For the last of my entries, I got inspired by a post of my fellow IEDPer, Morgan, who shared her daily schedule while in her internship in Germany. Here is a quick glance in my life as an intern here in Cape Town.

Thursday, August 29, 2019.

8AM: My alarm rings at 8am, but I often wake up before the alarm. I am generally enjoying better sleep here in Cape Town in comparison to Philadelphia, but I don’t know if it’s a city effect or it’s due to the lack of deadlines and homework assignments. I take a quick shower, have some cereal with fruit, and head to work. I walk to work every day (it’s a 5 minute work from where I stay) and I am always blessed with beautiful Table Mountain views. Fun fact: I have found that people in South Africa greet each other on the street, especially if you are in a quiet, residential area like Claremont.

9AM-1PM: Today I am continuing my qualitative analysis on coding the data from 3 surveys we have sent out for the evaluation of the government unemployment program. Each of these 3 surveys goes to a different group of people – the first two target program beneficiaries and the last one targets employers who have contracted beneficiaries. It’s a total of 3400+ survey participants, so it’s taking quite some time to read through every response and code it accordingly.

1PM: Lunch break! Today I am very lucky! Last night my friend, Sibusiso, invited me for a traditional Xhosa dinner at his house, made by his sister, Yola. This was by far the best meal I have had in South Africa, and luckily I have some leftovers. Chicken cooked with spices and vegetables and a traditional dumpling called “dombolo”. Yummy!

5PM: I’m off work. It’s a beautiful day in Cape Town. The spring is coming, it’s 18 degrees Celsius so I am going for a run after work at Keurboom park which is right by my house. I love going there because there is a number of cute, unleashed dogs that run around along with their owners.

730PM: Thursdays are quiz nights! Even though there are a few pubs hosting quiz nights every day of the week, we usually go on Thursdays. My quiz night buddy is Manolis, who is the only other young Greek person living in Cape Town. He’s here for 5 months on a contract as an industrial engineer and I love hanging out with him because we can speak Greek! (Also he has a car so that’s very convenient!). We come second on the quiz night, winning brandy & coke drinks that we end up giving away to the new friends we made at the table next to us.

10PM: Manolis drives me home. On the way home, I keep catching myself being amazed at the natural beauty of this city. I wish him goodnight and I pass out in bed right away.