CAPE TOWN!

Sorry for the delay. Things have been quite hectic pretty much from the moment we left and are going to continue in that vein for awhile... but, we'll get to that...

Sooooooo Cape Town.  Probably best described as a bender.  Didn't really have the opportunity to take a lot of pictures, but here's a few highlights:

Day 1: Soccer Game!  US won 1-0!!!!  Woot woot!  Ok so the soccer was kind of crappy but the stadium was un-freaking-believable!  Really, truly gorgeous!  And the obnoxious American fans were represented well.  And of course... Team Paramount REUNITED!!!!!!  I even got to meet Tony's little boy.  So freaking adorable!

Day 2: Hanging out at the intern house, a total college house on the inside (7 people with three bathrooms), located in a beautiful neighborhood with adorable, little streets that we walked around, could of sworn I was in Europe.  Oh yeah, and they have a ridiculous view of Table Mountain.  Unbelievable.  Absolutely breathtaking.  Hey, at least I got to see it.  Will have to return for the climb.  Confirmed a guy passed out half in the street was alive.  Go team.  Got some awesome quiche and cappuccino (Cape Town has a total cafe culture, which was to die for- yes, I realize I sound like a snoot, deal with it, slash I was eating quiche and cappuccino with a bunch of American jock males so ha).  Went and hung out in a beautiful local park, super euro again.  Exposed to the colored culture of Cape Town, very distinct, with their own dialect of Afrikaans, missing front teeth (oh, yes, on purpose), and very aggressive with their interactions with whites.  Creates a very different dynamic amongst the races than in other urban areas of South Africa.  GATSBIES!  Ridiculous, ginormous sandwiches found in the township, with everything, and I mean everything, on it, including french fries and enough mayonnaise to swim in.  For dinner: an Oreo milkshake- a little taste of home.  TRIVIA NIGHT!  I think we came in second to last.  We started out strong and then hit some roadblocks when it came to sections of naming South African political officials.  False promises of questions targeted towards the international crowd!  Continued the night out which ended up with dancing at a hip hop club called Jo'burg, oh and don't forget the stop for late night Boerwurst from a street vendor.  Couldn't of been happier.

Day 3: More chilling, more good food.  Got to check out the Grassroot Soccer office, very fancy pants, definitely different vibe, a lot of white people, a lot of Americans.  Seems like they have a good thing going though, but definitely different experience for volunteers.  Tim took me on what I think was the only sight seeing I did the whole time on our walk back from the office.  Truly a beautiful city, green, spectacular architecture, with lots of history, reminded me a lot of Europe.  Good old (not to mention amazing!) hamburgers for dinner.  And then went to a dance club with EIGHTIES MUSIC!!!!  The DJ was on fire!!  One amazing song after another!!  And, not to mention, the dance floor was surrounded with mirrors, which if you know me, is like a dream come true.  So basically we were this group of toolish Americans screaming out every single word to every single song and dancing with ourselves in the mirrors.  And it was amazing!  Highlight had to be "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey.

Day 4: We had some recovering to do, which included brunch where I consumed some really awesome ostrich'wurst.  It was kind of a lazy day, gray weather, so we opted to watch some soccer at an Irish pub.  And then another crazy night out.  We started at a college bar where I felt really, really old and really, really claustrophobic, which led to me throwing 'bows to protect my personal space and almost getting into a few fights.  Oops!  Whatever, if you expect me to move when you put all your weight on me, you got another thing coming, I'm stronger than I look, and I push back.  From there, we moved on to more dancing and ridiculousness.  We returned home after the boys stuffed their faces with street/gas station food.  They then proceeded to strip to their skivvies and have a late night dance party on my "bed" aka couch, which is when I opted to pass out in an empty bed for a few hours of sleep before our flight home

What I walked away with:  It's different, very, very different.  Not so much Africa.  Another one of their friends who is working in Malawi was visiting and we kept making jokes about "Where are all the black people?" and how it's "Africa lite".  I actually felt very out of place with all the white people.  But, it was fun, so much fun.  And absolutely beautiful.  It was cool how every bar and restaurant was some cool, fun, hip, funky place, like what would be considered a special find in any urban area in the US, but here it was every single place you walked into.  It was awesome.  You could of told me we were in New York, DC, LA, San Fran, and I would of easily believed you.  Definitely a trip.  Due to my lack of tourist activities this time around, I now have a good excuse to return.  And I made some awesome friends there who know how to have a good time, hence the dancing basically every night.  So all in all, a good trip and a nice break from the Mtuba, but was definitely happy to be back.  Couldn't believe how much I missed rural, farm life!  Me!  An urban, city girl!  Who'd a thunk?

Since then things have not slowed down.  With Thanksgiving on Thursday, we started housing guests on Wednesday, with a few still with us.  We had a HUGE, traditional Thanksgiving meal, with fourteen Americans, three turkeys, three types of stuffing, and god knows how many side dishes.  Freaking amazing.  Then our weekend to recover turned into an accidental rager last night.  They literally brought the township to our farm, freaking ridiculous.  I finally had to kick them out at 5 am.  And tomorrow I leave for another five days to begin our two weeks of OneSight Clinics.  Damn G!  The light at the end of the tunnel is my luxurious four week vacay that follows!  Holler!  Gotta love African summer vacation! :)  Happy holidays!