Designer

Sad to say we will not be at The Old Biscuit Mill Market this Saturday, instead at a music festival somewhere near Stellenbosch hopefully drinking and hanging with the local hippies. As Julie mentioned in a previous post, the OBM is our favorite Saturday routine, having coffee at Espresso Lab followed by shopping the local Cape Townian designers. Melodie is a talented designer that offers a line of comfortable and trendy chic clothes. I think at this point each of us have purchased something from her. We'll miss her this week!

(Melodie pants)

(Anna below in a Melodie romper)

thandi from africa,

emma

Weekend Update

On our way to our favorite internet cafe Coco Wah Wah's to use some free internet to book a car for our weekend getaway. We are taking off with Rodrigo, Harrison, Lauren, Dexter & Brooks for a music-filled, shower-less weekend at ramfest- should be fun! Apparently this music festival is huge on the Western Cape and is legendary for three large stages, lots of camping, and an overall good time. Pictures to come!

also- FINALLY booking our spring break trip today- Victoria Falls here we come...

thandi,

anna, emma, julie, & talya

Her Campus

Hercampus, a website for college girls across the country, has featured our blog under the Skidmore section!

Check it out:

http://www.hercampus.com/school/skidmore/her-campus-campus

thandi,
emma & anna

JBK Loves Maturity

So one would think coming abroad at the age 20/21, having (almost) three years of college under your belt, maturity would be a requirement. But to the surprise of all, Julianna Berk- Krauss, also known as JBK, Julie, or more mature girl of the year, thought it would be a great idea to post pictures on facebook (too public) of Emma & Talya releasing their bladders. COOL.

HEY Julie,
Here is what (my horse) and I have to say about that!

OFF TO VOLUNTEER AT A LOCAL YOUTH PRISON FOR A PROGRAM THAT I WILL BE DOING BIWEEKLY. POSTS TO COME ON THAT...

thandi from africa,
emma

T.I.A.: This Is Africa

I have been dreading blogging about this much anticipated first-month-of-SA recap. It's not that I don't want to share with all of you what I've been up to, but there is just sooo much we have done that I don't even know where to begin. My procrastination has meant, of course, that now I have even more to recap--and so, even more dread.

Since Emma (so beautifully) summed up the Garden Route, I'm going to post about some activities we've done in and around Cape Town over the past few weeks. Here it goes...

The theme of this post should be "Living the Life" because that is precisely what we are doing. Living in Cape Town means beach, eating, partying, sleeping. (In our case it is more like eating, beach, eating, partying, eating, sleeping.) Anyway, I don't know why it has taken me so long in life to realize that I am a natural beach bum. The beaches here are absolutely INCREDIBLE. The two beaches we most often cruise to are Cliffton 4 and Muizenberg. Cliffton 4 is gorgeous and right off of Camps Bay. The only downside is that the water is brutallyy cold. Muizenberg is a little windy sometimes, but the water is super nice. Another downside of Muizenberg is that a guy was eaten by a shark there a few weeks ago. Only a minor downside. However, it's a great surfing beach and there's an awesome restaurant there we always hit up called Knead.

On the weekends, when we are not at the beach you can usually find us at Old Biscuit Mill.

It is this unbelievable market in Woodstock (about 10 minutes from where I live in Mowbray) that sells everything you can imagine. Our routine is the following: we get iced coffee at this place called Espresso Lab: UNREAL. Then we attack the clothing tent, which boasts a bunch of different independent designers every week (the first time I went, I bought 4 dresses in under 15 minutes). Then we slowly mosey (actually run) on over to the food tent. There is everything from steak sandwiches to whole coconuts you can drink from with a straw. We usually camp out there for an hour or two.

A few weekends ago we spiced up our day with a wine tour in Stellenbosch--on Valentine's Day!

The four of us and Ariel, our fifth crew member, went with two of our guy friends, Harrison and Rodrigo, and some of their lady friends.

