kimterns invade Cape Town!

We did it! Trevor and I finally visited Cape Town!

Climbing Lion's Head in Cape Town!

We left Kimberley at 7 pm on Tuesday, drove straight through the night and only fell asleep at the wheel once! Haha – just kidding about that last part. The drive from Cape Town isn’t actually that bad; it’s just long. But Trevor and I concocted an ingenious plan to help get us through the night. We burned a couple of CD’s and just car grooved all through the night (okay, I know this sounds boring, but the cars we drive have no radio and no CD player, which sometimes makes driving a pain in the booty). Want to know what kept us awake throughout the night? Here’s a sample of one of our CD’s:

            Slam Dunk the Funk ~ Five

            Replay ~ Iyaz

            Whatever You Like ~ Jackey Boys

            Me & U ~ Cassie

            What’s Your Flavor ~ Craig David

            Oh Africa ~ Akon

            Shake That Ass ~

            Suga Suga ~ Baby Bash

            Ridin’ ~ Chamillionaire

            Come My Lady ~ Crazy Town

            Up In Here ~ DMX

            Let Me Blow Ya Mind ~ Eve (feat. Gwen Stefani)

            Hands Up (Remix) ~ Francisco

            Echo ~ Gorilla Zoe

            I Like That ~ Houston

            I Like It ~ Enrique Inglesias (feat. Pitbull)

            Boyz-N-The-Hood ~ Dynamite Hack

            Low ~ Flo Rida (feat. T-Pain)

            Do You Remember ~ Jay Sean

            It Ain’t the End ~ Jay Sean (feat. Niki Minaj)

The drive took ten hours, and there were a few rough patches, but we finally arrived in Cape Town at five in the morning. We headed straight to the intern house, gracefully collapsed onto some couches and slept for a good three hours. When we woke, it was time to invade Cape Town!

GRS Headquarters. An absolutely gorgeous office!

Our first stop was to the GRS office. As soon as we walked in the door we were greeted by a shout; “it’s the Kimterns!” And the best part about this greeting was that it came from Hooter, a former Kimberley intern (who is now working for the GRS Curriculum Development team)! We’ve heard a lot about Hooter from past interns, from Thuso (our Assistant Site Coordinator) and most of all from our coaches. Everyone loves Hooter. It was great finally getting to meet Hooter, not only because we’ve heard so much about him, but also because he more than anyone understands what it is like to be an intern in Kim. 

Kimterns united! Hooter is the goober on the right.

After shooting the breeze for a bit with Hooter and all the other wonderful people at GRS HQ (this visit to Cape Town reconfirmed my sentiments that every single person working for GRS is absolutely fantastic), Trevor and I hit Cape Town. Cape Town is nothing like Kimberley. In fact, Cape Town feels just like any major city that I have visited in Europe. Even the “African” parts of Cape Town (i.e. street markets and beggars) are very similar to their counterparts in Europe.

One of the pedestrian walkways in Cape Town. You tell me - is it Cape Town?
Or could it be Barcelona? London? Anywhere else in Europe?

One of my favorite things that we did that morning though, was visiting the Green Street market. Why did I like this market so much? Because after getting completely ripped off at all of these markets in Malawi, I was ready to get my haggle on in Cape Town. And boy did I haggle. I ended up buying two paintings and when I bought the second one for just R200 (after it started at R450) I actually thought the vendor was about to cry. That’ll teach them to deal with "innocent" looking white girl. 

The Green Street Market.

That afternoon the Cape Town (CT) crew and the Zimterns (Derek and Ale from Zimbabwe also came down for Thanksgiving!) all had to work, so Trevor and I ventured off to hike Lion’s Head. Even though the weather wasn’t ideal (Trevor and I actually got caught in a rain storm on our way down the mountain), this hike was fantastic. 

Climbing Lion's Head.

It was cool to be in an environment that was very different from Kimberley and the hike itself brought back some wonderful memories – memories of hiking Wentworth falls with my family when we visited Australia, memories of Joe, Matt and I trekking up Mount Mellonthin two summers ago, and memories of my high school friends and I climbing White Oak Canyon.

Half way up the mountain, looking over Signal Hill.

When we reached the summit we were greeted by some very blustery winds and some incredible views of Cape Town. This really is a sweet city!

The Twelve Apostles

Cape Town.

Table mountain. The cloud cover is called the "tablecloth" and the
soccer stadium that was built in Cape Town for the World Cup is supposed
to be the tablecloth of Table Mountain.  

T and I at the top.

The fun continued that evening. Trevor and I got to play small-sided soccer with the CT crew, the Zimterns and Hooter. The game got surprisingly intense as our opponents really did not like the fact that they were losing to a team that had girls on it. But our motley looking crew (seriously - we were playing in yellow GRS t-shirts, Trevor and I didn't have cleats, and our overall appearance reminded me a lot of WM club soccer) managed to pull out a 8 - 7 victory! We went out to Roxy's to celebrate our win and to bask in the glory that comes with being an intern. 

Words cannot describe how great it feels every time I get together with a big group of GRS interns. It is great to be surrounded by people who are all passionate about the organization we chose to become a part of and who are all going through the same things together. I never ceased to be amazed at how wonderful all of the GRS interns and am truly happy to be a part of the GRS family. 

Interns both past and present at Roxy's.

One of the most interesting parts of the evening was when someone decided it was time to drop "honest bombs." I'm pretty sure this started after the guys started calling each other out on how ridiculous some of them looked sporting their Mo-vember facial hair (during Mo-vember of No-Shave-november, guys are not supposed to shave for the whole month). And even though it started as a joke, it ended up being a pretty special moment. The honest bomb that resounded most for me came from Hooter. He said he was glad that the two Kimterns had really brought back the love to Kim and to each other (I've heard a couple stories about how things were in Kim last year and I do believe that Trevor and I are a big improvement). Everyone continues to be amazed at how close Trevor and I are and at how much time we spend together. I don't really get it... it's not like we work together, live together, go on 10-hour car rides together and then are still willing to go hiking together... oh wait, we do do that. What can I say - Trevor is my best bud in Kim and I truly am thankful for him.

A little bit of Kimtern lovin'.