Hellllllllo blog readers
How is everyone?! I am doing great just got home from my Easter Break week in Cape Town, Knysna, Stellenbosh, and Oudtshoorn. It was amazing! I had so much fun. We left Friday morning the 2nd and got home April 11th, Sunday.
Okay…Im gonna start at the beginning sooo we hired a car (hire means rent, that’s what they say here) so the car we rented ended up being the same exact car we took to J-Bay, Yup the one that broke down on us…ughhh we were not looking forward to tha car and of course just our luck we got the same one. So we were set to leave Friday morning at 630 am and we started off down the road but not before pilling the WHOLE entire car with our stuff. So we were driving down the road and then all of a sudden this misty/smoke stuff started filling the whole car…hahaha its funny now, at the time we freaked out a bit and were pissed because this always happens to us!!! So we pulled over in a neighborhood 2 blocks away from our flat and tried to figure it out, we got some help from a good Samaritan and called the rental car guy, found out it was the water in the car that was low or something? So after a long time of talking to the rental car guy and him telling us over and over that it was normal that there was steam flowing everywhere in the car? I kno right? We met with a mechanic and he fixed it? something with the heater and I don’t know really…but it put us like 3 hours back and we didn’t end up leaving PE til after 9..we drove to Knysna which is a really cute quaint town. Much different than the stereotypical Africa. Really pretty with a small town feel, kinda like Mill Valley or something along the lines. We got to the hostel and it was super cool, we actually had really good luck with backpackers all week. Since Ive been in Africa I haven’t stayed at a bad backpackers! We settled and started talking to one of the guys that works there about what we should do and we ended up going with him to the forest and then he took us to the heads which is what knysna is most famous for. the forest was really pretty, we had to drive thru a town ship to get there and it was kind of hilly, but it was such a different scene than I have been around. South Africa has everything, forest, mountains, beach, flat land, everything! We went and saw this ‘big tree’ that was over 650 years old, it was huge! Then we went to the Heads. Its really famous for Knysna and it is two pieces of land coming together but there is an opening and there is a lagoon in the opening. The houses up on the hills were AMAZING and huge. The guy from the backpacker pointed out one of the houses that was 48 million rand, that is 336 million US dollars!!!!! Yikes! After we left there, we went to the water front and there was a lot of touristy shops there. I haven’t seen any since I’ve been in SA, so it was a nice change of scenery. It was pretty touristy, but the waterfront was really nice.
-side note of my day-
When I was in Knysna I was kind of home sick for my mama! Traveling makes me rather homesick for her because Im so used to traveling and going everywhere with her. Im so used to doing everything with my mom, and it is difficult doing things with a group of people, so I was a little melancholy. The town reminded me of a place I’d go with her, and it was hard to travel and go places without her because she is my usual travel partner. I love you mama, you’re my best travel partner : )
Anyways the rest of the day we hung out at the hostel for a while, played pool hung out in this really cool room with cushions everywhere that I was obsessed with. We met a guy from Australia and he was hanging out with us, and he went out with us. We went to this cool club, it was a lot of fun, the usual creepers, but we have all gotten used to it. we called it a night and went home, the next morning we got ready to leave not before having car trouble again…good lord… and finally were on our way to CT. We made it Cape Town by 3:30 and driving in I absolutely fell in love with the city. It has the beauty of Yosemite but the vibe of San Francisco. Absolutely beautiful and amazing. Our hostel was so cool and it was right on Long Street, where all the bars and clubs are. Our backpacker was SO cool, it was called penthouse. We stayed in a 20 person dorm, yea I know so many ppl! But it was actually better than I thought it was going to be. Ear plugs are a life saver and so necessary for travel. But our room was actually chill and not much partying going on in it, our group was for sure the loudest out of everybody and there were some French ppl in there that didn’t like us. We made friends with a girl from Germany who knew French and she told us all week when they would talk about us in French hahah ridiculous! Anyways, the palce was really cool and had a bar on the roof and each room was decorated a different theme, so one room was like animal print and our room was forest theme, and there was a heart room and ect ect, really cute. After settling in we met Nathan and his sister that night for dinner, locals of Cape Town. The SSU girls and I had to take an African Focus class and our professor Ben put us in touch with his friend Nathan. Nathan and Stacy gave us the low down of CT and told us places to go and places not to go, we had ‘mexican food’ for dinner, the quotations because it is SA’s version of Mexican not the States…it wasn’t bad but its wasn’t authentic. My burrito was more like a huge taco, it wasn’t rolled just like folded over, I would describe it as tex-mex… so Nathan walked around with us, and I was really overwhelmed, ppl begging for money and talking to you and everything, from what everyone said about CT and everything I was nervous..i mean it is safe, but it is a big city, and it is Africa, and we were there on a holiday week, and we obviously look like foreigners. Even if I don’t open my mouth and Im just walking ppl always say America! Oh your from America! Haha Im always like how do you know that!! But Im not going to lie I was a little sketched out for my safety and stuff while there, but we were always cautious and aware of our surroundings. I didn’t walk with my camera out, I didn’t take it out at night, I didn’t have a purse at night, since being in SA my bra is the best wallet I could possibly hope for. We were smart and the trip was fine, nothing bad happened to any of us. We went out that night, we went out every night while on our trip except one night bc we were all hung over hahah, so I wont really go into details about us going out, if you want to know all the details ask and I will tell, but most of the nights consisted of dancing drinking and having fun, I was good I promise! The 5 of us were watching out for eachother, and we were all safe. We just took advantage of going out in CT because we have all gotten tired of going out and the places in PE. So I won’t bore you with all the stories of nightlife in CT, except for the fact that I drunk dialed my mama every night, and night life is great : ) So if you ever go to CT some places to go: Dublinner, La Med, Zula, Chrome, Baghdad, and lots of other places, I forgot all the other names. On Sunday we went with the guy that worked at our front desk to a township, I forgot the name, but every week there is a huge braii (BBQ) there. It was really nice of him to take us, he was working the night shift at our hostel and didn’t get off til 8am..he worked all night, and he just went home and showered then came back to take us to the hostel. He didn’t want money or anything, he was genuinely such a nice guy and just wanted to show us part of the township life. It was so much fun, there was ppl everywhere and we bought meat there and we just ate with our fingers and danced a little and talked to Timberland (that’s what he told us to call him) he was so nice, and helpful and it was so much fun. I love talking to locals, seriously everyone (Ive come across) always has something to say, ppl always have an opinion, wheter they are talking about politics, oppression, the world cup, anything, they always have something to say. I love it. A nice unexpected thing to do while in CT, to go and hang out in a township.
Monday we were scheduled to go to Robben Island, after getting lost and thinking we were gonna miss the boat, we find out that it is cancelled for the day because of the weather. I guess this happens a lot, its too windy so they cancel it…you would think they would prepare for this since, they have to have the boat for the their business or they would find another boat, or something, but TIA… (TIA means ‘this is africa’ for those who don’t know) So we rescheduled for Wednesday morning and changed our plans for the day. We decided to drive to the cape of good hope. This by far was my favorite day. The drive there was a little over an hour I think. We stopped along the way in this really cute town called Simon’s Town. It was really quant, we walked around for a while and went into shops. Going to Cape town is really the first time I have seen touristy shops, I mean there is the Boarkwalk in PE but that’s about it. and its only touristy to a certain extent. So we all got some stuff there, I found post cards for 3Rand! That’s 40cents a post card! So some of you are luckly enough to have a post card in the mail right now : ) we found an ice cream shop, because the girls are obsessed with ice cream haha. It was really good, the closet tasting ice cream to the states..yup ice cream tastes different here…its more like..um..more sweet. Kinda like frosting tasting. I dunno hard to describe. We sat for awhile at the dock then walked back to our car. Boulder Beach is on the outskirt of Simon’s Town, that’s where the penguins are! They were so cute, a lot smaller than I thought. The penguins used to be named Jackass Penguins because they make nosies like donkeys…and oh do they..but they were renamed African penguins, no fun! They were everywhere tho. Small little guys right on the beach. I heard they are mean so don’t get close to them. But there was like a boardwalk so you can walk out on it to see them. Way cute tho! We were there for awhile then left to head to cape point/cape of good hope. It was 75R/person to get in…so weird in Africa they charge by person rather than like 75R/car. A lot of hotels do that too, charge per person and not by room. So if you were renting a hotel room it would be 1000R/person rather than 1000R/per room, just an example. Anyways…I was really excited to go to cape point. Driving in the national park we definitely saw ostridges and baboons. Both animals are really creepy..at this time in the trip I was slightly obsessed with the ostridges…you will learn later when I write about Oudtsroon that this obsession disappeared really quickly…hah. The baboons though are crazy..they are like little humans. You are supposed to close your car windows if they are around and not pursue them and if you have food…forget it, drop it because they will attack you for it. Ive heard a story of a baboon going up to a car and opening the door and getting inside and eating all the food that was in the car…then opening the door again and walking out..hahah so crazy. So anyway we finally got to cape point. And cape point and cape of good hope…it is debated among many which is which, but one of them is the most south western part of Africa, and the other one is where the two oceans, Atlantic and Indian ocean meet. Cape point had a lot of walking to get up it, very touristy..all cement, and there was a light house up there. It was cool, but I mean not the best thing I have ever been too. we took a few pictures and decided to leave thankfully we decided to drive over to cape of good hope, they are right next to eachother but you have to drive down to get to cape of good hope. I am so glad we did, amazing. We went at the perfect time, so there was practically no one there we hiked up it and sat for awhile. It was breathtaking. I loved it up there. By the time we left our car was the only one in the parking lot, and it was close to sunset. I feel like when I write about things I did, it just doesn’t do it justice to how great it really was, I mean I can only say so many times, “It was amazing!” and you think it was amazing, but it really was beyond amazing, seriously beautiful. So after that we started on our jounery home. The area around cape town is like a pensulia so you we drove one way and drove back up the other way..like making a loop. It was too bad we drove back in the night I would have loved to see the view during the day. We drove thru Chapman’s Peak and over looked Hout Bay (yee Samma!) and it was so pretty to see the lights. We made it back to the hostel a little after 7pm, it was such a great day, and since it was really one of the first days in cape town all the girls and I were pumped about our trip and we were all getting along great which was a plus, (we always get along but we were all just in a especially good mood this day). If you go to cape town tho, go to cape of good hope!
On Tuesday…I was a little melancholically, because Luis was leaving for Basic, and it would be the last time I would talk to him for awhile….sooo considering the circumstances it was a good day. The girls dragged me shopping, and very really supportive of me all day. I didn’t buy anything but los of window shopping, some of the stores were so cute! We shopped pretty much all day then headed back to the hostel to get dressed to hike Lion’s Head, which we wanted to be up there for sunset. After getting lost driving there and asking for directions and having a guy stop traffic in both directions for us to turn around we finally made it there. Im just gonna say right now that Lion’s Head was one of the best part’s of the trip..if you or anyone you know if ever going to CT, I highly recommend Lion’s Head over Table Mnt. If you only have time for one. The hike was nice and not too difficult, I was defiantly sore after but I wasn’t dying. There were two paths at one point, one that was easier but longer and one path that was climbing up chains/mnt climbing to get up haha. It was fun, we ended up meeting some of the other international guys that were staying in our hostel too. We got up to the top right before sunset. It was BEAUTIFUL, overlooked the whole city. One side overlooked the beach and camps bay. And the one side overlooked robben island, and the other over looked the whole city. It was so nice up there. It was the perfect time to go because there was barely anyone up there but us. We all took our fair share of pictures and sat and watched the sun go down. BEAUTFUL! We started down the mnt right and by the time we were half way down it was pretty dark..haha fun hiking down a mnt in the dark. Kelleigh and I walked down together and had a really good talk, which made the trip so much better.
