A weekend in Stellenbosch

What a great weekend! Saturday was a lazy day filled with lots of nothing… lounging by the pool, going to the botanical garden and reading, shopping, exploring more of the city, etc. It was very refreshing after two weeks of orientation, homework, getting lost, and trying to figure out a class schedule.

My house rented two cars for the next five months. They are two of the crappiest VW Bugs I’ve ever seen and I love them! I'll have to get some pictures of them posted at some point. We got up Sunday morning and went out to the country. Stellenbosch is located in the heart of wine country so we were on a hunt for some vineyards. When in Rome… right? We found some of the most beautiful views and I can already tell it’s going to be hard to leave. We had no trouble finding some amazing vineyards and got to sample some of the local wines. We had a friend along with us that has grown up in a family in the wine business and is studying wine now. He would tell us all what we were supposed to be looking at/smelling/tasting and we would all pretend that we understood what he was saying. “Yeah, of course I smell green peppers and asparagus.” “I agree, 2005 was a good year.” “Ah, yes, finally a robust blend” I’m getting good at pretending to be a wine expert.

When I got back to the house I met some other Americans for church. I asked someone in town for directions to the church and they explained that it was by Pick N’ Pay, above the Pet Palace. I can honestly say it was the first time I had to enter through a pet store to go to church. The church we went to was started by a group of students and it was a lot of fun. I love going to church around the world, it's a good reminder of how big God is. It doesn't matter if you're at an orphanage in Kenya, or an elderly club in Romania, or a pet store in South Africa, or Christ Lutheran in Nauvoo, IL... we are all worshiping the same God... a God of the world. I love it! After church they invited us out for supper with them and we had a great time. It was great to meet some more South Africans and laugh a lot. Definitely a great way to start the week!

Coming up this week..

-Amanda comes to town!

-First visit to my service-learning site.

-Stellenbosch Wine Festival!

-Class...

you win some... you loose some

I've been in South Africa for about a week and a half and I'm starting to learn about stuff... and have some experiences.

Good and Bad


Omo washing powder. I've always been a liquid detergent kind of girl but apparently they don't sell that in South Africa... or at least not at the Pick n' Pay. I tried this stuff and I'm a believer. It smells like bubble bath. The first time I used it I had no idea how much to put in so I dumped in way too much and those clothes REALLY smell like bubble bath.


Cloth shopping bags. Now that I don't have a car to haul the groceries I buy and they make me pay for plastic bags I've really come to appreciate these amazing inventions. They carry a lot more and are much easier to carry.
Yum Yum peanut butter. I thought I was doomed when I saw they didn't sell Jiff so I bought the peanut butter with the catchiest advertising... pleasant surprise.

TLC Fingernail polish remover, the stuff is magic. They only sold tiny bottles and now I see why. I think the fumes alone would melt any polish right off. I hate to think about what it's doing to my nails though...


Country Fresh ice cream with Bar One sauce. I think a Bar One bar is some sort of candy bar but I have yet to try it. At a pizza place I got a Bar One shake and it was AMAZING. You can imagine how happy I was to see it in a carton at Pick N' Pay.

Sadly not everything is so great.

Individually wrapped, 1 ply, toilet paper rolls. Who came up with this idea? Not people who have a house full of people who have to carry everything they buy in a cloth Pick N' Pay bag... that's for sure. Give me a 48 pack of Charmin please.

Bearshare. This is the program I use to download all of my music. I love bearshare and I've been a loyal customer for years. I opened up all of my music and BAM doesn't work outside of North America. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do.


Ketchup. It's disgusting. It tastes like some kind of fruity vinegar sauce. I'm going to have to see if Pick N' Pay has anything else to offer me...

Some pictures from Kenya...

Since it took like an hour just to upload these pictures I'll just start with this...
These are just a few of my favorite pictures. I love these kids :)

I'm a horse.

Any time you travel or move to a new city there is always a period of time to get your bearings and figure out the lay of the land. I feel like for me, in a foreign city, that period of time has been slightly ridiculous. I seem to have inherited my mother's sense of direction... I'll think I'm doing fine when I'm walking the streets but as soon as I enter a building it's as though I've entered a marry-go-round. I have no idea where I've come out. I would walk for miles in the wrong direction if I was left unattended. For almost a week I was forced to wait for somebody else in order to travel anywhere and that was quite a pain; I like a little independence.

My solution?

Think like a horse. In chess the horse can only move in an "L". That's what I do, only two streets at a time. Yesterday I gave it a try and I'm happy to say it was a success. I'll L my way around the city all year if that's what it takes.
Free at last!

And this is where I live...

Many have requested to see pictures of where I'm living. I wanted to talk about Kenya first instead but I don't know what to say. I guess I'll post some pictures of South Africa until then. I got to Stellenbosch a few hours before everyone else in my group which meant I had first dibs on housing. This is by far the nicest housing and I'm super super lucky. We have 11 people living in the pool house... American, Dutch, and German. It's kinda like Real World South Africa. Stay tuned to see what happens when 11 strangers from all over the world live together...

If you click on the pictures you can get a better look at them.
They're not very good quality since it's such a slow upload...

Picture 1 is just a picture overlooking the city. I love the mountains :)
Picture 2 is a view of the mountains as seen from my front door.
Picture 3 is just the house from the outside.
Picture 4 is the POOL! Yeah, I have a pool.
Picture 5 is just looking over the sitting area into the kitchen. It's not the greatest picture but you can get the idea. All of the appliances are new and we have a washer and dryer that we can use for free. We also have a maid. She works five days a week. It's kinda strange for me but it's really nice to have somebody that does dishes so I think I'll be able to adapt. My room is down on the right side where you see the door to go outside.
Picture 6 is my room. I was going to wait until it was clean and unpacked to take a picture... but that will probably never happen so I just did it now. It's small but my bed is new and comfy and it came with a down comforter. If you know me at all you'll know how amazing that is.

I had more pictures that I was going to add but it takes forever to upload them so I think this is enough for now.