ok first: i started the essay blog as promised and i posted my first essay. the address is: http://africaessays.blogspot.com/ i will always let you guys know on here when i have posted something new. so please check that out and give me comments.
so what's been going on? well, i'm starting to experience those feelings of homesickness that i was promised. I don't live in the same housing complexes as the girls i befriended at the beginning of the trip and i don't see them that often. couple that with also kind of losing my guy friends (to their new girlfriends) and struggling to befriend my roommates and frankly, things are a little lonely sometimes. i guess this is particularly difficult because it can sometimes feel like the first signs of the friend-dropping i've experienced in the past. But i guess getting over past insecurities and developing a real sense of independence and confidence are what this experience is all about. So hopefully i'll be able to come home free of all the issues that have plagued me in the past and start fresh. the last fews have been pretty mellow. monday was our friend lindizwe's birthday so a few of his friends came over and we made him a cake. it was a nice little birthday. i think he was really happy that his new american friends did that for him; he wasn't expecting it.
Tuesday i was in a terrible mood. I ate too many peanuts at lunch and then felt sick for the rest of the day. When i went to dance class i got even more annoyed because the class is way too crowded. A lot of our teachers advanced students come to our class to just bum around and have fun, but they end up pushing us out of the way and taking over our class. i hate it. also, there are a lot of other international students who aren't registered for the class but they just come. it's really annoying to have all these extra people in our small little studio because those of us that are paying for the class don't even get to dance as much. Then i got home and started to feel depressed that my friends weren't ever answering my text messages and pooped out on the "great" party that our friend ellie was having. whatever, i heard it wasn't even that great.
the reason she got to throw a party on a tuesday was that wednesday the first was a public holiday and also election day. school was cancelled and the weather was icky so instead of going to the beach i went with my roommate brooklyn and a bunch of her friends to the district six museum downtown. Downtown was kind of creepy yesterday though. On holidays everyone stays at home, none of the shops were open and the streets were empty excepts for the vagrants and bums, plus the sky was gray and it was cold. Not a very pleasant atmosphere, but at least the museum was interesting. District Six is an area of downtown that had traditionally been very crowded and very racially mixed. There was a large muslim population as well as lots of mixed race families. During Apartheid the residents of this area were forcibly removed into the townships and all their homes were bulldozed to the ground. However, due to heavy protest and a general white distaste for the area, whites never moved in and nothing was built. In the last decade they are just now starting to build there and welcome the former residents back into the district. It's been one of the most successful post-apartheid outreaches.
after the museum we headed back to our part of town for a late mexican lunch to celebrate our one-month anniversary in cape town. on the way home from lunch we stopped at the residence hall where a lot of ciee kids are staying. The building looks like a prison with all the rooms in a rectangle that's 6 stories high. on the inside there is just a "courtyard" on the first level. this courtyard actually looks like the top of a parking garage, because that's what it is. it's very strange looking. We decided to go down to the courtyard to play red rover. We were being silly, having lots of fun and tons of people were coming out on their balconies to watch us play. But, then we got in trouble because games aren't allowed in the courtyard. after we were told of this rule we actually saw a sign that said "no games." we thought that was hilarious, and then we went home. for the rest of the evening we just hung out, not doing much.
so what's been going on? well, i'm starting to experience those feelings of homesickness that i was promised. I don't live in the same housing complexes as the girls i befriended at the beginning of the trip and i don't see them that often. couple that with also kind of losing my guy friends (to their new girlfriends) and struggling to befriend my roommates and frankly, things are a little lonely sometimes. i guess this is particularly difficult because it can sometimes feel like the first signs of the friend-dropping i've experienced in the past. But i guess getting over past insecurities and developing a real sense of independence and confidence are what this experience is all about. So hopefully i'll be able to come home free of all the issues that have plagued me in the past and start fresh. the last fews have been pretty mellow. monday was our friend lindizwe's birthday so a few of his friends came over and we made him a cake. it was a nice little birthday. i think he was really happy that his new american friends did that for him; he wasn't expecting it.
Tuesday i was in a terrible mood. I ate too many peanuts at lunch and then felt sick for the rest of the day. When i went to dance class i got even more annoyed because the class is way too crowded. A lot of our teachers advanced students come to our class to just bum around and have fun, but they end up pushing us out of the way and taking over our class. i hate it. also, there are a lot of other international students who aren't registered for the class but they just come. it's really annoying to have all these extra people in our small little studio because those of us that are paying for the class don't even get to dance as much. Then i got home and started to feel depressed that my friends weren't ever answering my text messages and pooped out on the "great" party that our friend ellie was having. whatever, i heard it wasn't even that great.
the reason she got to throw a party on a tuesday was that wednesday the first was a public holiday and also election day. school was cancelled and the weather was icky so instead of going to the beach i went with my roommate brooklyn and a bunch of her friends to the district six museum downtown. Downtown was kind of creepy yesterday though. On holidays everyone stays at home, none of the shops were open and the streets were empty excepts for the vagrants and bums, plus the sky was gray and it was cold. Not a very pleasant atmosphere, but at least the museum was interesting. District Six is an area of downtown that had traditionally been very crowded and very racially mixed. There was a large muslim population as well as lots of mixed race families. During Apartheid the residents of this area were forcibly removed into the townships and all their homes were bulldozed to the ground. However, due to heavy protest and a general white distaste for the area, whites never moved in and nothing was built. In the last decade they are just now starting to build there and welcome the former residents back into the district. It's been one of the most successful post-apartheid outreaches.
after the museum we headed back to our part of town for a late mexican lunch to celebrate our one-month anniversary in cape town. on the way home from lunch we stopped at the residence hall where a lot of ciee kids are staying. The building looks like a prison with all the rooms in a rectangle that's 6 stories high. on the inside there is just a "courtyard" on the first level. this courtyard actually looks like the top of a parking garage, because that's what it is. it's very strange looking. We decided to go down to the courtyard to play red rover. We were being silly, having lots of fun and tons of people were coming out on their balconies to watch us play. But, then we got in trouble because games aren't allowed in the courtyard. after we were told of this rule we actually saw a sign that said "no games." we thought that was hilarious, and then we went home. for the rest of the evening we just hung out, not doing much.
posted by kerry at 4:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home