International Food Evening

Wednesday night, ISOS hosted an international food evening. It started at 6p and you could buy tickets to sample food from the different countries' booths. I was part of USA-1 (there were 2 USA booths). I didn't make food because I thought I would be in Cape Town all day Wednesday, so I volunteered to decorate the booth. But, our group made chocolate cake and apple pie. Surprisingly, everyone loved the cake more than the apple pie. I think we had 8 or so apple pies and ran out by 7pm, so I think everyone enjoyed it :)

I only had time to sample France (grilled cheese with ham) and China (lo mein and veggie roll) before I had to start helping at the table because there was a big line. We were really excited for Chinese, Mexican, and Italian because we miss them the most. Unfortunately, there was no Italian table, so we were super excited for Mexican. We expected queso or tacos, but then we saw that our German friends were running the table. It was disappointing but still pretty funny. They had beans and rice and tequila and even wore ponchos and mustaches.

At the end of the night, Australia had the most redeemed meal tickets and won. Our table was still pretty awesome and everyone worked really hard. Good job to everyone who participated and Congrats, Australia, China, and Mexico on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd! :)

Team USA! :)

Team "Mexico"

Vici approves! 

Friday VCE Reflection

"Community" is the most important aspect of community engagement. Unlike service volunteering, our goal in VCE is to work together with the members to better the community. As we learned in training, service and philanthropy are wonderful things that can help create change in the world, but the results are only short term if they are not sustainable, and this sustainability is created by working with, not for, the community. By teaching the community members methods to better their town or city so that they may continue our work together once we are gone, we create a lasting, sustainable, and effective change. 

At Ikaya Primary School in Kayamandi, we are not there to give the students supplies or to repaint the classroom or to build a new outdoor play area. We make our impact by playing with the students and helping the teacher with the topic of the week. The children love having our attention and being able to play and interact with us. We are starting to know each one by name and are learning their personalities. I believe that is all a huge part of community engagement: interacting with and knowing the people you are working with, not just working for unnamed people. 

Each community has it's own areas needing improvement, and it makes me happy to know that there is something we can do to help Kayamandi. By working with the teachers, with the students, and with the international students in our groups, we are able to effectively engage the community and learn about its members, which leads to a more sustainable change. This is why community is the most important part of community engagement.  

HIV Reflection, Week One

As you already know, I am taking HIV & AIDS: A South African Perspective on Thursdays. We were split into 5 groups and each given a community partner. My group is made of 10 girls from the US, Holland, and Switzerland, and our community partner is a youth outreach center in town. Last week was our first visit with them and the goal of this meeting was introductions and finding out what our goals are for the semester. We will meet with them two more times. The next time will be to discuss our "product:" something we can create to educate the youth on HIV. The final time will be to distribute the items and wrap up our time there. After each visit we are asked to turn in a reflection at the next class meeting. This is the reflection I turned in today. Warning: This subject is a bit heavier and more serious than my usual posts. 

"This week was our first visit to the Youth Outreach Center in Stellenbosch. I was nervous to go because there was a lot I didn't know about the center and I was worried about how accepting and willing the people there would be to speak with us openly. 

We had a lot of questions going in, but I was nervous that the conversation would come to a dead stop and we'd be out of material. However, once we started talking to the women and man that work there we realized we'd have no problem keeping the conversation going. There was so much that we were able to learn from them! We were told about how the center is not a voluntary experience for the youth; they are court-ordered there for 3 to 6 months and afterwards are sent home or to another correctional facility depending on review from the outreach program. The center reminds me a lot of rehabilitation centers at home in America. We don't have centers that house only a few adolescents and children like this one (that I know of), but we have similar programs. There is a school near the high school I attended that is only for teens with behavioral and/or addiction problems, and they are taught in a normal and respectful matter as in this center. Just like the youth here, if the youth at home don't benefit from the school, they are sent to a more secure juvenile detention center. 

We asked about their experience with HIV and how knowledgable the youth are about the virus. They have attempted some education surrounding HIV and safe sex, but the youth still seem ignorant on the matter. For example, they told us that one child at the center had HIV and was bullied; the children wouldn't share a cup or utensils with him because they thought they would "catch" the HIV. From their stories, we realized that we would need to tackle HIV education in two separate ways when it comes to the two genders. In terms of the boys, we will need to educate them about safe sex and general HIV and sex information. The girls, however, will be more in-depth. We've heard stories about girls running away for the center and looking for sex, without thinking twice about the long-term effects. We would like to take a self-respect/worth/empowerment and "loving/protecting your body" approach to educate the girls. The main obstacle we will face is the stigmas and facts the youth think they know about HIV. This experience was eye-opening as to how HIV is thought of and dealt with in South Africa, and we hope that we are able to help spread knowledge. 

