Day 9 Updates

Hi!  So I figure I should update everyone one on Cape Town life!

Things are finally starting to settle in here (to some extent).  Today we officially finished our week and a half of orientation.  It's like being a freshman again!  But so much better.  We had a few days of CIEE (my abroad program) and UCT orientation so I've gotten to meet a lot of people from the US and internationally.  I'm definitely starting to look forward to classes even more though because I want to meet more South Africans!

I'm really enjoying where I live.  The location is great and it's a spacious and comfortable place.  Tomorrow I register for classes!  Although I register tomorrow, we don't actually start until Feb 11.  Things are a lot earlier for international students so we have a lot of time to kill before real classes.  So this Saturday, myself and 3 other friends are renting a car and going on a 5 day Garden Route tour!!  We're starting off by going to an outdoor music festival on a river!  It's called Up the Creek.  A lot of students will be there.  We'll be staying in a tent near our other CIEE/UCT friends Saturday night.  From there we're going to Oudtshoorn to see ostriches (I expect to ride yet another one of these wild birds and feed them just for funzies) and to see the Cango Caves.  We'll be going to the biggest bungy jump in the world the next day.  I just designated myself photographer because for those of you who don't know I am deathly afraid of heights.  Like the idea of not bungy jumping literally doesn't phase me.  A lot of other people are thinking they'd be really bummed if they don't and they'll regret it, etc.  I am so indifferent - I think I'd regret actually doing it haha.  So lucky for you dad, one more life threatening obstacle is avoided.  We're going on a game drive from there where we hope to see the "Big 5" aka the most dangerous animals in Africa - lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, rhino.  Next we're planning to hike, enjoy the beaches, and go to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa.  We're getting really excited for our trip.  We can rent a GPS for our car from the car rental. Again, don't worry dad!!  We're going into Claremont tomorrow (a nicer area with a mall) to get the other essentials.  How appropriate that the friends I'm going with are super planners just like me!  It makes everything relatively stress free to plan.  Also, our family friend Ronell has been really helpful with the trip planning as well.

Anyhoo, just be expecting some exciting posts in the near future.  Tonight we're going to a braai (aka a South African bbq), then a lot of students are going to a club called Tiger Tiger.  We went last week and it was really fun.  It's in a really nice part of town (Ronell said she used to live there) and it was a really fun, young crowd.

I also found a place I want to volunteer at!  It's through an organization called SHAWCO that has educational facilities in local townships.  They bus us in and out.  It was started at UCT in 1948 so it's a pretty notable organization.  I'm hoping to work with students grades 1-7.  I was talking to one of the volunteers today about the volunteering there and it was a really interesting conversation (side note:  I didn't know I was capable of asking so many questions as I have this past week).   The government here requires students to wear uniforms so even when you're in a township, kids are all dressed very nicely in their uniforms.  In South Africa, uniforms are something that people take great pride in.  It's basically a statement of "I'm doing something to make my life better by getting an education."  Also, they uniforms are a big expense because they are not paid for by the government.  I asked if that created an issue with parents not sending a child to school because of the uniform expenses, but the guy I was talking to didn't really express that that was a big concern here.

We also learned that many of the education issues stem back to Apartheid (naturally).  When the country was divided by race, they also were divided by the quality of education they could receive.  Because children in black or coloured communities were not given a strong education, those children grew up to teach the schools even though they did not have the proper qualifications.  There is a huge focus on education here because of this.  I think it makes a lot of sense because I really strongly believe that an education empowers someone.  I have felt many times in my life that I am who I am and where I am because of my education and the incredible educational opportunities I have been given.  In a culture where violence, drugs, and gangs are so prevalent, I think that teaching children and raising a more educated generation could eventually lessen the serious issues in SA such as these (violence, etc.).  Obviously it's nothing that happens over night, but through a big effort, I'm sure there would be some type of change/improvement.

It's getting to be about braai time!  I'm off to eat (surprising, I know) then hang out with friends.  Tomorrow's registration so wish me luck!  I'm planning to register for South African History until 1900, African Dance, and General Geology (we apparently do field trips to the mountains to look at rocks).  I got into the Living and Learning in Cape Town seminar, which is a CIEE only class where we basically discuss some of the more prevalent issues in Cape Town and South Africa.  I'm really excited about that.  I'm also going to try to get into Intro to Marketing to fulfill one of my business minor requirements.  Credits are weird here so I'm 12 credits short with only the 3 classes (the CIEE class doesn't count toward my credits).  I wanted to only take 3 classes here so I can have more time to do other things, but realistically I have a ton more time here so I'm not too worried about it.  I wouldn't mind getting another class out of the way anyway because my senior year is looking to be pretty full.  That's all for now!  Peace.

