roll the windows down, turn the radio up, and push the pedal to the ground

What to do when work gets too much for you to handle? Why there is nothing a little road trip can't fix. Although this week my work became much more diversified (now starting to call companies in the Middle East for contact info, been very entertaining to start a phone convo with "good day, may I speak English please?") having to readjust to different workloads and prioritizing your day can get a bit stressful. No worries, chilling out listening to some awesome music at Trenchtown on a Friday night(look up Captain stu for any of you wanting some entertainment) and getting away from the city for a weekend can do wonders.

Checked one thing off of my list of things to do here in s.a. this weekend, going to a place locals might not have heard of before. Thats right people, I'm slowly loosing my foreigness... if that is ever possible lol. Anyway, the place is Rooiels which is a small little town with awesome views of False Bay. What made things even better was road tripping there in style. Volkswagen kombi jamming out to an odd assortment of mixed tapes mainly of 70's and 80's jams, with the occasional title of "Irish melodies" that was in fact classic symphonies and one completely terrifying rendition of a children's fairy tale, while being treated to some epic views of the bay and surrounding mountains, pretty ideal.

What was on the agenda you might ask? Well a trip to the local pub to watch the world cup (where we were thoroughly entertained by the locals, one of which kept giving out words of wisdom along with the worst shots you can imagine) followed by some fine guitar strumming (to which the locals became very much entertained by us) and a terrific late night braai. Went a bit rogue the following day and harvested some mussels from the ocean to be cooked to delicious perfection (apparently a jail worthy offense, so of course I was given the bag to carry) and jumping in ocean waves, a new pastime of mine. Finished off the weekend with a spectacular run that ended with a light rain as I got to the beach, what more could you want? In all, a great time with some awesome people, thanks guys!

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!

Sightseeing tour!

Here are a few pics of my first day in Cape Town. Three other interns that also arrived on the same day as me decided to take our free bus voucher and make a day trip of it. We were taken up to table mountain where we had an incredible view of the town and the bay area, then we were driven all the way down to the ocean!