I've found hope and it gives me rest, I've found hope in a beating chest

Another week in Cape Town, more experiences to reflect upon. One huge load off my mind was catching the bus into town to pick up my passport and confirm that my visa is being processed! Thank goodness, I will not be living illegally here :) Another bonus, I could finally get a library card. Apparently knowing your id number is not enough, you need your actual passport and references from people living here (I swear to you Hout Bay Library, even though you tempt me with all of your out of date science books and plethora of thriller novels, I will fight the urge to steal from your book collection).

This weekend I also had a freaking amazing run. Sounds insignificant, but after a brutal week trying to recover from the trail run without a day off and simultaneously upping my mileage, a long run seemed rather unideal. However, Sunday morning I just had the urge to get it over with so in the heat of the day I headed out for Suikerbossie pass and Chapman's peak drive. Who knew this was exactly what my body wanted. I was flying by the end and having an ice cold ocean to jump into felt exactly right. Mmmm... just had to watch out for the crabs and sharks :)

Work is going well here too. Falling into a much needed rhythm after the hectic chaos of moving my life across the globe again and worrying about trivial things like visas, sleep and food procurement. I really enjoy finding a company that is legitimately working to help the world. A lot of my job is weeding around corporate responsibility reports trying to see the good among all of the required words detailing that the company was doing exactly the minimum to look good to investors. Today I was able to brief my boss on a company that was one of the good guys, and it reminded me of what can be accomplished with genuine effort.

One more bonus, my flat is starting to feel a lot more like home. I was given the curtains from the office today because the boss ordered some nice new blinds to replace them, yay! Upgrading to a much bigger refrigerator due to the prospects of having a flatmate soon makes a difference too (runner metabolism catching back up to me again). Starting to paint again and hanging things on the walls make it feel that much more comfortable in my new space. I think I am going to go read one of my 3 alloted books for the next two weeks now, thanks library :)

Oh you feel and you taste it and you want to go higher

I should probably stop entering races before looking at the route. But then again...

This weekend I devoted my early Sunday morning to my first trail run here in S.A at the Paul Cluver Estate in Elgin. Just meant to be my long run of the week (just under 16k) and a good benchmark for the start of my trail training that will lead to Two Oceans and beyond. Lets keep this casual, no need to stress... ahaha. Right.

Lets just say that the course forced me to not take it seriously. An 800m elevation change in the first 8k's definitely takes the kick out of the legs. It was hard not to enjoy it though, being surrounded by some of the most amazing landscapes I have seen here. Besides, the downhills were what terrified me anyway. Single track switchback decent littered with rocks and brutal shrubbery, actually was passed by more runners then! Throw in a rock bridge over a river and some rope work completed this adventure race. I was awarded with 4 cuts, 1 bruise, numerous blisters and half my body covered in dirt despite never actually falling, amazing!

Another bonus, while trying not to get trampled by all the macho men trying to break their ankles running ridiculously fast down the part I opted to scootch down cautiously I met another potential trail runner friend! Actually, kind of freaked me out... while yelling out asking if anyone needed me to move over someone responded with "No Sarah, I'm fine with this pace, just take your time." ...uhhhh no one here knows me. Turns out he was behind me at registration and remembered my name/ recognized my uh back? Anyway, turns out to be a nice fellow and we ended up bonding over the ropes section (aka Sarah clinging for dear life while chatting, nervous not to look anywhere but at the very small trail as my elbows got wrecked by trees and roots as I scramble up the river bank). Hooray for more running connections!

The rest of my day consisted on scrubbing my legs clean and eating. A lot. Couldn't decide on which breakfast I wanted so ended up making both a proper English breakfast (ok well sunny side up egg, tomato, toast, minus the bacon) AND homemade oat pancakes with nutella :) Topped the day off with some rainbow rolls and spicy tuna (another bonus, realizing that the local supermarket does fresh sushi!) and about 1.5L of strawberry water. mmmmm.

Can I have another weekend like this please?

See I'm trying to find my place

So here I am again, back in South Africa. Its a strange feeling to be back to Cape Town, but also bizarre figuring out Hout Bay for the first time. Where I live is considered a suburb of Cape Town, about 20km from where I used to live as an intern. Now I am in a flat that is directly connected to the office that I work at, giving me about a 30 second commute to work! One of my favorite aspects is the proximity to the beach, a great way to cool off after a run in the burning African sun! (seriously, my skin is already getting upset with me).

