Beach and Blessings :)

This past Saturday, the week of adventures had finally begun. There is a very well known market near the city, known as The Old Biscuit Mill. It is on our list of top 100 things to do while in Cape Town, which was given to us at the start of the semester. The mill only runs on Saturday mornings from 8 to 11, but some of the shops around the mill remain open a bit later. My RA Jesse, was nice enough to take Hannah and I as well as our friend Lindsey to the market. It was going to be a house even, but many of my housemates stayed out too late and didn’t want to wake up so early, understandable enough as we left at 8:30. We got in a mini bus and took only about a 10-minute drive, getting out near a big shoe mart. Jesse said he likes to get dropped off a bit early as he enjoys taking a stroll outdoors to get to the market. I am glad we did opt to walk a bit there because the sun was glorious, with just a touch of a breeze, we walked a few blocks, rounded a corner, and I saw on the big brown building the sign for the Old Biscuit Mill.

Excitement started to build as I had been told for weeks how great the food is there, and seeing all of the people milling around I knew it had to be good. All of the food is organic, and there are booths to buy food, sample some, or just stare while drooling at the cupcakes oozing chocolate, or the salmon and cream cheese bagels that have now become one of my favorite treats. It took me about 20 minutes to walk around the entirety of the food market, and there were stairs leading downwards towards the chocolate factory reminding me so much of a chocolate store in my town called Chocolat where they have the best hot chocolate my lips have ever tasted. After picking a pig belly sandwich (sounds gross, but was quite delicious) I searched for my friends in the crowd and we sat down and enjoyed our feasts.

Then we left the market and made our way to the clothing booths surrounding the food section, all with clothes made by the sellers themselves. Some were so interesting and different, but most were very highly priced, although we did have a good find with a woman who had a sale, where I picked out a skirt that wouldn’t be blown up by the daily wind. Then we walked around the stores near by, there was a camera store making me wish I had brought the absolutely beautiful camera my sister Monica bought me. Monica they had the camera you bought me at this store I was so excited! I just had to tell you, and p.s the time spent with you before I left are definitely some of my favorite memories of all time. After browsing through bead stores, clothing stores, camera stores and such, we left the market and walked a block into a really neat antique store. The clothes were so unique, and I ended up buying a flowered romper to wear outside, it’s beautiful, with buttons up the front and cross ties in the back, I was happy with my purchase.

That evening, I waited to meet up with Lisa, a friend of a friend who had studied here previously. She picked me up at my house along with my friend Lindsey, and drove us to lower campus, where there were groups of people from the Church on Main getting ready to go to the beach and watch the sun go down. I met a few people while we were waiting to leave, and it was so difficult to tell which people were students and which just attended church, every just looks so young here. I piled into Lisa’s car with four other girls and we drove to Clifton Beach. The sun was so vivid it was unreal as boats sailed across the ocean, people splashed in the water and danced on the beach. I got to have some lovely conversations with people, all of whom recognized I am not from South Africa, therefore leading to me answering some of their dire questions. One was from a guy who wanted me to explain exactly what a corn dog is. This same guy proceeded to ask me if I could point to Iraq on a map, which I could, and he laughed and explained why he had asked. Apparently there is a you tube video of Americans not being able to point to Iraq on a map. Someone had baked biscuits (cookies) and also an oreo cheesecake in little cupcake shapes, Jessica Hulteen, you would have been in oreo heaven because these were delicious. It was the most incredible thing to look at the sky and see the sun still burning bright, but also to see the moon slowly starting to make its ascent at the same time. We stayed until the moon and stars were all out and aglow. The moon here is so bright, it definitely manages to light up all of the surroundings. There was a fire blower on the beach who entertained us all for a while, but it began to get late, so we all piled back into Lisa’s car and made our way back to our houses.