IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA!!!! Cape Town 2012: DAY TWENTY FIVE:

Today was such a fun day!!!! NO CLASSES wooooo!!! Instead, we went to the winery! This place is beautiful! The owner walked us all over the vineyard and pointed out all the different types of grapes grown to make the different kinds of wine. Also on the land, there are hundreds of herbs that she picked for us and had us smell and try to identify each one. I was awful at this!!! After everyone had taken entirely too many pictures, we went inside the winery where we met the owner's son, Big Rob. I think it would be safe to say he was over 6'5" 250 pounds... literally HUGE! He explained to us our competition to make the best wine. We divided into our community groups, were given seven bottles of wine, and had to mix them to create our own "blend" and name it. We were supposed to taste all the wines first and then decide which we wanted to use for our final bottle. Big Rob taught us the proper tasting etiquette, but unfortunately, or rather fortunately, our group struggled with portion control. Every "taste" ended up being a full glass of wine... so much so that we actually ran out of wine when it was time to start making ours for the competetion. We had to borrow from other groups haha. Clearly the shitshow table. Our wine was called The Big Five after the big five in Africa. On the label we drew the five animals and claimed to have used only five wines. We used all of them though... the title was just so creative haha. Once all the wine was gone, Big Rob and his mom judged all the groups wine. Our group got fourth place.... out of six teams haha oh well. We definitely had the most fun! I found today that I actually like some red wines!! I bought two bottles to bring back home with me, but I don't know how well that will work out since I'm not exactly legal in America. And..... let's be honest they may not last that long haha sorry Mom!! After the wine tasting or as it became known as... the wine chugging... we had a few hours to go into the town and get lunch and explore. I can't remember the exact name or spelling of the town but it starts with "Franc..." and means French Quarters in english. Then, it was back on the bus to get ready for my birthday dinner! Question of the day: "Are you turning 20 or 21?"I have never felt like such a baby haha. Oh well, I like it! I have only been here for three weeks and I already have such good friends. There was a group of almost thirty of us that went to the restaurant called Mama Africa! But before we could even leave for the restaurant I was iced.... after all my wine that was the last thing I needed haha. The food was so yummy!! The band sang to me and gave me free birthday shots and flowers. It was just a really fun atmosphere! After dinner, a bunch of us went to Dubliners, the Irish Pub. We were only in there for two minutes before the entire bar knew my name and that it was my birthday. The singer of the band sang to me and then for the rest of the night added my name into like all of his songs haha. Probably up there with one of my best birthday's!! Or night before my birthday haha. Round two manana!