This past week I had the extreme pleasure of sharing my Cape
Town experience with one of my best friends from UConn who is studying with a
program called Semester at Sea. She came into port on Monday and I played tour
guide for the day showing her and her friends around the amazing city I’ve come
to call home over the past 3 months. We went to popular markets, gardens, and
restaurants to give them a taste of the city. After my brief tour around town,
they were definitely impressed with my knowledge about the history and people
of Cape Town (and I surprised myself with the information I had
retained from the first two weeks of orientation during some of our museum tours).
A topic
that we talked about a lot was the difference in our programs. She had been to
9 other countries when she came to see me (India, China, Japan, and Burma to
name a few). We talked about the difference in seeing and experiencing so many
different cultures versus only being submersed in one. I came to the conclusion
that we each did the programs that were right for us. She is definitely a
traveller. Enjoys having many different experiences, seeing all different
places and many of them. I’ve always known I am more of a homebody and I think
because of that I enjoy settling down in areas for extended periods of time and
feeling at home in spaces. I could not have chosen a better place to make my
home for a little less than 4 months. And she definitely agrees. After being
off the boat for 4 hours, she asked me if I would want to go in on getting
house together here.
One of the
activities that her and her friends had on their checklist was hiking and I had
just the hike for them. Wednesday of the week they were there was the full moon
and after the amazing experience I had hiking Lions Head during the last full
moon I knew I had to suggest it. We made plans to meet up at 5:30 on the
mountain in two days time and I was so excited to share the amazing and
beautiful views I had experienced about a month ago! The day of, a few of us
got a cab to the beginning of the trail and all we saw as we got to the front
of Table Mountain we saw the huge cloud coverage over all of the mountain range
and covering the city bowl. We debated proceeding because you couldn’t even see
the top of the mountain because it was coated in clouds. In the end we decided
to continue on, when else would we be able to hike into the clouds? |
| Climbing Lion's Head: ascending into the clouds |
It was an
absolutely amazing time. Being able to
share this experience with one of my best friends from school who was only
visiting a few days was incredibly lucky. We hiked into and above the cloudbank
and that was blanketing the city bowl and surrounding area (which was probably
a good thing so that her friend who is terrified of heights could never really
see how high up we were) to watch the sun set into a multitude of clouds. Something
I’ve come to realize about myself while being here is how important sharing
experiences with people is to me. I’ve come to notice I don’t like doing things
on my own because I believe part of having an amazing experience is then
sharing it with the people you love and care about. I’m capable of being
independent, but I’ve realized how important being with the people I hold near
and dear to my heart are to me. After all, distance makes the heart grow fonder
so I’ve been told and can now understand.
 |
| Lindsay on the climb to self discovery |
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