Rondebosch Court

Woohoo!!  I’ve finally moved into the apartment I’ll be living in for the rest of the semester!  We started off in orientation housing, so it’s exciting to be able to move in and get settled for real.  Here’s a lovely picture of my apartment building, which is called Rondebosch Court. 

There are 3 floors of CIEE students living here and an RA on every floor.  It also feels very safe.  It takes 4 keys to get from the entrance of the building to the door to my room and there is a front desk attendant as well.  Between 6pm and 6am, CIEE has security guards on watch that also will walk us anywhere we want to go.  They’re called the Guardian Angels.  We’ve been talking a lot about safety here the past few days so it’s definitely been on my mind.  I’m happy with this apartment particularly because it is so close to campus that it is easier (and seemingly safer) to get around.

It has an ideal location. It’s right above the ice cream/frozen yogurt shop (my life dream) and across the street from Woolsworth (which is similar to Whole Foods and Trader Joes).  There’s also a Pick N Pay about 2 minutes away (like a Ralphs and CVS combined) and a fruit stand right outside our door!  I won’t be starving here for sure. 

I share a room with one other girl (who goes to Penn State) and there are five girls in our flat all together.  We have a bathroom, really nice kitchen, and a great view!  I'll put up a picture of my room eventually but it's not that exciting as of now (gotta get a tapestry for the wall at Greenmarket Square).

It’s also right across the street from Cocoa Wah Wah (a yummy café with free wifi) and Pig & Swizzle (the local bar/hangout).  Cool stuff.

Peninsula Tour

Hi there!  So yesterday, we went on a tour of the Cape Peninsula with all the exchange students from UCT.  We still have about 2 weeks before class starts, so it’s been really nice getting to see the sights and get oriented with where we are.  The Cape Peninsula is in the Western Cape (the province where UCT is located).  We drove down the Garden Route for a bit and made stops along the way.  This got me super excited for the Garden Route trip my friends and I are planning for next week!  We got a tour (by bus) through the central city of Cape Town, which was nice because we got to see more than what we did the other day on foot.  We then drove the coast and made numerous stops at popular and beautiful beaches.  Every beach here is stunning.  It actually looks just like a movie or a postcard or a dream.  I imagine this is what heaven would look like (when I casually sit around imagining what heaven looks like). 

Did I mention it was RIDICULOUSLY windy yesterday?  Also, there were 13 buses of UCT exchange students, which is why there are 3472981459 people behind me.  I think there also was an Asian tour group there as well.

Anyhoo, one of the stops along the way was at a township called Ocean View.  For those of you who don’t know, a township is the equivalent of what we’d call “slums.”  This is where the majority of people living in poverty live in SA.  Townships are normally divided by race – either black or coloured.  There are no white townships.  They can range a lot in size and quality.  The worst township I’ve seen between the time I visited last time and this past week is a township that goes for miles on the way in to Cape Town.  Houses are tiny shacks made of tin metal, black plastic bags, and other various materials.  There is no power and no toilets.  They are extremely close together, dangerous, and highly unsanitary.  The other day we learned that the majority of Cape Town’s population lives in townships.  Many of the workers in stores and throughout the city come from these townships.

The township we visited yesterday was a coloured township.  This means residents were a mix of black and white.  It was not as poor as other townships I’ve seen while driving, but you can vividly see the poverty in the community.  When apartheid was enacted (I think that’s the right word for this.  I’m not sure if it was a specific legislation passed during apartheid though.) during the 60s, black and coloured people were forcibly removed from where they lived and made to live in these townships together – all because of their race.  A woman yesterday spoke of how as a young girl she watched her family and friends all trek to this new location with absolutely nothing.  She described it as a heartbreaking experience.  She said within a few months, many of the older members had actually died of heartbreak.  It’s a moving and horrific story, but also very powerful.  Ocean View came into being because this is where the people chose to build their new home.

