it's a small town, but it thinks it's a city.

Cape Town. Slaapstad. The Mother City.

there's this song by the beams that may or may not be about my little city, something about there being "only two degrees of separation in this town". It's a truism. everybody I meet already knows people I know. people I have the most arbitrary connections to (such as flickr contacts) are friends of friends. or, more likely, acquaintances. Cape Town is a city of acquaintance relationships, big crowds of people that know all the gossip about everybody else, lots of work buddies and study buddies and see-you-around-at-whatever-trendy-bar folks. But most people (especially those who moved here from Durban, or Joburg, or Potgietersrus) complain bitterly about how cliquey Capetonians are. And how superficial.

to be fair, I think that's kind of a harsh generalization. But Cape Town really does suffer from that small-town feeling. Being back after 2 years "expanding my horizons" (cliche alert, cue vom) just brings it all home just how small... the majority of people here are having the same conversations and going to the same clubs and listening to the same bands and not really testing the waters or experimenting or trying to be different. Even the nonconformists wear uniforms.