April is the cruelest month

from the top of Table Mountain, looking out over the City Bowl and Table Bay

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Cape Honeysuckle out of the beautiful land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Oak, pine, and eucalyptus roots with winter rain.
Summer kept us warm, covering
Africa in magical sunshine, feeding
A little life with dry heat.
Winter surprised us, coming over False Bay
With heavy, soaking rain; we stopped on Jammie Steps,
And went on at dusk, into Hout Bay,
And drank Durbanville white, and talked for an hour.
Ek is nie Suid-Afrikaanse, ek kom uit Amerika, ek is 'n ware Jood.
And when we were children, staying at the cottage
In Claremont, he took me out on a jet ski,
But I was not frightened.  He said, my girl,
My girl, hold on tight.  And down we went.
On the top of Table Mountain, there you feel free.
I dance, much of the night, and go north in the winter.

(adapted from T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.)
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I have less than 8 weeks left here in South Africa, and so I realized today that the phrase "April is the cruelest month" feels especially appropriate.  I am just starting to really get to know Cape Town and my place in it, but soon I will have to leave.

Victoria Falls

I went to Livingstone, Zambia, the week before last (from March 25th to April 1st) with 5 friends.  We saw Victoria Falls (one of the Natural Wonders of the World), pet some lions, went on a game drive through Chobe National Park (in Botswana), and went abseiling and gorge-swinging.  I then came back in time to go to a friend's 21st birthday party, the theme for which was "Bollywood Bash."  It was, without a doubt, one of the best weeks of my life.
(If you are interested in seeing pictures, here's the link to the photo album I posted on facebook - you can still view it even if you don't have a facebook account:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1750550723909.2080653.
1243080599&l=2199093c66 )

elephants at Chobe National Park

It depends who you ask/ how you interpret things, but many argue that The Waste Land describes April as the cruelest month because it reminds people of death and rebirth, and therefore infertility, and therefore their own mortality.  In addition to my acute awareness of how close to the end my time here is, April reminds me of a couple more events and transitions.....

Geoff, me, Graham (the birthday boy), and Jenya
(just to clarify, this picture has nothing to do with SAAM)

April is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) in the U.S.  Here are three articles that I would really like you to take the time to read:
1)  about rates of sexual assault in South Africa:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/26/world/main7092661.shtml
2)  about sexual assault on college campuses:  http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/03/19/031911-opinions-column-campus-rape-valenti-1-2/
3)  about sexual assault and moving on:  http://feministing.com/2011/04/18/saam-sexual-assault-and-moving-on/#more-32449

Passover, which is probably my favorite Jewish holiday, also happens in April.  I went to Seders at homes of Cape Tonian Jews on both the first and second nights, and I had a great time both nights.  Happy Pesach!  As we are meant to do, though, I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about the kinds of slavery that still exist today.  Passover also gives me renewed motivation to continue fighting for social justice and people's right to health and happiness, because I know that if I don't, I will become part of the problem (if I'm not already).

And that reminds me - World Health Day was April 7th.  That should have been a happy day, but all I could think about was how so many Republicans think that the decisions they make do not have catastrophic consequences for so many people around the world.  I urge you all to PLEASE vote against any Congressperson or Representative who wants to de-fund Planned Parenthood, NPR, the United Nations Population Fund, or USAID.

As we discussed in my class (Race, Culture, and Identity in Africa) today, April also marks the anniversary of both the Armenian and the Rwandan genocides.  Both of these serve as reminders of the racism and ignorance that still exist in the world.  (Another deeply sad holiday:  today, April 20th, marks the 12 anniversary of the Columbine shootings.)

Jenya and me on the way to Robben Island
Devil's Peak and Table Mountain in the background

Finally, April 27th is Freedom Day in South Africa.  (It is a public holiday, so we have next Wednesday off from school.)  It is meant to celebrate freedom and commemorate the first post-apartheid elections held in 1994.  However, some groups and social movements refer to that day as "Unfreedom" Day, because they recognize that the poor in South Africa experience relatively little freedom.

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in front of Clifton Beach, Lion's Head in the background
from left to right: Hannah, Josh, Rye, Jenya, me, Diego, Harry, and Gator

Ok, so I'll stop being such a downer now.  I am very excited for my next two months.  Hopefully I will be taking a trip to Stellenbosch to go wine-tasting, and at some point I will be taking the Baz Bus along the Garden Route up the east coast of SA.  I also have many more museums yet to visit, many more club venues to check out, and many more things to learn about South Africa!

