My First Trip to Cape Town in the Daylight

Yesterday was the best day here so far.  It was absolutely gorgeous, after the monsoon, so I was sad to be stuck in the office all day.  The bathrooms aren't in the main building, so I crossed the parking lot an inordinate amount of times to go to the bathroom, just so I could be outside.  Then the pastor comes into my office and says he has a meeting in the city (Cape Town) which I will find utterly boring, but if I wanted to go with him I could explore a bit.

Hmmmmm, let me think about that.

So we hopped in the car and headed into CT.  I took pictures of Table Mountain...

...and Lion's Head...

...both from the car but they were still fabulous.  There will be better ones later.  It's just unbelievable how these grand formations tower over this flat city.  Seriously, the city goes right up to the base of the mountains.  So while walking around Cape Town, you turn and see Table Mountain, as if that's a normal thing.  I guess for them it is normal.  I asked if you ever get used to it, and the pastor replied that no, it's always breathtaking.  I was glad to hear that.  

When he went to his meeting, I wandered around the botanical gardens for a bit.  There's just a free little botanical garden, right there in the middle of the city.  I know, I say that as if it's an unusual thing.  But the Atlanta Botanical Gardens are, yup, right smack in the middle of the city (go for their winter light show, it's spectacular).  So you'd think I'd be used to that sort of thing, but I guess it's kind of like Table Mountain, always breathtaking.  

Then I ate and walked around the open air mall.  My point in telling this story is that on my first day of work, I spent about two hours Cape Towning.  Who doesn't want this job??  When I came in today, it was gloomy and yuck again.  The pastor told me that any time it's lovely, I need to go out and do stuff.  I plan to take that seriously.  Hello, Robben Island.  We'll meet on a nice day when I just up and go.  

Speaking of who doesn't want this job...I also spent part of the day researching energizers.  If you get to sit at your desk and watch silly Montreat people dancing around to Waving Flag and Istanbul, you've got an excellent job.  I'm pretty sure none of the kids in the youth group here will know energizers, and I'm SO excited to teach them.  There is a guy working at the Bellville church up the road who works with both youth groups and graduated from Princeton Seminary, so I'm betting he knows them.  I'm going to twist his arm into collaborating with me.  

THEN, at dinner time, no one had invited me to dinner, so I drove myself to the grocery store and bought my own food.  Self five!!  What up?!?  Yeah, that happened.  

Word.