The windows would swing open, all the sky would come in ...

Spring is in the air ...  

After a series of cold and rainy days, the weather has picked up its pace. While I was walking home from campus one day, it suddenly dawned on me that spring was coming. The flowers are blooming and the green leaves have returned to the trees. The day is definitely getting longer, as Spencer has excitedly pointed out to me. More sunshine puts us in more vacation mode. I legitimately have to restrain myself for the entire week staying in the library to study for my Immunology exam. The moment the exam was over, true to my spontaneous self that loves the sun, I set out on adventures. 

I thought that after almost three months of being here, I would get used to the scenery and not be as excited anymore. However, this place seems to get more beautiful every day. Thursday afternoon, after my 2pm class, I stopped by the Alma house to get Susan and waited for Spencer, ready to start our afternoon exploring this gorgeous city. We hopped on the minibus, now has become such a frequent mean of transportation for us, and got to the center of the city. My accomplishment of the day - successfully oriented the three of us to Eastern Bazaar. Ok, it was like a five minute walk, but for a person with no sense of direction like me, that was something. If I haven’t talked about this before, Eastern Bazaar is like a hidden alley that houses food stands from various places, mostly Thai and Indian. The food is considered quite authentic and the best part is the price is extremely reasonable. Most of the dishes are about R20-30 which is equivalent to around $3 - $5, but the plate is always piled up with food that enough for us to fill ourselves up and bring back the left over for later. Apparently my ice cream addiction that I picked up from the Kruger trip hasn’t ceased yet, so I treated myself to a serving of Toffee Walnut ice cream while Spencer indulged in a mango lassi – perfect choices for a hot day. I strolled down the street with ice cream in one hand, camera in the other, feeling better than ever. We decided to stop by Green Square Market and the Pan African market for a quick window shopping. Note to myself: I am going to have to come back here to pick up souvenirs for friends and family. There an entire list that I have to go through, it is going to take some time, and some bargaining work. We have never noticed before but at the end of the street was a little gourmet market, similar to Old Biscuit Mill, but was much smaller and gave off a different atmosphere. Spencer and I, with our sugar addiction, got distracted by “the fudge guy”, and after a very interesting conversation, we gave in and brought home no less than 100g of fudge of different flavors: Amarula, Irish Coffee, double chocolate, strawberry and cream, cappuccino, etc. 

We walked around downtown for a little bit, stopped at various boutique shops and made mental notes of restaurants that we would be interested to check out later (the list is pretty long, hopefully we will get our mission accomplished). We decided the weather was too nice not to be at the beach, so we hopped on another minibus and proceeded to Camps Bay. One thing about Cape Town is that differently areas have very different feeling to them. UCT and Ronderbosch areas are definitely college town environment. Long Street gives off the feeling of exotic South American vibe with all its boutiques, bars and clubs. Old Biscuit Mill is every Egypt or European style. The center of the city reminds me of Boston and New England regions. Camps Bay, on the other hand, with long stretches of white sand, blue sea, palm trees, tourist shops, hotels, villas, café and restaurant, reminds me of Hawaii or even Miami, Florida. We walked along the street, admiring all the incredibly nice café and hotels, embellished even more with fancy convertible Porches and BMW in front of them. Girls in bikini tops and guys in their summer outfits were enjoying their refreshing cocktails. I just wish that one day I would make enough money to have a vacation like these people. At the same time though, being young and travelling in a college-student style has its own fun. Susan, Spencer and I decided to make a “quick stop” at a store with 50% discount swimsuits. We ended up spending quite some time there trying on various swimsuits, matching them with straw hats and sunglasses, laughing at ourselves and amazing didn’t really annoy the owner. By the time we left the shop, Spencer was happy with her purchase of an interesting cut out one piece swimsuit while I was content with my South Africa flag bandana. 


