It's the weekend! We only had a half day of class today. We've already finished our first course for the summer, although we still have to "write our exams". Our final grade is based on a series of essay questions over the course. Those are due next week.
On an unrelated note, the phone I got here is really great, but it has some weird quirks. For example, the alarm isn't a ring or anything. It's this lady's voice saying the time. I don't know if there's a way to change it or not. Anyway, I guess I accidentally changed the settings somehow yesterday, and this morning it woke me and my roommate up in Afrikaans!
It's a really nice day today! The sun is out again, it's warm, and I'm able to see the mountains for the first time in days! There are a lot more people out in town now that it's warmer again too. It's going to be in the 60'sF all week. The school gave us Stellenbosch University hoodies today, but we don't really need them now, in fact I'm wearing shorts for the first time today! This is so nice, but they tell me it's only temporary, and is supposed to cool off again next week. Well, as long as it's this nice on the weekends I'm ok with it!
Tonight we are going to have a braai, which is huge in South Africa. It's sort of like a barbecue or cookout. I'm going to try to get some ostrich meat to cook up tonight! Our South African friends said that it's really easy to get around here. I think we may go to the butcher this afternoon and pick some stuff up for cooking. I think we're going to just take it easy this afternoon because we have our next excursion to Cape Point tomorrow morning! I'm really excited. This morning in class Dirk, the activities director for this summer warned us about the baboons at Cape Point, and how they will come up to you and try to steal your food. "Guys, it sounds cute, but it's actually terrifying" he told us. I don't know what to think of that! I just want to see some penguins.
It's almost three here. I'm hanging out in my room for a little while until 3:30. This morning me and three other guys took our laundry down to the school's "wassery". They do your laundry for you and charge by weight. My first week's worth of laundry only cost 33R though (which is not quite 5 dollars)! So they told us this morning to come back at half past three and it would be taken care of for us!
I really like how far our money goes here! The exchange rate is really good (about 7R = $1). I took out 1000R when I got here (about $150) and I still have most of it even though we have to buy lunch and dinner everyday. I still have about $30 to exchange. The first day we went to exchange our money and they told us we had to have our passports. We tried to go again yesterday, but everything was closed because it was a national holiday (it was Youth Day). I think I'll just keep it in dollars and take back home now.
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