I know I keep saying it but this will actually be my last blog post, Ive been home for a month so I wanted to write one last blurb about Cape Town…I’m not even sure where to start but here goes.
My entire flight home I was in absolute denial, even as the plane landed I kept thinking that if I stayed in my seat it might turn around and take me back to Cape Town.. It was so bizarre I actually remember feeling so guilty because I wanted to see my family and friends but was so not ready to come home yet, still it was
inevitable, my study abroad was over and I was back in America.
I met my parents in the airport and spent the entire drive home telling stories. When I walked in my front door I found my two best friends standing in my kitchen, which they decorated for my birthday/homecoming and there was cake and presents, it was absolutely perfect. I was beyond happy to see them and suddenly being home didn’t seem to bad. A few seconds later Fenway came running through the kitchen and almost knocked me over with excitement and I decided that it wasn’t going to be too rough back in Allentown : )
I watched just about every single world cup game (I had espn3 set as my homepage at work so I could watching from the office) and played my vuvuzela when goals were scored or things go awkward during a game. I was so proud of the country too, they definitely exceeded expectations and pulled of a great tournament, maybe all the games weren't sold out, but the stadiums were full and people were watching those games! I wish the housing evictions would have been highlighted in the news (instead of just talking about vuvuzelsa) but its a start, and I hope that the nation really does benefit, in the long run, from holding the tournament.
Saying I miss South Africa would be an understatement, I mean it’s an absolute given. I loved the country, its people, Cape Town, the school, black label & hunter’s dry and long street, old biscuit and of course all the amazing friends I made in Mobreezy. I constantly catch myself comparing things to SA or just getting excited at the mention of the continent. I learned a lot while I was abroad and of course not just in the classroom. My volunteering projects were perfect, I realized I
really do enjoy teaching and am absolutely positive now that I want to volunteer with the Peace Corp or another NGO overseas before settling down professionally. I also realized that I can be away from home for extended periods of time, after 5 months I didn’t want to leave, and I know its horrible to admit but I didn’t get very homesick once I was adjusted to Cape Town. And it sounds so cliche but I took a lot of risks while abroad and learned a lot about myself, what I want in life now and in the future. I learned who was really important to me, friends and family...and everyone else who doesn't quite fit into those categories. Although coming home is a bit of culture shock I definitely cleared my head a little with that fresh Cape Town breeze...
I now have a new obsession with soccer. I found myself cheering for Manchester United the other day while watching them play Philly; it was automatic my friends taught me to support red. I have a coin jar on my desk at home that’s dedicated to my Brazil 2014 fund, which I know is a long-shot but I it could happen.
I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am with my study abroad experience. I want to go back to Cape Town, like now now, but know it would be different without the group of friends I had last semester. It’s still an amazing place and I plan to return one day, ideally to work for ACCORD, or the American embassy after I graduate.
I still catch myself getting excited when someone discusses the world cup (or better yet, vuvuzelas). When I talk to friends in SA, I catch myself smiling when they use the work hectic or cheers, which is some slang I'm slowing introducing to my vocabulary at home, my sister’s already teasing for saying “as well” in every other sentence. I found out this afternoon that I got into graduate school, so it looks like my far-fetched dream of studying at UCT for my master’s degree has just
gone out the window but I know I’ll be back, maybe for a summer program or maybe in a few years for jobs...or the 2020 Olympics, I know I'm backing the big for South Africa, and I'll continue to wear my UNITED FOR BAFANA band proudly because of the country and people it represents.
So thanks for an incredibly, truly life-changing experience Cape Town, you've been more than fantastic to me, and thank you also to anyone who actually kept up reading this and followed me throughout the semester.
Cheers,
Hales
July 28, 2010
July 22, 2010
KE NAKO AFRICA
Where do I even start? The world cup was beyond incredible. In the days leading up to it there was so much excitement and pride in Cape Town, you could feel at the pride overflowing when talking to cab drivers, bar tenders or just about any South African for the matter. Posters, jerseys and flags were everywhere, and those vuvuzelas, well they never stopped ringing. My friends and I couldn’t walk anywhere downtown without being greeted by a random person who would yell “WELCOME TO SOUTH AFRICA!” and we’d giggle because after 5 months months we still stuck out in this country.
On Thursday, June 10th, my friends and I went down town, we had a girls day at the spa (thank you for a great currency exchange) and then got some excellent mojitos at Che bar for happy hour. We met up with our friends at neighborhood for more cocktails and then took to the street to watch the opening parade in Cape Town. The parade was cool, totally random though, and after we stayed in the streets to watch the opening concert in Johannesburg, which was playing on Jumbo screens. The boys were excited because the bars were allowing people to take their drinks out in the street so we all danced and sang crazily to the music on the jumbo screens and started celebrating. After a little while we got tired of the concert and decided we should just wander back to Long Street and check out the action there…and boy was it packed.
We bar-hopped the rest of the night, but spent most of our time in Joburg, our favorite bar. When we weren’t dancing inside we were out running in the streets, it was absolute madness. People were going crazy, running around in jersey cheering and singing, and of course blowing vuvuzelas. We started lots of chants and met plenty of people simply because they were either wearing American jerseys or they were locals who liked our bafana gear and wanted to cheer with us. There were lots of people "making the circle bigger" who were dancing in the streets, it was perfect, thank you south africa for being yourself. It was so much fun, I didn’t want the night to end, it was pure revelry.
I came home that night to some very unfortunate news, which I guess is just an example of how life works…sometimes you’re soaring high and then you easily trip and hit rock bottom. My parents reluctantly told me that a family member had passed away unexpectedly so I spent the rest walking around LBG trying to calm down and luckily, had an amazing roommate who helped me mourn while I was so far from home and my family.
The next morning I woke up exhausted, still crying and pretty much unable to even keep my eyes open, but I had to get up it was OPENING DAY. I put on all my south African gear…a bafana bafana tee, south African earrings, a bright pattern head-band and wore a South African flag as a cape, I was ready for the day. My friends and I took a minibus downtown (there were maybe 20 of us crammed into one van, all decked out in bafana bafana stuff it was awesome). We went straight to the fan park, where we hung out all day waiting to watch the opening match in Joburg (South Africa v. Mexico) on the jumbo screen. The fan park was so cool, it was packed with lots of die-hard fans, everyone was wearing gear for the rainbow nation and they were so excited. We sang Shosoloza and other south African songs, made lots of friends and played our vuvuzelas throughout the afternoon, and when the game started every person in the park was watching. Although the game ended in a 1-1 tie everyone was ecstatic, South Africa scored the first goal of the game (and tournament!) and had played a pretty great game, especially since they were the underdogs of the tournament, ranked 83rd in the world, they were only playing because they were the host country.
After the game we walked to the Eastern Bazaar, filled up on Indian food and then walked to Green Point Stadium to watch the opening game in Cape Town. The game was Uruguay v. France, and although the game was pretty boring, the atmosphere in the stadium was so cool. We were all still in our south African jerseys and a lot of the fans at the game were too so it was a lot of fun. There were people wearing Ireland jerseys too (because of the controversy in the French game) and lots of random costumes, if you will being displayed. There were even two people in cow suites, which I still don’t understand? After the game we went home, it was almost midnight and had another long day tomorrow.
Saturday, we woke up kind of early to go to Old Biscuit Mill for one last time. We got the best iced coffee in the world, and some breakfast then caught a minibus to Newlands to see the SPRINGBOKS (national rugby team) play France. The game was so much fun, we stood in the stands along one of the “end lines” and cheered BOKKA along with everyone else. It wasn’t even a close game but still it was so exciting, I think I’m actually starting to understand the sport…too bad when I go home no one will want to watch it. After the game we rushed home to throw on anything and everything that was red, white and blue and then headed down town to the fan park to watch the USA/UK game.
Now, this was the first time since studying abroad that I fully embraced my “americanness”, until this point we usually tired to hide the fact that we were tourists but when we got to the park I coulnd’t help but feel so proud. There was red, white and blue everywhere, and I was so excited to meet and cheer with all these Americans. The game was so much fun. I was wearing a navy skirt with a white tee, red headband and had an American flag (cape-style of course) and it was maybe 45 degrees out? So I had a few beers to keep me warm and Farley and I wandered around the stadium painting people’s faces and making friends until the game started. Of course it was another tie, but the game was still so exciting. We sang patriotic songs and made friends with international tourists who decided to cheer for America and then went to Long Street afterwards. Long Street wasn’t really that fun though and it was almost my birthday so after celebrating my 21st with a tequila shot at Fiction, we decided to ditch the bars and head to Tin Roof to celebrate.
Tin Roof is my favorite bar (besides Joburg and Stones) in Cape Town. It’s cheap, the music is so bad its great and there’s never a lot of Americans there…So my roommate and I met up with two of her friends there and we celebrated my 21st dancing like crazy and of course trying lots of different drinks. Farley told everyone it was birthday so we made lots of new friends for the night and just had a really great time. We went home super late as always but it was a great birthday.
Sunday morning, we woke up and got one last breakfast at Coco wahwah and then rounded everyone up to go to Mzoli’s for the last time : ( Mzolis was a lot of fun, although it changed a little for the world cup but still it was really cool. We sat at the restaurant drinking black label and cider and watched soccer games all afternoon. Everyone ate lots of meat (except not me, that’s what the coco wahwah was for…) and finally we went home once it was started to get dark out. I went back to my room to pack because I was leaving the next day, then went over to Suzanne’s room to help with dinner.
I walked in the door and Suzanne and the rest of the girls surprised me with a birthday cake (chocolate of course) and presents and we toasted with some good wine and then ate dinner. It was great, have I mentioned how much I love these girls? We hungout and ate more cake and played cards until the rest of my friends made their way to Suzanne’s room so we could go out and all celebrate my birthday and one last night together on Long Street, (the rest of my friends had been in Rustenburg the night before for the UK/US game so were reunited and ready to go!) Long street was lots of fun, even for a Sunday, I guess with the world cup it was bound to be crowded.
We bounced around from bar to bar, and then finally ended up at Joburg. My friends were determined to make sure I celebrated my 21st well, so that was really fun, around 2am we stopped raging and stood around the bar at Joburg to watch the Celtics/Laker’s game and then finally around 5:30 AM, when the game was over, we went home beyond exhausted.
The next day I got brunch with my girlfriends in Obz, we went to the fabric store (which I’ve wanted to do all semester) I waved a last goodbye to stones and then went home to finish packing. I said my goodbyes, and started crying when I took one last view at table mountain and then got in the car to get to the airport.
At the airport I ran around like mad buying last-minute world cup tees and snacks for my 14 hour plane ride and then finally boarded my plane in complete denial of coming home…
if you still don't know these songs please listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJSt4wP2ME&feature=avmsc2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0
On Thursday, June 10th, my friends and I went down town, we had a girls day at the spa (thank you for a great currency exchange) and then got some excellent mojitos at Che bar for happy hour. We met up with our friends at neighborhood for more cocktails and then took to the street to watch the opening parade in Cape Town. The parade was cool, totally random though, and after we stayed in the streets to watch the opening concert in Johannesburg, which was playing on Jumbo screens. The boys were excited because the bars were allowing people to take their drinks out in the street so we all danced and sang crazily to the music on the jumbo screens and started celebrating. After a little while we got tired of the concert and decided we should just wander back to Long Street and check out the action there…and boy was it packed.
We bar-hopped the rest of the night, but spent most of our time in Joburg, our favorite bar. When we weren’t dancing inside we were out running in the streets, it was absolute madness. People were going crazy, running around in jersey cheering and singing, and of course blowing vuvuzelas. We started lots of chants and met plenty of people simply because they were either wearing American jerseys or they were locals who liked our bafana gear and wanted to cheer with us. There were lots of people "making the circle bigger" who were dancing in the streets, it was perfect, thank you south africa for being yourself. It was so much fun, I didn’t want the night to end, it was pure revelry.
I came home that night to some very unfortunate news, which I guess is just an example of how life works…sometimes you’re soaring high and then you easily trip and hit rock bottom. My parents reluctantly told me that a family member had passed away unexpectedly so I spent the rest walking around LBG trying to calm down and luckily, had an amazing roommate who helped me mourn while I was so far from home and my family.
The next morning I woke up exhausted, still crying and pretty much unable to even keep my eyes open, but I had to get up it was OPENING DAY. I put on all my south African gear…a bafana bafana tee, south African earrings, a bright pattern head-band and wore a South African flag as a cape, I was ready for the day. My friends and I took a minibus downtown (there were maybe 20 of us crammed into one van, all decked out in bafana bafana stuff it was awesome). We went straight to the fan park, where we hung out all day waiting to watch the opening match in Joburg (South Africa v. Mexico) on the jumbo screen. The fan park was so cool, it was packed with lots of die-hard fans, everyone was wearing gear for the rainbow nation and they were so excited. We sang Shosoloza and other south African songs, made lots of friends and played our vuvuzelas throughout the afternoon, and when the game started every person in the park was watching. Although the game ended in a 1-1 tie everyone was ecstatic, South Africa scored the first goal of the game (and tournament!) and had played a pretty great game, especially since they were the underdogs of the tournament, ranked 83rd in the world, they were only playing because they were the host country.
After the game we walked to the Eastern Bazaar, filled up on Indian food and then walked to Green Point Stadium to watch the opening game in Cape Town. The game was Uruguay v. France, and although the game was pretty boring, the atmosphere in the stadium was so cool. We were all still in our south African jerseys and a lot of the fans at the game were too so it was a lot of fun. There were people wearing Ireland jerseys too (because of the controversy in the French game) and lots of random costumes, if you will being displayed. There were even two people in cow suites, which I still don’t understand? After the game we went home, it was almost midnight and had another long day tomorrow.
Saturday, we woke up kind of early to go to Old Biscuit Mill for one last time. We got the best iced coffee in the world, and some breakfast then caught a minibus to Newlands to see the SPRINGBOKS (national rugby team) play France. The game was so much fun, we stood in the stands along one of the “end lines” and cheered BOKKA along with everyone else. It wasn’t even a close game but still it was so exciting, I think I’m actually starting to understand the sport…too bad when I go home no one will want to watch it. After the game we rushed home to throw on anything and everything that was red, white and blue and then headed down town to the fan park to watch the USA/UK game.
Now, this was the first time since studying abroad that I fully embraced my “americanness”, until this point we usually tired to hide the fact that we were tourists but when we got to the park I coulnd’t help but feel so proud. There was red, white and blue everywhere, and I was so excited to meet and cheer with all these Americans. The game was so much fun. I was wearing a navy skirt with a white tee, red headband and had an American flag (cape-style of course) and it was maybe 45 degrees out? So I had a few beers to keep me warm and Farley and I wandered around the stadium painting people’s faces and making friends until the game started. Of course it was another tie, but the game was still so exciting. We sang patriotic songs and made friends with international tourists who decided to cheer for America and then went to Long Street afterwards. Long Street wasn’t really that fun though and it was almost my birthday so after celebrating my 21st with a tequila shot at Fiction, we decided to ditch the bars and head to Tin Roof to celebrate.
Tin Roof is my favorite bar (besides Joburg and Stones) in Cape Town. It’s cheap, the music is so bad its great and there’s never a lot of Americans there…So my roommate and I met up with two of her friends there and we celebrated my 21st dancing like crazy and of course trying lots of different drinks. Farley told everyone it was birthday so we made lots of new friends for the night and just had a really great time. We went home super late as always but it was a great birthday.
Sunday morning, we woke up and got one last breakfast at Coco wahwah and then rounded everyone up to go to Mzoli’s for the last time : ( Mzolis was a lot of fun, although it changed a little for the world cup but still it was really cool. We sat at the restaurant drinking black label and cider and watched soccer games all afternoon. Everyone ate lots of meat (except not me, that’s what the coco wahwah was for…) and finally we went home once it was started to get dark out. I went back to my room to pack because I was leaving the next day, then went over to Suzanne’s room to help with dinner.
I walked in the door and Suzanne and the rest of the girls surprised me with a birthday cake (chocolate of course) and presents and we toasted with some good wine and then ate dinner. It was great, have I mentioned how much I love these girls? We hungout and ate more cake and played cards until the rest of my friends made their way to Suzanne’s room so we could go out and all celebrate my birthday and one last night together on Long Street, (the rest of my friends had been in Rustenburg the night before for the UK/US game so were reunited and ready to go!) Long street was lots of fun, even for a Sunday, I guess with the world cup it was bound to be crowded.
We bounced around from bar to bar, and then finally ended up at Joburg. My friends were determined to make sure I celebrated my 21st well, so that was really fun, around 2am we stopped raging and stood around the bar at Joburg to watch the Celtics/Laker’s game and then finally around 5:30 AM, when the game was over, we went home beyond exhausted.
The next day I got brunch with my girlfriends in Obz, we went to the fabric store (which I’ve wanted to do all semester) I waved a last goodbye to stones and then went home to finish packing. I said my goodbyes, and started crying when I took one last view at table mountain and then got in the car to get to the airport.
At the airport I ran around like mad buying last-minute world cup tees and snacks for my 14 hour plane ride and then finally boarded my plane in complete denial of coming home…
if you still don't know these songs please listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJSt4wP2ME&feature=avmsc2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0
BUNGEE, ELLIES & WINE
So I am basically an eip fail at blogging (at least since I’ve been home) but I needed to do one last post about my final adventures because I knew even if I’m the only one who will ever go back and read this…well I’ll want to know about the World Cup!
So after cage diving, Farley, her brother Coop and I went on the garden route. The garden route basically entails driving along the southern coast of South Africa from the Western to the Eastern Cape and stopping at all the beautiful beach towns along the way. It’s one of the largest tourist destinations in the country (right behind Kruger National Park) and most students take the trip over a long weekend for skip a week of classes to travel. Well, we didn’t really have this option because the world cup was starting on Friday and we wanted to be back the day before for all of the pre-game festivities, so we basically did the garden route on speed. We drove 6 hours to Plettenburg bay and stayed overnight at a random backpackers and then drove home the next day in the afternoon. I know you’re probably thinking we’re crazy but we had to do the garden route because we wanted to go BUNGEE JUMPING!!! The world’s HIGHEST bungee jump is off of Bloukrins Bridge, just past Plettenburg along the Eastern Cape and we had to do it before we went home…
The drive to Plettenburg was one of the most beautiful drives in the world, the landscape along the coast was continually changing. Farley drove the entire way (stick shift on a car without power steering, I definitely would have crashed) but I sat up front and played DJ and the 6 hour drive went pretty quickly. We drove through mountains, along cliffs, by the ocean, through vineyards and farms; the atmosphere was constantly changing with each turn we took it was fantastic and beautiful. We passed safari parks and ostrich farms, along with random coffee/art galleries, and plenty of small, quant adorable little beach towns. We stopped at elephant land, and played with elephants. Farley and I even got to feed milk to a baby elephant, but she kind of took the bottles out of our hands and fed herself, still so cool. We walked around with the ellies for a little and learned about how they came to the sanctuary. After an hour or so we got back in the car to continue the drive to Plett.
