On Top of a Natural Wonder of the World

From the Information Guide to Table Mountain: "Could this be the world's oldest mountain? We're not 100% sure, but it's believed that Table Mountain is at least 6 times older than the Himalayas. So be nice to it."

I've been living in the shadow of Table Mountain for three weeks now and finally got the chance to view the vast city and coastline from the top of it this afternoon. A couple friends and I took the cable car up to the summit of what was historically known as "The Mountain of the Sea," as it was formed by a rise from the ocean due to tectonic forces after glaciers carved it flat. The view from the top cannot be justified with words or pictures; I really wished my camera could capture a panoramic photo. Since the "table" is quite long, there were several different trails that looked neverending, all of which offer a different scenic view of Cape Town. We meandered on one trail for about 45 minutes and took a break to grab a vacant rock and munch down on the lunch we packed. Once we descended back to reality, we were a bit wiped from our adventures in the sun, so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool on the roof of our apartment building.

Friday was a night out with the whole crew; about twelve of us in all. We went to a Portuguese restaurant downtown, whose food was absolutely delicious. We then ventured out to Claremont where we went to a club called Tiger Tiger, apparently really popular among University of Cape Town students. It felt a bit like I was transported back to freshman year of college, but the girls I've befriended are great and I had a lot of fun with them.

Yesterday was spent under the African rays (but no worries, I've been slathering on the sunscreen!) We stopped by a farmer's market down the street in the morning, where we quickly decided to make a weekly visit. A huge room was filled with fresh produce, fudge, bread, jams, crepes, jewelry, smoothies - you name it! We made sure to get our share of samples before choosing what goods we wanted to bring home. We then headed to Clifton Beach for the day, where we ran into the freezing (and refreshing) Atlantic Ocean, walked along the shore, read our books and bought ice cream from a vendor wandering along the sand. Clifton is a particularly wealthy residential area, which further displayed the obvious contrast that defines Cape Town. The fancy mansions along the coast makes it hard to believe that the plethora of people I see sleeping on the streets at the bus terminal every morning exist in the same city.

Here's to week #4!
xo Em

Clifton Beach

View from the top of Table Mountain

Me and my friend Audra

The whole crew at dinner

Robert Burns, Van Hunks, and Spinal Surgery

This week has been a chill one, but nevertheless filled with good friends, good food and good weather. Wednesday night was spent at a group dinner cooked by Becca, the one from Scotland. Apparently January 25th is Robert Burns Day, a Scottish celebration of one of its poets that takes place on his birthday. Since Becca was away from her hometown of Edinburgh, she wanted to bring the tradition to Cape Town. Though unable to cook the customary dish of haggis, she whipped up some delicious potatoes and beef stew with a tasty sugary treat called tablets for dessert. It had been a while since the whole crew had hung out, so it was nice to have everyone together for an evening.

The following evening was dedicated to grabbing after-work drinks and a bite to eat at a really relaxed bar/restaurant nearby. It was called Van Hunks, named after the local legend of a man with the same name, who got into a smoking contest with the devil and lost - thus causing the misty 'smoke' around the mountains. The event was technically planned by the program leaders, though most of the interns weren't able to show up so it was basically comprised of just my friends and me. We still had a great time; we got to gab a bit with the Connect leaders and got some really tasty drinks (I had a couple of what was called an "American Beauty"). The restaurant had an outdoor deck with lights and a band played for a while in the early evening. While sightseeing and touring Cape Town is definitely exciting, nights like this one make me feel like I'm truly living here.

The past couple days of work have mostly consisted of grunt work in front of a computer working on a research project, but today I ditched the paper pushing to get back into theatre. I spent the day watching spinal surgery on a young girl with horrible scoliosis - her spine swerved all the way to her side. This was my first time ever observing neurosurgery and, as always, it was a great experience.

I'm looking forward to another fantastic weekend. I hope everyone at home is happy, healthy and keeping warm. Sending thoughts of African sun rays your way!

xoxo Em

First Time Scrubbing In!

