1st day at Hospital and 1st Weekend.

Sorry that it has been several days since I have blogged, but hopefully I will catch everyone up with what I have been doing. Still trying to get over jet lag, I still don't sleep much at night, it takes me forever to fall asleep and I just lay there. So hopefully this week I will get more on a schedule. I'm still enjoying my time in Cape Town, I have now spent 4 days here!
Friday I was able to go into the hosptial, which I was really excited about. There are 4 child life girls right now and one more is coming next week. One of the girls rented a car, so we all just rode together. The hospital is about 15 minutes away and on the other side of the mountain. The day was spent being introduced to a lot of people and getting orientated to the area. It’s a pretty big hospital and they are in the process or renovating section by section. The child life girls have been spending their time on the burn unit for the last 2 months and the burn unit is one of the last areas to be renovated, so it’s pretty dark and old looking, but the hospital has some nice parts. They just opened a brand new surgery/ theater area as well. They are looking at me starting down in day surgery, since there will be 5 child life specialists here the month of April and that is the next area that they want to focus on. Everyone I have met at the hospital was really nice and was excited for more child life girls to be there. So I’m looking forward to starting officially on Monday. I will also post some pictures or at least of the outside.
I have now spent my first weekend in Cape Town. I was able to explore and see more of the city, eat at some fun restaurants and even visit the mall. Friday night we went for desserts at the Mount Nelson Hotel, which is one of the nicer hotels in Cape Town where all celebrities stay. I heard that Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood are staying there right now, but we did not see them. It was a beautiful hotel. Saturday my new South African friend Murray (who is doing Mercy Ships this fall as well) invited me to attend an out door concert at Kirstenbosch, which is the Botanical Gardens on the North side of Table Mountain and it was absolutely beautiful there, so peaceful and green. We went a little early to walk around before the concert started. I even made the comment to Murray how many of my family and friends (especially Mom, Sissy, Cathy) would love to be here because of all the different indigenous flowers of South Africa. I definitely would love to go back and just spend the day reading on a blanket enjoying the scenery. Everyone brings a picnic for dinner and watches the concert. The concert for the night was the orchestra from University of Cape Town (Murray had a friend playing) that also played with a local group (I think) Jac Sharp and then the evening ended with a group from Jo-Burg that was more African music. I really enjoyed the music (a cultural experience), the relaxful afternoon, good company and of course another great place for people watching.

Murray and I at Kirstenbosch
It’s fun knowing a Capetonian because they give you all the inside scoop on everything and Murray has been so good at welcoming me to his city and showing me around.

Sunday was a fun day as well. My friend Cara and I had an adventure of finding a church. We were going to go to a church that Cara's sister knew someone at, so we took a R55 taxi ride to find that the church was all locked up. The website said the church started at 9:00 and we were there about 8:40. 1. They don't start at 9:00 2. No one goes to church early. So after much debate we decided to come back into town and just find a church around where we live. We did however enjoy at R110 (about $11) Sunday morning taxi ride. Once we got back we started asking around if anyone knew of a church, and a lot of people do not go to church around where we live, the security guard wasn't much help and asked why we would even go to church on Sunday, the coffee shop guy said no he was Muslin. So we just decided to start walking and see what we would find. We would look for people that looked like they were going to church. We saw this woman and her daughter carrying a book called "Harvest" and thought that was churchy, so we decided to follow them and once we caught up to them we asked if they were going to church and if we could come with them. They attend Calvary Chapel and were so welcoming to let us come with them (instead of thinking we were crazy girls that follow people, think our American accents helped make us less scary). Church was really good, a small congregation that meets in a school, diverse, bible based, and everyone was so nice and welcoming. We both enjoyed the worship service and I think I might have found a church to attend while I'm here. It's not too far from where we live and when Cara leaves in a month, it's close enough that I can walk there by myself. But it was a fun morning adventure and so glad we didn't give up looking.

In the afternoon we went to Waterfront, which is at the Port of Cape Town and is one of the city's most popular shopping venues and visited destination. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and then walked around the mall. The mall reminded me of our malls, except they did not even have a Gap. We were planning on doing Robben's Island today, but the tickets were already sold out, so that will be next Sunday's adventure. It was also my first time to see the ocean since I have been here. We have had some beautiful hot days since I have been her, but today was cloudy and overcast and I did enjoy the coolness in the air. Just so you know the past few days have been in the 90's and we don't have air conditioning in my apartment, so I feel like sometimes I never cool down.

A couple of my new friends at the Waterfront, the sky was really pretty, but the picture does not do it justice.