Well now, I have been living in Cape Town South Africa for a total of 6 weeks and 3 days. I have already accomplished alot with my time. The first week I was here I was introduced solely to t eh University of Cape Town and to my fellow interstudy-ers.
Once the University of Capetown orientation started we went on a day long tour of the peninsula. We got to see penguins, climb to the top of the cape point lighthouse, and saw ome sweet dance moves with lunch in a township. Now for those of you that don't know, South Africa went through a period of Apartheid from about the late 1950s to 1994. In this time period whites, blacks, and coloured people were all separated. Mainly in the cities and the suburbs it was bad. But the white population formulated the center of the cities and then progressively it went to coloureds next and lastly pure blacks. The outskirts of the cities was were the townships were located. You see townships were not nice places to live, houses there are very close together, they used to not have electricity or any running water, and they had a shack like appearance with tin roofs. After Apartheid the townships are still having a hard time catching up with the times, they have very little resources and the government of South Africa is trying to do a lot, but there just isn't enough funding to restructure all of these areas. One of the things that interests me most about South Africa in general is the reaction of different generations to the Apartheid. The older white generations that I have talked to know it happened , they know it was wrong, and they are trying to fix it. While my generation of South Africans, they all know it happened, but they didn't have to go through any of it and some of them just dont even care about trying to undo their country's past wrong. Then you have the 20-30s that are somewhere in between those two notions. I ask alot of the South African that I meet about the Apartheid period and those are the conclusions that I have come to so far. They may change with the more people I meet but you never really know do you.
Alrighty, on to happier things. On the Sunday before classes started (July 25th) Ashley(flatmate), Leah(neighbor), and Macy(neighbor) went to Kirstenbosch gardens, which is pretty much the Botanical Gardens of Cape Town. It was so beautiful! I cant wait to go there again! See picture...
Week of July 26th : Classes begin... the amount of reading for classes here is no joke 3 times that of DU. Its about 500 pages a week. If you do all of the reading, but most of the classes have required and recommended reading and I get done as much as I can. Oh the classes that I'm taking well I am taking South Africa in the 20th century, Microeconomics I, The Politics of International Economic Relations, and International Politics. I got them all approved for credit back at DU, which makes it way easier to transfer back the credits hopefully. Now that I am about half way through these classes, they are pretty intense. I mean I am learning a lot, but the work load is pretty intense. Still I like it here alot. I think its good to take a break from the usual every once and a while and do something different, like Studying in South Africa. YAY for all the international students here! :). Oh this week I also went to my first Rugby game, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. It looks like it hurts alot though. Then Saturday most of Interstudy went on a biking wine tour, wowzer it was intense. The wine was good, but the biking part was more like trail mountain biking than leisurely joy riding. A few of us fell down the mountain. I would say it was a great experience, but I would probably never do it again haha. Then we have Sunday. A group of about 9 of us went to this township BBQ( or braai) as they say in SA called Mzoli's. Okay so Andrew and I went to the butcher were meat is seriously right in front of you ordered the meat and got it all set up. It was fabulous. the meat was so good and the atmosphere of a neighbor hood party BBQ was great. that will definitely happen again.(check out a picture of our meat up top :))
Week of August 2nd: Well during thos week there wasn't much excitement until Friday. Thursday I made the split second decision to go on a tour of the Garden route for our 3 day weekend which amounted to about 500$ in the end. It was awesome! I slept overnight Saturday night in a national reserve. Sunday went bungee jumping! Check out the picture! It was so cool! I really really want to do it again. I'll have to show you all the video when I get back. Then After getting upgraded to a nice hotel Sunday Night we went climbing through caves and I rode an ostrich on Monday. It was a great time. I would probably do a lot of it again! I have more pictures for when I get back.
Week of August 9th: So again nothing extremely exciting during the week, but this weekend I went on the Interstudy weekend excursion we went whale watching, sea kayaking, shark diving, paintballing, and four-wheeling. it was alot of fun to hangout with a bunch of the group and just chill.
Week of August 16th: let me tell you something. Customs of SA is a whole different story. Mail can take up to a month or more to get to you and a package my mom sent took 2 weeks to get to customs and another week for them to inform me of it. To find customs it was a nightmare, round and round in circles. But after about 30 mins we found it and got the package and it all figured out and back to Mowbray, the town where I live.
Week of August 23rd: Now this is this week and the week of my birthday so, Tuesday night a large group of friends and I went out to dinner at a Mexican place. SA doesn't really have a lot of Mexican food, so this place is a gem in the rough. It was so good, and I want to thank everyone who celebrated and wished me a Happy Birthday.
There is one more thing I must admit. I do miss my family and friends back home a lot. Being in SA is very different form Denver. Denver is pretty much accessible while SA not so much. I also miss the way things work in the US. Technology here is sometimes extremely sketch and not always working. But I love it here also. So together it all makes it alright. Till next time!
Sincerely,
Amber
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