Ocean View’s story, however, is one of hope.  This coloured township is working to improve and help the youth.  During the past few decades, there has been a ton of violence, drugs, poverty, and other problems as a result of this forced removal.  The town has decided to empower youth through the arts in order to give them skills and keep them off the streets.  This township also has a unique partnership with UCT and I believe this is where I’ll be staying when I do my weekend homestay in a township (although I’m not sure if this is it, I just am guessing based off the relationship between UCT and this community.)

When all 600+ students came in, we were greeted by a youth wind band that played for us.  These children ages 9-18 were AWESOME.  I actually was holding back tears because the whole experience was so moving (I didn’t want to be that one girl crying in the front row).  A retired Navy Commander who wanted to help Ocean View created the band.  It is an afterschool program that they also said has positive disciplinary effects because of the commander’s past.  Although many of the students were young, four of them were now enrolled in college.  To me this is absolutely incredible!  Here are these kids who may not realize they have the passion or talent for music because they cannot be exposed to it.  This man totally changed that and the community is already seeing positive results just in these four students who are now attending a university.  It’s also really cool to see how many young kids are involved now – it’s another positive sign for the future of Ocean View.

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, we were served a great lunch and got to see other performances from the local kids, including some really great dancing and singing.  It blows my mind to think that something as simple as exposure to music, art, or dance can severely impact a life and a community in such a positive way.  It sounds like it would be impossible for something as simple as this to make such a change, but I think it is one of the best options out there.

It’s also got me thinking about what I want to do when I volunteer here.  We’ll have a lot of great opportunities and I’ve been thinking about helping with education through tutoring or mentoring, but after yesterday I’ve started thinking about maybe trying to organize some type of bi-weekly dance class for kids in one of the places UCT students volunteer.  I’m not sure how feasible this is, but I definitely want to look into it.  Dance has been a huge part of my life.  I love it and even though I don’t dance a lot at GW, I honestly know I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.  I would love to share my passion with kids who might also benefit from it as well.

That’s just my thoughts on the Ocean View part of the day, but back to the Peninsula Tour. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.  We walked around the Cape of Good Hope and had an awesome time.  It is an amazing place! (I should stop using that word).

Public Transportation is fun!

During the past 3 days, I’ve gotten a decent idea for how transportation works around here.  I was worried about it at first, but now everything seems much more manageable!  There are basically 4 ways to get around – walk, take the train, call a cab, or take a mini bus.  The first is easy.  As long as you’re not walking alone at night, it’s pretty safe near campus.  If it’s an unfamiliar area it’s always better to have others as well.  Don’t worry Papa, I use the buddy system a lot and usually there are guys there too so it’s not particularly unsafe. 

The second means of transportation is the train.  There are 2 train stops within a 5 minute walk from where I live so that’s super convenient.  You go up to the station, pay for a ticket, and get on.  There’s a first class car, which costs 2 rand more and that is what we’ve been doing as it is safer.  Obviously, the train is only safe during the day and that’s another place where big groups are needed and you really have to watch your purse.  Don’t worry, there’s no Tsotsi action going on!  As long as you make smart choices it’s safe and a good/easy way to get around.  It costs about 8 rand (less than $1) to get from campus to the central city of Cape Town and it probably takes about 12 minutes to get there.  The first time we rode the train, we went with our South African RA, but yesterday a group of 5 girls and I went on our own and felt really accomplished that we’re figuring out how to get around out here!

Calling a cab is another way to get around.  It’s easy and very safe.  It’s basically the equivalent of calling a cab company here and arranging a pick up spot.  It’s a well-organized business and is very professional.  This is the best way to get around at night for sure and still isn’t too expensive.  A ten-minute drive to a club in a nice area of town the other night cost me and three other friends about $2 each.

The last way to get around in Cape Town is via mini bus.  Today was a big day.  Why may you ask?  Because Hannah and I first used the mini bus to get around.  We felt pretty accomplished.  I’ve included a picture below for your viewing pleasure.  It was our lucky day because we got the party van.  Usually the buses are plain white, so this one is an anomaly.  We listened to Girl on Fire and Gangnam Style on our ride on FULL BLAST.  The car was actually shaking.  Also, did I mention that there were 16 people crammed into this thing?  Well, there were.  It was pretty cool.  It only cost us about 75 cents for what was a 30 minute walk!  The mini bus is great during the day and with a group.  Would never ride it alone or at night, but it’s a great way to get around at an inexpensive price!  The guys in the buses are the ones that yell at you when you’re walking on the street, but I’ve noticed they yell at everyone.  It’s pretty normal for them to drive by and yell all the way down the street.  They have specific pick up and drop off points, but if you’re driving and you wave them down, they’re happy to pull over so you can jump in.

