Weekend in Hermanus

Hey Everyone!!!

Cool, so I just electrocuted myself trying to find an outlet in the library. Doesn't feel too good, as it turns out. That's how devoted I am to all you readers (all 6 of you...). Anyway, here is my lengthy, photo-rich post, as promised, about our three day weekend! First of all, we had Monday off this week because in South Africa it is Women's Day. Basically, it is a more legitimate version of Mother's Day and it applies to all women. People take it really seriously, all around Rondebosch women were walking with flowers given to them, people go out to really nice dinners, etc.

Our weekend started (after a bit of a rough patch) in the later evening on Friday. We all rented cars and drove about 45 minutes to Hermanus, a nice beachy town near Cape Town. We checked into our hostel, which was alarmingly nicer than the last hostel we stayed at. Big beds, clean sheets, maid service to make our beds, and even towels!!! Here's a pic of some of my friends in our room.

After getting settled in on Friday night we went out to dinner. It was a really cool atmosphere at the restaurant, live band and really cool fire places everywhere. But the service was awful! It literally took over 2 hours to be served, and keep in mind we were the only people being served at the restaurant. It seems like this is a pattern in South Africa... really bad service. I think we've spent what has accumulated into days waiting for our food here so far.

The next morning, we all got up relatively early to head to the beach. We went with a group of guys that are really into surfing so we all sat around on the beach, watching them surf. It was a little overcast that morning unfortunately, but here is a picture of some of the boys going out in the ocean.

After lounging about for awhile, we decided it was time to explore! We took a nice luxurious walk on the beach. We saw some really cute kids and really cute dogs running all over the place. Here's a picture of us walking on the beach!

After our nice walk, we decided to climb the beautiful rocks that were all over the beach. The weather was starting to turn up, thankfully. Here is a picture of the rocky beach from above. It was unbelievably beautiful.

As we continued climbing the rocks, we discovered more and more beautiful rocky terrain and all these stunning little hidden beaches. Here is the pathway that we found and a picture of a large stretch of beach. Pretty amazing, eh?

And here is a lovely picture (self-timeded, I might add) of us at the top of the rocks.

After a nice day at the beach, we all went back to the hotel to relax a bit before cooking dinner. Dinner was a project, to say the least. We cooked for 12, which included 7 hungry boys, so we made 4 pots of pasta, cooked 8 chicken breasts, and cooked broccoli and peas for everyone. Oh, did I mention we were using the most ghetto kitchen wear? Yeah, we used what could only be described as a glorified bunsen burner to cook all of this. We were all incredibly proud of ourselves.

After dinner, we went out that night to check out the night life in Hermanus. We were not impressed, to say the least. We went to a place called Bojangles. The crowd consisted of a population that was either under 15, over 70, and the sound system was so awkwardly quiet that you could hear everyone's conversation at once. The theme that night was toga wear (?), but only the people over 70 had dressed up. One man was wearing a full on toga, but it was cut too short so we could see his boxers. It was rather uncomfortable. Next we went to a little bar (the only other place open), that was an Africaans bar that blasted Africaans metal music. It was pretty ridiculous, but we all had a really fun time making fun of the interesting night life.

The next day we had breakfast (that took 2 hours, of course), and drove back home. Here is a picture of Hermanus on our way out, just to get a sense of the place. I'd compare it to a San Diego type town.

We stopped at a little wine tasting/food tasting fair on the way home. It was really fun, they had samples of cookies, olive oil, cheese, turkish delight, and wine. These types of fairs are all the rage in South Africa, which is fine by me, because it is always lots of fun. It's a little bit like the farmers markets we have in the US everywhere, but because it's South African it's automatically a bit cooler. Plus they have wine tasting and lemoncello tasting, which is always more fun. Here's a picture of the inside.

On Monday, since we had the day off, we decided to go horseback riding on the beach. It was unbelievably gorgeous! We went around 4pm so we got to see the sun set. The beach was really amazing, the tide goes up really high earlier in the day and then in the afternoon goes down a bit. It creates a really nice place to ride because the ocean is on one side, and these cute little mini ponds (from where the high tide was) are on the other side and you are surrounded by water. Here are some pictures.

Now of course, what would this blog be without a little bit of complaint or some type of issue? It is still I, Julia, writing this blog after all, so it is to be expected. As magnificent the sight was during the ride, I had a bit of an unruly horse. Now I know I'm no experienced rider, but I've never felt uneasy or uncomfortable on a horse; that us, until Nutmeg. Nutmeg, I was told, didn't do so well with the other horses. I asked if it was possible, perhaps, to be given a more easy going horse. But no, I was assured everything would be fine. Everything was not fine. Before we had even left the stables, Nutmeg got snippy with one of the other horses, rearing back a bit (WITH ME ON TOP OF HER). So we started off on the wrong foot and I was afraid for my life for probably 2/3 of the ride. And towards the end Nutmeg decided to lag behind all of the other horses to leisurely snack on the grass to her side every 3 seconds. I could NOT get the horse to cooperate with me. Here is a picture that I think captures our relationship brilliantly.

So that is the summary of our nice 3 day weekend. Oh and a quick update on classes: I told you the 4 classes I'm taking, but in addition I have 3 seminars. One is on African Short Stories, another on Charles Dickens (we're reading 2 1200 page books!), and my favorite is a seminar on Serial Killer films. That's all I have for you. I miss you all terribly, but am honestly having the time of my life over here.

Julia