July 24, 2010

Today was so fun! We woke up early to go down to a town called Woodstock to go to the famous “Old Biscuit Mill” outdoor market!! It was so cool, tons of people everywhere with different little shops ranging from photography to jewlrey, clothes and furniture! There was a huge tent also that had tons of different veders selling all different sorts of foon! It was pretty close to heaven im sure J Kaitlyn & I split an apple strudel & a cinimon apple muffin, which were both to die for! We also had frozen coffees from this cool smoothy stand!! OMG it was delish!! There were lots of people with dogs walking around too, so cute! After we ate we all kind of split up to check out all the different shops! I got a scarf, two bracelets, a hat, and a ring, all fabulous!! Then I got one of the famous bloody mary’s that we have all been told about, and it was the cherry on top of the cake! Best Bloody mary EVER! This place was so neat, and they do this every Saturday morning from 9am – 2pm! I deffinately know where I will be spending my coming Saturdays J After the market we came home and I went for a run with two other girls up to campus! Def out of shape but it was fun and obviously beautiful running around Table Mountain! We found this great hill to that has a perfect view of the city from the top of Upper campus as well! After we did some pushups, haha yes im serious, we jogged down to the UCT rugby game to meet the other people from our apertmetn! It was cool to see my first in person rugby game! We didn’t stay for the whole match because it got pretty chilly in the shade but im definitely looking forward to the upcoming games!!

We all met at “El Fiesta” (yes that’s the real name haha should be La) and had pitchers of really bad margaritas and delish Mexican food! I had quesadillas, which were pretty awesome, but sadly I was so excited for rice & beans and they came out in tiny little ranch cups! Haha it was pretty funny but all in good fun, we had an awesome time singing happy birthday to Leya and Ahmad & everyone in the restaurant sang along with us!! After dinner we went out to a few bars and danced and had a great time them headed home!

July 25, 2010

Okay seriously this place blows my mind a different way every single day! We took a mini bus to this place called Mzolis for brunch to continue celebrating Leya & Ahmads birthdays! OMG this place was unreal.. I had the total wrong impression, because it is located in one of the town ships so I was a little nervous, but it was absolutely a blast & had the best food!! All the tables were outside under the patio & there was live music and beer and hundreds of people partying and having a blast! We grabbed a table & then four of us went inside to order for everyone! Its really cool because you go inside and pick out the meats , we picked out steak, sausage, chicken and lamb for 14 people & it was so cheap! Only 25 rand per person for literally a huge table sized bowl!! The food took about 45minutes to an hour to cook so we all grabbed beers and drinks and hung out and walked around the township a bit because they had some stands with different jewlrey, books, purses to buy. I bought a really cute home made journal & a sweet beaded key chain! When the food came it was so funny, because they just set this huge bowl of cooked meat in the middle of the table and everyone just grabs whatever! Haha No plates, silverware or napkins!!! It was so funny because everyone was covered in sauce lol but it was so much fun & SO DELICIOUS!!! They also served this white stuff with it, I looked like mashed potatioes but I think it was some kind of corn mill or something, it was so good as well! After we inhaled our food we went to the sinks on the side of the building to wash off haah too funny! At this point the whole place was so packed and it was like a fair but such a fun atmosphere with so many different cultures combined. It was really cool to be there and im so excited to go back in the future!! We chatted with lots of different locals and hung out until like 4:30 and then we headed back to our houses! We grabbed a bday cake and cards for the bday people then went and showered and chilled till dinner. All of us met up at the pizza place down the road from our house called Debonairs and we ordered food then went back to Highstead and ate as a little family and sang happy bday and did cake. All in all this weekend was SO MUCH FUN! Great food and friends in this amazing city, I seriously cant believe I got student loans to come and have this much fun! J Safe fun of course!

