Touring the Western Cape, Part 1

Touring the Western Cape

Stellenbosch with Ellie – visited 3 wineries in the Stellenbosch area. 

First stop was Kanonkop Wine Estate. Most well known for their blend of Pinotage, Cab Sav, Merlot, and Cab Franc called Kadette.  

Stop #2 at Rickety Bridge.  My favorite was the Foundation Stone, a blend of Shiraz, Tannat, Mourvedre, Cinsaut, and Granache. 

A brief visit to the town of Stellenbosch followed. Our third winery of the day was the Waterford Estate for paired chocolate & wine tasting. 

We rounded off the day with a trip to a friend’s gym (Ballistix CrossFit) in Somerset West and a modified Fight Gone Bad. Now in hindsight, FGB after wine tasting might not have been the best idea. But it seemed like a brilliant plan when we made it. J

The braai that followed the workout was a much needed reprieve. Besides, dinner and drinks with a great bunch of people makes pretty much anything worth while.

Coffee, Beach Sprints, Coffee, Breakfast

A morning of happiness. 

Waking up at a lake-side/ocean-side (yes, both) B&B after a much deserved sleep-in. Plunger coffee (that would French press coffee for us Americans) made in our room. 

Head to this beach --> 

Sprints 2x100, 4x200, 2x100. 

Topped off with breakfast (mmmm, bacon)

And more coffee.

Road Trip Food

I don’t know what it is about long drives that makes me crave corn nuts, but it’s a fact of my existence. Every time I get in the car for a road trip, my first gas station purchase is a generally a bag of corn nuts. When we stopped for gas outside Cape Town, my normal craving kicked in, but it seemed safe to assume that I wouldn’t be able to satisfy it. Ellie confirmed my suspicion saying that she’d never seen corn nuts anywhere in South Africa. However, at the Sedgefield Market there was unexpected success. Chutney flavored corn nuts = win.

I Miss High Speed Internet

I’m pretty sure my dial-up connection from the mid 90’s was faster than my connection here in Cape Town. Okay, I might be exaggerating, but not by much. 

Putt Putt on the Beach, Sundowners, and Café Africa

Are you ever too old to play putt putt? Of course not. We might actually have had more fun than all the families and kiddos out there. Between the actual competition between David and Talia, Jake’s power shot style, and my complete inability to land a single hole-in-one, there was almost as much entertainment from the game itself as from the goofing off that went along with it. The best part was having to let a family with 3 kiddos play through, because they were playing much more seriously. Well, that and the handstands on the hill.

The next goal was to enjoy sundowners. Which we didn’t. We watched the sun setting from the car as we tried to hurry to a nearby café/bar. Naturally, we still found a great place, had a tasty drink, and watched the post-sunset beach.

When I go to a place like Café Africa, I can’t help but feeling like a white tourist – especially when the other tables are full of other white folks snapping photos of the employees and generally behaving in a touristy manner. It definitely made me happy to be there with friends who just sit back and enjoy what is offered. We had a 14+ course meal with food representing 10 different countries in Africa. Everything was delicious.  The staff came through at one point and sang for us. It was quite an experience for me. Back in high school, we performed several songs that I can only vaguely describe as being African call-and-answer style pieces. I was even the solo/leader for one of them. I remember them as being very beautiful and powerful songs, but there was a richer texture to the singing done by half a dozen restaurant employees that I don’t think we ever pulled off.

 

If there is one lesson to be learned from this it is: Eat oysters! Lots of them.

Buying Electricity in South Africa

For starters, you do it at a gas station (which is actually a petrol station). So, you hop down to the petrol station on the corner, buy however much energy you think you need and they give you a couple of codes to punch into your meter at home. This is what it looks like at Ellie’s house (while cooking chicken):

Seasons in South Africa

In connection with my training at University of Colorado School of Medicine, I am spending my summer (well winter here) in Cape Town, South Africa. The academic purpose of being here is to 1) train my skills in emergency medicine at Tygerberg Hospital and 2) to conduct research regarding the outcomes of penetrating traumas in tertiary care centers with minimal or no support. I’m not exactly sure what that will involve just yet, but I’m looking forward to finding out starting in July. In the meantime, I’m here in SA with plans to check out Cape Town, do some wine tasting and traveling, and get ready for my research.  

