The Lazy Song

Hello faithful readers!

First, I should apologize. I realize that it has been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Sorry… Everything and nothing at all has been happening all at the same time!

Exam time has begun here at UCT. My first final is for my African Genocides class and that is on May 30^th. I then have my SA Politics final on June 1^st and then a long break until my Religion final on June 7^th! Needless to say, I just need to make it through the first two and then I’m home free- very nearly literally.

I’ve been meaning to study. I really have. The fact that Thursday is almost over is very alarming. I really need to hop to it tomorrow. The problem I’ve been having is that… I’m lazy. I love being in my bed doing absolutely nothing but piddling around on the internet. Hence, the name of this blog. Bruno Mars’ The Lazy Song has become my anthem for finals in SA.

I’m not too worried about my Genocide final or my Religion final. But my Politics final really has the ability to kick my sweet little you know what.

This past week the girls and I had dresses custom made for us (so fun), went to Old Biscuit Mill- again, ate a lot(!), and had our final CIEE dinner!

Our dresses are so cute! I’m actually really happy about how they turned out. In fact, a couple of us are thinking about getting another one. Once I get it washed I will take a picture of myself in it and post it.

Biscuit Mill was, of course, wonderful as always! I’m really going to miss it. It’s got a great vibe and can always satisfy all of my food cravings! You can get everything there! Steak sandwiches, pesto, cookies, chocolate, coffee, pizza… anything you can imagine! While we were there this week we ran into a place we’d never been before- an organic chocolate producer! It was so amazing. They were so nice and let us sample just about everything. Each of us bought a couple of truffles to take home. Have you ever tasted a chocolate bean? It doesn’t taste real great. The cool thing about them is that everything there is 100% organic. The guy that owns it was super nice and we basically dominated the samples he had laid out.

Our final CIEE dinner was… ridiculous. Imagine cramming 180 young Americans into a place where they really don’t want to be, but feel obligated to go to. Needless to say most people were completely wasted. The food was actually pretty tasty! One person deemed it The Farewell Dinner that No One Remembers…

While we were down on Long Street picking up our dresses, we stopped to get a Gatsby sandwich for lunch. Sydney has been saying that it’s one of the things we’re supposed to eat before we leave. I’m not really sure what exactly is on it. But in true South African fashion it is loaded with chips (or french fries) and steak.

I’m honestly getting kind of anxious about leaving. I’m not uber excited about it like I was a few weeks ago. I’m going to miss my life here. Of course, I’m excited to get home to see the people I’ve been missing, watch TV, and get my phone back. But I’m actually really happy with my life here- surprisingly happy, actually. The good thing about who I’ve made friends with here is that a lot of them go to AU so we can sustain the relationships we’ve made over here.

The weather here is still pretty crappy- rainy and cold. I’ll be excited to get back to warmer weather at home. I’m almost out of internet so I’m going to wrap it up!!

Love you all.

I’ll post pictures soon.

Be safe!

B

Sea Breeze

Good morning, readers!

I hope this late evening/early morning in Cape Town finds you well. As for me, I just returned from my first adventure to one of the American houses- this is where the majority of people on the CIEE program live. The other options were LBG (where I am at) or a homestay. The houses are SUPER nice! They have a maid come in each week to clean, most people have their own room and the accommodations are just generally pretty spectacular- especially when you consider that it took me weeks to get rid of all the cockroaches in my kitchen.

This last week has been kind of crazy. I’ve had several papers and projects due and luckily they all got done. But my procrastination has reached an all-time high. I had a paper due at 4 pm on Monday and didn’t start it until 2 am Monday morning… Kind of ridiculous? Yes.

We also went to Mzoli’s this past Sunday. This restaurant in the township Gugulethu is one of the major staples of Cape Town and all the guidebooks classify it as a must-see. Basically, you bring your own booze, sit down, and wait for the staff to bring you a GIANT plate of meat. It’s quite alarming to see a reflection of your own behavior there in your friends. I told my friend Jeff that we were acting like emaciated dogs in a desert that had just stumbled upon the carcass of an elephant. Graphic, I know. But we were starving and there are no plates, no utensils, no napkins. Oh, and the meat (chicken, steak, and sausage) is covered in a barbeque-like sauce. Just picture it… On top of all of that, Mzoli’s is basically one big party. Everyone is drunk as skunks and dancing up a storm. It really is quite a lovely experience. This past Sunday, however, was Mother’s Day so it was a little more tame than usual.

