The Lit. test I had earlier this week was a total disruption, not to mention absolute pain.
The week away in South Africa really whacked up my whole schedule and I'm only, now, finally getting my act together, just in time tow finish off an three page essay for Sunday, a one page essay for Thursday and a ten page analysis fort he following Monday.

Add to that another exam I'm taking on the 18th (approx. two weeks from now, less actually now that I think about), plus the regular reading I need to do for my classes.

A wee bit overwhelmed... which is why I'm wasting time blogging about it. Duh, right?

My life is quite quickly reducing itself and the semester is already half way and soon it will be over and then I'll have even more exams!

*wails against the injustice of being a First Year student who feels she has no idea what she's doing*

I have returned!

Am Home!

Will tell you all about it later on.

Magnificent pictures of family, views and abject poverty to appear as well.

I woke up at an unspeakable hour this morning... looking at the time I'm updating it is still unspeakable.

I went with my uncle (to be known as Uncle D), Granny and Daddy to the air port to see him off, I'm staying in the Rainbow Nation for a few more days and staying with my other uncle (Uncle P) and his family, both are Daddies little brothers (is it still all right to call 50+ year old men "little"?)

In any event, yesterday being the last day of Daddy's holiday I got kind of weepy and annoying, I hope I didn't make things more difficult for him seeing as today is my birthday (yes, yes, many happy returns) I didn't want him to feel guilty.
Uncle P is taking out for a drive today to places called Kalks Bay (very pretty beach place), maybe Cape Point (where the two oceans meet) and it being the first clear day since I've arrived (remember I spoke of the mist and not being able to see a hundred meters ahead? It stayed that way from Friday until yesterday afternoon) I'll most likely be going up Table Mountain, which is my clearest memory of SA from when I was nine years old.

Will try and update again before I get home, but I make no promises.

Today was the birthday tea for my Granny's 90th Birthday.

It was really a great success without much family drama.

Daddy, being the oldest son present, read a speech as did I being the representative of the Israeli family and my cousin (Daddy's brother's son) also read a speech representing the family in Cape Town.

The amount of old people was phenomenal. I was actually concerned that no one would be able to hear me when I spoke because you know, old people, they get hard of hearing. But the acoustics of the Mount Nelson (a very posh hotel, a vestige of the peak of British Colonialism) tea room was surprisingly good. I was very nervous and unsurprisingly began to cry in the middle of my speech, which is irritating for me, but adds something for the audience as many of the old ladies and gents came to me and complimented me on a very nice speech.

( My speech )

Yesterday wasn't a very busy day. Daddy and I had a bit of a lie in and picked up Granny after breakfast. We then went to my uncle's house and had some tea there and then went to the Irma Stern museum - Irma Stern is a famous South African artist, she painted and sculpted with themes ranging from portraits of her friends, various tribe people (mainly women) and sculpting busts of African people (again, mainly women). Apparently she was a shy person and never painted a self-portrait.

I also went to the Waterfront, which is Cape Town's shopping center with my "auntie's" (she's actually just a old friend of the family) daughter where I bought a couple of books while everyone went to watch rugby (boooooring!) and had a late supper.

So far, so good I'll say.

Traveling is hard!
But fun when you're being taken care of by dear Papa.

Arrived, finally, at half-past eight (local time) in Cape Town. My memories of the place are very vague and everyone seems so much shorter and older.
Seeing as the last time I was here I was nine, this makes sense.

I slept like a rock. I don't think I moved the whole night.

Nobody can believe how big I am and some of the people keep referring to me with my older sister's name, Leigh. I suppose their sharpest memories of Leigh are of her with short hair, like I now have.

Today we went to wine country near Cape Town called Franchhoek (pronounced Fraan-tzuk... don't ask me how, I do not know how Afrikaans is built) and went around the very sweet and picturesque town. It was founded by the Huguenots (French Protestants who escaped France in the 17th century after the Nantes edict proclaiming France a Catholic Kingdom) who built the whole wine industry in the valleys in the area of the Western Cape which include Franchhoek, Paarl, Stellenbosch and another one which I can't remember, because there weren't any road signs to that one.
We decided to go because of the weather. The fog and most is blinding, you can barely see 100 meters ahead of you. We're hoping it won't get worse, but you can never know. It is weird going from the beginning of summer into what amounts to the middle of winter for me, even if they only started with winter now.
I'm chilly.

Daddy and I called Mummy while we were there and it appears that two people she and Daddy knew from their History live there, we only found one and Daddy said it was amazing how much time passed.

We went wine tasting too, which was fun, it's something I'd been wanting to do since I saw the movie "Sideways" but it was more the idiosyncratic characters than the setting in Napa Valley California that made it such a great movie.

We have since returned to our home base and will soon be going to sup with my Granny (who I saw last night) and the uncles, aunts and cousins I hadn't seen in years.