I had a fantastic day of work on Monday! I spent the morning in the burns theatre with Prof Thomas, which was quite an experience. The room is always set at higher temperatures because the patients don't have the skin to keep them thermoregulated, so it was a bit toasty (when I stepped inside, the surgeon greeted me with a "Welcome to the hotbox!") 

The very first case was a one-month-old with a bad burn on his foot and ankle; a skin graft was being taken from his thigh and applied to the burn. After briefly meeting the plastic surgeon named Chris and describing my role as a student, he simply asked if I wanted to scrub in! I absolutely jumped at the chance, so he walked me through step by step how to scrub. Props to all you medical folks out there - I had NO idea how detailed this procedure is. It's not simply washing really carefully; there's a step-by-step process of how to properly clean your hands and lower arms. It was hard not to touch a thing once I donned my gown - I couldn't even touch my face mask. Once the surgery started, I was in awe and so absorbed. It was definitely the simplest procedure of the day, but aside from the assisting nurse, Chris and I were the only ones scrubbed in! It was my first time actually assisting during surgery, which felt amazing.

The last case of the day was a particularly bad one; I believe the boy had been in a house fire and was burned head to toe, including eyelids. The theatre was set at 33 degrees C for this surgery (91.4 F) and lasted quite a bit. When it was over, everyone emerged soaking wet with sweat. Thankfully throughout the morning there were pitchers of water and orange juice right outside the theatre door to keep everyone hydrated.

Once all five surgeries were finished, Prof told me I did a great job surviving my first time in burns! It's a different environment compared to all other theatres because of the heat, strong smells and (frankly gross) sights. It was a little tough at times, but overall a superb experience to add to the list! Prof asked me if I was keeping a journal of sorts to keep track of everything I've gotten to do and told me that burns is a great area for opportunity because they'll really "use and abuse me" there! 

Today was spent on getting started on one of the research projects I'm helping out with regarding the use of a drug called gabapentin that's given to patients for neuropathic pain. I studied this drug a bit in my clinical neuroscience class last year, so it will be great to apply my classroom studies to actual clinical cases. My workday will consist of balancing research with observing in theatre, but overall, it's an incredibly independent internship so I'm in some sense in charge of my own hours each day.

The uploading started working up again, so here are a few more photos from this past weekend. Enjoy!

Pretty peacock

One of the beaches in Simon's Town

Penguins! xoxo

Boulders Beach (the Indian ocean is so clear!)

View driving in Simon's Town

The little apartment we rented out for the night (left half)

Baboon taking in the scenery with the rest of us

One of the views from the hike up to Cape Point - Indian Ocean is on the left, Atlantic Ocean is around the corner on the right

The southernmost tip of Africa

xoxo Em

Pics from Weekend Road Trip

My Internet connection is being incredibly slow, so I was only able to upload a couple pictures. I wanted to share a lot more with you all, so hopefully I'll be able to get a few others up soon!

Baboon hanging out on the top of a car at Cape Point!

Chapman's Peak (Aunt Debbie and Richard, this one's for you!)

Some penguins at Boulders Beach chilling out with my friends Melissa and Emily

Update more soon!
xoxo Em

Weekend Road Trip

I just returned from the most jam-packed South African adventure that I've had yet. A few of my friends and I decided to rent a car for the weekend and take a road trip down to the southernmost tip of Africa, called Cape Point. All of the cars here are manual and they drive on the left side of the road, but luckily my friend Becca is from Scotland, so her experience designated her as our driver.

We got a very early start on Saturday morning and took a little detour to explore Hout Bay. We found ourselves once again on a beautiful beach filled with blinding white sand and a warm breeze. It was pretty early so there weren't many beach-goers around, but almost everyone was there with their dogs. Of course, when I spotted a beagle I went straight to his owner and started gabbing about dogs and how much I miss my own beagle at home. The hardest thing about being away from home for so long is missing Ruby!!!

