Protea Stellenbosch

Today we went on a wine tour to the Stellenbosch wine region just outside Cape Town.

It was a lovely day and we learnt about the process of wine making, I was surprised it only takes 21 days to make a white wine (C******nays take longer as they are oaked for a while), and reds take 1 to 4 years depending on the barrel time. The colour of red wine comes from a fermentation with the skins, which removed the pigment into the liquid.

As for the wines there were ...

Tonight, I find myself sitting amoungst a large amount of decisions... not personal decisions but material decisions. What t-shirt, how many pairs of socks, which will be the most comfortable underwear? immediately i think about how excited i am to go and rough it, to have choices, endless choices.. fluid plans. I imagine us deciding on the places we want to go, and on which day, at which time, all at the last minute... but these late decisions ...

... the 20th taste of wine, this winery was the only place that actually led us through a true (or at least as far as I know) tasting of the wines. No matter. The sun was shining, the wine was tasty and the company was superb- even the lunch was delicious! It was, in fact, at lunch when we all decided that we would stay an extra night in Stellenbosch. I've come to the conclusion that it is quite difficult to stay in one place for only ...

... try some Ostrich, it had quite a strange taste - sort of smoky and fragrant - but I think that was maybe because of the way it was cooked, I also had a little springbok which was basically like venison. There was a group performing drumming, singing and dancing to entertain us while we ate and (I hope it works) I've included a little clip of the singing for you to have a listen to. I think it was my favorite thing ...

... times incorrectly identified adverbs as adjectives. So the good news is that I don't have huge shoes to fill. The bad news (but also good) is that the job itself has inherently large shoes. I know it will be extremely challenging, but I'm also really excited and think it will be a lot of fun. It will also be my first experience as a teacher with my own class...hmmm...career exploration? We'll see ...

... from young white South Africans that they intend on leaving because of a lack of opportunity for them here...I'm not sure how realistic their fears are or not.) One woman said that as bad as the economic or political situation in South Africa may seem at times, people trust that it will come around, and that the reason people are leaving is because of crime--it's the one issue, she argues, for which there is no foreseeable solution. As always, race was a ...

... cage diving which was absolutely fantastic - there were 4m Great White Sharks less than a metre away from me!! . We saw 7 different sharks which varied in length from 1.5m - 4m long! To say I was petrified getting in the cage the first time would be an understatement!! But once you were in the cage it was surreal being that close to the ...

... it's go go go, for the next 13 months, and then i graduate from Whitman. what happened? and my answer to your question, what are you going to do after graduation- my dad has helped me out a bit and i have the answer for you, "I will get a well paying job that also beings me a lot of personal satisfaction and enjoyment. Though I haven't narrowed down the field yet because I know it will be a hard job to find." well, you'll hear from me next in swaziland.

... the day was quite successful and we returned to Cape Town satisfied. The next day it was off to Jo Burg for safari. By coincidence Judie's mum, sister and brother in law were in Jo Burg staying with Luke's dad. Our trip was kept a secret from her mum so you can imagine her surprise when we turned up out of the blue. We had a great day enjoying Luke's dad, Doc's, hospitality, which included a good old South African Braai. After maybe a few too many beers it was ...

... us. he is cool name is robert and he owns the resuratn above the surf school. reall good guy. after the competition we sat at the bar and got real drunk. it was a good time. i will post pictures today so i will email everyone those. i miss you all i wish you could be here. todd