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Ich bin endlich zu Hause :)
And this weather is amazing.

Schoooool's out. for. WINTER! Schooool's out. for. EVER! At UCT anyway...

DONE WITH EXAMS! I am still sick, actually worse than I was before... but I took my last final and now all I have is stuff for my IES class that although it really doesn't matter that much, I still have to do. It was raining horribly today and I had my exam at five in Jameson (the building in all of the pictures... awesome), which was freezing... never have I been so cold in an exam in my life. The supervisors were even wearing winter coats. Exams here are crazy by the way... well work in general is crazy. Every time I submit an assignment I have to put it online on VULA (a much better version of Moodle or Blackboard... I really will miss it) and turn in a hard copy to the department BUT... I must also submit a signed and dated plagarism declaration that says I have not copied or plagarised or anything else.... I do this every single time hard copy and online. And for exams, we have to take a number out of a box and go sit at that desk and that desk only. We have to fill everything out on the front correctly and then fold over the corner so it is completely anonymous. We also have to have our ID and fill out an attendance sheet. In a lot of cases we also have to use multiple books for multiple answers since courses are often taught by two different professors. Once we are finished, someone has to come around and take all of the exams and we can leave. Then they are graded by the professors and then by 'external' graders, who are people that are outside of UCT. That's a lot of work for every single exam....
Also a girl in my program has Malaria. Good to know, because I don't think she went anywhere...
Only 2.5 more days in my house, and then I will officially live in Obs... This whole packing thing is really depressing.
OH. And just so you all know, I've kind of only thought about you every day, as you can see.

The Final Countdown...

It is the beginning of the end! I still have three weeks here, but this is the last week that I will be in my house... very sad to think about! We have until the 30th and then we are supposedly moving into a lodge in Observatory (and by we I mean Lizzy, Becca, Tim, Ken, and myself... Brian and Sam are going to Church Street and Gray is going to Alma... last I heard). I think this is especially funny because early on in the semester a UCT student was murdered in Observatory and a very hastily written and somewhat incorrect e-mail was written to our parents about the event, which most of us in the program don't really think was necessary... anyhow, in this e-mail, it said something to the effect of 'our students don't spend time in Obs' and it is about an 8 minute drive... FALSE. We go to Obs often enough and it is a five minute or less WALK. And now we are living there for a week? Interesting... I mean I'm not really afraid of being there for the most part, at least not more so than I would be just about anywhere else in the area, but I just think it is great that that's where we are going after all that in February...
It's kind of depressing to pack everything, even though I'm not leaving just yet. It's still weird because this is my house that I've lived in all semester and now I have to go live in Obs. And while I am looking forward to some things about going home (free internet, cell phone, food, people, summertime), it is going to be hard to leave. I think I will miss a few people here more than I thought I would, and there are so many things about South Africa in general that I will miss very much... the fact that I'm not really going home to much just makes it harder... everyone will be gone and I may or may not even have a job.
In other news, there have been several strikes lately... as usual. Apparently there is a wage dispute with the company that UCT uses in it's cafeteria and workers have been striking on campus. UCT says that it doesn't control the wages, but rather the company that they have the contract with... kind of like Sodexo at Transy I would assume. Well people don't care and they are pretty angry! They are all over the place on campus. Today I went to Tugwell on Lower Campus to take a Jammie to Upper so I could take my Xhosa exam and I was stopped and I had to show a UCT ID because a group of protesters went into some of the buildings on campus and vandalised a cafeteria and were harassing people. And since they are all striking, students don't have anything to eat so UCT has been giving them vouchers to use on and off campus. We went to Pick & Pay (a grocery store here) a few days ago and it was COMPLETE chaos.

This one is kind of all over the place... just trying to catch up I guess.

