That cliche "I've learned so much" blogpost...

So this will probably be one of my last blog posts. This friday, June 1st, I'll be Boston bound. I have two more exams left, mathematical programming on Wednesday and statistics on Thursday, and then one night to say goodbye to everyone.
I think I've changed a lot here, not that I can really notice it, but I notice that some of my friends here have drastically changed, and so it's likely I have as well. It's been an incredible experience and it has definitely changed my life. Meeting the people I've met, experiencing what I have, seeing all of South Africa, and facing the obstacles along the way have definitely changed my perspective and taught me a lot. My friend said "South Africa has a lot of problems, but it doesn't have apartheid. One thing I've learned since being here is sometime what you don't have is more important than what you do have." I really liked this, not because its 100% true, but because it is a good starting point to explain what it's like to be here. It's not important that you DON'T have the latest gadget, or that you dont have the coolest clothes, so it's not always what you don't have that's more important. It's about appreciating the good things. There is a lot of flaws in the government, and yes, it is a violent country, but it's important to focus on the good things. The economic status of SA is improving and there are less racial barriers. A lot of people are really happy here despite the bad things. It's important to realize all the good things around you. The beautiful landscape, the wonderful weather, the friendly faces, the divine food, and the opportunities given to us. It's important to want to change the unfortunate things, and very important to take action to change things, but if you dwell on it, it wont help anything.
One huge thing I've realized since being here is how freaking incredible my life is. I mean really, I dont mean to sound like I'm all high and mighty, but I have the best family in the entire world, better friends than I could ever imagine (shout out to my bids, even though I know you dont read this), and as much as I complain about UVM, it's a great place to be. I love South Africa, it will always hold a special place in my heart, and I do want to come back here, but I seriously cannot wait to be reunited with everyone back home.  So that's about it, I've gotta get back to studying. I'll probably write a long post on my way home. Thanks for reading, and for everyone back home, I'll see you soon!

Last Week of Classes

As winter is on its way in Cape Town, the semester is winding down and the journey back home is just around the corner. This week is the last week of classes; I can’t even believe it. I’m pretty much done with all my work and tests and now all I have to do is study for final exams and make sure everything on my “To Do In Cape Town” list is crossed off. It’s starting to get a little chilly here and rain more, which sadly means no more beach days. It’s funny because South Africans are all bundled up in Ugg boots, scarves, and wool coats, and I’m still rocking shorts and t-shirts. I mean, the temperature reaches about 70 everyday, which to me is shorts weather. I think everyone else is crazy. It drops a bit at night and a sweatshirt is needed, but that’s okay. Last week I spent all week studying, but after my two tests on Thursday it was an amazing weekend. On Friday Alyssa and I went to Green Point, which is the part of town where the world cup stadium is. She had an interview/meeting with the editor of a magazine dedicated to the Cape Town music scene. Of course the editor loved her and she landed a job AND an internship in Cape Town for the summer. I’ve never been so jealous. She totally deserves it though, she is an incredible writer and has great taste in music, liveinthenownow.tumblr.com. While she had her interview I walked around and got a dress for the dinner we had that night. I found the best little boutique with really cute clothes and great prices. It was the first time I had really gone shopping here. After we met up and walked around and got lunch and drinks and chatted. We then took a minibus to the city centre and walked home, which is about an hours long walk, but it was a beautiful day and we had good conversation so it went by pretty quickly. That night Interstudy had planned a farewell dinner for us at a nice restaurant in Stellenbosch. It was a really nice dinner and then I went to Long Street after to meet up with a few friends. Saturday I had a relaxing day that started at the best place ever, Old Biscuit Mill. Then we walked along Liesbeek River, which is near our flats, and then spent the afternoon bar-hopping and enjoying beers in the sun with my Zimbabwean friends. It was a great day, and ended with a night dancing at a local bar. Sunday I watched the final English Premier League games, which I wasn’t very into, but my friends were which made it fun. It was excited when Manchester City won though, it was an intense game. So it wasn’t an incredibly exciting weekend, but I got to do all of my favorite things in Cape Town.
    Over the next few weeks I’ll have some time off to explore a bit more. There is a small mountain/hill I still want to hike, an astronomical observatory I would like to visit, a walk along the shore I would like to take, and a few other things to knock off the list. I’ll keep you updated as I go.
    I can’t believe that my time here is almost done. Even though I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends, I’m not quite done with South Africa. I plan on coming back here sometime, hopefully for longer. This is by far the best place I have ever been.

Devil's Peak & Lion's Head

View of Devil's Peak on my walk to Campus

This past week has been a bit hectic, trying to finish all of my school work and do as many things in possible within the short month thats left of this semester. I realized that while being here I had only climbed one mountain. There are three big ones around Cape Town; Table Mountain, Lions Head, and Devil’s Peak. We hiked Table early on in the semester,  but that was the only one. Tuesday was Workers Day, meaning we had no class, so we took advantage of the day-off and hiked Devil’s Peak. Campus is sort of on the bottom of the mountain, so we just walked up past Rhodes Memorial. About of a third of the way up are old outpost sort of things, one called the block house, and the other named after a princess or queen, supposedly. It was pretty steep the whole time, more difficult at the bottom and scarier towards the top. Some parts we were literally hanging on by long grass. One wrong step, or slip on the muddy terrain, and we would have fallen to a rocky death. It was definitely worth it for the amazing views of the city.

