The End

This will be my last blog on our homepage, since I will be leaving South Africa on Wednesday. Martin has already left on Friday, because he had to go back to the army. On Thursday we spent out last day together in George, we drove through the town again and went to the Garden Rout Mall where we enjoyed a last tasty vegetarian Steers burger. We packed Martins things all afternoon, considering his return to South Africa in 6 weeks time. Since he is keeping the car here, he is going to leave a lot of stuff in it which makes it a lot easier. On Friday morning after checking in we watched the airplanes land and take off over a cup of lovely hot chocolate in the restaurant in the airport. After kissing Martin good-bye I stayed there, watched him board his plane and saw him take off. I then went back to the apartment in Mosselbay. That afternoon I took a walk on the beach. I sat down on a bench and looked out onto the sea and experienced something amazing. A whale was playing in the water jumping out of it time after time, showing off his tale. It was so beautiful. While walking back I realised that it wasn’t only one… There were a few of them. I ran back up the road to get my camera. I got back and they were still there. I waited on a sand dune for them to jump out of the water again. But they wouldn’t do it again; Murphy’s Law, I guess. Maybe they didn’t do it again, because of the front that was passing. Martin had forecasted the warm front that was going to come and here it was. It brought rain and a beautiful rainbow!
Now I am very busy packing and cleaning the apartment. It is quite difficult to give up a household but luckily we got the place furnished, which makes matters a lot easier.
Well, this is it then. I really hope that you liked our homepage and we kept you up to date about what was going on in our lives. Life goes on now, which means for Martin army, some more flying and then studying economics at the University of St.Gallen and for me work at the Kinderspital Luzern and then studying to become a nurse at the University of Zurich.

My Birthday

My Birthday
On Friday I woke up to Martin’s voice singing Happy Birthday. When he called me into the living room a short while later he surprised me with a delicious chocolate cake covered in a creamy ganache with golden candles. I blew them and enjoyed it before unwrapping a pink fluffy morning gown. The bell rang and I received a huge, colourful and stunning flower bunch from Christine and Stefanie! We then got dressed and drove away in our car, I had no idea where to… When we stopped at the Gourits River Bridge my heart started pounding. I knew what it meant to be here and got very excited. This bridge is famous for its 65 metres bungy jump! We walked down to the bridge to watch a couple do the thing we were about to do and ten minutes later it was our turn to stand on the edge, hear the countdown and jump!!! It was so amazing. The two of us tied together just dropped into the valley and then swung under the bridge. After a long scream I recovered from the adrenalin rush and loved that experience.
The next surprise was that Martin took me to my favourite outdoor café; the Redberry Farm. I always love going there. It is so peaceful. The sun was shining while we enjoyed a delicious cheese platter with pickled figs and apples and I sipped a refreshing strawberry drink.
Martin had planned a good and a bad weather version of the day and since it was still so early we got to do both. Which meant that we drove to the mall and watched “Indiana Jones”. It was the first one for me and I loved the movie. It is very adventurous, but not frightening, involved some history, some comedy and was so interesting to follow.
Later that evening Martin invited me to an Italian restaurant that I’ve always been wanting to go to. It is called Piatto. It’s a double story place. The top is a bar and lounge and the bottom is where one eats in little round sofas. We were take to one of them by a very friendly waitress and handed cocktail menus. It was good luck that we happened to get there during happy hour. We each got an amazing looking drink, colourfully decorated. With it we enjoyed a thin based garlic focachia. Later on Martin got a traditional Spaghetti al Arrabiata, while I got a great vegetarian platter. On it were three bars of haloomi cheese, a spanakopita, a baked potato with creamy cheese sauce, ginger vegetables, feta served on a fried mushroom, olives fresh cucumber. It was every vegetarians dream and extremely nicely presented on an oval plate!!!
We didn’t ride straight home after that, but instead headed to town to a club called Carouse, where we first enjoyed a drink in a quiet cosy corner and then danced!
It was a great day and I will always have my 22nd birthday in good memory thanks to Martin! Many people also thought of me via sms, gave me phone calls and sent me presents, which I truly appreciated.