So it's been a while... I know... and I am a horrible person because I have been too lazy to write about anything, even though plenty has actually been happening... My mom came to visit. That was pretty nice... got a really nice bed and a really nice shower and real tv and free internet... it was great! And even heat and air conditioning (our house has neither... but I was happy to find out that while I was visiting my mom we got another blanket and heaters... that's sad when that is some of the best news you hear all day)! German food... also a good find. I have been missing spätzle something awful... now all I need is a knödel and I will be set! hmm.... also I took my mom up to Tafelberg/Tischberg/Table Mountain, which is something I hadn't done either and it was AMAZING! You can literally see all of Cape Town from there and all of the mountains around it. My mom really loved the Table Cloth, which is when the clouds come over the mountain and then come down the side and it's really cool looking... like it's just rolling down. I really haven't seen anything else like that that I can compare it to... I also had the final dinner for my program since exams have started now and people are traveling at different times since the exam period is THREE WEEKS here... nice and mean at the same time... lots of time for studying, but aggravating that you can't just get it over with at once. I also had my first oral examination ever (very intimidating, but even though I did terrible, the teacher was very nice about it and said I did a good job... LIES) and went to a concert at the Baxter that my friend played violin in.
Something sad! I volunteer for SHAWCO, an orgranisation that allows UCT students to volunteer in Khayelitsha and Athlone and other places, and I go to tutor third graders in Khayelitsha every Wednesday... we had our last day at the school and then we took all of the kids from the STEP program to the aquarium... They loved it but it was so sad knowing that it was the last time we were going to see them and we don't think they realised that at the time. I also got to go ice skating (YES, it is wintertime and FREEZING and constantly rainy and windy here) with another group from Athlone because that program didn't have enough volunteers.
AND we had no electricity for most of yesterday!
And that's about it I guess! Not really, but that's all I'm going to say because I am being lazy and worthless because I'm tired since I had my hardest exam today at 5...

Be careful! It's a Saturday, you know!