When we reached Plett we went straight to our backpacker’s, dropped our stuff and went downtown for dinner. We walked around but it was kind of a ghost town because it was chilly and the middle of the week-not exactly tourist season? We went back to the backpackers and hung out in the bar/game room for a few hours, met some random people who were in SA for the world cup then went to bed early. The next day we went to bungee! The jump is over a gorge, it’s 216 meters high, the highest in the world! To jump, you go in groups to the bridge, where they bind you at the ankles (and place a safety thing around your chest incase the ankle bind would break) and then you pretty much just jump off the bridge and fall…really far! Basically it was absolutely amazing. I’m pretty sure I screamed the entire way down. There is a DJ at the bridge who plays really loud hip hop music, so Farley and I were dancing and being crazy just getting pumped up so we wouldn’t be scared but when I went to jump the DJ actually cut the music and I had to jump to DEAD SILENCE. No one else had to do this so I was absolutely terrified, I felt like the world was having a moment of silence for me or something creepy like that. But once I jumped I forgot about being scared and just took it all in.
Besides the music thing I wasn’t scared at all, just really excited. After being just feet away from great whites I don’t think I could be scared of anything, its pretty awesome. So yes, you might think I’m crazy but I would totally do it again.
After bungee we went to monkey land, which is a reservation for rescued monkeys (or monkeys that people previously kept as pets but were seized by animal protection services…) we walked for an hour and saw lots of adorable monkeys and then it started to rain so we sprinted to the car and drove home.
Overall, the garden route was definitely a success, it was so much fun. Of course I wish we could have driven to more places but I got to bungee and that was the sole reason for going and let’s face it, coming home to world cup madness was way better than beach towns…
Wednesday I woke up really early to go wine tasting with Suzanne through Stellenbosch. We went to 4 different vineyards, including a Champaign winery that actually made the Champaign which Nelson Mandela drank when he became president, and Barrack Obama drank at his inauguration…it was delicious. The day was a lot of fun. We started at 9:30 AM, but luckily our first stop actually gave us a tour of the vineyard, I learned how wine was made and then when we had our first tasting, we were also given some cheese, crackers, nuts and almonds and taught how to actually sample the wine. After that vineyard we went to a second tasting where the workers there were feeling generous so instead of giving us 3 or 4 samples we tried nine wines. Needles to say, after that stop we all wanted lunch and were feeling pretty silly. Still, we went to the Champaign winery, tried 5 or 6 more wines and then finally it was time for lunch.
We got lunch in the town of Stellenbosch, which is a really quaint university-town that reminded me of the New England. Suzanne and I found a cute little café to eat at, and then afterwards we explored for a little. After lunch we went to Spier, which I’ve been to before but it is by-far my favorite vineyard. We sampled 5 wines there and then got in the car and went home. At the end of the day I had tried over 25 wines, and it was almost 6PM. We were feeling quite exhausted from all the wine but it was almost the world cup so we had to rally…
That night I got dinner with my friends at our favorite Greek restaurant and then we decided to go to Stones for one last Wednesday night. Stones is a bar with lots of pool tables, and outdoor seating, a lot of study abroad students would go there Wednesday night because there were good drink specials. My friends and I went there almost every week but this would be a our last time going as a large group so it was a bit depressing. We ordered a lot of Black Label and then sat outside playing cards acting like typical American college students, still it was so much fun. After a couple hours we couldn’t play anymore because no one could focus so we went back inside to find the bar completely packed with tourists for the world cup. We ran around being crazy meeting people and singing soccer songs and then finally went home at some ridiculous hour, it was a very successful last night at Stones : )
http://www.faceadrenalin.com/aboutus.asp (BUNGEE!)
http://www.elephantsanctuary.co.za/cragshome.htm (elephant sanctuary)
http://www.spier.co.za/ (monkey land)
http://www.spier.co.za/ (spier winery)
So after cage diving, Farley, her brother Coop and I went on the garden route. The garden route basically entails driving along the southern coast of South Africa from the Western to the Eastern Cape and stopping at all the beautiful beach towns along the way. It’s one of the largest tourist destinations in the country (right behind Kruger National Park) and most students take the trip over a long weekend for skip a week of classes to travel. Well, we didn’t really have this option because the world cup was starting on Friday and we wanted to be back the day before for all of the pre-game festivities, so we basically did the garden route on speed. We drove 6 hours to Plettenburg bay and stayed overnight at a random backpackers and then drove home the next day in the afternoon. I know you’re probably thinking we’re crazy but we had to do the garden route because we wanted to go BUNGEE JUMPING!!! The world’s HIGHEST bungee jump is off of Bloukrins Bridge, just past Plettenburg along the Eastern Cape and we had to do it before we went home…
The drive to Plettenburg was one of the most beautiful drives in the world, the landscape along the coast was continually changing. Farley drove the entire way (stick shift on a car without power steering, I definitely would have crashed) but I sat up front and played DJ and the 6 hour drive went pretty quickly. We drove through mountains, along cliffs, by the ocean, through vineyards and farms; the atmosphere was constantly changing with each turn we took it was fantastic and beautiful. We passed safari parks and ostrich farms, along with random coffee/art galleries, and plenty of small, quant adorable little beach towns. We stopped at elephant land, and played with elephants. Farley and I even got to feed milk to a baby elephant, but she kind of took the bottles out of our hands and fed herself, still so cool. We walked around with the ellies for a little and learned about how they came to the sanctuary. After an hour or so we got back in the car to continue the drive to Plett.
When we reached Plett we went straight to our backpacker’s, dropped our stuff and went downtown for dinner. We walked around but it was kind of a ghost town because it was chilly and the middle of the week-not exactly tourist season? We went back to the backpackers and hung out in the bar/game room for a few hours, met some random people who were in SA for the world cup then went to bed early. The next day we went to bungee! The jump is over a gorge, it’s 216 meters high, the highest in the world! To jump, you go in groups to the bridge, where they bind you at the ankles (and place a safety thing around your chest incase the ankle bind would break) and then you pretty much just jump off the bridge and fall…really far! Basically it was absolutely amazing. I’m pretty sure I screamed the entire way down. There is a DJ at the bridge who plays really loud hip hop music, so Farley and I were dancing and being crazy just getting pumped up so we wouldn’t be scared but when I went to jump the DJ actually cut the music and I had to jump to DEAD SILENCE. No one else had to do this so I was absolutely terrified, I felt like the world was having a moment of silence for me or something creepy like that. But once I jumped I forgot about being scared and just took it all in.
Besides the music thing I wasn’t scared at all, just really excited. After being just feet away from great whites I don’t think I could be scared of anything, its pretty awesome. So yes, you might think I’m crazy but I would totally do it again.
After bungee we went to monkey land, which is a reservation for rescued monkeys (or monkeys that people previously kept as pets but were seized by animal protection services…) we walked for an hour and saw lots of adorable monkeys and then it started to rain so we sprinted to the car and drove home.
Overall, the garden route was definitely a success, it was so much fun. Of course I wish we could have driven to more places but I got to bungee and that was the sole reason for going and let’s face it, coming home to world cup madness was way better than beach towns…
Wednesday I woke up really early to go wine tasting with Suzanne through Stellenbosch. We went to 4 different vineyards, including a Champaign winery that actually made the Champaign which Nelson Mandela drank when he became president, and Barrack Obama drank at his inauguration…it was delicious. The day was a lot of fun. We started at 9:30 AM, but luckily our first stop actually gave us a tour of the vineyard, I learned how wine was made and then when we had our first tasting, we were also given some cheese, crackers, nuts and almonds and taught how to actually sample the wine. After that vineyard we went to a second tasting where the workers there were feeling generous so instead of giving us 3 or 4 samples we tried nine wines. Needles to say, after that stop we all wanted lunch and were feeling pretty silly. Still, we went to the Champaign winery, tried 5 or 6 more wines and then finally it was time for lunch.
We got lunch in the town of Stellenbosch, which is a really quaint university-town that reminded me of the New England. Suzanne and I found a cute little café to eat at, and then afterwards we explored for a little. After lunch we went to Spier, which I’ve been to before but it is by-far my favorite vineyard. We sampled 5 wines there and then got in the car and went home. At the end of the day I had tried over 25 wines, and it was almost 6PM. We were feeling quite exhausted from all the wine but it was almost the world cup so we had to rally…
That night I got dinner with my friends at our favorite Greek restaurant and then we decided to go to Stones for one last Wednesday night. Stones is a bar with lots of pool tables, and outdoor seating, a lot of study abroad students would go there Wednesday night because there were good drink specials. My friends and I went there almost every week but this would be a our last time going as a large group so it was a bit depressing. We ordered a lot of Black Label and then sat outside playing cards acting like typical American college students, still it was so much fun. After a couple hours we couldn’t play anymore because no one could focus so we went back inside to find the bar completely packed with tourists for the world cup. We ran around being crazy meeting people and singing soccer songs and then finally went home at some ridiculous hour, it was a very successful last night at Stones : )
http://www.faceadrenalin.com/aboutus.asp (BUNGEE!)
http://www.elephantsanctuary.co.za/cragshome.htm (elephant sanctuary)
http://www.spier.co.za/ (monkey land)
http://www.spier.co.za/ (spier winery)
July 1, 2010
mozambique! better late than never?
Okay so I definitely just stopped blogging, once I got back from Mozambique everything got really crazy and I was basically never even home and when I was it was to sleep or take a bath or something, I even stopped running? So crazy. So here's what I was up to in my last month starting with traveling...
Mozambique: So much fun! It was a little bit crazy and the most un-planned trip I've ever embarked on but overall it was a complete success. I traveled with three of my girlfriends, Farley (my roommate), Sarah and Laura; We had some difficulty actually getting across the border and had to buy new bus tickets and spend a last-minute night at a backpacker's in Joburg but we met some great people along the way and eventually made it to Maputo. We went to dinner at a fantastic seafood restaraunt on the water where Farley and I almost died choking from coughing and laughing on our prawns...so embarrassing. After a night in the capital we left for our so called "island" of Punto d'Ouro, which isn't actually an island. We took a quick ferry across the water then took a minibus for 4 hours until we got to the beach.
The minibus was hilarious. All four of us were crammed into the back seat (there were 18-20 other people in the van?) and then Laura started to feel sick and wanted to sit up front...so instead of having a random person come squash with us we bought "another seat" and just sat 3 in the back...everyone in the van found this really entertaining, one woman specifically thought it was funny and whenever we stopped and another person got on and tried to get in the back she explained to them in Portuguese what we had done and then laughed, she was great though she told the driver where we needed to go and gave us a big smile when she left. our drive was essentially 4 hours over dirt roads through "lush" landscapes...Sarah gave me a benodryl before we started driving because my allergies were bothering me and oh my gosh did that medicine hit me. The ride was so bumpy but I still managed to pass out, I would wake up every once and a while when we hit a huge bump and my head hit the car roof but otherwise I was out and determined to sleep...Farley said I looked like I died.
When we finally got to the beach it was essentially paradise. We stayed in this simple chalets that were actually one the beach, maybe 50 meters from the water? So I fell asleep each night to the sound of waves crashing outside and woke up every morning to the beautiful sunrise it was absolutely perfect. The island was essentially dead because it wasn't tourist season anymore and we actually joked that we were the only ones staying there. We spent all day lounging on the beach, reading, swimming or exploring the market and nearby stores. We bought fresh bread, veggies and coconuts everyday from the market "in town" (10 minute walk to informal housing) and then ate out each night at a different restaurant. Sadly, the seafood was not fresh (even though we were on the water!) and most fruit was out of season but we survived :) We learned some Portuguese form our waiters and made friends with people at this restaurant we hung out at each night after dinner. I ran on the beach every morning and night and befriended this stray dogs that a local surf shop looked after, they were so cute they actually ran with me and then slept next to my beach towel during the day. Since the beach was pretty empty we never partied or stayed out late, there was no one to party with? Instead we went to sleep when the sun went down and woke up early when it rose. It was a perfect relaxing (not to mention detoxing) vacation and I loved every single minute. I also got some cool souvenirs from the craft market and befriended some of the local tradespeople.
Laura and Sarah had to leave our trip early to get home in time to take exams so Farley and I spent one extra day at the beach then went back to Maputo and stayed a night in the capital. One our mini van ride back our bus actually got stuck and everyone had to get out of the van and push it. A truck driving the opposite direction saw us, stopped and got out and helped, it was really funny. I wanted to take a pictures but thought that might be inappropriate? Once we got to Maputo we went straight to Fatima's unpacked, and explored. We bought fresh Pao and vegetables off the street then went back to rest before dinner. We got dinner at this fantastic Indian restaraunt and then got directions from our waiter to this Jazz bar that was supposed to be "hopping" on Thursday nights. We walked 30 minutes to the bar-which was so nice to do! only to be told there was an expensive cover, and the bar was empty so there was no way we were going. We gave up and walked across the street to get milkshakes and call it a night. After eating we tried to hail a cab on the street but there literally were no cabs, neither of us had airtime so we couldn't call anyone, we were essentially stuck. Our waiter tried to help us and then some random people that were also eating at this cafe offered to drive us home.
Mozambique is really different in that crime essentially is not a huge problem there, we noticed that everyone was really friendly and helpful and it seemed to be a genuine country. That being said we agreed and got into these people's car. After driving a little they asked if we wanted to get drinks with them-all these people were middle-aged, and could have been our parents ages with the exception of one woman who looked to be around thirty? We agreed because the rest of the night had been a fail and we didn't want to give up yet. We went to this sleek cafe and they ordered us glasses of wine, after talking for a few minutes we realized these people were members of high society, they all held very respectable jobs, were educated and traveled around Africa (one even to the US!) One of the men actually worked for the UN and had previously worked for the World Bank, talk about weird but awesome? They insisted that their younger friend take us out so that we could see Maputo and we didn't really have a choice so we tagged along. This woman was so much fun but also kind of crazy. She took us to two incredibly posh, upscale, expensive bars (Ice and some other place...) and we eventually lost her, definitely by accident, and walked home around 4 AM. It was the craziest, most random night ever but is one of those things that you could never imagine happening but love to stories about once it does? It was so bizarre.
The next day Farley and I kind of woke up in shock reminiscing everything that happened the night before. We eventually wandered in town to shop for crafts and find breakfast. We explored the capital, which was really fun, it was beautiful, perfect weather and lots of art to look at and the people were also really friendly. Eventually we went back to Fatima's, packed up our stuff enjoyed one last Pao veggie sandwich and fruit salad (all of which we bought off the street!) and then said goodbye and got on our bus to go back to South Africa.
We made it home safely, no crazy stories but it was still fun. We did wait around the Joburg bus terminal (so sketchy!) for almost an hour while our cab driver drove to some backpacker's confused about where we were, such a failure. It was freezing too, maybe 40 degrees? And i was in shorts and a teeshirt...I forgot it was winter and colder in South Africa.
Overall though the trip was so great and I'm really glad I got to see this beautiful country. If I had the choice I would definitely do the Peace Corp there, so hopefully one day I'll get to return :)
Cheers,
H
-------wrote this at some point in june:
SCARIEST THING OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!!
You know its bad when you go to write in your blog and realise you can’t remember your password (let alone your email address/username) that you usually sign in with…needless to say I think this will be my last post for a while.
I promised myself I’d write about my last few weeks abroad and then I’ll finish a completely new post as a farewell because
I’ve been home for exactly a month now and have definitely had time to reflect on all that…
So basically after Mozambique most of my friends were also finished with exams so we spent the last week and a half hanging out 24-7, exploring Cape Town and trying to fit in any last-minute touristy stuff before people started heading home on June 5th. In the last week that my best friends and I were all still together we went out every night of the week: Tuesday was karaoke at Dizzys, Wednesday Stones (obviously) Thursday was hemisphere and Long Street and then Friday was our final finale on Long Street. We also went to Old Biscuit Saturday morning and spent countless afternoons throughout the week wandering green Market Square. We got high tea at the Mt. Nelson Hotel (absolutely gorgeous and the food was fantastic, later that day we were all loopy and convinced we were high off the tea leaves or something because we drank so much…) Then after Old Biscuit on Saturday Suzanne, Elle and I went in town to find this Africa necklace we all wante…unsuccessful we met our friends for dinner at the Bombay Bicylce Club for one last farewell dinner before taking Stacey to the airport. We were all prepared to sob saying goodbye but instead of tears we blasted Freshlyground in the parking lot and danced like crazy and then laughing helped Stacey with her luggage and said goodbye before she went through security. After the airport we went to hangout with some of our friends who were leaving the next day then called it a semi-early night (midnightish?) because we had to get up super early the next morning…
Sunday we went CAGE DIVING! AGHH CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I actually still can’t believe that I did it. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am absolutely terrified of sharks. All semester I refused to go into the water that was higher than my knees/not clear because one week before we arrive abroad a man was literally “mauled” in waist-deep water. Cape Town is literally where shark week is filmed; it has one of the largest amounts of great whites in the world and they swim miles from the shore, it’s absolutely terrifying. Still, my friends were all doing cage diving so I got drug along thinking I’d either feel so empowered
and brave I’d never fear sharks again… or just have a heart attack in the cage and never go swimming in the ocean again…totally worth the risk
So anyway, we got picked up at 4:30 Sunday morning to take a van 2 hours to Gansbaai, which is located a 20 minute boat ride from Dyer Island…an area with one of the largest great white populations in the world! It’s hard to describe how diving actually worked but basically we took the boat out into the ocean (and could still see the shore when we docked!) and then put on wet-suites and split into groups. Five people could go into the cage at one time, I opted out on the first round still unsure whether I actually wanted to get wet so my friends got ready to jump in and I climbed on the top deck to watch for fins. This might have actually been a horrible idea because when the first shark swam up past the cage I screamed and grabbed whoever was standing next to me on the dock because IT WAS HUGE. I told my friends I didn’t think I could do it and sat down on a bench in the center of the boat. I still thought it was possible for one of the sharks to actually tip our boat or at least flop by the side and gobble someone up…I know so dumb. After two sharks circled the boat a few times there was a lull and then I spotted one, BEFORE ANYONE ELSE. This scared me the most because I thought if the expert researchers didn’t see this shark how would they know if we’re safe when we go in and out of the cage, they could easily miss a shark and it could eat someone, I was terrified. Still, when it came time to switch the groups my friends told me I had to do it, and that it was not scary at all so I believed them.