Flying

During the past week we did a lot of flying. Martin had to get his last few hours before he and reached all the requirements for his commercial pilots licence. We made a beautiful flight at night time inlands passing a few little villages, we flew in the sunset along the coast to Plettenberg Bay and last Saturday we took a long trip nearly to Cape Town. Flying is just magnificent! For the first time I saw dolphins and shark in the sea! South Africa is really such a beautiful country and we are sad we have to leave it so soon. Martin is working on his BMW a lot at the moment. Everything has to be perfect before we can drive it to the train museum in George to display it! After a lot of thinking whether and how to keep his 1970 BMW he saw a sign at the this museum where they have a lot of oldtimers on show on which it said that they are still looking for more cars. Martin contacted the guy and for only 35 rand a month he can exhibit his car and every year when he comes back for the renewal of his licence he can take it out and drive it around.
Friday last week was a beautiful sunny day and we decided to go to the point in Mosselbay for probably the last time. At Delfino's on the beach we enjoyed a mouthwatering nacho plate and and some South African wine while watching the surfers and feeling some of the last sun rays this season. A lot later we got seated inside this Italian restaurant for delicious pizza and pasta followed by their famous coffee and cakes. We really spoilt ourselves since this dinner was the celebration of our 3 years anniversary.
Yesterday we walked down to our beach and sat on a bench for a long while enjoying the huge waves. The temperature is getting colder every day and the sun isn't able to force his walmth through every day. Today the air was very humid and one could feel the salt in it coming from the sea.

End of Cape Town, Stefanie's Visit

On Monday I went to the University of Cape Town with Fiona. It was such a nice experience to see what life at a South African university is like. She studies marketing so I listened to a statistics lecture, followed by an economic one and to round of my morning I learned what marketing was all about in a marketing lecture, who’s lecturer really taught with enthusiasm. That evening we went to a delicious Mexican restaurant with 5 other girls. I really enjoyed seeing all of them again and we had a lot to chat about. The Tuesday morning I spent with Claudia again. We went to yoga, which I really loved. In the afternoon I met Katharine at Mug & Bean and spent the evening with her. Her mum cooked very tasty vegetarian food on a gas cooker since we had no electricity, due to load shedding. We went to watch a movie called “The other Boleyn Girl”. A cup of tea with Fiona rounded of the evening and the end of my stay in Cape Town. Early on Wednesday morning I left this beautiful city to arrive in Mosselbay where Martin expected me. It was so nice to be home again. I got cosy in our apartment while he went of to prepare himself for his Commercial Pilot’s Test.

The Thursday was a bit crazy. Don’t ask me how I did it, but when I was about to leave to pick Stefanie up from the airport I flooded the carbonator of our BMW. I tried to drive it, but lost more than 40 litres in less than 1km and had to be towed away in the end. Sitting in a road assistance truck with the BMW on the trailer we drove to the airport where Martin’s sister wasn’t sure if this was really the vehicle that was picking her up. The two of us spent the afternoon at the mall waiting for the car to be checked while poor Martin was doing his theoretical part of the commercial test with worries about his car and about us. At five o’clock they informed us that we won’t be able to take the care home and they took us to the airport to rent an opel corsa.
On Friday I took Martin to the Flight Training College. It was his big day! With a happy jet a bit nervous face he kissed me good-bye. Back home after Stefanie had woken up the two of us left for a bit of grocery shopping and a walk on Diaz Beach, where we watched funny little snails in the sand. As we were about to get into our car we heard a noise in the sky, looked up and I said to Stefanie :”This must be Martin!” My guess was right. A quarter of an hour later I got a phone call from a proud Commercial Pilot. Martin had passed his test!!! (The picture above shows the twin engine ZGO in which Martin did his test.) We rushed to pick him up and went to celebrate his success at the Panarottis in Mosselbay. Stefanie stayed until this afternoon and we did lots of nice outings with her, we took her to all our favourite places and discovered the wide white beach of Wilderness. We enjoyed sitting in the sun at the Redberry Farm, took a drive to Oudtshoorn to meet the ostriches, said hello to the dassies at the Point in Mosselbay, got into the Mexican vibe at the Coyote Cactus, went for English breakfast at Wimpy’s, we simply loved having her as a guest with us! After a meal at Steers with the widest variety of vegetarian burgers ever and the best burgers one has tried anyway…;-) Stefanie took of to fly back home.