Because I haven't seen a center like this one before, I really appreciate the work they do. I'm in awe of the patience and care they show the youth, especially being a non-profit organization. They told us about a few of the struggles they have had to deal with, shocking stories that gave us all a reality check. I think the best word to describe these people is selfless. The mission of the outreach center is truly inspiring, so I'm excited to help them in any way we can."

To put the HIV situation here in perspective... 
-South Africa has the highest number of people infected with HIV in the world.
-Common stigmas about HIV are that they are gay- or black-related. However, women are becoming the leading carriers/spreaders of HIV, and more HIV infections are seen in heterosexual, married citizens.
-Though it is the main cause, HIV is not only spread through unsafe sex-- it is spread through the sharing of needles as well as through blood-blood contact.
-Because healthcare is free, we have heard stories that many people will purposely contract HIV for the healthcare and government benefits. 
-A lot of people will go to a clinic for months for treatment and, upon returning home, will never tell their family the real reason for being gone. This is all due to the stigmas.

Jammer! Sorry!

Hi, everyone!

I am so sorry ("jammer," in Afrikaans) that I haven't been keeping up with my blog every day, as requested by the honors program. There was so much to post about in the beginning so I didn't expect a daily blog to be so difficult. I'll catch up on anything I've left out over the week:

Last week is pretty much covered in a couple of previous entries. I was sick Monday and Tuesday, there was a free braai Thursday, held by Concordia.

Friday evening was Cape Town Night Out, hosted by ISOS. It was fun and we found a few good places to go but Cape Town is not nearly as clean, safe, or friendly as Stellenbosch. The streets were very crowded with people and cars were bumper to bumper. It looked a lot like the chaos that surrounds a festival, parade, or football game at home, except this happens each night when everyone goes out.

Saturday and Sunday were really nice so we spent a lot of time outside in the courtyard relaxing, reading and doing homework. Emmi was gone this weekend on a hike and a few of our other friends were on a weekend trip with the photography class so there weren't a lot of people around. We did manage to play a game of volleyball on Sunday with our German friends from Academia, though!

Which brings us to this week! :)

Monday was still a pretty nice day so I went to the courtyard to read but the clouds rolled in around 2:30. I had drawing at 5:30 so Emmi and I met for a pre-class snack in the Neelsie. DCM, a coffee shop in the bottom of the Neelsie, has these muffins the size of my head, and I somehow always manage to eat the entire thing, don't judge. Our drawing class shrunk yet again to 4 people. Unless the one guy comes back then it'll be just Emmi, Taylor, and I, along with another girl who I think is from Germany. Class went by faster because we ended up sitting around talking to our instructor a lot. She's a younger teacher, no older than 30, so she was telling us places to go around town for food and shopping.

Like clockwork, the rain moved in yesterday and it'll be here until at least Thursday night. In Afrikaans we prepared for our midterm exam, which will be next Thursday. I'm pretty confident in that class so I'm not too worried but sometimes technical stuff like grammar gets tricky. Plenty of study time though! Afterwards I had German, which I think we're all getting better at, especially with pronunciation. There's something about learning foreign languages that makes you automatically use an accent. I find myself trying to pronounce words with a European accent and it sounds ridiculous but I can't stop! If you've ever taken a language course you know exactly what I mean-- especially if that language was French or Spanish!

Today is rumored to be the worst day of the year, weather-wise. Thankfully I don't have class, but I do have a few errands to run. Tonight is the ISOS International Food Evening. I was expecting to go to Cape Town today so I didn't plan on cooking, but I volunteered to decorate our booth. I'll have to venture out in the rain to get poster board and supplies so wish me luck! The dinner starts at 6 and should be pretty interesting.

The rest of the week is pretty boring. We are going to open mic night tonight at Julian's and Friday is the Wine Society formal. So..the hunt is on for a formal dress! Yikes!

Until tomorrow! (For real this time, I promise!)

