week of grad school!

We started Monday with a meeting with the staff and faculty of the Planning programs, and all students. My program, Master of City and Regional Planning, is run concurrently with the Master of Landscape Architecture, and our two programs share a couple classes. So I have a core group of about 20 people that I will be studying with for the next two years, and an additional 15 or so people that I will be studying with a couple days a week. The majority of students are from South Africa, but there are a handful from other parts of southern Africa, a couple students who have lived a while in the US or UK, and one Canadian student. There are some very diverse backgrounds including English, Geography, Engineering, Fine Arts, History, Political Science, Architecture, etc. I’m the only student with work experience in Architecture, which means whenever the prof needs an architectural example, I’m the one that gets picked on. I’m going to have to get better at being put on the spot.

Classes this week were Planning Theory, Studio, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), Planning Techniques, and Natural Systems. We’ve already had quite a bit of lectures and readings. Highlights of the week were mapping workshops in Studio & GIS, where we went over basic hand-drawing techniques for producing maps, and then tried out some computer mapping programs.

First mapping exercise - I screwed up the section, I'm going to have to work harder to get used to the metric system.

Another highlight was walking down to the Rural Development and Land Reform /National Geo-Spatial Information office just off campus where we were given presentations on how South Africa is currently being mapped by camera. They gave us a lot of cool technical information that I didn’t really understand and don’t remember, but essentially this government department has been flying high def cameras over the country for the last few years to map every portion of the country as accurately as possible, then providing their imagery to Google Earth as well as creating various maps from the information. We were given demonstrations on how the raw imagery is manipulated by the department – cameras are attached to GPS units that record the exact location of each photo taken, and another instrument measures the angle of the plane to the ground so the image can be corrected if it’s askew. Photos are taken at exact intervals with an overlap on all four sides, and the flight pattern of the plane is recorded for reference. There were also some cool tidbits on how infrared cameras are used to photograph and identify live vegetation from the air.

The department offers its digital maps and information for free to anyone who comes in with a digital storage device big enough to hold it. It also has maps available for perusing in the office. It was a pretty cool visit, I’ve always wondered what cartography is like nowadays. Well, I still wonder what cartography was like decades ago, but that’s something still to discover. The department did have a display of old surveying and mapping equipment in the lobby, including an old copper plate etching of a map for printing.

We walked away with some cool map swag – at least I thought it was cool, but maybe that’s just me. It includes a couple maps – one of South Africa and one of the Western Cape. I’m now using the bag conveniently as an underwear drawer.

Waiting to see how long it takes till these get blown off by the wind

The most exciting thing of the week was getting our first-semester studio project. Each semester there is a different studio project – a sort of practicum that starts off at a local community level, then advances to a metro level, and finally to a regional level. For this semester’s studio, we will be working with a community in Franschhoek Valley, about an hour and a half east of Cape Town, in wine country. (Hoek means "corner", so "Franschhoek" means "French corner")

Franschhoek Valley (from Wikipedia)

The community we’re working with is an informal settlement (or slum or shantytown or whatever you want to call it), where residents are working to improve their surroundings. They’ve been having a problem there with grey water polluting a nearby reservoir, and have put together a team of community leaders to find a solution. That team approached the planning school at UCT to see if we would like to assist, so our class is now tackling this for the semester. We’ve only had a basic introduction to the community and the project, but tomorrow we’re bussing out to meet with the community team that we’ll be collaborating with and have a more formal introduction, and then to wander around the settlement interviewing residents and getting a feel for the environment. I’m really excited about this, I had no idea we’d be doing something so practical so early on. It seems like a bit of a daunting process, especially since we don’t yet really know exactly what the end goal is, but I’m positive I’ll learn a lot, and hopefully we can help to develop some positive solutions.

Finally, I'll sign off with some pics of my room and view. My room isn't too exciting, it's a little pod on the 6th floor right across from the communal kitchen. I've got a tiny little white-tiled bathroom that was built and installed in one piece (I think) so its floor is about 8" above the rest of the room. In the room I have a bed, a couple walls of built in cupboards and counter, and a chair, with a window that looks out over the back courtyard. It's quite loud and echo-y, I'm going to have to get used to that. It can get very windy, and when it does the wind just tears through the room, whipping the curtains and rattling the door violently. There isn't much in the way of ventilation when the window is closed, so I've rigged up a solution to the noisy-door-banging, where I thread a strap through the bathroom door handle and the bedroom door handle and tighten it as much as I can. This only really works at night though, since I'm in and out of those doors too much during the day.

Room

With a view

I'm still a little unsure of how much I like living in university housing. It's been 7 or 8 years since my last dorm experience. It gets quite noisy - the whole building is hard surfaces with very little soundproofing, and when any of the rooms on the courtyard gets noisy it just echoes around the whole space. There are some positives - laundry in the building, internet, security, being close to other students. I'll have to see which side wins. I may end up trying to find an apartment or a room in a smaller place over the June/July break, but for now this place should work out ok. Hopefully I'll be so busy with work that I won't even notice the noise.

