I went up to the mountain Because you asked me to Up over the clouds To where the sky was blue

This weekend’s theme was running, first with errands then in race form. I had one of the most productive Saturdays here, mostly in preparation for the race. See, when you register for something here, usually they want you to directly deposit the money into their bank account, something that slightly intimidated me. However, I got myself up early and walked myself down to the garden center, a mini mall of sorts, and to my amazement I found the bank I was looking for and a teller that was kind enough to show my sleepy American self how to fill out a deposit slip. Feeling so proud of my accomplishment I treated myself to breakfast at the Blue Cat Café, a place I had been wishing to go to that I always walk by on my way to get groceries. After the best yogurt/ fresh fruit/ muesli and coffee ever I proceeded to go slightly overboard getting groceries for this week. By the time I got back to my apartment at 11:30 I felt very much accomplished.

Today I ran the Constantia Valley Grape Run, aka how far up the mountain can we get them to run in 21k. It was seriously the most intense half marathon of my life. But backtrack to this morning. See, I don’t think I have had so much uncertainty going into an event. Some things that were running through my mind as I drifted off on Saturday night were 1. will the taxi come at 5:30 am like promised? (yes, he actually came 10 min early) 2. will he charge me the rate we agreed on during our phone convo the day before? (even better, he ran the meter and it actually ended up being less) 3. one of my biggest worries, did my registration/ payment get processed? (yes! and they didn’t even ask for proof of payment) 4. how the heck do you use water sachets? ( here they use water bags instead of cups, and after witnessing this in the 5k two weeks ago I was nervous to try. However they are actually loads easier than cups, the u.s. should look into this).

The course was absolutely beautiful; it started on the main road in Constantia and entered one of the most famous wineries in South Africa, Groot Constantia. There we took dirt service roads that wound up and along all of the vineyards all the way up the mountainside. At one point, we were at such a high elevation that I could see the ocean! Racing in S. Africa has made me realize that they do things much differently here in regards to race management. First, they are very polite cheerers. Instead of the earsplitting screams I get in the states, spectators calmly give you a “well done” and “nearly there”. Also, timing is a bit sketch. My last race wasn’t even timed or places recorded. This one I was given a temporary license to pin onto my shorts and at the finish I was given a laminated pouch with my place number on, that you slip your info card into and place on a huge wooden board in the slot corresponding to your place. No chips, no bib rip-offs. Strange. Also, post race refreshment of choice, coke???

Despite a gigantic blister (I’m pretty positive it formed from my foot slipping in my shoe from all the hills/ down hills) I think I held up pretty well for the type of running I have been doing here. I finished 131 out of 1500 runners, and I believe in the top 10-15 of females. The weather was perfect too, nice and cool in the morning with the sun breaking out around 10km. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on this race. The logistics were pretty crazy; I will never take for granted cars and online race registration ever lol. My friend had a great time too. She ran her first 5k with me two weeks ago and today she took 2 mins off her time! Afterward she asked me if I knew of another race in the area we could do before we leave, oh yeah she is hooked.

Things that made me happy today 1. old couple course marshalling blasting classic rock from their car. 2. raffle prizes were cases of wine! so ideal. 3. mini bus we took back to cape town was rocking out to boys II men, beyonce and neyo. 4. getting the running high I have been missing J Yay endorphins!

Saw the waves but not the tide/ I couldn't stay, I don't know why

I have decided that all my weekends need themes, just to keep them straight and maintain some OCD in my life. If I had to choose I would refer to this past weekend as the weekend of the waves. Starting with Friday I was part of a crowd wave IN A REAL LIFE WORLD CUP STADIUM! Not going to lie, I was a little homesick for the Big House, I kept waiting for the speed up/ slow it down/ split the wave signals. Sigh. It was pretty great though, the stadium was amazing and we had tickets for the 3^rd row! Some things to note about S. African football (soccer) 1. Stadium food here is ridiculously cheap. We should look into this. 2. Vuvuzelas are just as annoying in person as they are via television. I don’t think they stopped blowing those things once. 3. Cheerleaders here… have capes?

