I just got my tickets today!! I’m so excited cause I’ve been “waitlisted” for 2 months. My mother actually moved from America to Cape Town, South Africa (all the way at the bottom of Africa) in the summer of 2001. I was there for 5 weeks last Christmas and will be able to stay for 3 weeks this time, joined by my brother and sister as well.

Cape Town is probably the most beautiful place IÂ’ve ever been. Politics aside, it is absolutely fascinating knowing you are in a country so far from the rest of the world. ItÂ’s as though paradise has swept the land, leaving bits and pieces of the world all in one spot.

The Cape Peninsula trickles down the southern coast of Africa in a path of ominous red mountains. The mountains have one of the most widely known features in the world – Table Mountain. It is named so due to the extreme flatness of its plateau. From there you can gaze miles of land warmed by the African sun.

The frigid Atlantic Ocean meets the warmth of the Indian Ocean at the Cape Point. The point feels like the end of the earth, and quite literally – is. The churning water creates a never-ending orchestra of waves drumming the cliffs. Here you can feel just how small and insignificant our lives can be in the whole scheme of things.