This weekend I had BY FAR one of the best weekends I have ever had in South Africa... My friend Stephanie found some list online that has things to do for R1-R100. So... we decided to try something out... tobogganing! HA! If you don't know what that is, you aren't the only one. Even I wasn't 100% sure what it was when she told me, but I will explain it to you now... Well... tobogganing is kind of like bobsledding, only it's just a sled more or less. But wait, there's no snow in Africa! This is true... and instead of being on a snow track, it was all steel!
So Saturday morning, Steph and I took the train to Old Biscuit Mill (kind of like a big, trendy, overpriced farmer's market for mostly white people in the middle of an underdeveloped area... a very bizarre phenomenon), which I hadn't been to since I went with my program. Although just about everything there is incredibly expensive, I will admit that they do have some good food, and the ice cream is relatively cheap :) Anyway, so our friend Emma, my roommate Lizzy, and Steph's friend from home met up with us there and we decided to try and go tobogganing for real! In order to do that though, we had to take a train for about 30 minutes from Salt River (the area where we were) to Bellville, which is just before Stellenbosch... from there, we would have to take a cab or taxi to the Velodrom (SP?... Whatever Bellville Stadium!) and this tobogganing place called Cool Runnings (haha like the movieeeee) was supposedly across the road behind an Engen Station. Well.... here's how it really happened: We waited around for the train at Salt River for literally an eternity (which I actually don't mind at all, but other people here really seem to hate), and once it came we took it all the way to Bellville like we planned. Once we got out of the train station, things looked at little different but whatever. So we were looking around and there were no cabs in sight, and some guy started talking to some of my friends... He asked if we were at the university (Stellenbosch, so no) and then we explained that we wanted a taxi (big mistake, taxi=minibus taxi, cab=taxi cab, but sometimes we forget this) and he said that there were some but we shouldn't take them, and better yet not walk around too much because it was a Saturday. Was zum? Yeah it was a Saturday... and? Apparently coming there on a Saturday was 'risky' and so was taking the train and taxis, so he told us we should ask the police what to do, and pointed towards the station (that just happened to be right outside of the train station, how convenient!). So we walked over and as we were making our way, someone was being brought out and put into a car and cops were talking and it was honestly a little weird. Then we managed to talk to one and he essentially said the same thing, but reluctantly pointed us in the direction of the minibus taxis, adding, "BE CAREFUL!" Not something you really want to hear from a cop, is it? So we decided to walk over there anyway... on a Saturday... and we finally found the least sketch looking minibus that was going to Tiger Valley (our destination, the Veledrom, was apparently located there... which was about 4 km away or something) and took it. We almost missed it because no one told us where it was, but somehow got out sort of when we needed to. We walked down some hills and through some shopping centres trying to find the toboggan place behind what we thought was the correct Engen Station... however... it was not... So, we basically walked all the way around the entire stadium (not right but beside it, but from a distance), across lots of traffic (once I got stranded on one side and no one could hear me over the traffic haha and then I almost got hit and kept going back and then in the road and then back again... Julie said it looked like Frogger... probably), shops, lots of hills and just completely random things, we somehow managed to find it! So we went tobogganing and it was cheap and great and fun and my roommate even fell off the last time she went down. Plus it was great because we were the oldest people there... and that was even more obvious because every male over the age of 20 went nuts when we came in... Stephanie had to call them several times before in order to try and figure out where we were, so everyone knew about us... They asked us how we even got there and when we told them, again... YOU DID WHAT?! ON A SATURDAY?! And there was even one girl that worked at the desk and she was completely in shock. She said she takes the train every day and even she wouldn't do that... And she carried a tazer with her... Not lying! We saw it! And we must have been so shocked about that (haha no pun intended) because she just looked at us and said What? .... I'm South African!
After some good, clean juvenile fun, we ended up getting a ride back from a guy that worked there in the back of his bakkie (I think this is the name for it I forget... but they are essentially the South African version of a truck, meaning very small and only two seats) with Julie in the front because he was kind of into her and literally no one else was even remotely interested in him. They were all just so worried about us that they refused to let us go back the same way we came... so instead we got a direct ride and FOR FREE! A very rare thing here... And it was also really nice even in the back of a truck because you could see all of the mountains better.
Later we all went to Green Point to the gay bars with some other friends, and after a while decided to go to Long Street because it's much cheaper... However... when we were getting out of the cab, I must have dropped my wallet on the floor and not realized because as soon as we got out and went to Abantu, I noticed I didn't have it, which just kinda sucked because it had my phone, camera, UCT ID, and some Rand in it... but oh well! I had my keys and I had just uploaded all my photos (other than the two I had taken that night, one of which was an AWESOME picture of Ray Van Cleve going crazy and dancing completely out of control at a gay bar... now that is the biggest loss of them all). Well anyway, my friends decided I needed to have a good time no matter what and they wanted to see me DRUNK! No choice! So they bought me lots of shots and shooters... probably the best was the Brain Hemorrhage... sounds disgusting but it was FANTASTIC! I even had fun at Baghdad, which is the smallest concrete hell hole of a bar I have ever been to, but almost always is surprisingly very fun... plus Emma goes often enough that she gets discounts! Never a bad thing... After a while though Emma got kinda sick and I just kind of wanted to go home anyway, so I came back, wrote my madre a facebook message, and for once... she actually gets on facebook chat... so we had a nice little chat while I was drunk (sort of). So yeah, if you're reading this, Madre, er yeah...! It's not like you would care anyway.
But... it gets even better! Because on Sunday, I found out that I get to live with Corinne and Bethany in the International House after all... BEST WEEKEND EVER! Minus losing all my shit.

Karte

Ok that first map is huge, but you all can deal with it. If you click on it, you can see what I'm talking about...
Also the Waterfront and Kenilworth are alright. YUP!

Location, Location, Location...