To get into the cage one has to climb from the side of the boat down a ladder into this narrow cage (sort of like a dog cage but much larger…) it was wire but with holes/gaps in it so we were actually in the water. The cage sits on the surface so and is about 8 feet deep. We were all given a pair of goggles and basically you wait at the top of the cage and when someone sees a shark you take a deep breath and push from the top of the cage to the bottom and take a look at the shark as it swims by/at the cage. It was actually really really cool. When the first shark swam by I didn’t think I just took a deep breath and listened to the instructions to “get down!” I saw the shark, probably screamed underwater but couldn’t stop watching it, I stayed underwater until I couldn’t stand it anymore, I needed air. I don’t know if it was that I was so paranoid I wanted to be able to watch the shark at all times or if I just became mystified by its agile swimming…either way I was hooked. I had basically become an adrenaline junkie. It terrified me that I was in the water with sharks all around me but I didn’t want to get out of the cage. I remember at one point that I realized I could turn around in the cage and behind me was just open water (I though it was the boat but realized the boat couldn’t be that deep) I totally freaked out and told my friends that the sharks could have been watching us the entire time! Luckily the people in the cage with me listened to my paranoid scenarios where I nervously listed everything that could go wrong while in the cage, one of my friends even coached me a little, probably to get me to stop talking…but still it helped to have someone telling me exactly what to do the first couple times and keep my mind of the sharks.
I stayed in the cage for what I thought was hours, but in all was maybe a half hour? The water eventually got really cold and some other people changed their mind and decided they wanted to get in and take a peak so I opted to get out of the cage so they could try. This was maybe the scariest part of the entire day. There were 3 great whites within the vicinity of the boat and I was told to climb out. When the cage is opened you basically sit on the top of it to slowly climb out and swing over the side of the boat-well while climbing out all that I could think of was those clips on shark week where the great white literally leaps out of the water to grab a seal on a rock or something…and I couldn’t help but think that could be me! I was so scared I climbed as fast as I could up the side of the cage and literally hopped over the side of the boat and ran to the middle of the deck and sat down speechless and out of breath. I changed out of my wet suite and into some drier clothes and then went ot find my friends who were all ready to tell me I did great :) because they’re awesome and really supportive.
The boat started to get rocky and our shark team instructors told us we had to return to shore because the water was too rough it wasn’t safe, I was totally okay with this so we all took seats inside the boat and got ready for the crazy, bumpy ride back (luckily none of us got sick!) so that was it. I did it. I saw great white sharks literally inches from my face and I didn’t get eaten or pass out!!! I still have nightmares, actually at least once a week and basically anytime that I’m in the water I’m terrified (even just swimming laps in a pool reminds me of great whites…) I know I’m crazy but still absolutely no regrets, I’m so glad that I tried it!
Cheers!
H
Mozambique: So much fun! It was a little bit crazy and the most un-planned trip I've ever embarked on but overall it was a complete success. I traveled with three of my girlfriends, Farley (my roommate), Sarah and Laura; We had some difficulty actually getting across the border and had to buy new bus tickets and spend a last-minute night at a backpacker's in Joburg but we met some great people along the way and eventually made it to Maputo. We went to dinner at a fantastic seafood restaraunt on the water where Farley and I almost died choking from coughing and laughing on our prawns...so embarrassing. After a night in the capital we left for our so called "island" of Punto d'Ouro, which isn't actually an island. We took a quick ferry across the water then took a minibus for 4 hours until we got to the beach.
The minibus was hilarious. All four of us were crammed into the back seat (there were 18-20 other people in the van?) and then Laura started to feel sick and wanted to sit up front...so instead of having a random person come squash with us we bought "another seat" and just sat 3 in the back...everyone in the van found this really entertaining, one woman specifically thought it was funny and whenever we stopped and another person got on and tried to get in the back she explained to them in Portuguese what we had done and then laughed, she was great though she told the driver where we needed to go and gave us a big smile when she left. our drive was essentially 4 hours over dirt roads through "lush" landscapes...Sarah gave me a benodryl before we started driving because my allergies were bothering me and oh my gosh did that medicine hit me. The ride was so bumpy but I still managed to pass out, I would wake up every once and a while when we hit a huge bump and my head hit the car roof but otherwise I was out and determined to sleep...Farley said I looked like I died.
When we finally got to the beach it was essentially paradise. We stayed in this simple chalets that were actually one the beach, maybe 50 meters from the water? So I fell asleep each night to the sound of waves crashing outside and woke up every morning to the beautiful sunrise it was absolutely perfect. The island was essentially dead because it wasn't tourist season anymore and we actually joked that we were the only ones staying there. We spent all day lounging on the beach, reading, swimming or exploring the market and nearby stores. We bought fresh bread, veggies and coconuts everyday from the market "in town" (10 minute walk to informal housing) and then ate out each night at a different restaurant. Sadly, the seafood was not fresh (even though we were on the water!) and most fruit was out of season but we survived :) We learned some Portuguese form our waiters and made friends with people at this restaurant we hung out at each night after dinner. I ran on the beach every morning and night and befriended this stray dogs that a local surf shop looked after, they were so cute they actually ran with me and then slept next to my beach towel during the day. Since the beach was pretty empty we never partied or stayed out late, there was no one to party with? Instead we went to sleep when the sun went down and woke up early when it rose. It was a perfect relaxing (not to mention detoxing) vacation and I loved every single minute. I also got some cool souvenirs from the craft market and befriended some of the local tradespeople.
Laura and Sarah had to leave our trip early to get home in time to take exams so Farley and I spent one extra day at the beach then went back to Maputo and stayed a night in the capital. One our mini van ride back our bus actually got stuck and everyone had to get out of the van and push it. A truck driving the opposite direction saw us, stopped and got out and helped, it was really funny. I wanted to take a pictures but thought that might be inappropriate? Once we got to Maputo we went straight to Fatima's unpacked, and explored. We bought fresh Pao and vegetables off the street then went back to rest before dinner. We got dinner at this fantastic Indian restaraunt and then got directions from our waiter to this Jazz bar that was supposed to be "hopping" on Thursday nights. We walked 30 minutes to the bar-which was so nice to do! only to be told there was an expensive cover, and the bar was empty so there was no way we were going. We gave up and walked across the street to get milkshakes and call it a night. After eating we tried to hail a cab on the street but there literally were no cabs, neither of us had airtime so we couldn't call anyone, we were essentially stuck. Our waiter tried to help us and then some random people that were also eating at this cafe offered to drive us home.
Mozambique is really different in that crime essentially is not a huge problem there, we noticed that everyone was really friendly and helpful and it seemed to be a genuine country. That being said we agreed and got into these people's car. After driving a little they asked if we wanted to get drinks with them-all these people were middle-aged, and could have been our parents ages with the exception of one woman who looked to be around thirty? We agreed because the rest of the night had been a fail and we didn't want to give up yet. We went to this sleek cafe and they ordered us glasses of wine, after talking for a few minutes we realized these people were members of high society, they all held very respectable jobs, were educated and traveled around Africa (one even to the US!) One of the men actually worked for the UN and had previously worked for the World Bank, talk about weird but awesome? They insisted that their younger friend take us out so that we could see Maputo and we didn't really have a choice so we tagged along. This woman was so much fun but also kind of crazy. She took us to two incredibly posh, upscale, expensive bars (Ice and some other place...) and we eventually lost her, definitely by accident, and walked home around 4 AM. It was the craziest, most random night ever but is one of those things that you could never imagine happening but love to stories about once it does? It was so bizarre.
The next day Farley and I kind of woke up in shock reminiscing everything that happened the night before. We eventually wandered in town to shop for crafts and find breakfast. We explored the capital, which was really fun, it was beautiful, perfect weather and lots of art to look at and the people were also really friendly. Eventually we went back to Fatima's, packed up our stuff enjoyed one last Pao veggie sandwich and fruit salad (all of which we bought off the street!) and then said goodbye and got on our bus to go back to South Africa.
We made it home safely, no crazy stories but it was still fun. We did wait around the Joburg bus terminal (so sketchy!) for almost an hour while our cab driver drove to some backpacker's confused about where we were, such a failure. It was freezing too, maybe 40 degrees? And i was in shorts and a teeshirt...I forgot it was winter and colder in South Africa.
Overall though the trip was so great and I'm really glad I got to see this beautiful country. If I had the choice I would definitely do the Peace Corp there, so hopefully one day I'll get to return :)
Cheers,
H
-------wrote this at some point in june:
SCARIEST THING OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!!
You know its bad when you go to write in your blog and realise you can’t remember your password (let alone your email address/username) that you usually sign in with…needless to say I think this will be my last post for a while.
I promised myself I’d write about my last few weeks abroad and then I’ll finish a completely new post as a farewell because
I’ve been home for exactly a month now and have definitely had time to reflect on all that…
So basically after Mozambique most of my friends were also finished with exams so we spent the last week and a half hanging out 24-7, exploring Cape Town and trying to fit in any last-minute touristy stuff before people started heading home on June 5th. In the last week that my best friends and I were all still together we went out every night of the week: Tuesday was karaoke at Dizzys, Wednesday Stones (obviously) Thursday was hemisphere and Long Street and then Friday was our final finale on Long Street. We also went to Old Biscuit Saturday morning and spent countless afternoons throughout the week wandering green Market Square. We got high tea at the Mt. Nelson Hotel (absolutely gorgeous and the food was fantastic, later that day we were all loopy and convinced we were high off the tea leaves or something because we drank so much…) Then after Old Biscuit on Saturday Suzanne, Elle and I went in town to find this Africa necklace we all wante…unsuccessful we met our friends for dinner at the Bombay Bicylce Club for one last farewell dinner before taking Stacey to the airport. We were all prepared to sob saying goodbye but instead of tears we blasted Freshlyground in the parking lot and danced like crazy and then laughing helped Stacey with her luggage and said goodbye before she went through security. After the airport we went to hangout with some of our friends who were leaving the next day then called it a semi-early night (midnightish?) because we had to get up super early the next morning…
Sunday we went CAGE DIVING! AGHH CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I actually still can’t believe that I did it. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am absolutely terrified of sharks. All semester I refused to go into the water that was higher than my knees/not clear because one week before we arrive abroad a man was literally “mauled” in waist-deep water. Cape Town is literally where shark week is filmed; it has one of the largest amounts of great whites in the world and they swim miles from the shore, it’s absolutely terrifying. Still, my friends were all doing cage diving so I got drug along thinking I’d either feel so empowered
and brave I’d never fear sharks again… or just have a heart attack in the cage and never go swimming in the ocean again…totally worth the risk
So anyway, we got picked up at 4:30 Sunday morning to take a van 2 hours to Gansbaai, which is located a 20 minute boat ride from Dyer Island…an area with one of the largest great white populations in the world! It’s hard to describe how diving actually worked but basically we took the boat out into the ocean (and could still see the shore when we docked!) and then put on wet-suites and split into groups. Five people could go into the cage at one time, I opted out on the first round still unsure whether I actually wanted to get wet so my friends got ready to jump in and I climbed on the top deck to watch for fins. This might have actually been a horrible idea because when the first shark swam up past the cage I screamed and grabbed whoever was standing next to me on the dock because IT WAS HUGE. I told my friends I didn’t think I could do it and sat down on a bench in the center of the boat. I still thought it was possible for one of the sharks to actually tip our boat or at least flop by the side and gobble someone up…I know so dumb. After two sharks circled the boat a few times there was a lull and then I spotted one, BEFORE ANYONE ELSE. This scared me the most because I thought if the expert researchers didn’t see this shark how would they know if we’re safe when we go in and out of the cage, they could easily miss a shark and it could eat someone, I was terrified. Still, when it came time to switch the groups my friends told me I had to do it, and that it was not scary at all so I believed them.
To get into the cage one has to climb from the side of the boat down a ladder into this narrow cage (sort of like a dog cage but much larger…) it was wire but with holes/gaps in it so we were actually in the water. The cage sits on the surface so and is about 8 feet deep. We were all given a pair of goggles and basically you wait at the top of the cage and when someone sees a shark you take a deep breath and push from the top of the cage to the bottom and take a look at the shark as it swims by/at the cage. It was actually really really cool. When the first shark swam by I didn’t think I just took a deep breath and listened to the instructions to “get down!” I saw the shark, probably screamed underwater but couldn’t stop watching it, I stayed underwater until I couldn’t stand it anymore, I needed air. I don’t know if it was that I was so paranoid I wanted to be able to watch the shark at all times or if I just became mystified by its agile swimming…either way I was hooked. I had basically become an adrenaline junkie. It terrified me that I was in the water with sharks all around me but I didn’t want to get out of the cage. I remember at one point that I realized I could turn around in the cage and behind me was just open water (I though it was the boat but realized the boat couldn’t be that deep) I totally freaked out and told my friends that the sharks could have been watching us the entire time! Luckily the people in the cage with me listened to my paranoid scenarios where I nervously listed everything that could go wrong while in the cage, one of my friends even coached me a little, probably to get me to stop talking…but still it helped to have someone telling me exactly what to do the first couple times and keep my mind of the sharks.
I stayed in the cage for what I thought was hours, but in all was maybe a half hour? The water eventually got really cold and some other people changed their mind and decided they wanted to get in and take a peak so I opted to get out of the cage so they could try. This was maybe the scariest part of the entire day. There were 3 great whites within the vicinity of the boat and I was told to climb out. When the cage is opened you basically sit on the top of it to slowly climb out and swing over the side of the boat-well while climbing out all that I could think of was those clips on shark week where the great white literally leaps out of the water to grab a seal on a rock or something…and I couldn’t help but think that could be me! I was so scared I climbed as fast as I could up the side of the cage and literally hopped over the side of the boat and ran to the middle of the deck and sat down speechless and out of breath. I changed out of my wet suite and into some drier clothes and then went ot find my friends who were all ready to tell me I did great :) because they’re awesome and really supportive.
The boat started to get rocky and our shark team instructors told us we had to return to shore because the water was too rough it wasn’t safe, I was totally okay with this so we all took seats inside the boat and got ready for the crazy, bumpy ride back (luckily none of us got sick!) so that was it. I did it. I saw great white sharks literally inches from my face and I didn’t get eaten or pass out!!! I still have nightmares, actually at least once a week and basically anytime that I’m in the water I’m terrified (even just swimming laps in a pool reminds me of great whites…) I know I’m crazy but still absolutely no regrets, I’m so glad that I tried it!
Cheers!
H
May 16, 2010
Adios Classes!!! :)
Today was so fantastic. Erica (my CHOSA partner) and I took our kids on a field trip/excursion to Signal Hill and played all afternoon. We really wanted to hike with them but honestly didn’t have the time to do an entire day’s hike up Table Mountain or Lion’s Head and also weren’t sure if they would enjoy hiking? So we decided to take them to Signal Hill, which is almost as high as lion’s head but you can actually just drive to the top of the hill and park and then there are picnic areas and lots of trails to walk around on…and the views are phenomenal. So we took our kids to Signal Hill, had a picnic (made sandwiches and ate snacks) walked around the trails, and then bought them ice cream and went home. The day went perfectly though, I couldn’t have asked for it to be better.
The van that was picking us up to take us to Bap to get the kids and then drive to Signal Hill was over an hour late, so Erica and I were both really nervous, we figured the kids would get upset and angry, or think we forgot about them…and we were also nervous because we only had about 3 hours allotted for our trip. Still, our van finally came, and when we got to Bap our kids were all waiting outside for us; they’d been there the whole time just hoping we’d show up, it was really cute but also made me feel horrible for being so late. They gave us hugs and then jumped in the car before we had a chance to actually walk into the children’s home and let the caretaker’s know we were there…it was cool they were so excited. Once we got to signal hill they were so crazy, they just wanted to run around and play, and when we walked on the trails they yelled hello to everyone (and told them “Hey we are Xhosa!!”. They made friends with this crazy artist who was paining Table Mountain, who told them about when he met Nelson Mandela to paint his portrait. They also wanted to walk to see the World Cup stadium (which is right next to Lion’s Head) so we walked there and they started singing the South African national anthem, it was so great. The afternoon went so quickly and I was really bummed to have to take them back and say goodbye…I’m done with my volunteering with CHOSA and won’t get to go back because of my exam schedule and traveling plans. I’m so glad I got to meet these kids though, they’re all so great, it’s incredible the way they all have become a family and look after each other, and they’re just so happy I’m so glad my last time with them wasn’t at Bap teaching, but on an afternoon excursion, it was perfect.
My field trip today was obviously the highlight of my week, but I did some other cool things too. Last weekend I went to a concert at assembly, I saw freshlyground, a South African band (who’s really good!) they actually sing with Shakira in the official song for the world cup. On Tuesday I went to Zula in town for acoustic night, but it turned out that a Cape Town band was playing that night, 4 Seasons Family, they were also really good, fun music. Both concerts were great, and were such a nice break from the usual party scene here.
Wednesday, I had my CIEE final dinner at Moyo at Spiers winery in Stellenbaush. It was so good! We all got dressed up for the dinner and the restaurant it was at was so pretty. IT was inside a winery, so we actually ate outside under a tent (permanent wood gazebo kind of?) but there was also all these little forts and booths and smaller gazebos around the huge one we ate under? And there was small ponds and flowers and I can’t actually describe what the place looked like but it was gorgeous. Our dinner was a buffet and this place had everything…fresh veggies, lots of different prepared salads, so much meat I didn’t know what it was?, FISH AND CALAMARI, and then typical south african foods…and then of course, dessert. We ate way too much delicious food, and drank good wine, and got our faces painted while watching African dancers/performers and then explored the winery a little. IT was such a perfect dinner.
Thursday was our fundraiser for CHOSA at Stones. We were trying to raise money to pay for our trips that we were doing with our students before the semester ended, and Stones is this bar/pool hall that a lot of students go to. The fundraiser was only semi-successful, it was raining and gross out that day and we knew most students had gone out hard the night before because Wednesday was the last day of classes…so no one was really up for day drinking? Still, a lot of our friends came and it was semi-successful.
The rest of my weekend was not very exciting…I have 2 exams, 2 papers and a project to due between now and Thursday so I’ve basically been spending all my time in coffee shops studying and writing. I’m leaving on Friday though to go to Mozambique for 8 days I’m so excited! My friends and I are flying to Joburg, then busing across the border to Maputu (the capital) spending a night there, then taking a ferry out to an island and staying there for a week, then coming home. It’s going to be the perfect ending to a crazy and stressful week, and I’m going with my 4 best girlfriends so it will be a great final trip to do together ☹
I can’t believe I have less than a month left, its going to go so quickly, I don’t’ even want to think about it, I could stay here forever. Although I do my friends and family…and iced coffee and showers and going on long runs, I know I’m going to come back to South Africa-maybe I’ll even work here one day!
I’ll try and write again before I leave for Mozambique, cheers!