July 26, 2010

FIRST DAY OF SENIOR YEAR AT UCT!!! J Today was awesome!! Possibly the best first day of school ever!! I got up really early because I had no clue where my classes were so I had to get to campus like an hour early! It all worked out and I was on time to all three! Which by the way my schedule is amazing this semester!! Classes at 11, 12 and 2 mon- wed & then 11 and two on Thursday & then just 2 on Friday J Senior year is going to be epic, I can feel it lol! First of all I LOVE my first class I went to, game theory, not only because my professor is beautiful and I want to marry him, but he seems like a really cool teacher & the class seems like it will be a lot of fun! We are even going to be learning about evolutionary game theory among different animals!! My second class, Understanding Gender, seems awesome! The teacher is this adorable little lady who hops around class really excitedly! She seems like she is a really cool teacher & the course sounds like it is going to be a blast to learn about! I sat next to this really nice girl today too, sadly I forgot her name L but hopefully ill see here again tomorrow! Oh by the way there are like 150-200 kids in all my classes, which is def a first for me because AC’s classes are usually like 15-20 kids max!! But I really like the auditorium type classes! I met a few Arcadia people for lunch at 1. We ate at the food court in the middle of upper campus & the food was delish as usual lol! I have my third class, Development Economics with Leya and Chris from Arcadia so that’s cool! Our teacher is from Zimbabwe and he seems really smart & did his phd in Development Econ so I think this will be a really cool class & I hopefully will learn a lot! I felt so at home today in classes, like I was definitely in the right spot at the right point in time. It sounds lame and silly but today I finally felt right… like I knew that this is exactly what I should be doing! I am SO glad I decided to come to SA and take classes, I know that this semester is going to be great! I am so excited to go to classes tomorrow, its weird lol!

After school I did a little grocery shopping & attempted to buy school supplies but Pick-N-Pay doesn’t have that great of a selection, so ill just have to buy stuff tomorrow at the school store! Oh ya I bought a UCT sweat shirt today too J its adorable… to bad it was $50 US dollars L kinda expensive… but I really wanted it so ill just eat pb & j for a week to make up for it lol! After grocery shopping, Leya and I went to the gym we joined & did an ab attack class!! It was a lot of fun & im glad I finally got a work out in!!

Wednesday July 14,2010

Today I woke up at 7am to get ready to fly to Durban to see our family from Gary’s side! The weather in Cape Town was quite cold and raining pretty hard! It was a 2hour flight to Durban & I slept the whole way until Leslie, Lauren and Ruth picked me up at the airport and took me to the mall where I desperately needed to go!! I went to a club in UGG boots and a scarf … a club where the girls were wearing high heels; tiny black dresses with stockings and looked like they stepped out of a vogue! Haha So I was in dyer need of going out outfits because I didn’t pack any for some dumb reason!! We had a great lunch at the mall & I got a lot of great things for my apartment as well J after shopping we had a delicious honey & nut cappuccino at this place called Woolworth’s.. So delicious!!! After our drinks we headed to Ruth & Ronnies house to say hi to Dabu (I love that name) & they showed me around their beautiful home!! We hung out there for a bit and then headed to Lauren & Nicole’s house which is also stunning! We all got ready and went to dinner at the place called Olive & Oil .. once again the food was AMAZING! I had escargot for the first time & it was actually pretty good!! I also had prawns which were delish as well as the grilled calamari and a drink called a Woo Woo J Dinner was a lot of fun, Leslie, Greg, Lauren & Nicole are such wonderful people and have made me feel at home! We drove through Durban a bit after dinner and Greg showed me some of the houses he has built which are absolutely beautiful! I was so impressed! I am excited for tomorrow because the girls have a whole day planned & I think the beach is involved!! YAY