It’s pretty cool being able to explore and get to know the city/country.  It feels like something I would’ve thought was impossible when I was young, but would’ve really wanted to do.  I feel really independent in being able to figure these things out on my own and I love the experience of getting thrown in to something completely foreign and making it my own.  The next use of public transportation will be learning to take the Jammie (the school shuttle) to get around campus and into Cape Town.  Looking forward to the next adventure!

The long overdue post

Ahhh, finally a moment to catch up on the past few days!  A ton has gone on (naturally, I mean I just moved to a continent on the other side of the world), so I’m looking forward to catching you up and taking a mental note of it for myself as well.

Where to start!?!?  Ok, I’ll start with the flight.  30 hours.  Of death, doom, and destruction.  JK!  That was a lie.  The flight was totally fine.  I slept (barely) and watched some really good movies that I’d wanted to see.  They were movies that I’d be embarrassed to admit to seeing, so I will not comment on which ones they were (but I will say that Blake Lively’s performance in Savages was subpar). 

The first flight was almost empty so I got to sit in the emergency exit row with lots of leg space then move to an empty row to lay down and (try to) sleep.  It was ideal.  Also, they did not serve ice cream (I read on Yelp that they did).  That was a bummer.  But it’s okay because my mom made really good banana bread and that was a good way to pass the time.  I sat next to a girl who is studying abroad here on a different program on the 2^nd leg, which was nice.  We talked a lot and I really liked her.  But after sleeping a roughly estimated 3 hours on the second flight, we FINALLY began our decent!  This was quite possibly the most exciting moment thus far because this trip was actually a reality!  I was flying into Africa and getting a great view on the way in. 

Oh, well would you look at that!  The Western Cape from the view of the plane!  Paradise awaits. 

The goal for the first day was A: don’t nap or I’ll never get over the jet lag, B: meet some friends to get started on this African adventure, C: go to bed early so I can catch up from an exhausting 2 day, relatively sleepless travel.  I succeeded with A and B.  C – not so much. 

A few of us decided to go exploring once we got here.  We started by getting our new South African phones. 

This baby cost me a whopping 150 Rand.  In other words about $17. Back to the dark ages and couldn’t be happier about it!  When I first left, $1 was about 8.7 rands.  As of yesterday, $1 is now 9 rands.  The odds are looking to be in my favor. Then we proceeded to find a restaurant on Rondebosch Street.  The University of Cape Town is located in the Western Cape, which is basically the equivalent of what a state would be in the U.S.  Within the Western Cape, it is in Rondebosch, or what would be the city within the state.  The main road in Rondebosch is about a 5-minute walk from campus.  This is also where I’ll be living this semester!  But I’ll talk about that later.  We went to a place called Cocoa Wah Wah for lunch, which was nice, yummy, and relaxing.  Fun fact: they also have free wifi there (for a limited amount of time) so I’ll be spending a lot of time there in the future most likely trying to upload pictures to Facebook or writing on this blog.

After refueling we decided to explore campus.  The campus is HUUUGGGGEEE.  No joke.  It’s massive!  It’s also literally the most beautiful campus I’ve ever seen!  It’s on the opposite side of the Table Mountain mountain range (Table Mountain is one of the “New 7 Wonders of the World.”  Not sure what happened to the “old” 7 wonders, but to be honest I don’t care because the old wonders didn’t include Table Mountain so I can handle the new addition) and it’s situated at the bottom of the mountain.  It is a little slice of heaven.  This is a view from my room.

The campus reminds me of Stanford’s a bit.  The only difference is that it’s a totally difference student body (duh), it is situated on a mountain, and it’s much more quaint in my personal opinion.  I can’t wait until classes start so I can have more reasons to walk around or hang out on campus.  The pictures I included are only of Upper Campus.  There's upper, middle, and lower campus.  For a school of 24,000 I guess it makes sense that this campus is so big!

