(no subject)
more updating!! exciting, i know.
newlands east and newlands west. we had two homestays in the area of newlands. newlands west is the indian area of town and i stayed there before leaving for cape town. unfortunately, we only had three days at this homestay. i say unfortunately because i actually enjoyed living with these people. they were so nice! and they cooked really good (albeit very spicy) indian food! yum. everytime i would eat dinner my nose would start running. they did try. what we were eating was actually really toned down compared to what they usually eat.
during this homestay we spent the majority of the days attending lectures. we also visited gandhi's house that he lived in the 20 some years he lived in durban. so that was interesting. we also got a bunch of lectures on coloured and indian identity and what these terms (especially coloured) mean post-apartheid. this is obviously more important of a topic for those who fall under the coloured category. how do they view themselves now? well, turns out there is no clear-cut answer and some consider themselves black and others identify with the term coloured (even though it was imposed upon them by a racist government). i understand why the issue is so important, but it's also a very stressful one as it caused much tension in our group (for what reason, i do not know as i do not think it is our place to tell these people how to view themselves).
i lived in newlands east after going to cape town. here i stayed with a coloured family. the family consisted of a mom, her husband (who worked in another town and was, thus, gone all week) and her 21 year old son. it was interesting and the mom was really down to earth, sarcastic and funny in the same way my mom is funny. i enjoyed my stay here too, but again, it was only for 3 days!
in general, i wish they would get rid of the fourth week at the cato manor (zulu family) homestay and give us more time to spend with both our indian and coloured families. i think they are an interesting component of the makeup of south african culture and its important for us to get to know this component better than what is possible in a short 3 night stay.
after the newlands east homestay (wednesday), we all had to move into our isp accomodations. since i was leaving for cape town on saturday i opted to stay in a backpackers off of florida road (the road in town with all the yuppie bars). there were about eight of us looking for temporary housing, so all eight of us ended up in one room.
friday we had a lot of stuff due. all of our final assignments to turn in. including, our guided reflective journal and our seminar paper. my seminar paper was such shit. i basically took my lit review from my isp proposal and expanded a bit. however, nothing flowed well and it seemed choppy. i was too tired to care. we also got our zulu grades back. i managed a "b" which i am quite proud of because the oral exam killed me when they asked me stupid questions like "what are you doing next year?" what the fuck? we never learned how to say graduating.
anyway, saturday (yesterday) i took my flight to cape town. i managed to navigate the airport all on my own. i bought a book in anticipation of boredom and read it. i'm almost half finished which is only indicative of how unstructured and, thus, slightly boring our time is here. another girl from my program is living in the same backpackers that i am. i'm glad she's around because i think i would go insane otherwise. two other girls are also living in cape town, but are sharing an apartment a few blocks away.
it's really weird staying in a backpackers without 27 other people you know. i'm so used to our group being around. but here i am, at this backpackers, with all these people coming and going. of course, they are all on vacation or such so they have shit to do and are gone most of the day. but it's still weird. like last night there were two guys in my dorm. it just baffled me. here i am, so permanent and here are all these other people moving around and conducting their lives in fun, productive ways.
i dunno. i think i am just ready to either move on or make something exciting happen. hopefully, i'll change my mind and find the latter feasible.
wish me luck.
newlands east and newlands west. we had two homestays in the area of newlands. newlands west is the indian area of town and i stayed there before leaving for cape town. unfortunately, we only had three days at this homestay. i say unfortunately because i actually enjoyed living with these people. they were so nice! and they cooked really good (albeit very spicy) indian food! yum. everytime i would eat dinner my nose would start running. they did try. what we were eating was actually really toned down compared to what they usually eat.
during this homestay we spent the majority of the days attending lectures. we also visited gandhi's house that he lived in the 20 some years he lived in durban. so that was interesting. we also got a bunch of lectures on coloured and indian identity and what these terms (especially coloured) mean post-apartheid. this is obviously more important of a topic for those who fall under the coloured category. how do they view themselves now? well, turns out there is no clear-cut answer and some consider themselves black and others identify with the term coloured (even though it was imposed upon them by a racist government). i understand why the issue is so important, but it's also a very stressful one as it caused much tension in our group (for what reason, i do not know as i do not think it is our place to tell these people how to view themselves).
i lived in newlands east after going to cape town. here i stayed with a coloured family. the family consisted of a mom, her husband (who worked in another town and was, thus, gone all week) and her 21 year old son. it was interesting and the mom was really down to earth, sarcastic and funny in the same way my mom is funny. i enjoyed my stay here too, but again, it was only for 3 days!
in general, i wish they would get rid of the fourth week at the cato manor (zulu family) homestay and give us more time to spend with both our indian and coloured families. i think they are an interesting component of the makeup of south african culture and its important for us to get to know this component better than what is possible in a short 3 night stay.
after the newlands east homestay (wednesday), we all had to move into our isp accomodations. since i was leaving for cape town on saturday i opted to stay in a backpackers off of florida road (the road in town with all the yuppie bars). there were about eight of us looking for temporary housing, so all eight of us ended up in one room.
friday we had a lot of stuff due. all of our final assignments to turn in. including, our guided reflective journal and our seminar paper. my seminar paper was such shit. i basically took my lit review from my isp proposal and expanded a bit. however, nothing flowed well and it seemed choppy. i was too tired to care. we also got our zulu grades back. i managed a "b" which i am quite proud of because the oral exam killed me when they asked me stupid questions like "what are you doing next year?" what the fuck? we never learned how to say graduating.
anyway, saturday (yesterday) i took my flight to cape town. i managed to navigate the airport all on my own. i bought a book in anticipation of boredom and read it. i'm almost half finished which is only indicative of how unstructured and, thus, slightly boring our time is here. another girl from my program is living in the same backpackers that i am. i'm glad she's around because i think i would go insane otherwise. two other girls are also living in cape town, but are sharing an apartment a few blocks away.
it's really weird staying in a backpackers without 27 other people you know. i'm so used to our group being around. but here i am, at this backpackers, with all these people coming and going. of course, they are all on vacation or such so they have shit to do and are gone most of the day. but it's still weird. like last night there were two guys in my dorm. it just baffled me. here i am, so permanent and here are all these other people moving around and conducting their lives in fun, productive ways.
i dunno. i think i am just ready to either move on or make something exciting happen. hopefully, i'll change my mind and find the latter feasible.
wish me luck.