The Neelsie is the Student Centre, or the Union, or whatever you want to call it. It's a big building in the middle of Stellenbosch University campus, sort of like a mall. It has a cinema, and a laundry, and many many coffee shops and restaurants and suchlike. I pass through it on my way to work every day, and it's always buzzing with students, sitting watching sport on the bigscreen TV, or having breakfast or lunch or supper.
There's a place called Nachos that sells the "meal of the day" - one meat, two veg - for R15. You can choose the meat and the veg from their daily selections, yesterday it was chicken schnitzel, barbeque chicken, or ostrich stew. You can also have just a "meat" for R7.50, or just two veg, for R3.75 each, and so on. It's good value for money, and means people get a decentish meal instead of burgers every day.
Yesterday, I did my laundry. The drying cycle is way too short, and I had to do it twice, but it was fine. I bought the washing powder at the 7-eleven, which is open from 7am to 11pm (who knew?!), and sat drinking orange juice and eating my Nachos meal while it got done. There was a coloured family - mom in curlers, dad wearing slippers, two kids drinking their supersize Fanta Grapes - doing their laundry at the same time, an atmosphere of much joviality and cameraderia.
The Neelsie is an awesome place if you're alone. I went and sat there drinking coffee (Mocha Java, R4.50 for a large cup, at the DCM (Donuts Coffee Muffins), but I could have had Columbian (recommended) or Brazilian (not so much) too) on my first day here, and it was just... nice. You know, the buzz around you. Word on the street is, it's an awesome place if you're not alone, too. So, to summarize: the Neelsie is an awesome place, and I'm glad it's four minutes walk from my house.
I went through to Cape Town on Thursday, for the Frogfoot beach party which was good fun. Claire crashed the party to see me, which was cool. Then on Friday, she came down for a quick visit, to see my work and my house and stuff. Unfortunately, her car broke down, and we ended up waiting till 11:30 for her parents to come pick her up. I was exhausted after Thursday night, but it was nice to see her, anyway.
On Saturday, Tristan Waterkeyn came through to get my help on his Flash website. This was good, because after that, we went out to see what Stellenbosch nightlife was like. It was brilliant. All I needed was somebody to go with. We went to Bohemia, then the Mystic Boere (I swear, that's what it's called), then Fandango, then Terrace, then Rugby, then the Belgian Beer Pub, then Stones, then Sunrise, then Steers. It was great. I like it here.
Adeline came through on Sunday, in between her shifts at work. She could only stay about half an hour, but she brought me breakfast for Monday (a muffin, some yoghurt, and some orange juice), because she's fantastic.
Then I did laundry at the Neelsie.