I’ve also decided that UCT is everything I always wanted in a university but don’t have at GW.  To clarify that statement - I love GW!  Don’t get me wrong – but I still wish I could have a “normal” college experience sometimes.  Not so much that I’d ever go to a different university, but mostly just because I like to experience a lot of different things and I’m always curious about what that would be like.  I feel like I have 2 sides (as a person).  The dominant part of me is very motivated, diligent, and strongly committed to what I do.  I want to excel and I’m willing to work very hard to do that.  At the same time, I want nothing more than a simple lifestyle.  I love the “little things” such as taking time for myself to write (like this) and relax (shout out to yoga for mental relaxation).  It’s nice not to have a schedule and to do what I want when I want it.  I also really love to learn and just think at my own pace.  That sounds super dorky, but when I’m able to stop planning and working I feel at peace with myself.  In reality though, I would be unhappy with myself for being a complacent bum because I want to do more with my life.  So basically these two things are complete opposites and there is no possible way that I’ll ever be able to achieve both of them happily.  BUT there is hope.

Let me explain:  UCT is the university I always wanted but never had.  It is located in a beautiful place.  Some of my friends were talking about how we feel like we’re on a movie set every day because it’s so unreal.  It also has a real campus where students are enthusiastic and invested in their university.  They are spirited and fun (but not so much so that they don’t focus on their studies.  I’ve gathered a lot of that from the RAs).  Also, although I’ll never have a college football team to call my own, I do think that I’ll be able to fill that void through UCT’s Rugby team!  It’s a hugely popular sport here and I’m already looking forward to going to the games regularly (I don’t think I’ve even been this excited to go to any GW sporting event.  Then again, the only GW sporting event I’ve ever gone to is a basketball game.  And I’d say I’ve been to no more than 5 of them).  While I’m here I’ll also be able to focus on me.  I know, it’s really selfish.  I will 100% admit it.  But, I decided it’s okay to be selfish about that because if I allow myself to be selfish now, it’ll help me become a better person later.  It will be nice for the first time to make my own commitments to myself and to what I want to do.  I only need to be responsible for myself and no one else (quite a relief).  I don’t have any other commitments.  I have no rules or mandatory events to go to.  I can do homework when I want.  I can spend time with friends when I want.  I can sit underneath a tree if I want to and write in my journal.  Maybe I’ll even go to some of UCT’s free ballet classes that are held during the week!  I can choose to make this semester about what I want to do and accomplish personally for myself.  I don’t remember the last time I ever had this experience.  All throughout elementary and high school, I was dedicated to dance, song, and tennis. During college, Sigma Kappa has become my #1 commitment. I do not regret any of this and loved every second of it.  I am incredibly thankful for these opportunities and commitments in my life because they have made me who I am today.  But that doesn’t lessen my excitement to have nothing tying me down this semester.

Another aspect of UCT that I love is that it has its own college town.  There is an area where students can get all we need and there’s even an awesome bar called Pig and Swizzle where students and the locals can hang out!  We went there on the first night (the night I said I would go to bed early but didn’t) and had so much fun!  I even met a professional Cricket player there!  I mean, I don’t know anything about Cricket (except I wonder if it’s a real sport), so maybe it’s not that cool to be fraternizing with professional cricket players, but it made me feel cool so for the sake of my ego we’re going to pretend that’s a super lekker feat.  Lekker is the South African way of saying cool.  I’ve decided to add it to my vocabulary.  Lekker bra (the South African way of saying “cool dude”).

This isn’t really one of the reasons why I love UCT, but it’s an interesting and fun fact.  Apparently University of Cape Town is a very prestigious school.  According to one of my friends, it is the best university in all of Africa (I guess that’s not a huge surprise), but I was surprised to learn that it is comparable to Harvard or Yale back in the states.  Just to put that to scale though, although it is the “best” school in Africa, it also ranked 171^st in the world…  So that gives a little perspective about what that means.

Anyhoo (to have a strong conclusion sentence to successfully wrap up this mini essay in an essay), I’ll just say that UCT is going to be great for me.  It will allow me to have something I’ve always wanted in my education, but won’t allow me to become complacent and stop “reaching for the stars” so to speak.  It’s like a much needed life vacation that will be both mentally healthy and motivating for my future.  I’m pretty stoked about this.

Ok that’s all for now, but I have so much more that I’ll post later!  I’ll talk about where I’m living, all the beautiful people that live here (seriously, they’re all models not obnoxious ones).  But like subtle models, Table Mountain, the Waterfront, other escapades, why being abroad is like freshman year again (but SO much better), and some of the cool things I’ve learned which make me love this country even more exciting!

I woke up in AFRICA today!

