Tuesday, May 19, 2009

WOW. Today was quite a day… it was a day that I experienced things I would and would not have expected to see in South Africa.

What did I do today: two BIG things.

First we ate breakfast- kind of stating the obvious here. At 8:30 our tour guide Tabie picked us up. By the way, it was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky and probably in like the 70s. So first BIG thing, we went to this vineyard called Waterford in Stellenbach. It was my first wine tour/tasting experience and the place was absolutely gorgeous. It was surrounded by mountains and the house was open with a fountain in the middle and a long dirt driveway!! It couldn’t have been more perfect. We tasted wine and chocolate (SO good) and got a tour of the winery. Then we went down into the town of stellenbach. Its Dutch and a lot of the houses had thatched roofs- very cool. We got to walk around for a little while. There was a little market in the middle selling handmade crafts- paintings, jewelry, etc. We then had lunch in the most beautiful restaurant I’ve ever been to. It was really open (apparently like most things are in wine country). It is also the home to “the JMU of Cape Town” haha a guy that drove us from the airport said “its spring break there every weekend”

The next and second to last stop was the Warwick winery which is owned by the first woman in SA to ever own winery. It was not quite as pretty and I learned that Im not a big fan of red wine. I did learn about this wedding cup tradition however. It was really cool but kind of seems like hazing to me… if you’re really interested in knowing about it Ill be happy to show you pictures later.

The day went out with a HUGE bang. We went to this winery/resort/golf course/animal reservation like place. There they had zebras and ostrich and a bunch of other typical African animals. Now for the second BIG thing. I got to pet a cheetah. Yes, a cheetah. Its the fastest land animal in the world, just so you know, and it even purred while I was petting it. What more could I have asked to do in Africa!? Let me tell you, it was really exciting but realllly scary.

We had dinner back at our house and it was really good. The dessert was the best part (leave it to me to be excited about the food). It was this warm cake-like stuff with custard on the top---to die for! I’m bringing the recipe home and will cook it many time so be prepared to try it!!

Overall, this was our fun day. The work starts tomorrow. Actually tonight we have a lesson on AIDS because that’s what a lot of the week is going to be based on. But that’s what I’m here for (not to get AIDS, to learn about it, thank you very much!) so I’m looking forward to it too!

Oh yeah, how could I have forgotten. This needs to be mentioned… I’ve seen multiple golf courses and have a lot of pictures! Dad- I knew you would appreciate this part!! Plus I saw a gigantic soccer complex… World Cup 2010 anyone!?