Fun Stuff...

Well... it's been a lot longer than I thought... yet again. Sorry I am really terrible at this, but I'm trying! So... since the 12th... well there was Valentine's Day, which was highly uneventful other than I was supposed to go to Rhodes Memorial with two of my housemates and our RA, but instead we ended up trying to find a store that was open so he could get something for his girlfriend that was coming back in a matter of hours... guys are great, aren't they! So we didn't end up going, but that was ok! I was just kind of disappointed that South Africa gets really into Valentine's day because I don't particularly enjoy it. Sadly, I was let down because they love it! After that was my second week... started my tutorials, one of which BLOWS... but... it's only once a week, so not really a big deal. Also another student at my school got murdered in a place called Observatory (or Obs/Obz) that is very close to me. It is unfortunate and sad, but there is really no need to worry because I am very careful, I promise! Also there were just a few things that weren't such a good idea that this guy and his friends did, and I will not make those mistakes! I learned that there is a Jammie that goes into downtown Cape Town, so now I can take full advantage of that and go there for free all the time! Like last week... when I went to Mojito's for happy hour three different days... Oops! I also bought lots of presents and post cards while I was there, so I think that constitutes a success! Then I had a very interesting and eventful weekend. Friday I had my first language lab for Xhosa and then I was pretty much done for the day so I went back to Long Street yet again and later I met up with 5 guys from my program who had just finished climbing Table Mountain only to find it was too windy for them to take the cable car down and the restaurant was closed... yeah they were pretty hungry... So I walked to Rondebosch and met them at the nicest place in Rondebosch (not saying a whole lot, but still it was great! And definitely cheaper than what it would have been in the States) and had dinner with them, even though they were sweaty and gross and all got some variety of steak... and then there was me with my fish, which was AWESOME and I was VERY excited about because somehow, I just don't know where to get fish around this place... weird, but it's not available like meat is, even though it's right on the ocean. I hear I just need to know where I can go and buy it, but I have yet to be informed of where that is! Then Saturday I went to Muizenburg (a warm beach that is different from Camps Bay) and after I came back... I went to Stellenbosch. And it was fun. Very fun.... weird Afrikaaner dancing, "howzit dorris?", beach at 5 am, something with metal objects rolling the wrong way on a hill, and a lot more.
Oh also... funny story... so one of the RAs knows I have a love for Germans and so he has made it his goal to find me a German-speaking friend so he gives my number out to random German-speaking peoples... Well one guy was really weird and he was texting me and I was like eh... he's kinda creepy, so I'm not going to respond to him! Well... Friday I was at Mojitos like I said, and as soon as I walked in, a text from this random guy comes on my phone saying, We're at Mojitos what are you up to? Well, I had not seen this person yet, but my roommate and I were able to figure it out based on a mutual friend this person was with. Very strange guy, in no way attractive, and had no idea that we were also there. Needless to say, this was pretty amusing to us. So yeah... I had a nice weekend and I am certainly enjoying my time here...

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UCT: Week numero uno

I made it through the first week at UCT and it seems like it is going to be a good semester, although I'm disappointed that my program class is going to be more difficult than I had anticipated. I dropped my German class, but whatever... it was not going to be a good class at alllll. Terribly boring topics, readings, and it was half in English. The schedule was horrible and conflicted with another class on Mondays and it was definitely not worth being on campus at 8 AM three days a week... So instead, I'm just keeping my poli sci classes and Xhosa, a South African language with CLICKS! It's so fun! Also difficult because it is completely foreign to me... I mean obviously it would seem foreign because it's a language from another country that I don't speak, but even though I know no French or Spanish or Russian, it doesn't sound strange or new to me. BUT... it will be really cool when I come back and I am a pro. Kentucky will not know what to do! My poli sci classes are pretty interesting too it seems like... comparative politics and then political economy, which is taught by a German woman.
So tonight I'm going to see a film about Mandela at a theater called the Labia... REALLY! It's not that type of theater.... it's actually kind of like the Kentucky Theater in Lexington (sorry all of you Germans reading this that have no idea what I mean... for those of you in Heidelberg, it's kind of like the Kamera or whatever it's called I can't remember). But yeah, it is about Mandela because yesterday was the 20th anniversary of his release from prison. Yesterday was also the opening of Parliament this year for it's duration in Cape Town (it meets part of the year here, part in Pretoria, and part in Johannesburg) and there was a parade... and the President, Jacob Zuma drove through in a thing sort of like what the Pope drives around in. So... yes, I saw the president of South Africa yesterday... Woo! And a parade!

