The Freakin' Weekend

We definitely made the most of our first free weekend.

Things kicked off Friday night at Mama Africa. The other girls in the house had told us about this Long Street restaurant and the unique-ness of the menu. On their suggestion, we ordered Mama's Game Grill and taste tested. That's right, I ate bites of crocodile, kudu, springbok, ostrich and venison sausage. Peeps liked the crocodile but I found it chewy. My favorites were kudu and springbok, altho I thought the ostrich was ok.

As far as drinks go, I'm addicted to Amarula. When we went to Balducci's last week, I had a pina coladarula. So. yummy. So at Mama Africa, I ordered the same. Our waitress brought me a regular pina colada and a shot of Amarula. It basically tastes like brownie batter. Two words: new favorite. Two more words: duty free.

It should be mentioned that I fell in love with the bottle first. I'm just glad I also like what's inside.

A friend of my friend Tara's met up with us at MA and topped off our meal with a super yummy Amarula beverage that tasted like ice cream soup. Meat and creamy things. My poor tummy proved to be quite the trooper. Hooray!!

From there we headed to Blu in Water Front/ Sea Point. It's a hotel bar right on the water. It was pretty until it started raining a little bit. Blu is where we experienced the customary "Welcome to South Africa" springbok shot. The bartender pours the Amarula (natch!) in first and then layers Peppermint Schnapps or the equivalent on top. When shot, it tasted just like a Thin Mint.

Next stop was French Toast, a tapas/wine bar a couple blocks off Long Street. Brent's cousin is the main chef there. (Brent is Tara's friend.) The decor and layout are dreamy. It was closed by the time we got there, but we're already planning a trip back this coming week. I already love everything about it.

So after collecting the cuz we headed down to Long Street and The Dubliner. I'm usually a fan of any bar with Dublin in the title. This was a huge white bar with a live cover band (yippee!) and a good dj, both of which played American hits from the 90s. As one of the other girls here in the house said, it's a lot like a wedding reception full of strangers, but we had a good time.

Before we knew it, it was curfew time! (We have to be back by 2h30a on wkend nights unless we sign out for the night.)

I haven't spoken much about the other peeps in the house. There is a total of 10 of us here right now. 6 in my group (meaning we all arrived at the same time). Ashley and I are staying the shortest amount of time.Sadface. If we would have known how awesome this group was we would have stayed longer!!

Right now there's only one guy, and he's here with his gf.

In light of our budding friendships and ability to have such great times as a group, we've decided to make this a tradition. Volunteervacays . Every year we'll pick a location and all sign up. The company we volunteer through gives a discount in subsequent trips, so we're all excited about that. Of course I was all, I wonder if France or New Zealand or Australia have a need for volunteers?! We're guessing probably not, so most likely we'll do South America or India or something...

We do know this placement has spoiled us, as we have hot showers, and easy internet access. One of the girls came from Tanzania where neither was the case. But at least we'll be together! We've also decided that any boyfriend we come across have to be into it too.

Saturday = wine time!!

We hit the first winery (Fairview) at around 10a. Bottoms up! We had super fun here as it was wine and cheese. The lady working our bar was super lovely and has now been dubbed Mama Lyn. She has three sons she wants Ashley, Lindsey and I to marry. My favorite wine was an award-winningChenin Blanc. I also liked the Pinotage Viognier , which is weird because I'm not usually a red fan. My favorite cheese was of the goat variety with garlic and herb..I also enjoyed the brie (of course!) and the feta, both of which tasted better with a dab of pomegranate-vanilla jelly.

Second stop was Warwick. (We made up our own plan and hired one of our regular drivers. It worked out very well.) The sommelier told us an awesome love story...I liked their Sauvignon Blanc and thought a couple of their reds were nice (you know, for reds). LOVED the grounds. Frolicked-through-the-field-in-my-sundress kinda love. Thanks for the suggestion, BL.

