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!
May 16, 2010
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!
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