Thursday July 15, 2010

Durban weather is amazing!!! NO WINTER? Seriously why have I not been here sooner!! Such a beautiful day today, we went to this beautiful beach in Usharka I think is the name and we walked along the board walk and saw where the fan park was, and we could also see the stadium from the beach J There was also a restaurant in this old huge ship on the coast which was really cool! We didn’t go to the aquarium though because I think we are going to go when Mom & Gary come in December YAY! We did a little more shopping and then a nice long nap when I got back to the house. Dinner was so much fun, we had lots of tasty finger foods mmm, nachos, crackers & different cheeses and jams or marmaids, different chips and yummy cocktails J It was really good to meet Greg’s parents, Peter & Jean and it was cool being with my South African family while I am away from my family at home! But after dinner they had a really special early birthday celebration for me!! SO NICE! They brought a cake and sang Happy Birthday & gave me a beautiful “21” necklace. It was so thoughtful of them & I had such a great time being able to spend a little bit of my birthday with family!! By the way the cake was DELICIOUS! & We topped off the night with my first bit of tv watching since I have been in the country!

Friday July 16

My last day in Durban L had a blast though! Lauren, Leslie, Brett and I had breakfast/lunch at the Mug and Bean Café before the flight back to CT. Greg had to come to Cape Town earlier that day so he picked me up from the airport and after he dropped me off to change we went to this really delicious seafood and Italian restaurant J I had great sushi and some really tasty pasta, and I actually had oysters for the first time and they were amazing!! We had a little more champagne as well to continue celebrating my early 21^st. After dinner I was so stuffed but we went to the “Fire and Ice” motel, which is apparently famous for their milkshakes! It definitely lived up to its reputation, because the milkshakes were amazing!! After dinner I just went home & unpacked then went to bed!!

Saturday July 10, 2010

Amazing second day in CT!! We were picked up at 8:45am and went to a delicious coffee shop & I had a bran muffin that was served with jam & cheese!! After breakfast we were taken to Boulders beach where the penguin colony lives!! SOOOO awesome & adorable, there were so many of them & even little baby ones! It started raining pretty bad while we were there so we had to leave pretty early, but still cool to see! After that we were taken to the Cape of Good Hope where we walked up Cape point which is part of a mountain!! It was absolutely unbelievable!! Thankfully it stopped raining before we started walking up but it was still pretty chilly!! When we got to the top, we could see where the Indian & Atlantic oceans met, it was AWESOME! The view was breath taking, the pictures don’t do this place justice!! After we left, we were taken to a small restaurant on the harbor where there were lots of ships and sail boats and we had fish & chips and I also had hot chocolate J sounds like a weird combo, but when there’s no heat you need to compromise haha! The food is so good here1!! After we finished eating we were taken to a resort called Monkey Valley, the most beautiful place I have ever stayed! Once again the pictures don’t do it justice, it was so cute, everything was so old timy & classical looking & the inside of the roof looked like the inside of a hut! My room was called “Hoopoe” lol but the other rooms were called different animal names & all of the rooms were different and so neat! We were given a bit of free time & I took a bath in the really cool tub & it was SO HOT and felt awesome bc we had been in the cold rain all day lol but we met back down in the meeting room where we were given the Health & Safety talk as well as academic talks & then we all went to the beach which was a short walk… OMG the mountain was right in the background and the huge boulders made it look fake.. most beautiful scenery ever but the water was freezing! The way back to the resort was pretty funny considering it was pitch black and all we had as light was the tiny beam of light from the 1850s cell phones they gave us! But we made it back fine after a few laughs and headed to dinner which was SO DELICIOUS! I was served peppered fillet minion with butternut squash, mashed potatoes and spinach J mmmm then for desert we had ice cream on top of warm apple tart or pie.. what ever it was, was magnificent!! After dinner we went up to our fab rooms, showered and went to bed with the heater on! First time for a heater in CT!