Ah yes, one more thing.  If you're interested, you can also check out some pictures of my first 3 months here:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1734679087128.2079673.1243080599&l=674557cff4

So, I know it's a bit corny, but I must end this post with some symmetry.  Cheers!  And...

  

Shantih shantih shantih 

giraffes at Chobe National Park

I'm back in action! (with regard to my blog, that is)

Hey guys!

Sorry for being m.i.a. for so long!  I don't really have a good excuse for my absenteeism, other than that I've been out enjoying Cape Town.  But now I have even more interesting adventures to write about!  Also, make sure to re-check my posts from January and February - I am going to add a few pictures to them.

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So to start out, this is the 4th week of classes of semester 1 of 2011 here at UCT.  Since I took one class over the summer, I will only be taking three credits during the regular semester.  (There will be another post to follow this one, describing more about my Globalization and the Environment class.)  The two classes I am taking are Applied Ethics, which is in the Philosophy department, and a class called Race, Culture, and Identity in Africa, which is in a department called the Center for African Studies (CAS).  So far in Applied Ethics we have discussed the topics of "humor ethics," including racist and sexist jokes, "premarital sex and promiscuity," and now we're discussing "homosexuality."  (I recently read an online article that combines two of my favorite topics of discussion: gender and sex.  The name of the article is "Gender Differences and Casual Sex: The New Research, and the link is: http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/gender-differences-and-casual-sex-the-new-research/.)  

My CAS class is a once-a-week seminar, and so far we've spent most of our time discussing the contested exhumation of an early colonial burial site on Prestwich Street in Cape Town.  In general, this class is meant to "survey developments in post-apartheid society, with a particular emphasis on issues of culture and identity."  The "keywords" my professor uses to describe his class are culture, identity, globalization, public history, memory, performance, the public sphere, and Cape Town.  Our class today was canceled, though, so I used my free afternoon to go the District Six Museum (which I will describe below).

My third credit will come from an independent study project that I will work on throughout the semester.  I am working within a sub-section of the department of Environmental and Geographical Science, the African Center for Cities (ACC).  The purpose of the ACC is to serve as a platform for interdisciplinary research on urban issues, such as "Africa Urbanism," "Urban Food Security," and "Climate Change and Cities."  I will be helping build the foundations of a new "Urban Violence CityLab."  To do this, I will be collecting both qualitative and quantitative data and statistics on violent crime from three communities in the Cape Flats (Harare, which is in the township Khayelitsha, Freedom Park, which is in the township Mitchells Plain, and Netreg, which is a separate township), which have all undergone post-apartheid urban upgrading projects.  The broad issue I will be exploring is whether these urban upgrading projects have had any effect (or correlation) on the prevalence and types of violence that happen in these communities.  As I'm sure many of you know, South African cities are plagued by crime and many types of violence, including vigilante terrorism, structural, political, institutional, economic, youth/gang, gender-based, drug-related, xenophobic, and psychological violence.  So far it seems like this will be a really great project for me, because I had been thinking about the possibility of writing my senior thesis next year on something related to urban violence.

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So back to the District Six Museum - I went there because everyone says it is a great representation of the memories of the forced removals that happened during apartheid, and I thought it would provide some good contextual knowledge for my CAS class.  Here's some info from the museum's website (http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm):

"District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867. Originally established as a mixed community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants, District Six was a vibrant centre with close links to the city and the port. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the history of removals and marginalisation had begun.

"In 1966, it was declared a white area under the Group areas Act of 1950, and by 1982, the life of the community was over. 60 000 people were forcibly removed to barren outlying areas aptly known as the Cape Flats, and their houses in District Six were flattened by bulldozers.

"The District Six Museum, established in December 1994, works with the memories of these experiences and with the history of forced removals more generally."

If any of you are ever in Cape Town, I would definitely recommend visiting the District Six Museum.  The extreme racial segregation is painfully obvious from the moment one steps into Cape Town, but no one talks directly about the exact process of institutional racism of apartheid.

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After going to the D6 Museum, I just walked around Greenmarket Square and down Long Street, being a tourist and examining the mass-produced African art that I've seen being sold by vendors all over Cape Town.  I should note, though, that even though the art is mass-produced, it is still hand-made.  Many people make their living from selling these crafts, and it is a well-established part of the culture here.

