An amazing week with a fellow Penn Stater: Homestay at the Township

So this week has been absolutely insane. My friend, Andrew, from Penn State flew in to visit for the week. It was quite the experience for him since the moment he arrived our entire program took off for a homestay in a township for the weekend. Now for all of you that are not aware of what a township is, it was known as government enforced housing during the apartheid era when blacks and coloreds were removed from their homes and forced to live in these areas. Now that the apartheid is over people have chosen to stay and live since that is where all their family and history is from. The townships are usually in extremely poor conditions, with most of the houses being built out of just metal sheets. The family ended up being paired with a Muslim family who took us in as one of their own. They cooked us the most amazing meals and we sat around and talked about our lives and how they varied in so many different ways. It was probably the best hospitality I've ever experienced in my life. So during the weekend our host family took us around the township. We went to this market area and did wine tasting, went to a petting zoo, and were even able to ride camels :) They are so much bigger than I ever thought they would be. Later that day we all went to the local high school and faced their team in a basketball game. Even though we were in it almost the entire game they ended up taking over at the end and were deemed victorious. Afterwards we all went home for an enormous dinner that lasted hours. It was so difficult to even leave because they made us feel so welcomed. I just wish you all could meet the amazing people of this country.

Wine Tasting and Lions Head!!

Hey everyone!! I know it's been a while but I've been so busy that I haven't even had a chance to sit down.. this past weekend was just insane! Starting on Saturday we drove we all drove out to Stellenbosch, which is about an hour outside of Cape Town. There we went to a wine vineyard called Spear. It was incredible! We all got to taste the several wines that they had there and just chill out and listen to live music all day. I even got to stomp grapes inside a barrel as well as get my face painted. They had all their house wines available for sale and I only paid R 26 for a bottle of their finest Shiraz Rosé (which is only $3.00 haha outrageous) and not to mention... I definitely made sure to celebrate State Patty's Day the South African style haha and I wore my t-shirt all day.





Then the next day we did a hike up Lions Head mountain under the full moon! It is extremely popular every full moon because you are able to hike up and you can see everything. We decided to avoid the crowd and went up around 5 pm to watch the sunset. It was only about an hour hike, but we climbed up ladders and even a rope chain to get to the top! While up there we saw the sunset and had a picnic and then watched as the moon began to appear. You could literally see the ENTIRE city on both sides. It was without a doubt the most amazing sight I have ever set my eyes upon. Afterwards we made our descent down the mountain... and it ended up taking twice as long because there were so many people haha and remember there were some ladders on the way and people were coming up as well as going down so we even had a few traffic jams. Anyways I am literally having the greatest time of my life here in South Africa. I can not thank you all enough for all the support you have given me. I feel though that the greatest experience won't actually be here in Cape Town... but back at home when I get to share my adventure with all of you. Thank you guys so much for keeping in touch and I will be sure to update soon!