Wednesday was..haha interesting. We all had A LOT to drink Tuesday night and only had 2 hours of sleep…we were for sure still drunk when we woke up for our early morning Robben Island trip…we ended up getting lost on the way there, even tho we had been there two days earlier..haha. anyways…being drunk in the car and trying to get somewhere b/c were 10 minutes from being late = no bueno. SO kelleigh and I got out of the car so they could find a parking spot and we run, literally run to the Robben Island place….only to find out, it is cancelled….again…! ugh! The boat broke or something… so unfortunately I didn’t get to do to Robben Island while in CT : ( so Wednesday we just satyed at the V&A waterfront and shopped…I got like 2 souvenirs. But the mall was AMAZING. Lots of stores from the states and lots more, it was huge…and seemed like it kept going and going. Kelleigh and I ate lunch and got over shopping so we walked around outside and stuff..we were there for most of the day..all hungover by the time our buzzes wore off : )
Thursday we hiked table mnt…lets just say being sore from Lions Head two days before then hiking up another huge mountain..no good. I thought I was going to die. The hike was basically just zig zag steps all the way the 2 and half hour hike. I leterally thought my legs were going to break off…haha Loretta kept me company in the back..hah. She is such a good Mama <3 but by the time we got up there I was stoked! But it was much different than I thought it would be…it was SO touristy. There was a restaurant, and a souvenir shop, and the whole cable car thing, that you can take up there…it was nice, and so beautiful, but not what I expected, once again..Lion’s Head SO much better. We walked around up there for awhile, and went in the shop, and took our pictures in between all the tourists in their flip flops and dresses. Hahah lets just say most ppl don’t hike up the mnt…but we started down and it was nice to see ppl walking up and being able to tell them a little bit more!!! Keep going, because I knew how they felt..Also some people didn’t think Table Mnt was much of a hike??? Haha There were numerous ppl wearing flip flops, and flats, and purses…I was confused how they were making it up there, but more power to them for hiking it. It took us pretty much all day..we started at like 8am and got down around 2 I think? After we drove back to long street and shopped around there..there was this huge open market area with so much stuff..pretty overwhelming.. they always try and sell you stuff and they always kno your American.. before I even open my mouth they call me an America. After we met with Nathan again to give him back a book he let us borrow and catch up with him. We were all sooo tired so after we went home and ate and showered..then went out for our last night in CT.
Friday sadly was raining!! It was our wine tasting day..so we packed our car agin.. haha I haven’t even gone into that..but our car was pretty much over flowing with stuff.. we headed to Stellenbosch the wine country of SA and it was beautiful even in the rain… made me homesick for SSU. We checked in to our hostel after getting lost..of course. .the hostel was so cool. It was like a modern house..bimmy ended up staying with her friend that went to SSU freshman year that was going to school in Stellenbosch so, the 4 of us got our own room. We ate, and got freshened up and talked to the front desk about where to go and set out to go wine tasting. Kelleigh was our DD of the day and put up with us all : ) The first place we went was really nice..it was 15R and it was small and we were the only people in the tasting room. We had 5 wines…and he taught us how to do it properly. We didn’t spit it out tho, we wanted the buzz for our money! Bim did the tasting too and she doesn’t really drink so her friend and I drank most of hers. Haha by the time we left there I was feeling my wine. The second place we went was really nice, it was classy and trendy. It was more expensive and it was a sit down place. It wasn’t as intimate as the first place. We got chocolate with the wine and each was specific to the wine. It was really nice, and this place we had a dessert wine, it was really sweet. Something I’ve never had before. I really liked this place..it had a huge fireplace and two huge adorable dogs that I was sitting on the floor petting hahah. We left there and we drove around to find another one..got lost..then found it. it closed 5 mintues before we got there! Ugh! So unfortunately we only got to go to two places. Stellenbosch is really pretty though, and very much a Afrikanner town..it was not like a typical ‘Africa’ town. It was a huge college town, it reminded me a lot of Chico. It was really interesting to be around that environment because I haven’t since in Africa, and I haven’t been around a population that is majority white…so it was interesting. Amada (Bim’s friend) took us out and it was fun…but different from what I have gotten used too. It was like going to a college party..like the exclusiveness of it, something I definitely don’t miss from SSU. I do have to say though I felt uncomfortable out there tho, and it’s weird because everyone was white, but I felt out of place. Hands down I have felt more comfortable going out at places where the environment is mainly black..you know me sociology girl, I was thinking and analyzing the whole night, why I was thinking this way. I mean usually when we go out at places that typically have a black crowd the ppl are so nice, and if were ever in the bathroom with people they always talk to us and make conversation. I have many options of why I felt like this…but this isn’t my journal so I won’t bore you all with my obsession with sociology. But I sure do wish I could talk to Prof Leeder : )
Saturday we headed to Oudtshoorn long drive but we made it there. Once again the backpackers was SO cool. It was huge! We talked to the front desk and got directions to the Ostridge farm. We watched a video and had a tour by a guy whose jokes weren’t funny…and this is about when my obsession with ostridges ended…They are huge, and scary and look funny, and creepy. Seriously they creeped me out… Then we got to sit on them and the other girls rode them…not for me! Im surprised I even sat on it..haha you see the pics on my FB you can tell Im less than thrilled. I didn’t like how the ppl that worked there handled the ostridges…seriously animal cruelty, another reason I decided not to ride them…It was cool to see them…but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again, or really recommend it to anyone…We didn’t do much the rest of the day..went to dinner with people from the bantry that ended up staying at the same hostel as us. Sunday we got up early…packed the car again and headed to the Cango Caves. These huge caves that are thousands and thousands of years old. We got a tour and there was only 3 other ppl there so that was nice. We went on the ‘Adventure Tour’ so basically we crawled thru openings ohhh a few feet big…anxiety much? I was fine overall but it was a little scary. And plus with the caves there is only one opening and the farther you go back the less oxygen there is making it harder to breath and the little openings getting to my head…BUT I did it and it was cool to climb thru and see the beautiful caves. Sooooo after this we started on our journey home. We made it home safely and just in time to use the car to go grocery shopping, let me tell you how not easy it is not having a car…haha but we have all gotten used to it tho.
So Cape Town was amazing and the trip was great, I had so much fun, and I cannot wait to go back!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
2 months down..!
I know…I am the worst blogger in the world..I am sorry! Anyways…hello everyone! I’m still alive and well in south Africa. Lots has happened in the last month of me not writing. I’ve gone on trips, had interesting experiences, made friends, seen beautiful places, seen monkeys on campus!!!, I have eaten new food, I’ve had good days, I’ve had bad days, but overall I’ve been well and I am loving it here…
I guess I should start at the beginning of the month: So I went on my first trip here! I went to Jeffrey’s Bay with 4 girls I live with in the Bantry. It was really fun, a cute little town, it was pretty calm when we were there. We rented a car, we were all a little nervous considering the fact you drive on the other side of the road AND the other side of the car, but my roomie stepped up to the plate and she volunteered to drive. We left mid morning on a Saturday and our land lord drove us to the rental car place. We signed papers and of course took a few pictures and then we were on our way..I sat in the front seat and it was weird not to be driving but Aisha (my roommate) did well and we made it to J-Bay alive! The drive was only like 45-50 minutes and then we arrived! We booked a hostel at this nice place called Jeffery’s Bay Backpackers. The backpacker was really cool and we stayed in a 12 person dorm. After checking in and getting a tour of the place we went out to move our car into a different parking lot and Aisha is moving it and then all of a sudden…it just stops, the engine and the car just stop moving. So she tries again to start it, and it is making a noise that cars should not make! So a few different people try to start it and no luck..of course! Just our luck that something like this would happen! So we roll the car into a parking spot (after this weekend I have become pro at pushing cars) and we call the guy from the rental car place and he tells us to try and againg and says sometimes the cars are temperamental..but nothing is working. So he tells us to call back in a few hours and to try again then..so we let the car situation rest for a while.
Then we heaed to get something to eat, we ate in a nice cute restaurant that was also a bakery and a deli kinda. I ended up getting an enchilada! Mexican food in SA?! That is unheard of!! It was really good actually, I wouldn’t call it a enchilada more of a burrito but very tasty. After we ate we walked around the town and it was pretty dead, I guess we went when it was the down season because school had just started and what not. But we walked around and then we walked down to the factory stores, they had billabong and some other ones. They ended up closing though soon after we got there, every closed down around 2. So early! That’s one thing about Africa, most things close really early, except bars. We headed to the beach after that and laid out for awhile. It was nice and there were families around, I was so curious to see the surf, because J-Bay is one of the most well known and best surf spots in the world. But the surf wasn’t anything special, but no surprise the beach was beautiful. We got some meat after the beach to braii BBQ) that night at the backpacker. There was a bar at the hostel right outside our room, all the drinks were 10 rand! That’s like $1.40! Cheap right? SO we talked it up with people staying there and one of the workers and took advantage of our cheap drinks. There were two girls there from Denmark who had just graduated high school and were taking a year off to travel, first SA, then the Philippines, then New Zealand, then AU! Crazy right? They were sweet hearts though. There were also 3 guys from Argentina there, they travel the world to different surf spots, and just surf. They had been in J-Bay for 3 weeks already and just surfed everyday. It was nice to hear people speak Spanish! In a way it was comforting and reminded me of home since Spanish is so common in the states We decided to try and figure out our car, we tried to start it again and it didn’t work, so we called back the guy and talked for awhile and came to the conclusion that he would have to pick us up the next day..so we were bummed and baffled that this happened, but we got over it. After awhile of eating and drinking we headed out to ‘Wacky Woods’ one of the reasons we went to J-Bay in the first place. It was a huge rave in the middle of nowhere in the woods. I have never experienced anything like it, and I don’t know if I ever will again. Haha…I had a lot of fun though, regardless of lots of intoxicated people who were on drugs. Don’t worry mom I was safe! No drugs for me! : ) There were lights everywhere and smoke machines and the loudest music that was just rave music. For a lot of the time I just stood there and watched people dance, it was entertaining! After being there for a long time and being overwhelmed by the smoke machine we decided to head home and go to bed. The next day we got up and checked out and went around the town a little more. The guy got there with his wife to pick us up he had a trailer with him. He tried to start the car…and no luck he looked under the hood and saw that the belt broke, don’t ask me what belt…but a belt, we were lucky that it didn’t break while we were driving there and fortunately we made it all the way there. He was just as baffled as us and said this has never happened in all the years he has been doing this, go figures it happens to us. Our next mission is to get the car on the trailer..a little difficult for 6 girls and 1 guy. After many many many tries of us trying to roll the car up onto the trailer..we try once more and sure enough we use so much strength that we not only get it on the trailer, but we push it over the trailer. Hahaah Loretta has a video of it, and it is hands down the best thing I have ever seen. It goes from us being excited to gasping in 2 seconds. So now the wheels are over the place where they are supposed to be and it is a mess. It is hard to explain without seeing it..but now we have to try and literally pick up the car to put it back over on to the trailer. After trying this for 10 minutes some locals walk up and start helping us, next thing I know there are 10 locals surrounding the car all trying to help and get the car back on, only in Africa…so finally we pick up the car and put it back on the trailer.. hah ohhh Africa. After figuring out the car for over an hour we are finally back on our way home to PE great weekend, great first trip for being here.