The following morning some friends and I took the train to Muizenberg (suburb of Cape Town, about a 45min ride via the lovely public transit) for some more waves, this time the ocean kind. Or the really cold/ salty kind. Same thing. A girl we know lives there and teaches surf lessons to the local kids, so we were able to use wetsuits and boards for free. They don’t call it the surfing capital of Africa for nothing, there were seriously a LOT of waves. I just tried not to think about sharks. I did manage after a few tries to get into a lunge on my board while catching a wave. I say mission accomplished.

After we had our fill of being wrecked by waves and salt, we had a little picnic on the beach with our new friends. Good thing our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, we had meant to buy enough food for us plus our surf friends, but once we got back 4 local kids that often take surf lessons showed up too. Thankfully R230 ($32) was able to satisfy 10 hungry bellies. The kids here are so great, it breaks my heart to think that if we hadn’t given them food they might not have eaten until dinner, if then. After lounging on the beach a little while longer, the sun went away and the wind picked up (per usual) and we decided to warm up at a place called the Coffee Sha-Bean where we got the thickest hot chocolate I have ever witnessed. My little plastic spoon stood straight up in the mug! I will attempt to recreate this at home, but something tells me this is just the magic of Africa.

Saturdays in Paradise

So this Saturday I have decided was the official day of delicious food and everything else wonderful (besides the game of course, we aren't going to discuss that). One of the highlights of living in Cape Town is a gem of a place called the Old Biscuit Mill. Its open only on Saturdays and by 11am its absolutely packed. Its pretty hard to describe this establishment, like a farmers market but with pretty much everything from fresh produce, juices, smoothies, organic coffee to prepared crepes, pizzas, gyros and the most amazing pastries you have ever seen. All the vendors are set up and you can browse and take samples at most stations. My menu consisted of

1. organic coffee (naturally)

2. the freshest pizza I have ever tasted (picture exceptionally thin crust, just a bit of sauce for flavoring, fresh greens, artichokes, roma tomatoes, parmesan shavings and topped off with some balsamic vinegar)

3. fresh orange mango smoothie

4. flan flavored pastry (it was like you get 2 in 1; pastry crust, flan filling, topped with fresh whip cream and crumbles)

As food coma started to set in, we decided to go to the roof to get some sun. After chillin and eating all day, we decided to finish off the evening with a nice braai (bbq). C and I decided to go veggie style with some meatless, braai flavored sausages and roasted corn on the cob. As a shout out to my sister, I prepared them in chilean/ completos style (which pretty much means adding a gigantic amount of mayo, ketchup and guac to your sausage). All of this was almost a disaster when we forgot to get coals and then once we did procure them, we couldn't get them to light. Thankfully some others on the roof were using the braai as well and took pity on us and said we could use their fire starters/ tools/ hot coals. Thank goodness!

Learning a lil' acceptance

This weekend for me was all about learning how possible it is for acceptance, even though nowadays it seems like such a foreign word. On Saturday I visited the District Six museum just down the street from where I live. For those unfamiliar with the history of Apartheid in S.Africa I would recommend you find yourself a computer and wikipedia it immediately. What I found the most inspirational was the museum guide himself, and his personal history associated with District Six. It was here that Cape Town really embraced all the different cultural backgrounds of the people living in this unique community. Our guide talked about how no matter what your religion, when a holiday came around everyone celebrated. Jews celebrated the Chinese New Year and Muslims celebrated Christmas, everyone celebrated together all the special occasions. How cool would that be, to have like 5 times the number of fun celebrations?!

Also, on Sunday some friends and I decided to go to an ISKCOM temple for a guest speaker, traditional worship, and then a delicious Indian feast. It was so wonderful to be invited into a new community so warmly. The cutest old woman decided to take us under her wing (us, stick out at Hindu temple? lol) and explain some of their practices and she even got us to the food line first (can anyone say AMAZING)! While eating we talked a little about how nice it is for my friends and I to be able to freely choose where and how we decide to worship because our parents had allowed us to think openly about religion and spirituality, something that was very uncommon in their generation. Thank goodness for hippie parents :)

Township Experience: Guguletu

Picture from last Sunday, a day spent eating braai (bbq) with some friends at the township called Guguletu