yo yo yo. so we got wireless in my house and now i can post more often. finally. well, i am crazy tan. that's the result of living in a beach city and having a pool i guess. i think i need to stay out of the sun for a couple days, i'm feeling a little roasted. i think i will use this post to talk about things that are wacky and different.
first: food. the chips all have crazy flavors like oven roasted chicken with thyme. they have yogurt in every flavor imaginable and skim milk cannot be found. the diet coke here is amazing. and diet coke with lemon is my favorite drink. (it's so much better than at home, i think it has different chemicals). all the cereals are made with maize and not corn, so they can't be called corn flakes, they're just called flakies. they eat a lot of random meat. jerkey is their specialty and you can buy it anywhere. one good thing is that the fruit is crazy cheap. they have a great fruit selection at 7-11. also i drink a lot of warm tap water. ice is hard to find.
second: transportation. my preferred form of transport are the taxis. they are jam packed minivans that mostly poor locals take. and they storm down the streets hailing you. the train stations are a little frightening though. so crowded and white people stick out like a sore thumb. it's pretty safe in daytime though as long as you keep your wits about you.
third: money. the exchange rate is pretty kick ass. most take away meals (big meals) plus drinks are less than 20 rand. which equals less than 3 dollars. i bought a bottle of wine yesterday for 6.99R = $1, nice. the taxis are always less than R5, which means less than a dollar.
fourth: clothing. i wear the same thing every day. linen pants and a beater. it's too hot to wear jeans except at night, when it's so windy that you almost get blown over. and all the clothes that we hang on the line get blown off in the wind. everyone is pretty chic and summery. always in sexy tops and linen pants or denim miniskirts.
campus is stunning. with all the brick, ivy covered buildings built into a mountain and surrounded by palm trees. it's unbelievable. however, since we live down the hill from lower campus, it's a half hour up hill climb to upper campus where the classes are. i will be taking an archaeology class called "the roots of black identity: the peopling of south africa", a religion class called "religion, sexuality and gender", introductory xhosa (which is a click language), and african dance.
i'm also planning on volunteering at Baphumelele, which is a home for orphans in Khayelitsha (the largest and possible most devastated looking township in the cape flats). A lot of the orphans have HIV/AIDS. a couple days ago we visited a christian ministry called the Ark, which is also in khayelitsha. They house over 1000 people on their premises. These people were homeless in the townships. they have a school, cafeteria, computer lab, job services, babysitting. it was amazing. the kids swarmed us and wanted to use our digital cameras to take pictures of us and them. so cute. they stormed the buses and had to be pulled away. it's sad though to walk through these peoples' homes and classrooms just gawking like tourists knowing that your life is so different from theirs.
first: food. the chips all have crazy flavors like oven roasted chicken with thyme. they have yogurt in every flavor imaginable and skim milk cannot be found. the diet coke here is amazing. and diet coke with lemon is my favorite drink. (it's so much better than at home, i think it has different chemicals). all the cereals are made with maize and not corn, so they can't be called corn flakes, they're just called flakies. they eat a lot of random meat. jerkey is their specialty and you can buy it anywhere. one good thing is that the fruit is crazy cheap. they have a great fruit selection at 7-11. also i drink a lot of warm tap water. ice is hard to find.
second: transportation. my preferred form of transport are the taxis. they are jam packed minivans that mostly poor locals take. and they storm down the streets hailing you. the train stations are a little frightening though. so crowded and white people stick out like a sore thumb. it's pretty safe in daytime though as long as you keep your wits about you.
third: money. the exchange rate is pretty kick ass. most take away meals (big meals) plus drinks are less than 20 rand. which equals less than 3 dollars. i bought a bottle of wine yesterday for 6.99R = $1, nice. the taxis are always less than R5, which means less than a dollar.
fourth: clothing. i wear the same thing every day. linen pants and a beater. it's too hot to wear jeans except at night, when it's so windy that you almost get blown over. and all the clothes that we hang on the line get blown off in the wind. everyone is pretty chic and summery. always in sexy tops and linen pants or denim miniskirts.
campus is stunning. with all the brick, ivy covered buildings built into a mountain and surrounded by palm trees. it's unbelievable. however, since we live down the hill from lower campus, it's a half hour up hill climb to upper campus where the classes are. i will be taking an archaeology class called "the roots of black identity: the peopling of south africa", a religion class called "religion, sexuality and gender", introductory xhosa (which is a click language), and african dance.
i'm also planning on volunteering at Baphumelele, which is a home for orphans in Khayelitsha (the largest and possible most devastated looking township in the cape flats). A lot of the orphans have HIV/AIDS. a couple days ago we visited a christian ministry called the Ark, which is also in khayelitsha. They house over 1000 people on their premises. These people were homeless in the townships. they have a school, cafeteria, computer lab, job services, babysitting. it was amazing. the kids swarmed us and wanted to use our digital cameras to take pictures of us and them. so cute. they stormed the buses and had to be pulled away. it's sad though to walk through these peoples' homes and classrooms just gawking like tourists knowing that your life is so different from theirs.
posted by kerry at 7:11 AM
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