...and the chaos begins

Hey all! quick update here...

Our whole group did an absolutely fabulous Valentine's day bash together! There has been a lot of tension brewing in our house lately (understandable when we all live, work, and go to school together), so three of the girls in the group decided to arrange this whole dinner to bring us all back together as a house. They stayed home from their community engagement projects on Thursday, and when the rest of us came home from ours there were personalized invitations for a valentine's day event and instructions to dress our best and meet in our courtyard. So, everyone got all dressed up and excited and we all met out there at 715. The girls who arranged everything then came out and explained that they were cooking for all of us for the night! We were served cosmos and bruschetta in the courtyard as our appetizer as Michael Buble was playing from a laptop for us :) After that, we were led into our candle-lit living/dining room where we all had full place settings complete with name cards. We had a first course of caeser salad, a main course of pasta casserole with mushrooms and all kinds of good cheese and veggies with another drink called the love potion #9 to go with it, and then dessert of flaming turtle chocolate fondue with pink champagne. I could go on and on, and i'll post a few pictures later, but it was the most fun i've ever had on valentines day, and it really did bring our house back together.

Our entire group did Robben Island together on Friday. Its amazing what a toursit trap it has become, and the script that guides are supposed to follow. Even within two years I can see some of the changes, and its a shame how many of the just plain tourists were there and not quesitoning anything. It felt like there were a lot of people there to just go through the motions without really thingking about the fact that they were on on island that was once a place to send criminals, then turned into a leper colony, and then a prison where some of the most notorious political prisoners were kept. I could talk a lot about this, but i just dont have the time right now!

We had a fairly low-key weekend. I spent a lot of time around our neighborhood and working on my journal/course pack that is due ina few weeks. My roommate, Rebecca, and I went on a 4 hour shopping adventure at Cavendish mall which is about a 15 minute combie ride up the road from us. I spent about 1250 rand ($160) on 3 dresses (one of which i'm almost positive i'm wearing to graduation because its purple!!!), a pair of shorts, a pair of leggings, a shirt, and a pair of shoes. My roommate cleaned up just about as well with a few dresses and shirts etc. Sunday Rebecca and I had brunch with Sarah, one of the girls who was on our program two years ago. Sarah is actually staying about 2 blocks away from us in the other house that is owned by the same guy that owns ours, and she is here until right around when I leave as well.

Now I am off the the first meeting of all 3 of our hands for a bridge student groups together! ack! Also, EVERYONE in our house is freakin sick with either the stomach flu or a really really bad cold, so i am taking massive amounts of vitamin c and echinaccea (sp?) trying to ward the germs off! Wish me luck!