Weekend in Stellenbosch

I spent this weekend in Stellenbosch with the four other Trinity girls. We stayed at our professor's house--she has a beautiful home with an amazing view of the mountains. Huge windows along one whole side of the house provide a perfect view to the living room and all the bedrooms.

We got there Saturday morning; we first went to a little market and then into town. This was my second time there, but it really is a cute little town. That evening, we all went out to dinner at Moyo, an African themed restaurant with a giant buffet and "traditional" performers. A little touristy for my taste, but still fun to see.

On Sunday, we went out to lunch with Sibs and her husband, Basil, to a restaurant in Franschoek (neighboring town to Stellenbosch). Possibly the best part of the day was that Basil drove us to lunch in his blue 1953 Mercedes convertible!! It was the perfect setting of mountains and vineyards for riding in an antique car. We even took some pictures of me at driving wheel--I'll have to post those soon.

You are what you eat?

Interesting article from the New York Times which connects food preference to presidential candidates:

What's for Dinner? The Pollster wants to know

It seems like a pretty simplistic way to look at politics, but its fun to think about how your eating habits might fit into this paradigm.

You may also want to check out these articles, which place you in a candidate's camp based on what's in your grocery cart:


You might be a Clinton Supporter if..

You might be an Obama supporter If...

I'll admit that I do love soft chocolate chip cookies and Panera Bread.

The Week in Review

I've clearly been slacking off on my blogging, but its only because I've been super busy. Here's some of what I've been up to:

On Thursday night, I saw a production of the musical, "Chicago." I was hoping for some nice scenes of the skyline, but the whole play took place inside the Cook County jail, which doesn't exactly remind me of home. It was great production and I think many of the characters really mastered the Chicago accent.

On Friday, my roommates and I went out for delicious sushi! First time I've had sushi in Cape Town--so far, so good.

Saturday was the start of an action packed couple of days. We woke up early and set out to go to an organic food market. My roommate Jenny had gone the weekend before, and gave us some simple instructions. Unfortunately, these directions did not prove very easy to follow; it required the help of two really nice strangers and two rides on mini-buses. Once we got there, it was an amazing market with tons of food. I had some really amazing crepes and brought home olive bread for later.

After we returned home, we headed to a rugby game. Again, it was tons of fun. This time the Stormers even won, so that was exciting.

The next day, we woke up early again! Avalon, Abby and I all headed to Table Mountain for a nice hike. I've been meaning to do this since I got to Cape Town, so it was exciting to finally have a chance. The hike up was pretty intense and definitely made me feel like I'm a little out of shape. The top of Table Mountain has a beautiful view of the whole city. Its a little weird because there's a gift shop and restaurant at the top, so there's a bit of a clash between the tourist stuff and the beautiful scenery. We took the cable car down, which also offers a great view, but its really fast, so you can't blink.

Finally, that night we went out to dinner at the Buena Vista Social Cafe, based off the band and documentary, the Buena Vista Social Cafe. It was a pretty cool scene with lots of salsa dancing.

It was an awesome weekend, but I'm super tired, and I really need to catch up on all my school work.

I'll try to post some pictures later today or tomorrow!!

Spring Break 2008: Adventure Vay-cay

I'm finally back in Cape Town after an amazing spring break trip!! We began the trip heading east and drove along the Garden Route. We stopped in a couple small towns where we stayed in super nice hostels. We referred to everything as though it were specially designed for the adventure we were about to have: the adventure back pack, the adventure sandals, the adventure shorts...All of these were accessories for our truly adventure activities. Along the Garden Route, we went cave climbing (through some very small spaces) and flew across a water fall on a zip line. I had never done either, but both were amazing. I'm not usually the most adventurous traveler, but these were experiences I'll never forget.

We continued to head east, and drove through the Wild Coast. This is a much less developed part of the country; much of it was formerly part of the Transkei, a homeland under the apartheid government. As we drove along the highway, there were people using it as sidewalk and farm animals using the grass for grazing--a little more hectic than what I'm used to in the States. We stayed three nights along the coast where we swam in the beautiful Indian Ocean (possibly my favorite ocean). The four of us had an amazing "adventure" day when our guide in Port St. John's took us to cave for natural sunscreen (basically, clay), took us canoing, and finally for the most amazing hike of my life through jungle and coastal terrain.