The initial scary/ intimidating adjustment to a new place is now pretty much over and I have been really enjoying figuring out this new place on my own. Today I even found some trails for the first time that I can run on! Also looking forward to Tuesday night when I will get to find out what the local running club is all about. For those of you that don't know, my new training focus is a 20km trail run included in the Two Oceans series in April. Definitely going to be a challenge, totally didn't realize how tough it was going to be until after I entered lol. Ah well, probably would have done it anyway!

What is the most strange is not having all the interns and friends around that I have come to associate with this place. I have been able to get together with a few that are left, but as with most adventurous sorts they are about to move on to the next exciting location. I am welcoming this opportunity I have now to meet even more people and experience a different South Africa.

Work has been going well, everyone is adjusting to the new office space but we are all very excited about what 2011 will bring for our NGO. The most exciting of these is the development of an environmental program to bring into schools much like our HIV & Me lessons. I am still responsible for research on companies but the great thing about small offices is that there is lots of room to develop and help others when needed.

One more thing, fingers crossed for no hassle with my visa... hate these silly things, always a struggle!

I know, I know for sure that life is beautiful around the world

So after a freaking amazing intern/ work experience in Cape Town, I have some pretty sweet news. After working as a fill in researcher my boss offered to assist me in coming back to work for Regency for 6 more months! So after about 3 weeks back in snowy Michigan I am about to head back to South Africa. Its been a whirlwind crazy time trying to get plane tickets sorted out and its still not over as far as my visa renewal (fingers crossed for that one!) not to mention trying to see everyone before I head back!

This experience will definitely test me in lots of ways. No more interns as eager as I am to make friends and soak up everything that South Africa has to offer. I will be living solo in a more relaxed coastal area called Hout Bay, outside the bustling city center of Cape Town. I will also have all the responsibilities that come with a full time job on top of continuing to plan out/ study for/ applying to graduate programs back home. I can't wait to really dive into work though, and I hope that the experience i will gain through this opportunity will help shape my future in the international public health field.

I will be flying out of Detroit Jan 10th and will be returning on July 19th. I'm anxious to see how it will be to enter the real world half way around the world.

(The picture is me and my boss walking down to Hout Bay beach, right down the road from my new apartment... which is also connected to our new office building!)

Oh Africa

Yes! I have been waiting AGES to write about backpacking the last few days I was in Africa. Since I will probably see you all very soon I will keep it brief, but just wanted to jot down some highlights of the trip :)

Leg 1: Cape Town to Johannesburg. Hello 18 hr bus ride with a bus company that many people warned us was the least reliable/ most likely to end in an accident. Don't they understand travel budges? You do what you have to lol. Had a blast spending 2 days in Jo'Burg with a friend of a friend who lives right in the CBD. Managed to see all the sites highlighted in my travel book in 48hrs! Highlights were the Apartheid museum and a bike tour of Soweto where we even visited a local shebeen and Nelson Mandela's house.

Leg 2: Johannesburg to Hazyview. Picked up a rental car on the way through Nelspruit (yay our little yaris!) and stayed at Bushpackers with the dorm to ourselves! Couldn't work the stove so made dinner with only a kettle and a pocket knife.

Leg 3: Hazyview to Kruger Park. Safari time! Drove ourselves through the park seeing zebras, springbok, giraffes, elephants and buffalos. Stayed at lower Sabie Rest Camp and did both a sunset and sunrise game drive where we saw rhinos, bushbabies, chamelions, rhinos and LIONS! Sooo worth getting up at 3am!

Leg 4: Kruger to Nelspruit. Seriously, one of the craziest towns ever. Everyone we met was absolutely insane, and not in a good way. As soon as we got to Old Vic Travelers lodge we were promptly greeted by a plethora of the most deranged looking cats and asked by one of the long term residents to go out to fetch her some milk and rolls (she doesn't eat the white ones, so don't get those). Seemed like crazy Dave the landlord was really the only semi normal one, ironically.

Leg 5: Nelspruit to Maputo. Bus about 2 hrs late, per usual. Also, our first border crossing experience of our travels. When we got to the border the bus attendant told us to run (literally) to get in line. Sprinting through the longest no-man’s land in 35 C weather looking very foreign = unideal. Managed getting onto the same bus and therefore not left at the border trying to get a visa = ideal.

