Wendy B in CT

Hey friends :)
so I know I already mentioned that my mother is in town visiting me, but MY MOM IS HERE!! Cape Town is really far away from many things, she lost two days traveling so its kind of a big deal.

Friday when she showed up, I was basically sitting in my house just staring out the window waiting for her to get there. She rolls up and I was just too excited for words. My roommate Jess was even just sitting around, she had to go to school at some point, but she wanted to meet my mom. So I got to show my mom my house, she got to meet Jess, and then we just had a little lunch at home, and then took a walk around observatory to show her my hood. She loved it of course, because what's not to love about Obs? That afternoon Callie, Amanda, Taryn, Jess and Stephen were the only people still home because everyone else had gone on their fabulous vacations already so we all went to Florentine for dinner, and got mojitos and delicious dinners. Then Wendy and I packed a bag of mine and said bye to everyone else except for Taryn (she is staying in CT for break) and headed to our lil Atlantic View Hotel!


And hotel is probably too plebian a word for this place...honestly. They have drivers who picked us up from my house in Obs in a mercedes, took us to the hotel which is up these tiny windy streets in Camps Bay and we met at reception of the hotel which was beautiful...the view is nothing short of incredible...really. Almost 180 degrees of straight ocean, really really incredibly amazing. Then we got to our room or shall I say suite?? Hands down the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in (peep the pics). We have a living room, a small kitchenette a bedroom, bathroom, and look out to the most that view over an infiniti edge pool. A step up from a 17 person house with bars on all the windows? I think so...its a vacation in Cape Town for me.


The next day we went to the Old Biscuit Mill to have a look in the shops, taste lots of good eats, and of course run into 6 people that I know, haha. We got delish mule beverages, and just enjoyed our selves. It wasnt the most beautiful of days, but the sun came out about midday. We decided to get a flatbread pizza this time...it wasnt baked at all but was this crispy pieces of foccacia bread, with a small layer of marinara sauce spread over it, slices of parmesan, rocket (which is like arugala), avocado, artichoke hearts and delicious. Then we decided to go into town and take one of those giant red bus tours. Super touristy, but hey I'm a tourist with Wendy :) It was nice to see some things, but it wasnt the most informative because it was all pre recorded information, but good for Wendy I think. Then we got dropped off in Camps Bay and headed to free wine hour at our hotel! After that we went just down into Camps Bay to have dinner at the Kove (where I had the amazing king crab tempura at the very beginning of the trip!) and came back and crashed.


Day 2: We wanted to hike...I had some school things to take care of in the morning so we got a real late start, but headed to my house in Obs to pick up Taryn and some lunch. We made lunch at home and then went to Kierstenbosch gardens to find some hiking paths. I haven't really hiked in Cape Town yet and it was great! The paths were well marked and cool, we did not make it all the way to the top of the mountain, but we'll save that for another day and then we got to walk around the botanical gardens after we decided we did not want to continue hiking for fear of being caught on the trails at night. We made it back to obs and then went to our good old favorite Asia Supermarket for dinner for some spicy tuna rolls, and pad si ewe as they spell it here. Haha, then we all went back to our lovely perch in Camps Bay and watched a movie together, and then slept comfortably 3 people in our King size bed.


Day 3: This morning was the first clear morning so we took advantage! Taryn and I decided to swim in our two infinity edged pools here...what we did not take into consideration was the extreme wind. No one can understand the "Cape Doctor" or the torrential wind storms unless you have been to Cape Town yourself. Intense. So we jumped in and froze a little bit, and then jumped out of that pool and then into the other pool and by that time, we were frozen so it felt okay, we could stay in it for a little bit. Basically we have a lil slice of heaven here. Then we showered, got ready, and headed down to Long street for lunch and a little shopping, but it was a holiday unfortunately so there werent too many things open. But Royale Eatery was open, so we grabbed a DELISH (as usual) burger and shake and then walked around a bit. Because things were closed we decided to head to the waterfront and get a glass of wine at Belthazar, the biggest wine bar in the world! Haha, so we did, and some appetizers: a beet and roasted butternut salad, avocado and prawn tower, and fried camembert on top of rocket with cranberry sauce....right up my alley. Then with Taryn in tow we headed back to the hotel for a movie, and another night of cuddling in our big bed.




Day 4: We hiked lion's head! The most beautiful views of the city and a great climb, at one point we had to go up a ladder...crazy. Then I had to be at school all day...rude...but I met my mom for dinner at Fork on Long street and we had a lovely leisurely 3 hour meal, it was great. Then back to the hotel for another relaxing night.