For lunch, we ventured to Dieu Donne, where I ate pasta and tried a bite of zebra for the first time (oddly enough I liked the texture). The views at this winery were unparalleled. It's simply gorgeous here. We facetiously kept telling the scenery to quit being so ugly.

Our third winery was Solms Delta. We were kind of in a food/wine all morning kinda coma but rallied through six selections at this one too. Our hands down favorite was the Solms-Astor Cape Jazz Shiraz. Think sparkling grape juice but with alcohol. There was also a rose here that wasn't as sweet as most rose I've had. (I would use accents if I knew how)...any way, it was pleasant.

Our final stop was Spier. We didn't drink tho. Instead we played with a cheetah. Or we pet him while he was asleep. Whatever. Interestingly enough, all my kids have these crazy names and there was this cheetah named Joseph of all things.

Needless to say we got home and crashed. I was asleep by 8, but for a good cause! We got up @ 4a to go shark diving!

We had a 2 hour car ride to contemplate what we were about to do. Again I was more worried about the boat ride and water temperature (which didn't end up being that bad) than the sharks. Until I had all that time to think about it. I had my little RX patch behind my ear, so I was hoping for the best seasickness-wise. The crew had thought the water was smooth, but in reality it was anything but. I'm 100% sure I would have yacked had it not been for that patch. I still felt crappy with it, but never got sick. (Unlike a sweet Irish couple and *cough* Ashley *cough*. Even tho I had given her two Dramamine.) We were pitching like crazy even when anchored. I still feel like I'm moving.

Anyhoo...the sharks. We wetsuited it up and joined the first group. (A good move in light of Ash's ishes) What you do is hold on to these cross bars with your knees on a bar about 2 inches from the front of the cage, and then when they give the word (or yell: Divers Drop!) you drop into the cage. You put your hands where your knees were and stand on the bottom of the cage. Or at least that's what you're supposed to do. I didn't have enough weight on and my legs kept kicking back behind me - like out of the cage. I kept realizing it (insert more shark diving dude yelling here) and would stand, but yeah...free feet in shark-infested waters.

We saw a total of 6 sharks. The crew had told us they would swim parallel to the cage, but we went face to face a couple of times, and once the shark even knocked the cage right where Ashley was standing next to me. FUHREAKY! You could see all his/her teeth. And our hands (and basically bodies) were mere inches away. Like less than 6. Even with the nausea it was super fantastic. He did say we got lucky because visibility was better today than yesterday...and that six is a really good number. Best of it was we didn't need to wait 5 hours on the boat like they have to sometimes. I'm sure everyone would have puked by then. So we were very happy. We returned with all our parts, and stomachs settled once we hit dry ground.

This afternoon we just piddled around. Rode the train out here in the suburbs a little bit. Perused some shops. We really feel like we made the most out of our firstwkend here. We're most likely (again as a group) going to hit the Garden Route next weekend. There are a couple animal sanctuaries and zip lining and beautiful hikes calling our names.

But tomorrow it's back to my kiddos. I'm taking paper plates and beans to color and create little rattle/tambourine things. Fingers crossed for no rain, as I don't think I have enough supplies for the 3 and up group...just my 4s and 5s.

In closing, Ashley has already mastered the click of Xhosa. She's not even taking Xhosa. She was assigned Afrikaans. I'm pretty sure it's because she's black. (It's not racist here to say that...) I'm working on it. (clicking with different parts of your mouth stand for different letters, so it's not as easy as it sounds. it's also not easy to click and keep talking.)

I love this city so much. Seriously. New favorite. The only drawback is being so far away. It's just not reasonable to pay $1500 and 22 hours to get back and forth to my peeps in the states. And communication would cost an arm and a leg. And I miss My Melody and Gma chats...so I'll most likely not move here, but I'll definitely come back to visit. Or volunteer again.

Longest. blog. ever. If you're here, thanks for indulging me. Happy bday Mom!