From here to there

After moving out all my personal stuff for the person who is going to live in my room in my absence, I spent the last two days in the house where I was born. On Tuesday morning it was finally time to leave. At Schiphol there were a few friends to say goodbye, thank you sweethearts! Around 13.15 Customs let me through with a few jokes and the journey had really begun. The flight was really good, Lufthansa is now my favourite airline! The seven hours in Frankfurt were about what I had expected them to be. I met a nice Danish guy at the bar of the casino and he chatted most of my waiting time away. At 11.20 am on Wednesday the airbus landed on CPT airport and passport controls + visa also went quite quickly. Unfortunately my driver was given the wrong flight number so after about an hour I called and heard that he was on his way. About ten minutes later I climbed into the car and Masud brought me to my house.

Well, MY house… in Frankfurt I had received a phone call from one of the girls living there, saying there was a problem because she and her friend were living there together and now because of my arrival one of them would have to move out, because they didn’t inform the landlord about them wanting to stay until April. Anyway, I didn’t want to worry about that too much until I would have arrived. They told me the same story when I got there (the view is actually as great as it is on the pictures) and they also told me there was a place to live with two other girls: if I wanted to live there in stead of in the house?
Karien and Charlotte took me to the apartment and wow: we still live very near to the see AND this apartment was looking much better than the house! Besides it seems a little bit more safe, since there have been a few burglaries in the house in the past few weeks. But then again, the same has happened in my apartment building as well, everywhere there are notes hanging on the gates saying: close it behind you, pay attention, and so on. Karien drove me around CPT in her car, moved my luggage to the apartment, took me to lunch and to dinner. Tessie and Bo are the girls living in the house in Camps Bay, together with Thomas and Erik, who is moving in today. Floris left early this morning to fly out back to Holland. Karien and Tessie, one of the girls living in the house, also study physical therapy (in Utrecht) so I already heard a few stories about what it is like to work here. Still, I am very curious to see what ‘my’ hospital will be like.

My first impressions of CPT are very positive: the weather is very nice, it feels the same as in Turkey last year (it was 45 degrees back then) but it’s ‘only’ 25 degrees with a very pleasant sea breeze. I am in walking distance of some of the best views of CPT. People so far are very friendly, the Dutchies as well as the locals. This side of the city looks clean, with a lot of beautiful houses, hotels and beaches. The most expensive cars are driving past every few minutes. Still, the fear of burglary and robbery is always present, how minor or major differs with every person. I thought I would have trouble sleeping on my first night because I would be alone as Karien and Charlotte are moving in today. I guess I underestimated myself: I think I was sleeping within 5 minutes and didn’t wake up even once.
Tomorrow I will probably start seeing the less beautiful things about CPT. Masud already talked a little bit about apartheid when he was driving me to Camps Bay, but he also acted like he didn’t want to talk about it too much. Although it is supposed to be over, nothing is less true. I hope I will get to speak to some people about this because it is so very wrong to close your eyes for this and see Africa as that country where you can do amazing safari’s and watch fabulous sunsets and nothing more than that. Anyway, Adriaan will show me the hospital tomorrow and after that I will be picked up to collect my car for the next four months. I hope my beetle will truly be the best (renting it from bestbeetles) and get me around the city. And now, I am going to do some shopping, get me a South African phone number (a SIM card is supposed to cost 2 rand which is about 20 eurocents…) and hopefully put this story and some pictures online.

My new address:

Heleen Brand
6 Jocyn Court
19 Rochester Road
Bantry Bay, 8005
Republic of South Africa

My South African phone number:
0027 76810 4262