Lush green mountainous africa?

So i made it to south africa! As you all know. When we got here we moved into our dorms. I am living in Concordia. I live on the second floor and there is one TV for the whole building. I have my own room and bathroom which is sweet and i share a common room and kitchen with 3 other girls. 2 are from Texas, Blaklee and Jenifer, and one from Califronia Chelsea. They are all nice but somewhat differnt from me but hey we are from all over the country. This is what i see everyday! It is gorgeous. I would be jealous


this is what i see when i walk outside my dorm

this is my dorm i am on the second floor facing the other way

the mountains


this is Stellenbosch mountain and the mountain i hiked up


I have had alot of orientation about culture shock, classes, money, history, the different languages (there are 11 official languages). When walking down the street you here so many languages it is crazy. it is very intersting. Thursday night we had a wine and snack time and wathced a movie. Wine is a huge part of the culture here. It is insane. I think that i am going to take a 1 credit wine course. On friday night of that week we had a brie which is an african cook out same idea you grill meat not hamburgers but like chicken breast. There was also another dinner where a group of kids from Kayamandi a very poor area (township) came and performed for us with the drums and singing it was amazing. Those kids could really move. That was nice I got to meet alot of people that way. That saturday i got up extra early so that I could go get the Harry Potter book. THere was no Harry Potter parties in Stellenbosch, only in cape town and since i had no way to get there i did not go. The trains that run there are not reliable and at night can be unsafe. So i got the book but we had a Cape Town tour that day. There we saw companys gardenes where i think it was Vasco de Gama came and set up a "refuling" place for ships that were on there way to Inida. There is only one tree left that was originally planted there. This was a pear tree but it doesnt produce fruit anymore only flowers.


at company gardens

the view from company gardens


So as you may be able to tell but this part of Africa has plenty of vegetation and is not full of some of the crazy animals that i would like to see from the lion king. Aslo there are loads and loads of mounatins here. It isnt exactly what i was expecting but i should have known considering this is a huge wine producing area. Anyway after company gardens we went to signal hill where you could see table mountain which us very flat on the top, lions head and devils peak. The views were crazy. It was so beautiful. We aslo could see where they were buiding soccer stadiums for the 2010 world cup. They are so proud of that here it is a big deal already. They have hates and posters and big plans to try and get ready for it. Here you could also see the other side of the atlantic ocean which was kind of strange.


devils peak this is where the devil smokes that is why it is always smokey or cloudy.

table mountain and cape town

cape town and the harbour


this is lions head

After that we drove to Camps Bay which has one of the only beaches in the area open to the public and we got to put our feet into the water. So now i have been in the atlantic ocean in the norther and souther hemispheres which is pretty cool. What else was need was that it was one of my friends Katy first time ever seeing up close or touching the ocean. So that was cool to experience it with her. She went in too far and got splashed by a big wave and her pants got all wet.

the beach

valere from hong kong and katy

i wrote my name in the sand

AFter that we were droped off at it think it was called Alfred and Victoria Waterfront front which was like a toursit trap. We spent 3 hours there so i was kind of dissapointed. It was a bunch of shops and resturants. But all for toursists. There was some cool performers though i saw an afircan dancers with the drums it was really neat.

this is at the waterfront

i was very far from boston!

this is kylie, eric and me with famous south african leaders.

After that we headed home but on the way home we saw cape flats. This is the townships the very poor area. But we didnt get to stop. Tomorrow i am going to kayamandi to take a tour of it because that is where i am going to be volunteering. After that i went home and read Harry Potter which by the way i have finished and am not sure how i feel about it just yet.

The next day me, Katy, Rita, and Daniel (all from the US) and Fine (like josephine without joseph) and thomas (toe mas) from Belgium hiked Stellenbosch mounatin. That was very cool. There are so many vineyards.


this is Fine, Me, Rita, and Katy with Stellenbosch in the background

all of us..Me Daniel, Katy, Rita, Thomas, Fine

some of the view

thomas and fine



It is gorgeous. So i know this post is very long. I am almost done i swear. They will get shorter but I am just trying to catch up and i think i have after this one last thing. The classes i am taking. I am taking Afrikaans for beginners, Introduction of Jewllery Design and Metal Techniques, public theology in South Africa(this is an intense course that ends early in september), Voices from the margin: SA Writing From the 1950's to the present, Biodviersity and Ecology: Population and Community Ecology and a one credit course introduction to the south african wine industry which meets 5 times and stars in september. Okay i think that is all so far. I hope you all have enjoyed this wicked long post and congratulate everyone who made it this far. Okay i miss you all and i hope you are all well and feel free to email me or whatever if you have any questions becuase i do want ot hear about you guys!