It’s winter here. I keep calling it summer, because I’m on summer break between classes, but it’s important to note that chill winds are blowing. I packed for a good Colorado spring. Which is to say that I brought everything from shorts & tank tops to good snow and rain gear. So far it seems I planned well. It would seem a lot warmer if it weren’t for the crazy winds. They definitely drive the perceived temperatures down. I do find it an odd sort of trend, though, that I seem to enjoy spending my winters at the beach. Hawaii last December and SA now. J

One of my many goals while I’m here is to get myself back into fighting shape. In order to make that happen, I’ve joined Cape CrossFit with Ellie. I think we’ve even convinced Talia to join us. It should be good fun and great for getting strong and healthy. Once I’ve moved out to Sea Point, I will be adding beach runs to my routine.

Another thing to find in Cape Town is a place with reliable, fast Internet. It might be a bit much to ask, but I’m sure going to try. Internet here is dodgy and slow at best.

Enter the mouth of the dragon... it's right up there

This much fun should be illegal

Smugness in the Muizenberg Night Market

Old Biscuit Mill Saturday Market

If there is any one thing you wanted to do in South Africa, what would it be? 

So I haven’t written in… well, a year.

Between figuring out my new life at school and keeping up with the amazing opportunities that being a medical student affords, I haven’t had much time to reflect and write about the events of my life. Part of me wishes I could go back and chronicle the past year of my life as a medical student, but I just can’t bring myself to sacrifice the time I know that would require. Suffice it to say that it has been fascinating, exciting, exhausting, and repeatedly humbling. I’ve given more than I thought I had in me and been shown that sometimes even that is not enough. I’ve touched the lives of people around me with simple gestures. I can only hope that the people I connect with get as much out of it as I do. You spend years of your life sacrificing and working to get into medical school, but nothing can possibly prepare you for actual experience. If I had to sum up my first year in a bit of advice it would be, “Brace for impact.” Be ready to accept the challenges. Work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life. Seize every opportunity, whether you think you have time or energy for it. There are so many things that are available only to medical students, don’t get so caught up that you miss out on these opportunities. But don’t lose your balance. I discovered it was important to keep a bit of myself back, but not as much as you might think. It’s much more fun to put yourself out there.
  Things I’ve done this year: sutured more than 15 people (including a man’s face), volunteered at the Denver Rescue Mission, administered care in Stout Street homeless clinic, watched chest tubes placed, started a dozen IVs, scored lower on a test than I did in 5 years of college (and survived it), figured out that my rotator cuff is partially torn without ever setting foot into a doctors office, won free Avalanche tickets from Dr. French, given out free over-the-counter medications and supplements through the Broadway Assistance Center, helped cast/splint a handful of people, organized events, ice skated in downtown Denver, helped incoming and prospective students, celebrated with my classmates, learned and taught surgical knot tying skills, been elected to the UCSOM Surgical Society board, still managed to get some skiing and climbing in, practiced EKGs in an ambulance, pulled over 70 sutures out of one woman’s feet, drank more wine than I can mention, learned that medical politics are even more frustrating that I thought, watched a heart catheterization, met a class full of people that will be part of my life forever. I also went to Hawaii for winter break, went to NYC for spring break, moved to the beautiful City Park area of Denver, and was part of a very special friend’s wedding.
 
To be completely honest with myself, I don’t think I was really going to make it through this year until it actually happened. One quarter of med school is over. I find that exciting and baffling at the same time. The one thing I definitely got out of it is that this is really going to happen. Now I just have to make it amazing!
 

Surgery and life after

So this past year has been one challenge after another. Fortunately, I've pretty much kicked butt as much as I had mine kicked. I helped my family when they needed it. I successfully wrote applications and have been accepted to medical school. I turned down Penn State in order to go to University of Colorado. I moved up to Aurora and I'm finally starting to settle in here. My foot has healed enough to start doing (mostly) proper CrossFit again. Now I need to find a new CrossFit home. Leaving Pikes Peak CrossFit was definitely difficult for me, but the beauty of it is that there are good communities at most boxes. That's something I will definitely need to get me through school. I'm also finally starting to get my foodee back on. I miss eating well and how it makes me feel. That's all starting to change!

One thing I've decided: that as good as Paleo is for my rheumatoid arthritis, I'm still going to allow myself an occasional beer. Not often, but once in a while a good beer just puts a smile on my face.

The next week holds some serious excitement for me! Sunday, I will be riding the Urban Assault Race in Denver. Bikes + obstacles + beer. Next week I fly to LA for the CrossFit games. There are few things as motivating as watching elite athletes throw down.

Mashup Meal

Tomorrow I fly to Hershey, Pennsylvania for my PSU medical school interview. In the interest of not having a bunch of food spoiling in my fridge and not wanting to buy anything new, I decided to make all my meals using up the miscellaneous bits of what I still had fresh. Lunch today consisted of a mostly pan cooked meal. I cooked the fresh mushrooms, onions, and zucchini in a little evoo, a little water, garlic, and Mccormick's Spicy Steak seasoning. The chicken was left over from my crock pot cooking. I added the spinach and chicken to the pan once the veggies were mostly cooked. Easy peasy. Not fancy, not exciting, but tasty and a great way to use up fresh foods when cleaning out your fridge.