Hope your day is much drier than mine will be! :P

Friday: VCE reflection

Prompt: Sustainable Development

As time goes on, we are realizing the compromises past generations have created for the present and future generations from their lack of understanding the repercussions of their actions; from this notion, the idea of sustainability arises. We are able to acknowledge a problem and creatively devise a solution, but we have 

started to focus more on the long term effects. Issues in our communities such as poverty, hunger, violence, pollution, etc., unfortunately cannot be helped with a short term solution. Further more,  a long term solution is nothing more than a well-disguised short term solution if it is not sustainable. Sustainable development is an important aspect of problem solving and community engagement because it requires us to think outside the box and  into the future. We have to ask, "will our ideas change an aspect of the community for a week, a month, a year?" and if so, "will the changes we make  matter years down the road?" A well-thought out plan that addresses just the smallest problem but is created within the mindset of sustainable development is more effective that a 

solution for a major problem that lasts only a few weeks. 

In our community engagement at Ikaya primary school, as well as all future engagements, we must keep our focus on sustainable ideas. As we go there each week to play games and teach about certain themes, we know that we are not making a giant step towards changing the world. However, in our minds we know that the relationships we form with the students and the lessons we teach them will impact their lives and hopefully influence them to continue their education because it can be fun and there are people out there who care about their success. Our changes aren't huge, but they are sustainable.  

Thursday: It's a Miracle!!

I'm not sure if I talked about this in a previous post, but I wore my nude flats the first night I arrived in Cape Town. They're my favorite shoes; they go with everything and they're really comfortable. I wore them through 4 airports, 2 shuttles, 1 hotel, and who knows how many subway trains. When I got to my room I took them off at the door, and that was the last time I saw them. Well, at least one of them...

So, as those of you who know me already know, my room is clean 5% of  the time and messy the remaining 95%. On top of that, the maid gave us blankets because our room is cold and since I already have a pretty warm blanket, I've been using it on the floor as a sort-of rug for when I need to stretch after running (the tile floors might feel good when it's warm out, but in winter... not so much).

Now, last Tuesday I went running with Damon and it was pouring so when I got home I showered and wanted to put warm clothes on. But... I didn't have shoes to match anything I wanted to wear. So, for the 10th time I decided to look through everything I own to find this one shoe. You have to understand, up to this point I had already looked everywhere for this shoe-- all three of my suitcases and the extra duffel bag I brought, all over my closet, under the bed, EVERYWHERE. So, I tried one. last. time.

I looked through the big suitcase, unzipping, unsnapping, un-velcro-ing, pulling it apart. And I did find a business card for Ronald Show, CPA, but no shoe. Onto the next biggest suitcase, then my carry-on, then the duffel... nothing. I jumped up to see the top of my closet, using a hanger to make sure it wasn't thrown up to the back somehow. I moved all my clothes around, put my other pairs of shoes together. I looked under the bed, on top of my desk, in the common area, under chairs, literally everywhere. Or so I thought...

I had given up and put on other shoes, and on my way out of my room I tripped on my make-shift "rug." One of my nude shoes was tucked under the corner so I went to pick it up and put it back in my closet to wait endlessly for it's mate. But, there was already a nude shoe in my closet. I had found it!!! I was so excited I wanted to run and wake Emmi up, or yell across the courtyard to the girls. But I was going grocery shopping with Damon and he's a guy. I couldn't waste my excitement on him because he just wouldn't understand. After that I completely forgot about my shoes. I meant to post about it immediately after but didn't get to it. The good news is, I did take pictures because I was so excited! So, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. And you can all rest easy knowing that I am happy in South Africa because I have been reunited with my favorite shoes! :)

Reunited and it feels sooo good!

Except that they're a little stinky...

 "4 airports, 2 shuttles, 1 hotel, 

and who knows how many subway trains..." 

yeah, you understand 

Happy Hump Day!

Monday was my grandma's birthday so I skyped her at 6am her time, noon here. I woke up feeling pretty nasty. I've had a cough for a few days but Monday morning I was completely sick. After calling her, I slept until about 4:30p, when I had  to get ready for drawing class. The class is 3 hours so it was miserable; I was sweating then I had the chills then I got really tired and achey. I watched a movie and went right to sleep when I got home.

