Day 08 Spring Break

“Happy Birthday”
Saturday September 7^th 2013

Our last day in Plett went kind of like our last day in Cape Town. We all got up kind of haphazardly and started packing and making breakfast. Midway through the breakfast preparations, Becca and I snuck, ever so stealthily (aka not stealthily at all) out of the hostel to go on a cupcake mission. Today was Mary’s birthday, and earlier in the week she had expressed a very clear desire for a cupcake (and mimosas) on her special day.

Becca and I would make terrible secret agents, detectives, cupcake retrieval artists… We tried Pick n’ Pay (where we found some sad Giant/ACME brand-like cupcakes), and a random coffee chain. A cashier directed us to a bakery across the parking lot that we happily ran to. It was a Jewish bakery, and the sign on the door thanked us kindly for allowing them to be closed on the Sabbath. Back up the hill we went where we blissfully discovered a place called Clare’s Cakes. The cupcake display that awaited us inside was to die for! We were so relieved and we bought cupcakes for everyone to celebrate (as well as some coffee for ourselves).

We returned triumphantly to Amakaya, where scrambled eggs and toast were already on the table. As we opened our mouths to sing “Happy Birthday”, Nora flashed us a warning look and we fell silent. Apparently, the bank in Plett had given Mary trouble that morning when she went to try and retrieve some money her mom had sent her. Still without her bank card, this posed quite a problem. She had been told to go to a bank that was about an hour away that incidentally would close in about an hour and a half. She and Caitie took the car and left ASAP, but not before we gave Mary her red velvet birthday cupcake.

Those of us left behind ate, cleaned up breakfast, and loaded up the car while we waited for Caite and Mary to come back. We waited a long time, but eventually, Mary came back with the money she needed and we drove off to Port Alfred for BOAT RACES!

Boat Races is an inter-university regatta. Everyone gets dressed up in their overalls (glorified and decorated painters coveralls) to show their school spirit and then there is a huge party. Because of our morning set back we got there after all the races, but there were DJs going all night long. We ran into a bunch of our friends from Rhodes and met some new people from other universities. It was a fantastic last night of vacation.

Most people who come to boat races pay to camp on the grounds, but because we had gotten there late and we were very broke we slept in our cars. We are very classy. But if you can’t sleep in your car when you are 20….when can you?