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Published: June 14th 2008
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Time has come for me to say goodbye to Maritzburg for good (for now..) and get ready for my last big African hoorah (for now..). I finished my finals this week- they were pretty intense, they are taken as very important here- moreso than in the US. If you haven't kept your grades and attendance up to par, you aren't even allowed to take the final. And the finals count for a very high percentage of your final grade- up to 60% in some cases. They are mostly 3 hours long and essay oriented, and they are graded by internal and external examiners. I didn't find them too too hard, though three hours of essay writing is tough no matter what the subject. And a three hour zulu test was not easy, but there weren't any surprises on it and I think I did okay.
Its saturday today and I've spend all of last night and today packing my room up, which has been a big ordeal- I've acquired some curios (thats what they call souvenirs)- including most recently a beautiful ceramic pot made by a friend of mine, Muziwandile, who became semi-professional potter and is now going back to
school to get a degree, so he can teach it. The pot is incredible... and about the size of a basketball and heavy, but i'll manage and when I have it at home it will be worth it.
I'm trying to think of things to say because I felt like doing a 'last post'. I think I'm having trouble because its still kind of surreal that I'm leaving, I know that sounds weird but even with all the packing and plans, I feel like I haven't actually focused on it yet and thought about it. If you've even moved away for a long, you probably know what I mean.
The last few weeks have helped me to be sure that I'm glad to be going home- I don't mean that in a negative way for my experience, but I have friends that are staying a year and I really can't imagine wanting to do that. Six months is a long time... well, its a long to be away from home. but its too short of a time to really establish a new home- thats something I didn't realize before. I have been slightly disappointed in my lack of
Student Union and the big chill
the student union is really in the background of the building but this is the site of the Big Chill, the campus bar until a new administrator came in and shut it down halfway through the semester. lame. "real" south african friends. I have made "real" friends in the california program here and I have definitely made friends that are south africans, but I think i had underestimated how long it takes to made close friends across cultural boundaries.
And I have spent the last 2 weeks thinking about that and then last night I was sharing food with my neighbor in res (dorms), today we swapped some music, and I was walking around campus doing last minute things and had two full conversations with people- one recognized me from around the visual arts building and wanted to interview me about the xenophibia riots for an article she was writing and the other person saw me taking a picture of the mail building, which has a south africa flag and a UKZN flag-- and he said the picture would be better with a south african in it and he climbed up there for me to take the picture. And after all that, I decided it just takes alonger time then I initially thought to make solid friends. for better or worse, i guess.
What else... I'm really interested to go back home because when i first
got here I was always noticing social/cultural differences and now they have sort of faded a little, because I'm used to things here. So I'm curious to see what I'll notice when I get home as being different from things here. Less zulu, thats for sure. Probably less house music blasting at 7 am in the dorms, but I'm sure I'll find other things too.
On to the exciting stuff!Tomorrow morning I leave for my month long backpacking trip through southern and central africa- my plans have changed a little bit since I last mentioned this trip.
The first half of my trip is with a few girls from California- and we are going to Joburg for the night tomorrow, where I will meet up with Becky goldberg (a friend from the US), who is doing me a HUGE favor and holding some of my luggage while I travel.
Then on monday we travel to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana and make our way north to the Ocavanga Delta and the Salt Pans, then more north and east to Chobe National Park and then cross into Zambia for Victorial Falls. Then more north and east thought zambia, stopping
at some National Parks and then east into Malawi! Here we'll see the country a bit and the girls will fly to northern tanzania to do some crazy stuff up there. Around that time, my brother will fly into South africa and then to Malawi (I think... we are still figuring these details out). We will travel north through Malawi and cross the border into Tanzania and take a bus/train across the country north and east towards the coast. There we will meet up with two of his friends from U of Denver, and we'll spend a bunch of days on the island of Zanzibar. From there I'm not completely sure what we'll do... but eventually get back down to Joburg around July 12 or 13th and stay with Becky and get to Joburg and Soweto, before flying back to the US on July 16th!
Wheh~ I'm tempted to apologize for bragging but - hey, its my blog, thats kind of what its for.
I may or may not get to post while I am traveling- it depends on internet connection and prices really (don't worry mom- I will send an email every time I smell an internet connection)..
Until then,
Sala Kahle,
mark
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