week #'s 2&3

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Stellenbosch
July 30th 2009

Published: July 30th 2009

Hellooo family and frienddss,

I have officially been in South Africa for three and a half full weeks! It is absolutely amazing how fast the time has flown by!

These past two weeks have not been nearly as exciting from a "blog worthy" perspective, but it is time for an update non-the-less.

I started classes last Monday, July 20th, which I probably mentioned in my last blog so things have slowed down a bit since then.

My semester course load consists of 4 IPSU classes, which are courses taught in English for the 200+ international students that are on class, and 1 mainstream course which is taught in part Afrikaans, part English. My classes are:
-South Africa and the Literary Imagination (English Elective dealing with short stories written by black vs. white writers during the apartheid years)
-Afrikaans for Beginners ( Hoe gaan dit = how are you? Goed dankie, et self = good thanks, and yourself?)
-Economic and Developmental Problems in Africa and South Africa (a look at the post-apartheid problems affecting the country/continent)
-Introduction to the South African Wine Industry (you can't pass this class up in the wine capital of SA!)
-Sociology (this is my mainstream class, and since it is mostly in Afrikaans, I can't tell you much about it because I have not done my readings in english yet hehe)

For the most part, classes seem to be quite easy here in comparison, and much more relaxed in the internationals only classes because the professors want us to enjoy our time here instead of be stuck in the library all the time. How nice of them! Our whole group only has classes Mon-Thurs so we always get to enjoy nice 4 day weekends to provide for some good traveling.

Aside from classes, I have been focusing on meeting fellow south african students. As you can imagine, in classes full of international students that makes things a bit more difficult. But, I am living in a dormitory with my other group members and we could not be happier with our placements. We are the only international students that are actually living on campus, the rest live off campus in apartments or houses, and they are all jealous of us. We have been able to make so many friends from the dorm activities.

One of the first nights that I was living here, all 10 girls in my wing came to my room with welcome signs and cupcakes and took the time to get to know me and make me feel right at home here at SU. After that, the dorm (of 506 students) had its annual beginning of the semester "punch party" at which we got to mingle and befriend so many native South African/African students. The experience has been so rewarding and humbling. I have yet to encounter someone that has not smiled and said hi and struck up a conversation with me, everyone is amazing!

The other thing that I have been learning as a cultural experience is "sookie." This is a very native south african form of dance. It is impossible to describe because we have no remotely similar dance in the States but I have probably been taught for about 4 hours worth of time now and I am just starting to feel comfortable doing the moves. We have a huge dance for our dorm in two weeks time, so by then, I have to be a pro to blend in with the South African students!

Tomorrow is the wine festival here in Stellenbosch, so we are headed there around 15h00 to taste the best that SA has to offer. I will be sure to post my top 5 wines from the festival in my next post so that you all can try and find them at home.

I do not have any new pictures to post (sorry!) but I promise to take more this weekend to add to the next entry.

I love you all and miss you to death!

Have a lekker day!

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