pikkewyn

That means penguin. Okay this week...Well on Sunday I made myself some rice with corn and tomatoes and carrots and cheese of some sort. But anyway we had 2 cans of corn open in the fridge and so I took one out and put a scoop in the skillet but the scoop was like corn in gel and so I was like this doesn’t look right so I threw the rest of it away and used the other can. I will add right now that I didn’t remove the corn from the pan. So anyway in the middle of that night I threw up multiple times and didn’t get very much sleep. So I decided to skip classes that day, Monday, because I wasn't feeling so well and on Tuesday I had an exam and a prac which attendance is required. So all of Monday I spent in my bed reading and doing stuff on my computer. So that was a pretty stinky start to the week but that is okay. Tuesday I had my prac and then worked on a group project for my biodiversity class. That night I had my wine course exam, which was pretty difficult. The professor of the course had told us that things that weren’t going to be on it which turned out to be on the exam and things just to skim through which actually required memorization so that was pretty stinky. Wednesday was an ordinary day. Thursday I only had one class, which is amazing. After that class I went for a hike/walk around the base of Stellenbosch Mountain. Here are some pictures that I took.









Friday night I stayed in and watched some TV on the computer with my roommates. Saturday morning I went to Kayamandi and did a trash clean up with some peer educators, international students and a bunch of the youth in Kayamandi. If you guys think that you have done a trash clean up you have done no such thing. It is crazy I picked up bones and condoms and trash that had been there for months. The smell at some points was very intense. The youth though, kids teenagers were amazing they were all so kind and really want to make Kayamandi a cleaner place. It gives me hope that things will change in Kayamandi. That night I went over to Rita's where we baked brownies for our Afrikaans teacher because it was her birthday on Monday. I also helped them braai and Katy brought me over a slice of rum cake, which was delicious. I hung out over there for a while then Katy and I went to a bar/restaurant where we watched the first half of the rugby world cup semi finals between England and France. England won the game. Then I came home talked with Katy for a while and went to bed. Today, Sunday, I went to Cape Town to Robben Island, which was very interesting. This is where criminals and a bunch of political criminals were held during apartheid. Also it is a place where they put anyone who they believed to be infected with leprosy. Anyway we learned some about the history saw some penguins and all in all it was very interesting although I got a little seasick on the boat, which was surprising because usually I don’t.

on the boat ride over

at the enterance

i am handcuffed



Nelsons Mandela's court yard

Nelson Mandela's cell







After that we went to Boulders Beach where there is a penguin colony. This was kind of disappointing. There were penguins in the shrubs on the way to the beach but on the beach there weren’t any. You had to pay extra to go to the penguin-viewing place, which is where you can see them on the rocks. But that is okay I just didn’t get to hear them. Here are some pictures from that:









On thee way back we passed khayletisha, which is the oldest township in the western cape. Oh my goodness it was so huge it went on forever like it was awful. I couldn’t believe it. It was as far as the eye could see it was so sad.

Okay you may want to end here if you get queasy over dead stuff. If you do then I hope all is well and cheers, you aren’t missing anything. This is your warning.




Okay, so anyway. On the back we were driving past the township and then cars began slowing down and we were like what is going on then they were swerving towards the side of the road as if avoiding something. It was a dead body, of a person! A car was next to it with its window smashed. Now I don’t know what happened but the person I think it was a woman (I was right beside it like on the side of the car that drove right past the body) there was a wrap on her head and she had a white shirt and red bottoms. Anyway there was clearly a hole where there was white puss/matter coming out of with a blood trail running down the top of her head and a pool of it on the pavement. The person was sprawled on the pavement. It looked as though a small rock was stuck in the head where the wound was. This is what we speculated what happened. So in South Africa people do this thing called "smash and grab" where if you are stopped (this is where it doesn’t make sense because the car was clearly on the road and not by a stop sign) someone will smash the windshield and either grab for a purse or something valuable in the car or they will try and hijack the car. I don’t want you guys to worry about me this was the first time I had heard about it. But anyway is we think what happened is the wife was sitting on the side where this happened and the dead person did this and wither tried to take something or tried to harass the wife and the husband pulled the gun out and shot the dead person in the head. So I am not sure if this is correct but I could not get this image out of my head for the longest time it was and still is crazy. So that was the ending of that excursion. I hope that your weeks are going much better than the people involved in that.