I also woke up in Africa yesterday too haha but it just sounded cool to say.  I've been kind of keeping a journal of the things I've been doing so when it comes to blogging I'll remember everything that's going on.  Internet access is pretty limited (as in - unlimited wifi is not even a thing) so thankfully for you I have to keep this post short.  I'm at an internet cafe with some friends enjoying a glass of wine (so classy, I know).  Some things I've picked up so far:

-You have to get used to the guys whistling at you when you walk down the street.  There are these white van-like taxis taxis that have guys in them that basically hoot and holler at everyone to get people to get in, but they really like females.

-Everything is on "Africa time". Aka nothing is on time at all. Even when there's a set time, it still doesn't happen until 45 minutes later. I'm really enjoying this and actually think its a very healthy way to live, maybe not the most efficient but it's so relaxing and stress-free.

-There is no such thing as a pedestrian right of way. Learned this the hard way when we almost got hit numerous times the past 2 days. Lesson learned. Crosswalks are key.

I'm running out of Internet (eek!) so this is it for today! To come: updates on Table Mountain visit (one of the seven natural wonders of the world), Cape Town first day, and updates on what I've been doing and learning about for the past 2 days (so much)! ll also include some pictures. In the midst of planning our Garden Route trip and Up the Creek music festival next week!!

Tomorrow!!!!

Tomorrow is finally the day!!!! I cannot WAIT for the adventures I'm going to have in South Africa!  Although many people have been giving me advice, my dad and grandpa are trying to out-advise everyone.  So for them I've put together a special list of things I should definitely do while in Cape Town.

1) Walk around by myself (especially at night)
2) Go bungee jumping (even more favorable because I just looove heights)
3) Wear short skirts and other revealing outfits (when I'm walking alone)
4) Go out late at night (it is advised that I do this by myself, then have more drinks than the Lanie breathalyzer would like, and wear a short skirt)
5) Go shark diving (mmmm cold water, my favorite!)
6) Bring a South African man home for Thanksgiving and introduce him to the family as my new boyfriend (just kidding)
7) Papa was reeeaaally adamant on me getting (and I quote) "a bone through my nose." Very politically correct, Papa.

Don't worry Dad and Papa!  If you're reading this I'll make sure to add to the list as I go!  I'll definitely blog about all the safe decisions (such as these) that I'm making, so you won't have FOMO (fear of missing out).

It's pretty exciting to think that in 2 days (ugh 30 hour flight) I'll be in Cape Town.  It's been fun packing because I love summer weather so I'm bringing all my favorite clothes with me!  Also on that note, I feel like I'm not bringing enough.  I'm sure I am, but I've never had such an easy time packing as I have had for this.  We'll see what I forgot when I get there I guess.

But in all seriousness, I went to dinner tonight with my family, Papa and Gigi, and Agathe (shocker) and Gigi was talking about what a small world it is that I'm going to South Africa.  To make a long story short, about 20 or so years ago, Papa and Gigi met two friends on a cruise.  These friends lived in George, South Africa and they stayed in touch after their vacation.  My grandparents visited them in South Africa two or three times before my family traveled with them.  While we were there, we were lucky enough to stay with them for a few days.  I'm not sure if Gigi and Papa had been to South Africa before they had met the van Aswegens, but my understanding is they visited the country after they met them.

One of the most memorable experiences I had in South Africa was with the van Aswegens at their incredible house that overlooked the Indian Ocean.  The house alone was absolutely incredible.  I still stand by the fact that if I could build myself a dream home in twenty-five years, this would be it - down to the bontebok that ran wild in their backyard.  (Because 99% of the people who will be reading this do not know what a bontebok is, I included a picture.  Don't get too excited though.  We didn't take this picture.  It's from Google.  But it looks just like it could have been taken in their backyard.)

But beyond the breathtaking home, the experiences I had at this couple's house really impacted my life - so much so that I wrote about it in my college essays and am still writing about it today now that I'm getting involved in certain aspects of my study abroad program. To make yet another long story short, Ronell (aka Mrs. van Aswegen) was a retired concert pianist who had decided to choose musically talented students from a nearby coloured township and teach them how to play the piano.  This program was not intended to teach them a skill, but was designed to fulfill a vocation.  She wanted to give these students an opportunity to leave their unstable communities with the hopes of a bright future through a university scholarship.  One night at the Van Aswegen’s house, Ronell held a small recital in which five of her students performed for my family and me.  I was blown away by the music that came from their fingertips, but even more astounded by the students’ optimism, passion for music, and overall positive outlook on life.  

