Maybe you could watch and learn (Mon 06/15)

Aaaaaaah another day of sleep. (I should probably add that the TAC office was closed today for a four day weekend before a public holiday tomorrow, so I was not skipping out on work.) Not quite as much but still a decent amount. Also a day of working out. Not only did I go on what I considered an almost-intense with Anthony, but I also went to the gym. I’m an exercise fiend, let me tell you. Not quite but I can pretend. Anthony goes running every day, and almost every day he asks if any one wants to go with him. Today, I said yes. Running up the hilly streets of Cape Town didn’t kick my butt quite as much as I expected it to, but it was not a walk in the park either. I’m sure Anthony wouldn’t agree with me, especially since he went running again after we came back. Lame on my part. Running here is an experience though. Between gasping breaths (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration) you can just look around and see how beautiful everything is around you. Anthony took me up the road and on this path over part of the mountain, and at the end of the run (aka when I didn’t think I’d make it back if we went any further) you can stop and see Cape Town below you, with the ocean off to the left and the mountains framing it all. Breathtaking. And not because I had been running but because it was pretty thank you very much. Anthony and I also had a good conversation during our time together. Actually, our entire group is so good about striking the perfect balance of deep, reflective conversations along with the goofiest comments and moments. These people I’m with here are truly incredible.

After the run and a short gym session with the Lauren, the two of us plus Anthony went to a travel agent office to check out what adventurous things we can do in Cape Town. So far, we have decided that we will be going cage diving with great whites and on a mini-safari. Please, try to control your jealousy J I am so so SO excited about it all. It’ll require a little bit of planning and cash investment, but I’m sure it’ll totally be worth it.

The major excitement of the whole day started around 5:00 when we all started getting ready for the alumni dinner that Duke coordinated for alums in the area. Between the 10 of us plus three other Duke students who joined us, we made up more than half of the people at the event. While the food at the even was definitely sub-par, the conversations were good and the open bar was definitely a plus. Of course, after everyone was feeling good about themselves post-event, we decided that the perfect thing to do was go out. Of course! Please note that this included Bill and Karlyn as well (our professor and grad student coordinators). It was epic. We our massive group made our way down to Long Street singing and dancing like the loud Americans that we are dubbed to be. We decided to meet up with Julian and a friend of his at a place called Fiction. Highlight of the night for me: getting to dance with Bill. I wish someone would have recorded it because I would love to be able to watch it over and over and over and over. Second biggest highlight: Karlyn FINALLY pulled out some of her break-dancing moves for us. Despite the fact that tomorrow is a public holiday (aka no work again!) there was hardly any one at the bar other than our group. When Bill and Karlyn decided to go back to the B&B, the rest of us decided to relocate to a place with more mainstream music. (Much more my scene by the way). We headed over to a place called Chrome, where again, we were basically the only people there besides a group of younger kids there who kept having dance offs with Anthony. I don’t know what it was about the evening, but it was definitely what I would consider our most fun night out together so far. Sometimes I wonder if our group of “black,” “white,” and “coloured” people throws off the South Africans that see us together. They could probably learn a thing or two about truly getting along. Or maybe they just watch and admire how great of friends we all are becoming right before their eyes.

Ukuthula,

Lynn