Please don’t worry about me.

Have a good rest of the week.

Cheers

kaal kop

I will tell you later what the meaning of this or actually you will see. So Monday was a normal day with classes. Except that my jewelry class got cancelled again he said he had the flu, which he had like 2 weeks ago so I think that he was lying. It is crazy we have missed either 3 or 4 classes, which is almost half. I hope that we actually finish something. We have 3 classes left so we will see but I am hoping for the best. Tuesday I had lab like a normal day. However there was quite a large event that happened in the middle.

before

I SHAVED MY HEAD!


See I am still having fun. no worries.

I decided to go shorter

The title of this means baldhead. Me and 2 of my roommates did it and the next day 2 other girls did it. So there is a total of 5 Americans with shaved heads. I am donating my hair to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society in Cloetesville, which is a coloured section of Stellenbosch. So I am not completely crazy. However, initially I shaved it with a number 2 (this may mean nothing to you) but the next day I decided that it was too long and so I did it again with a number 1. I figured that if I was going to do it then I was going to do it well. Now for all of you that didn’t know this was one of my life long goals, to shave my head. It feels so strange. I love when people touch my hair and a lot of people do because they like the feeling. Also you can feel the smallest breezes and it gets cooler easier. It is crazy all the new feelings that I have. Sometimes I see pictures with my hair and I am like oh man I look different. You can be the judge on how you think it looks. So far all I have got was positive feedback and I was told that I was the best-looking bald girl. Haha what a compliment. Anyway I also realized that I used my hair to hide under, especially with my bangs. A more superficial example of this would be with zits etc.. But also if I was having a bad day I could cover my face so that people couldn’t see me as well. Also people can see my facial expressions more clearly now that I don’t have as much hair. I don’t know if that makes any sense but I found it interesting. I also don’t have to shower as often because my hair doesn’t get greasy and it is crazy how little shower that you need to use. So that was basically the big event of the week.

Wednesday classes went well that is the night that we had the two other American girls over so the night was busy because it takes a while to do. Thursday was fine I really enjoy the wine course that I have been taking but that was the last class in a classroom. We have the test on Tuesday evening. That night was the Concordia, the residence that I stay in, braai which was fun I got to hang out with some new people and we went out to one of the local bars after. There was a band playing but they were not very good. Friday I spent all day doing basically nothing it was amazing I caught up on a lot of sleep and got some work done. That night we had a girl’s night/ potluck dinner. We had salad, fruit salad, macaroni and cheese, cookies, and peach, pear and strawberry crisp. I was so full after but it was all wonderful.


Blakelee making her cookies

me doing dishes


rita and I are clearly not heloing right now







Becca with the bald girls there

Saturday I had an excursion for my wine class where we went wine tasting at 3 different farms. It was all paid for and we got a real nice lunch. We also got a sandwich for a snack, which I thought, was a different choice for a snack. The first farm we went to I didn’t like very much I didn’t think that the wine was that good. The wines didn’t have very much length.


The next wine place was much better. They had a good sauvignon Blanc and a red one I think it may have been a Shiraz but I forget. We also got a cellar tour. I wish that we could see it during the harvesting process but I will have left by the time they harvest which is disappointing but that is okay.





The last place was my favorite it was so gorgeous. The wine was delicious and we got to taste a pinotage that I liked and usually I don’t we also got to taste a late harvest which means that the wine was more sweet which is defiantly what I prefer because I have a huge sweet tooth.









We had lunch there, which we got some great bread and this salad and I think it was boobotie although it was cold. I am not sure if it was supposed to be cold or there was just so many of us. Boobotie is like lasagna but without noodles instead and egg thing. Then we got a fruit salad with a scoop of ice cream on the top. That evening I went to one of the neighboring flats and hung out with some people there. Today I have been doing some work and napping and watching some episodes of Friday night-lights. So that has basically been my week. All in all it was a good week. I hope that everything is going well with everyone at home.

Cheers.