Day 48

I must say that today, I was quite popular. 

After a morning full of pretty much nothingness, I decided to head to the gym to coop up in the lounge area, crank out a paper, and attend a kickboxing class. 

The minibus I got in was really struggling. So I got in, the driver started driving, and I hadn't been able to sit down yet, so I literally went flying to the back of the bus. I landed in a seat with a big "ooph" and pretty much everyone looked at me and chuckled. To my embarrassment, I looked even more like a foreigner. Then next stop, I had to move to let a young boy sitting next to me out, and low and behold the same thing happened again. Driver started driving, I went thrashing to the wall. I turned to a middle school aged girl sitting to my left just shaking my head. Then to my surprise, a man who was probably homeless, or close to it, sitting two rows up from me, turned around, looks at me and says, "you know, they do it once, they say sorry, but then they do it twice and just say sorry again?! To me, thats when you kill them!" Turned into an all out conversation between the driver, the assistant (who claims the money and opens the door) and the locals in the bus, about how once you commit a crime the deserving punishment was to get your hands cut off, and apparently pretty much everyone on the bus was in support of the driver being punished due to his urgency to drive before I was sitting down. I assured everyone that it was really okay and that I was fine. I eventually got off the bus, receiving multiple goodbyes and once again another apology. 

I got into the kickboxing class to some bumping 80s beats. Every couple of songs the instructor asked the group "does anyone know the original artist?!" Psh. I'm a champion at this game. "We Are Family" is playing. Sister Sledge. Easy. A few songs later, a low rumbly female voice starts singing. "When the Heartache is Over," Tina Turner. At that point I got a couple applauses and the rest of the group started looking at me weird so I stopped. 

I thought it was just a kickboxing class. Wrong. Half way through we changed to circuit training. Nora Lynch, Zipporah, Alex,.... we used gliders. South Africans aren't very good at the gliders. Needless to say I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow but it's a good thing because I'm probably going to be sheltered in the library all day tomorrow anyway.

Day 46

A day in the library

Spending the day in the library, a Saturday of all, while I'm studying abroad - definitely not ideal. But, it's midterms season.


It's been cold and rainy all day, so I threw on a typical flannel and headed up the campus hill to hunker down and hit the books. It is so windy outside it sounds like the building is about to blow over. Between that and the sporadic downpours, looking many hours is not a difficult task. However, they close at 5....

So at first I hated the UCT library. The windows look out onto a concrete wall, and there are no open spaces. But, that makes it easy to find a cave. It's also separated so there is an undergrad area, and a graduate area. Bathrooms are impossible to find, and there are no drinking fountains. Today I was definitely able to learn some strategies in this building. First of all, they don't allow food or beverage of any sort. I tried to bring in a coffee and got stopped by security. Unfortunately, unlike SCU, I don't have access to staff doors and half to walk in abiding to the rules like everybody else (instead of carrying my food in a media services box, like I've done once before). The tables have outlets, but not many of them are connected to power, so one really has to scavenge. If you want to do anything that omits the slightest noise, you have to be in an entirely isolated area. Or at least make sure you're on good terms with the surrounding studiers.

Day 45

This week I was roommate-less, which means I was able to finally enjoy the tranquility of my room, hunker down, and get work done with lots of sleep. It's been lovely.

The one thing between me and my Botswana / Zambia Spring Break Safari is the dreadful reality of midterms. This includes an intermediate macro test, game theory test, and a writing assignment. Both tests are going to be extremely difficult, strictly graded, and requiring a full weekend dedicated to studies. At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Apparently I need to go purchase "safari clothes" since it's going to be over 80 degrees (hallelujah) and animals are scared off by pretty much all colors in my closet.

Today we finally have nice weather so my house is having a Braai (South African BBQ) this evening. Campus is lively, even for a Friday, which is quite refreshing.

Weird thing about South African girls - they don't mind their tummies showing, even if it isn't a good tummy to show.