And yes, that is my Curious George reads plate. :)

Back to life

The past few months have been less than kind and unfortunately have taken their toll. I've allowed myself to become so overwhelmed by everything that I was drowning in my own pile of hooey. My diet, of course, is the first thing to go to crap. As in, piles of way too many sweets. In the past few weeks, I've started clawing my way back to reality. A surprise visit from The Jen helped dramatically. She was exactly the kick in the pants that I needed. We skied, hung out, and played like kids. It took a couple of days to recover from the weekend, but it set me on the road toward getting my stuff together. Now, with a little luck and a bit of work, I will have my creative juices flowing again! I'm looking forward to a new Paleo challenge. This time around I've started simple, with basic meat & veggie dishes. It's an easy way to get back into proper Paleo eating without too much thought. Dinner tonight included a spinach soup with egg. Delish. Yes, it's definitely time to start making my food interesting again.

Reinventing an Old Favorite

Chicken & mushrooms in a cream sauce over mashers.

The paleo version:

Chop cauliflower into small pieces and cook in a pan. Once cooked, mash. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, and ground pepper.

Pan cook the chicken & mushrooms in a little evoo. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, a tiny bit of Italian seasonings, and fresh ground black & white pepper. Once the chicken is cooked, add a little bit of coconut milk and allow it to thicken a bit on a very low heat.

Set chicken next to a scoop of cauliflower on a plate and pour mushrooms and sauce over the top of both.

This one was so good, I've made it twice this week.

Blueberry soup?

While experimenting with paleo friendly foods to eat while sick, I discovered something fantastic. By doing nothing more than heating some frozen blueberries in the microwave and then smooshing them up a bit with my spoon, I created a sort of blueberry stew. I think if I put the mixture into a food processor or mashed the berries up more, the consistency would closely resemble tomato soup. Another option would be to heat them on the stove in a sauce pan. I think this would also create a smoother soup, or allow you to smoosh up the berries more. As it was, the process was quick and easy and the results were delicious. I highly recommend this tasty treat for a cold night.

The idea for this came from my mother and my Swedish upbringing. Yes, blåbärs soppa is something I grew up on. I haven't had any in years. This is an extremely paleo friendly version. On day, I'll have to get my hands on a box of the pre-made stuff and see if it is also paleo friendly. Nom. Nom.

Paleo & Gastroenteritis

Wednesday evening I came down with a nasty case of the stomach flu. I guess it's just one of those little "benefits" of working with people who drive themselves too hard. If you're sick, don't come in to work and spread it around to your coworkers, please! At any rate, I was up most of night with it. Without going into too many details, lets just say I spent way too much time in the bathroom. By Thursday morning was so weak and drained that I could barely moved. After having found someone to cover my shift in the ER, I crawled back to bed and began thinking about how I was going to fuel my body with the basic necessities while I couldn't eat. I'd been drinking as much water as my stomach could tolerate, because I knew dehydration is a major concern during this kind of stomach illness. But only drinking water won't cut it for very long. Losing all your electrolytes without replenishing them can lead to complications from hyponatremia (too low sodium) and hypokalemia (too low potassium). The commonly recommended diet for gastroenteritis is the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, apples, and toast. Well, obviously this presents a problem for a Paleo eater since half that diet is not on the menu. This was my solution:

I'm a firm believer in the value of western medicine. Bismuth Subsalicylate (the pink stuff) helps a bit. Any over the counter anti-diarrhea/nausea mediation is worth keeping around, but make sure you read the ingredients. Some flavors of Tums even have gluten in them.

For the first 24 hours, I could not really tolerate any form of solid food. I drank plenty of water, some black tea with locally produced honey & salt (get those electrolytes and a few calories), and a cup of watered down chicken broth (recipe from The Primal Cookbook) with salt added. I also managed to eat 2/3 a banana, one slice at a time, and 1/2 a snack cup of applesauce. A good trick for the banana is to slice it up and put it in the freezer. It keeps the individual slices from going brown. Plus, the coolness is soothing. Don't expect to put any of this stuff down in large portions, everything I ate or drank was spread throughout the day. The broth took me 2.5 hours to drink and even the first cup of tea took a couple of hours.

Hours 24-36, I slept... a lot. When I woke up Friday morning I ate the rest of the banana and the apple sauce in one go. Not completely better, but greatly improved!

