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Published: February 15th 2009
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I'll start with Sunday because I think I updated this on Saturday last week. Last Sunday I went to a church called Hillsong with Brittany, Sarah and Peter. It was crazy... it was held in the Cape Town Convention Center and there were smoke machines and disco lights. It was entertaining if you were looking for a show, but we didn't feel like it the Church was very centered around God. It just felt like it was all for show, and there wasn't much meaning behind anything. I think we are going to try a different church this evening. A lot of churches here have evening services. After church Cidney and I took the minibuses which are vans that are kind of like taxis into the city. They are everywhere and really cheap so they are a good form of transportation as long as you are careful. They are actually on strike right now though and have been for a few days so that is some pretty big news in Cape Town. The government wants to regulate their routes and make sure they are all registered because right now they don't have to be registered and there is sometimes violence between
groups of taxi drivers that get into disputes over routes. It's basically like gang violence. I think it would be a good if it was more regulated because right now depending on where you are going it can be dangerous to take the minibus taxis, but if there was some more regulation on them they could really be a great way to get around with out paying a lot.
Anyway back to Sunday. Cidney and I went to the Castle of Good Hope, which was built I believe in the 1640's. They had a museum there too with art and furniture from when the castle was in use which was interesting. After walking around in the Castle we went to Green Market Square which is a flea market with all kinds of things that are made by Africans- jewelry, bowls, drums, etc... It was sort of annoying though because it was hard to look at stuff with out them trying to force you to buy it. Even if you tell them you don't have money or don't have enough money they just keep asking how much you will pay and trying to make you buy whatever you were looking
at.
On Sunday evening we had our first thunderstorm. This shouldn't have been that exciting but it was the first time we had seen it rain here. We all sat outside on the porch as the storm was coming and were very happy for the rain because it had been so hot out all day and it cooled it off and was nice and refreshing.
I didn't do a whole lot during the week other than school. First of all I finally have a finalized class schedule after standing in line for 6 hours to drop and add classes on Thursday. I have quite an intersting combination of classes I am taking Africa in transition, an anthropology class about beliefs and rituals, a class on human rights, a theology class and an education class. After standing in line for so long I will never take the internet registration process used in the US for granted. At home it would have taken about 5 minutes to accomplish what took 6 hours here. The one good thing about the line was that I met some nice South African girls (Jody, Voya and Sumaiyah), and a girl from Switzerland (Melanie)
and talking with them made the line a lot better than it could've been.
The one class I didn't list above is the class that Arcadia does for all of us going to all 3 schools (UCT, UWC and Stellenbosch) on Contemporary Issues in South Africa, and for that Class we went to Parliament on Wednesday. We sat in a room where congressman would have meetings and 3 congressmen spoke to us and allowed us to answer questions. They all talked about Obama and are pretty much in love him as are many of the South African people. They compare him to Nelson Mandela and wish for a leader like him to come to their country. It was very interesting hearing from them and having them answer our questions about the ANC (the biggest political party in South Africa) and a bill on child criminal justice that we had read.
On Friday I went to Muizenberg Beach with Brittany, Sarah, Jess and Rosemary. It was fun but once again it was really windy there and so it was kind of cold. I think that beach is more of a surfing beach then a good beach to go and
just relax at. On Saturday I went to Cliffton Beach with 4 of the other girls and that beach is amazing. It was so gorgeous. We did get pelted by sand a couple times when there were big gusts of wind but overall it was a beautiful day at the beach. The water is freezing though. I don't think I will be doing much swimming here unless we go to the Indian Ocean which is supposed to be a lot warmer.
When I got back from the beach I had a really nice surprise. Chris had sent me flowers and they had been delivered while I was at the beach some of my housemates were home though and put them in some water for me. Thanks again Chris!
Last night rather than staying at my house where some of the girls were throwing a Valentines Day Party I went to The South African Astronomical Observatory with Brittany, Sarah, Jess, Rosemary, Leah and some of the Marquette students. There was a man that spoke about how the xhosa use the stars and have used them in the past to determine things such aswhen the new year starts, when it
is time to perform the rituals for boys to become men, and what the weather will be like. After that everyone could go look into some telescopes that were set up to look at different things. One of them was looking at Saturn and you could also see one of Saturns moons. Another one was looking at a nebulae (A big cloud of dust). There was also one looking at a pair of binary stars which are stars that are orbiting eachother. That was cool because without the telescope it looks like it is just one star, but with it you can see the two seperate stars.
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Aunt Jan
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Hello!
Wow, Stacy! It sounds like you're really going to be busy - but I should think the perspective you'll gain from studying there will be life-changing. Your photos are wonderful - and your descriptions make me feel like I'm there! Hope you're settling in and finding your way around. Uncle Craig and I send our love.