Cape Town continues...

On Tuesday morning Hanns and I drove in the morning and our first stop was town, where he had to attend a meeting, whereas I had some time to look around St. Georges Mall and Green Market Square. This is the center of Cape Town. It's a pedestrian shopping mile and has lots of shops and little stalls. When Hanns was finished he picked me up and we headed towards Stellenbosch. There we met Kirsten and explored the campus where she had been studdying for the last one and a half years. The University is huge, there are nice allies and students everywhere. There is a place with various take away shops and plenty of tables in the middle, where students were chatting, having coffee, working and we joined them with sushi and a lovely vegetable wrap. When Gail came home from work that evening Hanns proposed that we go out for supper to a Chinese place, since the power was going to be of and this restaurant had a generator.
On Wednesday morning Hanns took me to Claudia's house. (Claudia Utermark was my first hostmum in Cape Town.) I had a relaxed afternoon there, read my interesting book next to the beautiful pool huged by old trees. On Thursday Claudia woke me up early in the morning to go for a walk. We drove to Constantia and hiked up Cecilia Forest and ran down an other trail. After that walk I felt great! It is such a good way to start your day and an hours hike every morning just changes your lifestyle by so much. We rushed back, because our plans were to go to yoga, which we made just in time. It was my first time doing yoga and eventhough it is quite difficult to get the balance right and one has to be quite flexible it is so relaxing and one gets to focus on every single part of the body and on one's breath. Despite of my muscles which aren't really used to the kinds of sports I made them do and were thus complaining a bit we went hiking the next morning again. At two we went to Springfield Girls High, where I used to go to. The Matrics had a fashion show of their Matric Dance dresses. Alex had one of the beautiful girls!
The Saturday was a quiet day and towards the evening I said good-bye to the Utermarks when Bohles came to pick me up. I spent another night with them. In the morning we visited Kirsten at the toyshop where she work over the weekends and Gail and me had some coffe at a nice coffee shop. I get along so well with her. At around lunch time she droped me of at Tarryn's house. She and Rebecca, who joined us a bit later, where very close friends. It's so nice be be able to come back after so many years, where we didn't have a lot of contact, or to be precise non at all, and have so many things to talk about and be as close as if no time had passed since I last saw them. They are doing different things, know different people but they are still the same people and haven't changed a bit.
Later that afternoon I went to Fionas house. It's so nice how her parents always make me feel so welcome and confortable in their home, like part of their family. Fiona and I went to have some tea, chatted, the four of us went out for some lovely pizza at a stunning place and after that we carried on chatting. We get along so well and we could talk for hours... But now I better go to sleep. I have to get up at 6 tomorrow morning. I am going to University with Fiona from 8 till 5. I think it's gonna be quite an exciting day and I look forward to get an insight into a South African University... Good night... sleep well.