I ended up buying a three-dimensional collage, made of wood, paint, corrugated metal, and tin cans, at Greenmarket Square.  I've seen them around a lot over the past couple of months, and even though they're pretty touristy, I've come to really like them.  I also had a dream about them the other night, in which I left SA without finding the perfect tin-can-and-corrugated-metal-collage to bring home; after that, I was determined to deny the intense desire to prove to SA that I'm not just your typical American tourist, suck it up, and just buy one.

I chose this one specifically because of the AIDS ribbon and doctor sign on one of the little township shacks.  But besides that distinguishing feature, mine is pretty much identical to the rest.  They all have Table Mountain in the background, little black figures in front, and township shacks made of tin cans in the middle.  The type of tin can used to make the township shacks does vary sometimes, though.  I also liked that this one featured a Black Label piece of tin can:  The two major beers here are Castle and Black Label.  Historically, Castle has been considered a beer drunk by whites, and Black Label has been considered a beer drunk by blacks.  The majority of us Americans have preferred the taste of Black Label from the beginning, before we knew there was some sort of unofficial racial distinction.  When the 7 South Africans moved into our house, they told us about which race usually drinks which beer, and stated their own prefere

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On a slightly unrelated note, I bought a few postcards at the District Six Museum with Nelson Mandela quotes on them.  They say things like: "One of the most difficult things is not to change society - but to change yourself," "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others," and "I am what I am both as a result of people who respected me and helped me, and of those who did not respect me and treated me badly."  One that made me laugh says, "I can't help it if the ladies take note of me; I am not going to protest."  But my favorite one says, "...Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression."  Nelson Mandela is a very wise man.

So this brings me to my next topic:  Happy (belated) International Women's Day!  (It was yesterday, March 8th.)  Here's a link to an article about it from one of my favorite blogs of all time, feministing.com: http://feministing.com/2011/03/08/happy-international-womens-day/.  And here is the link to a correlated article from The Guardian about one of the many, many benefits of equality for women - the reduction of world hunger: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/07/women-equality-reduce-world-hunger.  Please take the time to read both of those - gender equality (or the lack thereof) is a very important issue.  As the NYT journalist Nick Kristof wrote in his book, "Half the Sky," “In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery.  In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism.  We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.”

And for those of you who haven't been keeping up with the (f***ing ridiculous) trends in American politics, here are some informative news articles:

"In Tahrir Square and the Pentagon: Sexual Assault Exposed"  (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/16/sexual_assault_happens_from_tahrir_to_the_pentagon)

"Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP's War on Women"  (http://pol.moveon.org/waronwomen/?rc=fb)

***"GOP War on Women Goes Global"  (http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/03/01/video-budget) *** (Read this one if you have limited time.  It is especially good because it talks about the overlap between sexism, women's right to reproductive health care, public health, and the numerous global connections.)

"AIDS will R.I.P. you apart"
a mural in Khayelitsha

***Update: 3/10/11
Also, today (March 10th) is (US) National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.  Follow this link to learn about the human rights abuses suffered by positive women: http://www.pwn-usa.org/.

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OK, so that's it for now.  You will be hearing more from me soon!
Much love,
Kelley

Happy Birthday, Mom! / Happy World Wetlands Day! / Happy Groundhog Day! (Feb, 2nd)

howzit, guys?  i'm sorry i've been m.i.a. for a while.  it's been a busy couple of weeks, but i have started a few different draft of blog posts, so expect a surge of updates soon!  i just thought i'd give a short one now, though, so i can also use this post to publicly wish my mom a happy birthday. :-)

anywho, here's some more fun slang for you:

• "average" actually means "bad" ("i fell and skinned my knee today." "that's average.");
• people say the word "hectic" here to mean a lot more than just "chaotic", sometimes they even turn it into an adverb ("hectically"), and it seems like it's often used as a variation of "awesome"; 
• "ja" (pronounced "yah"), instead of our "yeah"; 
• a "jol" is a party (i think); 
• people do tend to say "epic" a lot, too; 
• "chilled", instead of our "cool" or "OK" (e.g. "i'm running a little late for our date." "don't stress, it's chilled."); 
• "vibes" is used a lot, and i think it can refer to music or just a general groove; 
• "sms" instead of our "text" (as in text message); 
• "varsity" refers to university; 

University of Cape Town
Ja, my varsity is hectically beautiful.  I know you oaks are jealous.

