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Goeiedag! (Good day in Afrikaans)

TABLE MOUNTAIN

Today I climbed one of the newly added wonders of the world. Table Mountain. Six of us started our journey around noon and as we set off up hill. It took about 1hr 30min to make it to the top and whew, it was a LOT for this girl to handle. I chose to be the grandma who took her time, while the other five scaled/sprinted ahead. To pass the time and get our mind off of “the burn in the buns” we played 20 questions which was quite amusing. Making it to the top was definitely worth it. It was sooo pretty. It was an overcast day so at the top we were completely surrounded by clouds. While eating our peanut butter sandwiches on a ledge, we noticed Asian tourists nonchalantly taking pictures of us. Before we knew it though a woman was sitting next to me having her picture taken and throwing up the peace sign. The best part was as they were leaving I said “Mam, where are you from?!” and her response was “thank you!” ...Laughable... Local celeb?! The descent only took us about 45 mins and when we were almost to the bottom the guy that was leading us spotted a sweet, long, nicely round, black and yellow snake basking in the sun. AHHHH!!! It slithered into the bushes though, and we made it down safe and sound.

Common Ground

Haley and I showered and had a quick bite to eat before we went to church with our RA and another guy from our program. The sermon tonight was on wisdom and making it a priority to pray for that instead of obsessing/fretting over decisions. I really love the worship, it is a great mix of hymns and contemporary songs. After the service we went for the free coffee and brownies and I had a great conversation with a guy who is teaching here. Apparently while your in college in South Africa you can do programs during the “holiday” period which for them is Nov-Feb. So what happens is the exchange program finds jobs in the States for those months and the students can work/travel. Usually when people ask where I am from in Texas, I’ve just been saying Fort Worth because that is a lot easier for people to grasp than trying to explain “small town/Wichita Falls...” but for some reason my response to his question was “around the Wichita Falls area” and get out of town, he has actually been there?! What are the odds? ...He worked in Grapevine at the Gaylord duringt the Shrek ICE show on his work program last year and his girl friend’s last name was “Jolly” so they drove to the truck stop for a picture! (SMALL WORLD)

CapeTown “Redefined”

Yesterday was glorious. It rained all morning and was a much needed change of pace. My IES class took a field trip to Macon Garden Village in the morning and learned about the energy and water usage in the different households. When we came home we ordered pizza and proceeded to watch two movies back to back on our sweet 15” lap top screen. After the second movie ended the sun had finally come out and we went to the park next to our apartment complex and played soccer in the mud. Our night ended at Cocowahwah (our 2nd home because of the free wifi) as everyone enjoyed the pasta special.

Life of Luxury.

This past week has been yet another wild one. It was our last few days of “holiday” so we tried to make the most of it. Monday night we went to our first rugby game. Go IKEY TIGERS! Ha what an experience. The game was really more about what the cheerleaders were doing and then dancing to “Shake them thunder thighs” which is my African theme song. YouTube it.

Tuesday, our dear friend Riaan (tour guide) picked us up in a chariot and we went to Stellenbosch for the night. The wine “farms”, as they call them, were soooo pretty. At the first farm we went on a cellar tour, the second we did a cheese tasting, had lunch and then went to two more farms before calling it quits. That evening we had dinner at “Ginos” with Riaan and then he showed us around his old stopping grounds. He lives in Stelly and also went to “Varsity” there. Our hostel for the evening was also an experience in itself. The girls room had some type of bug in it? One girl woke up in the middle of the night and her face was swelling. We went downstairs and got her an antihistamine, but the rest of us only had what appeared to be lots of itchy bites. We had a great breakfast the following morning before making the 30 minute drive back to the City. Stelly definitely is way more “Fort Worth” where Cape Town is very “Austin/Dallas.” It was funny just driving through the University of Stellenbosch’s campus because it is small, very uniformed, divided down the middle, and the street is lined with oak trees...sound familiar?!

Wednesday and Thursday everyone played catch up and did last minute things for school. My IES class also had another field trip. We went to Kirstenbosch Gardens, which is the Botanical Garden here, and also where we went to the out door concert. It was very cool to walk around during the day. There are only 7 floral kingdoms in the entire world and 1 of those is located here in Cape Town which is cRaZy. So much biodiversity... Our class took water samples that day from 4 different rives to measure the clarity, the bacteria and the pH. Surprisingly everything was very clean.

Friday was my first day of class. I only had two and they were both really interesting. It’s funny that I am in freshman classes because this was their first day of college ever and they were all so nervous! It was also crazy to me that this is such a big campus and with so many kids, but I kept running into familiar faces all day!

Thoughts/Reflections

I can not believe I’ve almost been here a month. It feels like I’ve lived here 3 because we are constantly on the go, but ha I haven’t even really started school! Friday I did have two classes and they were both great. Everyday I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to be in this fantastic place. Everything here is so beautiful and I’m constantly surrounded by such great scenery that it’s been easy to become numb to the extreme beauty that is at my finger tips. Today, as I was poking down below the group looking up at the mountain it was so mind blowing to think that even the same God made both this beautiful place and the wide open fields of home! Tomorrow is the first day of real life... Yippeee I’ll finally have a routine!!!

Wishing everyone a great week!