Today was my very first day at work. Work for me is at 7700 Sawkin’s road, in Rondebosch, Cape Town. I work for the institute of adolescent research with the University of Cape Town. Still without a car though, so my colleague Petra has kindly offered to give me a lift.
Work
Basically the South African Version of the office. For example, I walk in to meet everyone and two of my colleagues are talking about how the office across the hall stole our cake even though it was labeled—very upsetting that they are so “naughty”.
Location: In a small dinky office in the building of adolescent psychiatry—not related to UCT. I really wish I could remodel the office. It just needs a bit of TLC, a paint job and some pictures to make it feel more “homey”.
Petra (P)
Petra is from Belgium. She is young, blonde, and a serious PhD student. She (like many PhD students) wants to save the world in some way, and is the first person I met upon my arrival to Cape Town (she picked me up from the airport). She drove me to my hostel, and kindly offered to scoop me up on the way to work. She and Joy are working with me on a certain aspect of the project with me.
Joy (J)
Joy hails from Kenya. She’s a sweet and utterly hilarious lady who is married with three children. Extremely maternal. Therefore, her major concerns with me are for my safety, where I am living, and do I have linens?? ;-)
Cathy (C)
She’s the boss lady. Caring, nice lady who is very concerned about what I want to get out of the project. The first thing I notice about her is her hippy-ish attire and extremely colorful gloves (without fingers). I have yet to really get into depth with her about it, but I will at some point.
These are my comrades. Amanda is the other, but she is MIA because she broke her foot, so she is working from home and skyping into the office.
After introductions, and a bit of work, we went to Chippy’s (portugese food yummm) for lunch where I was able to actually see local high school students. These one’s in particular, were all female from the local all female boarding school. They wear school uniforms, similar to the ones in Hogwarts in Harry Potter, but without the capes. They are chatty, obnoxious, and gazing at the boys across the way who are also on lunch break.
Oh tweens and their hormones.
The Flat
After being dropped off by Petra back to the hostel, I have the pleasure of finally being introduced to my flat mate Mallory. She is very sweet and helps me with my awkward bags to our flat which I find out is up the road a bit. It’s in an apartment complex called Lingen Gardens, and it is quaint. There are pictures below which are more descriptive then I could ever be. My personal favorite is the one with my “big head” (as my dad tells me) and a view of Lion’s Head Mountain in the background. It is the view from my front door and window area.
I move in, get some more work done, and get more irritated as time goes on because I am still without a car. . .
Enjoy~
Carolyn
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