At the Movies

South Africa has all sorts of holidays. Our host at the apartment where we are staying for these first two weeks told us-and who knows if this is true-that when apartheid ended and the good guys took over, they didn't get rid of any public holidays. They just renamed a few, and then added some more.

So this weekend was Easter Weekend, which begins with a universal day off on Friday and continues through another day off on Monday, when everyone, again, has the day off. Needless to say, this got in the way of our apartment hunting.

We've actually found the apartment we want, but the family that owns the place wants to charge more than we want to pay. The place is brand new, or newly renovated, anyway, and it's got a fantastic kitchen, a view of Table Mountain out the front door, and has plenty of room for our anticipated guests. It's unfurnished, which totally is not in our plan, but we love it anyway.

We're on pins and needles waiting to hear from them, but in the meantime today we have few more apartments lined up to go see.

Since we couldn't be searching for apartments over the weekend, we went and did some tourist stuff, including going down to the Cape of Good Hope on Sunday. It's about an hour's drive away.

There is a colony of baboons there. In fact, the baboons are in charge. They sit on people's cars, take their soda bottles from the trash, and our guidebook said they have been known to enter open car windows and crap all over everything.

Cape Town proper seemed deserted, as if everyone was devoutly observing the holiday, so after that, we went to a movie. We went back to the mall, where we seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time-and found out where everyone had gone. Holy sweet moses. It was packed.

In fact, we were stymied in our efforts to see Hitch, which just opened here, because it was sold out, and had to see Being Julia. They have assigned seating in the movie theater, too, so once you buy your ticket, you don't go right inside and fight for a seat. Instead, we wandered the mall, shoulder to shoulder with all the other moviegoers who were looking to kill some time. It costs between 3 and 6 bucks for a movie. Score.

Car Shopping

We need to buy a car in the next few days, and are having fun checking out all the right-hand drive makes and models that we've never seen before. Our rental is a Toyota Tazz (which Katie has dubbed the “Toyota Tard,” though in comparison to what we will likely buy, it's looking better and better every day). Also on the road are vehicles called the Chico, the Cub and a very small car named, appropriately enough, the Midge.

Each of them makes my hatchback Honda Civic, now residing in Katie's parents driveway in McLean, look downright gigantic.

There's also one called the Playa, and for a few brief moments before I remembered that “playa” was Spanish for “beach,” I was thinking this might be a car for Cape Town's wanna-be gansta set.

Driving is an adventure, seeing as everyone appears at first glance to be on the wrong side of the road.

Actually, trying to have a conversation while driving is the adventure. Most sentences from the driver include a mantra, a little koan we've adopted while behind the wheel. Those sentences might sound like this: “I really liked the apartment where they-[beginning turn] we drive on the left, we drive on the left, wedriveontheleft, jesus, jesus…”

Meanwhile, the person in the passenger seat, unaccustomed to riding while sitting in what should be the driver's seat, riding with a driver who isn't used to needing to calculate the extra couple yards of their own car that are on their left, might end a sentence something like this: “…grocery store, and then later, we'll-WATCH OUT ON MY SIDE!”

Stoveless

I know the New York rent laws, if stacked together in a big pile, could probably go to the moon and back, but I'm beginning to suspect that there might be a rule in there somewhere that I never thought about. In that maze of regulations, is there anything that requires landlords to furnish an apartment with a stove and refrigerator?

The reason for asking is this: in South Africa, it seems to be standard practice that apartments come with neither. Are Katie and I the ones who are being unrealistic here? Are we pie in the sky dreamers for thinking that such things are appliances, not furnishings?

Obviously, I didn't cram a stove into my carry-on, so the need to find a furnished place is even greater than we thought. The thing is, when we see listings for “semi-furnished” apartments, describing how big and nice and airy they are, and we get all excited about where they're located and how cheap they are, inevitably, the “semi-“ part of that will mean that there's a stove. And that's it.

It's a start, I suppose.