This weekend was a full moon, but not just any full moon, it was the full moon that is closest to the Earth. Lion’s head has an incredible view of the sunset and moonrise, so a few of my friends, Rachael, Karina, Emily, and Jake, hiked that in the evening to see it. We brought a picnic dinner and wine to enjoy at the top. Lions head is more rock-climbing-ish than Table Mountain, but definitely not as treacherous as Devil’s. It took us only about an hour to climb up, and even though it was cloudy it was still very beauitful. On one side the last rays of sun were shining through a thick layer of clouds, and on the other side the heavy clouds spread on top of the Twelve Disciple Mountains,  creating a sort of eerie atmosphere.

We were the only ones up there, so we ate sort of quickly and headed down before it started raining. As it got darker the city lights became more vibrant.

I think thats the only interesting stuff that’s happened. I have a lot of work this week, so I spent most of the weekend studying and doing work except for a party we had for Cinco de Mayo. Africans don’t know what it is, so we had to show them what’s up. We did it right, but apparently the neighbors didn’t think so and they called the police. Nothing happened though, they left and the party continued.

I have two huge tests this thursday, and then friday is the Farewell Dinner for Interstudy. I can’t believe the semesters almost over. Next week is the last week of classes and then finals begin. I’ll probably spend some more time exploring after classes end. My big finals are the 30th and 31st, and I get on a plane June 1st. I’m not really ready to leave yet. I’ll have to come back someday soon.

Pirates and Hippos

This has been another incredible weekend. Friday was a public holiday here, Freedom Day. We explored the old zoo again, I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but its really neat, and walked up to Rhodes Memorial, which is above campus on Devil’s Peak. There’s a incredible view of the most beautiful city in the world from the monument. It was a great afternoon.

At night a bunch of us went to a soccer game at the Green Point Stadium. Cape Town Ajax (pronounced Ahax, I think its portuguese) played the Orlando Pirates (Johannesburg). In case you don’t know, Green Point Stadium is the World Cup stadium, which was really cool to see. There was 14 of us going, but somehow we only had 12 tickets, which we didn’t notice until we were on the way. So when we got there everyone was confused about what to do, so I ran off and asked everyone (really, I pretty much asked every person I saw) if they were selling tickets. Most people were looking for tickets and I started to think that it might be a lost cause, when I finally found 2. I fought someone for them, not physically, but argued a bit, and got the tickets. They were in the 2nd row and seemed like pretty good seats, so my friend Ally and I took them. Getting in the stadium was interesting, there were really long lines to get our tickets scanned, and when we got to the front it was just a big pack of people. Of course, at that moment security decided to not let people in for some unknown reason, and the crowd was getting antsy, it was about 2 minutes from kickoff and we were right at the front. All of a sudden people had a brilliant idea to start pushing, which didn’t help. It wasn’t as bad on our side, but next to us was pretty bad with a pack of guys shoving the whole crowd right against the gates, security responded by refusing to let people in until a line was formed, which of course wasn’t happening, and they continued to push. It looked incredibly painful. Eventually security gave in before people got hurt and we got in right after kick-off. Ally and I were opposite the rest of the crew, but had amazing seats. We ended up being surrounded by Pirates fans, we decided to root for them. It’s not like we had team loyalty anyways. We were in an intense section, and stood on our seats the whole time, dancing and singing the cheers with the crowd. None of the cheers were in English so we had no idea what we were saying, but we went along with it and the crowd loved us, when we left all the people around us shook our hands.  The game ended in a tie, but it was such an amazing night.

Early saturday morning we left for an overnight getaway with most of our program. A few  people stayed behind to go to Afrikaburn, which is similar to Burning Man. We drove for about 3 hours until we got a township called Touwsrivier. It’s a very poor, colored, Afrikaans town, and we were volunteering at the school for children up to the 5th grade. The school was one room, there was 5 teachers, and over 100 children. We separated into groups, my group, Ally, Cali, most of the guys, and I built a jungle gym, and the rest helped paint and decorate. There weren’t really instructions on how to build it, so we figured it out as we went, and finished most of it in about 4 hours. It was difficult but a lot of fun. I like to think I was helpful, thanks to my Dad for teaching me everything I know about building stuff.

    After a nice afternoon braii we got back on the road and continued to our destination- Aquila Game Reserve. I was very impressed when we arrived. Alix and I shared a cute chalet, with our own bathroom equipped with an outdoor shower, and an indoor and outdoor fireplace. We got settled and then went on a sunset game drive.It was three hours long, and we saw elephants, rhinos, hippopotami, lions, giraffes, zebras, springbok, ostrich, cape buffalo, wildebeast and some sort of deer/goat things that I can’t remember the name of. It was amazing, and we stopped halfway through and got champagne to watch the sunset. We got back to the game reserve just in time for an amazing buffet dinner and a nice to enjoy good company and the amazing nature we were in. We woke up early the next morning to go for another game drive. It was still dark when I woke, and as I walked outside I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever witnessed. The pink sky was stretching from behind the mountains and the crescent moon was setting behind another set of mountains. That alone was worth getting up so early. Only about half of us got up for this game drive so it was much quieter. We saw all the same animals except for no elephants, and an addition of cheetahs. The cheetahs were rescued for some reason, and were kept in a smaller area, which was sort of cheating. It was really neat though, they were feeding at the time and we got to see them destroy a huge leg of an animal. There is a video I will try to get a hold of. The lions were also interesting, they were playing together, and we witnessed the dominant male have his way with the female lions 4 times. apparently they do it around 30 times a day. It only took him about 30 seconds, he roared pretty loudly after and went to sleep.
    After the game drive we spent the rest of the day relaxing before driving home.

    Moral of the story: I’m never leaving Africa.