so i may have taken a lot of pictures this week...i hope you dont mind

Okay well this week the weather has been much nicer and warmer. I am actually in a pair of shorts right now with a long sleeve shirt. It is a little chilly for this but that is okay. I have had my first full week of classes which dont seem to be very hard. I am not expecting to have to do as much work as I do at Assumption College which will be nice. I am still crossing my fingers because I do not know for sure.
I took some pictures of my room for you(actually a lot of pictures feel free to skip this part if you want):



this is the common room with office chairs and this is usually the table we use to eat dinner

this is looking from the common room at the kitchen, my room is to the left on the otherside of the wall

this is the view from my bed

from my bed to my bathroom


my bathroom/toilet

my shower

my desk


Okay so monday I went to class that is my busy day, pretty normal day. Then on tuesday I went to classes and also to the Botanical Garden in Stellenbosch run by the university with Valare, she is from Hong Kong. It is gorgeous. Here are some pictures:







Then on wedensday I did the same classes and such and then I walked downtown and did some errands and just relaxed it was very nice.


Here is a picture I took durring my walk. That evening the dorm that I live in had a braai which is a form of a cookout. So I went to that and then hung out with people from my dorm and from AIFS(the program that I came here through). Thursday was classes and that sort of stuff. This is a kind of boring post so I apologize.
Friday I didnt have class because it was canceled. But in the afternoon I volunteered at Kayamandi. I am going to be coaching primary school kids (grades 4-7) how to play basketball. Most of them will have never held a basketball. But that day we watched the high school teams practice. I was very impressed. Then a group of kids came into use the gym we stayed there for a while becaues our ride hadnt shown up yet. These kids were younger and loved being hugged and touched and just have some one pay attention to them. It was kind of sad yet I am glad i could do what i did for them. They were also facinated with my hair since it isnt like a normal africans hair and were constantly touching it.

That evening AIFS took us to a wine festival where there were over 500 different kinds of wine all from the region and some free samples of food. It was crazy I dont think that I have ever seen so many wines. I tasted some and found this champagne that was very good. There was a lady there that was painting faces for free so I got my face painted! I also got some gelato there which was coffee and dark chocolate. THe picture below is of me and my roommates back at the flat.


blakelee, jennifer, me, chelsea

me

Okay then on saturday me and 4 others went for a bike ride up towards jonkerhook nature reserve. There was so many gorgeous sites to see. It went right through the vineyards. We decided not to go into the nature reserve yet because it cost 25 rand so we wanted to make a day of it. But right before you go in there was this small resturant called the Jonkerhook tea garden where i had a lime milk shake it was surpisingly good. On the way back down we stopped at Neil Ellis winery and did a taste testing. It was hard for me to tell the difference between some of the wines but hopefully i will get better. Here are some pictures from the ride





me

rita

kylie and eric at the winery









After that I hung out with friends and made dinner. Then we went looking for a deck of cards at a few stores but couldnt find any so we ended up talking.

Today I got up and did some homework then went for a walk with rita downtown which was nice and got some more gelato. I had strawberry and lemon (2 different flavors) It was very good. Then made dinner chicken chedder (like chicken parm but there isnt any parmesan cheese over here). And that has been my week. So if you have any question then let me know . Thanks for continuing to read this. i hope it doesnt bore you too much. I hope all is well at home.

Cheers (that is what people in south africa say)