Tuesday I woke up briefly a couple times, completely soaked. Gross, but at least my fever broke. I finally woke up at noon feeling much better but still had a pretty bad cough and sore throat. I made it to both of my classes, though! She let us out of Afrikaans early because everyone looked tired; ironically, that was the most energy I've had in the class since I slept so late. I was actually awake in German for once too, so at least being sick did something good for my academic career. Last night, though, I couldn't get to sleep until after 1am.

Today I feel much better, still a bit of a cough but I should be better by the weekend. Today is the day I don't have any classes, and, of course, it's the one day out of this entire week that it's raining. I missed out on a beautiful day Monday, but at least yesterday was still sunny. Starting tomorrow it's going to be sunny and warmer-- I'm so excited!!

Sorry this post is pretty lame, I just had to catch y'all up on where I've been instead of posting!

Good morning from South Africa! :)

Cape Point and Boulders Beach

We visited Cape Point and Boulder's Beach today with ISOS. It was a little chilly but otherwise the weather was beautiful. We met a new friend, Amy from Ireland, because we were all late for the bus and chose to ride in the van instead. It was SO much nicer; so much so that we went from 3 of us to a full van on the ride home because everyone was jealous of our VIP treatment :P

We drove through Simonstown to Cape Point, which is in the Cape of Good Hope and Table Mountain National Park. First we hiked up the steps to the lighthouse, which is where all the crazy pictures came from. We climbed over the side to get pictures on the edge of the rocks, spent an hour or so up by the lighthouse, then went back down to eat and go to the buses.

Next we drove down to the beach to pick everyone up and get some pictures. We saw a couple ostriches on the way but then one came down from the top of the mountain to the road we were on, which was really awesome.

After leaving Cape Point we drove to Boulders Beach and saw African Penguins. We got ice cream and shopped the marketplace, where I bought a dress for my friend Allie's baby Charlotte (she'll be born in December).

Now we're finally home and I'm a little exhausted, so enjoy these pictures!

Anddd videos!

Good night from South Africa! (:

Our New South African Friends!

The only class Emmi and I have on Fridays is VCE, and it was pretty cold so we didn't stand outside to do check-in and check-out, so we were back by 11. I met with my group to plan for next week's theme: Vegetables. Afterwards I went to the bookstore and finally found a book to read for the sunny days when I can lay in the courtyard. I met up with Nick and Emmi at the mall. Nick and the rest of our AIFS friends left at 1p for a weekend trip in the Cederberg mountains. So we ate lunch, came home and changed, and went for a wine tour with our friend Alishea. Her friends, Delaille, Christian, Ruanda, Holly, and Dawn came too :)





We started at Lovani, where it was 5 glasses for R20, which is $2. The room where we were was right next to the cellar. It was all brick and the tables were made with barrels; the atmosphere was so cozy! They taught us to say oopdierde (I'm sure I didn't spell that right!), which means something like cheers on the first. Next, Delaille had an interview at Asana so we did a tasting there in the meantime. They had 3 wines for R3, and they actually threw in a 4th for us. This place was my favorite because it was pretty fancy and we were able to start with all 4 wines then stand around and talk. Holly told us about Durban and how you can pretty much go to the beach any time of the year, so Emmi and I are thinking about maybe going there for Spring Break. We ended the tasting at Tokara, where 6 wines are free! The view was amazing; you can see all of Stellenbosch, and that was with the cloudy and rainy weather. We really want to go back when it gets warmer and it's clear enough to see further out. Then we went to dinner at Bohemia and met a few more of their friends. We had so much fun, and it was definitely a good way to spend a rainy Friday!

Cheers from Suid Afrika! ;)

Oops! Monday-Thursday

(Wrote this Thursday and was unable to post)

I haven't written since Sunday and I apologize! Once I miss one day I'm all off track. Instead of posting a blog for each day I think I'll just catch up on this one.

It has been a ridiculously rainy week. It doesn't matter what you wear or what you look like when you leave your flat, you will inevitably resemble a drowned rat when you reach your destination. My warmest, dryest boots soak through to my warmest, dryest socks, my raincoat can't defend against this kind of rain, and I lost my umbrella. So, needless to say, it's been a pretty unproductive week.

I'm going to be honest... Monday I did absolutely nothing until 5 o'clock, when I rolled out of bed and went to drawing class.

