Laura G vacillates between wanting to go home and wanting to stay

I’m a few days late on this blog post because I was struggling to figure out a topic. I’ve been thinking a lot about going home. After having to move out of our house I got a little more excited to go home. It was very stressful to move everything out in two hours, but the hotel we moved to is very nice! I continually go back and forth between wanting to go home and not wanting to go home. I do miss everyone and I would rather live in a house over a hotel, but I’m sad to leave my life here behind. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had while being here:

I’m really excited to be around cleaner air. Connecticut air smells so clean, and I love Cape Town but you can rarely escape the smell of cigarette smoke and diesel fuel.

I am going to miss the abundance of places on Mr. Delivery here! I can get almost anything I want whenever I want it.

I miss trees. There’s not many trees here, especially in townships (probably because there’s no dirt—just sand).

Iced coffee is A LOT easier to get than people make it out to be, in my opinion! I was pleasantly surprised by this.

NO ONE WEARS SHORTS HERE. That’s very strange to me since most days it’s been above 80 degrees or in the 90s; how can you not wear shorts?!

Minibus rides can actually be really nice and relaxing. Barring a bad ride or two, I’ve actually enjoyed utilizing them.

Personal space is NOT a thing here. I’ve experienced this a lot at my internship. People here don’t really think it’s weird to get close to you.

People here are NICE. Like really nice. One time while I was eating sheep’s neck in Khayelitsha (if it’s any consolation I didn’t know it was sheep’s neck), this woman came up to me and offered me her food. I had no idea who she was, my co-workers had no idea who she was, she didn’t speak English, but she wouldn’t leave until I took her chicken and rice.

Sharing is huge. In the U.S., I don’t really share my food. What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is yours. Here, people just assume that if you’re eating, they can also take some of your food. Definitely was taken aback when my co-worker just reached her hand into my food without asking, but now I’ve come to expect it.

No gas stations—just garages. People look at you really weird if you say gas stations.

This trip made me think of the way I speak as “having an accent.” So many people know where I’m from based on my ‘accent.’ Now I also hear Americans as having an accent.

Those just the things I could think of. There’s many, many more. We have exactly four days left in Cape Town. It really is absolutely insane to think about what we’ve done here and how much I’ve changed. Some parts of the trip were definitely harder than others, but I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything. Here’s to make the best of our last four days in Cape Town!

Cape Town at sunset and full moon