The University of Cape Town in the wintertime

How to Survive a UCT Winter

I remember two years ago, when I first started at UCT, telling my sister how I couldn’t wait for UCT in the wintertime, to which she quickly warned me against. If you are like me, who loves the beach, sunshine, being tanned, and the long days and short nights of summer, then an article on how to survive winter is hardly going to elicit eager anticipation. Much of this article is aimed at first years, because when I first came to UCT, I pictured cozy and picturesque winter days at UCT. What I instead found was an icy wind cutting right through my carefully bundled up outfit and I would end up with drenched shoes. Here are a few do’s and don’t’s that will hopefully make you more prepared for a winter at UCT. 

1.      Wear tights rather than jeans. They are just as warm and dry super-quickly. Any tights pull off this function, but if you can get hold of them, get heat-sensor ones.

2.      We all know that we should check the weather in advance, but it’s so easy to forget when the current day’s weather is full of autumn sunshine (Hey, winter’s not actually so bad?!) On days when you know that it’s going to rain, make sure that you wear a good pair of sneakers. Only wear boots if they are of exceptional quality. Those cute R250 ankle boots that you couldn’t resist at Woolies are definitely not ideal on those uncertain June mornings.

3.      Don’t wear an unattractive shirt that you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing underneath all your layers just because you can. The library and most of the computer labs are heated up to an insane degree during the winter-time. You can literally get away with wearing a sundress in the middle of winter. UCT’s generous heating has, on occasion, made working outside in the cold more preferable.

4.      Pile on the clothing, wrap up warmly in every item of warm clothing that you have. If you are fortunate enough to possess all those items then you might as well be warm and look like a marshmallow.

This winter, instead of complaining, we should be grateful for everything we have. Not to get too deep and philosophical here, but, to share one of my favourite quotes by an American motivational speaker, Denis Waitley, “Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, won or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude”. For many of us at UCT, we not only have lots of stuff, we have lots of nice stuff! Albert Camus said that “In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer”. Let’s face it; winter isn’t pleasant. While most people will enact the tiresome “Oh I love winter as long as I’m wrapped up in my duvet with a cup of hot chocolate” spiel, for those of us who regularly rely on public transport and who don’t live five minutes away from campus, winter is a real las. On a rainy day on campus, we are all kind of in the same boat; let’s be kind and thoughtful towards each other and appreciate everything we have.