We then voyaged on to Chapman's Peak drive, which is a long stretch of road named after the peak that looks over it, well-known for its amazing scenic views. We made a few stops along the way to take pictures, of course and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.

After a short drive, we reached Simon's Town, another great city along the coast. Its most famous for Boulders Beach, where all the colonies of African penguins hang out. This was by far the most exciting part of the trip! We had all been looking forward to seeing the penguins since we first arrived and we couldn't get enough of them. Part of the beach had a "viewing area" where you stood on boardwalks and took pictures, but the other section was wide open and we got to sit next to them on the rocks!

For accommodations overnight, we had rented out this wicked cute guest house that, once we saw the inside of, didn't want to leave! It was two floors with a balcony upstairs, two bathrooms and had a full kitchen and dining table - better yet, it was only $130 a night (for all five of us together!) The renters were the SWEETEST couple of people I've ever met and kept reiterating how we should call them if we needed absolutely anything. The house was located on a small street in a really rural area; the town only had one restaurant, which was right down the road, so we went there for dinner. It had a wicked cozy, small-town feeling to it and had amazing seafood. We ate on the porch outside, drinking wine, watching the sunset and listening to a man play piano inside. As much as we all love Cape Town, we each have a little bit of "small-town" in us, so it was nice to get away from the city for a bit. The view of the stars on our walk home was stunning.

We again got an early start on Sunday to head towards Cape Point, which is part of Table Mountain National Park. We had been warned that this area has quite a few wild baboons and we kept seeing signs on the road about not feeding them. Sure enough, we saw a ton today! They're not aggressive, but are quite a nuisance because they'll do anything to get food - a park ranger had to shoo one off when it bolted towards the car next to us with an open trunk of sandwiches. As we entered the park, we saw one simply sitting on top of a car, looking around as if it were taking in the scenery!

We hiked to the top of Cape Point (quite steep) where the view cannot be described in words. There's a small lighthouse at the very top, along with a post showing the direction of where some major cities in the world are located (New York's arrow said it was over 12,500 km away). It was amazing to be looking at the Indian and Atlantic Ocean at the same time! After our trek back down, we headed "home," where we grabbed a quick bite to eat  for lunch and then crashed back at the apartment. An amazingly fun yet exhausting weekend!

(Uploading pics isn't working - will post soon!)
xoxo Em

Hakuna Matata

The title of this post was one of the headlines on today's issue of the Cape Town newspaper, I kid you not. I hate to promote such a stereotypical view of South Africa but honestly, the past two papers I've read have had articles about a baboon wrecking havoc and causing chaos in residential areas of the city for eight hours, a rhino that was illegally killed by poachers whose horns had been cut off, and a young man who was standing in waist-deep waters in the ocean and was killed by a shark.

The temperatures this week have been the most brutal I've ever experienced; African sun is surely stronger than anything I've felt in the states. I also have unfortunately come down with a bit of a cold (which refuses to let me recover with my no-AC apartment), so the past few days have been a bit uneventful. My supervisor is lovely and gave me the rest of the week off from work to get better so that I can hit the ground running with some research projects starting on Monday. She's the head anesthesiologist at the hospital and probably one of the best in the country. She's a doctor but she's also a teacher, so her title is "Prof." I can tell she really cares about me getting the best out of my education and experience at the Red Cross. I attend educational meetings in the (early) mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays; every Tuesday a different anesthesiologist gives a lecture on some medical topic and Thursdays are devoted to discussing critical cases, such as mistakes people have made or how best to approach a given situation in surgery. I know I'm going to be learning a bunch!

