Sometimes that's what it feels like...

Long weekend at UCT began at noon when Spencer and I took off for Stellenbosch, which is around an hour away by train. While Spencer went to procure some tickets, I was approached by a nerdy looking young man in his mid-20's who asked me for the time and then posted up next to me on the bench. I attract THE WEIRDEST people (evidenced by the fact that Marlee is literally 5 feet away from me taking self-pics inside of a laundry basket), so I should have been a little more suspicious, but the dude started chatting me up and I sort of went along with it.

He began telling me about his sensual Black girlfriend and how he used to be a goth, so I was pretty happy when Spencer returned. We still got a 30 minute history lesson on WWII that we didn't ask for, but luckily we were able to escape him when we got on the train.

We spent hours walking around Stellenbosch and finally settled on a good backpackers. As Stellenbosch is essentially the wine capital of the world, we intended to make it to some vineyards, but being without a map or a laptop, we ended up spending hours walking around the town and drank wine we bought from the pick'n'pay. It was more fun that way.

On the way home we met a couple girls who go to schoool in the Northern part of the country in Natal. They reported feeling extremely unsafe in their digs, and one of the girls had her flat broken into and was physically grabbed by the intruder who entered her room. She's on a government scholarship to learn Zulu, but it looks like they'll be transferring her somewhere more secure. I can't imagine living like that.

To play catch up on last weekend, it was jam packed with adventures. Friday we checked out an area of downtown I have never been to. Posing as Gabriella and Charles, we crashed The 15th on Orange- a super nice hotel- for a bit of pool shooting. We hit up the South African National Art Museum, where we saw some seriously interesting Apartheid art and then went to see Inception, which was worth all the build-up and hype!

Saturday we went to the beach and spent a gorgeous day catching some rays on a beautiful beach with a calm surf. Sunday was the hike up Table Mountain which was so much harder than I thought it would be! It took around 2 hours to get to the summit, and Spencer pretty much had to drag me up. As we approached the summit, it began to sprinkle but we pushed on. Once at the top, we had about a half mile walk across the table to reach the restaurant at the top. The wind began to pick up and it poured. Visibility was about zero. If we'd gotten seperated, I may never have seen Spencer again. We were certainly so glad to seek cover, and whipped out a picnic of food we'd packed. After evaluated our options and hearing the horn blare indicating everyone should get off the mountain due to gale force winds, we decided to take the cable car down the mountain to safety. I wish it had been a clear day as I imagine the view would have been spectacular, but I was glad when we made it down in one piece and returned to Rondebosch feeling accomplished.

Lucky for me I've finished my trade report and can relax a bit for a while in school. Tomorrow we're going whale watching with our program in Hermanus, which should be great (even though we've already accidentally been whale-diving without a cage hahaha). Today is National Braai Day so there's a massive barbeque cooking in our backyard that I must attend to!!

Love from the honor system train,

A