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