Monday I was juggling between observing an open-heart surgery on a two-year-old and a surgery on a young girl who was in a car accident and got her hand and part of her arm completely sliced off down to the bone. I got to watch them cut her lower leg down to her fibula and do a skin graft on her hand! Tuesday was a bit more mild as I spent the morning in the outpatient surgical unit, but I had a ton of fun with the doctors and nurses. One of the nurses named Esmerelda (she's technically a "sister," which is a head nurse) took a liking to me right away and was teaching me a bit of Afrikaans. Everyone in the room was getting a kick out of my accent! I got to hand some supplies, find some tubes, and draw up some simple medicine for them, so I felt like I was actually volunteering and lending a hand!

The girls and I have been making some great plans for the weekend, so I'm excited for what's ahead. We all get together after work for drinks or dinner and just try to stay cool!!

Hope all is well on your side of the world,
xo Em

Chasing Summer

My newest roommate (whose name is also Emily) recently told me that her blog is titled "Chasing Summer," referencing the fact that she ditched her hometown of Seattle in the middle of winter to come to South Africa spot-on for the summer season, only to return back home after three months to Seattle's summer. I thought the name was very creative and very appropriate, especially since I keep seeing Facebook updates about how cold and snowy it is back home when all I look forward to in a day is taking the coldest shower possible!

My first full weekend in Cape Town was a blast. Saturday morning a small group of us went to the Old Biscuit Mill Market in a neighborhood called Woodstock. It's a gigantic market/bazaar filled with little shops and tents sent up selling all kinds of clothing, jewelry, photography, home decor, crafts, whatever food you think of - you name it! It's held every Saturday and is very well-known in the city among both tourists and locals. We were not disappointed! I did a bit of shopping and sampled every food I could (the endless choices of desserts were particularly appealing). OH, and the taxi ride to get there? Split among the six of us, it cost less than a dollar apiece.

We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called Mama Africa with a huge group of interns. There were about ten of us in total and among all of us, we ordered a bunch of different things and tasted a bit of each other's plates. I got in a bite of ostrich, warthog, bubotie (a type of antelope) and springbok - coming from a picky eater, I really liked it all! The restaurant was beautifully themed, had delicious cocktails, and a live band playing African music in the background. Post-dinner, we all took a stroll down Long Street (popular for its shops, restaurants, and especially pubs and clubs), bar hopping for the rest of the night until two in the morning. It was quite a blast! I got to know some of the others girls a bit better and chatted with quite a few South Africans, all of whom were incredibly welcoming to us silly Americans.

Today was spent at Muizenberg Beach in the hot African sun, where I got to place my toes in the Indian Ocean for the first time. The sun here is quite a kicker - I've already used up a bottle of sunscreen in a week and continue to get burn after burn. A dip in the pool on the rooftop when we returned was very refreshing. Now my Sunday evening is devoted to taking it easy and preparing to tackle another exciting week!

xoxo Em

Some of my friends at the Old Biscuit Mill Market

A tiny fraction of the food tent

View from the rooftop of my apartment building

Muizenberg Beach (last shark sighting: January 7th, 2012)

Friday the 13th

I can't believe it's only been a week since I left for my trip. I've been so busy that I feel like I've already been here for three months!

I started work on Thursday and already know that I'll get more comfortable there each day. For anyone who doesn't know the details, I'm volunteering for the next three months at the Red Cross Children's Hospital on the anesthesiology team in surgery. My first day was a bit daunting because I'm a bit directionally-challenged and have yet to learn my way around; South Africans also have a much more laid back, flexible attitude, so they expect me to be very independent (tough on my first day in a new hospital on a new continent). I'm used to the big and beautiful Brigham, so I have to get used to the more quaint Red Cross. It's a bit difficult at times to understand what people are saying, even if they are speaking English, because their accents are so heavy and they speak so fast. Many patients only speak Africaans, so all the staff know how to speak it, as well.

