Se7en Celebrities: Caroline Collie… A Friend Indeed…

In just two short months, my husband, two boys and I will be leaving our beloved South Africa to settle in North Carolina. Although we’re excited about the opportunities ahead of us, we will miss this amazing country — where the Hubs was born a few moons ago, and our second son was born a few months ago. We’re confident we’ll be back to visit, but it is hard to say goodbye! So I thought I’d celebrate Se7en’s blogaversary with the Se7en + 1 things I’ll miss the most from this beautiful place that will forever hold a special place in my heart…

{Having lived in Scotland for four years before moving to South Africa, I was surprised to find that the things you *think* you’ll miss the most are sometimes things you don’t miss at all. So perhaps we’ll return to this list in six months’ time and see if I was right!}

The Se7en + 1 things I’m going to Miss the Most from SA:

1. Family: It goes without saying, more than anything else I’ll miss being close to the family we have here. One grandpa, one grandma, and one auntie to our boys call South Africa home, and it is going to be very hard to say goodbye to them!
2. Our home in Gordon’s Bay: When you move around a lot, it’s amazing how quickly a new house can become a home. We lived in a wonderful place in a beautiful complex, where I enjoyed taking the boys for walks. It sat on a harbour, was near the ocean and had views of the mountains. It got lots of sunshine, and it was the home we brought our second baby boy home to! What a tough place to move out of!
3. The Cultural Melting Pot: I’ve always enjoyed learning about new cultures and picking up bits and pieces of other languages. With eleven official languages (and four just in the National Anthem) South Africa is so wonderfully diverse and I love it! I’ll miss hearing parking attendants shouting to one another in Xhosa or singing worship songs at church in Afrikaans.
4. South Africa, the Beautiful: Over the past few years, I’ve repeatedly thought that when beauty was handed out at the dawn of creation, South Africa got more than her share. The mountains, the beaches, the flowers, the sunsets, the different types of typography around every corner…it is really a world in one country. I will really miss the beautiful scenery around here!
5. Cape Town: South Africa’s “Mother City” is so uniquely special. There is so much to see and do! Not only is it home to the magnificent Table Mountain, it has the feel of so many different cities depending on whereabouts in Cape Town you find yourself. In one spot I feel like I’m back in Glasgow, then Paris, then London, then Miami…it’s like a world of cities, melted into one!
6. The Food! Besides my Mother-in-Law’s amazing cooking (including Bacon-covered Cherries!) I am going to miss the uniquely South African cuisines I’ve come to love. Boerewors and lamb chops on the braai, Appletiser, Tempo bars (which I’m sorry were only a recent discovery!), Melk Tart and Malva Pudding…can you tell I really like dessert?
7. Our Health Insurance Plan: This might sound totally crazy, but our medical aid with Discovery gave us discounts on gym membership (at an awesome gym with a creche/nursery) and on healthy food purchases. Getting 30% off healthy food was a great incentive to make healthier choices in the kitchen. I am so thankful it challenged me to begin making healthier food decisions — I’ll be taking the things I learned with me!

And a big favourite for the se7enth + 1…

8. Expecting the Unexpected: One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about my time in SA has been the surprise of seeing something new just stepping outside my door. From wild taxi cab decorations to the fantastic and clever creations available for purchase on the side of the road — every day feels like an adventure when you’re a foreigner living here. One of my favourite moments was driving through a township for church one morning and watching through our car window as someone “moved house.” About ten or twelve guys had hoisted a shack up over their heads, and were moving it down a hill to its new destination.

Congrats on the blogaversary, Se7en! I sure will miss sharing a country with you!