PROJECT JOBURG

I've started a new project: Project Joburg.

At the end of this year I will be matriculating and, with my sister, moving to Cape Town. This is a huge step for myself, my sister, and the rest of my family. We are all going our own ways. My sister is going to boarding school, I am going to study and my mom is moving back home with my dad. It is going to be unlike anything any of us have ever experienced, but we are going into it with open minds, and a deep appreciation and gratitude for our past, and the few years that my mom, sister and I have spent together with my dad living away - just the three girls. I have truly had some incredible memories, and South Africa has grown to be my home. It is a part of me, and I consider myself more of a South African than anything else, despite the fact I wasn't born here and didn't live here until I was almost a teenager. South Africa will always be one of the biggest parts of who I am.

In honour of this, and my change in path next year, I want to take in as much as Joburg as I can. I have to admit, I shouldn't be doing this just because I am leaving. I should have done it from the beginning. That's human nature though, I guess. You only appreciate things when you know they are coming to an end. You don't take things for granted anymore. People only start living life when they know their time is running out. When I move next year, I'm going to make a point to experience everything about Cape Town while I live there; not just before I move on to other pastures.

I've created this project, and I have a list, that I will keep private, of all the places in Joburg I want to go to and experience. Some places I have been to before, and most of them I haven't. I will write about each place I go to, and post pictures, of course.

Tonight, I am going to the Market Theatre in town to watch the play, Woza Albert!, and to have dinner before the show in a very cultured restaurant.

Johannesburg is one of the most beautiful places in South Africa. Granted, it is not like Cape Town with its beautiful mountains, sea air and sunny weather. It isn't like Durban, with its sandy beaches, and windy, sunny weather. These places are absolutely beautiful, as most places in South Africa are (I do tend to see the world with a pair of rose-coloured glasses on. No seriously.) But Joburg - it isn't like most places on earth, come to think of it - but it is Johannesburg and it has a soul all of its own. It has passion. It has a story. The CBD is one of my favourite places, and if you glance over that part of Joburg, you wouldn't think so, but when you go into the heart of it, it's incredible. It has so much culture, so much life and so much soul. It has the most unique vibe to it - I can't explain. You have to experience it for yourself.

So, this is the beginning of an end: PROJECT JOBURG.