Once I donned my scrubs, I felt much more at home. Africans call surgery/the OR "theatre," so every day I have to change into "theatre clothes." I've shadowed a bunch of surgeries at home, and I was particularly surprised to find that the Red Cross' surgical protocol is incredibly similar to America's. Most of the equipment, clothing, video monitors and check lists were all familiar to me. I got to see some pretty amazing things in the past two days - several urology surgeries, a circumcision on an 11-month-old, a cardiopulmonary bypass on a three-month-old (the first time I saw a heart beat!), a central line placed in a cancer patient, and several others. The babies look just like dolls on the table! The doctors I'm working with are great, and take a lot of time to explain to me what they're doing. I don't know much about anesthesiology, so I really appreciate the new teachings. I even attempted to intubate an eight-year-old boy today, but kept getting the esophagus instead of the trachea - it's tough! They were in a hurry to get it going so I couldn't get much practice, but I'll do it!

Here are some belated pictures of the past week:

Me with friends Saffron and Emily in London

View from the bottom of Table Mountain

Table Mountain - the layer of clouds on top is known as the "tablecloth"

 Camps Bay - very pretty beaches

View from my bedroom window

Day at the beach

Red Cross Children's Hospital

First Sunburn of 2012: January 9th

Well, my first day of work was postponed for a day, so I gained some extra time to explore this amazing city. Yesterday we took a tour of Cape Town on a double-decker bus (using a free voucher from our volunteer program!). Some sights could only be described as breathtaking. We drove along Clifton and Camps Bay, where most of the beaches are located, and it was absolutely beautiful. One feature of Cape Town that is becoming more and more apparent is the great divide between the rich and the poor. Residents here are either very wealthy or very poor, with no continuum at all. The mansions and hotels along the waterfront are obviously devoted to the wealthy. Set right beside the ocean and in front of Table Mountain, it's no wonder these places are worth so much!

We finished off the day with a stroll along Long Street, well-known for its restaurants, bars and markets. We hopped into a store called "The African Market" and found a maze of rooms filled from floor to ceiling with handmade jewelry, clothing, figurines and much more. The people stationed in each room were very adamant at attempting to sell you their things; I was able to hold out for now but I'll definitely be going back!

Of course, the combination of sitting on the top deck of the bus for an hour and then strolling around the city without applying sunscreen got me quite burnt to a crisp: lesson learned.

Today began with a trip to the "Book Lounge" on the corner of the street where we're living - a wicked cute place with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books and couches all around the room. This afternoon is my last free weekday before I being my internship, so it will be devoted to hanging out on the beach. Looking forward to work tomorrow!

xo Emily

Greetings from Cape Town!

Hello, blog-followers!

I have officially made it safe and sound to the beautiful country of South Africa. I'm still in the limbo state of juggling jet lag with the overwhelming feeling of the fact "hitting me" that I'm finally here for a three-month period after almost a year of planning. My first impression was that Cape Town is sincerely unlike any other city I've ever seen in my life. The mountains looking over the busy city look like a painted landscape and the trees make me feel like I'm in part Florida, part Lion King. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately my apartment is lacking air conditioning, so it's quite hot! I have an unbelievable view of Table Mountain from my bedroom window; I'll be posting pictures soon!

My journey began with a 9 1/2 hour layover in London, where I was lucky enough to meet up with some family friends from Wales. Saffron, Emily and Amit picked me up from Heathrow and drove me through the streets of London, including a delicious lunch with a view of the Thames and a walk through the Tate Modern art gallery. I had an amazing time with them and was sad to leave after such a short visit, but I was also excited for what was to come!

The fellow interns who are staying in apartment building that I've met so far are super nice. I adventured up to the roof with Audra, a girl from Northeastern, this evening and could not believe the view. There's a barbecue area with picnic tables and a heated pool on the roof! I wasn't aware of this before, but apparently Cape Town is incredibly windy, especially at night. After being in a stuffy room for so long, the cool wind felt amazing. I'll definitely be keeping my window open at night.

I already feel like I've been gone forever and miss everyone at home! I'll be doing much more exploring during the day tomorrow with my camera. Then I start work on Tuesday! I hope everything is going well on your end. Update you soon!

xo Em