"Good wine is a necessity of life for me." -Thomas Jefferson

Okay so here is an update on the past 2 weeks. The wine course started for this semester. We had the 4 classes and the test is going to be on Tuesday although it doesn’t matter how I do because I have already passed it and I don’t get credit for it anyway but we had 2 different teachers each for 2 classes. One of the ladies was the one that I had last semester so those classes just proved to be a repeat of last semester but when we had the other lady it was interesting because she brought in new facts, which was cool. I liked it one of the facts is why a bottle of wine is only 750mL and not a liter or something that makes a little more sense and they think it is because when people used to blow the glass to make the bottles the biggest bottle that could be made was 750mL. So that is a nice random fact for you guys. On Tuesday the 15th I had a lunchish thing with people from Northwestern University in Chicago here. It was for the HIV peer education group. They are studying here for a quarter and all of them are minoring in world health, which was really neat. They all seemed very sweet and were surprised to meet me well an American in the group. Nothing was really noteworthy this week just homework and school the normal. On Friday though we left for the Cederberg Mountains, which was loads of fun. We got there not to late like around 5ish so we unpacked. I stayed in a Cabin with Alex, Bonnie, Anna, Katy and Morgan. That night we before dinner I played on the swing set and did the monkey bars and a little girl told me I was to big to play on them :( right after I gave up my swing for her because her friend was swinging next to me but that is okay people just made fun of me because I was bullied by a 7 year old. After that I hung out and talked with some of the drivers and the group and helped cut the rolls for dinner. Then we ate dinner, which was boerewors and salad. It was good. After that we just hung around under the stars and talked it was great.

sunset



dyer (my hat was a hit thanks Debbie)
Then next day we hiked wolfberg cracks like last semester but this time it was much cooler and it rained. At the top it was freezing we ended up doing like a penguin huddle and rotated who was on the outside and who was on the inside. IT was quite entertaining except for the fact that we were freezing. The hike was nice and it just reminds me how much I enjoy hiking so I should do that more. When we got back a group of us went to this pool where people went cliff jumping.. I did not. Then I went back and took a nap with Chelsea. We had dinner and then we all hung around the fire and had some wine and smores, which were delicious. At midnight it was Kate's birthday so I went to her cabin and sang happy birthday to her it was nice.

dyer and chels



rainbow

a group of us

yup we hike with our socks up!

the top




the cliff people jumped off of


Katy Me and William

Laura and I

Happy Birthday Kate (our cake is an apple with a candle on it)
The next day we had breakfast and wine tasted at one of the best wineries in South Africa, which was delicious. Then we went to the rock art and had lunch and explored in that area and then we came home. So all in all it was a great weekend.


the rocks were so interesting





The next week I had a normal day of class with the wine class as an extra and then went to Bronwyn's for dinner where bronwyn, Louis and Genevieve planned their camping trip and I just ate. We had salad, potatoes and this good chicken. It was a great meal. The next day was class as normal but that night it was the continuation of the tradition of Tuesday after cederberg where Bethany shaved her head! It was great...she looks amazing I am so proud of her for doing it herself as well. Amazing.

She is getting ready...I borught her some champagne

The next day same as normal but that night I went to a concert at a local bar of Goldfish again. It was great. It was very packed but the music was good and I didn’t get stepped on too much and I made it pretty close to the stage. The next day was class as normal but then I went to Kayamandi to help Katy with her service site where I taught 2 ladies from the community who were entrepreneurs how to use the computer like how to turn it on and off and how to get on to the internet and get to google and one other web page. It was amazing how much I took for granted that people would know but really we just grew up with the computers so things aren’t second nature. It was a great experience. Friday my class got canceled so I had the whole day to do some work and clean etc... It was good and I ended up going to bed early, which is what I needed.

The next day was the wine excursion for the wine class where we went to 3 wine farms and had tasting. It was nice especially since I haven’t really been wine tasting this semester. I ended up buying a bottle of pinotage, which is surprising because normally I don’t like pinotage but this one was good. We had this sweet lasagna for lunch, which was good and then came home where I took a nap. After that I made dinner and then went over to a friends room and watched some music videos and then went to Concordia (where I lived last semester) and hung out with Grant and then watched part of the NFL draft (yeah it was on here crazy) with some guys that I know that live there like dyer, Ryan and Andrew.



at Villera

Morgan, Kate, Dionne

Anna and me

Simonsig


Anna, Alex, Bonnie at Morgenhof

Morgenhof

The next day was the Cheese and Wine festival. So it was more cheese and more wine. It was good I ate way too much cheese, my digestive system wasn’t too happy with me, and had some wine. It turned into a nice warm day so it was great to be outside enjoying the weather. That night I went to Emily and Dionne's room and watched a few episodes of sex in the city and then came here and went to bed pretty early again (I am turning into an old lady). Katy's dad, uncle and friend came up yesterday but I haven’t met them yet.

Bethany, Bonnie, Me, Whitney

Today we don’t have school so I have been getting work done and catching up on stuff. So that is my past 2 weeks. I hope all is well with you guys. Stay well

cheers.