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| #OMGSA |
I'll be honest, the first week was really, really tough..and it still is. I always knew that the first big trip away from home would be hard, but I didn't expect it to be this hard. Living in a house of 16 others and not knowing one of them, living in a beautiful city and country, all on my own (with the help of some wonderful classmates) is exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time.
My time here so far has been amazing. My roommates have been awesome and there are a ton of them...16 did I mention?? But realistically, my 3 classmates have been keeping me on my toes and am so thankful that I have them here..travel girl gal pal Nikki, Ranger Joe, and butt-munch Shawnae-nae. We are all doing our clinical internship for physical therapy school through a company called Volunteer Adventure Corps..VAC for short. They set up internships in Cape Town for students all over the world, so there are a ton of people here from the states and Europe.
The first few days was all about orienting myself to the area. Currently, I am staying in an area called Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa. It is a really cool area with University of Cape Town just around the corner, downtown Cape Town just a short taxi away, but still a quick scare with everyone saying that there was a stabbing down the street a few nights ago and that a friend just got held at gun point! and one of our VAC interns got jumped the other night too! but as long as we have the buddy system, it's all good.
Besides that, everything else is great! I am currently working as a physiotherapist (cool right?) at EROS School for the Cerebral Palsied. My first day of work, I was given the 7 children that I will be responsible for, for the next 10 weeks. It is so interesting to see the differences of how physical therapy students are taught here compared to home in the states. But I knew it was going to be different, that was one of the main reasons why I came. The children here are absolutely great. They always see me with a smile, most of the time in disbelief. Every child that looks at me, looks at me as if they have never seen an Asian in their life! It's quite hilarious and I have been given multiple names at the school - Uncle Evan, Teacher Evan, Evan me bru (bro in Afrikaans), and Jackie Chan. Realistically though, that's the look that I have been getting by all the locals. Back to the kids though- they have been wonderful. Every child that I work with has some form of cerebral palsy, but they are all different and unique in their own ways. They LOVE coming to physio sessions, because to them, it is play. I would say that most physical therapy dealing with the pediatric population has to deal with play, you can't necessarily ask a child to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions of "x y and z". PT with children requires creativeness and play in the session. But for these children, it just feels so different for some reason, and it is so hard to put into words.
As far as experiencing Cape Town, we have already done quite a bit, but it feels that we still have SO much to do. Every person that we meet suggests something new, so our list just keeps getting longer and longer. and my food list is pretty much just as long as my to do list. be on the look out, I will most likely end up writing a blog of the food that I eat here as well.
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| Petting a Cheetah! |
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| Anatolian Shepherd |
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| Wine tasting in Stellenbosch |
SECOND WEEKEND: epic adventure filled weekend. VACtivity on Friday was hiking Chapman's peak, which was absolutely gorgeous! It pretty much looks out onto the ocean where the Atlantic and Indian ocean meet. There really is nothing more beautiful than sitting atop the peak of a hill? small mountain? just over looking the entire bay. // on Saturday, we rented a car to go visit Simon's Town and Fish Hoek to see the African Penguin Colonies! They are adorable little buggers but there aren't too many left, shame man. Anyways, we also had some damn good fish n' chips and tried to venture out to Cape Point, the most south western point of Africa, but it wouldn't have been enough time. So instead, we went to Nordhoek Beach and stopped there for the Sunset, which could not have turned out any better. It ended even more perfectly when we saw a whale's fin wave up in the sunset! // Sunday was the night of the supermoon! We decided to do another hike, except this time up Lion's Head in the evening, to watch the sunset on one side, and watch the moon rise on the other. It was an absolutely spectacular view and over looking all of Cape Town at night was amazing. Though there were hundreds of people going up and down, which made it take too damn long. But the view was totally worth it. 
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| View of Cape Town on top of Lion's Head with the Supermoon, Devil's Peak, and Table Mountain |
THIRDWEEKEND: VACtivity for this week was sailing out in front of the waterfront! It was absolutely gorgeous out and it was my first time sailing! It was a lot of fun and I would love to do it again sometime in the future. There is something about being out on the water that puts me at peace. Although I am scared of open bodies of water, being on the water it just a different experience. I hardly talked to anyone but just enjoyed being out on the beautiful ocean. Just reminiscing on everything, it was great. // Saturday went to our first rugby game ever! and it was a big one too. Pretty much it was two big provinces playing against each other...Capetown vs. Johannesburg...DHL Western Province (CPT) vs
Vodacom Blue Bulls (JHB). It was a lot of fun and rugby is brutal as hell! I wonder how NFL vs Rugby players would go...it would be an interesting match up for sure. // Sunday we were planning and hoping to go paragliding!! but the winds were blowing in the wrong direction so we ended up having to reschedule it for another time. Instead we went to Camps Bay and just stayed at the beach all day. It was actually very relaxing and just what I needed to end the weekend. Until next time. . .
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