Sorry, I know it's only been a few minutes, but hey! That's the great thing about 'just now.'... You just never really know! Well the reason for the second post is that I realize I keep talking about all of these places that you all probably can't really visualize... so I'm going to help you...
This is a map of where I live and what's around me... While I do live in Cape Town, the area I am in is technically Mowbray or basically Rondebosch, since I'm not sure if Mowbray is on the map... UCT is also in Rondebosch, and it is just up the hill from where I live (although it actually has several parts...). Claremont is where I go to the movies or the mall. Green Point is also pretty fun... lots of gay bars there. Cubana is also there, which is a very nice bar and restaurant. Camps Bay is the beautiful beach that we like to go to when we can, even though the water is freezing. Langa is where I did my homestay, but it's not on there either... however, it's very close to Nyanga and Athlone and Khayeltisha, where I volunteer and where my agency-type thingy, MKI is. Gugulethu is also literally right beside Khayelitsha, and that is where Mzoli's is... I spent a lot of time there during my homestay. Khayelitsha and Gugulethu are the poorest areas here and have the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and TB. Durbanville/Stellenbosch is where I had a very interesting weekend a month or two ago... major wine area, heavily Afrikaaner...
Soweto is the SOuth WEstern TOwnships that is to the southwest of Joburg, or Jozi, or Johannesburg. Crazy Dave's was in Nelspruit, where we stayed while we were going to Kruger National Park, which was about an hour's drive northeast.
Hopefully that helps a little!

Eh?

Well recently I was talking to my lovely friend, Corinne, and I was telling her all about some of the slang/interesting things people say here, so I thought I might share...
lekker= great, good, nice
ayoba= awesome!
yebo= yeah!!
Howzit?= what's up?
Izzit?= the answer to just about everything...... really... they say that ALL the time
braai= special kind of barbecue... REALLY popular
biltong= a kind of dried meat... also everywhere
jol= a good time
pap= food kind of like grits but tastier
poes= er well you can look that up yourself it's not so nice... it's a terrible insult!
semp= similar to pap
bru= yeah I think you can figure that out
tekkies= tennis shoes
tsotsi= a gangsta!
Mzanzi/ZA= SA
ubuntu= sort of like sense of community, unitedness, humanity
robot= traffic light
shabeen= township bar
gatsby= enormous sandwich with all kinds of things, including chips (=french fries)
boerewors= sausage thing that also has chips in it...
Howzit Dorris?= Hey girl, hey... or What up baby girl? Basically something one says when holla-ing at girls.
Cheers!= See Ya.
keen= desire to do something... kind of like lust auf deutsch?
a smiley= sheep's head... found in Langa, although there are apparently variations to this as I encountered cow's head in Soweto, which is just outside of Joburg...

And the best for last- AFRICAN TIME!

just now: later, maybe soon, in a few minutes... Wiki says, "sometime in the near future, not necessarily immediately. Expresses an intention to act soon, but not necessarily immediately. (as in 20-90 minutes time)"
now now: very soon, but still not 'right now.' Wiki: "an immediate but not literal declaration of impending action, may be past or future tense. From the Afrikaans expression "nou nou". (as in 5-60 minutes)"

Eish, that's about all I got... more to come just now! :P

Vacation from Vacation

The days of Spring Break in South Africa are almost over... Tomorrow classes resume, but I had an AWESOME break. Besides, Easter Break is on Friday and lasts through Monday... How convenient? :) Anyway, break was wonderful... I got up really early Saturday morning (5 AM) to meet up with the rest of my program that decided to go on our trip together at the Alma house (I live at Welgelegen). We went to the airport and had a not so great breakfast and flew off to Joburg. After our bus finally showed up to pick us up, we headed to Soweto (SOuth WEst TOwnship), which is about a 40 minute drive from the airport. Soweto is the largest black township with over one million people living there. It is the home of Desmund Tutu and Nelson Mandela's early home (they are actually right down the street from each other... SA is the only country that can proudly say it has two Nobel Prize winners that came from the same street), and the site of the Soweto Uprisings, in which youths and others rioted against the National Party government and the unfair education reforms. On 16 June 1976, thousands of black students protested in Orlando West in Soweto and the police used violent force against them. The youngest person to be killed by police that day was a 13 year old boy. There is now a memorial there and we got to see it as well as both Mandela and Tutu's houses. We also got to see some of the hostels where there was a lot of conflict between the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party, primarily Zulu) and the ANC (African National Congress, headed by Mandela), drank homemade beer, tried cow's head (well I didn't, but some people did!), and went to a shabeen (kind of like a bar but different). All of this we did on a four hour BIKE tour. It was actually really great and made me miss having a bike a lot... Curses, Lexington! We stayed in Soweto for two nights at a hostel right across from a park that the owner cleaned up and made for the kids in the area. They were adorable but very demanding... always wanting to play... We also went into Joburg for a day and saw some museums, including the Apartheid Museum... VERY interesting and learned a lot actually... We also went up to the 'Top of Africa,' which is the top of the highest building in Joburg. Kind of reminded me of the Radio Turm in Duesseldorf... I think that's what it was called anyway! Next we went to Nelspruit, which is right outside of the borders of Kruger National Park. We stayed in an awesome hostel type place and the owner was named Crazy Dave... not kidding! He was really nice though and they made AMAZING food. It was especially great for vegetarians because Crazy Dave is also Veg and so he always let us go first in line no matter what! Two mornings in a row, we all got up at 3.45 (before dawn!) and left to make it to Kruger when it opened. We would spend all day driving around looking for animals, which was nice! However it was extremely cold in the mornings and then by 10 or so incredibly hot. But, that was a minor sacrifice for what I got from this trip... I saw LOTS of animals, the Big 5, giraffes, elephants, bugs, lizards, hippos, zebra, impala, and tons more... Since I've come 'home,' I really haven't done hardly anything since most of my house is in Zambia, but I'm ok with that. It's nice to be lazy and take a real break for a little bit because as fun as the trip with IES was, it was exhausting.