Hours 36-48. I successfully ate one soft boiled egg and half a baked apple. I'm actually starting to feel hungry, but don't want to eat more than my poor shrunken tummy can handle. 41 hours into it, I decided to test my limits a little further. I had my chicken broth with chopped up cooked carrots & cauliflower and a shredded slice of deli turkey. Almost real soup! I ate the other half of my baked apple and heated some frozen blueberries into a soup.

Here's the short version:
1. Use over the counter upset stomach medication.
2. Liquid diet: Black tea with salt and honey. Weak broth (only add salt if your broth is homemade and doesn't have any to begin with).
3. Add some soft solids: Skip the rice & toast. They have minimal nutrients anyway. Bananas & apple sauce.
4. Advance diet as tolerated. Cooked veggies in the broth. Baked apple. Soft boiled egg.


Despite these efforts, this has been a horrible case of the stomach flu. I had no intentions of losing 5 pounds in 36 hours, but I simply could not put enough food into my body. Obviously, I don't recommend this form of weight loss. Hopefully, no one ever needs this post, but in case you do get sick, this method seemed to work fairly well for me.

Salad for dinner.

To be honest, I'm not sure how this is going to taste, but it's an experiment. I put a bunch of things in a bowl that all sounded good at the time. Spinach base topped with tomatoes, strawberries, a tiny sprinkle of feta, avocado, cashews, red onions, and smoked salmon. Here goes nothing!

Dinner: It's not pretty, but it tastes great.

Simple salmon with avocado shrimp and roasted cauliflower.

Salmon: Pan cook in a small amount of coconut oil, sprinkled with tarragon and lemon juice.
Avocado Shrimp: Pan cook shrimp and onions in a small amount of coconut oil, garlic, and dill. Add to a bowl of chopped avocado. Good warm, but for some reason I prefer this cold.
Roasted Cauliflower: Based on the recipe in the Primal Cookbook. Roast cauliflower in a tiny bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt in an oven pan at 450 degrees. This takes about 10-15 min. Dry roast walnuts & hazelnuts in a dry pan on medium to medium-high heat. The recipe calls for medium-high, but since I'm a bit ADHD I prefer lower heats to keep from burning things when I get distracted by shiny things. Remove from heat before nuts are completely roasted. The sauce is lemon juice, dijon mustard, and coconut milk, I didn't measure the amounts. Mix in the cauliflower and nuts and black pepper to taste.

Fun with your food.

Last night's dinner was "fun with food." Playing with your food makes it happy! Fresh squash from Monika's garden, rutabaga greens from 3M's garden, and red kale with a weiner from Whole Foods.

Dinner tonight was my first attempt at authentic Chinese cooking. It's sorta convoluted, but here's how the story goes... My dad's Chinese wife's mother is living with them. This last time I visited she introduced me to the glorious world of sweet potato noodles. Needless to say, they rock my world. She taught how to cook with these noodles. It does take a bit of extra time, but the payoff is totally worth it.

Directions: Buy the sweet potato noodles at any Asian food store. While you're there, pick up some fish sauce, tamari*, and baby bok choy.

Prep: The noodles need to soak before you cook them, so put them in a bowl of cool water while you prepare the veggies and meat. In this meal, I used turnips (fresh from 3M's garden), carrots, asparagus, and turkey (from a chopped up turkey burger) to make the main dish. This is mostly because this is what was in my house. It turned out DELICIOUS. Slice the veggies into thin strips. I'm sure there's a way to use a food processor to do this, but I haven't figured that out yet. Separate the bok choy leave/stalks from the "root" of the stalk. I also sliced up some squash (from Monika's garden) to cook with the bok choy. Cut the meat into thin strips.

In two pans:
Pan #1: Cook the squash first and add the bok choy when mostly done in a little fish sauce, olive oil, and tamari*, and water**.
Pan #2: Cook the veggie mix in the same types of sauces, oil, and water. Once cooked, set aside on a plate. Cook the meat in the same types of sauces & oil until mostly done. Then set aside with the veggies. Cook the noodles in the same types of sauces, oil, and water. This is the slightly tricky part. Only add a little water at the start. Stir continuously. Add a little more water each time the water begins to run out in the pan. Repeat this until the noodles are cooked, then add the meat and veggies back into the pan and mix it all together. It should only take a minute to finish cooking the meat and then you're done.

*Tamari is gluten free soy sauce, not strictly paleo, but much better than straight soy sauce - plus I use less than a tea spoon in each pan. You don't need a whole lot of any of the sauces, just enough to add some flavor. (I'm looking for another option instead of the tamari, but haven't found it yet).
**You don't need a whole lot of water, either. This is just to keep it from drying out and sticking to the pans.

