officially out of africa. and in london. well in heathrow anyways. i've now been to asia and all over southern africa, but my passport has never seen a european stamp. soon. soon. and guess where i am?! STARBUCKS. first time since january, it's a good feeling. it's weird cuz i'm noticing that the candy and terminology in all the shops is the same as in south africa. those freakin colonists sure left their mark. instead of saying "non-fat latte" you say "skinny latte" which is funny and conjures up images of the skinny cow ice cream sandwiches i love so much. i avoided the terminology trap and got a frappucino. i mean, i'm still on vacation, so it's ok. also, i didn't sleep on that 12 hour flight. i did watch 2 movies (good night and good luck, and junebug) and 2 episodes of everybody loves raymond. then i sat there patiently in the dark trying to will my calf to stop throbbing. i sat next to 2 skinny south african women in their 50's who were heading out on holiday in london and italy. they were so funny and i talked to them a lot.

i hoped i've picked up some slang. i did just say holiday instead of vacation. but i still can't get in the habit of saying "queue" (pronounced "q" not "k" as i thought) instead of "line." although i've picked up "toilet" instead of "bathroom" which is really not too original or exciting.

leaving for the airport was pretty crazy yesterday. it was just like all of sudden i was done in cape town and my semester abroad was over. all my housemates and neighbors gathered outside to wave bye to me as my other friends picked me up in their car. When we arrived at the airport they insisted on taking pictures of me. Also everyone was impressed with how little luggage i had. go me! although carrying all this artwork i bought is kind of a pain. i guess that's the price you pay to appear cultured and cool.

"for safety parents are advised not to carry children on baggage trolleys" - i just heard that on the intercom here in the international terminal at heathrow. then they repeated it in german. fantastic.

i just woke up on my last morning in Africa. WHAT?! it's kind of bittersweet that i'm leaving. I love it here so much and i'm having so much fun but i miss so many people. I'm also really excited to just go home and avoid all this drama for a little while.

On Tuesday night we had a final dinner for 13 Bollihope Crescent, my house. We went to the classic African Rest and Bar and i got food poisoning. wonderful. Wednesday I took my last test (not feeling very well) and then hung out exchanging photographs for a long while. Yesterday we went to the beach at Camps Bay because the weather has been so nice this week. We layed out and read, then had an al fresco lunch and some ice cream at this place called sinnful, apparently the best gelato in town. It was a great, chill day to just hang out and enjoy the city. Then while we were getting ready for my final dinner, the power went out. so appropriate. and none of us got to blow dry our hair. i was so mad. i had to apply my makeup by candlelight. For dinner we went to Mama Africa. I had the crocodile kebabs with peanut sauce, yum! and I drank "robben island iced teas" which are basically a long island with passion fruit. also yum! There were 12 of us at dinner. it was fun but kind of awkward cuz i tried to mix 2 groups of friends. After dinner we all went to the Dubliner and hung out listening to the band. A few friends of friends hung out with us. They're from all over Africa, i think a few are from Congo (as a lot of people here are). They were really fun and they have crazy names like machiavelli and hastings. so from there we stayed out til after 3, had some falafel on the street, met crazy people and it was a really good ending to my last night.

Goodbyes are really funny. Some people who've been friendly and nice, but distant in that they don't want to seem attached, get very sentimental at goodbyes. They kinda freak out about keeping in touch. This seems to be a guy thing. To act all distant and aloof and then all of sudden show that they care. it's kind of cute. I'm not gonna get a chance to say goodbye to everyone and it's weird because with a lot of people I really will probably never see them again. A lot of my friends here go to school in DC so i'll see them, but there are a lot of people that i'm casually friends with who i'll just never see again, unless we have some chance meeting. Thank god for facebook to help us keep in touch.

