National Women's Day =Long Weekend!

This past weekend was a long, relaxing one. Friday we had a party at our house!

 Saturday was spent at the "old biscuit mill" which is like a farmer's market with a lot of good food and shops. After that we relaxed in our backyard and then went to a friend's birthday party in Obs. Sunday we went hiking up the trail that goes up to table mountain. Although we didn't make it to the top, we still had fun eating lunch by this waterfall:

 taking lots of pictures!

 climbing cool African trees...

 and relaxing on the grass in the Kirstenbosch Gardens!

 Monday, we actually had school, but I only had one class and then hit the gym on campus for the first time with my friend Lieke, who is from Holland, which turned out to be pretty fun, believe it or not! The gym here is small but at least they play music videos for some form of entertainment while I ran for 40 minutes (I cant believe I can run for that long!). Not that I needed the entertainment, because Lieke turns out to be the best/ most hilarious gym partner of all time! In the 20 minutes she was running with me, she manages to accidently hit the emergency stop button 3 times and running into the machine. I almost had to stop running I was laughing so hard. And then every single time she goes, "I am not used to this, we dont have this in Holland!" It is taking her a little while to get used to the way things are done here, but she is getting there! (LOVE YOU LIEKS :)) After that we watched this guy use this machine which requires him to bend over and continuously lift his butt into the air. After that, we both lost it and had to leave the gym due to uncontrollable laughter. Monday night we went to a Braai (bbq) at a friends house but I left early to go rest up for shark cage diving at 4:30 the next morning! Having the day off of school (thanks to all the beautiful women in South Africa!) spent getting up 2 hours before the crack of dawn (which is not really my thing) to see some sharks!

 baby shark!

 even though the water was freezing, it was worth it to see a HUGE shark that was probably up to 5 meters long! (p.s. the metric system is kicking my ass)

 sorry mom for not telling you I was doing this, but i knew you would probably have a heart attack!

dont worry i'm alive!

wine festival!

Last weekend we traveled to Stellenbosch (a small college town about an hour away from Cape Town) for a wine festival! It turned out to be a perfect day, filled with A LOT of wine tasting, great food, and people.

on the train ride to Stellenbosch

housemates!

tim

heaven on earth

This past week in Cape Town has been truly amazing. We braaid (aka barbequed) on Thursday at a friends house. They do this a lot here, and I love it! Good people, food and drinks is such a great way to spend the afternoon! On Saturday we went down to Long street, which is where a bunch of clubs and bars are and we danced allllll night, it was really fun! Saturday we got sushi, which is like $4 a roll here, and we planned on staying in but then ended up meeting up with a local named Boom, who is a friend of my friend who was here last semester, and he took us to a pretty cool lounge in observatory (obs). Here they played really cool African music and we ended up dancing all night and meeting a bunch of local cape townians! On Sunday, the locals drove me to this event called MZOLIS, which is located in one of the townships. It is basically this huge braai, where they serve beer, lots of meat, bread, and some mash potato dish that is delicious. They play African house music and everybody dances and drinks all day, it was such a fun day! I went to bed early last night because I had my first day of classes today. I got a little lost on campus but everything ended up working out. I only have one class Mondays but I did figure out where most of the buildings were and got my ID card as well. Campus was crazy busy, but I loved it! Im not used to seeing so many people around, since santa cruz is so spread out. The people who go to UCT are absolutely GORGEOUS. Everyone is also SO nice. One of my friends got walked to class by a local and everyone you pass smiles and says hello. The boys here are gorgeous. Tall, tan, and hansome, with just the right amount of scruff, and they know how to dress well, which seems to be such a struggle for most boys in America these days. When you leave America, you realize that chivalry is still very much alive. I was walking down the sidewalk with a local man yesterday and he wouldn’t let me walk on the side of the sidewalk that is closest to the cars. A young guy in America would never ever know to do that! I can definitely get used to living here. Next weekend I am attending the Stellenbosch wine festival, which is apparently a big deal, and so much fun. I just have to get through the first week of school and then much more fun to come!

This is the view from my bedroom!

We have the opportunity to participate in a volunteer program while we are here called Shawco. Shawco helps students in the townships with their schoolwork, sports, computer program, arts and crafts and other such things. We took a tour of two townships yesterday, and everyone there was so very happy we were there! The kids would run alongside the bus and wave and dance for us, they were so cute! It was very sad to see the way some of those people live. Many are in houses but many are also live in little huts and crates and would use posters or anything else they could find to make 4 walls. It really makes me appreciate having a roof over my head and good food to eat. I definitely want to volunteer with Shawco or some other program that does similar work. After the townships, I had to pre-register for my classes, which include 2 psychology courses (one clinical and one social) and a history of South Africa course. We all attended a free wine and chocolate tasting in the afternoon where the travel company on campus told us all about the trips and events they hold. I will be signing up for cage diving this Saturday and a wine festival the next weekend! We are also looking into the spring break trip that they do which will take us up to Botswana and Victoria Falls, the highest bungee jump in the world, white water rafting, a safari and so much more! Besides getting my camera stolen in the first week and having some issues with hot water and electricity in my house, I am having the best time in cape town and am looking forward to the many adventures in my near future!

on top of the world

Katy and I on the tip of Africa

Penguins on the beach!

move in

Moved into my house yesterday! It is called “Charlton House” and it used to be a hotel and is absolutely HUGE. There are 20 people living here, it is 3 stories with a back and front yard, a security guard that stands out front at night and a maid who comes 3 times a week. There is a huge bar, kitchen, bbq, and pool table. I have my own bathroom and room with a balcony and a view of table mountain. Pretty much everyone in the study abroad program has decided we are the “party house.” All of my housemates are really nice and I can tell we are going to have a good time. Today they took us on a fun bus tour of Cape Town. We got to see the penguins at the beach! They were adorable of course. We also saw some baboons, and drove past an ostrich farm. They eat ostrich here and I have heard it’s delicious. They also sell ostrich eggs. One is apparently the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs and I will definitely try it! We spent most of the afternoon at cape point, which is the southernmost tip of Africa and it was so beautiful so we hiked around for a bit and took lots of pictures. they speak 13 different language here, english is the main one but they sort of have a different lingo. my new favourite term is "hubbly bubbly" which is what they call hookah!

arrival in africa

i arrived in cape town yesterday! the flight was realllly long (30 hours) and exhausting, but i finally made it.  naturally, the first thing i did once i got here was find another harry potter nerd (and future housemate) and went to see the 7th movie, since it came out a day earlier here! the movie was fabulous and so is cape town. it is absolutely beautiful here, i just can't get over it!! after the movie, we met up with a lot of the other international students and our orientation leaders for drinks. it is really nice to meet people from all over the world and many from california as well. the cheap beer that they drink here, called black label, is actually REALLY good. everything is cheaper here than in america, and the people here are so nice and friendly! this morning i woke up and went with a group of people to one of the beach towns, where we got lunch and walked around. I am making friends and travel plans really fast. wine and chocolate tasting next week hopefully, and cage diving, bungee jumping and skydiving soon! i have only been here one day and want to stay for a full year!!