Day 5: We walked ourselves ALL over town today. We started at City Hall to see the Spier Contemporary art exhibit, and it was awesome and kind of weird as contemporary art usually is. They had a great gift store though, and then we headed up to the Bo Kaap neighborhood. It was kind of rainy and drizzly so we went into a super cute store called the Rhubarb Room (which I've been too before) and had lunch there. It was just delicious! This store is such a cute little place, lots of fun stuff to look at and buy and a perfect little lunch menu with coffee and no tourists, its awesome. After lunch and a few purchases, I took my mom up to the most colorful street on the Bo Kaap and took some pics, then headed down to Rose street to see a few cool galleries that they have there. Awesome stuff, and I got a cool necklace that has one of the symbols of South Africa on it, its a kudu which is a kind of antelope, and I can't wait to wear it! We just walked all over, and ended up in the Cape Quarter, which is kind of a high society shopping place, and had a late lunch/snack to relax our weary feet, and then headed back to the hotel to enjoy cocktail hour and some rest.




Day 6: This was our Cape Point day! When I went to dinner with my aunt's friends Bonnie and Jeff, Jeff told me that his nephew was a private tour guide so I got in contact with him and we decided to do Cape Point with him. It was a great idea, he was such a wealth of knowledge and we didn't have to be with hecka tourists. Today was also cloudy so it wasnt the best conditions but as we were at the Cape the clouds lifted and it got warm, and it was absolutely gorgeous. We also got to see so many more animals than I saw the first time I was here! We saw TONS of baboons, and even wild ostriches! I couldn't believe it...they are such strange big birds. My mom absolutely loved it, which I knew she would and my dad would have loved it too...wish he was here!! Garth, our tour guide, took us to lunch in Simon's Town, and then to see the penguins at Boulder beach, which I feel like I saw many more penguins than the first time I went too...great for Wendy! As we were driving back we got to see so many other beautiful views, drive through wine country in Constantia and his home town of Sea Point, so that was interesting as well. Then we came back, sat down for a few minutes, and then went to have cocktails in the reception area of the hotel, and went to dinner with two other hotel guests at an Italian place called Posticino. The Italian food was actually really really good...I had been craving some pasta real badly. I was so tired from our early and active day that at about 10:30pm I was ready to crash...so I did. And tomorrow is round two on wine tasting in Stellenbosch. Haha, though this will involve no bikes!

WENDY IS HERE!!!

Wendy Boyd Johnson has arrived safely and soundly in Cape Town!! Cant wait to have fabulous adventures. Be back with stories soon!!

Flamjangled Tea Party Madness

So, if you didn’t know already…I went to a tea party last weekend. And it was crazy. So being in San Francisco, I am used to festivals of all kinds, Outside Lands is a 3 day music festival in Golden Gate park that I went to this year, Love Fest is basically an outdoor rave, Power to the Peaceful is a free concert in the park, all involve dressing up, or in Love fest’s case wearing the tightest, shiniest, most obnoxious outfit ever, so I felt like I was adequately prepared for this “tea party.”


We actually had NO idea what to expect, and it was in the middle of a winery in Contermanskloof which is not close to Cape Town. So we just kind of decided to try something new, and my lovely roommates Jess, Amanda, Callie, Taryn and our friend Nicole all went. We took a cab there, and as we were driving there I thought we were in California. There were outdoor shopping centers like CA, beautiful weather, beautiful houses on a river, it was just gorgeous and very California-esque. As we get closer to the winery, we are getting into a more and more rural area…and the thought that was going through everyone’s minds was…”where the hell are we going??” We finally arrive, and you cannot bring glass inside the festival, and Callie had brought a 6 pack of beer, so we all had to chug a beer in order to get in, which was a nice start to the festivities, haha. Ohh, did I mention that this was an overnight festival? As in, Ariana camped…yes for the first time in my life. So we get there, and see the camping area and proceed to set up our tent. Let me back up…so me and my roomies are all in the mountain and ski club at UCT, and so we have access to be able to rent tents, and rock climbing gear and what not, so on Friday we went to rent a tent, and the guy told us that he was technically not allowed to rent us a tent for parties on wineries, but he would do it for us. Then as we began to set it up…it was broken…haha. First of all, we look like six silly American girls who cannot put up a tent, and people were literally just watching us and yelling from a distance watching us struggle…I admit we must have looked funny. Then finally some nice men came over to help us, and they saw that it was indeed broken and that we were not stupid, and they macgyvered it some how so that it stood up. Success!

