Hello my friend.
No, I haven’t fallen off the ends of the earth even though I currently live there. And yes, we have email here even though you wouldn’t know it from the frequency of my emails. I’ve been kept quite busy or distracted – lots of new things….

Generally speaking, things are great! Spring is here and the chilly but mild winter is turning into southern California weather. I have some friends, I have a job, a great apartment with an ocean view (w/ very reasonable rent, lucky me), gym membership, health insurance, a zippy little car – all sorted….now just waiting on Home Affairs Immigration to get around to approving my visa paperwork. This process was started in February, but I doubt any country has an efficient immigration dept. Here it is par for the course – take ‘southern time’ plus ‘island time’ and you get close to ‘africa time.’ At least I am legit in the mean time.

Cultural assimilation is more difficult than I was expecting. I can hear the collective ‘duh.’ But it’s not the big things, it’s the small quirks of how another society works. Each individual instance is not a big deal and so you figure just deal with it – something new to learn today - but the subtle differences in everyday living can add up to frustration as one progresses through the inevitable learning curve. I get so physically tired sometimes from information processing – and there isn’t even a language barrier. Plus, I’m probably a bit impatient with the whole process. I’m trying to remember that I had some of the same frustrations when I moved to Providence and Charlottesville – reorganizing your life in someplace new always takes effort and new learning.

I am working for a large architecture firm, in a city that is just booming with growth and new construction. With a shortage of architects, finding a job was pretty painless and they wanted me to start asap with or without proper visa documentation. As is common in the industry, too much work in the office and not enough staff is a problem, but a good problem to have though it takes its toll. My learning curve has been steep since there isn’t any extra time. I thought I might stumble over the metric system but that has been easy (makes more sense actually.) The challenges have been some different building processes – lots of high-rise masonry construction and internal brick walls (not too useful in my opinion but that’s just the way it is); and re-learning all of the standard stuff I knew and used off hand – std. heights and clearances for things, products and materials are mostly new (mostly british manufacturers), new vocabulary for the same things (e.g. door hardware = ironmongery; plumbing fixtures = sanitaryware, backsplash = splashback – whatever, fine, I will go back and change it on all of my drawings). And building codes and standard numerical systems are sometimes wishful thinking.

I am currently working on 2 projects. The 3-bedroom apartment/condo complete renovation is a good-sized learning project since it’s just me and a project manager. It has been enjoyable but when I joined it was already behind schedule and almost out of fee, though has a handsome budget. The other is a renovation of a public hospital wing/dept with an impossible schedule and typical tiny budget which has been a bit of a headache (since I have plenty of other work to do).

Cape Town has approx. 4 million people – a good looking clean city with a fair amount of Art Deco architecture (a la South Beach) and contemporary skyscrapers. The city wraps around the base of a beautiful mountain called Table Mountain. It’s on a peninsula - not far away is the Cape of Good Hope - and has beaches on both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans – one cold, one very cold, one has a couple sharks, the other lots of sharks, though still lots of surfing. People are very sporty and live for weekends and outdoor activities. Similar to our 10km charity runs, most people I now know run half marathons (21 kms) or marathons (42 kms) a couple times a year as if it is no big deal. There is an annual 81km race up and over the mountain and a similar 96km race for the truly insane and extraordinarily fit. Cycling and sea kayaking-type sports also big here. The dude that swam the English channel and in Antarctica is from here. So crazy sporty people abound. I have managed to locate the local Hash House Harriers (an int’l social/running club with more emphasis on beer than actual exercise) that I’ve enjoyed in past cities. So that forms the extent of my own running. With a different running route each week, I get to see parts of the city and hinterlands that I might not normally on my own. I’ve tried surfing, though need much more practice.

I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity a couple of weeks ago – dug some foundation ditches in a township with ~100 others. Quite enjoyable though didn’t get to help finish the houses as it was a blitz build during the week. Going to organize a day for the office in a few months. I’m still looking for my other hobbies – a decent dance class and/or a volleyball club. Beach volleyball season starts soon...

Please include me in updates on your life – it is extremely gratifying and nourishing to get mail or email these days. With so much new stuff, it’s comforting to hear about the same old stuff even. I miss my friends.

My details these days:
Michelle Ludwig
#302 Rocquaine
241 High Level Road
Seapoint 8005
South Africa

Time difference: +6 hours (ahead of EST)
Can check here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
U.S. postage for letter to South Africa = $0.84 (takes about 8 post days)
Sending mail is good karma!