The final night of the trip was spent in Durban before we flew home. I was only there for about half a day, but I wasn't that impressed. Much more crowded than Cape Town and not as beautiful.

I was super lucky to go on this trip and its really made me itch to do some more traveling around the region. Can't wait till classes end!!!

Spring Break, South Africa

Well, I'm heading out today for a week long road trip to Durban. We're driving along the Garden Route and the Wild Coast, then flying home from Durban. I'm really excited for this vacation, there's tons of stuff to do along the route, if I can I'll try to update the blog, but you may have to wait until I get home on Sunday.

If you're in the area, look out for a bright, blue, shiny Audi (yes, they rented an Audi to 4 21 year olds who have never driven on the left side of the road), we'll be jamming out to our road trip mixes the whole time.

Happy Easter!!

Photo documentary!!

Thanks to my personal photographer, Emily Witt, I have compiled a series of photos depicting my transition from cast to no cast. Enjoy!!

Cast Away

Well, the day has finally come! My foot has healed enough for me to walk without a cast! I still have to be a little careful and wear sneakers most of the time--but, I'm pretty pumped to use to both feet.

My doctor warned me that I shouldn't wear high heels anytime soon, but that shouldn't be a problem since I didn't bring any with me.

My roommates and I made a little photo documentary about the foot unveiling, so I'll post those picture soon...

On a different note, there have been rolling blackouts in Cape Town which is always frustrating, but at least the power is on now!

Afrika Burns

I've been pretty busy this last week, mainly with papers and presentations, but I realized that I've been neglecting my blog posts!! So, here's a short update:

The high light since I last posted was this awesome hippie festival I went to on Saturday night. It was a promotional event for Afrika Burns, which is the South African version of Burning Man. If you haven't heard, Burning Man is a week long event in Nevada--the event I went to was much smaller. They were trying to get people excited for Afrika Burns, and I think it did. There was good food, dancing, and of course a big fire at the end. Around 2 am they set fire to this giant structure built to look like a man. It was actually pretty powerful to see a beautiful piece of art disintegrate before your eyes.

This was really fun to go to with my friends, and was certainly a different event than I've been to before.

Around Cape Town

Cape Town is not known for its great public transportation system, so to get downtown this weekend, my roommates and I took a mini-bus. A mini-bus is usually an old van which seats about 10 people, you just hail it as it passes and then squeeze on. There is one guy who drives, and another who takes your money and yells out the window to attract more people. I've been on a mini-bus a couple times, but my most recent ride was by far the most exciting.

We were traveling along Main Road, when there was a sort of "bang" on the side of the van. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but either I think another mini-bus side swiped us or we hit another mini-bus. Well, the money collector was not pleased and so he was yelling out the window at the other van. To make matters more intense, he reaches over towards where my broken foot is lying and grabs what looks a lot like a police officer's night stick. As, the guy is waving this out the window to threaten the other driver--I was trying not to look back at my roommates who were all sitting at the back of the bus away from me. The night stick seemed to do the trick, because after our show of force, the other mini-bus left ours alone. I think this is the closest I've ever come a movie inspired chase scene.

While all this was going on, my roommate Abby, was really enjoying the music. As we were finally departing the van (glad to be on solid ground), she starts asking the driver where he got this great clubbing music. Turns out, that its pretty hard to find, so he sold it to her right there! At least we got some good music out of the ride...

Nothing as exciting happened the rest of the day although we did enjoy some shopping and an afternoon at the beach.

Rugby Nation

In case you don't know, South Africa is a rugby crazy country! Last night, my roommates and I went to watch the Stormers (Cape Town's team which competes internationally) against a New Zealand team. As we approached the stadium, fans were all over and really excited to be at the game--the intensity was actually a little scary at times. However, we decided to join the fun and buy jerseys, so at least we could look the part even if we knew very little about the game.

As we sat down in our seats, we realized something very interesting...there is no beer sold in the stands, only doughnuts! There was never an adequate explanation of this, but we missed much of the first half searching for and enjoying the bar in the stadium (you couldn't leave the bar with beer).

Sadly, the Stormers lost 22-0.

Emily [friend, roommate] says that its the most fun she's had in Cape Town, so far. Since we already own the jerseys, I think we'll be going back for more!