Tuesday I woke up early to run with my friend Damon. It was only my 3rd day back to running in I don't know how long so he pushed me pretty hard to keep up with him, and it poured the entire time. Don't get me wrong, all distance runners, especially myself, love a good rain-run, but this was just the kickoff to the rainiest day of my life. After the run we went for groceries. Just as we thought it cleared up (it didn't rain at all on the way to the store) we got halfway home and it poured, again. Then I had to make my way back to campus for class and it rained the whole way so I was a little late and very soaked. I'm happy to say that it finally cleared up a little after class so I was able to go out for dinner while my clothes dried out.

Wednesday I didn't have class but we decided to have a get-together in the evening to celebrate being abroad for one month so Emmi and I spent the day preparing. the party went really well and a lot of our other international friends camne. We also got to meet some new people- always love fresh faces!

Which brings me to today...

So far I can tell you, unsurprisingly, that it is raining. Thursdays are my long days so I have been in class since 10 o'clock.

This morning started with HIV&AIDS. We were divided into 5 groups so we can visit the community partners. I am in a group with 9 other girls and our partner is a youth outreach program. We will spend 3 class periods visiting them and creating a product to help spread HIV awareness. Next Thursday will be our first visit and we will mainly just have a discussion to set up the rest of the semester.

Next, in Afrikaans, we learned plurals and diminutives for the first hour, then body parts for the 2nd hour. The view from that room is beautiful because you can see the town and the mountains, but that also means I can see the rain and that makes me sleepy so it was a little hard to pay attention.

Tonight the boys are making us dinner-- alfredo pasta from scratch!! Should be interesting :)

Good night from South Africa!

Independent Women

We've wanted to figure out how to use the train so we could go to Cape Town for the longest time now, and we finally did it. Everyone else decided not to go because it was such an early trip but Molly, Emmi, and I rolled out of bed and left at 7:30 this morning. The train station experience went really smoothly and the ride took about an hour. It was only about 9:30 when we got there so nothing was opened and we decided to walk around. We found a market place that would be open at 10am, and there just happened to be a cafe next to it so we had a quick breakfast and then did some heckling. I am so bad at trying to barter! Molly found a nice tapestry but couldn't decide if she wanted to spend so much on it, but I loved the tapestry so I kept telling her she should go for it instead of helping her get the price lower. Oops! I did catch on as time went by. We ended up getting one painting each, then Molly bought a dress and top, and I bought 2 pairs of cool printed pants that are just weird enough to be fashionable.

We looked around the mall a bit for swimsuits but couldn't find any for less than $60, which seems a little crazy. Most places weren't selling swimwear because it's technically still winter even if it is warmer. We had dinner at a nice waterfront restaurant and then started back for the train. We ran into some friends from Concordia on the platform while we were waiting and then we all fell asleep on the ride home.

I would say it was a really good day. There's a lot of beggars in town and they have no shame with following you around until you acknowledge them. I seem to be a popular target and I always accidentally say I don't have money or say sorry and they yell at you. I need to learn to stop being so nice and just ignore them. It does get pretty exhausting having people in your face asking for money and having to ignore them. We decided to get on the train early to talk to our friends and 5 beggars came around in a matter of 15 minutes. Cape Town is definitely different from Stellenbosch. We've realized that this place that was so foreign to us a month ago is now our own comfort bubble. Overall, we had a lot of fun and we're pretty proud of ourselves for figuring it all out and handling a day in Cape Town on our own :)

Lazy Saturdays are for Thinking

Hey Y'all!

We wanted to go to Cape Town today but a lot of us had homework so we decided to postpone until tomorrow. So I have been very, very lazy today! I rolled out of bed around 11, made breakfast and took it to the girls room. We sat around talking for a few hours then I helped Lisa with her LSCE (similar to VCE, but way more complex) lesson plans. I tried taking a nap but every time I started falling asleep we came up with a new idea. After that we laid around the courtyard a bit then went to dinner at The Slug and Lettuce and dessert at a froyo place. Now here I am, and it's almost 10 o'clock if that shows you how much time I've wasted.

