Blogs from Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 6

So, I have been in Stellenbosch for a little over a week now. The University of Stellenbosch is interesting to me, mostly because it is so vastly different from the University of Vermont. First of all, it is bigger, about 20,000 undergrads. Second of all, I'm not sure if I've seen school spirit to quite this level at UVM before. Maybe it's just because its only been first years here until about 3 days ago. I don't know. Some of the activities that I have witnessed include a shopping cart race (unlike any shopping cart race I have ever seen before) and Windows, an event that involved the different residential areas putting on a 5 minute musical production and performing it to the school. Last weekend, a few of us hopped on the metro to Strand ... read more

My first introduction to good South African wine was a Spier Reserve Pinotage 2006 I enjoyed in Virginia about a month ago, so I have been looking forward since then to having some good wine. South Africa is no California, France, or Italy but its wines are quite good and most importantly still very affordable for good quality product. We focused on Stellenbosch and Franschhoek area for our wine tour but be advised that the viticultural areas extend well beyond these areas and Paarl and include much of the area surrounding Cape Town and the Western and Southern Cape. The drive from Cape Town is quite easy, but as you can see from the photos you discover on the outskirts of Cape Town how most of the people live here, particularly near the airport. Again, you ... read more

Stellenbosch is Wine country, student town and party place, all put together. Took BazBus (backpackers use this bus frequently), booked myself right upto Port Elizabeth, its a hop-on, hop-off service, so all transport issues on Garden Route solved. On the bus itself, met an Australian guy who has been travelling for 5 months through Uganda/Kenya/Tanzania/Malawi/Zimbawe. That's the classic overland route favoured by many travellers I have met. Also met a Dutch girl who is working in the townships in Cape Town, helping children and traveling in her free time. Stellenbosch is one of the oldest wine producing parts of South Africa, took a tour to four wine estates, must have tasted 25+ wines (and lots of cheese). Saw the wine making process, hadn't realized it is such an involved process. No wonder the final product tastes ... read more

Well everyone...that time has come, I will be home in 5 days! It is unbelievable how quickly my time here in South Africa has flown by, I never imagined a semester could go by in the blink of an eye. So, here it is - - one last blog entry to summarize my last few weeks, and some pictures to share. Since I wrote last our group had settled down for finals and last minute projects. I wrote 3 final exams, and had many-a-paper to deliver. I took my last exam this past friday and am now home free for the next week. Besides finals, Natalie's best friend from school who is studying abroad in Florence this semester came to Stellenbosch for her spring break for a week, so we had a great excuse to do ... read more

Hellloo again! I cannot believe how fast the month of September flew by! In just three days I will have completed my 14th week here, and only have 5 left - - the time has just flown by so incredibly fast. I will try and re-cap the past few weeks for you, which for once will be easy because it has been fairly uneventful in terms of extravagant excursions go. As soon as we got home from spring break we got swept into 2 straight weeks of birthday frenzy. Lex had her 21st the Monday upon our return, the twins had theirs the following weekend, and in-between those 4 of our South African friends had birthdays! All of these celebrations could not have come at a better time. Coming home from our crazy spring break, it ... read more