So as I said I would not be a procrastinator on my blog…and I always have ideas that would be great to write, but it just seems that I just don’t seem to find the time. So I will not exhaust you with another super long post, just short updates on what I’ve been doing for the past week!!

So Jess’s parents came to visit her to make sure that she was doing well (which she is, she is doing GREAT) and we got to meet them which was wonderful. They were so much fun, the first night they were here they took a group of us, which is never a small number, out to amazing sushi at a place in Obs called 1890, and it was so good. Dinner and drinks, they were just so glad to meet us and see Jess that they wanted to take us out all week! So the next night we were going out to a club called Hemisphere, which is at the top of a building in downtown Cape Town and so we went to Long street with the Halperns’ to this place called Café Royale, and words don’t even describe. They kind of specialize in gourmet burgers and it was AMAZING. Hands down the best veggie burger I’ve ever had. In. my. Life. It was actual ground soy meat, topped with caramelized onions, garlic aoli, relish, pickles, onions, and the softest roll accompanied by sweet potato fries. Amazing. (Sorry I’m foodie-ing out on you, haha but its necessary). Then Hemisphere was awesome too, the view alone is great, and its fun to dress up around here every once in a while. The next night was the Halpern’s last night and they took us to a really nice dinner on the Victoria and Alfred waterfront, which is super touristy, but kind of awesome, and to a place called Belthezar, which claims to be the biggest wine bar in the world…right up my alley right? Haha, so we all had appetizers of fried camembert, calamari, oysters, and a shrimp and avocado cake and that was absolutely scrumptious as well. Then our main meals were all extremely fresh fish, caught that day, and accompanied by the Pinotage wine, which is a blend between a Pinot Noir and an Hermitage, and the grapes are unique to South Africa (I learned this on the wine tour before Jess’s accident). Followed by another night out…Cape Townians know how to party like nobody’s business.

I told you about my crazy landlord right? Well he has all these friends who work for him, and one of the guys who is always around our house Andrew, lives in a township about 15 minutes from Cape Town called Nyanga, and he and his family were hosting a braai there, and all of the kids in the houses that our landlord owns were invited and we all decided to go. We had an orientation for a service organization at our schools called SHAWCO and then in the boiling hot afternoon sun we all met up at the Obs train station and took buses, one of which just blasted dance music the entire time to Nyanga and to Andrew’s house. When we got there his sister was cooking up a storm and the braai was going with incredible scents coming from both the kitchen and the braai outside. We kind of just hung around outside, managed to get a cool drink because it was hotter than hell, and after a while kids and neighbors just started emerging from their homes and wanting to hang out with us. The kids mostly, they just LOVED us, and everyone had a child hanging on their back or on their shoulders and in love with them and following them around the whole day, it was a lot of fun to play with them all. A pick up game of soccer started and people were just drinking and eating and having themselves a really good time.

I was trying to figure out why braai’s are so different from barbeques back home, and the South African’s just know how to kick it way harder than we do, haha. Everyone is content just hanging out in the street, drinking beers, eating delicious homemade food, and there is just such a greater sense of community in the neighborhood braai’s than in American barbeques. I was so tired from the night before that I don’t feel like I got to experience it fully, but fingers crossed I will get another opportunity to drink and hang out and play soccer and experience it to its greatest extent. The funny thing is that we were actually warned in orientation that everyone will have profile pictures with little black babies running around and all that, and there are many of those photos, but whatever. They were great little kids.

Sunday was a recovery day, and today we started school again. I FINALLY got some textbooks, and am hunkering down for another week. I honestly feel like school is getting in the way of my experience here, haha, hopefully that will change. Oh so here are some pics, and I am too impatient to label them but there are pics of a juice box that was just so funny it says “apple or pear or grape & apricot” juice…what??? Hahah, there are too many “or’s” in that sentence, it just cracked me up, and its next to my little V-day gift from my excellent roommate Callie :) The others are of our house Valentines day dinner, of salmon, and roasted eggplant, mushrooms, onions, and stuffed peppers…so good. And of course me with the Halpern family, I had to get a picture because they were that fun…haha.

Oh, and I GOT WORLD CUP TICKETS!!!!)!(#*$!)&#%)(* I didn’t think I wanted them, and then everyone was excited to get theirs, and I had to apply. So last Tuesday I applied, and found out today that I will be attending the France v. Uruguay game on June 11, the first day of the games in Cape Town. Happy birthday to me right?!?