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!