CAPE TOWN!

So, I pretty much loved being in Cape Town for about a month. I went down there to do my TESOL course (which I need to go and teach English in South Korea, which will hopefully still happen in August, fingers crossed!) and ended up having SUCH a great time – not to mention a super contemplative one.

Being in Cape Town properly again was quite strange for me. So much of what I saw, despite a ton having changed over the years, brought back tons of memories for me. Whether it was seeing the adorable ducks at Groot Constantia where we went wine tasting (having been there on a school trip back in the day) or walking along the promenade in the early evening time (something I mom and I would do on a daily basis when we lived in Sea Point back then) – it all was quite overwhelmingly nostalgic, and an experience that was both strangely fun and exciting, and really, really sad at the same time. It made me realise how much had changed in me since that time. How much I had changed. And also made me toy with the ever-dangerous notion of “what-if”. What if I had never left this place that I had loved so much? Would things have turned out differently? Would I have been spared the heart ached that resulted when I had returned to Durban to live with my father? Or would I have just experienced heart ache in a different form? It is frivolous, I know, to think in this way, but rather inevitable I suppose. The nostalgia came in another form as well, reconnecting from someone really important from my past, a reconnection which too gave me a heck of a lot to think about. But this is a post for another day…

Being back with Claire and Gabi made me once again appreciate how much they mean to me (along with my other besties from Rhodes). I really have made the most amazing friends over the years, and leaving them all behind is going to be so difficult. :/ Which is another reason why I was so grateful I was able to do this trip and spend all that time with them - from tanning on the beaches of Camps Bay, to getting hit on in strange CT clubs, to entire days spent huddled up in Claire’s bed with nothing but junk food and hours of Glee and Geordie Shore to keep us busy.

The (so-called) real reason I was there, of course, was to do the TESOL course - which was an interesting experience to say the least! I had a great time, met some awesome people, and was lucky enough to feel really validated in the whole thing. Not only was it great to actually use my brain again (it had been a while) but I realised all over again how much I really adore teaching. And I must say Cape Town is a wonderful space to be a student in. When I was staying with my long time high school bestie, Katie, in Rondebosch, I fell in love with this gorgeous little café called Cocoa Wah Wah, where I spent many a day studying and planning lesson (helped along with delectable shakes and tasty treats). And while I was in Sea Point I of course tried to make the most of the invigorating sea breeze by working on the promenade.

And as if in some battle to the death for my attention – the weekends certainly provided much distraction from work in the form of much, much Rhodent style partying from Obz, to Claremont, to Stellies. This was also peppered with cultured things (I was in Cape Town after all so such was necessary) in the form of wine tasting (in which Gabz and I got rather tipsy and said inappropriate things rather more loudly than we should have), champagne and nougat tasting (which was absolutely delectable, even if done while I was hanging like no body’s business), and market trawling (where we looked at pretty things we couldn’t buy). And no Cape Town trip would be complete without feeling like a kid again with a visit to Ratanga Junction.

Overall, Ieaving this place balling my eyes out, I realised how lucky I was to have the friend’s I did to make a trip like that possible. Not only to Claire, Katie, Gabz and Brad for all housing me at one point or another – but to all of them and others (including the crazy Max, the lovely Miss Es, and the best dmc partner ever, Yolande) for sharing part of their lives with me and going out of their way to show me a good time. I truly am blessed. ^_^