Stellenbosch (again!) and Mzoli's

Hello everyone!

I see that my fan base has grown significantly! 14 whole followers... wow I never thought it would happen! Anyway, welcome to the newcomers (Trudy, Izzie, Cyo, Nat...whoever else) and thank you to the oldcomers. I miss you all so much. It was fantastic video chatting with some of you... William, Sarah, Brine. Still trying to work it out with others... my bad.

This weekend was very eventful. CIEE sponsored a trip to Stellenbosch for wine tasting, a picnic, and cheetah-viewing. Because the expenses of the trip are included in our tuition, I figured I'd go again and get my money's worth! Apparently, according to all our South African RA's, CIEE is truly ripping us off. Anyway, I was very glad to go because we had a wonderful time!

This time around, we actually got a tour of the facilities and got to see exactly how they made the wine. Then we did some wine tasting (this time I was more cautious), and headed for a beautiful outdoor picnic at this very nice little park. Here's a picture from the park where we ate our meals. We got our food from inside this little shop where they only sold packaged meat that looked really sketchy, but it turned out to be delicious!

After our peaceful picnic we had some time to walk around and check out the cheetah rehabilitation center right near by. We got to see these cheetahs up close and, for 100 rand, you could go and pet them. I opted out for petting them because they seemed so out of it and drugged out and it wasn't really worth the money, but instead enjoyed the view from afar. For whatever reason, all my pictures of the cheetahs have disappeared... I have no clue how or why. Instead, I'll post a cute cartoon picture of a cheetah so you get the idea... why not?

Okay, so on to Sunday. We went to this place called Mzoli's. It's basically a well known restaurant that's in the middle of a township (for those of you who don't know, they're very impoverished communities of shacks...if you've seen District 9, they look exactly like that). It's very well known for it's meat... as you can see from this photo:

Here is a picture of the township surrounding Mzoli's.

What I didn't know exactly about Mzoli's is how it all works. Our RA booked a table for us at around 11am on Sunday morning. You get there and immediately everyone goes to buy alcohol. I was a bit surprised at that... but figured I should get the full experience. Anyway, we placed our orders (or shall I say, our RA's placed our orders) and the waiting began... Little did I know that Mzoli's is actually not just a well known restaurant, but a raging block party every Sunday! In a matter of minutes the place started filling up, the live DJ went on, and the whole place was having an awesome time! Here are some pictures of the festivities:

So the atmosphere at Mzoli's was a lot of fun, but I still haven't gotten to the main part... the FOOD! So basically it takes hours for your food to arrive, during which you pass the time by drinking and talking and meeting new people. By the time our food came I was ready to eat anything. Before I even tell you what the food looked like, look for yourself:

Yes, the meat comes in big buckets. Yes, that is a combination or sausage, pork, chicken, and beef. Yes, you must eat with your hands because there are no utensils, no plates, or napkins. Yes, I did eat that. And, YES, it was amazing!!!!!! Probably the most unreal meat I've ever had, but I've never felt more of a carnivore in my life. Here is a pic of two of my guy friends chowing down like animals.

Disgusting, I know! Sorry Ray I hope you're not vomiting right now. Anyway, I had a really fun time at Mzoli's, it was quite an experience though! I will leave you all with a picture of me and some of my friends at Mzoli's.

Lots of Love and Lots of Meat-filled Kisses,

Julia