Just livin' the dream...

Time seems to go by really fast here, although Africans tend to be very slow and laid back about everything... I had my homestay in Langa township last weekend and it was amazing! My family was really great and it consisted of: Patience, the momma (who was away at a funeral, but I talked to her on the phone!); Nandi, the big sisi, Bopsie, the younger sisi that just had a baby, a younger brother Andiswe, and then since the momma and her oldest daughter were away, the daughter's little boy and girl were also there. There is also an older brother that I met at Chickenland in Gugulethu (where I had my first cheeseburger in seven years or something!!! AND IT WAS GREAT!) but he doesn't live there. The house was AMAZING, especially for what I would have expected for a township, but this place never seems to be what you would expect... I am constantly surprised... and pretty much always pleasantly. I went out with Nandi and Bopsie and their super fun neighbor and Amanda, who hosted a guy in my program that I didn't really know all that well but I do now, thanks to last weekend!
I spent some time in Langa, and a lot of time in Gugulethu too because Nandi likes going there a lot more than staying in Langa. We went out to some really fun places, and it was so good to be by myself in a place that wasn't with a bunch of kids from my program. Don't get me wrong, I love a majority of them! But... I am only in South Africa for so long and I want to get as much of an actually South African experience as possible...
Oh a very interesting story from a few days ago: So my roommate went for a run on Friday after I got home around 5 or 6 and she was running up to Rhodes Memorial on top of this hill type thing and some guy behind her yelled. So she turned around and it was this random white guy that was in his late 20s-early 30s and he was wearing khakis and a polo, but he was really dirty like he had been rolling around in the dirt. So she turned around and then he took his pants off and she screamed at him and started to run away and then she turned around to see if he was coming after her (because he was only about 3 meters away from her) and he was going to town on himself and so she yelled that she was going to call the police and sprinted up the hill into the woods and was out of breath and then she ran into some Rastafarians that weren’t wearing any shoes and had walking sticks and had just come back from collecting herbs from the mountains (haha) and asked them if they would walk her down the hill and they did… what a great day for her!
Also this morning I went to Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela served a majority of his time as a political prisoner. The tour itself was kind of boring, but it was interesting to be there and know they history and see what it actually looked like. It was really small and very hot! And.... apparently before it was a prisoner's island, it was a leper colony! There's still a graveyard there! Great history... But anyway, on the boatride over we saw two wales and some seals! And that is pretty exciting because whale season is way into the winter and that should be after I am gone. So yeah! Still excited, still having fun...