We headed to the beach area, took pictures and being silly. As we have been warned about before, the water was incredibly cold so we couldn’t really play with the waves. The feeling of cold sand between my toes, though, was indescribable. With such beautiful scenery and fabulous, it seems like everyone was having a time of their lives. Tourists were happy to take pictures for us, and even to take pictures with us. There was this incredibly cute couple who ask me to take pictures for them. I would have guessed they were on the honeymoon or something the way they were posing for pictures. Both of them asked us to take pictures with them, so we did. Hopefully they will tell good stories about us and smile when they looked at the pictures, just as how I’m smiling at the moment writing about them. We also had another great conversation with these two random guys we met on the train – we decided to take the train home instead of a minibus. Casual questions, random chats about things in towns, or sharing random things. Sometimes, complete strangers are those that bring you this warm feeling that it is, indeed, possible to be friends with everyone around the world. I am becoming addicted to that feeling. Hopefully I won’t pick up on the habit of starting conversations with strangers all the time. It can become creepy, lol. 

Friday night, I was in the mood for baking, so I made Swiss roll. Going grocery shopping with my music playing and picking out ingredients, thinking about how these simple ingredients will turn into beautiful and delicious dessert is like my therapy. It eases my mind and relaxes my body. Baking does the same thing. I was just purely absorbed in the moment, mixing the ingredients, whipping the cream, and smelling the alluring smell of a fresh oven –baked cake makes me happy. It does the same thing as drawing, designing, putting on make up, or painting nails do to me. Carefully rolling the cake, putting on whipped cream and decorating it to make it looks pleasant to whoever going to eat it is a rewarding process. I have never seen anyone that is not happy when they see a beautifully made dessert and when they actually have it. It is the simplest joy in the world.

Enough with my obsession with baking, let’s move on to our Saturday adventure. It hit 90 degree so the weather was even nicer. 9am - Carimah, Susan, Spencer and I caught the bus to a gourmet market downtown. Similar to Old Biscuit Mill but in a much smaller scale and less crowded. Spencer and I sat in the sun with our breakfast and smoothie, relaxed and chatted about things. My favorite part of the morning probably was the vintage fashion market. Small business and local stores all gathered together upstair to sell hand-made products or little things that they have collected over the years. I found a prettiest black sheer silk sundress that was calling my name. There were hand-crafted jewelry, vintage clothes, leather bags made of camel skins, accessories, and many other interesting things. Every piece of clothing and accessories here seems to have a story to go with them, which made me really tempted to start collecting not only the item, but also those stories. Apparently there is going to be another fashion night market on Friday night. Guess where Thanh is going to be doing Friday night? 

We got home around 1pm and Susan and I headed to campus to get some work done, while we could still be outside and enjoyed the sun at the same time. I was content to be productive and get all my work finished, while at the same time, got the tan going quite well. Yay for efficient use of time. We headed back around 6pm to get ready for the braai. Braai is African name for barbeque and Saturday was, indeed, the National Braai day in South Africa. Obviously, we got to live the culture, and held our own braai at the Alma house. It has been a while since I hang out with the rest of the IES people (oops, guilty of charge) so it was quite nice. The weather was too cold to be outside and was cool enough to make it comfortable standing by the fire. The most exciting part of the night? The neighbor called the cops on us twice for noise complains, from 7 – 11pm. Lol. 

I decided to do something crazy so I went with Susan to campus at midnight and tried to finish work. My first all nighter in South Africa, yay! We walked home at 5am and got to enjoy this breath-taking view of the city at moment of early morning when the sky started to brighten up, with all the city lights twinkling and the new moon shining on the purple sky.

The moment I felt that I have eased into the life in Cape Town and that I have known somewhat about this city, I soon learn there is so much more of it, and of this country that I am completely unaware of and have not had the opportunity to experience yet. Spontaneous adventures are the best. When you don’t have a certain place to go to, a list of things to do, or specific people to meet, spontaneity will take you to the least expected places, bring you the taste of brand new experience and lovely encounters with strangers.

 “Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens.”

The weather is gorgeous out today too. I may take a nap in the sun and after that school mode most definitely needs to be on again. Another brand new week is coming, promising more adventures to come. 

[az]