Saturday Fun

Hello friends!

Apologies for not updating for over a week--it seems that time got away from me! My internet availability is a little patchy as well. This week I won't have much access, but Thomas is working on getting us a home connection so I should be a little more available to y'all soon.

Block classes are officially over! Last week was Introduction to Epidemiology, during which we focused on research study designs. I personally found this extremely helpful since I haven't actually done research before. I think I'll learn a lot from Epi and am excited to work more on the course. For my other classes, I have a couple of assignments come up, some of which I'm more excited about than others. Overall, I am still really enjoying the program and feel it is a good fit for me. School wise, this will probably be my busiest semester as I am taking four courses. Next semester I am planning on taking three and then I'll have to complete three more plus my dissertation over the following two semesters.

I've had more opportunities to spend time with some of my classmates. We're really blessed to have such an enthusiastic, fun group of people. Yesterday, a group of us went on a hike. If you're like Thomas, right now you are saying, "You went on a WHAT?" Okay guys, I know I'm not the most athletic person out there, but I figured the naturally beauty paired with being with the MPHers would make for a good time. And it did!

We went to Crystal Pools, which is near Gordon's Bay, about 45 minutes or so from the city. I got a ride from Eben (South Africa), along with his wife, Aldi and my friend Eliana (US). We left early, which turned out to be a good idea. The morning hike was nice and cool and we seemed to beat a lot of the crowds.

The concept of Crystal Pools is wonderful. You hike about 45 minutes on fairly flat terrain (save some spots where you make climbs up or down) until you reach the first pool. The pools are natural bodies of water and there are about six of them throughout the trail. So, once you finish a portion of your hike and are feeling hot, tired, and sweaty, you get to go for a refreshing swim in a beautiful place. That's my kind of hike!

We stopped at the third pool first. Once you reach the first pool, the next two are not very far, about fifteen minutes more for each. However, the hiking changes to be more steep. This made me nervous, but it turned out it wasn't actually too difficult. Katrine (who is from Denmark, but spent many years growing up in Princeton, as it turns out!), is a seasoned hiker and was really cool about explaining to me that it would actually be a lot easier to come back down the steeper areas than it looked (and she was right!). I was pretty exhausted when we reached the third pool but by the time we decided to hike to one of the higher ones, I was very refreshed and, perhaps the adreneline was kicking in, because I felt fantastic during that portion of the hike. I must've been channeling my dear friend Tamra, because suddenly the climbing and hiking felt wonderful instead of tiring. We had trouble finding the next pool, but I didn't mind. We climbed fairly high up into the mountain, which was probably my favorite part of the hike. Eventually we found our way over to what was either the fourth or fifth pond and we ate lunch and had another swim. Some people were climbing up the rock formations to jump or dive into the pools. Honestly, the pools were pretty deep, so it didn't seem too dangerous...but I'd rather just watch that part. :)

The hike back out was a little less fun, because we knew there was no refreshing pool at the end, haha. However, we made it! We were on the trails either hiking or swimming for about 8 hours and it felt pretty good to have done that. I won't lie, I'm feeling the burn today though!

That night was my friend Bob's (Zambia) birthday, so we went out to a little bar on Long Street. It was a good speed after a long day. We hung out on the large balcony which was very conducive to talking, although there was a live band inside. I got to chat more with Whitney (US) about the time she spent living in Liberia! I can't wait to hear even more about it. I love hearing about places other people have been. Vicarious traveling! I also met some of Bob's friends from outside of the MPH program, and they were just as warm and friendly as he is. Bob is one of those people you can't help but smile around and he brings a great energy to our group. After midnight I decided to make an early night of it and caught a cab home.

This week should be fairly relaxed. Right now I am enjoying a glorious breakfast at the Sidewalk Cafe, which is basically around the corner from our place. Not only is the food delicious, but the presentation is always gorgeous--today, my platter had a huge flower on it which was just lovely. I'm planning on trying to catch a taxi down to a nearby mall, just to browse and pick up a few needed things. Not sure how regularly the taxis run on Sundays, so if that doesn't work out, I'll probably skip the mall (the burn is making me not want to walk too much right now!) and relax at home. I only have Epi this week for two hours, so on the other days I'll be working on assignments and sending out my resume for part time jobs. On Tuesday we also have a meet and greet for graduate students and faculty.

Friday Thomas will fly home so that we can U2 in the World Cup stadium--very exciting!

Lastly, I would really like to know if there is anything in particular you would like to hear about in this blog. Although this is my first time living in Cape Town, it's a place I'm somewhat familiar with. So if there is something you'd like to know more about, please let me know and I will be more than happy to write about it!

Sending y'all love back home.