I'm currently in my favorite afternoon spot for productivity and the person sitting across from me is a master of my biggest pet peeve: taking too big of bites and smacking his food around making obnoxious noises. If he doesn't leave soon, or finish his sandwich soon, I might have to change locations.

Clearly not much excitement here, just attempting to dedicate a week to being a student.

Day 42

Big day today.

For dinner, I made something other than pasta: Ox-tail soup and potatoes. And yes sounds easy, but I actually chopped potatoes, used seasoning, and it tasted good. Major feat.

Oh, and I'm starting to actually get As on homework assignments (today's required some arguing for points, but still). Hallelujah!

Day 41

Today, I went to prison.

CIEE strongly encourages its students to volunteer during their time abroad. These opportunities range from working in medical clinics to visiting orphanages to doing activities with young prisoners.

So today fifteen of us CIEE kids took off for a visit to a prison-esk type facility for boys between the ages of 14 to 18. Basically, the inmates have committed a crime of some sort, and they're being held in this facility until their court date. For some of the other kids, they have already been sentenced but they are there until they are of age to go to an adult facility. The program sponsoring the volunteer work, Young in Prison (YIP), targets to teach the boys leadership skills through activities they enjoy or could learn from. It just puts structure into their lives and gives them some hobbies so they're working together in a healthier environment.

Today was just an intro day, so we all stood up and said our names, where we were from, etc, while the  rep from YIP tried to break the ice by getting the boys involved in songs / chants and so on. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable environment. Especially as a female. I was instructed to come every Monday looking as ugly as possible (which I'm quite excited about), baggy clothes, no jewelry, the whole shebang. Even so, the boys still give off a vibe creating discomfort. Catcalls as we walked by, yelling all sorts of things, something I'll have to get used to. One might think I probably shouldn't be doing it if it's making me uncomfortable, but that's the whole reason why I'm doing it. A growing experience.

If we want, we can initiate our own project at the prison. Ideally, I'd like to start something involving music where people can sing together, maybe teach some harmonies and different parts, we'll see. It'll be like Folsom prison in no time.

I received my first A today. A writing assignment in my religion class of all things. 5% of that final grade locked in! So my econ homeworks are going quite poor, but I've got the "Religions in Africa" going for me some how....

I found out today that because I'm taking semester classes for a quarter of Santa Clara time, my grades here are even MORE important for my GPA and will hold a heavier weight. Great. While you others are getting 4.0s in London and Spain, think of me and my suffering.

Day 40

New discovery: Bronco Delivery - but for all of Cape Town.

mrdelivery.com choose from numerous restaurants and have your food delivered to your house. R15 delivery charge (less than $2).

I've been craving In n Out for the last week, so tonight I ordered a vanilla milkshake and fries. They'll be arriving in 45 minutes.

This could be dangerous.

Day 39 part 2

So there is the place I had hear about called Kirstenbosch Gardens which is supposed to be just acres of wild flowers, beautiful trees, grassy areas, a plant paradise. The forecast for today was 64 and sunny. I had to get out of the house.

Six of us headed out to the unknown destination of Kirstenbosch. We took one of those minibus taxis to Wynberg, where we thought Kristenbosch was in walking distance of. We were so wrong. After about five minutes on foot we realized we had no idea where we were going so we asked this mom and daughter for some guidance. After the woman tried to explain how to get there, she realized there was no way we could do it successfully. She then offered to drive us to our destination, out of the goodness of her heart, she just had to bring her dog home. She invited us into her house, told us all about her life and gave us her phone number if we ever needed anything. She also has a son who is twenty whom she talked about quite a bit, her addition to the sales pitch is that he has his own car so could also drive us around.  You hear about those stories of people meeting really nice and welcoming locals upon their travels, but I never thought that actually happened.

The gardens were beautiful. Widespread landscape with growth everywhere. Definitely a day for the books.