After that whole ordeal, we decided to go check out the music part of the festival. There was an eating area where there were different vendors selling clothing, paintings, Royale had a booth selling their delish burgers, and it was just rather sophisticated, and SO San Francisco. Honestly…that was just how Outside Lands was this year. Then we continued onto another field, and there was a main stage, next to a Lagoon and it was picturesque and beautiful. We got a few drinks, and danced our hearts out. The music was great dancing music, though I think everyone else there was on a LOT of drugs, and in crazy Alice in Wonderland type costumes, lots of mad hatters and Alice’s and even tea cups. At some point we decided we needed to eat, so we went to one of the tents, and I got a DELISH veggie pizza, and met up with some other kids from our school who came, and then we went back to the dance floor! (Peep the pics) At some point, I think it was about 11pm, we decided that we needed a nap. So we went back to our tent, and our one sleeping bag (what were we thinking?) and all went to sleep. At about 1:30am, our school friends came and shook the tent and told us to get up and come play! So Amanda, Callie, Taryn, Nicole, and Callie’s friend Lior and I all went to see what was going on in the fields. The main stage had closed but there was a farm house that had a sign on it that said “Munged Bean Shebeen” and there was a DJ inside and they were selling drinks outside, so we danced in the Munged Bean Shebeen for a while, and then headed back to the tent, made friends with some people in the tents next to us and layed in the grass looking at stars for a while. The stars were beautiful out in the open space of the winery, and I saw the Southern Cross constellation for the first time! I am in astronomy, and learned about it and you can only see it from the Southern Hemisphere, so I felt like I was kind of studying…haha. Then Amanda, Nicole and I decided that we needed to go back to the Munged Bean Shebeen, and this is around 4am, and we hung out there for a while, made some more friends, and then eventually went back to our tent around 6 am and slept for a hot minute. It was a 3 person tent, and I think there were 7 people in it…no blankets and uncomfortable, and then around 8am, it got so hot I couldn’t even be in the tent anymore, haha. So we got up, ate breakfast and headed back to Cape Town to take a long nap. The Tea Party was wonderful, and enjoying all of the fun that Cape Town has to offer :)

This Weather

This week has been HOT as in epic proportions HOT. Like you need to make sure you're wearing clothes that don't show sweat marks because that's just embarrassing. Sunday was so hot, I tried to go to Cocoa Cha Chi a coffee and interwebz place to do some homework and I sat there for a while stewing in my own sweat, and then finally realized that I couldn't think and needed to leave. When I got home, I immediately put a sports bra and shorts on, took Jess's fan out of her room and parked myself to study. So much better. I also slept in Jess's room, because she has a double bed, a dark room, and a fan...so necessary in this heat. Monday was also a sweaty mess, and then Tuesday was nice, still shorts and T weather, but much cooler, then it got real cold and rainy. What the deuce?? So Wednesday was cold and rainy, but today, Thursday has been hot and lovely again. And I realized that I probably enjoy wearing shorts, tee shirts, and dresses and sweating a bunch to being cold all the time. I guess that's what I get for growing up in Orange County right?

And just because I know you guys wanted to see my feet, I had to include a picture of my RIDICULOUS sandal tan line. Its so much better in real life, but here's a little taste ;)


This week has been a fabulous foodie week as well!! My aunt Christina who lives in NY had a friend, Bonnie, and her boyfriend Jeff who were visiting Cape Town, and Jeff is a Cape Town native. So they took me out to dinner last night (so nice of them) and we got to talk and we were all fellow pescatarians, and foodies!! We went to Fork, the tapas restaurant that I had mentioned earlier in some posts that was just as delectable the second time around. It was also really wonderful to meet Bonnie and Jeff and I had a great time!!

Also, not to toot my own horn, but I kind of love to cook and experiment. The hard part here is that recipes that I love in the US I cant do here because of measurements, so I need to find a cook book here. Anyways...this has forced me to be creative and just kind of make up recipes and such. Also, in our kitchen the burners are electric which is not ideal (and do not work when the power goes out like on Wednesday) and they are all switched...so its a science to figure out which switch is turning on which burner, haha. And the oven is in celcius, so thats different too. But I've gotten the swing of things I believe, two nights ago I made an excellent veggie salad with some butternut squash, zucchini, red onion, red pepper, I roasted some asparagus, and crumbled feta cheese over the whole top, and then topped if off with some balsamic vinegar and toast with hummus....SO YUMMY, healthy, and beautiful! I love a colorful meal. And today I was starving and decided to make myself a breakfast burrito with eggs, hummus on the tortilla and melted feta in the eggs. Nothing could have satiated my ravenous hunger more than that lunch I just had DELISH.

