With the year coming to an end, people are preparing for the holiday season. Because of its cultural diversity and colonial history, South Africa shares a lot of holidays with other countries. And it appears that South Africans do enjoy foreign festivities, because every year more events seem to be celebrated – aside from religious holidays like […]

Someone from Cape Town recently told me that living in this city for 6 years does not make me a Capetonian. Apparently the official integration period is ten years, and I had to work a lot harder on my accent. Eish. Problematically, this caused my identity crisis to reach new heights as I already felt […]

After years of living in Cape Town as a Dutchman, I was able to integrate as much as possible into society. When I wrote about the tradition of the South African Braai, and thereafter on many other observations of typical South African life, I realised I was always avoiding writing about rugby, perhaps the country’s biggest […]

It’s not hard for any Dutch person, such as myself, to adjust to Cape Town. It’s substantially warmer and richer in nature than our own country. We’ll cope with the occasional safety concerns and learn to be a bit more patient spending two years of our lives at Home Affairs. However, not being able to cycle […]

So, you’ve decided to move to South Africa. First time visit? Fantastic. You’ll probably spend the first weeks walking around in safari gear with your wallet strapped to your balls, looking for wildlife. That’s ok, I get it. (Afterall, I’ve been through it – I moved here from the Netherlands.) Wherever you’re from, I’m sure […]

My many years of living in Cape Town (from The Netherlands) have resulted in a large variety of interesting cultural integrations. In South Africa, I’ve learned to love biltong, understand all of Trevor Noah’s jokes, question statements by asking ‘is it?’ and when I encounter a difficulty at any establishment, I immediately ask for the […]

Ever since the South African power supplier, Eskom, has been struggling to cope with its capacity, regular blackouts have become a part of South African life. This year these blackouts – or ‘load shedding’ as they call it – have been intensified, and hit districts and areas at certain times, alternating throughout the week. For this, Eskom […]

Previously, I mentioned several unique things South Africans do that I got to observe in the time spent living in this country (away from my homeland, The Netherlands). Recently, I saw some people walking barefoot in the local supermarket. This phenomenon comes along quite often, and my initial reaction was to offer assistance. “Did someone […]

The city of Cape Town is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. And with reason. It hosts undoubtedly one of the most exciting environments to spend a holiday, combining city life, quality food and stunning nature, all in a comfortable climate. Since the city gets cold and moody from May until […]

Moving to another place gives one the opportunity to learn and understand cultural habits and traditions, and I’ve had the fortune to do so on multiple occasions. Being abroad also gave me the chance to see my own country – the Netherlands – from an outside perspective, and see how incredibly (weird) silly we Dutchies […]