So I signed up for a volunteer class, CSL 100, and I’ve been going since the beginning of the term, There were 4 different options of where we could volunteer. Cherisre Homes which is close to school and it is a place for people who are physically disabled. The age ranges from 18 to 70 and your main point of being there is to hang out with the tenants and just talk to them. There is also baby homes, where you go to a home and it has babies that are either orphans, or they got taken away from their parents, or they got abandoned. I’ve heard the kids are so cute, some of them actually have HIV and most of them have serious stories that some of us won’t experience in our life time. There is also Masifundi which is in Walmer Township. It is a program set up for kids to do after school, there you are assigned like 2 kids a day and you help them with their homework and tutor them. The last place is Sinethemba. It is quite far from school but it is amazing. It is a home for street children. After much long thought, I chose to volunteer there. Sinethemba is really hard to describe, and I am still trying to figure out exactly how it works myself. It is a home for street children, some of them have families and they chose to leave and go to sinethemba because of their horrible home life. others go just during the day as like a dare care kind of thing, most of the kids there only for day car are around 3 or 4..younger. some of the kids have been there for years nad have gone home for a bit then come back. It is quite hard to describe. But it is a really interesting experience there are around 50 kids there and it is hectic. It is a house so there is a kitchen and rooms with bunk beds and there is a a few separate some structures where the younger kids stay during the day and another one where the boys sleep. It isn’t structured and there are kids of all ages running around. Our main reason for going there is to help the high schoolers with their homework. That rarely happens tho, they usually say they don’t have homework…but I know they do! So we usually end up playing with the elementary school kids, or ill go out and play with the toddlers. They are all well behaved…this comment is open for interpretation… for their lives and their situations they are well behaved, they are only human and they are little kids. But it is different from kids at home, a lot of them don’t have parents and obviously no sources of socialization from their parents. It is so normal for them to push each other and bite each other, yes that happens at home with kids but the thing that is odd is how the kids who are being pushed or bite act back..they just think its normal, they stop doing whatever they are doing and they rarely get upset. I don’t know if im explaining this sufficient enough…but the kids are so used to these actions that it isn’t unusually for them so they act like its normal. Irregardless they are kids so it does get hectic and I usually end up being a jungle gym for them to climb on and play with. Last week I left with some pretty intense bites from one of the little boys haha. The thing with the schools here..they aren’t as advanced as America..Its difficult and frustrating because as much as we think California education is shit, here its ridiculous. The children don’t have text books and usually the whole classroom has one book it seems like when we help all the kids they really just have no idea how to do homework. They have a hard time reading English and understanding the directions. They can’t do their homework because they don’t understand the basics of English or anything. In South Africa they don’t hold students back..even if you don’t understand the class or aren’t doing well they don’t hold you back in school, they push you forward to the next grade. So there are kids in high school who have a hard time reading simple directions in English. Also when they do things like math worksheets..the teachers don’t go over the answers. They have the worksheets and then they just put the answers on the board so the students don’t know how to get the answers in between.. the kids do the best they can and we try and help them the best we can. All of the staff are volunteers and don’t get paid anything they are all dedicated, usually when we are there they don’t really interact with us and we have to say hello first. I love it though, I love being with the kids and they all fight for attention because they don’t get it else where. I try and give attention to everyone equally, but I have a favorite her name is Anthea and she is adorable, mature, and smart. She is 11 and she has so much responsibility, she takes care of a lot of the kids. I love it there and I wish I could go longer and more often the kids need us to play with so they get the attention they deserve.
K I want to tell everyone about my amazing trip up to the ‘wild coast’ I went the weekend of March 5-7 we went to Coffee Bay and Port St. John. I went with 7 girls and one boy, luck guy huh : ) kidding…we left Friday morning. And before I went on the trip I had no idea where we were going, what we were doing, where we were staying, or any details whatsoever! And it turned out to be the best trip imaginable so having no expectations pays off! The drive was SO long…we drove all day and got to coffee bay around 6 pm. The drive was nice..so pretty. Great to see a new perspective of Africa. It seemed like real Africa. People living in huts and animals everywhere..we would be driving then all of a sudden there would be a cow in the middle of the road. They would just stand there, they wouldn’t move for you, you would have to maneuver around them.
Goats, cow, pigs..we saw it all. So other than driving all day we didn’t do much during the day on fri. as we kept driving further and further the less city there was. And it was so damn hot! Probably one of the hottest days since ive been here. So after driving for awhile, almost to coffee bay we stopped at a grocery store to get something to drink and where we stopped it was like a village..there were chickens in cages to be sold haha a little extreme we were the only white ppl these ppl have seen in a while I figured for all the stares. It was hands down the most uncomfortable I have felt in south Africa since ive been here..i got over it tho and we left to finish our long drive over the potholes to coffee bay, hopefully you have all seen my video on facebook with the crazy messed up road with the potholes. when we got to coffee bay we just hung out, our hostel was very nice and there was music and local dance there. The next day we set out for this place called hole in the wall…the ppl at the desk told us we could walk and thankfully we didn’t because it took us like 30 minutes to drive there. After get lost a few times and stopping for directions we found it. it didn’t seem like anything tho because we were in local Africa, no town, ppl living in their huts, dirt roads, and us trying to find this place we heard about..we found it tho and it was absolutely beautiful we all just sat and chilled and saw the beautiful ocean with this massive land in the water with a huge hole in the middle. One of the most beautiful places I have seen. After spending a few hours here we left for port st. johh…a few hour drive later we made it to the backacker..port st john is beautiful driving into it, it reminded me of yosemite. The backpacker was so cool, we, got really lucky with backpackers this weekend they were both amazing and had entertainment, and a restaurant, and a bar. Sooo the whole reason we went on this trip was to meet some people that some of the girls I live with met a few weekends before. Soo mom this part of the story you wont be too happy about but im fine! So that’s all that matters! So we met Richard and his friend (I don’t remember his name!) there and the took us in the bed of their truck up a huge mnt to watch the sunset..haha after getting in the bed of the truck my thought went to..ahhh we don’t know these ppl and they are taking us to the middle of nowhere..is this a good idea? Only in Africa! We have to take a chance! And im so glad we did the view up the mnt was breath taking and we overlooked all of port st john. Beyond amazing. After getting home safely we watched Richard play the drums and the other two bands that were there and hung around the bar. The next day we had the bright idea to wake up at 5am to watch the sunrise and drive an hour to this waterfall. Once again Richard lead the way to this waterfall in the middle of nowhere. We had to walk over the top of the water fall across to the other side to walk through the woods to go see it. and it was amazing. Then some of the group left to head home and 5 of us girls stayed, Richard took us to this place…I have no idea what it was called but it was all local xhosa ppl. It was supposed to be like a place to take care of your self and such. There was this hole in the ground that you were supposed to breath in the gases and it is supposed to cure a headache or anything as such! It just smelt like gas to me! Then we went into this mud cave and one of the local boys painted our face with mud, which is supposed to help our skin. Then we literally mnt climbed up a mnt and went to this other water hole. Deep in the hole is water you take out to drink, it is supposed to cure you of anything, it tasted and smelt like rotten eggs! Then Richard pointed us over to a huge mud bath, and told us to get in. we walked through the forest a little to see around 20 african women naked cleaning themselves in this mud water. Us girls put our feet in and stood there. Im surprised by the reaction of some of the women, a lot of them were welcoming, some were taking pictures of us on their camera phones, others were just staring, we felt a little uncomfortable just looking at them so we took off our cloths into our costumes (swimsuits) and underwear and got into the water and did what they did. They were rubbing mud all over eachother then washing it off. We got out and said good bye to everyone around and went back to our car and tipped the little guy that painted our faces and helped us out (he carried my shoes up the mnt when I was climbing!) Im so lucky we did follow Richard he showed us the most amazing part of Africa we would have never found just as tourists. There was no signs for the waterfall, we wouldn’t have felt as welcomed at the locals mud place, and there would have been no way we would have found our self up that mnt. It is so nice to have a local show you around. Im sorry if all my explanations are brief it is just hard to describe everything the way it happened, everything was so amazing it is just hard to put in to words how great it was .
School has been good. It is a different structure here which I’m getting used to. The term is over on Friday and I start a new class next week and end two this week. Grading is different here…they go by percents and not grades..a 75 and above is an A they call is a distinction and that’s really good. I think a 50 or a 60 is a C.. I dunno I feel like everyone I ask always has a different answer. It may seem easy to get an A but its not..i feel like here they don’t believe in giving perfect grades like there is always something wrong with it even if what you did was spot on. In my sociology advance social research methods class we had a test and it was so hard, so hard! And 9 ppl out of 70 passed… we asked our professor about it and he said that’s normal! No that’s not normal what so ever! But he insisted it was…but it defiantly isn’t, they don’t usually give your tests back, so you don’t know what u got wrong or see the teachers grading or comments. They have a DP which is your mark to be able to let you take the final so in a usual class you will have an assignment and a test. And some classes have a DP of 60 or 50 meaning that your class work is the percent of your final grade. So in my research class the DP is 60 and the final is 40% of your grade..in order to take the final you have to have a DP of 40% (but this isn’t on the American 50-100% is passing scale) I don’t know why im trying to explain it, it is difficult to understand! My xhosa class is going okay, the language is pretty hard though, and sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time because im not getting credit for it at home, but it is useful. It is nice to be able to say hello to ppl and ask their name and say goodbye. They are so surprised if you say something to them in Xhosa they are flattered you know their language. The kids at Sinethemba laugh at me all the time though because of how I attempt to speak xhosa..hah classes are fine though im excited to start my human rights class next week. But that’s all im adding so I will only have volunteer, human rights, and xhosa, class two days a week..so I will have a lot of free time. With how they do credits here, it seems like I cant take as many classes as I would at home, but because of terms it just splits up the classes so by the end of the semester I will have taken 3 soci classes two terms of xhosa and my volunteer class. Anyways enough about school..
So what have I been doing these past two months?! Going to school, and going out occasionally. I haven’t been out in awhile because Ive either been busy with school work on the weekend or I have been traveling. But new things Ive done this month…I have eaten Bunny Chow, my first Indian food, it was good, spicy. Ive seen more movies here than my whole college career..haha kidding but Ive seen Valentine’s Day and Dear John. Ive been to a Rugby game. It was fun it was at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium which id where some of the world cup games will be held. Rugby is interesting..thankfully we were sitting with a guy from Cali who plays at home so he was explaining it to us. The stadium is nice…looks new and is clean. It isn’t like American stadiums though that has ads and marketing everywhere. Like at pac bell park there is an ad on everything and everywhere, the stadium here is much more plain. From the rugby game we took plastic cups to play beer pong because they don’t sell anything like that here. Ive also been to a cricket game…we went to the finals so there were so many ppl there. I just don’t know how I feel about that game..it is kind of like baseball…but not. So funny to ask people whats going on at both rugby and cricket games..i just imagine being at a giants game and hearing the people behind me asking questions about whats going on and what is happening and thinking what the hell?! They don’t know how to play baseball? I know what your thinking Ashlynn about sports and me and asking questions…but this is different thankyouverymuch! The games were fun though and people got really into cricket, I think because it was the finals. Other than that I have been going to school, hanging out with people in my flat, volunteering and that’s about it. nice not to be SO busy all the time. At first it was really hard for me..I was going crazy because I wasn’t doing something all the time all day. Usually me being busy all the time with work, school, ADPi, spending time with friends and Luis, I rarely got a second to myself. Don’t get me wrong I love being busy and I loved my life at home, I loved that I always had something to do and I got used to the busyness and stressful life. So coming here and having nothing to do, and only have school a few days a week I kinda freaked out a bit. But over time I have gotten used to and I like having free time now. I take my time in whatever I do, and I have time to relax and stuff. I rarely have any concept of what time it is. I never look at my phone to see the time unless I have class..things are just more relaxed for me here. I could take a day and walk to the grocery store and take my time and walk home and that will take like an hour an half with the walk..things are just a lot calmer and more relaxed, obviously I don’t have as many responsibilities and I am taking advantage of it. I know when I get back home..it will take me awhile to adjust to the busy life again, but I am human so I will adapt. I am so much calmer with things, I have only had anxiety like 2 times since being here. I am more carefree and go with the flow, on all the trips ive been on I haven’t known any details about where were going or what were doing, I have just gone with the flow and it makes things so much better, if I were at home Id be stressing about figuring stuff out and more concerned, but here I care obviously but there is just a part of me that is like okay I don’t know what’s going, that’s fine ill roll with it. I feel like I enjoy things so much more here because I get a chance to recognize and enjoy things. What else….hmm since being here I have become a clean freak! Haha I know everyone who knows me well enough is saying Jen!? A clean freak…I don’t think so with that room?! Haha but seriously I clean all the time, my room is rarely ever dirty, I clean it everyday and I always clean the kitchen, I guess it is because I have the time to do it. but yes mom my room is always clean! Maybe it will carrying with me when I go back home : )
Sometimes I just think and I am so amazed that I am in Africa, it doesn’t occur to me all the time though because since ive been here for awhile I have gotten used to everything and I just consider the place I live. Its not like everyday oh my god I still cant get over the fact that im in Africa! It is more of like, yea I can see the beach from my window and the people around me are speaking Xhosa, and im in such a beautiful place. I’ve gotten used to it, so it is just normal to me. I think back to when I first got here, and when I was in the airport in Joburg and I was walking around with my jaw to the floor. I was so overwhelmed wit everything, the idea of buying your electricity at the supermarket, driving on the other side of the road, the language, and sayings here, the overwhelming ness of ppl screaming at you from cars, just everything and now all that just seems so normal. It is amazing to think of human beings how they adjust to things and things become normal with time. It amazes me how I can come here and adapt fully to being somewhere else..okay enough of my deep thought hah.