Jammin'

I love the Jammie. I am always forgetting what I already wrote and what I haven’t, so in case I haven’t explained what a Jammie is, it’s a bus… They are big light blue buses for UCT students and faculty that come and go all over Cape Town… Forest Hill, downtown at Hiddingh, at the mall in Claremont… And sometimes they even play music! Jammies are never ‘on time,’ but they always seem to come at either the best or worst times, especially the Forest Hill Jammies, which go right by my house. Luckily I am not too lazy and will settle for anything that just goes to Lower Campus… (there is Lower, Upper, Middle, Health, and Hiddingh Campus) Anyway, Jammies are almost always crowded… it is not uncommon to have to stand or be the last person on and stand in the door (that is actually kind of fun). However, it’s really nice because most of the time if the bus is not too too crowded, a guy will stand up and give you his seat. Nice! No American male would EVER do that. Never in my life have I experienced that on a bus or subway in any American city! So that is pretty great… also, Jammie drivers ALWAYS stop for you… If they are driving right past the stop and they see you, they will always stop and let you on… it is the nicest thing ever, really. Jammies are also an excellent source of entertainment. Sometimes when drivers are nice and let you on, they start driving before you are completely inside the bus… the other day I actually witnessed a guy who got half shut in the back doors and barely managed to get inside before we drove right past another bus, which could have been potentially damaging I suppose… but all that we could all really do at that point is laugh. People also have the most interesting/odd conversations. It's kind of like the Transy cafeteria on a Saturday morning/afternoon… especially on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays because going out during the week and on Saturdays is what's popular here... Friday night, not so much surprisingly. If you ask a local what they are doing, oftentimes they will tell you studying. I'm not kidding. Also, a recent development... Jammie malfunctions! Apparently someone that works for my program saw a Jammies breaks or something (I forget what it was but some boy told me it was most likely I don't remember, transmission or something, I have no clue, I'm no mechanic or whatever) went out and the Jammie literally started to roll back down the hill and there was nothing they could do at first... And this is a very hilly place... Also, it was in the school paper that a UCT bus (but not a Jammie, I just looked at it...) basically the same thing happened right outside of my program's office/student programmes,etc. The bus rolled back and crashed into two cars, which then crashed into the building. Yes, it's all very exciting here. Another common thing that I have noticed is protesting is rampant here. Every other day I feel like I see a new poster for some protest, and before I leave, I will go to one. I'm thinking free and equal education... sounds good and justifiable to me, and it's a pretty hot issue. There was supposed to be a big demonstration last week all over SA and I read that it ended up getting kinda crazy in Joberg... setting things on fire, rocks, spraying people with fire hoses... but that is Joberg for you! Here it was pretty tame and there was even a Jammie that took people to Parliament.