Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun

I love being where the sun is at. When the weather is nice out, it just makes people feel so much happier, and brighter. Another week full of adventures has gone by. Although I do have slightly more work to finish this week, I've learned how to be productive, using the ultimate motivation: study now so I can go play without worries later.

The weather remained nice pretty much all week. Tuesday, after class, Monica and I decided to make a spontaneous hike up the mountain and to the top of our campus. Well, it wasn't exactly a hike, more like a 15 minute walk uphill. Sitting on top of the same mountain that UCT lies on is a national landmark called Rhodes Memorial. We call it the "Pathenon", because it looks like one. The building actually lies within the Table Mountain National Park (say what, technically our school is in a National Park, no wonder why there are so many weird birds around). The views from up here was phenomenal: not only you can see the entire Cape Town, but also to the beaches of the island, and even the faraway mountain ranges. Monica and I fooled around and took tons of tourist-y pictures just because we had nothing to do and the scenery was pretty. There was a little restaurant/café that sits right on the edge of the mountain and offers the same gorgeous view. We had a quick lunch there, talked about random things and went back home. On the way home, we took a detour and explored some roads that we had no idea existed before. It was our successful mini-adventure, bonding with nature, with the risk of being shot down for trespassing private property. We ended the great day with a night baking chocolate chip cookies, drinking wine and, you know, did the girls' talk. 

Rocking my South Africa flag bandana

Wednesday was even a better day. I was on my way walking to class when I realized that I was in no mood for class on such a beautiful day. After sitting through a 45 minute lecture, I was determined to go to the beach, and dragged Monica with me. Coincidentally, the power went out on the entire campus right then, so she had even more excuse to leave school and did more adventures with me. We got on the train and went to Muizenberg, where one of the warm beaches is and where all the colorful houses are. It was an extremely relaxing afternoon of lying in the sun and getting some much-needed sun-kissed skin, reading books and listening to music. There were tourists, students, locals, surfers, and everyone who was an opportunistic like us. I did remember to pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so we had a little picnic on the grass by the water, just soaking up the sun and worrying about nothing else. I did make it back in time for my SHAWCO trip to the mobile clinic though. It was a very interesting night with lots of different cases that I haven't seen before. I started to ease into the process too, so I could asking patients questions and doing basic examinations by now. It was definitely a long day. I was dead tired by the time I got home around midnight. However, it was an extremely good tiring feeling.

I spent Thursday focusing on school and got lots of work done - yay for productivity. Friday was actually the day I looked forward to the most the entire week. There was a Vintage Fashion Night Market and Food Festival that I was told about by some of the local sellers at the market last week, and I was determined to make it there even if I had to kill people on my way. It turned out to be a once-of-a-life-time experience. Besides tons of cool vintage clothing and accessories, there was also a mini-gourmet market with amazing red velvet cupcakes, sandwiches, croissants, and samosas. Alcohol was also being served during the event and I got to try the best mojitos EVER. They were also made in seven different colors. Everyone was drinking and having fun, even the people who were selling. I was browsing the clothes when I started an interesting conversation with the owner and his girlfriend, and they ended up buying me a shot, Precious moment. I also ran into the girls that I met last week, and I was very into one of their dresses. She actually remembered me and since the dress that I liked was sold out, she felt bad (maybe I looked extremely sad or something?) and offered to make the dress for me as well as a 50% off on another one. Score ~~~ It seemed like the entire "vintage population" in town was there that night. Everyone was so well-dressed I felt super out of place, although I was slightly overdressed for school that day. Even the guys showed up in beautiful clothes with amazing style. I've always felt like whomever can pull of vintage all the time is pretty amazing, because they are hard to play around and be creative with. I got a couple of dresses for my sisters and other goodies, and was chilling around when I ran into one of my friends from class. He introduced me to a bunch of his friends, and we started talking to a bunch of strangers about fashion and style. We ended up hitting the bar together after the market is over, resulting me did not get home until 3am, the lastest I have stayed out every since I've been here. I can't stress enough how much I love the fact that strangers can become your friends after a few conversations here. It is true that I do have to watch out for my risk-related behavior, but so far I have not had any bad experience yet, and I hope it would stay that way.

Saturday, early sunshine in the morning, our IES Health class group headed out of the first legit day of our class project. Technically, we were given an informal settlement community and were assigned to "do something to make a difference". It was tough at first, since we were overwhelmed with the minimal amount of resource, both in finance and in labor. However, the more we got to know the community, the more confident we felt about what we could do to make a change. Thus, we spent the entire day repainted their community center and did a little renovation. I am planning on doing an entire blog entry on our project once we finish with it, so I will save all the details for later. On a general note though, I did lots of painting and that was the most fun and meaningful paintwork I've ever done in my life. I can't wait to be back and decorate the walls with murals and such to make it even prettier.

Saturday ended up being the day that I got to do two of my most favorite things: painting and baking. Spencer and I went grocery shopping and made cheesecake stuffed strawberries, covered with dark chocolate. My CSA little showed me a picture and I really wanted to try making them so I impromptu-ed on the recipe based on what they looked like in the picture. They turned out to be delicious and were such a hit I am going to need to add those on my favorite dessert to make from now on. Susan and I pulled another all-nighter tonight so that she could watch her game while I worked on my paper.

Sunday morning I had plans with my friends to have brunch, then was determined to stay home and get some work done. THEN, I realize such a beautiful day it was and I couldnt bear sitting inside typing away from my computer on a paper then should have taken me only 2 hours max to finish (and it did only take me 2 hours). So, as spontaneous as always, and luckily I always have friends to accompany me on my adventures, this time it's Monica and Spencer. We decided to head to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which is said to be one of the best botanical in the world. I mean, there must be a reason why it's chosen as a UNESCO site, right? Also, it is spring time in South Africa, so there could not be a better time to visit a botanical garden than now. The flowers are at its full bloom and are gorgeous. We walked around for the afternoon, being silly as always, taking lots of pictures. Monica was in love with her newly-bought Holga film camera it was adorable. I do miss the old times with the good old film cameras and the joy of develop pictures. We got back around 4pm when Spencer and I decided that we were craving for pizzas really badly. So we ordered a large pizza, finished all of it between the two of us. Amazing how much I can eat sometimes =.=  The rest of the night, between studying time, we squeezed in time to help Toni make a birthday cake for Sarah. Toni is my new favorite baking partner now, she is sooo freaking creative and is always up for the fun of baking. I hope we'll able to do something fun together when we get back to UR.More studying time with Spencer before I distracted her with J-rock, Jpop and Jdrama, mwahahahah. It's been a while since the last time I listened to L'Arc~en~Ciel and watched my love Yamapi <3 It was a great way to end the week.

Of course there were certain things that bothered me during the week too, and I did have a few angry and stressed out moments. But you know, it's spring, "be like the flower, turn your face to the sun". I just learn to look at things in a positive way. After all, it can't be that bad, especially when there's sunshine, blue sky, cool waves and great people to share those things with.

[az]