Franschhoek: easy on the eyes, hard on the waistline.

As Amy mentioned in our last post, after a few nights rest we are back to our old ways. We had a great dinner with Vivy and Brad at their house. Brad made us cottage pie, and Vivy serenaded us with the acoustic version of the regaton hit "Gasolina". We were able to convince Brad that it was time for Vivy to join us at the E&B. The second we arrived in the pub Vivy decided to start a dance party...needless to say, it was a good night. Actually, a great night but a difficult morning...

Thursday we read stories to different classrooms. We also finished up our main project - the library. The last few days we've been working hard to liven up the library with drawings from the art classes we taught, posters and photos. It wasn't a very long day at school, but we were able to get a lot accomplished. Our afternoon consisted of a long siesta and the E&B. It was a tame night at the pub with Paul, Doug and Brad. We met some new friends too... one being Wayne, who is a rugby player/ retired Chicago Bears player. Wayne is definitely on our list of recruits for the road trip.

Friday was an amazing day! In the morning, Sintu drove us around to the different nurseries so that we could say goodbye and deliver some goodies. Then we were off to meet Doug at West End School for a soccer game versus the 7th grade girls. Somehow our out of shape team survived and the match even ended in a tie. The day only got better when we arrived at Dalubuhle. (Ok, it's Amy now) With all the sneaking around we knew something was up and finally we were led into the assembly hall...the school had organized an assembly for us! The kids were all gathered in there and cheered when we walked in. We were led to some seats at the front and one of the teachers (Nicole's favorite) said that they wanted to show how grateful they were for the time and dedication we put in with the school. The kids' choir went up and sang a couple traditional Xhosa songs complete with clapping and stomping. After this, the cheerleaders went up and performed some traditional Xhosa dances for us. They were so cute in their red skirts, matching Timberland T-shirts and painted faces. Finally, the teachers and Principal Lucy went up and performed a couple of songs for everyone. It turns out this is the first time they've ever done this and the kids went crazy. Sintu says they must have really liked us to do that, which was nice to hear... although they kept referring to us as ''Nicole and others''. :) They ended the ceremony by presenting each of us with beaded necklaces to remember them by and having us promise we'd come back to visit. I really hope we get to keep that promise.

After the assembly we got lunch with Sintu, Doug and Liesl and then got to spend the afternoon at Doug's house again. But this time we got to actually be in the same area as his zebras, wildebeests and other wild animals! We were so close to them, it was a little unnerving but very cool. We went back to relax before meeting up with everyone at E&B before the big karaoke night. The karaoke night was a fundraiser for Kusasa but it wasn't a standard karaoke... they only had 10 slots and over 100 people were there and we were Doug's back-up singers! We were pretty nervous so we had a drink at E&B then a glass of wine or 2 before we went up to sing. Doug sang ''That's Amore'' by Dean Martin and everyone loved it. We also got a hit performance by Paul (our Franschhoek dad) of ''Hit the Road Jack'' and quite a few other performances. Everyone met at E&B afterwards too and then Nicole and I went with some friends to late-night BBQ so we didn't get home until very late.

Saturday Doug got us reservations to one of the nicest restaurants in the Cape Winelands called Le Petite Ferme. It has a helicopter landing pad because people fly up from Cape Town just for the food. Nicole was struggling a bit so she didn't talk much but Beth and I had a great time chatting over our delicious meals of lamb, ostrich, beef, risotto, creme brulee and wine. We walked all the way up there and back which was probably 5 miles round trip uphill so we napped when we got back before going over to Liesl's. She had organized a Braai (BBQ) for us with her family, Sintu, Doug & his wife and Paul. We had a great time and a delicious dinner but were bursting at the seams by the end. We then were forced to watch the video Liesl took of karaoke and were pretty embarrassed but it was fun to see it all again.

Yesterday we didn't do much of anything... we had a very relaxing day of watching DVDs and not moving from the couch as the weather has been awful. Paul got a reservation for the 4 of us though, for dinner & a movie at the local cinema. They have a really nice restaurant with a tiny screening room in the back so we all had another great meal and then saw a Mexican film called ''Under the Same Moon.'' We all cried a little...

Today is our last day in Franschhoek so we're going to finalize our itinerary with Rudi this afternoon and get some gifts for everyone who has been so good to us here. Our car arrives tomorrow so we'll be heading to Cape Town to stay with Pete for a few days before starting our adventure! As I said, we'll post the itinerary as soon as we have it.

Have a great day everyone! We are thinking of you all!