• "oak" i think is equivalent to our "oaf" or "doofus"; 
• ketchup here is called "tomato sauce" -  if you say "ketchup" you get laughed at.  we americans get laughed at even when we say "tomato sauce", because it's supposed to be pronounced toe-mah-toe (not toe-may-toe).  but then if we try to say toe-mah-toe, we get laughed at anyway, because people know we're American, and Americans don't say "tomato" that way; 
• "sloshed" means very drunk; 
• upon going to club together one night, one of my South African housemates said she hoped she didn't look like a "Tiger girl" (Tiger Tiger is the name of a very popular club here), which made me laugh, because it reminded me of how my friends in the US don't want to look like a "Monte Vista girl", a prep-school girl from Greenwich, a "lax-itute" or "Drinker girl", or even a Bryn Mawr girl (i'm sorry to my friends from Bryn Mawr, i think the stereotype/judgment is horrible, and i don't endorse it);
• people say "as well" more often than "too" or "also", and when they say it, they say it with the emphasis on "as", instead of "well". (say it out loud, and you'll notice that it's quite different sounding.)

and to give you a sneak peak of the things i will be writing more about soon, here's some of the things i've done and seen over the past week and a half:

• last week we went to free-drinks night (from 8-10) at Tiger Tiger one night (quite an epic jol), and into Obz the next night (a.k.a. Observatory, a neighborhood near Mowbray, which is where i live) for half-priced pizza and two-for-one beers, where we also ended up seeing a community Shakespeare group perform while a guy played some African instruments in the background. it all felt very nice and culturally diverse;
• i saw the Cape Cobras (the Western Cape province's cricket team) beat the Nashua Titans by one run in a 20/20 cricket match last Friday.  i think i understand the rules of cricket now;
• i went to a beautiful beach called Camp's Bay last Saturday (someone told me Cape Town is supposed to have the second most beautiful beaches in the world, after Barcelona.  i'm not sure who came up with that ranking, though.);

Sunset at Camp's Bay

• i went to the Cape Town aquarium on Sunday, and saw some cute penguins and hungry sharks;
• we've had international student orientation all week this week, which included a "drumming circle" on Monday night (it was interesting...), and a short visit to an elementary school in one of the townships this afternoon with SHAWCO (Students' Health and Wellness Centres Organisation, the biggest student-run NGO in Southern Africa), which i will probably volunteer with during the semester;
• on Saturday night we had a braai at the home of the EGS (Environment and Geographical Sciences) department head, Mike, at which we all got thoroughly sloshed, none more-so than my current than my current professor, Peter - the evening included a Michael Jackson dance-off among a few of us students and Mike's wife and son, and it ended with a few of us jumping into his pool fully clothed (yes, including me);
• if i'm going to die in South Africa, it's going to happen by being hit by a car - people drive on the left side of the road here, and i'm still not used to looking right then left, instead of left then right (also, on a side note, everyone here drives manual, instead of automatic cars);
• in the US, a common form of sexual harassment is honking at someone or calling out to them from your car while they're walking down the street - when that happens here, people are just trying to offer you a ride in a mini-bus taxi, which is one of the primary forms of "public" transportation.  it's kind of funny, because i'm still not entirely used to it, but i do appreciate that it's not sexual harassment.  i still have yet to take a ride on one, though;
• not to brag to you east-coasters or anything, but i would also like to mention that i am getting quite tan and blonde.  boy, do i love summer :-).

so i must go now, because i still have a presentation to finish preparing for class tomorrow.  i will be writing about our field trip to the Kalahari, as well as a few more personal impressions of the general culture within the next few days.

Oh, you know, just a lion walking next to our car.
More to come...

and once again, happy birthday, Mom!!  i love you, and i hope you are having a great day!
cheers guys,
kelley

some info about SA

here’s a random list of things i’ve learned and some of my impressions of South Africa so far:

Devil's Peak at sunset
(picture taken on the border between Mowbray and Observatory)

• proteas refers to a flower, not an enzyme. (shoutout to my pre-med compatriots.)

• SA still makes many of its own products (for example, what are “Cheetos” in the US are called “Knick-knacks” here) because so many countries had sanctions against SA during the Apartheid era.

• some slang i’ve heard being used: aircon (airconditioning), slops (flip flops), petrol (gas), bakkie (pick-up truck), braai (barbeque), howzit (yo), Jay Zed (Jay Z), fillet (pronounced “fill-it”), chips (french fries), boerewors (spicy sausage), bru (a term of affection, kind of equivalent to “bro”), a nap-over (a sleep-over, but when it’s a guy and a girl, rather than just friends sleeping over), ja (yeah), robot (traffic-light), tops (the best), biltong (jerky), Cape Doctor (the wind that blows around Table Mountain and clears out the smog that accumulates in Cape Town), “just now” (could refer to something either in the near future, or never) isit (combination of "is" and "it," bascially just a response when you have nothing to say), keen ("Are you keen for a swim in the pool this afternoon?").