It is interesting to see the difference in cultures tho and how things that are normal for Africans are not for us and vice-versa. Especially with guys here, hmm how can I describe this..african guys are really forward compared to most guys in America. They will tell you, you looks pretty, and ask you for your phone number 2 minutes within meeting you, call you all the time, talk about being relationships with you, and how much they like you after meeting you twice…be forward when they dance with you and things like this..(don’t worry not ALL of this stuff has happened to me, but some of it) and the things about it is they don’t think it’s forward, they just think that’s how it is, simply the way they are. Normal for them..example: one morning I was on the taxi (the buses that drive along the road and take you to school for 6 rand) and I was sitting next to my roommate and a guy got on and sat behind us..no big deal, all of sudden he tapped me and gestured to his phone, it was a text and I read it. it said “My god you like beautiful today” I was so caught off guard I just looked at him and laughed and said thanks..and turned around. I really don’t think something like this would ever happen in America, if you were on a bus and someone tapped you to show you a text to give you a message… another time I was walking to the library by myself and I walked passed a guy who was walking the other way, he stopped like 10 feet from me and turned around and called out, I turned but kinda kept walking, he said hello, I said it back and he started to have a conversation with me while still standing 10 feet away, then he turned around and starting walking my direction, as I kept walking he continued to talk to me and walk me to the library, when I got there he just turned around and walked away..i don’t think if I was walking at Sonoma someone would turn around to walk me to the library. There are numerous things that I don’t need to go into detail about that have happened to my friends I live with but we all learned early to not give your phone number out. So I’m not telling these stories to boast the new attention I am receiving I am talking about this to show how important it is to be culturally relative. As much as I get uncomfortable sometimes with someone being forward to me, I need to understand this is the way their culture is, they aren’t trying to make me uncomfortable. It is important to yes stand by your own norms but try and understand the other cultures norms too. I can only imagine my mother reading this right now : ) mom don’t worry if I’m ever in a situation I am uncomfortable I always have my friends with me and I’m not too nice like you say! I am fine! All people are forward here, they say things I would never hear people say in the states. And I know that’s how they are here so there is no reason to get upset..one day I was at school and I was getting coffee, I put my water bottle down on the counter and the girl taking my order saw it and saw I had a lemon in it, without hesitation she said So your trying to lose weight huh?” hahaha I looked at her and said what? She motioned to my water bottle and said “your drinking lemon water” I said “yea, I like the way it tastes” she said “no you must be trying to lose weight by drinking that” I said don’t people drink lemon water? She said “no it tastes bad you only drink it is your trying to lose weight” hahah I was like alright whatever you say! She didn’t say any of it in a rude way at all, it was just a normal conversation and I didn’t get upset or anything I just thought it was funny. I couldn’t imagine going into Charlie Browns to get coffee though and having the barista ask me if I was trying to lose weight because I was drinking lemon water. The main idea im getting at is the importance to go with the flow and understand that we aren’t in America, we are in Africa! I really don’t like it when internationals here get upset because of things or compare Africa to home.. “this would never happen at home…” “Back home its like this…” I really dislike that, were not at home were in Africa! Be culturally relative and understand their culture! don’t get me wrong some days it is hard..manners in Africa isn’t very normal. It is rare to have people say thank you or excuse me or have people open the door for you..people push when they walk by and things like that. At first it was so hard to get used to, but I see myself now being more like them, I still use my customary manners but sometimes I’m like they aren’t going to say excuse me I’m not going to!
Want to know some fun facts about South Africa!?
It seems like everyone has pencil cases! Reminds me of you AC! Seriously I have never seen so many people with full pencil cases. They always put them on the desk next to them.
They say now-now and just now. This was seriously the hardest concept for me to understand. It means soon..but the time frame is like 5 minutes to never..so ill be talking to my SA friend and she will say “k ill be back now” and walk away, at first I was like wait what? Everyone says it and it just means soonish..kinda..
Everyone says “nice” as the adjective of choice. I will ask someone how their weekend was and they would say nice, I rarely ever hear someone said good, like it was good, I catch myself saying nice all the time too..
“how is it” is their greeting of choice, they don’t say how are you or how is it going, just how is it.
there is a difference between cabs and taxis. A cab is what we think a cab is at home you call them and they pick you up. A taxi is on the street and you catch them, it is 6 rand, they are mini buses, and they usually stuff anywhere from 14-20 ppl in them, it is kinda sketch but I think they are fine. If I talk to locals (white or coloured) and they ask me how I get to school when I tell them taxis they think I am kidding..haha they said they would never dare go on one. But they are fine! I am usually with someone I know when on it, I’ve only taken it by myself a few times.
Ive have been told numerous times that girls here don’t usually drink beer and it amazing that we drink it all the time. I asked why girls don’t and they said because its unusual and maybe the calories? Girls usually drink mixed drinks, wine coolers, or cider (most amazing thing ever, mix between apple cider, wine, and beer) I dunno, but I guess if guys see you drinking beer they either think it is unusual or really attractive for you to be drinking it..
There aren’t lions everywhere. I’ve been asked by so many locals about why I chose to come here and what I thought about SA before I came and most of them always ask did you think there were lions everywhere walking in the street!? Hah I tell them no… haha. When they find out im from cali they automatically think im a movie star or I know move stars, and I surf everyday…well looks like everyone is a little ignorant huh? South Africa is advanced, there is electricity and cars and it is a normal place, yes there are places where people live in huts and there really are animals walking around in the road.. but I dunno just a funny stereotype I am always asked.
Everyone drinks out of straws! Bottles of soda and cans of soda..i feel like im being rude if I don’t..i asked a girl in my class about it once and she was said a lot of the time girls do it to look more proper..i don’t kno if that’s true because everyone drinks out of straws.
In PE the weather changes literally every 5 mintues…in the morning it will be fuming hot then it will get windy then all of a sudden there is a thunder and lightening storm by the afternoon. It is hard to judge what to wear because you never know what the weather will be…
If you are in school, then you are in school, it is rare for people don’t go to school and work here. I told some people that I started working when I was 15 and they were baffled. It is also very common for kids to live with their parents til their late 20s. they don’t move out young. Once again when I told them I moved out when I was 17, they were astounded.
Hmmm cars here…I have never been somewhere where people drive as fast as they do here. Passing people is so common, even in residential or streets like E. Cotati. No one wears seat belts. Hah if I ever get the opportunity I take advantage of it! I miss wearing them. You even bring it up with someone from SA and they think it’s a joke, they are like….yea… not one wears them, they are annoying. You don’t pump your own gas here, the tenants at the gas station do it for you. They will also check your oil and fill your tires with air.
There is an extreme water drought. There is talk that PE is going to literally run out of water. And with the world cup coming who knows whats going to happen.
You can’t do your own laundry here. There aren’t laundry mats, you take them to the laundry places and you give them your laundry and they wash and dry and fold it for you. It cost 40 rand for a load they weight your cloths and a load is around 5kgs and yea.. weird thought of someone washing my cloths besides my mom but oh well!
They speak English here but there are so many phrases that are different. No one calls it candy, it is called sweets, the only thing with candy in the name is candy floss, which is cotton candy. They call erasers rubbers. They call the bathroom toilet…I hate that one I feel so gross saying it. they don’t say excuse me they say sorry, they look at you funny if you say excuse me.
There are no plugs in the bathroom. I guess its like unheard of to have an outlet in there..
Everyone smokes here! Its to a point where I don’t even smell it anymore. People can smoke in bars..i for sure have to wash my cloths after a night out. It is legal here to start smoking when you 16..so imagine the fact that the ‘legal’ drinkng age is 21 at home..and people start drinking in their early teens. People start smoking young here!
There are payphones everywhere! And ther are always people using them.
With a lot of things you don’t have bills..like with electricity you have ot go to the store and buy it, buy the credit and same with phone you have to buy credit, ‘airtime’ you don’t get billed for the month.
Hmmmm these are all the random SA facts I can think of at the moment! Definitely more to come.
I got World Cup tickets! Woo! The game is June 15th at the stadium in PE. Portugal vs. Ivory coast. And since I put my address and the fact that im a resident I got them for only 20 US dollars, the nose bleed section but that’s okay, its not like Ill watch the game anyways, huh Ash : ) kidding!
I just got back from Sunday’s River, I went with the Bannisters, long funny story but my grandma in utah goes to a doctor and the doctors friends are the Bannisters in PE! Small world right? So Kelleigh and I went to their river house for the weekend. It was nice to get away and relax. It was great to be around the comfort of a family, and talk to them about politics and south Africa, you know me and asking millions of questions : ) the river was great it comes off of the ocean and if you go far enough you can be out on the ocean, there are huge dunes on the river. We climbed up them and over them and up them and over them. After awhile all you see is huge massive sand hills, I felt like I was in Egypt or something. We went to Addo too which is a game park. We saw sooo many elephants, and tortoises, and kudo, and warthogs. The elephants are huge and so cute and the warthogs are strangely cute too! It was a great relaxing weekend!
Alright I think that is enough for now : ) I am still here alive and well in SA. Loving life and enjoying myself trying to take in as much as I possibly can. I miss home with all my heart and I wish I could be home but this is where Im supposed to be right now..LOVE YOU ALL! Your all in my thought.
Until next time, take care of you selves and Ill try and be a better blogger!
Loyally,
JD
I guess I should start at the beginning of the month: So I went on my first trip here! I went to Jeffrey’s Bay with 4 girls I live with in the Bantry. It was really fun, a cute little town, it was pretty calm when we were there. We rented a car, we were all a little nervous considering the fact you drive on the other side of the road AND the other side of the car, but my roomie stepped up to the plate and she volunteered to drive. We left mid morning on a Saturday and our land lord drove us to the rental car place. We signed papers and of course took a few pictures and then we were on our way..I sat in the front seat and it was weird not to be driving but Aisha (my roommate) did well and we made it to J-Bay alive! The drive was only like 45-50 minutes and then we arrived! We booked a hostel at this nice place called Jeffery’s Bay Backpackers. The backpacker was really cool and we stayed in a 12 person dorm. After checking in and getting a tour of the place we went out to move our car into a different parking lot and Aisha is moving it and then all of a sudden…it just stops, the engine and the car just stop moving. So she tries again to start it, and it is making a noise that cars should not make! So a few different people try to start it and no luck..of course! Just our luck that something like this would happen! So we roll the car into a parking spot (after this weekend I have become pro at pushing cars) and we call the guy from the rental car place and he tells us to try and againg and says sometimes the cars are temperamental..but nothing is working. So he tells us to call back in a few hours and to try again then..so we let the car situation rest for a while.