The van that was picking us up to take us to Bap to get the kids and then drive to Signal Hill was over an hour late, so Erica and I were both really nervous, we figured the kids would get upset and angry, or think we forgot about them…and we were also nervous because we only had about 3 hours allotted for our trip. Still, our van finally came, and when we got to Bap our kids were all waiting outside for us; they’d been there the whole time just hoping we’d show up, it was really cute but also made me feel horrible for being so late. They gave us hugs and then jumped in the car before we had a chance to actually walk into the children’s home and let the caretaker’s know we were there…it was cool they were so excited. Once we got to signal hill they were so crazy, they just wanted to run around and play, and when we walked on the trails they yelled hello to everyone (and told them “Hey we are Xhosa!!”. They made friends with this crazy artist who was paining Table Mountain, who told them about when he met Nelson Mandela to paint his portrait. They also wanted to walk to see the World Cup stadium (which is right next to Lion’s Head) so we walked there and they started singing the South African national anthem, it was so great. The afternoon went so quickly and I was really bummed to have to take them back and say goodbye…I’m done with my volunteering with CHOSA and won’t get to go back because of my exam schedule and traveling plans. I’m so glad I got to meet these kids though, they’re all so great, it’s incredible the way they all have become a family and look after each other, and they’re just so happy I’m so glad my last time with them wasn’t at Bap teaching, but on an afternoon excursion, it was perfect.
My field trip today was obviously the highlight of my week, but I did some other cool things too. Last weekend I went to a concert at assembly, I saw freshlyground, a South African band (who’s really good!) they actually sing with Shakira in the official song for the world cup. On Tuesday I went to Zula in town for acoustic night, but it turned out that a Cape Town band was playing that night, 4 Seasons Family, they were also really good, fun music. Both concerts were great, and were such a nice break from the usual party scene here.
Wednesday, I had my CIEE final dinner at Moyo at Spiers winery in Stellenbaush. It was so good! We all got dressed up for the dinner and the restaurant it was at was so pretty. IT was inside a winery, so we actually ate outside under a tent (permanent wood gazebo kind of?) but there was also all these little forts and booths and smaller gazebos around the huge one we ate under? And there was small ponds and flowers and I can’t actually describe what the place looked like but it was gorgeous. Our dinner was a buffet and this place had everything…fresh veggies, lots of different prepared salads, so much meat I didn’t know what it was?, FISH AND CALAMARI, and then typical south african foods…and then of course, dessert. We ate way too much delicious food, and drank good wine, and got our faces painted while watching African dancers/performers and then explored the winery a little. IT was such a perfect dinner.
Thursday was our fundraiser for CHOSA at Stones. We were trying to raise money to pay for our trips that we were doing with our students before the semester ended, and Stones is this bar/pool hall that a lot of students go to. The fundraiser was only semi-successful, it was raining and gross out that day and we knew most students had gone out hard the night before because Wednesday was the last day of classes…so no one was really up for day drinking? Still, a lot of our friends came and it was semi-successful.
The rest of my weekend was not very exciting…I have 2 exams, 2 papers and a project to due between now and Thursday so I’ve basically been spending all my time in coffee shops studying and writing. I’m leaving on Friday though to go to Mozambique for 8 days I’m so excited! My friends and I are flying to Joburg, then busing across the border to Maputu (the capital) spending a night there, then taking a ferry out to an island and staying there for a week, then coming home. It’s going to be the perfect ending to a crazy and stressful week, and I’m going with my 4 best girlfriends so it will be a great final trip to do together ☹
I can’t believe I have less than a month left, its going to go so quickly, I don’t’ even want to think about it, I could stay here forever. Although I do my friends and family…and iced coffee and showers and going on long runs, I know I’m going to come back to South Africa-maybe I’ll even work here one day!
I’ll try and write again before I leave for Mozambique, cheers!
May 4, 2010
Rugby, Tutu & S[LBG] Time
Tonight my girl friends and I baked chocolate cake from scratch and watched Good Will Hunting…you can tell it’s almost exams week haha, so delicious though. And there were so many scenes in the movie with DUNKIN I was really sad, I can’t wait to buy some vanilla iced coffee in the airport when I land in DC!!!
Anyways, my weekend was beyond fantastic, I actually think it might have been one of my favorite weekends in Cape Town.
Friday, my friends and I went to the Cape Town Stormer’s Rugby game. It was so much fun, we bought tickets in the standing section and were basically surrounded by crazy, dedicated fans. At half time we went to the bar and discovered it was even crazier there…the bar was two small dingy rooms, with one tiny black and white TV but it was packed! People were yelling and cheering, and singing songs in Afrikaans, so we just played along it was so much fun. I actually think I kind of understand how rugby works (finally) after watching this game. And the stormer’s won so they secured a spot for the semi-finals in their league. After the game we just went to a bar in mowbry and then called it a night and hung out in leisbeck.
Saturday, I got up super early (after just 4 hours of sleep!) to go downtown with some friends because we heard a rumor that Desmond Tutu was speaking at a church. Well it ends up he was speaking at service to commemorate the 20th anniversary of an ANC Leader’s survival from an assassination attack. (I wish I could remember the man’s name but I’m going to post an article about it…) The service was really beautiful. IT was in St.George’s, which is the largest Anglican Church in the Southern Hemisphere, and it’s downtown in the Company Gardens-it’s this huge stone church basically. I actually enjoyed the service, which is new because I tend to change my mind about church everyday, and then afterwards, both this survivor and Desmond Tutu spoke, and each person’s speech was great. Also, just a side note, Tutu is adorable, he is maybe 5 feet tall and he was smiling and laughing the whole service and kept making small jokes and funny comments. It was absolutely perfect.
After church I got breakfast at Old Biscuit Mill (and some delicious groceries like falafel, a pomegranate…and bath salts?) and came home to power nap before my Leisbeck Gardens Pub Crawl through Mowbry. I won’t post all the details but basically about twenty of us Americans who live in the res hall wore our matching LBG shirts and paraded through a bunch of bars. We got magaritas at a Mexican restaurant, and wine at a greek restaurant…and then hit up the dodgy bars in mowbry. It was so funny; one of my friends had gone to the bars previously and warned the managers that were planning to do this, and everyone was so excited. We walked into the first sketch bar and were bombarded by people there, they took their pictures with us and danced with us and then followed us on the rest of our bar crawl, it was so funny. We ended at this place called “Champs on Vic” and took over their VIP lounge, it was great. My flat mate and I came home after, made a super late dinner and then passed out. It was great I got 12 hours of sleep (so much better than the night before!)
Sunday was pretty uneventful, I did home work all day, but then got really delicious Ethiopian food for dinner. There is this women who lives literally across the street from our residence hall and you can just call her up and she’ll cook you dinner (for really cheap!) and you go eat in her house. It was so gooood.
Today, I had volunteering at CHOSA and it was really good. Usually, I just hangout and have discussions, chill time with the high school students, but today one of the students asked me to help him with his economics homework. It was so much better, we did some English lessons on the side, and I helped him read/start a worksheet on South Africa’s national budget…it was cool though. I’ve realized from both of my volunteering projects that I really enjoy teaching and I think that if I do volunteer with the Peace Corp or some other organization overseas I definitely want to do teaching…? Kinda cool.
So this week is pretty much the same-old. I’ve got a party/fundraiser for one of my volunteering projects, my friends and I are celebrating someone’s 21st at club in town…and then this weekend I think it’ll be the usually Old Biscuit Mill, and hopefully a beach day and market on Sunday, but who knows we tend to change our plans a lot!
Until next week, Cheers!
-Okay fail on finding an article but I’ll keep searching…
Anyways, my weekend was beyond fantastic, I actually think it might have been one of my favorite weekends in Cape Town.
Friday, my friends and I went to the Cape Town Stormer’s Rugby game. It was so much fun, we bought tickets in the standing section and were basically surrounded by crazy, dedicated fans. At half time we went to the bar and discovered it was even crazier there…the bar was two small dingy rooms, with one tiny black and white TV but it was packed! People were yelling and cheering, and singing songs in Afrikaans, so we just played along it was so much fun. I actually think I kind of understand how rugby works (finally) after watching this game. And the stormer’s won so they secured a spot for the semi-finals in their league. After the game we just went to a bar in mowbry and then called it a night and hung out in leisbeck.
Saturday, I got up super early (after just 4 hours of sleep!) to go downtown with some friends because we heard a rumor that Desmond Tutu was speaking at a church. Well it ends up he was speaking at service to commemorate the 20th anniversary of an ANC Leader’s survival from an assassination attack. (I wish I could remember the man’s name but I’m going to post an article about it…) The service was really beautiful. IT was in St.George’s, which is the largest Anglican Church in the Southern Hemisphere, and it’s downtown in the Company Gardens-it’s this huge stone church basically. I actually enjoyed the service, which is new because I tend to change my mind about church everyday, and then afterwards, both this survivor and Desmond Tutu spoke, and each person’s speech was great. Also, just a side note, Tutu is adorable, he is maybe 5 feet tall and he was smiling and laughing the whole service and kept making small jokes and funny comments. It was absolutely perfect.
After church I got breakfast at Old Biscuit Mill (and some delicious groceries like falafel, a pomegranate…and bath salts?) and came home to power nap before my Leisbeck Gardens Pub Crawl through Mowbry. I won’t post all the details but basically about twenty of us Americans who live in the res hall wore our matching LBG shirts and paraded through a bunch of bars. We got magaritas at a Mexican restaurant, and wine at a greek restaurant…and then hit up the dodgy bars in mowbry. It was so funny; one of my friends had gone to the bars previously and warned the managers that were planning to do this, and everyone was so excited. We walked into the first sketch bar and were bombarded by people there, they took their pictures with us and danced with us and then followed us on the rest of our bar crawl, it was so funny. We ended at this place called “Champs on Vic” and took over their VIP lounge, it was great. My flat mate and I came home after, made a super late dinner and then passed out. It was great I got 12 hours of sleep (so much better than the night before!)
Sunday was pretty uneventful, I did home work all day, but then got really delicious Ethiopian food for dinner. There is this women who lives literally across the street from our residence hall and you can just call her up and she’ll cook you dinner (for really cheap!) and you go eat in her house. It was so gooood.
Today, I had volunteering at CHOSA and it was really good. Usually, I just hangout and have discussions, chill time with the high school students, but today one of the students asked me to help him with his economics homework. It was so much better, we did some English lessons on the side, and I helped him read/start a worksheet on South Africa’s national budget…it was cool though. I’ve realized from both of my volunteering projects that I really enjoy teaching and I think that if I do volunteer with the Peace Corp or some other organization overseas I definitely want to do teaching…? Kinda cool.
So this week is pretty much the same-old. I’ve got a party/fundraiser for one of my volunteering projects, my friends and I are celebrating someone’s 21st at club in town…and then this weekend I think it’ll be the usually Old Biscuit Mill, and hopefully a beach day and market on Sunday, but who knows we tend to change our plans a lot!
Until next week, Cheers!
-Okay fail on finding an article but I’ll keep searching…
May 2, 2010
AFRICABURN!!!
AFRICABURN!
I have no idea where to start. My weekend at Africaburn was so incredible. I had no idea what to expect but basically could never have imagined how wonderful it was.
My friends and I drove a really cheap rental car through the desert for 5 ½ hours to get there, and when we finally arrived at the Karoo I thought we had driven to the moon. We were seriously in the middle of nowhere; you couldn’t see anything for miles and way off in the distance were these beautiful mountains. The way camp was set up, all the tents were in a “C” shape, and then the open part was where all the burns took place, and all the art was in the middle. There was a really strange mix of people there. I met a lot of college students (lots of Americans) but there were also families and elderly people there and couples, mostly from Cape Town but also from all around Southern Africa. The art that people brought was really neat, most of it was interactive too. So people would paint a mural but then you could add to it, or they’d build a statue and you could scribble/sign it. All of the art was really hippyish so I loved it. I felt like I was living in the civil rights movement or something, everything was really chill, or encouraging for peace and happiness or to live with no regrets…it was really neat.
I basically spent all day walking around looking at art, doing activities (bead-making, face-paintng, dancing in random tents or doing some type of art) and then at night my friends and I walked around to tents that were turned into nightclubs and watched burns. It was so crazy, everyone walked around in costumes, I felt like I was in some Tim Burton Halloween movie but I loved it. I painted my face everyday and wore crazy clothes and didn’t shower for 4 days, by the last day I basically had temporary dreadlocks and my body was brown from all the dirt. My friends and I took a stove with us but it wouldnt’ actually boil water so I lived off PB & J and PB & Nutella sandwiches, and dried fruit…so healthy. (Basically since coming home I have yet to eat a sandwich and have been beyond healthy about my eating…)
Let’s see what else…I don’t really know actually it was just fantastic. The people there were all really cool and so friendly. I think it was the safest place I’ve been to in South Africa so far, everyone seriously shared everything. People would come over to our tent and offer us food and water and like I already said, all the art was participatory. It was one of those festivals where we were supposed to leave nothing behind, so it was also pretty eco-friendly. Our drive there was so beautiful (the boys got a flat tire which sucked for them but still it was so great) and we got really good grapes from some people off the side of the road when we drove through wine country and they were about the size of ping pong balls and very delicious.
I can’t really believe that my weekend happened because it all seemed so unreal but it was so great and I wish I could go back even though the festival is over. I want to go to Burning Man in the states now (possible road trip to Nevada maybe?)
Cheers!
I have no idea where to start. My weekend at Africaburn was so incredible. I had no idea what to expect but basically could never have imagined how wonderful it was.
My friends and I drove a really cheap rental car through the desert for 5 ½ hours to get there, and when we finally arrived at the Karoo I thought we had driven to the moon. We were seriously in the middle of nowhere; you couldn’t see anything for miles and way off in the distance were these beautiful mountains. The way camp was set up, all the tents were in a “C” shape, and then the open part was where all the burns took place, and all the art was in the middle. There was a really strange mix of people there. I met a lot of college students (lots of Americans) but there were also families and elderly people there and couples, mostly from Cape Town but also from all around Southern Africa. The art that people brought was really neat, most of it was interactive too. So people would paint a mural but then you could add to it, or they’d build a statue and you could scribble/sign it. All of the art was really hippyish so I loved it. I felt like I was living in the civil rights movement or something, everything was really chill, or encouraging for peace and happiness or to live with no regrets…it was really neat.
I basically spent all day walking around looking at art, doing activities (bead-making, face-paintng, dancing in random tents or doing some type of art) and then at night my friends and I walked around to tents that were turned into nightclubs and watched burns. It was so crazy, everyone walked around in costumes, I felt like I was in some Tim Burton Halloween movie but I loved it. I painted my face everyday and wore crazy clothes and didn’t shower for 4 days, by the last day I basically had temporary dreadlocks and my body was brown from all the dirt. My friends and I took a stove with us but it wouldnt’ actually boil water so I lived off PB & J and PB & Nutella sandwiches, and dried fruit…so healthy. (Basically since coming home I have yet to eat a sandwich and have been beyond healthy about my eating…)
Let’s see what else…I don’t really know actually it was just fantastic. The people there were all really cool and so friendly. I think it was the safest place I’ve been to in South Africa so far, everyone seriously shared everything. People would come over to our tent and offer us food and water and like I already said, all the art was participatory. It was one of those festivals where we were supposed to leave nothing behind, so it was also pretty eco-friendly. Our drive there was so beautiful (the boys got a flat tire which sucked for them but still it was so great) and we got really good grapes from some people off the side of the road when we drove through wine country and they were about the size of ping pong balls and very delicious.
I can’t really believe that my weekend happened because it all seemed so unreal but it was so great and I wish I could go back even though the festival is over. I want to go to Burning Man in the states now (possible road trip to Nevada maybe?)
Cheers!
April 24, 2010
Africa Burns!!!!
Okay so it’s 2:30 AM and I should definitely be asleep but I promised a blog post before I left for the weekend and I think we all know there’s no way I’m going to want to write it in the morning, plus I’m somehow not tired. Oh and I just spent almost 4 hours baking brownies? Seriously the oven here…ridiculous. We were going to go out tonight but then these brownies were taking forever but I literally could have put them in the oven, gone out, come home 4 hours later and they still wouldn’t have been done. I don’t’ think they’re cooked but I want to sleep so yea, I’m taking them how they are…
This week was really weird. I decided the song “Bittersweet Symphony” described it perfectly. I’m not going to write about everything but I think Thursday pretty much sums it up. I went back to Youngsfield to volunteer and it was so great. The kids were really excited to see us, a few asked why we hadn’t been in so long and we explained about the miscommunication and how we thought they had been evicted…etc and they seemed to understand. Then, a few of the parents came to talk to us and told us they were in fact getting evicted next Wednesday. The city of Cape Town (not the military/federal government) was actually kicking them out. Each family, or adult I’m not sure, had been given 1000 zar (around $130) to find new housing somewhere and everyone had to leave by Wednesday because the military was going to take down their tent. There are only 64 people living at Youngsfield so it’s easy for the individuals there to be pushed out. Like I said teaching that day was great, Abdi actually remember almost the entire alphabet in lower-case letters, he only missed 2 letters, I was so happy! He remember so much since the last time I taught him weeks ago. But it was also really sad because when we left we had to say goodbye, and wish everyone good luck. Some of the kids gave us hugs and thanked us and the others just waved or smiled and then chased our van as we drove away, it was heartbreaking. I knew I would be upset to leave at the end of the semester regardless but I feel like this is just so much worse because I honestly have no idea what is going to happen to anyone at the camp. With $130 it’s doubtful any of them could afford an actual home, which means theoretically they’d move into a shack in a township, where xenophobia still exists…so they’d be unsafe, in fact its downright dangerous. It makes me so angry, even though these families are from Somalia, they’re still South African citizens or at least have established residency here legally. I haven’t told anyone about what happened on Thursday though because it just makes me really depressed and I don’t want to complain about everything. I left Abdi a letter with my address (and the alphabet!) and told him when he did find a new home to write to me in America so I could send him a postcard from D.C., who knows if that will happen though.
Besides the news at Youngsfield this week was just strange. One of my good friends family was here so Wednesday night we all went out to dinner together. It was my friend, her mom and two sisters, and then myself and 3 other closest girl friends…so a lot of girls basically. Dinner was fantastic and so much fun. It was also just really nice, it kind of felt like home; Suzanne’s mother wanted to hear all about Cape Town but was also motherly in asking about it, and reminding us to be careful. She also made sure we all ordered dessert…it was really nice. It was also a good break from the usual Wednesday routine, which is the night we go to Stones, a pool hall in town, and get drinks and hangout.
So Wednesday was fantastic, and then Thursday sucked, and like I said, other stuff happened too but I’m not going to write about it.