Ok, so you've heard about my day and lack of productivity, but I promise days like these aren't actually wasted. It's no secret that studying abroad allows you to find yourself, but we didn't realize that it would make us question things that seemed so definite before we came here. We spent a lot of time talking today about what comes next, after this wonderful "vacation." One of my friends (sorry I won't say names-- angry parents, yikes!) was all set to take her GRE and apply to grad school, and now she might take a year off. Another isn't sure about whether to add another year or get it over with. And me? I thought once I picked interior design I was set, but who knows. I want to do it all- historic preservation, sustainability, architecture, my passion for planning in public relations and event planning, my minor in professional writing and editing. Then there's the idea of doing something that has nothing to do with school: I played violin for 14 years, should I go back to what I know best? My ballet instructor told me I have beautiful feet and the figure- should I go with the talents I was born with? Where is the line between a dream and possibility? How much longer do we really have to figure it all out?

Most of us are set to graduate in May (obviously, not me) but what happens after that? Is that something we can figure out in Africa? We're almost one month in and already our lives have been thrown off course... Where do we go from here? Well, T.I.A. (This is Africa).... I'm sure if we look hard enough we'll find an answer somewhere :)

Women's Day Holiday

Today is a national public holiday, Women's Day, so we don't have class. Technically, most of us don't have class on Fridays anyway because there are no IPSU courses available. A lot of us, however, do VCE at the primary school, but not today because they, too, are out of school.

This morning I finally woke up to sunshine! We had a really warm week so the cold and rain caught me off guard these past few days. I decided to make the most of it and go running. I ran a good distance, down Bosman, onto Victoria, then down Rynveld to Banghoek and the rest of the stretch home. It felt so good to get back out on the road :)

When I got back everyone was sitting in the courtyard and had decided they wanted to hike today. I had just enough time to change and grab some food before we went out. We hiked Stellenbosch Mountain again, but this time we went all the way to the top of the first peak. The hike was pretty tough; it was very steep and at one point we actually had to climb up some rocks. But the view from the top was incredible and so worth it! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but others took pictures so I'll have to borrow one to show. We looked to the left and saw the ocean then realized we could see Table Mountain and Cape Town!! It was stunning.

So far it's shaping up to be a nice weekend and the weather is cooperating! We might head to Cape Town tomorrow so stay tuned!

Good night from South Africa!

Thursday's Post: German!

Thursdays are such long days! I start at 10am, meaning I leave at 9:30am, and I'm not done until 7pm, so I'm not home til 7:30pm. My last class of the day is German and I love the class but at that point I'm so tired I can't focus. But! I decided since I gave you an example of Afrikaans, I would tell you a little about German.

We've learned introductions, but most of the words I can't write out because of the symbols. We have learned about several occupations and countries. The main difference I noticed is the grammar. In English, you can say "The boy ate the ice cream," with "boy" as your subject and "ice cream" as your object. If we switched  the subject and object, it would change the entire meaning of the phrase, and we'd have a scary situation. However, in German, you can switch your subjects and objects and still have the same meaning. This is where German is more lenient that English. German verb conjugation is more difficult than English, however. I took 3 years of Latin so I'm finding it easy but I still have to memorize the endings and think hard before I say something. The similarity between the conjugations is that "to be" is still very different and make no sense to anyone why it is the way it is!

Sorry I don't have too much to share with you but it has been such a long day and I am exhausted! Guten Abend from Suid Afrika! 

Wednesday's Post: Food We Miss

I had no classes Wednesday so it was hard to think of a blog post. Then we sat around talking about pumpkin pie and I realized that there are a lot of foods we miss while we're here. Some you can find in the local stores but they taste differently, others you have to make from scratch, and some you can't find at all in South Africa. The ones we can't find at all are the ones we crave the most, of course. Here's what we've come up so far:

Foods that don't taste as good here:
Bacon
Pizza- except for Roman's, most pizzas are a lot sweeter and much less saucier than American pizza
Anything that would be salty at home; we're constantly adding more salt to everything!
Yogurt
Ketchup
Milk
Eggs
Pickles

Foods we have to make from scratch:
Ok, so far none... we thought cake mix and pancakes (actually, flapjacks here) but we found them!

Foods we can't find at all:
Pumpkin Pie
Turkey
Pickles-- I know I put this on the list above but that's because I found dill gherkins-- they're smaller and not nearly as crunchy, and of course not as salty
Mac 'n cheese (the way we're used to)

Foods we were surprised to find:
Nutella
Cheetos (called NikNaks maize snacks)
McDonald's!
Ketchup
Frosted Flakes (called Frosties)

Foods that are unique to here but are awesome:
A lot of the candy-- I really like Nosh or Niosh (?) bars

Good night from South Africa!

