Horse Races

Today I'm going to the horse races. They are a huge deal here in South Africa and resemble the Kentucky Derby. Tessa (my roommate), Mallory and I are all going with some of our friends from here. We went dress shopping on Long Street, and although we are not all completely themed - the theme is plum, metallic and patterns - I think we all look pretty stunning.

I will try to post some pictures up from the races if I can. It is really expensive to put pictures up because it it slow and uses lots of megabytes. The internet here is pretty inexpensive when do anything that is megabyte intensive.

We finished our third week of school yesterday and I am pretty surprised. The time has been going by so quickly. We are going to Port Elizabeth in two weeks. AND we are MEETING Archbishop Desmond Tutu THIS FRIDAY!!!! One of the volunteers from the program we worked with the first week, the DAC, has worked since our first week here to make sure that we get to meet him. Our house got a personal invitation from his personal assistant. We will meet him after he does service at St. George's Cathedral.

Our house situation is going really well. I am having a wonderful time with everyone and have made really great friends. Tessa is my roommate, we share a room, and she is fantastic. We spend a lot of time together and laugh pretty much all the time. She's a crazy work out girl who drags me to the gym and makes sure I do all the fun stuff here. Mallory is another girl I spend a lot of time with. She is in a sorority at the UW and studies psychology. Alena and Mary are roommates and they are amazing. Mary is sarcastic, flippant and fantastic because she always has a good way of making people laugh and doing it through her sarcasm. Alena is super laid back and always brings a sense of calm to the group. I will slowly but surely try to fill you in on people as the group goes.

The way we can fit so many people in this house is that is a hostile when we are not here, but the house was designed for our CHID program. It is sort of two houses joined together. I live in the side of the house with two bathrooms, a kitchen, the living room, the front door and the jacuzzi. There are 5 bedrooms on this side of the house. Then you walk through our kitchen and walk to the patio. That is where is other part of the house starts. They have a bigger kitchen, one bathroom and 4 bedrooms. It's a great set up for all of us.

Food here is great. I have been eating out a lot, but we have two grocery stores within 5 minutes from our house, one that is right around the corner. We have lots of good food places in the area that we go to, but we also try to venture out and try new food throughout the city. We ask the boys we've been hanging out with all the time where they recommend and have already gone to an amazing steak house that cost $15 US dollars for steak and drinks. Money here definitely goes farther.

Thanks for all your responses back to my posts. It is great to know that all of you are reading this.

Lots of love!