Post-Op 1 Week

One week down, only 5-7 to go! Okay, so that might be slightly forced enthusiasm, but I am glad to be able to check at least one week off. Today I had my cast put on. This is something I am actually excited about. I had the most uncomfortable splint in the history of post-surgical splints... and today I found out why. Apparently, the OR had run out of splint material during my surgery, so the gal who wrapped it had to create a make-shift splint with whatever they managed to find. My reaction was apparently the same as my doctor's reaction: "How the hell does an OR run out of splint material!?" Seriously. Needless to say my cast is MUCH more comfortable. I tried to get a multicolored cast, but the VA's color choices are fairly limited. In the end, we went with a black & blue combo. The black is underneath and pokes out through the few gaps we left in the blue. The best part was having two awesome doctors laughing while we wrapped up my foot. I bet they don't often get patients who make surgery as fun as possible.

Naturally, I'm the kind of freak who thinks frankenfoot pictures are cool. I like to get a closer look at injuries and sutures, especially if they are my own. So I snapped a couple of photos of my foot after they took off the splint and before they put on the cast. My poor little tootsies are so swollen and bruised. It's a little freaky looking, but almost cute. In a Frankenfoot sort of way. Plus, I love my chaco tan.


I received some excellent comments while I was at the hospital. First, you need to know I was in a wheelchair while at the hospital. They don't let you walk around on crutches. They actually have people staffed whose sole purpose is to find gimps like me and make sure we're taken care of. It's kinda awesome. Next thing you should know is that I wore my favorite Pikes Peak CrossFit shirt. It's the green one that has the Rippetoe quote on the back, "Strong people are harder to kill and just more useful in general." So as I'm wheeling around the hospital, two types of comments were made by quite a few people. Several people read my shirt and asked me about it. Most of them were impressed by the idea behind it and the reason for it. A couple of people actually just took one look at me and asked me how I work out, what sort of exercise program I use. I was told that I just look so obviously strong. It definitely made my day. One guy invited me to be on a "team" for the Boulder Bolder next year, sponsored by the VA. Another guy asked me to write out the website where he can get more information about CrossFit. Here I am feeling weak and gimpy, I'm forced to accept a ton of help, and people are calling me strong, fit, beautiful and asking me for guidance about fitness. CrossFit really is an amazing thing.

I had just enough time to stop by the house, "run" in, and change my shorts. Then I went down to the gym. Today's gimp workout (also called modWOD short for modified workout of the day): 21-15-9 Turkish sit-ups with either an 18# kb or 22# bar & Seated Sots Presses with 36# bar. Time 12:01.

Dinner was a piece of grilled chicken from Whole Foods and some veggies I'd cooked yesterday. I knew I wouldn't have time or energy to cook after a moderately long day, so I stopped at the store on the way to the hospital. Sometimes it's good to give in to the easy way out. It was fantastic to have dinner ready for me when I got home from the gym today. :)

Again, to appease the medical nerd in me, here is a photo of the post-op x-ray. My first internal hardware.

Avocado Swordfish

Lunch today, with the help of LaaLaa, was cooked swordfish with fresh avocado, red onion, and dill on a bed of spinach. Nom nom.

Warrior Dash

Two days before my surgery, I decided it was a great idea to run the Warrior Dash of the Rockies. I was right. It was an excellent idea. What a great race. It's like it was designed for hashers and CrossFitters. Since I'm both, it was perfect for me. The race itself was short, only 3.27 miles. The elevation was the toughest part, but even the hill climb wasn't as bad as it could be. The 12 obstacles were relatively easy, just challenging enough to be fun, but not enough to be dangerous. I definitely will be running this again. Hopefully, next year I can talk enough of my lunatic friends into signing up at the same time as me and wearing goofing costumes.
The concert was a nice bonus, too.

Notes on costumes: Gleaned from watching other people struggle through the mud pit, I got some valuable insight into what things should NOT be part of a groovy WD costume. WD costumes should NOT include:
1. Pants. Skirts & shorts are fine. But LONG pants or skirts really caused problems.
2. Bottoms without a drawstring or button. Make sure your bottoms are either fitted & not stretchy OR they have some sort of drawstring that you can tie really tight. Running the second half of the race with my skirt trying to fall off was an unnecessary challenge.
3. No tutus or big ruffles. They catch a TON of mud. Almost impossible to move after the pit.
4. Shoes must be tied on tight. Can't count how many people's shoes came off!

Other random note: PLAY IN THE MUD. This is for fun, people. We're not tip-toeing through the tulips here. Get dirty!