Right now I’m sitting in bed all packed and ready for Africa burns. We’re leaving tomorrow morning and I’m sooooo excited! I still have no idea what to expect. People keep warning me it’s a huge drug festival-and although there is definitely an underground drug scene-that is not why I’m going. It’s a huge art festival with live music and the basic idea behind Africa burns is basically to create a temporary utopian society. There is no commercialization, in fact you can’t use money there. Everyone brings their own food, water and shelter and you “give gifts” to other people (basically trade) in order to get other stuff. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m pumped to meet some South Africans. I’m going with a group of ten people and we’re meeting other friends there too so that will be nice in case it is a little crazy at least it won’t just be me and my best girl friends alone in the dessert with druggies haha. Seriously though I’m going to be fine, I volunteered to play mom for the weekend in case people do want to experiment. I’m doing a project on the ideas behind the festival so I’m really excited to go out and interview people and basically document everything, it’s going to be great.
That being said I should probably get some sleep…I was planning on sleeping in the car tomorrow but then looked at the directions and more than half of the drive is along dirt roads, not idea for snoozing, so I’m gonna get going, I promise a post as soon as I’m home!
Here’s the website for the festival:
http://www.afrikaburns.com/
Cheers!
Haleigh
Hah and I decided last week I needed to get my act together a little here so I’ve started doing track workouts twice a week along with hill repeats and long runs…and have made a few other healthy changes to my lifestyle, yay!!! haha
This week was really weird. I decided the song “Bittersweet Symphony” described it perfectly. I’m not going to write about everything but I think Thursday pretty much sums it up. I went back to Youngsfield to volunteer and it was so great. The kids were really excited to see us, a few asked why we hadn’t been in so long and we explained about the miscommunication and how we thought they had been evicted…etc and they seemed to understand. Then, a few of the parents came to talk to us and told us they were in fact getting evicted next Wednesday. The city of Cape Town (not the military/federal government) was actually kicking them out. Each family, or adult I’m not sure, had been given 1000 zar (around $130) to find new housing somewhere and everyone had to leave by Wednesday because the military was going to take down their tent. There are only 64 people living at Youngsfield so it’s easy for the individuals there to be pushed out. Like I said teaching that day was great, Abdi actually remember almost the entire alphabet in lower-case letters, he only missed 2 letters, I was so happy! He remember so much since the last time I taught him weeks ago. But it was also really sad because when we left we had to say goodbye, and wish everyone good luck. Some of the kids gave us hugs and thanked us and the others just waved or smiled and then chased our van as we drove away, it was heartbreaking. I knew I would be upset to leave at the end of the semester regardless but I feel like this is just so much worse because I honestly have no idea what is going to happen to anyone at the camp. With $130 it’s doubtful any of them could afford an actual home, which means theoretically they’d move into a shack in a township, where xenophobia still exists…so they’d be unsafe, in fact its downright dangerous. It makes me so angry, even though these families are from Somalia, they’re still South African citizens or at least have established residency here legally. I haven’t told anyone about what happened on Thursday though because it just makes me really depressed and I don’t want to complain about everything. I left Abdi a letter with my address (and the alphabet!) and told him when he did find a new home to write to me in America so I could send him a postcard from D.C., who knows if that will happen though.
Besides the news at Youngsfield this week was just strange. One of my good friends family was here so Wednesday night we all went out to dinner together. It was my friend, her mom and two sisters, and then myself and 3 other closest girl friends…so a lot of girls basically. Dinner was fantastic and so much fun. It was also just really nice, it kind of felt like home; Suzanne’s mother wanted to hear all about Cape Town but was also motherly in asking about it, and reminding us to be careful. She also made sure we all ordered dessert…it was really nice. It was also a good break from the usual Wednesday routine, which is the night we go to Stones, a pool hall in town, and get drinks and hangout.
So Wednesday was fantastic, and then Thursday sucked, and like I said, other stuff happened too but I’m not going to write about it.
Right now I’m sitting in bed all packed and ready for Africa burns. We’re leaving tomorrow morning and I’m sooooo excited! I still have no idea what to expect. People keep warning me it’s a huge drug festival-and although there is definitely an underground drug scene-that is not why I’m going. It’s a huge art festival with live music and the basic idea behind Africa burns is basically to create a temporary utopian society. There is no commercialization, in fact you can’t use money there. Everyone brings their own food, water and shelter and you “give gifts” to other people (basically trade) in order to get other stuff. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m pumped to meet some South Africans. I’m going with a group of ten people and we’re meeting other friends there too so that will be nice in case it is a little crazy at least it won’t just be me and my best girl friends alone in the dessert with druggies haha. Seriously though I’m going to be fine, I volunteered to play mom for the weekend in case people do want to experiment. I’m doing a project on the ideas behind the festival so I’m really excited to go out and interview people and basically document everything, it’s going to be great.
That being said I should probably get some sleep…I was planning on sleeping in the car tomorrow but then looked at the directions and more than half of the drive is along dirt roads, not idea for snoozing, so I’m gonna get going, I promise a post as soon as I’m home!
Here’s the website for the festival:
http://www.afrikaburns.com/
Cheers!
Haleigh
Hah and I decided last week I needed to get my act together a little here so I’ve started doing track workouts twice a week along with hill repeats and long runs…and have made a few other healthy changes to my lifestyle, yay!!! haha
April 13, 2010
just another weekend in CT.
Hello! Let’s see, I’m not really sure where to start, things are still great here but seem so boring after a spring break of traveling.
Last week I celebrated on of my friends birthday’s, she had a braii at her house, and we went to this club/bar called Springbok’s after (it’s right next to the rugby stadium), and that was obviously fun. I finally found out the name of this Afrikaan song my friends and I are obsessed (because when the DJ played it I ran on stage and asked him the name and had him type it into my phone…I know I must have looked like such a cool American? But totally worth it.) Then Friday, my friends and I just hungout all day it in sleisbeck because it was gross and rainy and we party-hopped at night; that was really fun, we even crashed a party on campus at a club house being thrown by the yacht club (in attempt of meeting south Africans duh). Saturday, I woke up kind of early and went to old biscuit mill to “window show” and buy some delicious groceries (pesto, olives, bagles and fresh fruit yumm) and got a delicious lunch there too. Old Buiscut’s like a huge farmer’s market with really great fresh food and cool shopping too. Then Saturday night my friends and I went to Cabana lounge to watch the Madrid/Barcelona game (yay Barcelona!) and then went dancing at Tin Roof after. Tin is probably one of my favorite places in Cape Town, they play the most random music, including random 90’s hits and make remixes out of songs you would never expect (like Black Parade or Good Charlotte?) but it’s so much fun. Then Sunday, I woke up super early after only 3 hours of sleep, I know champ status : ) … to go “river rafting” with a bunch of CIEE kids. It was so much fun although not the intense experience we were expecting. We basically floated on a river for 4 hours and went over some very small rapids, it was still so much fun though and very relaxing. I got really bad sunburn though which was annoying but still worth it. After rafting we had a braai at this backpacker’s lodge and then drove home. I spent the rest of my weekend writing a paper yay but yea, all in all a great past couple of days. It’s been nice to finally be home and able to hangout with all my friends again, I missed them over spring break, which was only 10 days, I don’t even want to think about saying goodbyes in June…
This week 3 of my friends celebrate their 21st so basically we’re going out a lot…not really that excited because I would actually like to sleep at some point but Cape Town is way to much fun. I know I won’t go out as much when I get back to the states, it just isn’t as cool; I love meeting people in Cape Town and going out with my friends here…plus its really cheap so that’s great too.
OH AND I ALMOST FORGOT. Youngsfield Refugee Camp officially closed, and I really have no idea why. We were told it would take another year for the government to actually close the camp because it needed to be done under a separate court case and that legal process would take a while, but it closed last week, so basically I have no idea what happened to any of those families (and it honestly scares me to have to imagine what really did happen) but I don’t think I’ll be teaching Abdi anymore, I hope wherever he and his family are they’re safe.
And speaking of volunteering, I went back to Chosa today for the first time in almost a month! First, thank you thank you thank you, I basically can’t thank you enough if you contributed to Chosa in the fundraiser/competition last month. We won the contest and managed to raise almost 10,000 dollars (and another 4,000 is being donated because we won) so that was really exciting. Besides winning though, it was just great to finally go volunteer again. When I’m at chosa we spend the first 45 minutes just playing with the kids and then spend another hour or so teaching; I usually dread the first half because I’m not really a fan of being the kids jungle gyme… well today was os much fun I actually played with a bunch of little kids and just really enjoyed it. I wasn’t even having a bad day but those kids managed to make my day 100 times better? It was just so great. Then I spent an hour (after playing) reading with and helping one of the high school kids start a journal. Every one of them has a story to tell that would likely bring you to tears but they’re great, and I really enjoy getting to see them on a weekly basis. So volunteering was a great way to start of my week, and I’m excited for next Monday already (for once I’m looking forward to something after the weekend…this is a record!)
Ugh and I would kill for an issue of the New York Times…I’m so behind on current events it’s actually upsetting. Between Poland, Thailand and Kazakstan and who knows what else (those miners in the states?) I seriously am kind of disgusted with my lack of knowledge for current events, but at least I know what’s going on in Africa right?
Things to look forward too (besides life in general)
-Stacie’s 21st…one of my best friends here : ) and she’ doesn’t drink so we’re excited to finally take her out
-Sushi at Green point (is it sad this is on the list?)
-AfricaBurns next weekend
-Mozambique beach trip…it’s in the works
-Garden Route after exams (bungie, cage dive…maybe?)
-World Cup (duh) and all the madness that goes along with it, like sharing a house with my best friends for 10 days and celebrating my 21st the night of the US/UK game?
And I still need to hike devil’s peak and table mountain before it gets to cold and rainy!
Cheers!
Last week I celebrated on of my friends birthday’s, she had a braii at her house, and we went to this club/bar called Springbok’s after (it’s right next to the rugby stadium), and that was obviously fun. I finally found out the name of this Afrikaan song my friends and I are obsessed (because when the DJ played it I ran on stage and asked him the name and had him type it into my phone…I know I must have looked like such a cool American? But totally worth it.) Then Friday, my friends and I just hungout all day it in sleisbeck because it was gross and rainy and we party-hopped at night; that was really fun, we even crashed a party on campus at a club house being thrown by the yacht club (in attempt of meeting south Africans duh). Saturday, I woke up kind of early and went to old biscuit mill to “window show” and buy some delicious groceries (pesto, olives, bagles and fresh fruit yumm) and got a delicious lunch there too. Old Buiscut’s like a huge farmer’s market with really great fresh food and cool shopping too. Then Saturday night my friends and I went to Cabana lounge to watch the Madrid/Barcelona game (yay Barcelona!) and then went dancing at Tin Roof after. Tin is probably one of my favorite places in Cape Town, they play the most random music, including random 90’s hits and make remixes out of songs you would never expect (like Black Parade or Good Charlotte?) but it’s so much fun. Then Sunday, I woke up super early after only 3 hours of sleep, I know champ status : ) … to go “river rafting” with a bunch of CIEE kids. It was so much fun although not the intense experience we were expecting. We basically floated on a river for 4 hours and went over some very small rapids, it was still so much fun though and very relaxing. I got really bad sunburn though which was annoying but still worth it. After rafting we had a braai at this backpacker’s lodge and then drove home. I spent the rest of my weekend writing a paper yay but yea, all in all a great past couple of days. It’s been nice to finally be home and able to hangout with all my friends again, I missed them over spring break, which was only 10 days, I don’t even want to think about saying goodbyes in June…
This week 3 of my friends celebrate their 21st so basically we’re going out a lot…not really that excited because I would actually like to sleep at some point but Cape Town is way to much fun. I know I won’t go out as much when I get back to the states, it just isn’t as cool; I love meeting people in Cape Town and going out with my friends here…plus its really cheap so that’s great too.
OH AND I ALMOST FORGOT. Youngsfield Refugee Camp officially closed, and I really have no idea why. We were told it would take another year for the government to actually close the camp because it needed to be done under a separate court case and that legal process would take a while, but it closed last week, so basically I have no idea what happened to any of those families (and it honestly scares me to have to imagine what really did happen) but I don’t think I’ll be teaching Abdi anymore, I hope wherever he and his family are they’re safe.
And speaking of volunteering, I went back to Chosa today for the first time in almost a month! First, thank you thank you thank you, I basically can’t thank you enough if you contributed to Chosa in the fundraiser/competition last month. We won the contest and managed to raise almost 10,000 dollars (and another 4,000 is being donated because we won) so that was really exciting. Besides winning though, it was just great to finally go volunteer again. When I’m at chosa we spend the first 45 minutes just playing with the kids and then spend another hour or so teaching; I usually dread the first half because I’m not really a fan of being the kids jungle gyme… well today was os much fun I actually played with a bunch of little kids and just really enjoyed it. I wasn’t even having a bad day but those kids managed to make my day 100 times better? It was just so great. Then I spent an hour (after playing) reading with and helping one of the high school kids start a journal. Every one of them has a story to tell that would likely bring you to tears but they’re great, and I really enjoy getting to see them on a weekly basis. So volunteering was a great way to start of my week, and I’m excited for next Monday already (for once I’m looking forward to something after the weekend…this is a record!)
Ugh and I would kill for an issue of the New York Times…I’m so behind on current events it’s actually upsetting. Between Poland, Thailand and Kazakstan and who knows what else (those miners in the states?) I seriously am kind of disgusted with my lack of knowledge for current events, but at least I know what’s going on in Africa right?
Things to look forward too (besides life in general)
-Stacie’s 21st…one of my best friends here : ) and she’ doesn’t drink so we’re excited to finally take her out
-Sushi at Green point (is it sad this is on the list?)
-AfricaBurns next weekend
-Mozambique beach trip…it’s in the works
-Garden Route after exams (bungie, cage dive…maybe?)
-World Cup (duh) and all the madness that goes along with it, like sharing a house with my best friends for 10 days and celebrating my 21st the night of the US/UK game?
And I still need to hike devil’s peak and table mountain before it gets to cold and rainy!
Cheers!
April 5, 2010
2 OCEANS & JAZZ
Another excellent weekend…
So I’m not quite sure where to start but all of last week pretty much revolved around my half marathon this weekend. I found out on Monday that the race was at 6AM (which is soooo early for any race!) so I was determined to stay on a good schedule so I wouldn’t be tired at my race and would able to get a decent amount of sleep the night before. So basically I went to bed early (and woke up early) and ate really well all of last week. My race was awesome. It was just so much fun. There was over 21,000 people there, 12,000 of whom were running the ½ marathon, the rest ran the ultra (34 miles). The first half of the race was in the dark too so that was really neat. And because I’ve never raced a half before I was automatically seated all the way at the back…behind thousands of people, so I spent the first could k’s weaving around trying to get past walkers etc. It was just really cool though and not as difficult as I thought it would, although it was really long I didn’t get that tired, I’m definitely planning on running the marine corp marathon in DC this fall now.
After my race I was able to have a little fun so that really nice. I went to a really good Ethiopian restaurant Saturday night with a bunch of my friends and then afterwords bar-hopped/danced on Long St with my girl friends here. It was so much fun. I was awake for more than 24 hours though so I crashed pretty hard around 3:30 AM but it was totally worth it. Then Sunday, I went to church downtown with some friends. We went to St. George’s, a huge stone medival (thank you humanities) Anglican church that sits next to the town gardens. After church I had a potluck brunch with some friends and then went to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival for the rest of the day. It was so much fun there too, and I’m now a little obsessed with jazz music : ) I spent all of today working on a paper…that’s due tomorrow, but I’ll get it done, no problem. I’m already counting down until Friday though; I realy enjoy my classes (and am so pumped to finally get back to volunteering, its been 3 weeks!) but in reality I just have so much more fun on the weekends because it’s when I can really explore the city and of course hangout with my friends.
Random but while running for almost 2 hours on Saturday I reflected a lot on my study abroad experience and decided that I’m in a really good place right now. I know I obsess over how much I love Cape Town but what I mean is that I feel truly independent. Over the past few weeks I’ve done some pretty incredible things; I bush camped in the Ocavano Delta-talk about being in the middle of no where, the delta’s literally untouched by man, and then I can’t even begin to describe how great it felt to run around at Vic Falls. I couldn’t remember feeling as great as I did getting soaked in the fall’s runoff, and I was by myself? Then of course I free fell from a 155 meter gorge, alone. Besides getting an adrenaline rush I just did something amazing (and horrifying) by myself. It’s just all this stuff and then running the half marathon that made me feel so independent and free and I’m so incredibly happy and it’s just me. And like I’ve always said, I do miss people at home but the more I think about it, the more I don’t want to go back. There are no stereotypes here, at least not yet. I’ve made some really great friends here and Cape Town has begun to feel like home; I’m so reluctant to return to the cliches and clicks that exist back home. Oh well I guess this just means to really enjoy the next 69 days that I have here and make the most of them all because I don’t know when I’ll be back again but it really is amazing.
Enjoy your week, and happy [belated] Easter! Cheers!
p.s. today i got the worst craving for Special K-I haven't had cereal since I came abroad (and for anyone that knows me, thats basically my staple meal at home) bu the milk here goes bad after a day or two...and I can't get special k anyway but seriously that's all I want to eat right now :( that and dunkin donuts needs to come to africa.
oh and i also want easter candy, no basket this year-life is tough.
So I’m not quite sure where to start but all of last week pretty much revolved around my half marathon this weekend. I found out on Monday that the race was at 6AM (which is soooo early for any race!) so I was determined to stay on a good schedule so I wouldn’t be tired at my race and would able to get a decent amount of sleep the night before. So basically I went to bed early (and woke up early) and ate really well all of last week. My race was awesome. It was just so much fun. There was over 21,000 people there, 12,000 of whom were running the ½ marathon, the rest ran the ultra (34 miles). The first half of the race was in the dark too so that was really neat. And because I’ve never raced a half before I was automatically seated all the way at the back…behind thousands of people, so I spent the first could k’s weaving around trying to get past walkers etc. It was just really cool though and not as difficult as I thought it would, although it was really long I didn’t get that tired, I’m definitely planning on running the marine corp marathon in DC this fall now.
After my race I was able to have a little fun so that really nice. I went to a really good Ethiopian restaurant Saturday night with a bunch of my friends and then afterwords bar-hopped/danced on Long St with my girl friends here. It was so much fun. I was awake for more than 24 hours though so I crashed pretty hard around 3:30 AM but it was totally worth it. Then Sunday, I went to church downtown with some friends. We went to St. George’s, a huge stone medival (thank you humanities) Anglican church that sits next to the town gardens. After church I had a potluck brunch with some friends and then went to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival for the rest of the day. It was so much fun there too, and I’m now a little obsessed with jazz music : ) I spent all of today working on a paper…that’s due tomorrow, but I’ll get it done, no problem. I’m already counting down until Friday though; I realy enjoy my classes (and am so pumped to finally get back to volunteering, its been 3 weeks!) but in reality I just have so much more fun on the weekends because it’s when I can really explore the city and of course hangout with my friends.
