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] 

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]