Cold in Cape Town

Weird. I don't like it being cold in Cape Town. It's really throwing me off and making me start to believe I am back in Boston. And by that time actually comes around, Boston will be hot and summery. So yeah, it's weird how seasons work oppositely here. The rainy season is supposed to hit pretty soon, but I can count on one hand how many experiences with rain I have had.

Coincidentally or not, a lot of my friends have been asking me lately how I can compare my experience in France with the one I have here. It's a question I get baffled with every time. I feel as if my words to describe Lyon and the amazing experience I had will not do it justice. It was sincerely the greatest time of my life. I owe a lot of it to the people I was with - living with 20 Americans from different schools and getting to attend an American-based French university together were opportunities for me to broaden my horizons and tolerate all sorts of people. Somehow without my knowing, my mind was opened. I just let it break free out of the bubble I have been stuck in for the past however many years and I just let it see the world. I learned a lot. A lot about the culture, the people, myself. Probably the most growth I have experienced in such a short span of time. And maybe that is why I have had the same high expectations for myself here. Not to say that I have not been growing and learning. I definitely have. But my experience in Cape Town is set up a lot differently from the one in Lyon. Although I live with many interns my age from the states and other countries around the world, we all have different schedules, different jobs, different goals, different personalities. I love getting to meet everyone and hear about what brought them to Cape Town and what they are doing here, but I still sense the lack of community/family-ness that I had in Lyon. That is the one big thing I miss about it. But I mean, apart from my living and social situation, I love Cape Town. It's a city I can see myself in later on in life. I admit though, it is straining to be immersed in some of the worst epidemics and challenges of the world. Life isn't made to be easy here. You really have to work hard for what you want.

I am planning on doing a personal township tour this weekend. I feel myself getting too caught up in the westernized life. I would really like to start breaking out more into the true South African ways and culture. I still have a month and a half left, and I really hope to see more of it before I leave.