Tuesday's Post: Afrikaans!

Tuesday was quite a long day, so I apologize for not posting anything until now.

I had my first Afrikaans class and it was so fun that I thought I would share some basic words with you!

Hello- Hallo
Goeiemore! Hoe gaan dit? - Good morning! How's it going?

Some vocabulary we learned:
hopeloos- without hope
berge- mountains
donker- dark
goeie- good
loer- the act of looking at someone shyly so as not to let them see you
 * I love when languages have a simple word to describe a concept! :)

Other fun words:
geesdrif- uplifted spirit/ enthusiastic
vet pret- literally, "fat fun"/ a lot of fun
vriende- friends
taalspeletjies- language games
 *we learned all of these in a game, and this one happened to be mine to pronounce on my first day! I was a champ though :)

For homework, we were told to pick 2 letters and look in the dictionary for a word for each letter. This will be our vocabulary lesson on Thursday and we will all contribute 2 words. I chose "s" and "a" and picked the following words:
1. sagteband- paperback, softcover book
2. atjar- pickles

Goeiemore from South Africa! Have a wonderful day and look forward to Wednesday's actual post!

SHARK WEEK!

In honor of the infamous craze over Shark Week back at home, I've decided to make today's post all about sharks. More specifically, about the ones my friends met this weekend! Now, you guys know I get seasick so I had to chicken out on this one but I promise you still won't wanna miss this post.

First of all, this is my friend Lisa:

Lisa is terrified of sharks. 

Here's the shark that wanted to eat Lisa's face off:

Yay Lisa for facing her fear!!

My friends Emmi, Molly, and Nick went, too.

They took some really cool underwater shots.

Evan and Cody were there too... 

Cody got a really cool video of the shark that tried to eat Lisa, but I can't embed it on my blog, so you'll have to find it on Facebook :)

Overall, they had a great time. While everyone at home is grabbing their popcorn to watch Shark Week, we kicked it off the right way! So glad my friends came home in one piece and weren't eaten by any vicious sharks... 

Or birds...

Happy Shark Week from South Africa! 

Sundays in Stellenbosch

First off, let me start by saying what an amazing weekend it has been! A lot of my friends decided to go shark cage diving Saturday, but I didn't want to pay $140 to get seasick so I thought I was going to be stuck home alone. Instead, our other friends invited me to go to Grape Day Out with them. GDO is this huge end-of-winter wine tasting and fashion event held at the Stellenbosch Woodmill. We basically sampled wines and foods and interacted with locals. I hate wine (I always expect it to taste like grape juice), but I found one I like (because it actually tastes like grape juice). We stayed for a few hours then headed home. Instead of going straight to Concordia we decided it was time for dessert, so we headed to 5 Ryneveld- the same place we had been the night before for Emmi's birthday. Luckily our waitress from the night before didn't see us indulging in our guilty pleasure-- chocolate fondant! After dessert I took a nap and woke up when Emmi got home. We showed each other pictures from our day and went out for a late dinner at Juliann's, a really cool restaurant where you can play games at your table.

Now, to the title topic of the day. Morgantown is a very relaxed and easy place to spend a Sunday, but there's never anything special about it. I've always though Bridgeport was a beautiful place for an afternoon stroll. And I never thought anything could compare to a long drive by the river after church service in Philippi. Stellenbosch has topped it all. This morning, my friend Tobias and I met at Stellenbosch Baptist for church. It was a little earlier than I am used to, it started at 9:30am, but everyone was very welcoming. Even though it's a baptist church, there were a lot of differences.  It was set up more like a contemporary church with the 3 sections and 2 aisles. There were people my age who sang and played all the instruments, along with the Pastor who played  the piano. He's very young, maybe mid-30s. All the songs were projected on a screen, no hymnals. And they were contemporary songs like you would hear on the radio, not really hymns. It was a communion Sunday so I got to experience that for the first time in a Baptist church! They passed out wine or juice in little glasses and small pieces of bread, we didn't go up to the alter for it. Then there were holes in the backs of the pews in front of us to place the empty glass. The pastor preached on praying and all the bible verses were on the screen so we didn't flip through them nearly as much as at home. And the biggest difference was that they use the New International Version. It says the same  things but it's translated to better understand it- no thee's or thou's or old language. In the end we finally sang a song I knew, What a friend we have in Jesus, but they adapted it and it didn't sound the same at all. After service we had tea in the lobby and met the pastor's wife.