On a sad note...my parents just informed me that Theo, my beloved 19 year old car is on his last legs :( I was irrationally upset, hahah I am so ridiculously attached to my car. But here's a lil love between Theo and myself. And Akima. Theo does dance parties well :)

This Week

Sorry with the delinquency again on the blog…but now I’m writing when I should be doing homework, haha. This week was pretty fun, our roommate and good friend Callie turned 21!!! So of course we had to party hard. Tuesday night we went out to Zula on Long street, which is an awesome bar. They had live music and later on a DJ, the only part that was unfortunate was that there were not that many people there on a Tuesday, but we roll pretty deep so its always a party where we go. Of course, Wednesday I was completely useless, so I didn’t go to my third class and opted to go home and take a nap. This week has also been record HOT, and its impossible to sleep during the day time unless you have a fan. I really wanted to take a nap on the couch, but my roommate Ari had the same idea I did about napping that afternoon and when I got home was sprawled across it, so I stole the fan out of his room and had myself a lovely, cool nap. Then Wednesday night Callie wanted to go out to dinner with all of us, so we went to a restaurant called Café Ganesh, which was delicious!! Why am I surprised, I haven’t had one bad meal in Cape Town. It was kind of Indian food, kind of mediterranean, and awesome. My roommate Taryn and I split a falafel, and a vegetable roti, which was out of this world, I wish I had a pic to show you! Then we decided to do Obs night. So we went to Stones and had two for one beers, and hung out there all night. I don’t know why Wed is Obs night because we discovered this week that they have specials all week, and on Wed ALL of the study abroad kids go there, so its nice to go on another night, and meet new people. We went home and just hung out with roomies, which is always awesome. I think Callie had an excellent birthday J
I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but our house had a separate component to it that is a room with a couch, a bar, and an outside courtyard area but we didn’t have keys to it until a couple of weeks ago, so now we can use it which is wonderful! The outside area is also on the street and was just wrought iron bars, so it wasn’t ideal to hang out there, but our landlord just added wood siding all around it, so now we have a private courtyard and its so much fun! So Thursday night, no one really went out, but we all hung out in our courtyard. Our roommate Katie had some friends over, and they were kind of partying, but the rest of us just sat chillin outside. Our roommate Will, (I feel like I’ve said “our roommate” 500 times, but I hate when people talk about their friends like you know who they are when you don’t…so I’m gonna continue, haha) went to a progressive high school in LA, and they used to do this thing called ahomataquiase, where they sit together and there is a talking piece, in our case we used a candle, and the person with the candle gets to speak, and we all went around and just basically loved on each other. We all mentioned how much fun we are having in the house, and how much we appreciate each other, and it was so funny because just inside the courtyard Katie and her friends were partying and we were being all spiritual outside, but it was a nice chill night, and it was fun.
Friday night we went out to dinner with Taryn’s parents because they are visiting at Café Royale on Long Street. I’ve mentioned this place before but their veggie burgers are the best I’ve ever had. No questions asked, and we had a couple bottles of wine, and it was just lovely. Then we ended up going to Stones again, and met these three guys who were from Cape Town, Kenya and Spain and were doing a sailing course here and they were so cool and we just chilled with them all night. Saturday, Jess and I had a little date day! We wanted to try something new, so we went to this place called Cape Quarter, which is a really ritzy shopping area. It actually reminded me a lot of LA, it had really cool home stores, and restaurants, and in a really nice outdoor/indoor flow of space (that one was for you Alvin!). Oh, and we also ran into the pride parade when we were walking…amazing. We also went to the Bo Kaap neighborhood, which is a Cape Malay neighborhood, it is still kind of sketchy and there’s not much to see besides the wonderfully colored houses! See pics, but Jess and I walked there and found some cool shops and galleries, and then headed back to Cape Quarter for lunch. We got a recommendation from a shop owner about a restaurant called Voila, so we decided to try it out. Best decision ever. Jess and I decided to do it real big, so we got mojitos, and then split two sandwiches. She got a goat cheese, roasted veggie, and rocket sammy on ciabata bread, and I had egg salad with watercress on ciabata, along with some zucchini fries and it was DELECTABLE. So so good, and then we decided to get dessert as well, haha. Bread and butter pudding, incredible. Then we headed home, and I did homework until about 8, and then out to a house party with the roomies. Pretty successful weekend. And Wendy is coming in 12 days!! Well she is leaving in 10, but you lose 2 days traveling here, so I’ll see her in 12, and I already got the countdown and am so excited.

