The Day to Day

I normally don't post during the mundane weeks. However, now that the final countdown has begun things don't really feel so mundane any more. The last week really wasn't anything spectacular though, I mostly enjoyed every second of not having a paper due. The week before had been so hectic. Now all my classes are over and I just have one review session in a half hour before exams begin next week. I cannot believe Halloween is almost here, or that November is almost here. The weather is incredible this week, today was beautiful and it's only supposed to get nicer. If only it had been that way yesterday... I went to the waterfront with Sebastian because we had tickets to go to Robben Island, but ten minutes after we got there it started to down pour. The tour was canceled, but we rescheduled for this Wednesday so I am excited for that. I feel like I have so much free time without class. Hopefully the predictions will come true and tomorrow will be beautiful again so I can go to beach :] I want to be nice and tan for my reunification with America.

I'm trying to take pictures of everything that see everyday here. I made a "scenic images" album on facebook so that I have a place to post them all. I hate the thought of forgetting things here. It is all so gorgeous and I want to go home with all of my memories fully in tact. I want to remember the order of the suburbs I live in along Main Street: Obzs, Mowbray, Rosebank, Rondebosch, Clarmont...how much mini buses cost: 5R unless they are in the mood to ask for 6, how in stead of dandelions growing along the highway there are birds of paradise and white lilies. I want the remember my laundry ladies, my sandwich lady and my coffee lady. I want to remember the way the two gates outside of the charlton house sound when they slam shut, and the ring of the door bell that is constantly chiming. There are an endless amount of little things that I think about all the time here and I don't want to go home and forget all about them. I'm going to miss Johnny the cab driver and how he tells me about his 84 year-old mom and the flat that she has lived in for the last 57 years. I just need to write it all down. I want to be able to give a fully detailed report when I go home about just what it really was like to live here :] I feel so lucky! I think about my old walk in albion from twin to the quad and how when i would walk up the stairs in between baldwin and seaton I would look at the pine trees and pretend I was in twilight because they really are that beautiful! I just want to always appreciate the beauty around me because it is such a constant and wonderful supplier of happiness.

Oh and the Egyptian geese! I do not want to forget about the Egyptian geese.

Südafrika

I don’t want to leave. I know that if I heard myself say that in July or early August I would have slapped myself...but I actually do not want to leave. When I left home I left everyone that I love behind me, I took a leap of faith on this experience that I had been wanting for years. Well, I got exactly what I asked for: the experience of a lifetime. Now I have around 5 weeks left here and I am in disbelief. Suddenly everything I do here seems so much more precious than I expected it to. The best thing about home is that it is always there, it will always be a harbour of love and familiarity...but this place is magical and I can’t come back to it (the place yet, but not the experience). I remember talking to a girl who was abroad last year and hearing her say she wished she had gone abroad for a year...I thought she was crazy. Now I can totally relate. It’s hard to describe the feeling of missing your family and friends at home so much, but also loving everything here so much. The fact that the weather is suddenly perfect isn’t making it any easier on me. All I want to do is lay on the beach every day :]
When I was little I went to Florida every winter, some years twice (once with my mom and once with my dad) and every year the last time I swam in the ocean I would promise it my return. I think about those goodbyes every time I see it...there is something so fulfilling about keeping a promise. It is so weird how you can fly to the other side of the world and feel elements of home...and that I consider Florida to be part of home. I suppose anywhere with family memories has been internalized as home. Anyway, I love it here. I love feeling like I am doing it...I am living my dream. I am experiencing a foreign country, people, and culture and I am adjusted! It is the most liberating feeling in the world. I wish I could take a picture of the mini bus station here (if I pulled my camera out, I would without a doubt be robbed haha). Any middle class American that can take that place on would feel proud of themselves guaranteed! When I turned 16 and received my own car I felt independent; I never imagined that I would be able to flag down a mini bus and sit amongst ten strangers with a disco ball on the ceiling and either hip hop or Italian opera blasting in the background and feel comfortable. I love that I am learning about South African foreign relations regarding refugees! This is why I came here, to learn about current events where they are taking place. I feel like I am developing an addiction to independence.
I know that I still have over a month left so it is a little early to evaluate my experience here...but :] I can see a change in myself. It has become so obvious that I am more open-minded now, I feel like I listen to people more than I ever did in the past. I don’t just hear someone’s stories, I feel them. I don’t judge like I used to, but instead I listen to people’s reasons for the decisions or opinions that they have and then I feel empathetic towards their point of view. I don’t question things as much as I used to either, I feel like I am more willing to dive into life. Of course, I still value my regard for responsibility and well thought out decisions, but I definitely value spontaneity more than I used to. Sometimes it is necessary to act on passion rather than sense. I knew that it was financially imprudent to come here, by my passion for this continent led me here anyway and I could not be more thankful. Coming here was a risk, but I took it and have received the greatest reward. I have friends from around the world, I appreciate foreign cultures and my own more than I ever have before, I am more aware of international affairs, and I have a thirst for life that is irrevocable.
I cannot wait to go home and share these new qualities that I have discovered within myself with my friends and family. I know that our relationships will be even more meaningful now that I have a more mature outlook on them. It isn’t that I was not mature previously, but now I truly value the power of support systems. My mom, my sister, my cousins, my friends from home and my delta gammas have been there for me when I was around the corner and when I was as far as I could possibly be. This is a gift. I think I see that more clearly now because I have been given the opportunity to experience something incredible that I know is temporary. I try to soak everything in here because it is always in the back of my mind that I only have it for a little bit. Well, I never really thought that way at home. Now I see that college, my life as a student, and my role in life is temporary. Everything changes, and yes a lot of those changes are for the better, but it is important to publically cherish the positive experiences that you currently have because each one of them will soon be a happy memory; a framed photograph. In a literal sense even...I included a photo of the happy scene I experienced this morning on my walk to class :]

p.s. I am dedicating myself to writing more interesting updates for the rest of my time here. I am going to Robben Island this weekend and will have lots to share on Monday. Sorry this entry was so reflective rather than adventurous haha.