23 March 2009 (Day 7)

Monday was pretty boring, school-wise. The day went according to plan. I got to spend a bit of one-on-one time with one of my more difficult students, and I’m working on building a bit of a relationship up with him. We’ll see how that goes.
After school was quite hectic. We were dropped off in downtown Stellenbosch around 3, and did a quick debriefing with our professor on the side of the road. After that, a few of us went to Mug and Bean coffee shop for smoothies. Heather and I split a piece of carrot cake that was divine. We then stopped into the grocery store quickly to pick up some candy for Heather’s lesson the next day, and a bit of wine for the evening. We bought two mini bottles of sparkling wine and a bottle of sparkling rose. We rushed home and made it with about 15 minutes to change and get ready to go out.

At 5 we went over to Kate and Kristina’s host family’s house, where they were celebrating Kristina’s birthday. Kristina had mentioned to her family that her favorite cake was angel food, so Amelia, her host mother, had searched and searched for a recipe or an angel food cake, because they are uncommon here. She made an incredibly beautiful butter cake, instead, and garnished the plate with fresh flowers. We ate in their garden under a beautiful flowering tree with a homemade treehouse; it was a garden party straight out of Martha Stewart Living. They bought Kristina flowers and a brooch for her birthday, but Jan and Amelia also teach parenting classes. Amelia said that their family “believes that the greatest give one can give is their words,” so then each of the children said something that they think makes Kristina special. It was really touching and I’m so glad that Amelia included Heather and me in the evening.

At 6 we were off to a rugby match! I’ve never seen a rugby match in person, but the University of Stellenbosch Maties were in the semifinals, I guess, and everyone was really excited. I managed to get . myself in free, I think I just baffled the ticket man. We headed for an entrance that said, “Ticket Holders Only.” I didn’t have a ticket, so I told the man just that and he waved me through! Jeff claims we got in because we’re girls, but I think our accents could have also thrown him.
I can definitely get into rugby. First of all, there was a fire in the stands. Someone just set up a braai (barbecue) right in the stands! Sweet! Second, there is copious drinking at this University event. You can buy six packs of beer from the vendor in the stadium. Third, this specific stadium is surrounded by mountains. In case you can’t tell yet, I am a big fan of mountains. Lastly, there is yelling involved. I can’t tell all of the rules, but I can follow social cues to yell when “we” score. I’m trying to learn some of the rules, but Jake seemed less than enthusiastic about my questions.

And we won! The score was 38-14, so we decided to have a small gathering to celebrate “our” win. Jake, Anna, Heather, and I went over to Jeff, Jess, and Emily’s house. Their host family has Jeff staying in a little flat that he shares with a local grad student. Heather and I stopped home to pick up our aforementioned wine and then walked down to the Roos house (which is half way down the block, we were safe, no worries!) around 9. Peter and Liesel were having dinner with Jeff, Jess, and Emily when we got there, so we talked with them for awhile. Peter is big on wine and offered to take us with him wine tasting! I think we’re going to go on Thursday after school.

After they finished eating, we went back to Jeff and James’ flat. I got to meet James for the first time, though I had heard a lot about him from the other three. We all hung out for a bit, drinking wine and beer and listening to music. We weren’t out too late, we got home around 11:30, since we needed to go to school at 7am the next day. I had a really great time, though, and I’m excited for next Monday’s rugby match!