First Days in Cape Town

Hello from Cape Town! Before I begin, I thought I'd share a photo of my view from our balcony at this very moment.

Wow. Cape Town is absolutely stunning! Clear blue sky, clear blue water, white sand, bright sun, palm trees lining the beach. The only sounds are those of waves crashing on rocks and seagulls chirping. To my right I can see Lion's Head, a steep peak that rises up rapidly from the water. Behind me is the famous Table Mountain. It's 65 degrees Fahrenheit (or 17 Celsius) with a slight breeze, and I could not ask for a more beautiful day.

Yesterday, I explored some of the city with my roommates and some other friends I've made here. We had a breakfast of steak and eggs for less than $4 (the Rand exchange rate is amazing!) then walked around the V&A Waterfront, where our classes will be. We went to the Sunset Cafe, a very cool, open bar that looks directly onto the Ocean.

Looking out at the horizon I can't help thinking that I'm looking over the edge of the world. We enjoyed some Sangria and beers, while watching the sun drop below the water (no green flash though!) and then made our way to Dizzy's for dinner and the iX kickoff event. Dizzy's is a bar accross the street from the iX Village that seems like the place we'll be spending a decent amount of time at over the next 2 months. It's a nice bar with cheap drinks, a pool table, and they even had a couple beer pong tables set up last night. I met a lot of cool people and just had an all around good time, and a perfect ending to an awesome first day in Cape Town.

This morning I woke up earlier to get breakfast with my roommate Henry at Primi Piatti. I was pleasantly surprised to find a great spread of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potato omelets, and oatmeal with an apple stew. After breakfast I went for a 6 mile run up and down the coastline with a girl I met last night at the Dizzy's kickoff event named Hannah, who is (maybe) starting to train for the Chicago marathon in October. It was perfect weather and the time passed quickly as we talked and learned about each other's backgrounds (we only averaged a 10 minute pace, so it wasn't hard to keep conversation!). The day was perfect for a morning run, and the route actually reminded me a lot of California, especially Sausalito, with high end houses built into the cliff on one side, and a drop-off to the Ocean on the other. After the run, I went to the gym at the local hotel that we have access to and finished off my workout with a 20 minute bike and my med ball hamstring exercises. The hotel gym is small (only 1 bike, 1 treadmill, 1 water rower, and 1 squat rack) but there was only one other guy in there today so it worked out ok.

The view from the hotel lobby

Then it was off to the Watershed for lunch and orientation. As I was walking over to the Food Court with Henry, he realized he left his computer back at the iX Village and so Ubered back to get it. I quickly met some other iXers from UVA named Vaughn, Sophia, and Jack, and had lunch with them and Sophia's dad. Then we headed upstairs for the orientation. Aaron Fuchs, the CEO of iXperience, and a fellow Yale grad, kicked it off by talking about the iX mission ("Discover your potential") and urging us to make the absolute most of the experience. Russel followed with some safety and logistical concerns (including a story about sending home a student from a past year who streaked at a National rugby game), and then we heard the excursion announcements. Over the next four weekends I will be cage diving with sharks, drumming with locals, zip-lining through mountains, and surfing in the Indian Ocean! I later found out that I am in the Ghoema group (named after a South African drum and genre of music) and we will be kicking off the excursions with shark diving on Saturday and drumming on Sunday! I am pumped!

The trip into Cape Town was long, but has already been worth it, and I am so excited to be able to spend 2 months in this beautiful city with some awesome people!