Then we heaed to get something to eat, we ate in a nice cute restaurant that was also a bakery and a deli kinda. I ended up getting an enchilada! Mexican food in SA?! That is unheard of!! It was really good actually, I wouldn’t call it a enchilada more of a burrito but very tasty. After we ate we walked around the town and it was pretty dead, I guess we went when it was the down season because school had just started and what not. But we walked around and then we walked down to the factory stores, they had billabong and some other ones. They ended up closing though soon after we got there, every closed down around 2. So early! That’s one thing about Africa, most things close really early, except bars. We headed to the beach after that and laid out for awhile. It was nice and there were families around, I was so curious to see the surf, because J-Bay is one of the most well known and best surf spots in the world. But the surf wasn’t anything special, but no surprise the beach was beautiful. We got some meat after the beach to braii BBQ) that night at the backpacker. There was a bar at the hostel right outside our room, all the drinks were 10 rand! That’s like $1.40! Cheap right? SO we talked it up with people staying there and one of the workers and took advantage of our cheap drinks. There were two girls there from Denmark who had just graduated high school and were taking a year off to travel, first SA, then the Philippines, then New Zealand, then AU! Crazy right? They were sweet hearts though. There were also 3 guys from Argentina there, they travel the world to different surf spots, and just surf. They had been in J-Bay for 3 weeks already and just surfed everyday. It was nice to hear people speak Spanish! In a way it was comforting and reminded me of home since Spanish is so common in the states We decided to try and figure out our car, we tried to start it again and it didn’t work, so we called back the guy and talked for awhile and came to the conclusion that he would have to pick us up the next day..so we were bummed and baffled that this happened, but we got over it. After awhile of eating and drinking we headed out to ‘Wacky Woods’ one of the reasons we went to J-Bay in the first place. It was a huge rave in the middle of nowhere in the woods. I have never experienced anything like it, and I don’t know if I ever will again. Haha…I had a lot of fun though, regardless of lots of intoxicated people who were on drugs. Don’t worry mom I was safe! No drugs for me! : ) There were lights everywhere and smoke machines and the loudest music that was just rave music. For a lot of the time I just stood there and watched people dance, it was entertaining! After being there for a long time and being overwhelmed by the smoke machine we decided to head home and go to bed. The next day we got up and checked out and went around the town a little more. The guy got there with his wife to pick us up he had a trailer with him. He tried to start the car…and no luck he looked under the hood and saw that the belt broke, don’t ask me what belt…but a belt, we were lucky that it didn’t break while we were driving there and fortunately we made it all the way there. He was just as baffled as us and said this has never happened in all the years he has been doing this, go figures it happens to us. Our next mission is to get the car on the trailer..a little difficult for 6 girls and 1 guy. After many many many tries of us trying to roll the car up onto the trailer..we try once more and sure enough we use so much strength that we not only get it on the trailer, but we push it over the trailer. Hahaah Loretta has a video of it, and it is hands down the best thing I have ever seen. It goes from us being excited to gasping in 2 seconds. So now the wheels are over the place where they are supposed to be and it is a mess. It is hard to explain without seeing it..but now we have to try and literally pick up the car to put it back over on to the trailer. After trying this for 10 minutes some locals walk up and start helping us, next thing I know there are 10 locals surrounding the car all trying to help and get the car back on, only in Africa…so finally we pick up the car and put it back on the trailer.. hah ohhh Africa. After figuring out the car for over an hour we are finally back on our way home to PE great weekend, great first trip for being here.
So I signed up for a volunteer class, CSL 100, and I’ve been going since the beginning of the term, There were 4 different options of where we could volunteer. Cherisre Homes which is close to school and it is a place for people who are physically disabled. The age ranges from 18 to 70 and your main point of being there is to hang out with the tenants and just talk to them. There is also baby homes, where you go to a home and it has babies that are either orphans, or they got taken away from their parents, or they got abandoned. I’ve heard the kids are so cute, some of them actually have HIV and most of them have serious stories that some of us won’t experience in our life time. There is also Masifundi which is in Walmer Township. It is a program set up for kids to do after school, there you are assigned like 2 kids a day and you help them with their homework and tutor them. The last place is Sinethemba. It is quite far from school but it is amazing. It is a home for street children. After much long thought, I chose to volunteer there. Sinethemba is really hard to describe, and I am still trying to figure out exactly how it works myself. It is a home for street children, some of them have families and they chose to leave and go to sinethemba because of their horrible home life. others go just during the day as like a dare care kind of thing, most of the kids there only for day car are around 3 or 4..younger. some of the kids have been there for years nad have gone home for a bit then come back. It is quite hard to describe. But it is a really interesting experience there are around 50 kids there and it is hectic. It is a house so there is a kitchen and rooms with bunk beds and there is a a few separate some structures where the younger kids stay during the day and another one where the boys sleep. It isn’t structured and there are kids of all ages running around. Our main reason for going there is to help the high schoolers with their homework. That rarely happens tho, they usually say they don’t have homework…but I know they do! So we usually end up playing with the elementary school kids, or ill go out and play with the toddlers. They are all well behaved…this comment is open for interpretation… for their lives and their situations they are well behaved, they are only human and they are little kids. But it is different from kids at home, a lot of them don’t have parents and obviously no sources of socialization from their parents. It is so normal for them to push each other and bite each other, yes that happens at home with kids but the thing that is odd is how the kids who are being pushed or bite act back..they just think its normal, they stop doing whatever they are doing and they rarely get upset. I don’t know if im explaining this sufficient enough…but the kids are so used to these actions that it isn’t unusually for them so they act like its normal. Irregardless they are kids so it does get hectic and I usually end up being a jungle gym for them to climb on and play with. Last week I left with some pretty intense bites from one of the little boys haha. The thing with the schools here..they aren’t as advanced as America..Its difficult and frustrating because as much as we think California education is shit, here its ridiculous. The children don’t have text books and usually the whole classroom has one book it seems like when we help all the kids they really just have no idea how to do homework. They have a hard time reading English and understanding the directions. They can’t do their homework because they don’t understand the basics of English or anything. In South Africa they don’t hold students back..even if you don’t understand the class or aren’t doing well they don’t hold you back in school, they push you forward to the next grade. So there are kids in high school who have a hard time reading simple directions in English. Also when they do things like math worksheets..the teachers don’t go over the answers. They have the worksheets and then they just put the answers on the board so the students don’t know how to get the answers in between.. the kids do the best they can and we try and help them the best we can. All of the staff are volunteers and don’t get paid anything they are all dedicated, usually when we are there they don’t really interact with us and we have to say hello first. I love it though, I love being with the kids and they all fight for attention because they don’t get it else where. I try and give attention to everyone equally, but I have a favorite her name is Anthea and she is adorable, mature, and smart. She is 11 and she has so much responsibility, she takes care of a lot of the kids. I love it there and I wish I could go longer and more often the kids need us to play with so they get the attention they deserve.
K I want to tell everyone about my amazing trip up to the ‘wild coast’ I went the weekend of March 5-7 we went to Coffee Bay and Port St. John. I went with 7 girls and one boy, luck guy huh : ) kidding…we left Friday morning. And before I went on the trip I had no idea where we were going, what we were doing, where we were staying, or any details whatsoever! And it turned out to be the best trip imaginable so having no expectations pays off! The drive was SO long…we drove all day and got to coffee bay around 6 pm. The drive was nice..so pretty. Great to see a new perspective of Africa. It seemed like real Africa. People living in huts and animals everywhere..we would be driving then all of a sudden there would be a cow in the middle of the road. They would just stand there, they wouldn’t move for you, you would have to maneuver around them.
Goats, cow, pigs..we saw it all. So other than driving all day we didn’t do much during the day on fri. as we kept driving further and further the less city there was. And it was so damn hot! Probably one of the hottest days since ive been here. So after driving for awhile, almost to coffee bay we stopped at a grocery store to get something to drink and where we stopped it was like a village..there were chickens in cages to be sold haha a little extreme we were the only white ppl these ppl have seen in a while I figured for all the stares. It was hands down the most uncomfortable I have felt in south Africa since ive been here..i got over it tho and we left to finish our long drive over the potholes to coffee bay, hopefully you have all seen my video on facebook with the crazy messed up road with the potholes. when we got to coffee bay we just hung out, our hostel was very nice and there was music and local dance there. The next day we set out for this place called hole in the wall…the ppl at the desk told us we could walk and thankfully we didn’t because it took us like 30 minutes to drive there. After get lost a few times and stopping for directions we found it. it didn’t seem like anything tho because we were in local Africa, no town, ppl living in their huts, dirt roads, and us trying to find this place we heard about..we found it tho and it was absolutely beautiful we all just sat and chilled and saw the beautiful ocean with this massive land in the water with a huge hole in the middle. One of the most beautiful places I have seen. After spending a few hours here we left for port st. johh…a few hour drive later we made it to the backacker..port st john is beautiful driving into it, it reminded me of yosemite. The backpacker was so cool, we, got really lucky with backpackers this weekend they were both amazing and had entertainment, and a restaurant, and a bar. Sooo the whole reason we went on this trip was to meet some people that some of the girls I live with met a few weekends before. Soo mom this part of the story you wont be too happy about but im fine! So that’s all that matters! So we met Richard and his friend (I don’t remember his name!) there and the took us in the bed of their truck up a huge mnt to watch the sunset..haha after getting in the bed of the truck my thought went to..ahhh we don’t know these ppl and they are taking us to the middle of nowhere..is this a good idea? Only in Africa! We have to take a chance! And im so glad we did the view up the mnt was breath taking and we overlooked all of port st john. Beyond amazing. After getting home safely we watched Richard play the drums and the other two bands that were there and hung around the bar. The next day we had the bright idea to wake up at 5am to watch the sunrise and drive an hour to this waterfall. Once again Richard lead the way to this waterfall in the middle of nowhere. We had to walk over the top of the water fall across to the other side to walk through the woods to go see it. and it was amazing. Then some of the group left to head home and 5 of us girls stayed, Richard took us to this place…I have no idea what it was called but it was all local xhosa ppl. It was supposed to be like a place to take care of your self and such. There was this hole in the ground that you were supposed to breath in the gases and it is supposed to cure a headache or anything as such! It just smelt like gas to me! Then we went into this mud cave and one of the local boys painted our face with mud, which is supposed to help our skin. Then we literally mnt climbed up a mnt and went to this other water hole. Deep in the hole is water you take out to drink, it is supposed to cure you of anything, it tasted and smelt like rotten eggs! Then Richard pointed us over to a huge mud bath, and told us to get in. we walked through the forest a little to see around 20 african women naked cleaning themselves in this mud water. Us girls put our feet in and stood there. Im surprised by the reaction of some of the women, a lot of them were welcoming, some were taking pictures of us on their camera phones, others were just staring, we felt a little uncomfortable just looking at them so we took off our cloths into our costumes (swimsuits) and underwear and got into the water and did what they did. They were rubbing mud all over eachother then washing it off. We got out and said good bye to everyone around and went back to our car and tipped the little guy that painted our faces and helped us out (he carried my shoes up the mnt when I was climbing!) Im so lucky we did follow Richard he showed us the most amazing part of Africa we would have never found just as tourists. There was no signs for the waterfall, we wouldn’t have felt as welcomed at the locals mud place, and there would have been no way we would have found our self up that mnt. It is so nice to have a local show you around. Im sorry if all my explanations are brief it is just hard to describe everything the way it happened, everything was so amazing it is just hard to put in to words how great it was .
