So as one of my "mini-research projects" for my research seminar I have to survey people on campus on race and racism at school. So far it's been really interesting and I've gotten to talk to some really cool people. Probably couldn't go so far as to say I've made "friends" on campus, but I'm willing to stretch it. E-mail addresses exchanged = friendship, right? Right?

Okay, off to our weekly trip to the mall. Backpacks, waiting out front... we are so back in middle school.

love.

Now with Context!

ps. i'm slowly trying to add captions to my photos so you guys can have an idea of what/where everything is. let me know if this is unnecessary because its kind of a time-consuming endeavor...

yesterday we visited three different high schools of varying economic resources. if i had my say we'd just be doing those visits every day. it was a very eye-opening experience and to say more about it would be opening up some sort of verbal floodgate so i'll leave it at that, for now at least.

this weekend we also celebrated the birth of dan neely... several times. one of these times included eight of us consuming five liters of red wine from a box in my little room. we also baked cookies and fridge tarts and played a lot of hacky-sack and ultimate frisbee.

the work is starting to get a bit more rigorous. jstor? proquest? MLA? what is this nonsense? it wouldn't be bad if not for the limited internet resources/foreign library/lack of printer access. but i guess work had to start sometime...

it's finally starting to get warmer here, which is exciting for me and my wardrobe. so far "mixing it up" has been deciding whether to wear my black or green sweater with my jeans.


salani kakuhle--

yo yo yo

i've got nothing for you. i thought i had something, which is why i logged in here. but really, nothing. it's not that many interesting things aren't happening here, because they are. my brain is just a little fried right now.

random facts:

we have two dogs, angel and nippy. angel is a partially blind brown wiener dog who constantly has her tongue sticking half out. not panting, just out there, eyes unblinking. it's a little unnerving. nippy is what i like to think of as a miniature version of nana from peter pan, except without any of the maternal instincts. nippy is also partially blind and a little bit NUTS, in a very endearing way. he drinks tea (but only in the evening) and likes eating muffins and popping balloons. all the members of the household like to scoff at nippy and tell him he's dirty and stinks, and nippy just looks up in a face of what i would like to think is bewilderment, but is probably closer to sheer oblivious stupidity. said members of household have yet to take any sort of action in solving the stinky nippy problem.

we also have a wheelchair in our house (our host grandmother's old one-- her new one is much snazzier). my host brother johan and i fight for it and then skillfully wheel it around the house, nippy at our heels.

ok see you next week, lovers.

Bafana Bafana!

So this weekend was pretty action packed.
We spent the night in the city at a hostel and went to:

• Robben Island, where political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela were kept during the struggle
• the Soweto Gospel Choir at the Baxter Theater
• Long Street (famous street for clubs/bars in Cape Town)
• Bafana Bafana (South Africa) vs. Zambia soccer game

A good time was had by all. The soccer game was pretty nuts with over 25,000 people hooting horns and going a little crazy. There were guys in the stands selling Milo (hot chocolate) from these big plastic box backpacks with a little nozzle. Very Ghostbusters. And... yeah.

School is going well, language classes are cool, especially Xhosa which is super interesting. Geography has been kinda meh but we're starting history and politics this week which should be good. Our geography teacher is a stout jolly man who reminds me of the sultan from Aladdin, and our history/politics teacher is Afrikaans and has a big red nose and comes into class wearing a big fur hat and ugg-type boots and looks like he has just arrived from a long trek in the snow. He seems like he knows his stuff and was incarcerated during the struggle for involvement in anti-apartheid groups. Our Afrikaans teacher is a sweet little lady with a foul mouth and has been teaching us all the swear words. She is really fun but also has these clear blue eyes with a little glint in them which makes you think she might invite you to her house for tea and then tie you up and eat you, or something. One of our Xhosa teachers, Alet, has been involved in a ton of language policy stuff in Cape Town and I'm excited to speak to her about my research project. The last and my favorite teacher so far is Nkosinathi, a native-tongue Xhosa speaker who is the only one who really treats us like competent college students and has a wealth of information about the Xhosa language and its culture.

Daily life is pretty nice and simple here. School from 9-3ish, home for a snack. Off to the park to hang out/read/do some work. Hang out with the kiddies at someone's house at night, watching scrubs on DVD or going out with our host brother. It's a nice change of pace for now but we'll see how it goes later.

I think I've talked enough now. I'll leave you with some pictures but there are plenty more at my picasaweb, including pictures of my room, and less mundane things such as the Mr. Apartheid puppet, the prison at Robben Island and the island itself, which is beautiful, and the soccer game.

The whole gang! Dan, Kate, Darcy, Whitney, Ari, Catherine, Ariel, Me, Kat

Unsure as to the reason for the smallness of this picture of Dan...

Action Cricket! Amateur Indoor Cricket League that Johan's friend, Lucien is in.

Host Brother, Johan.

View from the hostel balcony. Did I mention that Cape Town is beautiful?

Robben Island

Robben Island

Robben Island. Mandela's Cell.

Darcy races Ari's host nephew. Backwards. Results inconclusive.

Photos are up... go see them. Link on the sidebar, or at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shareatoothbrush


peace.

heyheyhey

so i arrived in cape town on thursday and i've just been settling in with my new family and getting to know all of the other kiddies and what not. my host family is really great and my roommate (different rooms) is really neat-o. our host brother, johan, has been taking us around town and introducing us to all of his friends so we can kick it with all the young people over here, haha.

cape town is absolutely beautiful and i wish everyone could be here to see it. it's hard to get my computer hooked up to internet so pictures will probably be sparse but as soon as i get the chance i'll show you guys some.

we took a tour of the campus today and it's really nice and quite big. tomorrow we start class. all of the students live in the same neighborhood and someone comes to pick us up in a little van every morning. five students live next to each other on one street and the van pulls up and honks and one kid gets out and gets in, and then the van pulls up about 2 meters and honks again and another kid gets in and so on. it's all very cute and leave-it-to-beaver-esque, somehow.

so far my aunt has been very kind and taking me around all over capetown which is really nice. there's so many places to see and things to do that i think the time is really going to fly here. there's also lots of activities to do so hopefully sky diving and bungee jumping and ostritch riding and all the rest will be in the near future. my brother is hopefully going to teach me stick shift too.

i hope this update hasn't been too boring. i feel like i probably left out a bunch of stuff but anyways. overall everything is pretty hunky dory but of course i miss everyone so let me know how you are all doing.

also if you get skype you can call me for 5 cents a minute which is practically nothing so you know.... *hint hint. SA is 9 hours ahead of cali and 6 ahead of new york so do the math and pick up the phone. =)

okay love s kisses for now.