Cape Town

Since Friday I have now been in Cape Town. The night before I left we had our friends Ian and Linzi and their daughter Nicole for supper. I prepared a Greek starter, then everyone made their own little pizza with the ingredients they wished to put on and to round of the evening we had a big choccolate tart!
I was meant to leave Mosselbay by bus at one o'clock, but the bus had a lot of delay and i ended up waving Martin good-bye only at 5. At midnight Hanns Bohle, my hostdad from my exchange year, came to pick me up in town and took me home where I fell asleep in my old room, which hadn't changed at all soon after. On Saturday Gail, my hostmum, and I went for tea to a friend of hers. The drive was amazing. We took Chapmans Peak drive and had a beautiful view of Kommetjie. That's a broad white beach. In the afternoon my hostsister Kirsten came back from Stellenbosch, where she studdies and we all went for supper at a nice Italian restaurant in Hout Bay. We had a good family time. On Sunday we went for a drive the other direction. It was a sunny warm day and we drove along the coastline till Blouberg, where we enjoyed some lovely cake and tea. Their family tradition is to always see their best friends for supper every Sunday. As I was able to be with them I made some tomato bread for starter with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and olives and I prepared an apple strudel for pudding. Hanns made a mouth-watering mushroom risotto as the main meal. We sat for quite long chatting and I felt really welcome. Today was a relaxing day. I read, enjoyed the sun and got a long phone call from my godmother Beatrix. It was so nice to talk to her.
This was now all about me and I feel a bit bad about that. I would have loved to have Martin with me on this trip, get him to meet my hostfamilies and friends and share Cape Town with him. But he is so close to his Commercial Pilots Licence now, that he doesn't want to miss any sunny day and wants to get the most out of the remaining days. Time really flies and we can't believe that we will be back in Switzerland in two month time.

Easter and a visitor

(There is something wrong with the blog webpage. This blog originally had 7 pictures, which for some reason I couldn't upload. Just send me a quick note, if you would like to get the real version and I will send it to you via e-mail.)
We had a lovely Easter in Cape Town with Fiona White's family. On Saturday we went to a mall, where I went a lot during my exchange year. It has expanded a great deal and Martin and I realized how expensive Cape Town is compared to George. This is really a metropolis. In the afternoon Martin went to town to pick up a college from the army, Ramon, who is backpacking in South Africa at the moment. Later on one of my other friends Katherine, her boyfriend and one of her friends came to Fi's house as well and all of us went to a Caribbean bar called Banana Jam to get some cocktails. Back home we started a fire for a traditional braai and prepared some salads. We had a fun time, talked till late and then chilled out watching "The Pacifier".
On Sunday Fiona, Sue (Fionas mom) and I got up very early to go to church. We listened to a nice Easter sermon, the church was filled with candles before the sun slowly rose. Back home we had some tea and went back to sleep for a while. It was starting to become very hot and Martin and I sat beside the pool, talking to Ant (Fionas dad), who was cleaning it, before I went inside to help Sue with the Easter lunch. Since early in the morning the roast, cooking in the oven, had been filling the house with the lovely scent of rosemary and marinade. Fiona had invited two friends from university for lunch and her parents had invited a couple with a daughter our age. After enjoying a divine appetiser with melba toast, several dips and pâtés, wine and gin and tonic we had a delicious Easter lunch with a lot of laughter.
On Monday Sue and Ant took Martin, Ramon and me to see the penguins in Simonstown and we drove all the way along the cost. For the first time I was able to experience the Chapman's Peak drive. (This road was closed during my exchange year.) It is really amazing! In Hout Bay we went to have the famous fish & chips at a place in the harbour. On our drive we encountered a gang of baboons making a big mess while looking for leftovers in a bin.
At around three that afternoon Martin, Ramon and I headed back home to Mosselbay.
Since then we have been doing a few outings in our area. We went to the Game Reserve in Plettenberg Bay, where we spotted a very young rhino and his mom and lots of bucks, giraffes, zebras… and the turtle with his crocodile buddies. After this wildlife experience we joined most of the tourists visiting this area of South Africa at the Plettenberg Bay Beach. It was a beautiful day and we let the hot sun shine on our skins lying in the sand.
There was a huge music festival going in on in Oudtshoorn for a whole week, which we visited and where we listened to Afrikaans singing bands sitting on straw stacks.