After church I came home to grab some lunch then Emmi and I decided to explore the town a little and take pictures. We walked through the botanical garden and down the local streets, then into an art shop. We met the carver who made tons of animals out of wood. All of his work is beautiful! Next we decided to go down some streets we hadn't been before, and found a gorgeous building that I later found out is the seminary school. The neighboring streets have a lot of pretty guest houses and I even saw an architect's office but can't remember the name. The streets here are so beautiful. It feels like a small European town but then there's palm trees lining the streets; you can just feel the history and cultural influences. My favorite street, Van Riebeeck, has a bubbling stone-lined stream and foliage and flowers everywhere. It's shaded and breezy, which makes it the perfect area for a walk. There's something about Stellenbosch on Sunday that puts your mind at ease and helps you prepare for the week ahead. Sundays here feel like home. 

Saturday's Post: A Reflection of Ikaya Primary School

Visiting the Ikaya Primary School this morning was such an exciting experience! I was nervous to meet the students because I only knew a little isiXhosa, but I knew it wasn't enough to carry on a conversation. I quickly learned the biggest lesson I think all people learn when they submit themselves to learning about a foreign culture: a language barrier is never a friendship barrier. I spent most of my time telling the children "heke," or "good job" in isiXhosa, or "ewe," "yes," or just smiling because I had no idea what to say. As time went on, however, we found ways to communicate. One girl noticed my watch and played with it during our math lesson so I used the numbers on it to count with her. It was incredible to see that our language barrier didn't stop the kids from being kids: full of energy and always ready to make a new friend! 

Oh the Places You'll Go

I believe the title for this entry is appropriate for the day I had. It is both a children's book and relevant to my life for the next 5 months. Today I went to a place I never thought I would have the opportunity to go to before studying abroad: the Ikaya Primary School in Kayamandi.

The day started with a check-in; each student says his or her name, how we are feeling, what we expect out of the day, and then check in, followed by the group's response, "yo." We then were divided into groups to go to classrooms, which will remain our classrooms for the remainder of the semester. I am in group 5 and there are six of us, 4 girls and 2 guys. We met our class and they welcomed us with a song. We introduced ourselves (Molo! Ndingu igama lahko? Ndingu igama lam Corie), and that was where my experience with isiXhosa stopped. We spent the next few minutes awkwardly trying to communicate with the children but it did get easier. We watched them draw for a few minutes then it was time for math. We sang a counting song in isiXhosa and then played with a matching numbers puzzle. I learned that they typically count in English; some of the kids even went up to 12 and they are only in preschool so I was impressed! I also learned that they start counting on their pinkies. I kept saying "one" while holding up my index finger and they just looked at me like I was mad. The children were very cute, I think they had us all captured within the first few minutes. During math time, one little girl noticed my watch and kept playing with it. I'll admit this made me feel awkward because I couldn't tell if she just liked it or didn't know what it was or wanted to play with it, so I didn't know how to react or, even worse, how to react in isiXhosa, and I couldn't get her to pay attention to class. Luckily I found a way to communicate with her; I pointed to the numbers on my watch and she counted to 12 with me, smiled, and started over.

After about an hour in the classroom the children had lunch and we met with the large group to go over announcements. The entire experience was so fun and we are all really excited to go back and see the children. We won't go back next week because it is a public holiday, but the week afterwards we will have an activity on the theme of fruit. My group has already brainstormed a few ideas so we're all excited to present them to the students.

After we got home, Emmi, Molly, Nick, Joe, and I took short hike up Stellenbosch mountain. It was such a beautiful day! Hot, but tolerable. We found a pond of water at the bottom that we were so excited to jump into after the hike, but once we came back and looked at the sign we realized it might not be the best idea to swim in toxic water.

    


At 6 we went to 5 Ryneveld for Emmi's birthday dinner and then stopped by the Olympus international braai before finally heading home. We are all exhausted! Everyone but Joe and I are going shark cage diving tomorrow so we're heading to bed pretty early. I bought a ticket to Grape Day Out, which is a wine, food, and fashion day somewhere outside Stellenbosch. I'll be going with a few other girls in the AIFS program and I'm pretty excited!



Goodnight from South Africa! :)