Random but while running for almost 2 hours on Saturday I reflected a lot on my study abroad experience and decided that I’m in a really good place right now. I know I obsess over how much I love Cape Town but what I mean is that I feel truly independent. Over the past few weeks I’ve done some pretty incredible things; I bush camped in the Ocavano Delta-talk about being in the middle of no where, the delta’s literally untouched by man, and then I can’t even begin to describe how great it felt to run around at Vic Falls. I couldn’t remember feeling as great as I did getting soaked in the fall’s runoff, and I was by myself? Then of course I free fell from a 155 meter gorge, alone. Besides getting an adrenaline rush I just did something amazing (and horrifying) by myself. It’s just all this stuff and then running the half marathon that made me feel so independent and free and I’m so incredibly happy and it’s just me. And like I’ve always said, I do miss people at home but the more I think about it, the more I don’t want to go back. There are no stereotypes here, at least not yet. I’ve made some really great friends here and Cape Town has begun to feel like home; I’m so reluctant to return to the cliches and clicks that exist back home. Oh well I guess this just means to really enjoy the next 69 days that I have here and make the most of them all because I don’t know when I’ll be back again but it really is amazing.
Enjoy your week, and happy [belated] Easter! Cheers!
p.s. today i got the worst craving for Special K-I haven't had cereal since I came abroad (and for anyone that knows me, thats basically my staple meal at home) bu the milk here goes bad after a day or two...and I can't get special k anyway but seriously that's all I want to eat right now :( that and dunkin donuts needs to come to africa.
oh and i also want easter candy, no basket this year-life is tough.
April 1, 2010
very much overdue WEEKEND IN JOBURG
So here’s my much-overdue post about Johannesburg:
I went to Joburg for a weekend with my CIEE seminar class. Over the course of 3 days we went to the Constitutional Court, Apartheid Museum, saw a musical and a soccer game (Orlando Pirates v. Bluphantane Celtics), did a biking tour of Soweto, went out one night to bars in Joburg and went to a religious service at a township mega-church. I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Soweto (South Western Townships) with 4 other students and one of our RAs. The B&B was great, it was actually really nice (I wasn’t sure what to expect in a township thank you naivity..) it was located a street away from Nelson Mandela’s house and Desmond Tutu’s house, so the neighborhood was beautiful. I slept in a queen sized bed on a real mattress and had two huge pillows to curl up with. And here’s the best part I HAD A SHOWER with hot water, yay!!! It was really nice, and the bathroom was really clean too (obviously). The women who ran our B&B was really sweet and she cooked us breakfast each morning, which was delicious. Here’s the reflection part:
Most of our weekend was spent in Soweto, besides going to the museums and spending a night in time, our group stayed in the townships, which was really cool. At first I was frustrated and watned to see a little more of Joburg because I had heard it was similar to NYC…and you can’t go to NY and stay in the suburbs without seeing the big apple right? But the more I learned about the city I came to realize the comparison between the two was strictly business-like, I’m sure there are parts of Joburg that are great for shopping or entertainment and culture, but the impression I gauged on my visit was that the city operates strictly for business and shuts down at night. Crime is also a HUGE problem in Joburg so it might not have been safe for a bunch of tourists to be wandering around even during the day. Still, it was nice to drive through the city and see a few skyscrapers but it’s nothing like Cape Town, which is much more beautiful.
The Constitutional Court was really interesting; historically it was used as a military base, and a prison, so doing a tour of the court was actually great. When it was a prison, it included a women’s quarter (one of the prisons in SA that had both sexes in one place) and then various other levels of confinement for male prisoners. There was a section in the prison dedicated to Gandhi, because he was imprisoned there in the 1920’s…and it was neat to learn about his struggle as an Indian minority under apartheid. The tour was really educational and I was able to learn about the prison structure within inmates, the inequality between races (both as employees and inmates) and of course, a little more about Mandela because he had been imprisoned there as well. Today, the constitutional court is also located within the old prison walls, so we were able to go inside and look around there too. The court was incredible; it reminded me a lot of the United Nations because the architecture was really modern. It was open and spacious, there was a ton of natural light able to penetrate into the courtroom…and there was also a huge cultural influence. The judge’s chairs were covered in animal-print and there was a huge South African flag draped along the back (it was hand-sewn and beaded, it was gorgeous)…and there were also murals along the walls in the lobby. Part of the court was reconstructed with walls from the old prison, and two of the stairwells were also directly incorporated into the architecture. It was neat to see how much consideration was done to allow the court to serve as a reminder of the past as well as inspire hope for the future. [I’m actually writing a paper on this for a class now because I found it to be so interesting…thank you humanities for forcing me to analyze architecture]
The apartheid museum was by-far the coolest part of our trip. We were only at the museum for two hours but I could have easily spent all day there. Instead of walking around with my friends I wandered alone and tried to take in as much information possible, but there was so much to read about. The visit to the museum combined with actually staying in Soweto kind of sealed the deal for me in recognizing the dehumanizing extent of apartheid. I understood that the government didn’t recognized blacks, colors, and minorities as citizens but I always though it operated more on white privilege and less on torture or violence…but I was so wrong. The South Western Townships were settled in the early 1900s and the majority of the housing is permanent (versus the shantytowns in the Cape Flats), the layout of the neighborhoods was a constant reminder of the perpetual discrimination preached by the government. The apartheid museum just made it easier for me to understand the laws and regulations used by the government to further enforce and ensure inequality and separation.
The biking tour of Soweto also added to understanding the apartheid government. Although apartheid is over…and has been for over 15 years, the housing in the area is still so segregated. The biking tour was cool because although I was staying at B&B in a nicer area of Soweto, we biked into the much poorer areas. I was riding through rocky, dirt roads over garbage…and trying to avoid running over any wild animals (including chickens and stray dogs?). There were kids running around that would yell to us and try to slap us high-five as we rode past as well as random people who would come over an ask us about American and how we liked Soweto. We got to see the hostels that miner’s lived in (which up until the 1980’s were male-only housing…so we also saw the neighborhoods were many prostitutes worked to ensure these workers needs were met, hmmm talk about HIV/AIDs? Maybe?) The tour was really cool but also kind of difficult to gauge, but everyone we met was really friendly so it was neat to interact with people, and ask questions.
The soccer game we went to was also really cool, and a lot different the game I saw earlier in the semester. We were definitely the only white people in the entire stadium and let me tell you, the people there live for soccer. It was raining so were sure to sit far back (to stay dry) but most fans sang and danced in the rain the entire time…and of course blew those kazoo things that are so so so obnoxious. People wanted to take their pictures with us and talk to us there too it was really funny; my advisor said it was just curious for us to be there and also probably exciting for them. After the game I went out with two of our “guides” or RAs for the trip (who were from Soweto but had worked with CIEE in previous semesters) and they took us to some bars in the suburbs of Joburg. The bars were actually kind of a disappointment, it was a Saturday night and we were told we were going to a club…so we got dressed up and were really excited to dance and meet people and see the city but in reality, the bars were pretty deserted and there was no dancing. So instead of a crazy night out we just sat around and bonded a little within our class, which was still nice but not what we really expected.
On the last morning I got up and went to church with most people from my class. The service was really different from any church I’ve attended and reminded me more of a gospel concert than church. First of all, the church was huge, it has over 11,000 members and it took place in this huge open warehouse/gymnasium venue…it was packed. Half the service was singing (all the songs were in a different language so I have no idea what I was saying) and the other half was a sermon, there were little prayers and no communion. The singing aspect was actually really fun, people were up and dancing and it was only 9 AM so that was great it helped me wake up a little and every was so lively. The sermon was over an hour long though and was definitely a disappointment. There was a guest past speaking and he kind of preached about male-dominated society and encouraged people to buy his CDs with his lessons on them it was really upsetting. Without the sermon though I would have been able to say I really enjoyed myself.
As always that was an incredibly long post but it really was a great weekend…!
Cheers,
H.
I went to Joburg for a weekend with my CIEE seminar class. Over the course of 3 days we went to the Constitutional Court, Apartheid Museum, saw a musical and a soccer game (Orlando Pirates v. Bluphantane Celtics), did a biking tour of Soweto, went out one night to bars in Joburg and went to a religious service at a township mega-church. I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Soweto (South Western Townships) with 4 other students and one of our RAs. The B&B was great, it was actually really nice (I wasn’t sure what to expect in a township thank you naivity..) it was located a street away from Nelson Mandela’s house and Desmond Tutu’s house, so the neighborhood was beautiful. I slept in a queen sized bed on a real mattress and had two huge pillows to curl up with. And here’s the best part I HAD A SHOWER with hot water, yay!!! It was really nice, and the bathroom was really clean too (obviously). The women who ran our B&B was really sweet and she cooked us breakfast each morning, which was delicious. Here’s the reflection part:
Most of our weekend was spent in Soweto, besides going to the museums and spending a night in time, our group stayed in the townships, which was really cool. At first I was frustrated and watned to see a little more of Joburg because I had heard it was similar to NYC…and you can’t go to NY and stay in the suburbs without seeing the big apple right? But the more I learned about the city I came to realize the comparison between the two was strictly business-like, I’m sure there are parts of Joburg that are great for shopping or entertainment and culture, but the impression I gauged on my visit was that the city operates strictly for business and shuts down at night. Crime is also a HUGE problem in Joburg so it might not have been safe for a bunch of tourists to be wandering around even during the day. Still, it was nice to drive through the city and see a few skyscrapers but it’s nothing like Cape Town, which is much more beautiful.
The Constitutional Court was really interesting; historically it was used as a military base, and a prison, so doing a tour of the court was actually great. When it was a prison, it included a women’s quarter (one of the prisons in SA that had both sexes in one place) and then various other levels of confinement for male prisoners. There was a section in the prison dedicated to Gandhi, because he was imprisoned there in the 1920’s…and it was neat to learn about his struggle as an Indian minority under apartheid. The tour was really educational and I was able to learn about the prison structure within inmates, the inequality between races (both as employees and inmates) and of course, a little more about Mandela because he had been imprisoned there as well. Today, the constitutional court is also located within the old prison walls, so we were able to go inside and look around there too. The court was incredible; it reminded me a lot of the United Nations because the architecture was really modern. It was open and spacious, there was a ton of natural light able to penetrate into the courtroom…and there was also a huge cultural influence. The judge’s chairs were covered in animal-print and there was a huge South African flag draped along the back (it was hand-sewn and beaded, it was gorgeous)…and there were also murals along the walls in the lobby. Part of the court was reconstructed with walls from the old prison, and two of the stairwells were also directly incorporated into the architecture. It was neat to see how much consideration was done to allow the court to serve as a reminder of the past as well as inspire hope for the future. [I’m actually writing a paper on this for a class now because I found it to be so interesting…thank you humanities for forcing me to analyze architecture]
The apartheid museum was by-far the coolest part of our trip. We were only at the museum for two hours but I could have easily spent all day there. Instead of walking around with my friends I wandered alone and tried to take in as much information possible, but there was so much to read about. The visit to the museum combined with actually staying in Soweto kind of sealed the deal for me in recognizing the dehumanizing extent of apartheid. I understood that the government didn’t recognized blacks, colors, and minorities as citizens but I always though it operated more on white privilege and less on torture or violence…but I was so wrong. The South Western Townships were settled in the early 1900s and the majority of the housing is permanent (versus the shantytowns in the Cape Flats), the layout of the neighborhoods was a constant reminder of the perpetual discrimination preached by the government. The apartheid museum just made it easier for me to understand the laws and regulations used by the government to further enforce and ensure inequality and separation.
The biking tour of Soweto also added to understanding the apartheid government. Although apartheid is over…and has been for over 15 years, the housing in the area is still so segregated. The biking tour was cool because although I was staying at B&B in a nicer area of Soweto, we biked into the much poorer areas. I was riding through rocky, dirt roads over garbage…and trying to avoid running over any wild animals (including chickens and stray dogs?). There were kids running around that would yell to us and try to slap us high-five as we rode past as well as random people who would come over an ask us about American and how we liked Soweto. We got to see the hostels that miner’s lived in (which up until the 1980’s were male-only housing…so we also saw the neighborhoods were many prostitutes worked to ensure these workers needs were met, hmmm talk about HIV/AIDs? Maybe?) The tour was really cool but also kind of difficult to gauge, but everyone we met was really friendly so it was neat to interact with people, and ask questions.
The soccer game we went to was also really cool, and a lot different the game I saw earlier in the semester. We were definitely the only white people in the entire stadium and let me tell you, the people there live for soccer. It was raining so were sure to sit far back (to stay dry) but most fans sang and danced in the rain the entire time…and of course blew those kazoo things that are so so so obnoxious. People wanted to take their pictures with us and talk to us there too it was really funny; my advisor said it was just curious for us to be there and also probably exciting for them. After the game I went out with two of our “guides” or RAs for the trip (who were from Soweto but had worked with CIEE in previous semesters) and they took us to some bars in the suburbs of Joburg. The bars were actually kind of a disappointment, it was a Saturday night and we were told we were going to a club…so we got dressed up and were really excited to dance and meet people and see the city but in reality, the bars were pretty deserted and there was no dancing. So instead of a crazy night out we just sat around and bonded a little within our class, which was still nice but not what we really expected.
On the last morning I got up and went to church with most people from my class. The service was really different from any church I’ve attended and reminded me more of a gospel concert than church. First of all, the church was huge, it has over 11,000 members and it took place in this huge open warehouse/gymnasium venue…it was packed. Half the service was singing (all the songs were in a different language so I have no idea what I was saying) and the other half was a sermon, there were little prayers and no communion. The singing aspect was actually really fun, people were up and dancing and it was only 9 AM so that was great it helped me wake up a little and every was so lively. The sermon was over an hour long though and was definitely a disappointment. There was a guest past speaking and he kind of preached about male-dominated society and encouraged people to buy his CDs with his lessons on them it was really upsetting. Without the sermon though I would have been able to say I really enjoyed myself.
As always that was an incredibly long post but it really was a great weekend…!
Cheers,
H.
March 30, 2010
SPRING BREAK!
Spring [or according to the UCT schedule Fall…] Break:
I went through a student travel agency to Botswana. Zambia and Zimbabwe and basically drove through every corner of Botswana in a safari bus and then went to Victoria Falls with a group of 20 or so other students. Instead of writing every single thing in detail I’d rather just breeze through my trip in a sort of stream-of-conscience like fashion, enjoy!
I woke up super early to catch a flight to Joburg, got to Joburg airport and found our safari jeep, was shocked at how huge our bus was for the trip, met all the people I’d be spending the next ten days with, drove countless hours to get to Botswana, learned how to pitch a tent so I could camped out at Palapye, thought it was cool to have outdoor showers and bathrooms, took a shower the next morning at 5AM under the stars, drove forever to get to Maun, did a scenic flight over the Okavango delta…saw lots of animals along with the layout of the land (it was absolutely beautiful yet terrifying because we were in a 5 person plain and our driver was no older than 17?) stayed at camp there for another night, drove to the Okavango delta, took a mkoro with Suzanne to an island in the delta (most relaxing thing I’ve experienced in my life), chatted with our driver Galaxy throughout the ride and also took a nice long nap while sunbathing…bush camped in the delta for two nights (didn’t shower for 3 days, used a hole in the ground as a toilet, got attacked by countless mosquitoes, shared a tent with 3 other people so it was basically a sauna) went swimming in the delta and made a headband out of reeds…wore my headband as a crown and pretended to be an African princess, ate “delta sushi” (basically I swallowed a small fish live from the delta) went on countless walks throughout the bush and saw lots of animals, got really dehydrated on one of these bush walks and couldn’t walk in a straight line and started to hallucinate, saw countless shooting stars in the clearest of skies…fell asleep the last night somehow not sweating a ton because our tent was somehow cool, woke up to pouring rain (this is why it was cool) and packed up my tent in the mud, took the mkoro back to camp (about a 90 minute ride in the rain) everything was soaked within 10 minutes including all my clothes and my sleeping bag, got back to mainland and after a few minutes realized two of the mkoro boats were missing…found out one of the women drivers thought the rain meant evil spirits were coming and decided not to sail home, instead she left her boat in the delta and ran away to another island, waited an hour in the rain for her boat and the missing group members to be found, drove back to camp and took the most incredible hot shower in my life (after 3 days of bush camping and then hours in the mud and rain and cold). Drove to Nata…saw giraffes and elephants on the road (much like deer) on our drive, got to Nata unpacked everything and helped cook dinner while most of my group went to the bar and swam, sulked with my cooking group about spending 3 hours preparing dinner while everyone relaxed…then killed that mood with a bottle of red wine split between our crew-we recruited our group leader to cook with us and even shared wine with our amazing chef, basically our group bonded a lot over this dinner and I learned some interesting stuff about or Zimbabwean chef. After dinner had a little more wine so I would be buzzed to fall asleep in my tent on a muddy sleeping mat with no sleeping bag (still soaked) passed out for 4 hours, woke up in the dark to shower under the stars (this was becoming a tradition) packed up camp and drove to Chobe. Got to Chobe and camp was flooded, set up tents anyway, went on a night cruise along a river through Chobe national park (drank delicious wine and enjoyed a great dinner with my group while spotting countless animals) went back to camp and passed out early. Woke up the next morning at 4:30 to go on a game drive of the national park, saw lots of animals, got stung by a random huge/gross insect (I still have a scar from this sting!) came back to find camp already packed up (thank you bus driver) and left for the Zambian Border…
Crossed over to Zambia via wading into the Zambezi river to catch a ride on a gigantic/old fishing boat [convinced this was really shady and is probably why lots of people smuggle themselves into the country] also stood at the intersection of 4 countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, made it safely across to Zambia, drove to our camp in Livingston [outside Victoria Falls] got soaked at the falls and danced on a bridge that we turned into a super long slip-and-slide, decided if I ever get married I want my honey moon in Victoria Falls because it’s the most beautiful place in the world, never wanted to leave Zambia’s side of the falls, wandered into the Zambian market-decided it would be better to speak Spanish while trading so people don’t try to talk to me so much, the next morning woke up to abseil and do other crazy extreme sports over a gorge in the falls, got a crazy adrenaline rush free falling 155 meters solo off a cliff then did it again tandem with a partner and got even more of a rush…traded at a market in Zambia, returned to camp and realized my shorts that were drying outside my tent were stolen by baboons and were now really high up in a tree (wanted to cry they’re my favorite running shorts) sucked it up and went to sleep, woke up to the loudest thunderstorm of my life and realized camp was completely flooded but somehow my tent was one of the only ones to stay dry (my sleeping bag just couldn’t get wet twice) roughed it in the rain and tried to clean up a little so we could all go to Zimbabwe, crossed the border of Zambia/Zim to see Vic falls from the Zim side, decided its 100 times more beautiful from Zim, made a pact with my friends that we’d return in 70 years to go river rafting down the falls and if we died so be it…walked to the markets in Zimbabwe, traded countless old t-shirts, dirty socks, empty water bottles, pens and hair ties, and a wet towel for some great African souvenirs, hiked back across the border and returned to camp, did a “booze cruise” with my entire group (in which I did not actually consume a ton of alcohol, boxed wine no thank you) but saw some animals, ate a delicious meal and enjoyed my last night with my group, stayed up late dancing with friends at the camp and running around being crazy, woke up the next morning super early to pack up camp, realized I got about a million bug bites from ants the night before, said good bye to our gross and muddy safari truck, and our amazing chef and driver, went to Livingston airport which was incredibly small and had a few shops and a bar, sat in the airport for 5 hours while our flight was continually delayed, finally boarded the flight, got to Joburg and had to run to catch our next flight, finally landed in Cape Town and was able to eat a meal for the first time since 6:30 AM (it was now 8:30 PM) said goodbye to all my new friends and came home to enjoy an incredibly long, hot shower and clean room that I had all to myself.