Township Homestay

So last weekend was our township homestay! We started off in Mowbray meeting our tour guides and the other students going, and then taking a taxi to the village of Tambo to meet with our families that we would be staying with. Getting to these places is always kind of funny, because we bus into these villages, hella white kids with back packs and such, and walk in a big group into the village – clearly not blending into anything. We arrived at the “mama’s” house who organizes all of the homestays, and we all kind of chilled in her house, until the other mamas showed up to collect us. We got randomly paired off, I was with the other vegetarian girl, and we went to our homes for the evening. Our mama, Mama Nomge (I’m not sure about spelling?) had a 16 year old daughter, and a 26 year old daughter, and the 26 year old had an 18 month old daughter. The 26 year old was away for work, so our mama was watching her granddaughter, and this baby was SO CUTE. I told my mom that I was going to come back from Africa with an African baby, and I found the one I want to steal if possible. Her name was Mali, and she was just the most precious baby.

Precious babies aside, me and the other girl Catherine, helped our mama make us a vegetarian dinner (a rarity in the townships, so it was so nice of her to do that), and then we ate our veggie dinner with samp, which is a maize dish common in the townships. The dinner was delicious and then we just kind of hung out, asking the daughter and the mama questions about the township, and they asked us about Obama, and about knowing your neighbors in the US, haha (she was appalled that we don’t know our neighbors). I kind of wish we had gotten to walk around a little bit more, and see more of the township, but it was also nice to stay at home and get to talk. The house she lived in was actually really nice, there was a good sized living room when you walked in with a small dining table, couches, and an entertainment center where the tv was. A kitchen with all the amenities, and three bedrooms. The bathroom was probably the biggest difference, because there is just a tub, and you have to fill the tub with hot water from the kitchen to bathe. So the girl I stayed with and I were both pretty tired and went to bed around 10:15, party!! Haha, in the morning we woke up and got dressed and our mama had this whole breakfast spread for us, of tea, toast, something similar to cream of wheat or grits, and it was lovely. She wasn’t coming to church with us because her granddaughter was feverish and she needed to look after her, so we met up with all of the other students and then walked to church together. The service was Christian, and it was hotter than any place I’ve been. It was just still hot air. In the middle of the sermon I had to get up and get water because I couldn’t handle it anymore. But the service was good, the preachers were both from England, and they had someone translating into Xhosa, which is probably why the service was so long. There was a lot of singing, and it was nice. They even had all of us visitors stand up and introduce ourselves, and they had a map where we could put a pin indicating where we were from. We were very welcomed.
After the service, was time for Mzolis!! It was so hot that we were all sweating profusely, which has become a norm for me. We walked through Tambo, to Guguletu, and Mzoli’s was poppin. No other way to describe it…I don’t even have words to describe the atmosphere but I’m gonna try. So we walk in, and there is a DJ playing music, and people just sitting at tables kickin it. Here you bring your own side dishes basically, and you can bring your own alcohol or buy it there and then you order a big platter of meat, and you eat with your hands. It sounds like not that much fun, but the atmosphere is just amazing. South African’s kick it harder than anyone I know, really. So we waited for a bit because we were supposed to have tables reserved for us, but Sundays at Mzoli’s are the craziest days of the week and everyone and their grandma and their cousin is there, so we ended up having to stand in the sun, and eat there. Not ideal. It was so hot, we saw a girl pass out in the street. To be honest, it wasn’t the best Mzoli’s experience I could have had. Our roommates went before and they went on a Saturday, so it was less crowded but still poppin, they had a table so they could sit in the shade, and it wasn’t as hot the day they went, so I just need to go back. Oh, and I had my overnight bag with me so that sucked too, cuz it was heavy and I had to keep my eye on it the entire time. I just need to go back when I have no bags, and when we can get a table, but Mzoli’s was still awesome. Then we headed home in a mini bus and then straight to the shower! Haha, a cold shower of course. I have always hated cold showers, even when it is so hot outside, but here they are a necessity. But I am not complaining, I’d rather be wearing shorts and tshirts than winter boots, and jackets.