School has been good. It is a different structure here which I’m getting used to. The term is over on Friday and I start a new class next week and end two this week. Grading is different here…they go by percents and not grades..a 75 and above is an A they call is a distinction and that’s really good. I think a 50 or a 60 is a C.. I dunno I feel like everyone I ask always has a different answer. It may seem easy to get an A but its not..i feel like here they don’t believe in giving perfect grades like there is always something wrong with it even if what you did was spot on. In my sociology advance social research methods class we had a test and it was so hard, so hard! And 9 ppl out of 70 passed… we asked our professor about it and he said that’s normal! No that’s not normal what so ever! But he insisted it was…but it defiantly isn’t, they don’t usually give your tests back, so you don’t know what u got wrong or see the teachers grading or comments. They have a DP which is your mark to be able to let you take the final so in a usual class you will have an assignment and a test. And some classes have a DP of 60 or 50 meaning that your class work is the percent of your final grade. So in my research class the DP is 60 and the final is 40% of your grade..in order to take the final you have to have a DP of 40% (but this isn’t on the American 50-100% is passing scale) I don’t know why im trying to explain it, it is difficult to understand! My xhosa class is going okay, the language is pretty hard though, and sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time because im not getting credit for it at home, but it is useful. It is nice to be able to say hello to ppl and ask their name and say goodbye. They are so surprised if you say something to them in Xhosa they are flattered you know their language. The kids at Sinethemba laugh at me all the time though because of how I attempt to speak xhosa..hah classes are fine though im excited to start my human rights class next week. But that’s all im adding so I will only have volunteer, human rights, and xhosa, class two days a week..so I will have a lot of free time. With how they do credits here, it seems like I cant take as many classes as I would at home, but because of terms it just splits up the classes so by the end of the semester I will have taken 3 soci classes two terms of xhosa and my volunteer class. Anyways enough about school..
So what have I been doing these past two months?! Going to school, and going out occasionally. I haven’t been out in awhile because Ive either been busy with school work on the weekend or I have been traveling. But new things Ive done this month…I have eaten Bunny Chow, my first Indian food, it was good, spicy. Ive seen more movies here than my whole college career..haha kidding but Ive seen Valentine’s Day and Dear John. Ive been to a Rugby game. It was fun it was at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium which id where some of the world cup games will be held. Rugby is interesting..thankfully we were sitting with a guy from Cali who plays at home so he was explaining it to us. The stadium is nice…looks new and is clean. It isn’t like American stadiums though that has ads and marketing everywhere. Like at pac bell park there is an ad on everything and everywhere, the stadium here is much more plain. From the rugby game we took plastic cups to play beer pong because they don’t sell anything like that here. Ive also been to a cricket game…we went to the finals so there were so many ppl there. I just don’t know how I feel about that game..it is kind of like baseball…but not. So funny to ask people whats going on at both rugby and cricket games..i just imagine being at a giants game and hearing the people behind me asking questions about whats going on and what is happening and thinking what the hell?! They don’t know how to play baseball? I know what your thinking Ashlynn about sports and me and asking questions…but this is different thankyouverymuch! The games were fun though and people got really into cricket, I think because it was the finals. Other than that I have been going to school, hanging out with people in my flat, volunteering and that’s about it. nice not to be SO busy all the time. At first it was really hard for me..I was going crazy because I wasn’t doing something all the time all day. Usually me being busy all the time with work, school, ADPi, spending time with friends and Luis, I rarely got a second to myself. Don’t get me wrong I love being busy and I loved my life at home, I loved that I always had something to do and I got used to the busyness and stressful life. So coming here and having nothing to do, and only have school a few days a week I kinda freaked out a bit. But over time I have gotten used to and I like having free time now. I take my time in whatever I do, and I have time to relax and stuff. I rarely have any concept of what time it is. I never look at my phone to see the time unless I have class..things are just more relaxed for me here. I could take a day and walk to the grocery store and take my time and walk home and that will take like an hour an half with the walk..things are just a lot calmer and more relaxed, obviously I don’t have as many responsibilities and I am taking advantage of it. I know when I get back home..it will take me awhile to adjust to the busy life again, but I am human so I will adapt. I am so much calmer with things, I have only had anxiety like 2 times since being here. I am more carefree and go with the flow, on all the trips ive been on I haven’t known any details about where were going or what were doing, I have just gone with the flow and it makes things so much better, if I were at home Id be stressing about figuring stuff out and more concerned, but here I care obviously but there is just a part of me that is like okay I don’t know what’s going, that’s fine ill roll with it. I feel like I enjoy things so much more here because I get a chance to recognize and enjoy things. What else….hmm since being here I have become a clean freak! Haha I know everyone who knows me well enough is saying Jen!? A clean freak…I don’t think so with that room?! Haha but seriously I clean all the time, my room is rarely ever dirty, I clean it everyday and I always clean the kitchen, I guess it is because I have the time to do it. but yes mom my room is always clean! Maybe it will carrying with me when I go back home : )
Sometimes I just think and I am so amazed that I am in Africa, it doesn’t occur to me all the time though because since ive been here for awhile I have gotten used to everything and I just consider the place I live. Its not like everyday oh my god I still cant get over the fact that im in Africa! It is more of like, yea I can see the beach from my window and the people around me are speaking Xhosa, and im in such a beautiful place. I’ve gotten used to it, so it is just normal to me. I think back to when I first got here, and when I was in the airport in Joburg and I was walking around with my jaw to the floor. I was so overwhelmed wit everything, the idea of buying your electricity at the supermarket, driving on the other side of the road, the language, and sayings here, the overwhelming ness of ppl screaming at you from cars, just everything and now all that just seems so normal. It is amazing to think of human beings how they adjust to things and things become normal with time. It amazes me how I can come here and adapt fully to being somewhere else..okay enough of my deep thought hah.
It is interesting to see the difference in cultures tho and how things that are normal for Africans are not for us and vice-versa. Especially with guys here, hmm how can I describe this..african guys are really forward compared to most guys in America. They will tell you, you looks pretty, and ask you for your phone number 2 minutes within meeting you, call you all the time, talk about being relationships with you, and how much they like you after meeting you twice…be forward when they dance with you and things like this..(don’t worry not ALL of this stuff has happened to me, but some of it) and the things about it is they don’t think it’s forward, they just think that’s how it is, simply the way they are. Normal for them..example: one morning I was on the taxi (the buses that drive along the road and take you to school for 6 rand) and I was sitting next to my roommate and a guy got on and sat behind us..no big deal, all of sudden he tapped me and gestured to his phone, it was a text and I read it. it said “My god you like beautiful today” I was so caught off guard I just looked at him and laughed and said thanks..and turned around. I really don’t think something like this would ever happen in America, if you were on a bus and someone tapped you to show you a text to give you a message… another time I was walking to the library by myself and I walked passed a guy who was walking the other way, he stopped like 10 feet from me and turned around and called out, I turned but kinda kept walking, he said hello, I said it back and he started to have a conversation with me while still standing 10 feet away, then he turned around and starting walking my direction, as I kept walking he continued to talk to me and walk me to the library, when I got there he just turned around and walked away..i don’t think if I was walking at Sonoma someone would turn around to walk me to the library. There are numerous things that I don’t need to go into detail about that have happened to my friends I live with but we all learned early to not give your phone number out. So I’m not telling these stories to boast the new attention I am receiving I am talking about this to show how important it is to be culturally relative. As much as I get uncomfortable sometimes with someone being forward to me, I need to understand this is the way their culture is, they aren’t trying to make me uncomfortable. It is important to yes stand by your own norms but try and understand the other cultures norms too. I can only imagine my mother reading this right now : ) mom don’t worry if I’m ever in a situation I am uncomfortable I always have my friends with me and I’m not too nice like you say! I am fine! All people are forward here, they say things I would never hear people say in the states. And I know that’s how they are here so there is no reason to get upset..one day I was at school and I was getting coffee, I put my water bottle down on the counter and the girl taking my order saw it and saw I had a lemon in it, without hesitation she said So your trying to lose weight huh?” hahaha I looked at her and said what? She motioned to my water bottle and said “your drinking lemon water” I said “yea, I like the way it tastes” she said “no you must be trying to lose weight by drinking that” I said don’t people drink lemon water? She said “no it tastes bad you only drink it is your trying to lose weight” hahah I was like alright whatever you say! She didn’t say any of it in a rude way at all, it was just a normal conversation and I didn’t get upset or anything I just thought it was funny. I couldn’t imagine going into Charlie Browns to get coffee though and having the barista ask me if I was trying to lose weight because I was drinking lemon water. The main idea im getting at is the importance to go with the flow and understand that we aren’t in America, we are in Africa! I really don’t like it when internationals here get upset because of things or compare Africa to home.. “this would never happen at home…” “Back home its like this…” I really dislike that, were not at home were in Africa! Be culturally relative and understand their culture! don’t get me wrong some days it is hard..manners in Africa isn’t very normal. It is rare to have people say thank you or excuse me or have people open the door for you..people push when they walk by and things like that. At first it was so hard to get used to, but I see myself now being more like them, I still use my customary manners but sometimes I’m like they aren’t going to say excuse me I’m not going to!
Want to know some fun facts about South Africa!?
It seems like everyone has pencil cases! Reminds me of you AC! Seriously I have never seen so many people with full pencil cases. They always put them on the desk next to them.
They say now-now and just now. This was seriously the hardest concept for me to understand. It means soon..but the time frame is like 5 minutes to never..so ill be talking to my SA friend and she will say “k ill be back now” and walk away, at first I was like wait what? Everyone says it and it just means soonish..kinda..
Everyone says “nice” as the adjective of choice. I will ask someone how their weekend was and they would say nice, I rarely ever hear someone said good, like it was good, I catch myself saying nice all the time too..
“how is it” is their greeting of choice, they don’t say how are you or how is it going, just how is it.
there is a difference between cabs and taxis. A cab is what we think a cab is at home you call them and they pick you up. A taxi is on the street and you catch them, it is 6 rand, they are mini buses, and they usually stuff anywhere from 14-20 ppl in them, it is kinda sketch but I think they are fine. If I talk to locals (white or coloured) and they ask me how I get to school when I tell them taxis they think I am kidding..haha they said they would never dare go on one. But they are fine! I am usually with someone I know when on it, I’ve only taken it by myself a few times.
Ive have been told numerous times that girls here don’t usually drink beer and it amazing that we drink it all the time. I asked why girls don’t and they said because its unusual and maybe the calories? Girls usually drink mixed drinks, wine coolers, or cider (most amazing thing ever, mix between apple cider, wine, and beer) I dunno, but I guess if guys see you drinking beer they either think it is unusual or really attractive for you to be drinking it..
There aren’t lions everywhere. I’ve been asked by so many locals about why I chose to come here and what I thought about SA before I came and most of them always ask did you think there were lions everywhere walking in the street!? Hah I tell them no… haha. When they find out im from cali they automatically think im a movie star or I know move stars, and I surf everyday…well looks like everyone is a little ignorant huh? South Africa is advanced, there is electricity and cars and it is a normal place, yes there are places where people live in huts and there really are animals walking around in the road.. but I dunno just a funny stereotype I am always asked.
Everyone drinks out of straws! Bottles of soda and cans of soda..i feel like im being rude if I don’t..i asked a girl in my class about it once and she was said a lot of the time girls do it to look more proper..i don’t kno if that’s true because everyone drinks out of straws.
In PE the weather changes literally every 5 mintues…in the morning it will be fuming hot then it will get windy then all of a sudden there is a thunder and lightening storm by the afternoon. It is hard to judge what to wear because you never know what the weather will be…
If you are in school, then you are in school, it is rare for people don’t go to school and work here. I told some people that I started working when I was 15 and they were baffled. It is also very common for kids to live with their parents til their late 20s. they don’t move out young. Once again when I told them I moved out when I was 17, they were astounded.
Hmmm cars here…I have never been somewhere where people drive as fast as they do here. Passing people is so common, even in residential or streets like E. Cotati. No one wears seat belts. Hah if I ever get the opportunity I take advantage of it! I miss wearing them. You even bring it up with someone from SA and they think it’s a joke, they are like….yea… not one wears them, they are annoying. You don’t pump your own gas here, the tenants at the gas station do it for you. They will also check your oil and fill your tires with air.
There is an extreme water drought. There is talk that PE is going to literally run out of water. And with the world cup coming who knows whats going to happen.