Ciao for now, I will be trying to blog more frequently so as to break up some of these long blogs :S Thanks for reading!

Etsy Finds

Well, I've got a lot of free time on my hands since classes don't start until next week, so I've been dinking around on Etsy drooling over various travel-related items available. It makes me wish it had occurred to me to go Etsy-shopping before I left, but somehow in the rush to get out the door I neglected to do so. So I decided to blog about what I would buy if I went on a no-holds-barred Etsy shopping spree before traveling. And no, I didn't pay attention to prices, because it's not a REAL shopping spree. Unless anyone needs birthday hints. So here goes:

This is my favorite find - a little vintage tin photo album. Inside there's a folding photo sleeve on one side, and a little frame on the other side. Vintage tin by Garden of Blessings

Vintage leather shoulder bag - a good day bag for wandering around the city, nice and secure and hard to pickpocket. Plus it looks like it's big enough to hold a book, always an important quality in a good bag. Vintage bag by Rue Des Louves

For home...

And abroad. Since they're only 8 1/2" x 11" it would be easy to sandwich them between cardboard and slip into your suitcase. Geez, I wish I'd thought of that before I left. Prints by Hop Skip Jump Paper

This is of course assuming that the destination is hot and sunny. If so, this is the perfect sun hat. I kinda need one of these actually, I wonder if they ship to South Africa. Vintage hat by Five Stones Vintage

Since the key to efficient packing when traveling is dressing in layers - here's a cardigan I found that could probably double as a jacket in warmer climates. It's hemp and organic cotton, and looks super comfy. Cardigan by Stephanie Teague

This is probably an item that isn't as useful today as it might have been several years ago, but it is still pretty cool, and finding it makes me want to set out on a big city adventure with only this and a map. Or perhaps a wander across the Serengeti a la Ryszard Kapuscinski. Vintage compass/sundial by Ronika Lee

This is what started the Etsy hunt - a vintage travel alarm clock that can be set to a specific city's time zone. Choices include Hongkong, Sydney, Denver, New York, London, Beirut, Tehran, Kabul, Rangoon, etc. I love the face design, and that it's compact, and that it would save me the brain ache of trying to calculate the time after just flying to a new destination. Alas, this exact clock doesn't work properly, but now I know what to keep an eye out for. Vintage clock by Lady Song Bird

And here is a lovely matchbox sewing kit designed for a couple quick on-the-go fixes. It's not equipped to reconstruct an item of clothing, but it's perfect for replacing a button, or mending a small rip, or snipping off loose threads. Plus it would easily fit in one of the pockets of the leather bag above. It's put together with such care, it's hard not to include it in the list :) Matchbox sewing kit by A Place to Lay My Thread.

While searching for Etsy-provided travel pastimes, I came across these. Timekillers are always going to be necessary in travel, until teleportation is made widely available. These are rolled-paper knitting needles, created to go through security easily. Regular knitting needles are now apparently allowed through TSA checkpoints, but I've always been uneasy about carrying needles on in case I get a TSA agent on a bad day, or I'm traveling through another country's airport that might not adhere strictly to U.S. security regulations. Apparently they are not as functional as normal needles, but seem like a fine stand-in for a few hours or days spent in transit. I like the ingenuity, and I wish I'd seen these before as well, as I've had many a bored hour since leaving home when I wished I had some needles and yarn. Oh well, maybe next year! Paper knitting needles by Two Uncool Chicks.

It would be a terrible idea to travel without something to record your thoughts in. There are a lot of handmade journals available on Etsy, but I like this one specifically because it's made with good-quality pastel paper so it easily doubles as a sketchbook, and the seller customizes each book to order. All I need now is a compact pencil case to tote along with it. Leather journal/sketchbook by Lady Artisan.

And last but not least, this is just stinking cute - I think the heart-in-Africa design is typically used for people who are adopting from Africa, but as this seller says, "This little necklace needs no explanation - I love my continent!" So I'm including it here for that reason, not because I'm adopting anyone (sorry Mom, no grandkids yet). It's simple and lovely. I would just have to decide where on the continent I'd put the heart - a tough decision. Also, it's by a Cape Town artist! Necklace by Lola and Cash

First Thoughts

It's now my fourth day in Cape Town. There's already been some highs and lows, and I'm still two weeks away from classes starting. I'm starting to get a little impatient for classes to start, I feel like I don't have enough to do with my time. I'm sure I won't be feeling that for long though.

I'm at the end of two days of international student orientation. Most international students are undergraduate, so I felt very old taking part in all the activities. Hopefully though this will be the last time here that I will have to, say, get up and dance every fifteen minutes because the leaders think that in listening to presentations we are not exuding enough energy.

Whenever I am surrounded by different accents, I find myself thinking in those accents. Today was all Afrikaans in my head. Unfortunately I'm not usually able to speak those accents.

I ended up arriving at campus almost two hours early today, and spent the time wandering and taking pictures. I started out in upper campus, which is higher up the mountainside and also the older portion of the main campus. This land was bequeathed to South Africa by Cecil Rhodes, a very controversial figure in African history, but who was very influential in the early growth of South African industries, chiefly diamonds and wine. I then moved to middle and lower campus, which were built later - you can see this in the changing architecture.

