Stella and Dorian share October birthdays!

Yesterday, October 18th we celebrated Stella and Dorian's birthdays. There were at least 20 people at the party, but because I did not know everyone I just picked these pictures (plus you have heard of this gang from Lesotho)!!! 

They did a wonderful job decorating and the weather could not have been better. We all played games, talked, and met knew people. It is crazy how even now events like this still bring new people together all the time. 

This was so fun and I will be so sad to say goodbye next month. But I have people to visit in France, Germany, Hong Kong and more....so it just means I have to earn money and get traveling again. So, really there is nothing to be sad about.

Happy birthday Stella and Dorian! 

Xoxoxoxo

Stella. Me. Stacey. Dorian. 

Stella. Me. Stacey. Dorian. 

Me. Dorian. 

Lovely outdoor decorations. 

Me. Dorian. Stella. 

Stacey passed out at the table. 

Last Digital Photography Practical!

Digital Photography was such a fun class to take this semester! I learned so many new things about my camera, and even cutting glass and framing pictures! 

My professor's name is Hendrick, but we call him Hennie. He is one of those natural professors who really loves to teach and loves what he does. He took us on practicals in Cape Town, animal reserves, and other nearby places to get good pictures for our final exhibition. He wanted us to learn to take pictures in different modes with our camera. For example, taking a picture of a moving item (ex: a car or bird), using your flash outside, pictures at night, portraits, landscapes, shallow depth of field, black and white, macro, and more. 

These picture are of our last practical where Hennie took us to his house where he has his own framing studio. He taught us to cut glass and we go to use the machine to cut the wood for the frame and staple it together. As you can see below, I was the one unfortunate person who made a mistake with the framing....I guess it had to be someone haha. I got a lot of crap because the Americans had just lost the rugby game the night before, so Hennie said at least it wasn't as embarrassing as that :) 

Whoops! 

I could have totally done this on purpose haha :) 

Sometimes you just have to laugh, especially when your photography teacher is taking pictures of you and cracking up himself :) 

Markets, Bakeries, Rings, and Beads

Delicious vegetarian sushi from a weekend market in Cape Town. 

Laura and I leaving our favorite bakery in Stellenbosch. 

Loving the mid ring, and my tiny braid and bead :) 

Dates.

Hot chocolate with Laura. 

Lunch with Stella and Dorian. 

Flowers. Proteas.

Julian snapped some fun photos of Laura and me after a man selling flowers at the Slow Food Market gave us flowers for free when we were leaving and he was shutting down his stand. 

Julian's September visit 2015

Laura. Julian. 

Laura. Julian. Me. 

Julian and Laura in the Botanical Gardens, Stellenbosch 

Julian & Laura.
Slow Food Market, Stellenbosch 

Julian. Me. Laura. 

Julian. Me.
Slow Food Market, Stellenbosch. 

Laura. Julian. Me.
Slow Food Market, Stellenbosch. 

Laura. Julian. Me. 

Birthday and Jam

Throwback to September. The cappuccino says, "Happy birthday Laura" (from September 22nd). The other pictures are of the jam that is homemade from Austria. I told Laura how much I loved jam and her mom makes her own and grows everything organically in Austria. Laura asked her boyfriend, Julian, to bring me one when he visited her. It was delicious! 

October Update

Hello,

Stellenbosch in October is beautiful. Aside from a few rainy days, the weather reminds of some gorgeous summer days I spent with my grandparents in California. Right now my friend, Laura, and I are outside sitting on the grass on campus. Both of us are wearing summer dresses, and we keep getting distracted by a lizard who keeps showing up who seems to want to play with us. The sun is shining. It is almost too hot in direct sunlight, so we found a spot in the shade. I am getting very brown from riding my bike every day and being outside so much. There is a nice breeze and the campus is busy. You can feel that the semester is getting close to an end. There are lots of people studying and hanging out.

Laura is studying for her Afrikaans final. She also completed almost all of her artwork for the semester which is really amazing. I finished my Transitional Justice class, and I did my framing and finished my final work for my digital photography class. I still have two more classes to finish up with, HIV & AIDS and Sociology. My HIV final is this Thursday the 22nd, and my Sociology final is October 27th.

After that there will be a little bit of time to relax before Laura and I leave for our trip in November. We will fly to Johannesburg and spend a few days there. Then we leave for Zimbabwe. We will spend one day there and then start our tour at Victoria Falls. We will leave Zimbabwe and go to Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Then we will spend an extra day or two in Tanzania before coming back to Cape Town. After that we get ready to pack up and go home for the holidays. At least, Laura, will be going home...and I will just be tagging along. I suppose the adventure continues for both of us!!!

Now I will add some pictures. Some are old and some are new, but I want to make sure the blog stays up to date and keeps up with life in South Africa :D :D :D