hello cape town! (and stroopwafels!)
Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Thursday, September 29, 2011
Please excuse my lack of blogging for the last week. My final days in Paris have been beyond hectic getting ready to leave for Cape Town and prepare for the IAC. Nonetheless, I left Tuesday morning and arrived in Cape Town Wednesday morning. Fun fact - by the end of next Sunday, since May 21, 2011, I'll have flown about 1.3 times around the Earth... I think I should get some sky miles for that!
Anyhow, let me just say that Cape Town is AWESOME. It's a beautiful country geographically and full of very very friendly people. I hope to return sometime to do some more adventure exploring since I am going to be at Congress events, nearly literally, the whole time. (but still totally worth it all).
Backing up, a beautiful sunrise (maybe sunset - I don't remember from the whole air travel) in Abu Dahbi.
In Cape Town, our hotel is very nice and we have a roof top pool that looks to Table Mountain too. From the Westin (where the rest of the crew is), they can see the World Cup stadium from last year. (*cough* remember that España won!!!!!)
Last night I went to dinner with delegates from the SGC and the student across from me was daring enough to try a platter of crocodile, ox tail and warthog.... I call that bravery. (I stuck to pasta) There was live music entertainment that was full of the culture and 'happy-vibe' (not sure how to describe it!) of the friendly and welcoming people of Cape Town.
It's been quite an adventure so far and today we began meeting with the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) (nice to put a face with an e-mail!) and touring the venue location. There are currently over 2,000 people registered (and more to be done on site!) and I think it's going to be great. It was also quite a challenge getting all of the Youth Grants I'm slightly in charge of directing as I had one oversleep this morning as I was trying to shoo them onto their shuttle!
Tonight we ended with dinner with the Secretariat staff and a person (to remain un-named) tried to compare the taste of a good wine to buying shoes (since I'm a girl), as you can't just fit into a shoe if it's the wrong size even if you like it.... yes, but unfortunately I also told him that it depending if the shoe was on sale, how cute they are, and that you have to remember that 'beauty is pain'. :)
I've always kind of joked with Scott, the IAF web editor who is based in (so jealous) Leiden about how great stroopwafels for and I advised him to which is the best stroopwafel man in the market and that when he comes to Paris, etc, he should be bringing me lots and lots of them. Today he surprised me with 3 packages from - none other - than the best stroopwafel man in Leiden. This truly couldn't have made my any happier. If you know me, you know just how much I absolutely love stroopwafels (and how much I will let you know that I love them). We're sharing one package and I get two of them. Thank you Scott! My new favorite person in the whole world!
I'm going to go to bed now and I think that I can truly say that as much as it has been a stressful position, I've been loving every single minute and am getting very excited for next week to start!
Anyhow, let me just say that Cape Town is AWESOME. It's a beautiful country geographically and full of very very friendly people. I hope to return sometime to do some more adventure exploring since I am going to be at Congress events, nearly literally, the whole time. (but still totally worth it all).
Backing up, a beautiful sunrise (maybe sunset - I don't remember from the whole air travel) in Abu Dahbi.
In Cape Town, our hotel is very nice and we have a roof top pool that looks to Table Mountain too. From the Westin (where the rest of the crew is), they can see the World Cup stadium from last year. (*cough* remember that España won!!!!!)
Last night I went to dinner with delegates from the SGC and the student across from me was daring enough to try a platter of crocodile, ox tail and warthog.... I call that bravery. (I stuck to pasta) There was live music entertainment that was full of the culture and 'happy-vibe' (not sure how to describe it!) of the friendly and welcoming people of Cape Town.
It's been quite an adventure so far and today we began meeting with the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) (nice to put a face with an e-mail!) and touring the venue location. There are currently over 2,000 people registered (and more to be done on site!) and I think it's going to be great. It was also quite a challenge getting all of the Youth Grants I'm slightly in charge of directing as I had one oversleep this morning as I was trying to shoo them onto their shuttle!
Tonight we ended with dinner with the Secretariat staff and a person (to remain un-named) tried to compare the taste of a good wine to buying shoes (since I'm a girl), as you can't just fit into a shoe if it's the wrong size even if you like it.... yes, but unfortunately I also told him that it depending if the shoe was on sale, how cute they are, and that you have to remember that 'beauty is pain'. :)
I've always kind of joked with Scott, the IAF web editor who is based in (so jealous) Leiden about how great stroopwafels for and I advised him to which is the best stroopwafel man in the market and that when he comes to Paris, etc, he should be bringing me lots and lots of them. Today he surprised me with 3 packages from - none other - than the best stroopwafel man in Leiden. This truly couldn't have made my any happier. If you know me, you know just how much I absolutely love stroopwafels (and how much I will let you know that I love them). We're sharing one package and I get two of them. Thank you Scott! My new favorite person in the whole world!
I'm going to go to bed now and I think that I can truly say that as much as it has been a stressful position, I've been loving every single minute and am getting very excited for next week to start!