Leg 6: Maputo to Tofo. Maputo is kind of intense, very big, very sketch. Had just enough time for a few hrs sleep at Fatima’s before catching the early shuttle to Tofo. Enter the beginning of our long love/hate relationship with public transit. You haven’t traveled in Africa until you have taken a 10+ hr minibus ride 8 people over capacity. So worth it though, Tofo’s beaches and chilled attitude was just what we were looking for. Also, I have decided that the Indian Ocean is my fav.

Leg 7: Tofo to Maputo. Minibus ride slightly shorter despite getting a flat tire and the engine overheating. Was able to see all 3 of the sites there are to see in Maputo and procured a tuk tuk ride to the bus rank for the following day.

Leg 8: Maputo to Manzini: Best minibus and most chill border crossing yet. Swaziland is absolutely beautiful, love being in the mountains and really liked our Legends backpackers we stayed at in Ezulwini Valley. Visited Mantenga Nature Reserve and the Royal Palace to witness the Incwala festival. So amazing!

Leg 9: Manzini to Durban. Got up at the crack of dawn just to wait at a taxi rank for 4 hours to fill up our bus, but still manged to get into Durban before sunset. When we called a taxi to get to our backpackers I got ridiculously excited for seatbelts again. Loved visiting the ISKCON temple, Indian market and being reunited with the ocean again. Disliked being locked out of our backpackers at night and being forced to hide behind trees and call armed response to get back in.

Leg 10: Durban to Cape Town. All of our travel fiasco’s happened in the very last day of travel. I suppose that’s what you get for 18 days of relatively hassle free travel across three countries. Ridiculously happy to make it back to a place where I understand where to get where I need to go. Bittersweet being back where it all started because all the people I associate with this place are gone now, but liked having time there to myself (getting bored was not a pretty sight though, involving too much coffee, solo dancing, fort making and pantry cleaning).

After all this, 27 hrs in transit back home seems like a piece of cake.

'Cause all we really needed Was our bare feet and a pair of wings to fly

Yesterday marked exactly 2 months since I arrived here in Cape Town! It’s really bizarre that it has been that long. After what was probably best described as a rollercoaster month of September filled with sightseeing, new experiences and trying like mad to fit into a group of intern friends, October was a time for settling into a routine for daily life here. I liked both months for different reasons, and am looking forward to November, which will bring a whole new feel to my experience here. It will be a time for really understanding how much I have learned here. My mom will be visiting from the 20-27^th and in preparation I have already been tracking down all the amazing things I want her to see and do. In making these lists and plans, it has occurred to me how far I have come in understanding this city. Names of roads don’t seem so strange, public transit is not intimidating, and I can actually recommend a fair amount of places I have been myself. This is ridiculously reassuring.

Also, I have started booking tickets/ accommodations for my 2-week backpacking trip I am taking with some friends I have met here. The day my mom returns to the states I will be heading to Johannesburg, Kurger, Mozambique, and ending in Durban. It has been so crazy figuring out busses/ car hire/ planes! I will never again take for granted just hoping in the car for a road trip ever again!

Today was such a wonderful day, one of those just genuinely feeling content days that you would love to savor. After a lovely night sleep I woke up with some tea made for me by my lovely roommate and sat chatting over a chocolate cupcake J After slipping out of sleep and into a more awake state we continued to just listen to music while I looked up travel things on my compy. A Sunday here isn’t complete without a trip to pick and pay for some groceries for the week, and after some homemade spinach feta tomato pizza we both had a little cat nap as I waited for my sheets to dry in the sun coming through our big windows (long story about needing clean sheets, involving the invading of my room by some sort of African fleas, most likely picked up from the townships). We woke up just in time to sip down some coffee and head to signal hill for the sunset. While waiting for the sun, my friends and I chatted about our experience here and ended with listing off what were the best gifts we have ever given anybody. Coming back to the apartment for some homemade white chocolate/ oatmeal/ raisin cookies and fresh cream was another excellent treat. If I couldn’t handle enough greatness for the day, my roomie and I somehow put together an amazing late night Mexican dinner. Now just sitting in my room, all squeaky clean from a shower, belly full of good foods, sheets freshly deflea-ed, and mellowing out to Owl City. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to this day.

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!