Sorry it's been awhile since my last post, the last few days have been busy but before that, there was a lull in activity and thus, nothing to post. Rondebosch has now been dubbed by our friends as "Ronde-blah" because...well... it's sort of blah. So earlier this week we all got a little tired of our surrounding areas and decided to do some exploring. After pre-approval, pre-registration, and registration (which, by the way was insane! We waited on line for 3 hours...), I finally have my class list. I'm taking two English classes (Romance to Realism and African Literature), one film class (Film Genre), and one African language class (Growing up in Africa). It all seems promising. Before I talk about our adventure, here is a picture of some of my friends eating a home cooked meal. We all cook a lot here, and my friend Jane (the little blonde one) is a really good cook.
Our first adventure was a beach about 30 minutes away from Cape Town called Muizenberg. We took a train there (only 15 rand!) and it was really easy. The boys all went surfing but it was FREEZING cold and there was no way I was getting in the water. I nearly froze just sitting at the beach, with the wind blowing all over the place. But it was definitely beautiful and I'm glad I went. Here's a picture of the beach. You can't see in the picture, but it was really cool how there are beautiful mountains right next to the beach, which is something you don't see everyday.
Muizenberg was only a day trip, but Stellenbosch was an overnight trip. A bunch of my friends had been planning on going for awhile, but last minute some of my friends and I decided to join. And when I say last minute, I mean an hour before they left for the train. Once we decided, we packed everything up and took a cab to the train station. Here is a picture of all of us getting ready to leave, outside one of the other apartments in Rondebosch (ours is way nicer).
The train was about an hour or so and I slept most of the way, however when we were almost there we were able to see Zebras! They were just grazing around as if they were horses. It was pretty cool. We went too fast for me to take a picture though. Here is a view of one of the main streets in Stellenbosch. If I were to categorize Stellenbosch, I'd say it's the Hamptons of South Africa. It was sooooo nice and definitely more quiet than Cape Town, primarily white (although not all white), very beautiful, with lots of little shops around. The picture doesn't really do it justice.
We stayed at a hostel that our program director recommended to us. As my first experience in a hostel, I will just say that I hope it will be my last. It was gross. Here is a view from outside, which is not bad at all, and a picture of my friends playing pool which was cool. But inside was grosser. The beds were itchy, the pillows where flat, the sheets were stained and ripped, and there were only really thin blankets. Okay, sorry sorry, enough bratty complaining.
That night we all went out to a nice dinner. We had some fantastic food, but since this isn't a lame food blog, I will spare you pictures of our meal. I will, however, show you a picture of all of us cheers-ing with our first (of many) glasses of wine in Stellenbosch.
And here is a shot of the wine menu at the restaurant. It may be hard to see, but draw your attention to the "Little River Cabernet Sauvignon."
If you can't read it, here is what it says: "Full bodied, with pencil shavings following through from the nose. Hints of flint and Christmas pudding create a complex, but balanced palate." My friends and I all found this very hilarious. One of my guy friends even asked the waiter if it was a joke... but no... it was very serious. Apparently, Christmas pudding or Christmas cake is a word used quite often to describe wine...who knew? Dad? I would say that it tasted NOTHING like christmas cake.
Anyway, the next day (today) we went on a wine tasting tour. We had planned to take a biking tour but there were not enough bikes so we split up. Here is a picture of my friend Elias being ridiculous, about to embark on his bike tour.
Instead, I took the driving tour since we were on a stricter time frame. Here come a bunch of pictures of what Stellenbosch vineyards looks like.
Most of the tastings cost money (about 25 Rand), but one of them was free. We went to a total of 4 different vineyard, each one offering us about 6 tastes of different wines. Turns out, compared to my friends here, I can't hold my liquor very well. While my friends were totally fine, I ended up on the tipsy side and sleeping the whole train ride back to Cape Town. I also ended up buying a world cup shirt for 180 Rand (20 bucks!), which is really expensive compared to the other things we've bought. Ugh, I can't keep up!
Here are two pictures of actual people, not just scenery. The first is of some of us at one of the vineyards, and the last is of me and my friend Jane looking very sophisticated. More to come later!
-Julia
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