You can’t do your own laundry here. There aren’t laundry mats, you take them to the laundry places and you give them your laundry and they wash and dry and fold it for you. It cost 40 rand for a load they weight your cloths and a load is around 5kgs and yea.. weird thought of someone washing my cloths besides my mom but oh well!
They speak English here but there are so many phrases that are different. No one calls it candy, it is called sweets, the only thing with candy in the name is candy floss, which is cotton candy. They call erasers rubbers. They call the bathroom toilet…I hate that one I feel so gross saying it. they don’t say excuse me they say sorry, they look at you funny if you say excuse me.
There are no plugs in the bathroom. I guess its like unheard of to have an outlet in there..
Everyone smokes here! Its to a point where I don’t even smell it anymore. People can smoke in bars..i for sure have to wash my cloths after a night out. It is legal here to start smoking when you 16..so imagine the fact that the ‘legal’ drinkng age is 21 at home..and people start drinking in their early teens. People start smoking young here!
There are payphones everywhere! And ther are always people using them.
With a lot of things you don’t have bills..like with electricity you have ot go to the store and buy it, buy the credit and same with phone you have to buy credit, ‘airtime’ you don’t get billed for the month.
Hmmmm these are all the random SA facts I can think of at the moment! Definitely more to come.
I got World Cup tickets! Woo! The game is June 15th at the stadium in PE. Portugal vs. Ivory coast. And since I put my address and the fact that im a resident I got them for only 20 US dollars, the nose bleed section but that’s okay, its not like Ill watch the game anyways, huh Ash : ) kidding!
I just got back from Sunday’s River, I went with the Bannisters, long funny story but my grandma in utah goes to a doctor and the doctors friends are the Bannisters in PE! Small world right? So Kelleigh and I went to their river house for the weekend. It was nice to get away and relax. It was great to be around the comfort of a family, and talk to them about politics and south Africa, you know me and asking millions of questions : ) the river was great it comes off of the ocean and if you go far enough you can be out on the ocean, there are huge dunes on the river. We climbed up them and over them and up them and over them. After awhile all you see is huge massive sand hills, I felt like I was in Egypt or something. We went to Addo too which is a game park. We saw sooo many elephants, and tortoises, and kudo, and warthogs. The elephants are huge and so cute and the warthogs are strangely cute too! It was a great relaxing weekend!
Alright I think that is enough for now : ) I am still here alive and well in SA. Loving life and enjoying myself trying to take in as much as I possibly can. I miss home with all my heart and I wish I could be home but this is where Im supposed to be right now..LOVE YOU ALL! Your all in my thought.
Until next time, take care of you selves and Ill try and be a better blogger!
Loyally,
JD
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Molo South Africa!
Molweni bhuti, sisi, mama, and tata's! Kunjani?! There is a little Xhosa for you all it means hello peers and adults, how is life? Life is good here in Port Elizabeth. I'm all settled in and taking a liking to the eastern cape. I guess I should start from the beginning so everyone can know all thats gone on...
The goodbyes were rough, all day on the 16th I was pretty much a wreck, still not comprehending I was leaving my whole life for 11 months. Said my sad, sad goodbyes at the airport and was on my way to travel for 24 hours. I met the other girls from SSU at the gate and we sat and waited for awhile talking about what we were excited for, our boyfriend situations, our families and such. We got on the United plane to JFK and I must say I didn't enjoy that flight whatsoever! I sat in the middle between two women and I didn't sleep at all and even though it was only 5 hours I was so excited to get off! One of the girls I sat next to though was from NY but she had visited SA and her dad was from here..So we talked for awhile about places I should go and places she enjoyed. After finally getting off the plane we sat for our 4 hour layover and we met two more girls from our program who were flying with us too. So that was nice to meet more people and be all together to travel. We also met a very nice Afrikaner who lived in Jo'burg and he talked to us for most of the time telling us places to go and talking about what he liked about SA and he asked us questions about the US you know the usual politics and such. I was absolutely dreading the 15 hour plane ride!!! But getting on I actually sat next to the young Afrikaner man and we chatted more but he slept most of the time. The airplane was amazing and it was actually better than my 5 hour flight to NY. We had our own tvs and alot of foot room and it was good. I probably only slept an hour and the other time I watched movies and tv shows. 500 days of summer, the time travelers wife, miss congenitally, CSI no law and order :( and some other stuff I don't remember. The food was pleasant and we had chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner french toast for breakfast. When we finally landed we were in a fury of people and customs in Jo'burg. So many people every where and the guy at customs asked for my school acceptance letter. I panicked for like 30 seconds but thankfully I had it in my carry on..What would have happened if I didn't have that! But other than that customs was a joke we walked though a hallway and no one looked at our stuff...it was quite funny watching all of us carry our big bags...I had a rough time but I managed with my huge suitcases. Then we we walked though the hall there was police standing with huge guns! I was like...welcome to Africa! But then there was like on Entourage and paparazzi and some guy was walking you can tell he was a celebrity or something...but we were just standing and stating and the crowd outside the customs gate was going crazy..There we signs for him and the police was protecting him..I guess he was a huge soccer star from Argentina that socre some winning goal for something...I don't know..I'm sorry Ashlynn for not having sense of sports. hah anyways walking though the airport my jaw was just dropped the whole entire time. I was overwhelmed with the fact that I was actually in Africa. The difference in everything the people the place it was crazy. Finally after another flight we arrived in PE what I learned from being just at the airports in SA for only a short amount of time is that everything in Africa takes a LONG time..they don't have a sense of time out here and everything is "just now" meaning "Ill see you just now" which means there is a time window of seeing you or helping you of 5 mintues to 2 days...great time window I know. So anyways we arrived in PE and got picked up at the airport for someone who took us to the bantry where we are all staying, the IP students, and we settled in and hung out...not anything exciting. The bantry is cool. I live with a girl from fullerton. there is a common room and a bathroom and a kitchen we both have our own room. Pretty nice. We were all so tired we passed out I slept for like 12 hours. the nest day we went to school and checked in. campus is big! there are 5 or 6 campuses in SA most of them are in PE but all my classes and the main campus is summerstrand south campus. When we got to the international office we checked in and originally the lady thought I was from sweden hahah I was like Im from the US! We took the taxis which are like mini buses they are..interesting they fit as many people in them as possible and they are 6 rand where ever you go..kinda sketch but safe during the day. those are main form of transportation here. there are also metros or double buses which are like city buses and cabs. which we know as our taxi cabs. We walked around PE and went to the Boarkwalk which is right down the street from us it has stores and restaurants there is a casino there it is very nice right across the street from the beach. Yea if i didnt mention that before i live right next to the beach I can see it out of my window..like a block away. We also went to Greenacres sometime during the week it is a big mall about 20 minutes away frome Humewood which is the like area called where I live. it is a nice place we got sheets and towels and all our necessities. When we were leaving we actually got stranded at the mall..the bus never came and we waited for an hour and a half and then a local SA women who I was talking to while waiting advised we get home soon cuz it would be unsafe after dark so we took a cab home 70 rand! Don’t worry everything was fine! the lady at the bus stop was amazing though, I really do love SA people they come off standoffish and maybe even bothered by you talking to them but once they see you are friendly and care about what they say, they are the best people to have a conversation with. I ended up talking to this lady about the apartheid and it was great.
That night we went to Barney’s and captains. Barneys is like a pub, chill there was some music and we sat outside and chilled and drank some..then we went to captains which is more along the lines of a club. There was karaoke which is funny, our group sang a song..i danced along on stage no singing for me. It ws really fun though, obviously the locals know were not from there and they taught us some of their dance moves and they danced with us..the men and women were friendly toward us and it was really fun. They are considerably more conservative than us and dancing isn’t quite as ranchy as the states which is nice. They play music just like the US would things are mostly up to date they play some SA songs as well, some house music but not a lot like I expected.
The rest of the week we ran errands around the city, was in the internation office a lot and aroud town and the beach.
That weekend was our orientation bush camp. It was so hot on Friday when we left that’s one thing about PE the weather, the weather here changes every 10 minutes you can experience 4 seasons in one days, most of the time it is nice and usually windy. This place is extremely windy!!! Anyways we set of inland toward camp and we stopped at Addo Croc and Lion ranch. It was really cool there were crocs everywhere and the cutest Alphies ever!! The lions were beautiful and there were big adult ones and a separate cage for the cubs. The cubs were ridiculously cute and playing with each other, patting eachothers faces and ears and some were being lazy and just sleeping. After walking around the whole place we got to wait in line and hold little baby cubs. Hands down the cutest things ever they had so much personality. You could tell they didn’t want to be held anymore because they would run away and try and hide. They were like little puppies or large kittens sooo cute and soft. They were making the cutest noises too like yawning loudly..but it wasn’t yawning. They were so cute you would hold them and feed them milk out of a baby bottle. Seriously adorable! After that we headed the actual bush camp..it was nice a relaxing atmosphere. It had tents and like a mess hall, running water and toilets! It was so hot and I got some anxiety while I was there because a girl fell off the zip line, she was okay but the rest of the day I was home sick and not stoked on being there. I knew I wold be better the next day so I was fine and just talked to some people and felt a little better. I was right though and the next day I was better and had so much more fun. We did group building and obstacle courses with our group I met a lot more people from other places and we all swam and canoed and just hung out all day. Absolute best part of camp by far was the food! It was beyond amazing, I don’t remember any of the names of things but hands down amazing food. Yes lots of meat but I only had some and eat most of everything else. Overall camp was really fun and I had some great conversations with people whether it was the locals who worked at the camp or other international students.
Sunday night we went to a bar close to our house that plays jazz on Sundays. That was fun and something calmer to do then a club nice music and a nicer kind of place.
Monday we had orientation where the term waiting is an understatement. Things take a very long time here…after its all said and done though everything gets sorted out and done so no big deal. It was mostly just a intro day.
Tuesday we had a city tour which was very nice to go to places that I haven’t seen yet. PE has a very large harbor and we got to go see it, it was amazing the work that gets done there. PE is a large place that exports cars, citrus, and fish, squid, lots of petro comes in to PE too. We weren’t allowed to take pictures there for safety reasons or something, but it was pretty cool how many containers the carrier boats can carry. We then went to the Dunkin Reserve Pyramid where we were told how PE was named. Then Fort Frederick. After we drove through to the townships and saw the conditions people live in. The Red Location Musem which is new in middle of the townships. The Apartheid museum was amazing. Done beautifully. Lots of history and some cool things there like Nelson Mandela’s journals and such. There was also a room that had the most amazing art done by Mbongeni Buthelezi he made pictures out of plastic and burned the plastic to all mold together. I was amazed and seriously didn’t leave the room for a long time. After we left we drove around PE more and saw the new stadium where some of the World Cup will be played. It looks amazing I really want to go inside! We ended up at greenacres again and people got more stuff they needed.
The next day we had registration which went better than I expected, I expected that it was going to be horrible and take such a long time. It was time consuming and overall confusing but I figured it out. School is done much different here than the states. NMMU has two semesters and there are 4 terms within those semesters. You are only allowed to take a max of 60 credits a semester and only 120 for the year. So first and second term I am taking soci classes and not focusing on business it is too hard to fit it in because I have to take xhosa which is the language and it just seems like there aren’t enough credits I’m allowed to take but I am taking xhosa, CSL100 which is a volunteer class where I will go and help underprivileged kids with homework and do activities with them in the townships, first term I am taking sociology methods and research, sociology and environment which talks about sexual abuse, rape, AIDS, human trafficking, and second term I’m taking human rights. I am way excited about my soci classes though…we’ll see what happens with business maybe I’ll take a class next semester. Being here is so different for me though, I am used to working, sorority, school all the time. Being constantly busy so with the school and classes here I only have school a few days a week…so I am twiddling my fingers a lot of the time school only started yesterday but we’ll see how my time goes..Maybe I’ll get a job.
