Yesterday, my friend Taylor and I hiked up to Rhodes Memorial which is right above campus. I can't believe I hadn't been up there before, it is so easy to get to and is gorgeous. The last week has been freezing cold and rain (August is the rainy season) so as soon as we saw that it was a sunny day we booked it outside to go on an adventure. From Rhodes there are numerous hiking trails including the Devil's Peak trail as well as trails to Newlands Forest and Kirstenbosch Gardens. Our goal was to get to Kirstenbosch but neither of us thought to look at a map before we went and decided to just go with what "felt right." I like to think that I have better sense of direction than my mom but being here has made me realize that this may not be true. Either way...I was happy to get out and explore, so to me any path we took was the right path. We started out on a trail heading up, not knowing that the Devil's Peak trail started here, and after about 30 minutes of huffing and puffing we realized that we weren't even heading towards Kirstenbosch and decided to change on to the intersecting path. Throughout the day we were faced with more "decision making" situations than I thought possible and didn't actually make it to Kirstenbosch but Newlands instead BUT we did come across a little tee-pee, a beautiful creek and the most masive trees in what we learned was Newlands Forest! Our 3 hours of wandering proved to be worth it and increased our desire to explore some more.

School has definitely picked up momentum...last week I was trapped in the library every day writing 3 papers, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. In order to relax, I have become obsessed with hot yoga at a studio down the road...I don't know what I am going to do when I can't afford to go 4 times a week in the states. Seeing everyone head back to Tulane on Facebook is making me a bit home sick; I forgot that while I was having the time of my life here, everything at Tulane would continue as usual. That being said, I don't regret coming here even the tiniest little bit:)

Tomorrow is a full moon, so I am going to hike Lion's Head and see the city glowing beneath and then Saturday my apartment is heading to Robben Island which will be an extremely moving experience.

Here are some pics from yesterday :)