Friday Night was Kol Nidre, the evening service for Yom Kippur. I went with this girl Ellen, who sold me my cell phone and keeps coming into my life AND runs this really fabulous program out in Nyanga and Khayelitcha (spelling?--they're both townships). She lives in Seapoint and is 24 or 25. We went to the Claremont Wynberg Congregation, so all i could think about is the minibus taxi guys yelling Claremont Claremon Wyeeeennberggg! Man was I misinformed. I was told this was the temple all the UCT kids go to. Not only did I see any girls that looked my age, but man was this place Orthodox. According to Ellen, everyone is Orthodox here. There is a reform temple, but I was so busy this week I didn't really do my research. Let me put it this way, I was the only girl wearing pants (though there were some Questionable outfits being worn by some of the younger girls--i cannot believe i just wrote "younger girls"--does that make me old?). OH and the sexes were seperated. AND the women barely participated. They didn't sing along. Nothing. The one good thing about the service was the choir. They had this really intense cantor who got really into it and a harmonizing mens choir. Again, no women. Oy vey. I didn't even make it to Avinu Malkeinu (my favorite song of all time) or Kol Nidre. We lasted for 2 hours. There was very little direction given by the rabbi. I didn't know where we were 1/2 the time and was just waiting for the next song. At any rate, I got home and downloaded Avinu Malkeinu from iTunes and listened to it and sang along.


This weekend was good. Tomorrow is actually National Heritage Day and therefore a day off. It's also National Braai Day (basically National BBQ Day). I will be doing homework the whole time though and replying to all your emails. On Saturday morning we left for our "Wildflower Weekend" overnight. We drove North up into the Western Cape, past a town called Darling to a reserve called Buffelsfontein (Buffalo's Fountain i think?). It's a wild animal and nature reserve. We stayed in these adorable and classy little "cottages". 4 people per cottage. 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms. We went on a game drive. 8 of us had hot cocoa with Quinton. We had leather couches in our rooms. I miss couches. We had a nice girl talk session on the couches. We had a bonfire. We watched some bad 90s thriller with Tim Robbins called Arlington Road. SA TV plays the strangest obcure movies because that's probably the only ones they can afford to pay the rights to! We had a good breakfast.

I fasted for Yom Kippur. It was hard, but I was really proud of myself. I also really didn't want to eat crappy food the next day. A couple of girls and I are going to do a cleanse soon! Woo hoo. Also, I am planning on getting my ear pierced on Tuesday afternoon. This afternoon I had tea at the Mt.Nelson again. Bomb. Tonight I saw Hairspray at the Waterfront. It was really interesting to watch a movie whose original story is all about Civil Rights struggles in a place like South Africa. I wonder what it's like for South Africans to watch a movie with undertones of race struggles in the U.S. The waterfront always makes me forget I am here instead of at Home. I expected to walk out of that movie and be in Baltimore or somewhere else in the States. There aren't a lot of freestanding clothing shops in this town either. I think a lot of it is a safety issue. People prefer to go shopping in a mall because it's enclosed, etc. I must say that whenever there is live music at the Waterfront it always turns out well. Tonight there was a guy singing Mrs. Jones as we were leaving. Couldn't be better!

I'm exhausted. Back to my matress with the dip in it. Do you think it's better to have a dip or have a really HARD mattress? By better I mean which is going to hurt my back less?! I'm 80 years old.

Love, Katy