I grew up sort of assuming that people who lived in less than great circumstances must be unhappy and bitter, but after meeting these students, I was absolutely amazed.  I felt like these students appeared to be happier with their lives than even some of the most “successful” people that I knew.  I was fascinated by the idea of getting to know more about them, their country, culture, and history.  I wanted to learn from them and grow from my experiences with them.  

On this one night, I learned that one person’s actions can significantly change the lives of many.  Ronell saw that her culture was determining what people should do with their lives.  If someone grew up in a township with racial barriers, they raised their children there because that is what they knew.  Society’s views had taken control so that people were settling for their standards instead of trying to aim for something more.  So much musical talent was going to waste because people felt predetermined with what they should be.  Ronell decided that she could change these kids’ lives, and she did.  Not only did I learn that determination is one of the most powerful character traits a person could have, but also I learned our culture does not bind us.  We have the power to do what we want with our lives.  And for all those lessons, I am grateful to Neels and Ronell for opening their home to us and letting us into their lives for a few days.

Well, I didn't really make that story short, but when people ask me why I chose to study abroad in South Africa, this is basically why.  I fell in love with this country when I visited and since then I've wanted to learn as much as I can about South Africans and their culture and history.  I found a journal I kept while I was there in which I basically promised myself that I would return to South Africa and help people in a similar way that Ronell did (although I don't think that's possible to do in only 5 months).  I can thank the van Aswegens for indirectly instilling this passion in me, but when it all comes down to it, I guess I really just have to be thankful that Gigi and Papa met them and befriended them on that cruise years ago!  Small world.

Anyway, I've got to get off to bed so I can (hopefully!) sleep tonight.  Next time I post it'll be from Africa!!  I'm looking forward to watching the Office, Parks and Recreation, Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love, and reading Bossypants on the flight over.  Nothing like a little comedy to get through a 30 hour flight.  Hopefully my uber stylish wrap around neck pillow will also facilitate some sleep.

PS - I wonder if I'll have cankles again when I land.  Only time will tell...

PSS - I realize no one (except my immediate family) would ever actually read this whole post.  I think I've come to the conclusion that this blog isn't meant to be read by people with short attention spans (so basically anyone).

Why Asimbonanga?

I figured I should write something about how I chose the name of my blog.  Originally I was just going to go with "Colette's Study Abroad Blog" or something lame like that.  It just didn't seem right though.  So obviously my next inclination was to name my blog after a song.  Basically anyone who knows me knows how much I love music and what a huge role it plays in my life.  Once I decided on music it was pretty easy for my to narrow in on the song Asimbonanga by Johnny Clegg.

The last time I visited South Africa was 7 years ago.  While we were there, my dad (obviously) wanted to get some popular South African music.  I don't exactly remember where we were when we discovered Johnny Clegg, but I do know that we came home with a couple of CDs because we really liked his music and we've listened to his music off and on since then.

This song was written in 1987 and translates to mean "We have not seen him."  The "him" in this song refers to Nelson Mandela.  A quick little history lesson (I've been trying to learn as much as I can about South Africa before I leave in a week!) - Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1962 for sabotage.  When this song was written, Mandela had been in prison for 25 years.  Although he was in prison, he was a powerful black leader in South Africa who envisioned an anti-apartheid South Africa and fought for what he believed.

In 1990, Mandela was released from prison and in 1994 he was elected as the first President of South Africa in the country's first fully representative democratic election.  This means black, coloured, and white citizens could all vote.  (Also side note: the term coloured basically refers to a different ethnicity/race in South Africa.  It's its own category just like black and white.)  Mandela was South Africa's first black president.  Basically, he is a huge symbol of hope in South Africa and I personally see him as one of history's greatest men to have ever lived.  He fought for what he believed - for himself and for others - and ultimately he succeeded.

Back to the blog name.  Although Asimbonanga is about the South African people yearning for Mandela's release, I think it is a hopeful song.  It's a sign that they never gave up, but continued to fight for what they believed was right.  This is one of the reasons I love South Africa so much!  To me this country exemplifies hope and a promise for the future and I think this powerful song is a perfect example.

I attached the song below.  The video is AWESOME.  Definitely worth watching all 6 minutes.  One more week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX9H40q1vlI