Well today i need to finish up packing and steal music and pictures from friends and then a few of my friends are taking me to the airport at around 5. I have a 12 hour flight to London, an 8 hour layover and then a 10 hour flight to Seattle. This should be fun.

goodbye cape town!

so what have i been doing in my last week and a half? well trying to cram lots of things in, and not really succeeding, but having fun anyways! last monday i made my triumphant return to volunteering, but it was the last week. on tuesday i went shopping with a few of my friends, got my money from the foreign exchange place, had a giant lunch (i ate a sandwich with potatoes on it. and chicken. and sauce.). then that evening i headed back to the mall for more fast food and a movie. We saw pretty persuasion starring evan rachel wood and the guy from office space. it was funny, but so messed up that i didn't love it. wednesday i volunteered again. and i think studied a little. i may have gone out to dinner. i really don't remember. thursday i hung out, studied, wasted the day. I hung out with some kids who had just got back from namibia. Since it was study week a lot of kids went on vacation. Most to namibia, some in mozambique, my roommate laura went to kenya. Well a lot of kids in namibia got into car accidents. One group's car flipped a few times and they spent the night in the hospital (the same one as brad and angelina! how exciting!) and then got flown home the next day. They're all fine, but it's so scary and it makes me really happy that nothing happened to us. namibia is dangerous.

Friday i took my first exam, in Xhosa. so glad to be done with that. our senile teachers put tons of vocab words we had never learned on the test. the reading comprehension was impossible to comprehend! after that i went out to dinner at the greek restaurant with the girls and then we went to Springbok, the rugby bar. i did not have fun. i got in a bad mood and then our cab never showed up and it was obnoxious. i got really annoyed at rugby players which is strange because normally i love them. i love the rowdiness. but this time i was so ticked off.

Saturday we went to the final day at the orphanage. It was the little going away party. We took lots of pictures of the kids and said goodbye to them. It was pretty sad to think that there's a 99% chance we won't see them again. when we got home we watched movies. then on sunday i went to greenpoint stadium flea market to pick up presents and artwork. i love the artwork here. Some of the paintings are so beautiful. and they are really bold and i love the colors. i think i want to be an art collector. although it will all be cheap and worthless art, but that's ok. so i bought a bunch of stuff. Then that evening we had a final meeting for the orphanage where we talked about how to fundraise in the US and about the future of the orphanage and about the future of ciee volunteers there. CHOSA, the organization that we are a part of that funds Baphumelele has just picked up a second orphanage. It's in Nyanga in a woman's home and is struggling in the way that Baphumelele was 5 years ago. So they are trying to establish a relationship with that orphanage and help them expand their property and to put together a daily routine. i might start putting together the CHOSA newsletter since i have experience with page layout and all that stuff from orchestra. you know, just doing my part.

On monday we went into town again to go to the greenmarket square craft market. Lindsey bought a drum which was exciting and then everywhere we walked with it all these guys would go "nice drum, come sit down and play with me!" also i walked by this man in a stall and he goes "i like your necklace" and so i said thank you, and then he says "now what do you like about me?" i was so thrown off by it, i was just like "umm i like your hat?" and kept walking. very funny. we went to lunch at this semi-famous deli called mr. pickwick's. they had lots of "american style" sandwiches and they even had hummingbird cake. I had a milkshake and since then i've wanted to die because i'm definately a lact-ard now. great. we also went in lots of used book stores and antique shops. some of the antiques here are really cool. it's a bit of an undiscovered market.

today i took my second final. the tests here are really intense. they make you put your bag in the front of the room and people only sit at every other row. then you have all these booklets and you have to fold over the part with your name and seal it with a sticker. then when you are finished you can't leave, you have to wait until everyone is done. it's crazy! then we had a final house dinner at the african rest and bar, our favorite restaurant. it was lovely. and they had new placemats! sorry, for us that was exciting, they got rid of the cheetah print velour. also - the weather has been beautiful! i tanned by the pool today while studying for my test!

also i've been online trying to apply to jobs and find some way to make money this summer. if anyone has any ideas - please let me know!

and now i have 2 nights, 3 days left. I'll be returning home on saturday at 4:30 at seatac for anyone who would like to come greet me! i want everyone to come!