My South African Adventure: Heritage day! & Ellie's surprise bday!!

So last wed., September 24 was a national holiday... it was Heritage Day/ National Braai day!! so that meant no classes! so in the morning, Margot, Andrew, Ali & I all went to a place called Cafe Sofia for breakfast... it was delicious! Then I went back to the house and began working on my Ethics paper... yuck! as Margot took Andrew to chess and Ali went out. In the afternoon I went for a nice run (it was blue skies and only a light wind) and then Terri & Tamara came over for a braai! It was so nice to just sit outside and talk and enjoy the semi-warm spring weather... it has been raining on/off for what seems like forever now, and we are all sick of it!!!

terri braaing!

then in the evening, the seminar kids were given tickets to an event called Cultural Delight at Cafe Sofia (the same place where we had breakfast!). every wed. night they have an open mic-night and tonight's theme was culture/ heritage. there were 4 people to a table and apparently each table cost 200Rand. once again, the VIP status of being in the seminar group as all we had to do was show up!

so we got our faces painted when we first arrived by the women dressed in traditional wear. that was very cool. and then when the show started around 8, they brought out some snacks and each table got a bottle of wine to share.

it was cool to a mix of poetry & music- i was bummed that i had to leave before it was over but i still had work that needed to be done for the next day and it was already 1030!

then the next night, guess where i ended back up at?! CAFE SOFIA! this time i was there for a surprise birthday party for Ellie!!! (Ellie was best friends with Terrance and after flying back to the states for the memorial services/ funeral, had just got back to Cape Town the previous Saturday.) It was her birthday the day of Terrance's funeral so we all planned on throwing her a surprise party upon her return!!!

so we all arrived at around 530 and helped decorate the outside porch area and then she arrived just after 6, SHOCKED AS COULD BE!!! she had NOO CLUE! it was the perfect surprise! then we all hung out and ordered dinner and on Thursdays it's jazz night at Cafe Sofia so we got to hear the band play a little. then we sang happy birthday & had some delicious cake!!! i think she had a great time & she really was so shocked/touched that we all took the effort to throw her a party. (once when Ellie, Terrance and I were on the Jammie shuttle bus going to campus, the driver was playing the Westlife cd on repeat (westlife was THE british boy band group of 90s!) so we were cracking up and singing along and everything and it was always a joke because whenever i took that Jammie with the Westlife music, I'd always be with Terrance & Ellie! so for her birthday, i bought Ellie the Westlife cd! She got a good laugh at it and said that this will be playing repeat on her computer!!! Sarah- her flat mate- hated me for giving it to her because she's not the biggest fan of westlife!!! ohh well- i told her by the end of this semester she will be LOVIN' them!!!