Whew! What a whirlwind the past week has been! I feel like leaving the states and embarking on a successful (window seat!) flight to Johannesburg and then onto Cape Town was almost a lifetime ago. The change in scenery outside my bedroom window is only the beginning of my awe-struck admiration for South Africa –who would’ve thought that I would wake up every morning to a HUGE mountain staring back at me?! And the weather! Sorry, not to make you East Coast-ers jealous, but it has been 80 degrees and sunny (and by sunny, I mean not a cloud in the sky sunny!) the entire time I’ve been here (therefore resulting in shoulders that are now a dark shade of red…)
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| View from my bedroom! |
Besides this, the entire lifestyle here is much different. Everyone here operates on a very relaxed and much slower way of living (which was a bit frustrating for some waiting for our meals the first day or so) and things can happen “now” or “now now,” which could be in 10 minutes or 10 hours! As all the new international students wandered helplessly around the grocery store for the first time, searching for ketchup, now known as “tomato sauce” and not to be confused with “pasta sauce,” I saw people strolling up and down aisles in their bare feet. For someone who loves feeling the sand between her toes all summer, I can definitely get used to this!
I’ve finished my orientation program here and gotten my crash-course in isiXhosa (yes, we practiced the clicking sounds!) and Afrikaans, although whether or not I’ll be able to use or understand any for a while is another matter…
We attempted our first taste of true African bbq by hosting an international student “braii” outside of our resident halls to meet the various French, German, Austrian and African students living in Academia and Concordia along with the 28 American AIFS students. It’s so interesting to hear everyone’s unique story and what and why they are studying here at Stellenbosch and for many of the European students are pursuing a masters degree after having finished their three-year BA program back home.
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While the braii was a success in the sense that I got to meet a lot of our neighbors, the dinner itself got showed up by the Friday night’s dinner at Spier Winery at Moyo restaurant. Absolutely delicious! As we were seated beneath lantern-filled trees and rock waterfalls, women in full costume came around to paint our faces in the traditional style with white dot patterns. Over to the side there stretched a HUGE African buffet with various stations of chicken, venison, vegetables (the joke here is that chicken is the South African vegetable because they eat so much meat!) and beef, all prepared with delicious sauces and curries. Mmmmmmm. The music and dancing that followed could rival PC’s McPhail’s renowned glow party and I even got pulled up to dance to “Waka Waka” on stage –I knew those zumba classes would eventually pay off!
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| Waka Waka |
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| MMMMM |
Saturday’s tour of Cape Town opened up a whole new perspective of South Africa. As the tour buses drove through the township of Khayamitshe, the largest township in the Western Cape, you could see the obvious difference between the wealthy vineyards of Stellenbosch and the modern high rises of Cape Town compared with the recycled metal homes that house over a million people here in South Africa. Kids and adults alike stared at and waved the buses along the road –four large buses caravanning down the main street was obviously a big attraction. I am anxiously waiting to start my service-learning program working in the Lyndoch Township near Stellenbosch to find out more about the people and way of life in these townships.
I also got the chance to talk to one of the locals while exploring one of the parks in the center of Cape Town. After chatting for a while about life in South Africa, he offered up his life philosophy and some of his words suck out to me: “You don’t need to buy happiness. You find it when you find peace within yourself. And I find peace right here, sitting in this beautiful place God gave me to admire.” Although I have only been here a week, I can already see this beauty that he was talking about and admire him for taking the time to recognize and appreciate it.
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| Flipper :) |
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| Cricket, anyone? (Still trying to figure out the rules...) |
I’ve found this beauty not only in the natural surroundings but also among the people here. I was fortunate enough to be adopted this morning for the day by our family friends from back home who are staying in Stellenbosch for a few months. Ilse and Julien and their daughter and son-in-law took me in to their friend’s beautiful home for my first day of rest and relaxing all week. I took advantage of the backyard pool and homecooked braii (much better than our first cookout earlier in the week) and enjoyed an awesome concert at the outdoor ampitheater (although the performers were Afrikaans and I couldn’t understand much of it, I got a feel for the rich cultural traditions that came through the music –and even got goosebumps!)
More coming later…and maybe some news on classes…maybe.