Dramarama

Well it was a long and interesting week followed by an even longer and more interesting weekend in Cape Town… After the Peninsular Tour with UCT, IES took us on a three day trip of what is called the Garden Route (Google it. It’s pretty sweet.). We met up at the local Seven-Eleven at 7 AM and drove several hours until we stopped for lunch at a traditional Xhosa (which is the language that I’m studying and it has clicks!) restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Then we went to an ostrich farm, and I got to hug an ostrich. It’s name was Betty… Some people in my group got to ride them, but only a few because they supposedly don’t have sweat glands but I think maybe the guy giving us the tour just was tired of us. We also went into some caves. They weren’t super impressive and they sure as hell had nothing on Mammoth Cave, but it was fun to go with everyone in my program. We stayed at a campsite-type place and I finally got a full size bed for a night (some people in one house have them)! Even if I did have to share with Stephanie… no worries. The next day we got to go shopping and kayaking. It was really great because I finally got a pair of flip flops… just what I needed. All of the climbing and hiking and kayaking and going to the beach and everything else we do all of the time is really not so great in flats… The kayaking was awesome, especially because where we went to was a private beach that was really warm for a change. We drove a lot more and stayed that night and the next day in the Tsitsikama National Park, which was AWESOME. We stayed in some really amazing houses that were right on the beach… literally… we could hear the waves alllll night. And we had fish for the first time! You all know I was pretty excited about that… although surprisingly, they have all been incredibly accommodating to vegetarians and have lots of good stuff for us. I think since I’ve been here I’ve actually become even more vegetarian, but I have had some meat since I’ve been here. Anyway it was really beautiful there and it was so clear! Everyone in our program was spazing (sp?) out (ok and maybe I was too…) because it was completely dark walking back and there were so many stars and we are in the southern hemisphere, so it looks completely different. The next day we could go hiking or to the biggest bungy jump in the world. I chose to sleep… My roommate and I and some of our guy friends had originally planned to do some type of hike but we overslept a little… oh well. And maybe I will do the bungy jump later… We’ll see… So after all of that, we left and eventually made it to lunch, several hours away (and very late thanks to people who went on the early, organized hike and people that went on the bungy because the minibus taxi they took broke down). Unfortunately, when we were ready to leave, the bus wouldn’t start… so we waited around for a while… Eventually they got it working and it was very impressive because a bunch of the guys in my program at one point pushed the HUGE bus in an attempt to get it started. However, it failed, so they just kept playing soccer. Finally someone got it going and we made it back to Cape Town at 10 or so, but this was actually pretty nice in a way because we could see Cape Town all lit up. Nobody really did much the next day, but Friday was sort of the first day of classes, on the Tuesday schedule. I only had two classes though because apparently the Poli Sci department only does 1000 level classes on this day… go figure. So I went to German, which was incredibly awkward because the teacher called me out and embarrassed me in front of everyone since she didn’t know me and didn’t understand why I was there, and Xhosa. After all of that, there was the Big Bash, thrown by UCT itself. My friends and I ended up taking a taxi because the line for buses was TERRIBLE. Typically taxis only hold 7 people, but I kinda got thrown in on top of the people in the first row. That’s just how it is here and I am very small… so usually I get to be that lucky person! Well the Big Bash was pretty fun for me… there were a lot of people and lots of music. It ended a little early because the DJ that was supposed to go on at 11 didn’t show, and afterwards me roommate, Will, a friend that went to college with them, and one of his friends on the baseball team here all went to Long Street. Long Street is a really interesting place and it is very much alive at nighttime. We went to Stones first, and then to some unknown, very sketchy bar. The second room was essentially just concrete, and my roommate really had to pee, so we went to find the bathroom, which had no toilet paper, no toilet seat, and a broken out window that faced the whole concrete room… Yeah, it was a pretty interesting place… Then we went to Dubliner’s, where I lost my cell phone…. There were two really weird Viking guys that had apparently been in Stones (one of which did a ‘naked lap,’ which means he ran around something without any clothes on… somehow I missed that…), and they put a Viking hat on my roommate when we were at the bar. While we were walking back through a thick crowd, some random guy was grabbing at me and kissing the side of my face… Weird I know, but weirder has happened! Someone came up to Emma and licked her face. Just on the street, in the middle of the day… Well I pushed him off of course, but I would be willing to bet he grabbed my phone out of my pocket. Otherwise it must have fallen out when I was dancing, but I really don’t think so. Oh well! These things happen! Since that kind of killed everything, their friend from Grinell drove us home, where my roommate and I made pasta at 4 AM. Great stuff. The next night was even MORE eventful, even though a majority of my house stayed home and went to bed before midnight. Well 3 AM rolls around and a ruckus (one of the coolest words in the English language I think haha) was brewing outside. Then someone from my program started buzzing to let him in. We all thought they were just being drunk and stupid (which they were), but what had happened was this: one psychopathic girl got into a pointless fight with the guy buzzing away at our gate, and another guy tried to stop them from fighting, so… she thought it would be a good idea to knee him in the balls. Great idea. Long story short, he ended up punching a window in their house and so they brought him across the street to our house. At first they just wanted paper towels (oh the ideas we have when we are drunk) or someone’s shirt, but then someone had the good sense to bring him inside so they wouldn’t be loud, he could actually get it cleaned up somewhat, and oh yeah… they could call an ambulance… needless to say it was a long and dramatic night.