My Cape Town Adventures: "The World Is Like a Book and Those Who Do Not Travel Have Only Read One Page"

This entry was supposed to be a bit more exciting, as I was scheduled to go paragliding this morning with Christie and her friend from home. Unfortunately, it was cancelled because the wind wasn’t right for it, so today ended up being a simple day off from work, which is perfectly fine with me. I have another exciting event coming up this weekend and after analyzing my finances, it was probably a blessing in disguise for my wallet that the paragliding was a no-go.

I spent Thursday morning watching brain surgery on a ten-year-old boy who was undergoing a craniometry for insertion of subdural electrodes to help treat his frontal lobe epilepsy – boring, right? Nah, just kidding, it was pretty awesome. After work, my friend Jenny (from London) and I went to Greenmarket Square, a huge open marketplace a few blocks down from our apartment made up of a bunch of vendors’ carts gridlocked within a cobblestoned area. The word “overwhelming” can’t even capture the vast amount of treasures being sold. I tried to restrain from buying anything for myself, but I did pick up a few souvenirs for friends and family back home. My haggling skills have become quite fine-tuned!

I received a package from my best friend Lexi today that was beyond wonderful! It was filled with the most thoughtful things. She baked me chocolate peanut butter biscotti (for those of you who don’t know, Lexi is a pastry chef who just graduated from the Culinary Institute of America); I already tried one and it was absolutely delicious, no surprise. She also included chocolate covered blueberries to remind me of home and the cutest card with a dog on the front, of course. She knows me too well! I greatly appreciated the tokens from home and the package reminded me of how much I miss Maine and everyone there. I have the best friend in the world!

There’s a huge chalkboard in the kitchen of my apartment and my roommates have been carrying out a tradition of taking turns to choose a quote of the week to display. This past week was Christie’s choice of Eleanor Roosevelt’s words: “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she’s in hot water.” Sunday’s quote is my choice, so the wheels are turning to think up a good one.

My endless hours at the gym aren’t quite shaping me up as much as I’d like, so I’ve decided to shake up my routine by taking the stairs up to my apartment at least once a day. I figured I’d stick to this plan if I let all you nice folks know about it. There’s nothing like some good ole’ accountability to keep me motivated. Oh, did I mention I live on the eleventh floor?...

xo Em

Pretty money, adorned with the big five