On to new feelings- The weather is changing here in Cape Town and I’m not too pleased with it. Overall, it’s just a very sad thing. It means that winter is coming and my time here in South Africa is coming to an end. I have 4 days of classes left and my last final is on June 7th. Of course, I knew that this would happen. But as the breeze from the ocean gets cooler and cooler, I feel another short chapter of my life coming to an end. I really have been pleasantly surprised at how happy I am here. Thank goodness for that. Nearly six months here would have been miserable if I had been less than content in South Africa.

So yes, it has been cold and rainy and foggy here in Cape Town. I miss the days of skipping classes to head to the beach or sitting out on the steps on campus to soak up some sun! Don’t get me wrong- I do not want it to be so hot that I come home everyday and have to take a cold shower, but I did not pack appropriate clothing for this type of weather!

Coming up soon- tomorrow we are going to a vintage store in a neighborhood called Observatory. Apparently there are MAJOR sales going on that need my attention. I’m definitely looking into finding a jacket… Also this week, the girls and I are headed to the Women’s Market on Long Street (where we go fairly often to party) to get dresses made for us! I am SUPER excited for this. We pick out the fabric we want, give them a general idea of a design, and then they measure us, and viola! Three days later we have a custom made dress! I am still hunting for the perfect white wine to bring home (Groot Constantia was featured at Wine Society this week and dominated! So I might have to get one of their whites). So the search continues. In our last few weeks in Cape Town I still need to get souvenirs for all my dearly beloveds at home, maybe venture to see some elephants, and manage to study for my finals which account for more than 50% of my final grades! EEK!

Attached to this post are some pictures of us at Mzoli’s last Sunday.

I hope you are all enjoying the warm weather I hear you’re having and aren’t suffering too badly from the atrocious gas prices I keep hearing about!

Love you all.
Be safe,
B.Self-explanatory: THE SIGN! This genuinely is one of those places that you are required to see when you go to Cape Town. It's unlike anything you'll experience anywhere else. Genuinely delicious food and an incredibly atmosphere.
Sydney, Nate, and Elsha flashing the newly copyrighted group signal. Taken from our fearless leader and BAMF, Barack Obama. This is how we abide by the State Department's warnings to not draw attention to ourselves... :)
The aftermath...
The giant platter that your meat comes on!
The crew: Elsha, me, Diane, Nate (lurking in the background), Kait, and Sydney

One More Thing

I just want to take a moment to celebrate my man. I'm sure most of you have already seen this picture, but needless to say it has inspired some incredibly entertaining moments for the Americans here in Cape Town. We're all about celebrating the best looking BAMF in the whole damn world right now! And thanks to the Seals that actually carried out the operation!

Some People Change

My darling readers!

First, I should apologize for my lack of updates. The other day I realized just how long it had been since I posted anything. I immediately got to work, determined to post something. But there seems to be a running theme in my life these days that equates to me being absolutely incapable of doing anything in a timely manner. This new habit of mine has been particularly destructive to my school work. I hear from my friends who are not in South Africa that they are nearing finals week or just finished their last final and I become green with envy! As of today I have 9 school days remaining. My finals begin on May 30th.

So much has been happening recently and at the same time there has been no news. As my time here in South Africa comes to an end, I become increasingly more reflective (as tends to happen when ends near) about the effects of this adventure on me as a person and a citizen of the world. Certainly I have discovered new things about myself, but my daily life and habits have also changed dramatically.

As I have talked about before I now have a new love and appreciation for wine! My friends and I go to Wine Society every week to sample wines from vineyards near Cape Town (we went last night, in fact), we have gone to Stellenbosch twice (one of the best places in the world for wine), we drink it casually at home, and I have even started having dreams about wine. I really am shocked at much I enjoy drinking wine. This is partially because I had never really been exposed to much wine, but also because I was never a big drinker- that has also changed a little bit while in South Africa. I keep thinking about what book I’m going to get when I get back to America. I’ve been wanting to get the equivalent of a Wine for Dummies book so I can learn more about the different grape varieties and how the fermentation process works, etc. But I am most definitely going to wait to get home to purchase said book- you wouldn’t believe how expensive books are here! I really feel like drinking and collecting wine could be a hobby that I have for the rest of my life. It’s so fun to talk to other people about what you’re getting from the wine because everyone tastes and smells things differently. I’m trying to decide which four bottles I’m going to bring home (you can have two in each checked bag). I know I’m going to bring home a sparkling red wine to drink on my 22nd birthday (if I can keep it that long). I have an Shiraz blend that I’m bringing home for my family (it smells like coffee). And I am going to bring home a white wine for Annie (the next door neighbor/woman whose family we basically forced into our own). So that leaves space for one more bottle… I’m determined to make it a good one.

