silly season

So, I love this place more and more everyday. From when we last left off, I had just ridden a bike  (a huge success in my life.) The next day Laura, Julie and I went on a city bus tour around Cape Town. We were doing really well in the morning even after only a few hours of sleep. We stopped at a couple museums along the way...the South African history museum and the Jewish museum. We wanted to get Julie ready for her big Shabbat dinner ahead so she had to learn her Jewish history. HA. But both were super interesting. We stopped in Camps Bay for some much needed lunch, where we ate at a cute place called Bungalow. Camps Bay is one of the prettiest parts of CT. The beach is gorgeous and there is a great boardwalk type thing with awesome restaurants, beautiful people and some nice little stores. Bungalow had some awesome food (recommended by Jude McD) BUT I must say I was very disappointed with my mango mojito, which Jude also recommended to me. I'm thinking the bartender was just way off that day cause Laura's drink sucked too. Either way, it was a nice cap off to our tourist day. That night we were invited to Shabbat dinner from this very nice lady I met at the Internet cafe a couple days before. Her GORGEOUS, 23 year old son picked us up and brought us back to their house. I, obviously tried to make my moves throughout the night. He regretted to inform the 3 of us that he had a girlfriend until we were about to leave the house. That was a big time let down..I thought this would be the perfect Jewish Safrican husband...ohhh well...I know he's here somewhere for me. But the food was great and the people were so kind and generous to lend us there home. It had a great view facing Table Mountain, with a nice backyard and pool. 

The next day 8 of us girls went to the horse races! It was a totally random, spur of the moment plan, but it turned out to be one of my favorite and most interesting days here thus far. The people at this event were absolutely outrageous. The entire race had a disco theme. There were tons of couples dressed up in the most absurd outfits I have ever encountered in my life. They pretty 100% bedazzled...pictures will follow, it doesn't hit home until you see the actual people. But we got there are 10:30 in the morning and obviously started drinking right away. Laura and I bet on 6 of the races...I, to no ones surprise, chose the totally wrong horses while Laura ended up walking about winning 2 of the races. She won a whopping 44 rand...either way, much more than I can say. I decided to choose the horse that can hobbling in 40 seconds after ALL of the other horses. Real good choice Stevi...picked a winner. After the races we came back to the apts., rested a little, showered, then headed back out to the after-party of the races. That ended up kind of being a bust but we all somehow ended up back at the apts. singing show tunes and passing around bottles of wine and champagne...a great night cap. 

The next day was a full day of UCT orientation. All of the other American kids have now arrived at this point (something that makes all of us Interstudy kids unhappy.) We feel like veterans by this point and are totally territorial and snobby about this place we don't want to share it with anyone else! Either way, we had to spend the day with 300 American kids touring CT. We did go to a couple sweet places though like the Cape of Good Hope where we did a mini hike and saw this gorgeous view. We also went to Boulder's Beach where there are PENGUINS! I was expecting these huge penguins walking around, but they were smaller than expected. Either way, they were super cute and wobbly. Julie and our friend Charlie decided that I was somewhat like a penguin because of my very short legs like the penguins have...they enjoyed making fun of the way I walked up Table Mountain and how for every one step they took, I had to take at least 2-3. Really nice of them. That night Laura and I took it easy and went to go see Vicky Christina Barcelona. (Movies come out here months after they do in the States.) 

Yesterday (Monday) all the American kids were forced to take this really really reallllly ridiculously stupid test called the PTEEP test, which tested our English skills. We found out after the 2 and a half hour test that it counted for absolutely nothing except statistics. Let's just say no one was happy about that. Either way, we seemed to feel like this test was an absolute insult to our intelligence. We did learn allll about craftsmanship though and how there are formal and informal sectors for the crafts. Awesome. We came home, rested, I burned myself with vegetable oil while cooking dinner, then we headed to a bar called Tin Roof (the one that loves to play all American 90's music.) I had a great time though. 

Today Laura, Julie and I got our nails done. No nail place seems to have nail dryers here, which confuses me, but either way, it was nice to get pampered. After that, we headed to Muizenberg on the train and Laura and I learned how to surf!!!! Our trusty friends, Matt and Jon were troopers and sat out there with us and taught us. I got up 4 or 5 times, which I was not expected, but it was super fun and we are planning on heading back out tomorrow. Laura was really close to making it up but tended to get nervous once she got to her knees. I have faith that she will get up tomorrow though. Tonight, we are staying in to get a good nights rest. Hope this is enjoyable! Miss you all.

Stevi