In conclusion, there was no way to make that short; it was a ten day trip and I traveled all around Botswana and to Victoria Falls, my favorite part by far was running around the falls getting soaked and laughing and dancing with friends in the water…it was the most liberating experience of my life and words can’t describe how beautiful it was. The ride to the delta in the mkoro’s was also incredible because it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was really interesting chatting with our mkoro paddler. Although the trip was really busy and I woke up most days before the sun rose I also had a lot of time to relax during the hottest hours of the day and really enjoyed getting to know the people I was traveling with. I now have twenty-some new friends who are all pretty incredible people. There were some not-so-great parts to the trip (like getting rained on in the Delta, bug bites, constantly being dirty…sleeping in muddy tents and not being able to run for 10 days) and the trip was definitely a very high or very low type of deal but it was so much fun and definitely worth it.
Sorry this post is so long but seriously best experience of my life. Oh and new goal to see the rest of 7 natural world wonders now that I’ve crossed two of them off the list ☺
Now I have Easter weekend in Cape Town (finally a weekend at home) and a half-marathon to run on Saturday to look forward to…wish me luck!
Cheers,
Haleigh Duggan
Oh and ill be posting a very much overdue post about joburg belowe this sooon…
I went through a student travel agency to Botswana. Zambia and Zimbabwe and basically drove through every corner of Botswana in a safari bus and then went to Victoria Falls with a group of 20 or so other students. Instead of writing every single thing in detail I’d rather just breeze through my trip in a sort of stream-of-conscience like fashion, enjoy!
I woke up super early to catch a flight to Joburg, got to Joburg airport and found our safari jeep, was shocked at how huge our bus was for the trip, met all the people I’d be spending the next ten days with, drove countless hours to get to Botswana, learned how to pitch a tent so I could camped out at Palapye, thought it was cool to have outdoor showers and bathrooms, took a shower the next morning at 5AM under the stars, drove forever to get to Maun, did a scenic flight over the Okavango delta…saw lots of animals along with the layout of the land (it was absolutely beautiful yet terrifying because we were in a 5 person plain and our driver was no older than 17?) stayed at camp there for another night, drove to the Okavango delta, took a mkoro with Suzanne to an island in the delta (most relaxing thing I’ve experienced in my life), chatted with our driver Galaxy throughout the ride and also took a nice long nap while sunbathing…bush camped in the delta for two nights (didn’t shower for 3 days, used a hole in the ground as a toilet, got attacked by countless mosquitoes, shared a tent with 3 other people so it was basically a sauna) went swimming in the delta and made a headband out of reeds…wore my headband as a crown and pretended to be an African princess, ate “delta sushi” (basically I swallowed a small fish live from the delta) went on countless walks throughout the bush and saw lots of animals, got really dehydrated on one of these bush walks and couldn’t walk in a straight line and started to hallucinate, saw countless shooting stars in the clearest of skies…fell asleep the last night somehow not sweating a ton because our tent was somehow cool, woke up to pouring rain (this is why it was cool) and packed up my tent in the mud, took the mkoro back to camp (about a 90 minute ride in the rain) everything was soaked within 10 minutes including all my clothes and my sleeping bag, got back to mainland and after a few minutes realized two of the mkoro boats were missing…found out one of the women drivers thought the rain meant evil spirits were coming and decided not to sail home, instead she left her boat in the delta and ran away to another island, waited an hour in the rain for her boat and the missing group members to be found, drove back to camp and took the most incredible hot shower in my life (after 3 days of bush camping and then hours in the mud and rain and cold). Drove to Nata…saw giraffes and elephants on the road (much like deer) on our drive, got to Nata unpacked everything and helped cook dinner while most of my group went to the bar and swam, sulked with my cooking group about spending 3 hours preparing dinner while everyone relaxed…then killed that mood with a bottle of red wine split between our crew-we recruited our group leader to cook with us and even shared wine with our amazing chef, basically our group bonded a lot over this dinner and I learned some interesting stuff about or Zimbabwean chef. After dinner had a little more wine so I would be buzzed to fall asleep in my tent on a muddy sleeping mat with no sleeping bag (still soaked) passed out for 4 hours, woke up in the dark to shower under the stars (this was becoming a tradition) packed up camp and drove to Chobe. Got to Chobe and camp was flooded, set up tents anyway, went on a night cruise along a river through Chobe national park (drank delicious wine and enjoyed a great dinner with my group while spotting countless animals) went back to camp and passed out early. Woke up the next morning at 4:30 to go on a game drive of the national park, saw lots of animals, got stung by a random huge/gross insect (I still have a scar from this sting!) came back to find camp already packed up (thank you bus driver) and left for the Zambian Border…
Crossed over to Zambia via wading into the Zambezi river to catch a ride on a gigantic/old fishing boat [convinced this was really shady and is probably why lots of people smuggle themselves into the country] also stood at the intersection of 4 countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, made it safely across to Zambia, drove to our camp in Livingston [outside Victoria Falls] got soaked at the falls and danced on a bridge that we turned into a super long slip-and-slide, decided if I ever get married I want my honey moon in Victoria Falls because it’s the most beautiful place in the world, never wanted to leave Zambia’s side of the falls, wandered into the Zambian market-decided it would be better to speak Spanish while trading so people don’t try to talk to me so much, the next morning woke up to abseil and do other crazy extreme sports over a gorge in the falls, got a crazy adrenaline rush free falling 155 meters solo off a cliff then did it again tandem with a partner and got even more of a rush…traded at a market in Zambia, returned to camp and realized my shorts that were drying outside my tent were stolen by baboons and were now really high up in a tree (wanted to cry they’re my favorite running shorts) sucked it up and went to sleep, woke up to the loudest thunderstorm of my life and realized camp was completely flooded but somehow my tent was one of the only ones to stay dry (my sleeping bag just couldn’t get wet twice) roughed it in the rain and tried to clean up a little so we could all go to Zimbabwe, crossed the border of Zambia/Zim to see Vic falls from the Zim side, decided its 100 times more beautiful from Zim, made a pact with my friends that we’d return in 70 years to go river rafting down the falls and if we died so be it…walked to the markets in Zimbabwe, traded countless old t-shirts, dirty socks, empty water bottles, pens and hair ties, and a wet towel for some great African souvenirs, hiked back across the border and returned to camp, did a “booze cruise” with my entire group (in which I did not actually consume a ton of alcohol, boxed wine no thank you) but saw some animals, ate a delicious meal and enjoyed my last night with my group, stayed up late dancing with friends at the camp and running around being crazy, woke up the next morning super early to pack up camp, realized I got about a million bug bites from ants the night before, said good bye to our gross and muddy safari truck, and our amazing chef and driver, went to Livingston airport which was incredibly small and had a few shops and a bar, sat in the airport for 5 hours while our flight was continually delayed, finally boarded the flight, got to Joburg and had to run to catch our next flight, finally landed in Cape Town and was able to eat a meal for the first time since 6:30 AM (it was now 8:30 PM) said goodbye to all my new friends and came home to enjoy an incredibly long, hot shower and clean room that I had all to myself.
In conclusion, there was no way to make that short; it was a ten day trip and I traveled all around Botswana and to Victoria Falls, my favorite part by far was running around the falls getting soaked and laughing and dancing with friends in the water…it was the most liberating experience of my life and words can’t describe how beautiful it was. The ride to the delta in the mkoro’s was also incredible because it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was really interesting chatting with our mkoro paddler. Although the trip was really busy and I woke up most days before the sun rose I also had a lot of time to relax during the hottest hours of the day and really enjoyed getting to know the people I was traveling with. I now have twenty-some new friends who are all pretty incredible people. There were some not-so-great parts to the trip (like getting rained on in the Delta, bug bites, constantly being dirty…sleeping in muddy tents and not being able to run for 10 days) and the trip was definitely a very high or very low type of deal but it was so much fun and definitely worth it.
Sorry this post is so long but seriously best experience of my life. Oh and new goal to see the rest of 7 natural world wonders now that I’ve crossed two of them off the list ☺
Now I have Easter weekend in Cape Town (finally a weekend at home) and a half-marathon to run on Saturday to look forward to…wish me luck!
Cheers,
Haleigh Duggan
Oh and ill be posting a very much overdue post about joburg belowe this sooon…
March 17, 2010
this would mean a lot...
Molweni! (that means hello in Xhosa)
As you guys know I'm volunteering at an organisation this semester called CHOSA (Children of South Africa). I work with high school students to help them with their homework, or teach english and maths...but most of the time I usually just talk with the kids and provide various leadership activities and initiate good conversations. It doesn't sound like much but the children that I work with aren't required to attend this after-school program, they come on a voluntary basis and seem to value hanging out with some American students. There are about fifteen other students who volunteer with me but they work with younger students, who are required to attend their program, and provide structured lesson plans to help educate these kids.
CHOSA works as an umbrella organisation for various projects, Bahumelele is just one of the many places that are influenced by the group's work. Bahumelele is a children's home that takes in orphaned or abandoned children and gives them a wonderful and loving home. The orphanage is located in Khayelitsha, which is a slum-like township located in the Cape Flats (just outside of Cape Town).
CHOSA was started by American study-abroad students five years ago who were volunteering with these same kids, and now provides support to over 10 community-based children's projects in South Africa.
Here's where you come in! We are taking part in an online fundraising competition to try to win a $4,000 grant for CHOSA. The goal is not to see how much money we can raise, but rather to see how many different people we can get to donate $10. It is super easy and only costs $10. The competition runs from now until March 30th, so PLEASE go make a small donation to help this great cause that I have become so deeply involved in.
I know most of you are students but really what's 10$ besides a drink on the weekend? So please consider donating, and if not at least click on the link to read about this organisation that's become so important to me!
Thank you!
and Cheers :)
As you guys know I'm volunteering at an organisation this semester called CHOSA (Children of South Africa). I work with high school students to help them with their homework, or teach english and maths...but most of the time I usually just talk with the kids and provide various leadership activities and initiate good conversations. It doesn't sound like much but the children that I work with aren't required to attend this after-school program, they come on a voluntary basis and seem to value hanging out with some American students. There are about fifteen other students who volunteer with me but they work with younger students, who are required to attend their program, and provide structured lesson plans to help educate these kids.
CHOSA works as an umbrella organisation for various projects, Bahumelele is just one of the many places that are influenced by the group's work. Bahumelele is a children's home that takes in orphaned or abandoned children and gives them a wonderful and loving home. The orphanage is located in Khayelitsha, which is a slum-like township located in the Cape Flats (just outside of Cape Town).
CHOSA was started by American study-abroad students five years ago who were volunteering with these same kids, and now provides support to over 10 community-based children's projects in South Africa.
Here's where you come in! We are taking part in an online fundraising competition to try to win a $4,000 grant for CHOSA. The goal is not to see how much money we can raise, but rather to see how many different people we can get to donate $10. It is super easy and only costs $10. The competition runs from now until March 30th, so PLEASE go make a small donation to help this great cause that I have become so deeply involved in.
I know most of you are students but really what's 10$ besides a drink on the weekend? So please consider donating, and if not at least click on the link to read about this organisation that's become so important to me!
Thank you!
and Cheers :)
March 8, 2010
another update :)
Let’s see, last week was quite hectic; on Monday, high court passed a resolution to close all the refugee camps in South Africa, so basically my week started out really crappy. No one in the volunteer office knew what was really going to happen, it could take months or even years for the law to be put into place but some camps in Joburg were already shut down and there was rioting at Youngsfield so we weren’t able to go to teach. Luckily, I found out yesterday that we are going back this week and will resume volunteering until further notice. It really scares me to think about what might happen to Abdi and his family if they are forcibly removed anytime soon. They’ve been living at the camp for almost 3 years, they don’t have a home to return to or jobs, and with xenophobia it would be very difficult to attain either. I’m sure many people at the camp don’t even have proper papers even though they were living legally in South Africa before the attacks…
Enough of the depressing stuff (although it is important!) Two weekends ago I went to Spier’s wine festival, which was really fun. We went through CIEE, so there were about 160 Americans at this wine harvest festival, which was quite small, but it was still really cool. We went for the afternoon, and got to try lots of delicious wines, ate some really good food, and got our faces painted like little kids… and then we came back in the afternoon. That night my friends and I went to Zula, a club in town, and this “famous” DJ was playing so it was really crowded and a ton of fun. Then Sunday, it was ridiculously hot out; around 95 degrees with absolutely no breeze. Still there was a full moon that night so my friends and I planned to hike up lion’s head (a mountain in CT) in the afternoon, and then watch the sunset from the top, and then hike down in the dark via the moonlight. A lot of people in CT do this on full moon’s, so although we got to the top of the mountain a few hours before sunset, it quickly filled up and was quite crowded. The hike down was pretty easy too because there were a lot of people, we were literally crawling down at some points though because the mountain is really steep. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend, and none of the pictures I took really show how beautiful it was on the top!
Nothing too exciting last week besides the Youngsfield scare. On Thursday, my friends and I went to hemisphere, which is a club downtown that was actually in our guidebooks? It’s on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in town, and one of our Orientation Leader’s knew people there so we got in for free and also got VIP status, it was a ton of fun. The walls were all glass windows too so the view was phenomenal.
This past weekend was really busy. I had my home stay with a family in Ocean View Township and it was so great! I stayed with one other CIEE student, and together we stayed with a family for Friday and Saturday night. The family was great, they had two sons, one who was younger and hung out with us a lot, and then another who was in high school but was pretty busy over the weekend. We went to the Navy festival with them on Saturday, and stopped at a lot of cool places along the way, including an ostrich farm (where my host mom used to live!) and boulder beach to see the penguins. The navy festival was really cool too, we went onto some ships but the neatest part was just listening to my host dad tell stories about the navy base from his days when he served there. Saturday night we stayed in and hung out with the family, watching TV and telling stories about America and South Africa, it was really nice and relaxing. Sunday I got to sleep in and then we went to the beach for the afternoon and walked around collecting shells and playing with the family’s niece. Finally, in the afternoon, it was time to go home. It really was an awesome weekend; I got to relax a ton, and still learned a lot about the culture in Ocean View. I met a lot of my host family's family too, it was neat because almost their entire family lived in Ocean View, so I kept meeting people all weekend and they were all so friendly. It was also refreshing to be able to just ask questions about the community, including its problems but mostly its history, and I was able to start to understand how issues today grew out of the past…I could ramble forever but it really was a great weekend. I’m planning to visit my host family at least once before I go home, maybe I’ll even be able to cook some American food for them (since they were so generous and cooked lots of great vegetarian food for me!)
As soon as I got home Sunday my friends and I literally threw our bags in our rooms and then left for Kirstenboch for the goldfish concert. Goldfish is a really popular band in South Africa; they play a mix of house, hip-hop and jazz music, and their concert was a blast. We basically passed around some wine from the festival last weekend and danced like crazy until sunset when the concert was over. Then last night when I came home I finally unpacked from the weekend and cleaned my room a little, did some homework and then passed out. It was a really hectic weekend but also completely worth it!
This week is also pretty crazy, I’m making up for not doing much work this weekend (although I did do some reading yesterday while my host family watched TV)…but I have two papers to start and finish by Thursday, and then I’m off to Johannesburg for the weekend! I’m going to Joburg with my CIEE seminar class, and we’re staying in Soweto for the weekend to go to a few museums and learn about the townships in that area. Saying I’m excited would definitely be an understatement, although my professor warned this trip is going to be “mentally draining” because it’s basically going to be an overload of facts about apartheid…which isn’t exactly the most positive thing to talk about, but still I can’t wait!
Okay I think I took enough of a break from writing paper number 1 so I better get back to it…cheers!
Oh and we got our world cup tickets so I’m staying here until mid-June!!! Too bad it’s not forever right? :)
Ughh and also I'm pretty sure there is a huge bug somewhere in my room because i can hear it shuffling around behind my dresser or desk. It's been so hot here lately so I've had my windows open (which has never been an issue before) but apparently today, the bugs decided my room would be fun...so yea, I'm freaking out, if it's a cockroach all my flatmates are asleep so I don't know what I'd do, trap it under a bowl or something? it's making any concentration completely impossible!
Enough of the depressing stuff (although it is important!) Two weekends ago I went to Spier’s wine festival, which was really fun. We went through CIEE, so there were about 160 Americans at this wine harvest festival, which was quite small, but it was still really cool. We went for the afternoon, and got to try lots of delicious wines, ate some really good food, and got our faces painted like little kids… and then we came back in the afternoon. That night my friends and I went to Zula, a club in town, and this “famous” DJ was playing so it was really crowded and a ton of fun. Then Sunday, it was ridiculously hot out; around 95 degrees with absolutely no breeze. Still there was a full moon that night so my friends and I planned to hike up lion’s head (a mountain in CT) in the afternoon, and then watch the sunset from the top, and then hike down in the dark via the moonlight. A lot of people in CT do this on full moon’s, so although we got to the top of the mountain a few hours before sunset, it quickly filled up and was quite crowded. The hike down was pretty easy too because there were a lot of people, we were literally crawling down at some points though because the mountain is really steep. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend, and none of the pictures I took really show how beautiful it was on the top!
Nothing too exciting last week besides the Youngsfield scare. On Thursday, my friends and I went to hemisphere, which is a club downtown that was actually in our guidebooks? It’s on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in town, and one of our Orientation Leader’s knew people there so we got in for free and also got VIP status, it was a ton of fun. The walls were all glass windows too so the view was phenomenal.