• whites make up less than 10% of SA’s population, but i think Cape Town is about 13% white.  the other major races are blacks, coloureds (the term is starting to become outdates, but it means mixed-race), and indians.  there are a lot of Muslims in Cape Town, but i don’t know the percent of the population.  according to wikipedia, 0.5% of Cape Town is Jewish.  IsiZulu is the language most commonly spoken at home (about 24%), followed by IsiXhosa (about 17%), and then Afrikaans (about 13%).  only 8% of South Africans speak English at home.

• the Dutch were the first to colonize SA i think in the 17^th century.  the British then took over at the end of the 18^th century.  SA became an independent republic in 1948, when the “official” Apartheid regime was instated.  (in reality, Apartheid was definitely existent under British rule, as well.)  Apartheid ended in 1994, since which time the ANC (a black political party) has been in power.

• there are many, many imported plants that i think were mostly brought here by the Dutch and the British, including eucalyptus, pine, and oak (the one plant i’m allergic to…) trees.  the climate here in Cape Town is describe as Mediterranean/ arid, similar to the Bay Area, so a lot of the plants look relatively familiar to me.

• the two South Africans in my class, Brendon and Daena, are part of a genreation known as “Madiba’s children.”  this is because they started school in 1995, and were therefore the first class of students to go to school in the New South Africa, a.k.a. not under Apartheid.  Madiba is Nelson Mandela’s tribal/family name.

• SA, and Africa in general, seems more raw to me: fires are natural and perceived as more normal, the wind is always blowing (especially in CT), the sun is super intense, water is more valuable (it is referred to as liquid gold/ Africa’s most precious resource), and the earth/terrain is more rocky, raw, temperamental, and beautiful.  SA also produces many raw natural resources, such as gold, diamonds, coal, and platinum.

• every part of this country that i’ve seen so far is absolutely beautiful.  there are vineyards, beaches, pans (vast areas of completely flat and ridiculously dry ground), all kinds of mountains, all different colors of soil and sand, and an incredibly wide variety of plants and animals.  SA is extremely diverse in general, in terms of the land, the plants, the animals, and the people.

a panoramic view of some of the Cape vineyards, Table Mountain, the Cape Flats, and Table Bay in the far right background

• there is razor wire, electric fences, gates, and barred windows everywhere, because crime is normal and expected.  one difference i’ve noticed between SA and the US is that if you were to injure yourself in the US, such as by walking into an electric fence for example, you might sue the person whose home is surrounded by the electric fence.  however, if you get robbed or mugged in SA, it would be your fault either because you were walking alone/ in a bad area, were wearing too much flashy jewelry, had left your house unlocked, or had left anything at all on a seat in your parked car.

• people say “must” instead of “should” or “ought to.”  for example, someone might say “you must  go put your shoes on, because everyone is leaving,” rather than “you should go put your shoes on.”  it comes off as really bossy/controlling, but i’m starting to think that that’s not how it’s intended.

• the language and culture tends to be slightly more gendered here.  for example, on menus, there is sometime’s a “ladies portion” listed under a regular portion of food.  also, while on our field trip, we stayed at a place with a “Ladies Bar,” which refers to a normal/co-ed bar (because “normal” bars used to be for men only).  and while at the grocery store earlier this afternoon, i noticed some “Men’s cleenex”, which i think was just called that because it didn’t have flowers on the box.

• there are some strange expectations at clubs.  for example, many have a dress code for men that they must wear a collared shirt, pants, and dress shoes.  also, the age minimum on Tuesdays and Thursdays is 18 for girls and 20 for guys, on Fridays it’s 19 for girls and 21 for guys, and on Saturdays it’s 21 for girls and 23 for guys… one club we’ve already been to, which is supposedly one of the most popular in the area, is called Tiger Tiger, where these practices are well-established.

• poor blacks seem to be very skinny, whereas poor whites seem to be either overweight or obese.  people also tend to eat a lot of meat here, especially red meat.  people even eat springbok, which is the national animal.

• the “big five” refers to 5 relatively common animals in Africa: lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo.