The rest of the week was chill though, enjoying our last days of summer hanging out and going out. We went to Captains on Thursday and a cool place called Balezia on Saturday that is the closest thing to a club I’ve seen out here. Really big place with numerous bars and lots and lots of dancing. We got home super late and all passed out not before making grilled cheeses!
School is good little different than SSU which only has a peek time of 12-1 campus is always busy! With people everywhere and lots of diversity. The people are all really nice and willing to always help you. If you ever ask for directions people never say oh its over there and point, they will walk you themselves. Its way different than the states. I don’t think that’s ever happen to me in the states hah. Ive only had xhosa and soci and environment so far. Xhosa will be interesting…I’ve learned a few phrases but I’m not gonna be fluent or anything. The professor is really nice though and the class is at nights at 5:30 to 7:45 so there isn’t many people in it so better to practice and teach us one on one. I just got my syllabus in soci and environment it seems interesting. Just a different type of thing here 50 of your grade is your final and the other percent is all your class marks called your DP. My finals won’t be until June so this class only goes until march…so I will have to remember everything for the final in June..should be interesting.
Overall though I am enjoying it and getting acclimated with life here. I like the people I live with and we all mesh well together. I have my bad days where I do get homesick but I’ll talk to someone here and feel better…I know there are going to be ups and downs I am just going with the groove of things which is sometimes easier said than done. South Africa is a beautiful place, almost as beautiful as the people here.
Until next time, I miss everyone and I hope everyone is well.
Loyally,
JD
The goodbyes were rough, all day on the 16th I was pretty much a wreck, still not comprehending I was leaving my whole life for 11 months. Said my sad, sad goodbyes at the airport and was on my way to travel for 24 hours. I met the other girls from SSU at the gate and we sat and waited for awhile talking about what we were excited for, our boyfriend situations, our families and such. We got on the United plane to JFK and I must say I didn't enjoy that flight whatsoever! I sat in the middle between two women and I didn't sleep at all and even though it was only 5 hours I was so excited to get off! One of the girls I sat next to though was from NY but she had visited SA and her dad was from here..So we talked for awhile about places I should go and places she enjoyed. After finally getting off the plane we sat for our 4 hour layover and we met two more girls from our program who were flying with us too. So that was nice to meet more people and be all together to travel. We also met a very nice Afrikaner who lived in Jo'burg and he talked to us for most of the time telling us places to go and talking about what he liked about SA and he asked us questions about the US you know the usual politics and such. I was absolutely dreading the 15 hour plane ride!!! But getting on I actually sat next to the young Afrikaner man and we chatted more but he slept most of the time. The airplane was amazing and it was actually better than my 5 hour flight to NY. We had our own tvs and alot of foot room and it was good. I probably only slept an hour and the other time I watched movies and tv shows. 500 days of summer, the time travelers wife, miss congenitally, CSI no law and order :( and some other stuff I don't remember. The food was pleasant and we had chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner french toast for breakfast. When we finally landed we were in a fury of people and customs in Jo'burg. So many people every where and the guy at customs asked for my school acceptance letter. I panicked for like 30 seconds but thankfully I had it in my carry on..What would have happened if I didn't have that! But other than that customs was a joke we walked though a hallway and no one looked at our stuff...it was quite funny watching all of us carry our big bags...I had a rough time but I managed with my huge suitcases. Then we we walked though the hall there was police standing with huge guns! I was like...welcome to Africa! But then there was like on Entourage and paparazzi and some guy was walking you can tell he was a celebrity or something...but we were just standing and stating and the crowd outside the customs gate was going crazy..There we signs for him and the police was protecting him..I guess he was a huge soccer star from Argentina that socre some winning goal for something...I don't know..I'm sorry Ashlynn for not having sense of sports. hah anyways walking though the airport my jaw was just dropped the whole entire time. I was overwhelmed with the fact that I was actually in Africa. The difference in everything the people the place it was crazy. Finally after another flight we arrived in PE what I learned from being just at the airports in SA for only a short amount of time is that everything in Africa takes a LONG time..they don't have a sense of time out here and everything is "just now" meaning "Ill see you just now" which means there is a time window of seeing you or helping you of 5 mintues to 2 days...great time window I know. So anyways we arrived in PE and got picked up at the airport for someone who took us to the bantry where we are all staying, the IP students, and we settled in and hung out...not anything exciting. The bantry is cool. I live with a girl from fullerton. there is a common room and a bathroom and a kitchen we both have our own room. Pretty nice. We were all so tired we passed out I slept for like 12 hours. the nest day we went to school and checked in. campus is big! there are 5 or 6 campuses in SA most of them are in PE but all my classes and the main campus is summerstrand south campus. When we got to the international office we checked in and originally the lady thought I was from sweden hahah I was like Im from the US! We took the taxis which are like mini buses they are..interesting they fit as many people in them as possible and they are 6 rand where ever you go..kinda sketch but safe during the day. those are main form of transportation here. there are also metros or double buses which are like city buses and cabs. which we know as our taxi cabs. We walked around PE and went to the Boarkwalk which is right down the street from us it has stores and restaurants there is a casino there it is very nice right across the street from the beach. Yea if i didnt mention that before i live right next to the beach I can see it out of my window..like a block away. We also went to Greenacres sometime during the week it is a big mall about 20 minutes away frome Humewood which is the like area called where I live. it is a nice place we got sheets and towels and all our necessities. When we were leaving we actually got stranded at the mall..the bus never came and we waited for an hour and a half and then a local SA women who I was talking to while waiting advised we get home soon cuz it would be unsafe after dark so we took a cab home 70 rand! Don’t worry everything was fine! the lady at the bus stop was amazing though, I really do love SA people they come off standoffish and maybe even bothered by you talking to them but once they see you are friendly and care about what they say, they are the best people to have a conversation with. I ended up talking to this lady about the apartheid and it was great.
That night we went to Barney’s and captains. Barneys is like a pub, chill there was some music and we sat outside and chilled and drank some..then we went to captains which is more along the lines of a club. There was karaoke which is funny, our group sang a song..i danced along on stage no singing for me. It ws really fun though, obviously the locals know were not from there and they taught us some of their dance moves and they danced with us..the men and women were friendly toward us and it was really fun. They are considerably more conservative than us and dancing isn’t quite as ranchy as the states which is nice. They play music just like the US would things are mostly up to date they play some SA songs as well, some house music but not a lot like I expected.
The rest of the week we ran errands around the city, was in the internation office a lot and aroud town and the beach.
That weekend was our orientation bush camp. It was so hot on Friday when we left that’s one thing about PE the weather, the weather here changes every 10 minutes you can experience 4 seasons in one days, most of the time it is nice and usually windy. This place is extremely windy!!! Anyways we set of inland toward camp and we stopped at Addo Croc and Lion ranch. It was really cool there were crocs everywhere and the cutest Alphies ever!! The lions were beautiful and there were big adult ones and a separate cage for the cubs. The cubs were ridiculously cute and playing with each other, patting eachothers faces and ears and some were being lazy and just sleeping. After walking around the whole place we got to wait in line and hold little baby cubs. Hands down the cutest things ever they had so much personality. You could tell they didn’t want to be held anymore because they would run away and try and hide. They were like little puppies or large kittens sooo cute and soft. They were making the cutest noises too like yawning loudly..but it wasn’t yawning. They were so cute you would hold them and feed them milk out of a baby bottle. Seriously adorable! After that we headed the actual bush camp..it was nice a relaxing atmosphere. It had tents and like a mess hall, running water and toilets! It was so hot and I got some anxiety while I was there because a girl fell off the zip line, she was okay but the rest of the day I was home sick and not stoked on being there. I knew I wold be better the next day so I was fine and just talked to some people and felt a little better. I was right though and the next day I was better and had so much more fun. We did group building and obstacle courses with our group I met a lot more people from other places and we all swam and canoed and just hung out all day. Absolute best part of camp by far was the food! It was beyond amazing, I don’t remember any of the names of things but hands down amazing food. Yes lots of meat but I only had some and eat most of everything else. Overall camp was really fun and I had some great conversations with people whether it was the locals who worked at the camp or other international students.
Sunday night we went to a bar close to our house that plays jazz on Sundays. That was fun and something calmer to do then a club nice music and a nicer kind of place.
Monday we had orientation where the term waiting is an understatement. Things take a very long time here…after its all said and done though everything gets sorted out and done so no big deal. It was mostly just a intro day.
Tuesday we had a city tour which was very nice to go to places that I haven’t seen yet. PE has a very large harbor and we got to go see it, it was amazing the work that gets done there. PE is a large place that exports cars, citrus, and fish, squid, lots of petro comes in to PE too. We weren’t allowed to take pictures there for safety reasons or something, but it was pretty cool how many containers the carrier boats can carry. We then went to the Dunkin Reserve Pyramid where we were told how PE was named. Then Fort Frederick. After we drove through to the townships and saw the conditions people live in. The Red Location Musem which is new in middle of the townships. The Apartheid museum was amazing. Done beautifully. Lots of history and some cool things there like Nelson Mandela’s journals and such. There was also a room that had the most amazing art done by Mbongeni Buthelezi he made pictures out of plastic and burned the plastic to all mold together. I was amazed and seriously didn’t leave the room for a long time. After we left we drove around PE more and saw the new stadium where some of the World Cup will be played. It looks amazing I really want to go inside! We ended up at greenacres again and people got more stuff they needed.
The next day we had registration which went better than I expected, I expected that it was going to be horrible and take such a long time. It was time consuming and overall confusing but I figured it out. School is done much different here than the states. NMMU has two semesters and there are 4 terms within those semesters. You are only allowed to take a max of 60 credits a semester and only 120 for the year. So first and second term I am taking soci classes and not focusing on business it is too hard to fit it in because I have to take xhosa which is the language and it just seems like there aren’t enough credits I’m allowed to take but I am taking xhosa, CSL100 which is a volunteer class where I will go and help underprivileged kids with homework and do activities with them in the townships, first term I am taking sociology methods and research, sociology and environment which talks about sexual abuse, rape, AIDS, human trafficking, and second term I’m taking human rights. I am way excited about my soci classes though…we’ll see what happens with business maybe I’ll take a class next semester. Being here is so different for me though, I am used to working, sorority, school all the time. Being constantly busy so with the school and classes here I only have school a few days a week…so I am twiddling my fingers a lot of the time school only started yesterday but we’ll see how my time goes..Maybe I’ll get a job.
The rest of the week was chill though, enjoying our last days of summer hanging out and going out. We went to Captains on Thursday and a cool place called Balezia on Saturday that is the closest thing to a club I’ve seen out here. Really big place with numerous bars and lots and lots of dancing. We got home super late and all passed out not before making grilled cheeses!
School is good little different than SSU which only has a peek time of 12-1 campus is always busy! With people everywhere and lots of diversity. The people are all really nice and willing to always help you. If you ever ask for directions people never say oh its over there and point, they will walk you themselves. Its way different than the states. I don’t think that’s ever happen to me in the states hah. Ive only had xhosa and soci and environment so far. Xhosa will be interesting…I’ve learned a few phrases but I’m not gonna be fluent or anything. The professor is really nice though and the class is at nights at 5:30 to 7:45 so there isn’t many people in it so better to practice and teach us one on one. I just got my syllabus in soci and environment it seems interesting. Just a different type of thing here 50 of your grade is your final and the other percent is all your class marks called your DP. My finals won’t be until June so this class only goes until march…so I will have to remember everything for the final in June..should be interesting.
Overall though I am enjoying it and getting acclimated with life here. I like the people I live with and we all mesh well together. I have my bad days where I do get homesick but I’ll talk to someone here and feel better…I know there are going to be ups and downs I am just going with the groove of things which is sometimes easier said than done. South Africa is a beautiful place, almost as beautiful as the people here.
Until next time, I miss everyone and I hope everyone is well.
Loyally,
JD
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