Sunday July 11, 2010

Sadly we had to leave Monkey Valley Resort, but on the way out we drove up _____ mountain where we saw the most beautiful views of Cape Town… it was absolutely breath taking driving throught he mountain where you could see the ocean & mountains & the city… The weather was beautiful as well not to chilly, but as soon as we got back to the other students house it started to rain, then hail and about 5minutes after it was sunny again! Reminds me of Texas lol but we had take out for lunch which was great, some kind of marinated chicken and “chips” which are French fries but they call them chips here lol. After lunch we went to change and head to the Cape Town Fan Park to watch the World Cup Final between Holland and Spain! J There are no words to explain the amazing atmosphere of thousands of fans cheering and dancing and having an amazing time together! It was un real the amount of people there & how cool it was to be in South Africa for such a hugh home country event! You can totally tell how greatly this world cup has affected this beautiful country! I bough a vuvuzela and blew it all night with my fellow program mates J when the final seconds ran out, people cheered and danced and yelled so loud & the Shakira song played like 500 times & we were having the times of our lives! I have never experienced anything like it, so cool & I am so thankful that I was able to be apart of it!! The streets in Cape Town were shut down and the bars were PACKED with fans from all over!! We stayed out pretty late celebrating, then went back to our apartments and finally got to sleep in because we were given the whole next week off until Saturday morning!

Friday July 9, 2010

Today was my first full day in Cape Town & it was absolutely amazing!! Yesterday was a little rough because I left Texas at 3:30pm on Wednesday the 7^th & didn’t arrive in Cape Town until 10:00pm on Thursday the 8^th (7hour time difference) so it was 3pm US time… 24hours of traveling time.. Exhausting but really not that bad! The food was great & everyone was very nice & overall had a great experience!! A really nice man named Lenny picked myself and two other students from the program up from the airport and took us to our apartments, and when it was all said and done I finally made it to my new home at 11:30pm. After a few tears and layers of sweats (no heat) I fell asleep & woke up to my new roommate buzzing in the gate at 8am because her flight had just arrived! The security around here is pretty cool.. we have metal gates that you have to unlock to get into any door! The key ring they gave me has like 10 keys on it!!

After I met my new roommate named Kaitlyn, who is very nice, we went down to meet the other people that live in the same building! Then another former UCT student met us and walked with us a few blocks to the other student apartments and we had a Brye which is a barbeque with the 15 students from the program! Our first taste of home made South African food! Well, not mine because I have had the pleasure of eating Gary’s delicious cooking before! But, here we met our academic advisor, Alan, our maintenance helper Naudia, and our House mom Emma! All were splendid and so welcoming and made this beautiful city feel like home! After the Brye we went back to our apartments to grab warmer clothes and hoped on the bus where we were dropped off in the city of Cape Town! It was So beautiful!! I cant even find the words to describe it! We saw the World Cup Stadium & of course beautiful angles of Table Mountain!! We stopped at a coffee shop & I had my first South African coffee, called a flat white.. it ws some kind of cappuccino.. very tasty & only $2.5 American dollars! I LOVE this exchange rate!! They also took us to one side of the beach & it was AWESOME1 A bit chilly but definitely beautiful! From a distance you could see Robin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years! After the sun set we went to the mall which was one of the nicest malls I have ever seen in my life & we ate at a really good restaurant which I cant remember the name but so delicious! The program manager paid for our meals & we were all instructed to order pizza, but this pizza was SOO GOOD! Haha I ordered the mimosa pizza, which was mozzarella cheese, bacon & banana!!! Yes I said banana, & it was fabulous! I will now cook banana on my pizza when I go home!!

After dinner we took the busses back to our apartment & I finished unpacking my room! Tomorrow we are going to stay overnight at a resort & hopefully go see the penguins! Over all my first impression of Cape Town was more that I expected! I was a little home sick yesterday but today was a better day! I think im going to fall in love with this city J or maybe I already have! I still miss all of my loved ones but thankfully skype works.. just stinks we have to pay by the mb!! But thankfully it’s free at the school and a few coffee shops!

I Love & Miss everyone & I will try to keep emailing as much as possible!!

XOXO,

Kara