Under Cape Cod’s Blue Summer Sky
Summer 2020 was nothing like I had imagined. The world was in the middle of a pandemic, and I was in the United States on a J-1 visa for an internship as a Pastry Chef. I had started my experience in Philadelphia, excited to work, travel, discover a different culture, and gain experience that I could eventually take back home with me. But everything suddenly became uncertain. Colombia closed its borders during the pandemic, so going back home was not as simple as it normally would have been. With no easy way to return, I decided to keep going with my internship and make the most of the situation. What I didn't know at the time was that continuing that journey would eventually take me to Cape Cod.
During my internship, I was transferred from Philadelphia to Cape Cod. I remember arriving with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty, not knowing exactly what this new chapter would bring. When I found out that I would be working at Chatham Bars Inn, I also discovered that I wouldn't be working as a pastry chef at all. Instead, my position was in salads and oyster shucking.
Oysters.
It was definitely not what I had imagined for myself. It wasn't something I particularly liked or had ever wanted to do, but I decided to take it as part of the experience. It was only for a season, after all.
Most days, my schedule was almost always the same. I would arrive at work, put on my gloves, and start shucking oysters. At first, it felt strange to be doing something so far away from what I had originally planned. And it wasn't always easy. The oyster shells were sharp, and even though I wore gloves, I would sometimes cut my hands while trying to open them. Shucking oysters is definitely something that requires patience, concentration, and care.
There was something almost intense about it. I remember seeing the small cuts and the red of the blood against my skin, and for some strange reason, that vivid red made me feel deeply alive. It was like a reminder to pay attention, to be present, and to respect what I was doing. The oysters demanded concentration; one wrong movement could hurt you. So I learned to be careful.
With time, I got better and faster. Oyster after oyster, day after day, I learned how to handle the shells, how to position my hands, and how to open them with more confidence. What initially felt unfamiliar slowly became part of my routine. By the end of the season, I was a real oyster shucker.
Sometimes I think that is one of the funniest parts of the whole story. I had traveled to the United States expecting to become a pastry chef, and instead, I returned from Cape Cod knowing how to shuck oysters. It wasn't the experience I had planned, but it became one of the experiences I remember most..
And then there was Cape Cod itself.
On the map, Cape Cod looks almost like a boot extending into the Atlantic Ocean, not far from Boston. But being there is completely different from looking at it on a map. Cape Cod has a feeling that is difficult to describe.
It is peaceful. Beautiful. Almost dreamlike.
The houses seemed to come straight out of a storybook, many of them surrounded by flowers in different colors, with little details everywhere you looked. The gardens, windows, shutters, fences, and decorations seemed to belong to the same soft color palette, almost perfectly matching the endless blue of the summer sky.
The beaches were beautiful, but it wasn't only the beaches that made Cape Cod special. It was the atmosphere. The little roads, the salt air, the flowers, the boats, the farms, and especially the lighthouses.
They stand quietly beside the water, watching over the coast, and somehow they seem to bring you back to yourself. I felt that in Cape Cod. There was something about the light, the ocean, and the peacefulness of the place that made me feel centered.
Cape Cod was briefly peaceful in a way that stayed with me.
It became a mirror of beauty, not just because everything around me was beautiful, but because being surrounded by that beauty made me see something inside myself too.
What surprised me most was that even though I was constantly surrounded by people, I felt very connected to myself. I was working, meeting people, living far from home, and experiencing an incredibly strange moment in history, yet I felt comfortable being me. I was happy in my own skin.
I didn't feel like I needed to be anywhere else or become someone else. I could simply exist in that moment, take in my surroundings, and enjoy the life that was happening around me.
Cape Cod also introduced me to a different side of the local food culture. There were farms throughout the area, including beautiful lavender farms where lavender seemed to become an entire world of its own. You could find lavender pillows, perfumes, oils, butter, cookies, cupcakes, and so many other things made from the plant. I loved seeing how something grown in the fields could become so many different products.
Chatham Bars Inn had its own farm as well, and it was one of the places I really enjoyed discovering. The farm provided fresh food for the summer season and for the guests at the inn. There was something special about seeing the connection between the land, the food, the kitchen, and the people enjoying it.
One day, I even had the opportunity to help cover an event at the farm. It was another unexpected part of a summer that seemed to constantly give me experiences I had never planned for.
When I look back at that summer now, I don't remember it only as the summer of the pandemic.
I remember Philadelphia, the transfer to Cape Cod, the gloves, the oysters, the long days, the farms, the lavender, the lobster rolls, the beaches, the flowers, the blue sky, and the lighthouses.
Most of all, I remember how I felt.
I arrived in Cape Cod thinking I was going there for a job. I thought I was simply starting another part of my internship. I didn't know that I would find a place that would make me feel so peaceful and so connected to myself.
I didn't become the pastry chef I thought I would become.
I became an oyster shucker instead.
But maybe that was the point.
Sometimes the experiences that don't go according to plan become the ones that shape us the most.
That summer I accept the unexpected, and to understand that sometimes a place can give you something you didn't even know you were looking for. For me, that place was Cape Cod.
A brief, peaceful summer. A mirror of beauty.
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This blog was written by DO.
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