This past weekend was really busy. I had my home stay with a family in Ocean View Township and it was so great! I stayed with one other CIEE student, and together we stayed with a family for Friday and Saturday night. The family was great, they had two sons, one who was younger and hung out with us a lot, and then another who was in high school but was pretty busy over the weekend. We went to the Navy festival with them on Saturday, and stopped at a lot of cool places along the way, including an ostrich farm (where my host mom used to live!) and boulder beach to see the penguins. The navy festival was really cool too, we went onto some ships but the neatest part was just listening to my host dad tell stories about the navy base from his days when he served there. Saturday night we stayed in and hung out with the family, watching TV and telling stories about America and South Africa, it was really nice and relaxing. Sunday I got to sleep in and then we went to the beach for the afternoon and walked around collecting shells and playing with the family’s niece. Finally, in the afternoon, it was time to go home. It really was an awesome weekend; I got to relax a ton, and still learned a lot about the culture in Ocean View. I met a lot of my host family's family too, it was neat because almost their entire family lived in Ocean View, so I kept meeting people all weekend and they were all so friendly. It was also refreshing to be able to just ask questions about the community, including its problems but mostly its history, and I was able to start to understand how issues today grew out of the past…I could ramble forever but it really was a great weekend. I’m planning to visit my host family at least once before I go home, maybe I’ll even be able to cook some American food for them (since they were so generous and cooked lots of great vegetarian food for me!)
As soon as I got home Sunday my friends and I literally threw our bags in our rooms and then left for Kirstenboch for the goldfish concert. Goldfish is a really popular band in South Africa; they play a mix of house, hip-hop and jazz music, and their concert was a blast. We basically passed around some wine from the festival last weekend and danced like crazy until sunset when the concert was over. Then last night when I came home I finally unpacked from the weekend and cleaned my room a little, did some homework and then passed out. It was a really hectic weekend but also completely worth it!
This week is also pretty crazy, I’m making up for not doing much work this weekend (although I did do some reading yesterday while my host family watched TV)…but I have two papers to start and finish by Thursday, and then I’m off to Johannesburg for the weekend! I’m going to Joburg with my CIEE seminar class, and we’re staying in Soweto for the weekend to go to a few museums and learn about the townships in that area. Saying I’m excited would definitely be an understatement, although my professor warned this trip is going to be “mentally draining” because it’s basically going to be an overload of facts about apartheid…which isn’t exactly the most positive thing to talk about, but still I can’t wait!
Okay I think I took enough of a break from writing paper number 1 so I better get back to it…cheers!
Oh and we got our world cup tickets so I’m staying here until mid-June!!! Too bad it’s not forever right? :)
Ughh and also I'm pretty sure there is a huge bug somewhere in my room because i can hear it shuffling around behind my dresser or desk. It's been so hot here lately so I've had my windows open (which has never been an issue before) but apparently today, the bugs decided my room would be fun...so yea, I'm freaking out, if it's a cockroach all my flatmates are asleep so I don't know what I'd do, trap it under a bowl or something? it's making any concentration completely impossible!
February 26, 2010
I really hate making titles...
Thursdays are by-far my favorite day of the week. Going to Youngsfield might be one of my favorite parts of South Africa thus far; I just wish I was going more than once a week. Last week I realized when I asked Abdi to write his name that he didn’t understand lower-case letters, and he had confused letters that looked alike like “b” and “d”. I taught him how to spell his name, and encouraged him to say each letter out loud as he wrote, hoping this would help him remember the difference between the two. Well yesterday he was so excited to show me that he remembered how to write his name! I know it’s just a little bit of progress but I was really excited. I tried to teach him the rest of the alphabet but I’m unsure how much he’ll remember for next week. I’ve been brainstorming good ways to teach him because I have no idea where to start…I was under the impression that I’d be tutoring kids who were a little older and completely forgot that there would be a language barrier to combat as well. If anyone has any ideas let me know, I think I’m going to make flashcards for next week with letters of the alphabet?
Classes are proving to be pretty interesting. We’re finally learning about Zimbabwe in my history class! And my TA for that class is actually from Zim, so he’s going to co-teach the next few lectures. I’m such a nerd, we got our readings for the week and of course, they’re all about Zim, and I was really excited I read them all yesterday. In my religions class I have to write a paper on a religious conflict, so I decided I’d do something with Cyprus seeing as how I have all this research in that area already…and have traveled there it seemed kind of convenient. Anyway, we had to talk about our topics yesterday and my professor definitely has no idea what’s going on in Cyprus, which is surprising because he seems to know a lot about a ton of different places, and the conflict would definitely fall under his studies. Regardless, he wrote my topic as “Cypress” on the board, I think he’s going to learn a little when I hand in my paper, starting with the spelling…And my African Studies class is just awesome. It’s focused on South Africa (mainly Cape Town) today and we really just about the inequalities and racial tensions that still exist. The class is only with international students so it’s nice not to feel subconscious when talking about the more depressing issues in South Africa.
And it’s the weekend!!! Tomorrow we’re doing a wine-tasting and then going to the Soweto Gospel Choir concert at Kirstenboch Gardens (it’s something UCT organized). So it should be a really fun day, I’m pretty excited!
Cheers!
Classes are proving to be pretty interesting. We’re finally learning about Zimbabwe in my history class! And my TA for that class is actually from Zim, so he’s going to co-teach the next few lectures. I’m such a nerd, we got our readings for the week and of course, they’re all about Zim, and I was really excited I read them all yesterday. In my religions class I have to write a paper on a religious conflict, so I decided I’d do something with Cyprus seeing as how I have all this research in that area already…and have traveled there it seemed kind of convenient. Anyway, we had to talk about our topics yesterday and my professor definitely has no idea what’s going on in Cyprus, which is surprising because he seems to know a lot about a ton of different places, and the conflict would definitely fall under his studies. Regardless, he wrote my topic as “Cypress” on the board, I think he’s going to learn a little when I hand in my paper, starting with the spelling…And my African Studies class is just awesome. It’s focused on South Africa (mainly Cape Town) today and we really just about the inequalities and racial tensions that still exist. The class is only with international students so it’s nice not to feel subconscious when talking about the more depressing issues in South Africa.
And it’s the weekend!!! Tomorrow we’re doing a wine-tasting and then going to the Soweto Gospel Choir concert at Kirstenboch Gardens (it’s something UCT organized). So it should be a really fun day, I’m pretty excited!
Cheers!
February 24, 2010
one week later...
So much for updating more often, but things seem pretty normal here, it’s been a month (already?) so I’ve kind of forgotten about documenting things that are new.
I started my volunteering stuff last week so I should probably start by describing those. Thursday, I went to Youngsfield Refugee Camp, which is at a military base only a few miles from campus. I went with a group of 7 or 8 students, and our volunteer leader (who is also a student). The car I rode in arrived a good ten minutes before my leader, so we parked next to this huge tent, which serves as the refugee camp. We sat in the car for maybe 30 seconds before being spotted; a group of five kids ran over and started running in circles around the car, yelling and laughing. One of the girls tried to open the door but it was locked so our driver rolled the window down and she begged us to come out and play. We had to wait for our leader though because we had no idea what we were doing so we just sat there and laughed with the kids until our leader arrived. The camp was really cool, there’s only about thirty people left, but there used to be a couple hundred. The people living there fled Cape Town during xenophobic attacks just three years ago. Originally, the refugees came from a variety of different African nations (DRC, Rwanda, Zimbabwe…ect) but the only families left today are Somali.
We started off our afternoon by playing some games with the kids so they would get to know us a little. Next we were matched with the child we’re going to be tutoring for the semester, and talked to them a little. Then we gave them a snack and split up again to actually start tutoring. I’m teaching a 6 year old boy, Abdi, English…and anything else that goes along with that. He seems like a great kid, a little shy at first but who wouldn’t be? He taught me how to say elephant in Somali, and I laughed and said I was glad we were going to teach other for the next few months and he seemed to like that. It’s definitely going to be tough though, the organization I’m volunteering through (a few UCT students) are the only people that educate these kids…and we only visit the camp 3 days a week, so I don’t know how much progress we’ll make. Ideally, we’re trying to get these kids to the level where they can enter into the public school system, and attend actual classes, but schools are overcrowded so it’s going to be rough. Teaching English to a child is really difficult (not that I though it wouldn’t be) but still I’m really determined to try and teach Abdi something so he can go to school.
My other volunteering project is with CHOSA, which I think I described a little in my previous post. I’m basically working with high school students at an orphanage but I’m not really teaching them anything it’s more of a cross-cultural exchange. The organization I’m working with usually only works with younger kids, and there was no one left to help with high school, since I’m only going once a week I volunteered to work with them. The kids in my group don’t really need help with school (although I’m definitely there to act as a tutor or help with homework if necessary) so instead of teaching, we just hangout for an hour and talk. I’m going to try and do some leadership/team-building activities with them, but we spent last Monday listening to hip hop and talking about song lyrics. It sounds pretty lame, but I was shocked at the artists these kids listened too, maybe I shouldn’t have assumed American hip-hop didn’t reach the townships, still I was surprised. They really like Nas, so my partner and I had them listen to “I know I can…” and compared it to a popular hip-hop song today and we discussed the inspiration meaning behind the song and whatnot, it was pretty cool. So I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing with these kids but they’re pretty excited about hanging out with some American college kids every week ☺
This weekend, I went to my first rugby match! It was really fun although I still don’t understand anything about the game…but I don’t think I ever will. After the game my friends and I went to this bar, Gandolffs. We heard it was a goth bar but weren’t sure what that meant…well let me tell you, we walked in and everyone was in black, had piercings and wore dark make-up, it was crazy! Drinks were really cheap though and the music was really entertaining (everyone was head-banging) so we stayed for a while, it was really fun. Next time we go there we need to wear darker clothes though so we blend in a little…
Oh and I have to write about the bar I went to Friday. So Friday, one of the RA’s from CIEE (the organization I’m studying abroad through) had a birthday party at a karaoke bar. So a bunch of us all went to that and then afterwards a small group of us (4 girls) walked to a bar across the street that looked really fun. We walked through the entrance and were stopped by two huge guys, confused I pulled out my ID to show I was of age but they just shook their heads…they actually needed to scan me for weapons. Confused, we walked up the stairs to the bar, which was packed! While my friend ordered drinks, a guy walked up to me and showed me a message on his phone reading, ‘please be careful, watch your bags and your cell phone and just be careful!’ I nodded and said thanks and he walked away. Meanwhile people were walking by us, grabbing our backs and whatnot, I’d spin around and give a dirty look and the usual response was, ‘whoa…I’m just trying to say hi!” Basically all of these occurrences should have been enough to tell us to leave. Instead we walk out to a balcony with our drinks determined to have fun at this crazy place. My friend and I sit at a table and were immediately swarmed by people talking to us…meanwhile my other two friends are talking to this huge guy dressed in all black. Turns out this guy was the security guard of the bar, and he was explaining that he was going to follow us around for the night for protection…and before we knew it a fight also broke out between one of the guys I was talking to and some random people. We got scared and ran back inside and decided to dance. Well, dancing was quite funny. The security guard followed us and ensured nobody came remotely close to us. We finished our drinks and told him we were ready to leave. The manager of the bar walked us downstairs, wished us a great night and then explained the security guard was going to walk us to our next bar to ensure we weren’t being followed. He explained he would much rather have us be safe and have a good time, regardless of security measures, than have something get stolen, or someone get hurt…and told us we were welcome to come back whenever we want.
I know by this point you’re probably rolling your eyes and thinking, okay what the heck was a doing at a sketchy bar, I really should know better, especially in South Africa. But, even with the danger, it was still really fun. The stereotypes here really suck. Basically because I was with three white girls, we drew attention to ourselves as soon as we entered the bar. Everyone saw us as either Afrikaans (no explanation needed…) or wealthy tourists. The people that actually approached us realized we were Americans and wanted to talk to us and hear about our lives and why we came to Cape Town, but there will always be those who don’t bother to get to know you…and instead are interested in what’s in your wallet. Still, I’m really glad we stumbled into the place. If I wasn’t studying abroad in such a touristy city these types of incidences would be typical for a night. I’m sure we won’t actually go back to this place because I know it was not safe but nothing happened and we were lucky. Plus, it’s experiences like this that one can learn from, and although, we’re constantly thinking about the inequality issues in South Africa, when my friends and I are out having fun on a Friday night we don’t really pay attention to the poverty and crime, and maybe it was good something like this happened to serve as a reminder.
I promise I’m being safe though, please don’t worry…it’s all a learning experience and I’m loving every minute.
Cheers!
Oh and it was 93 degrees here on Saturday, jealous? I thought so hahaha
And I introduced my roommate to Lady Gaga, success.
I started my volunteering stuff last week so I should probably start by describing those. Thursday, I went to Youngsfield Refugee Camp, which is at a military base only a few miles from campus. I went with a group of 7 or 8 students, and our volunteer leader (who is also a student). The car I rode in arrived a good ten minutes before my leader, so we parked next to this huge tent, which serves as the refugee camp. We sat in the car for maybe 30 seconds before being spotted; a group of five kids ran over and started running in circles around the car, yelling and laughing. One of the girls tried to open the door but it was locked so our driver rolled the window down and she begged us to come out and play. We had to wait for our leader though because we had no idea what we were doing so we just sat there and laughed with the kids until our leader arrived. The camp was really cool, there’s only about thirty people left, but there used to be a couple hundred. The people living there fled Cape Town during xenophobic attacks just three years ago. Originally, the refugees came from a variety of different African nations (DRC, Rwanda, Zimbabwe…ect) but the only families left today are Somali.
We started off our afternoon by playing some games with the kids so they would get to know us a little. Next we were matched with the child we’re going to be tutoring for the semester, and talked to them a little. Then we gave them a snack and split up again to actually start tutoring. I’m teaching a 6 year old boy, Abdi, English…and anything else that goes along with that. He seems like a great kid, a little shy at first but who wouldn’t be? He taught me how to say elephant in Somali, and I laughed and said I was glad we were going to teach other for the next few months and he seemed to like that. It’s definitely going to be tough though, the organization I’m volunteering through (a few UCT students) are the only people that educate these kids…and we only visit the camp 3 days a week, so I don’t know how much progress we’ll make. Ideally, we’re trying to get these kids to the level where they can enter into the public school system, and attend actual classes, but schools are overcrowded so it’s going to be rough. Teaching English to a child is really difficult (not that I though it wouldn’t be) but still I’m really determined to try and teach Abdi something so he can go to school.
My other volunteering project is with CHOSA, which I think I described a little in my previous post. I’m basically working with high school students at an orphanage but I’m not really teaching them anything it’s more of a cross-cultural exchange. The organization I’m working with usually only works with younger kids, and there was no one left to help with high school, since I’m only going once a week I volunteered to work with them. The kids in my group don’t really need help with school (although I’m definitely there to act as a tutor or help with homework if necessary) so instead of teaching, we just hangout for an hour and talk. I’m going to try and do some leadership/team-building activities with them, but we spent last Monday listening to hip hop and talking about song lyrics. It sounds pretty lame, but I was shocked at the artists these kids listened too, maybe I shouldn’t have assumed American hip-hop didn’t reach the townships, still I was surprised. They really like Nas, so my partner and I had them listen to “I know I can…” and compared it to a popular hip-hop song today and we discussed the inspiration meaning behind the song and whatnot, it was pretty cool. So I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing with these kids but they’re pretty excited about hanging out with some American college kids every week ☺
This weekend, I went to my first rugby match! It was really fun although I still don’t understand anything about the game…but I don’t think I ever will. After the game my friends and I went to this bar, Gandolffs. We heard it was a goth bar but weren’t sure what that meant…well let me tell you, we walked in and everyone was in black, had piercings and wore dark make-up, it was crazy! Drinks were really cheap though and the music was really entertaining (everyone was head-banging) so we stayed for a while, it was really fun. Next time we go there we need to wear darker clothes though so we blend in a little…
Oh and I have to write about the bar I went to Friday. So Friday, one of the RA’s from CIEE (the organization I’m studying abroad through) had a birthday party at a karaoke bar. So a bunch of us all went to that and then afterwards a small group of us (4 girls) walked to a bar across the street that looked really fun. We walked through the entrance and were stopped by two huge guys, confused I pulled out my ID to show I was of age but they just shook their heads…they actually needed to scan me for weapons. Confused, we walked up the stairs to the bar, which was packed! While my friend ordered drinks, a guy walked up to me and showed me a message on his phone reading, ‘please be careful, watch your bags and your cell phone and just be careful!’ I nodded and said thanks and he walked away. Meanwhile people were walking by us, grabbing our backs and whatnot, I’d spin around and give a dirty look and the usual response was, ‘whoa…I’m just trying to say hi!” Basically all of these occurrences should have been enough to tell us to leave. Instead we walk out to a balcony with our drinks determined to have fun at this crazy place. My friend and I sit at a table and were immediately swarmed by people talking to us…meanwhile my other two friends are talking to this huge guy dressed in all black. Turns out this guy was the security guard of the bar, and he was explaining that he was going to follow us around for the night for protection…and before we knew it a fight also broke out between one of the guys I was talking to and some random people. We got scared and ran back inside and decided to dance. Well, dancing was quite funny. The security guard followed us and ensured nobody came remotely close to us. We finished our drinks and told him we were ready to leave. The manager of the bar walked us downstairs, wished us a great night and then explained the security guard was going to walk us to our next bar to ensure we weren’t being followed. He explained he would much rather have us be safe and have a good time, regardless of security measures, than have something get stolen, or someone get hurt…and told us we were welcome to come back whenever we want.
I know by this point you’re probably rolling your eyes and thinking, okay what the heck was a doing at a sketchy bar, I really should know better, especially in South Africa. But, even with the danger, it was still really fun. The stereotypes here really suck. Basically because I was with three white girls, we drew attention to ourselves as soon as we entered the bar. Everyone saw us as either Afrikaans (no explanation needed…) or wealthy tourists. The people that actually approached us realized we were Americans and wanted to talk to us and hear about our lives and why we came to Cape Town, but there will always be those who don’t bother to get to know you…and instead are interested in what’s in your wallet. Still, I’m really glad we stumbled into the place. If I wasn’t studying abroad in such a touristy city these types of incidences would be typical for a night. I’m sure we won’t actually go back to this place because I know it was not safe but nothing happened and we were lucky. Plus, it’s experiences like this that one can learn from, and although, we’re constantly thinking about the inequality issues in South Africa, when my friends and I are out having fun on a Friday night we don’t really pay attention to the poverty and crime, and maybe it was good something like this happened to serve as a reminder.
I promise I’m being safe though, please don’t worry…it’s all a learning experience and I’m loving every minute.
Cheers!
Oh and it was 93 degrees here on Saturday, jealous? I thought so hahaha
And I introduced my roommate to Lady Gaga, success.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