I’ve also learned that I am a fairly self-sufficient human being. Since I began college, I’ve always lived on campus and had a meal plan- which basically mean that I never cooked meals for myself. I would buy ramen, but that’s about it. But here I cook for myself! And sometime for my roommate, Amy- which I dearly love to do. I make different concoctions of pasta, stir fry, lots of sandwiches, casseroles, chicken (though this is happening less and less now), soup, and more! For awhile I was taking pictures of what I was making just to have them documented. I’m actually quite proud of myself. One of the most amazing things is that I feel like I’m eating healthier here than I generally do at home. I” always eating a lot of vegetables. Even when I got to the grocery store, my first stop is the produce section and that is the large majority of what is in my cart. I’m also loving hummus, tzatziki, and pesto! Also, I’m amazed at how little meat I eat. When I cook at home, my diet is largely pescatarian. I eat vegetarian sandwiches and sometimes have tuna. Anymore, I’m just too cheap to buy meat! Hehe

I’m also really coming to terms with my beliefs and what’s important to me. There isn’t a whole lot to say on this subject, but I’m quite surprised by some of the results.

As I’ve mentioned before a big part of my life here is the organization I volunteer at. PASSOP has helped to open my eyes to a number of problems within South Africa that I might never have noticed existed. We do a significant amount of work with refugees (particularly those from Zimbabwe) and we also help South African residents create resumes so that they can find work. I’ve spend a lot of time typing up CVs (or resumes) here and I hope that that was time well spent. Thursday night we had an event to help raise funds for the victims of a fire that happened on Monday in the township Masiphumelele near Fish Hoek. If you get time, please look into what happened there. 1500 homes were burnt to the group and now 5000 people are displaced. PASSOP has an office in Masiphumelele that was affected by the fire, but not destroyed. I was so happy that the even turned out to be as big of a success as it did. We made 7000 rand! About $1000!!! I’m actually quite surprised how many people showed up to support our organization (thanks so much for going with me, Kait!)

As my time in South Africa begins to wind down, I look forward to the life I have to go home to. I am ready to sleep in a bed that doesn’t have a very large crater in the middle of it when I wake up in the morning, to not find cockroaches in my kitchen, and to not have mold growing on the walls. But all of those things are incredibly superficial- most of the reasons that make me ready to go home are. And though there is a part of me that is excited to return home (USA, USA!), I am also incredibly sad to only have 5 weeks left. I’ve made new friends that I hope to remain close with, broadened my horizons, discovered new passions, and learned a lot about other people, the world and myself. I have enjoyed my time here so much and I know that, though things will definitely be different for me when I go home, this was an experience that was important for me to have. Things are definitely changing. Time in college is winding down, the acquisition of new friends, the loss of old relationships, new hobbies, new beliefs, new opportunities… After the life I’ve lived so far, I’m excited to see what’s around the next corner.

Love to you all. Thank you for reading. Remember to look up the fire!

Be safe,
B.

Pictures from ANOTHER Adventure in Stellenbosch!

Kait, me, Sam, and Elsha (and some creepy, mean lookin' fella) at our last winery of the day, Seidelberg! We left there with a lot of wine (in bottles and in our veins), lemons from some hateful Afrikaaners, and some lovely memories! hehe
Me, Elsha, Sam, and Kait outside Fairview. They use the goats to make some SUPER delicious cheeses! Last time we were there we hadn't even noticed the goats... I guess that sometimes happens when... you're in a hurry...
Elsha and I during our tasting at the super modern/fancy J.C. le Roux! Can I get a "yay!" for Sparkling Wines and Methode Cap Classiques?
The kids waltzing into the House of J.C. le Roux!
Kait, Elsha, and Sam waiting for the taxi that seemed to take FOREVER! And at the same time browsing the real estate in the area!