We got up bright and early and the drive was about an hour from UCT Lower Campus. We visited two wineries. Naturally, I got drunk after my second glass of wine and then went to town on the cheese tasting. Outside, they had beautiful fountains and landscaping... and some goats chillin around a stone castle. Cool. At the next winery we sipped on some champagne.

After that we had to peace early to go to a concert at the Kirstenbosch Gardens.

It was absolutely beautiful: just acres and acres of trees and flowers. In the back of the gardens there is a huge stage and tons of people just set up shop and picnic before the concert. We brought some goodies from Old Biscuit Mill. All in all, it was a beautiful day with my Valentines.

That's enough postage for me at the moment. I'm off to do some Advanced South African Politics reading. bleghhhh.

Until next time...

xx

Julie

Adrenaline Rush

Along the coast of the Garden Route, somewhere in between Tsitsikamma National Park and Knysna, a small town most well known for its large elephant population, exists the highest bungee spot in the WORLD. I can remember now the exact feelings I had driving along the left side of the road in our rented Ford- shock meets nausea. Julie, Talya, and Anna were around me screaming of excitment and fear while all I could think was that I was prepping to jump to my death. I am definitely not a scaredy-cat, but I would not classify myself as a dare devil either. The idea of jumping off of a bridge hundreds of feet up with loose wires attached to my ankles is horrifying. To my surprise I did it. All I can remember is the feeling of my stomach shoved into my chest, mouth wide open, intense fear, and my body numb from adrenaline. For approximately one minute my body bobbed up and down hundreds of feet- I was the only person that existed in the world- a feeling of complete euphoria and aloneness. Upon completion of my jump I arrived back to a sturdy surface to be greeted by my cheering friends. For those who know me, it will come as no surprise that I cried and screamed ridiculous statements, literally feeling as though my life had just changed. I am the first one to admit that bungee jumping is beyond terrifying and anxiety-filled, but I have never experienced adrenaline like that. The experience continued to boggle all of our minds and came up in conversation at LEAST every hour for the next week...

thandi from africa,
emma

PS- posts from Anna, Julie & Talya to come very soon

African Beach

So here it goes- the first anticipated blog post from South Africa. After contemplating my options for the topic of this entry, I came to the conclusion that Cape Town, South Africa, and Africa as a whole is far too complex to narrow down to just one subject. In addition, the amount of cultural events, delectable food, riveting people, gorgeous beaches, and political mayhem we have experienced over the past month are too hard to capture in one post. I could attempt to sum up the past month by stating that in addition to partying (way too) hard, I am finally beginning to accept my new life here; living as a white American student in a crime filled city that is often disguised as first world, the reality being a third-world country. While I could focus on the negatives such as daily muggings, theft, abuse, and a president (Jacob Zuma) that has just fathered his 22^nd child out of wedlock, I would rather set the tone of this blog in a positive way. Nothing is more positive to me than perfectly soft sand and water so blue it looks crystal clear.

After suffering blistering sunburns at Camps Bay and the fierce winds of Muizenberg, we unanimously fell in love with Clifton Beach- beach four to be exact. The beach is sandwiched between Sea Point and Camps Bay with breathtaking views of Lions Head Mountain along with the casually beautiful woman sunbathing topless. Hopefully this beach won’t be too much of a distraction for us from going to class...

thandi from africa,

emma

LIVE FROM CAPE TOWN

Fresh from the Old Biscuit Mill, this is Anna, Emma, Julie, and Talya. WELCOME TO FOUR GIRLS ONE WORLD CUP!

This semester we will take you step by step through our adventures in Cape Town, South Africa. Since we are starting the blog three weeks into our trip, we will give you a few flashbacks of what we've done and seen thus far. Last week we traveled along the Garden Route, the southern coast of South Africa. There we all went bungy jumping off the highest bungy in the world, went horseback riding along a deserted beach, hiked in the Tsitsikama National Park, and spent a night face first in a fishbowl at Island Vibe Hostel in Jeffrey's Bay.

We hope you enjoy...

Coming Soon...