OK, so it is time for me to go again.  we’re going out to an area called Long Street, which i think is near the World Cup soccer stadium.  i think our plan might be to check out the gay bars?  i’m not sure, but i’m excited! :-)  ttfn!

love, kelley

howzit, my bru?

so i know it's taken me a while, but i've finally started my blog!  today marks the last day of my 3rd week here in South Africa... time has been passing at the speed of light!  i also just got back to Cape Town after a week-long field trip through the Northern Cape and up to the Kgalagadi (Kalahari) desert.  i will describe more about that later.  for now, i will just start with a basic introduction and summary of my 1st two weeks here.  (i have collected some of the following information from emails i sent during the first few weeks, so i apologize to those of you who might have already read this.)

so my first class, called Globalization and the Environment: South Africa, started on January 3^rd, and we have been having class almost every day.  there are 9 other Americans in my group (and living in my house) – 4 from Pomona, 3 from Macalester, and 3 from Swarthmore.  a disproportionate number of us are either from California or live in California, so i’m starting to pick up California lingo again (as opposed to the Philly accent i have so proudly been sporting since last summer).

during the first week, we went on tours of the Cape peninsula, the city of Cape Town, and the UCT (University of Cape Town) campus.  we went on the Cape peninsula tour on the Tuesday of the first week, and by the end of the day i was already sunburned.  we saw penguins, baboons, ostriches, and these tiny little animals called dassie (a.­k.a. hyrax) that are apparently relatively closely related to elephants.  you should look them up, they're super cute and it's really funny to think of them as tiny elephants.  it was like over 90 degrees, but it's super windy all the time in Cape Town, so we didn’t really feel the heat, which creates the perfect conditions for sunburning.  when we got back i went in our pool though, which was amazing.  yes, we have a pool :-).

the house we’re living in apparently used to be a colonial mansion.  there are going to be 10 more students living in it with us during the semester (which officially starts Feb. 14^th, i think).  there are bars on all of the doors and windows, but that’s normal for all buildings everywhere in Cape Town, and i’ve kind of been getting used to them.  our house has a front gate that’s kept locked, and the front door has another locked gate outside the regular locked door.  we currently also have an armed guard (only until the start of the regular semester), but i think my program just hired one for us to help us feel better while we get used to the area and the other students move into the area.  apparently this area is called “little America” because all the Americans live around here.

Penrose House

things in general are still pretty new and a little overwhelming.  there's a lot that's similar to the US and a lot that's way different.  i'm workin' hard on picking up the accent.  we already have a ton of homework though :-(.  i didn't realize this before, but i think this first class i'm taking will be relatively intensive.  but after spending all day in the sun, relaxing in the pool this afternoon, and now i'm about to go drink some beer (yes, the drinking age is 18 here) and eat some dinner made for me by some of the other people on my program, i shouldn't really complain about anything. :-) 

everyone i've met so far seems super chill and very nice.  maybe it's the weather.  whites and blacks seem outrageously segregated, though, which is really strange.  there are 11 official languages in South Africa, and like 11 more unofficial ones, and each of those languages is attached to a separate and distinct culture.  so i know they're out there, but it seems like the only culture we might experience in any kind of depth is the rich white culture.  cricket and rugby are really popular among whites, and soccer is huge more so among blacks than whites.

on Wednesday of the first week, we all (all 10 American students, the 2 South African students in our class, the 3 professors, and 2 grad student helpers, Lynne and Kate) went to some suuuuuuuuper old (like hundreds of years) Dutch wine farm, and it was absolutely beautiful.  the name of it is Groot Constantia - you should try to look it up on google pictures or google maps or something.  the name of the restaurant on the farm is Jonkershius (don't ask me how to pronounce either of those names).  thinking about the white privilege we were taking advantage of is a little bit sickening.  we were all dressed up in kind of business casual, my main course alone cost about R130 (i think), and we went through about 14 bottles of this really expensive, really really classy wine.  meanwhile, only miles away, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in townships and barely making ends meet, if they can at all.  it's hard to tell whether white South Africans are aware of the full extent of their privilege.

Dinner at Groot Constantia
back row, left to right: Brendon, Katie, Rye, Harry, Josh, Diego, Daena, me
front row, left to right: Rebekah, Jessie (took the class last year), Jenya, Hannah, Gator

anywho, it's just about dinner time, so i will get going.  i have so much more to write about, and i will do so as soon as i get another free minute.  cheers!
love, kelley