Upper campus, looking East

Upper campus, looking West

Jameson Hall, at the center of upper campus

The statue of Cecil Rhodes. He is sitting looking East towards the rest of South Africa. The University acknowledges his controversial and racist influence on the country but also recognizes the impact he made on the UCT community by gifting the land to the South African nation.

Kramer Law Building, Middle Campus

There are several places on the lower campus where vines are being trained up the sides of the buildings, perhaps to mimic the ivy-covered buildings of upper campus.

Baxter Theater, Lower Campus

Dread - Solitude - Ecstasy

In the airport, waiting for my first flight.

Every time I leave the country for a while there's an emotional routine that I go through. Stage One: A few days before leaving, I start to feel immense dread, as I start to realize what I'm getting myself into. I worry about all the things that I have to do before leaving, and I worry that I'm not spending enough time with friends and family. I worry about what I'm packing, about being in transit, about forgetting something. I'm usually pretty bad about getting much sleep or eating. If I were to have to make the decision to go again in this stage, I probably wouldn't go. Stage Two: I arrive at the airport, say my goodbyes, get past security, and then just feel very solitary. Not lonely really, just independent, alone. Like I'm the only surviving connection between this world and the next. Like I'm the one being shot out of the cannon into the wild unknown. And I will be alone until I find a new community. Stage Three: I don't get excited until I can see the ground at my final destination creeping closer and closer through the airplane window. And then I am ecstatic. Then every little thing becomes an adventure: customs, currency exchange, baggage claim, my first taxi ride through the city, my first accommodations.

I've got a long way to go on this trip. I fly from Seattle to L.A., then to Amsterdam, then to Johannesburg where I'll hole up in a guest house for the night. I'll then fly out to Cape Town the following day, arriving about 44 hours after departing from Seattle. I'll be moving straight into graduate housing, which means I'll have to hit the ground running, shopping for food, linens, and kitchen supplies as soon as I arrive. Then I start international student orientation on Monday, with my program orientation the following week, and classes starting the week after.

It's going to be a long slog. Even more so because I'm already missing Ian. This is the first time leaving behind a boyfriend has been a part of the emotional mix, so the pre-trip apprehension has had a deeper feeling behind it this time. But I know this is the right decision, and luckily I have an incredibly understanding and supportive boyfriend to back me up. An incredibly understanding and supportive boyfriend who'd better visit or he's in hot water!

Well, my plane is boarding. Off to a new adventure!

It's here!

My visa came in today! I made it through the melting snow to work, and as luck would have it, my visa decided to show up during the short time I was here. I am now legally allowed to be present in the country of South Africa for educational purposes from now until the beginning of 2014. *Sigh of relief*. Now the biggest thing on my to-do list is to sell my car. Anyone looking for an old but durable Volvo?

Motivation

I found this quote a while ago, and I really love it. It's a beautiful way to describe what keeps drawing me back to Africa, better than I can say in my own words:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life. I wanted to live deep, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms. And, if it proved to be mean, whether to get to the whole ingenuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world, or, if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Till now, it's been sublime. Here's hoping it keeps up.

A New Year

It's now less than three weeks until I board a plane to South Africa. I'm starting to get that end-of-the-world feeling that I get every time I leave for a long period of time. I have three weeks left to live! What am I going to do in that time? I have to remind myself that I will have time to do things in South Africa too, and that Seattle (hopefully) will still be here when I get back.

In the meantime... I'm slowly ticking things off on the to-do list, and for now I mostly have to pack and hang out with people. I'm still waiting on my passport and visa to come back from the South African consulate in L.A., and I'm still waiting to hear the final results of my loan applications, but most everything else is in line. I've got all flights booked and a hotel booked for my Johannesburg layover. I've got most of the stuff I need to pack, minus a few little things, and a suitcase to put it in. I also have (the most exciting part) housing!

I am being assigned to a brand new residence hall near the university that will be entirely for graduate students. The building was just completed in November, and I'll be among the first batch of students living there. There are 880 beds, each in a single room with its own bathroom, and communal kitchens shared by 8-10 people. It's in the Observatory neighborhood, about a 30 minute walk from the University. The little architect in me geeked out a bit about this and found some construction photos and news releases about the building, and even the architect's website. Here's some pictures of the building:

It's built about a block or two from the national park, so, like the University itself, has a beautiful mountainous backdrop. Google street view has some pictures of it, but before the building was there:

But then I poked around a bit more on Google and found the OTHER views from the new building, right across the street:

What a shame, I was so looking forward to getting away from American fast food. Oh well.

Anyway, my new place is also a couple blocks from Groote Schuur Hospital, where the first human heart transplant was performed in 1967. It's in a part of Cape Town that's known to be a bit more progressive; it was one of the few areas of Cape Town that, during apartheid, was not segregated. Inside the residence hall students will be grouped by program of study, which means I'll be living with the same people that I attend class with.

Anyway, that's the update for now. Fingers crossed that my visa comes in soon!