Stellenbosch and Franschhoek

First weekend here and I have to say that I am impressed with the amount of sight seeing we have done so far considering we have not even been here a full week. Today we visited some of the most famous wineries in Cape Town. Overall it was a very French day I must say. The town was called Stellenbosch and it was a French colony once upon a time. There we went to a winery called Tokara and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around us. The adjacent town was called Franschhoek where we had a great meal in a restaurant called French Connections. I had never tried a combination of apples, mustard, steak, and French Fries but it was absolutely delicious (although I don’t know how French this combination is… sounds more Dutch) I have been trying to study the Cape Town map more and more and familiarize myself with my surroundings. Soon we are going to try the buses and see if we can make it to the waterfront. I don’t think the transportation is as bad as our mentors portray it. I know we have to be careful but sometimes I get kind of bothered by their overprotectiveness. I feel like it takes away from really experiencing life here. Today in Franschhoek we met a potter called Vuyisa Potina. His work was amazing and really inexpensive. I think he could make a lot more in America considering how expensive pottery is there. He said he is trying to go to America and got our contact. He was a really smiley and talented guy. The cool thing was that his shop was shared with a beadworker and a sewer as part of a community project to include more “colored” (as they say here) people in selling what they make. It was a great initiative and I had no idea I would find something like that here. I guess the thing that really surprised me about Vuyisa was the fact that he has such great goals for his life. I hope he is successful and that he doesn’t end up working in a Subway in Baltimore, like many talented people who immigrate to the US and have to take jobs like that just to be able to support their basic needs, and throw away his talent.

Last night was great also. We had dinner with Dr. Cheryl Dennison, a research and professor at the school of nursing, and her research assistant (and that is how we ended up in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek). It was good to see some Hopkins people at Cape Town. They were in Cape Town discussing collaboration with the University of Cape Town on a hypertension study. I can’t imagine making this trip for only a week but it seemed that they had done a fair amount of sightseeing.

I am still jetlagged and tend to get tired at random hours of the day and can’t fall asleep at nighttime… I think I am going to catch up with sleep tonight and we’ll see where the road takes us tomorrow. The bad thing about Cape Town weather at this time is how rapidly it changes. At one minute you have a sun and warmth and the other you are freezing and it pours. I never thought anywhere would be worse than California but I guess Cape Town is right up there.

Going to start work on Monday. Also I want to try to go to the transplant museum sometime this week. Everyone is really proud here that the first heart transplant surgery took place here so I think it’s worth checking out.