Jool and then some...

Hey guys!

So this past week was absolutely ridiculous. I don’t think words will ever be able to accurately describe the events of Jool. On Tuesday there were “trolley races.” I’m not sure what I was expecting but it definitely was completely absurd. The main street in campus, Victoria St., was blocked off for about 6 hours. Each group, which are kind of like frats and sororities except they don’t call them that, created a trolley, which was just a decked out shopping cart. Everyone was dressed up and cheering for their team. There would be one person in the cart and two people running and pushing from behind. The street had obstacle courses as well and there were a bunch of collisions. I took some pictures but they cant even do justice to how many people were there. Think about all of the people at May Weekend concert and multiply it by 4, absurd.

On Thursday we decided to get up early and take the train to a vineyard on the other side of Stellenbosch. There was about 15 or so of us that decided to go. When we got there we realized it was a lot more than just wine tasting. We started with a cheetah encounter. Only a few of us did it but for R100, less than 20 dollars, we got to go into the cage and pet the cheetahs. It was so cool, but probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. The cheetahs were HUGE and purring so loud. We had to stay on one knee incase the cheetah decided to get up and walk around, which made it even more nerve wracking. After that a few people went and played with some owls, then we had lunch and head over to the wine tasting. We got to try 5 different kinds of wine, all from a list of some pretty expensive ones.

After this we headed back to campus for a power nap to rest up for the night ahead of us. This was “performance night” for all of the 1^st years. They had been practicing all week these different skits and dances to perform in front of the school. Each group was set up on a stage in front of one of the academic buildings. Each group danced every 10 minutes or so for a couple of hours. You could walk around from building to building and see all the different groups. We only saw a few but they were pretty hysterical. Again, they love American music, and it was hard to hold back from dancing when they played you can’t stop the beat from hairspray.

That night we went out to a local pub downtown and the amount of people walking around was literally insane. Every bar was packed with people and all of the streets were flooded with people walking around. Apparently this is one of their biggest nights out of the whole year, we absolutely had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but it was very very fun.

On Friday we bought 1-dollar train tickets and went into Cape Town. We had bought some soccer tickets for that evening and decided to head in early for some food and drinks beforehand. We got in around 2 or 3 and had lunch and made our way towards the stadium. We stopped at a bar close to the stadium and got some drinks and even made friends with the bartenders, Clarence and Bob. We went to the game around 7:30 and met up with a few other kids that had taken a later train into town. The game was nuts, the vuvuzuelas never stopped honking. It ended up being a double header, and the team we were rooting for won both times! After the game was over, we promised the two bartenders that we would come back and bring them more service with more people. They were very excited to see us and gave us all a round of free drinks. After that we checked into a hostel on Long St. and got ready to go out for the evening. Our friend Dave brought us to a club where one of his friends was, and as I was sitting down at a table I looked up and realized I was sitting directly across from Michelle Piedrahita! The two of us just died laughing and couldn’t believe it. The night ended up being pretty wild, and we didn’t get back to the hostel until about 4 am. I am convinced that people here DON’T sleep because they party until all hours of the night and then wake up in the morning bright and early, ready to go. I genuinely don’t understand how they do it!

We got up in the morning, checked out of the hostel and headed for the train. When we got back we napped and showered and then decided to go into town for dinner because there was an outdoor music festival in the center of town. There ended up being an extremely long line to get into the festival, but luckily you could hear most of the music from the street.

I don’t think I can say enough good things about this place. I’m so incredibly happy with my decision to come here, and am reinforced every single day. Classes will be starting this week and next week and I’m kind of excited to actually have a schedule of things to do, we were getting a little out of hand with going out on weeknights. I’ll be sure to update you again soon!

xo Jill 

First week

So I figured the best way to tell all of you about my adventures in Africa would be by writing a blog.

Let me start by saying, South Africa is the most gorgeous country in the world. After flying for about 17 total hours, dozing in and out of consciousness, we prepare for landing and get a view of the beautiful landscape below us. There is a gorgeous chain of mountains surrounding the area, completely breath taking.

When we got off the plane we were met by our director Hestea and her assistant Angelo. They took us on a bus, gave us some food, and we ventured about 30 minutes to Stellenbosch. The scenery on the ride was unbelievable. Right as we got on the highway there was miles upon miles on little shanties in different townships. Just seeing the way so many people lived in this country, while we were being pampered and spoiled, was definitely an eye opener. As we got closer to campus we saw more and more vineyards and a few gorgeous resorts.

When we arrived on campus and dragged our luggage from the bus, we were immediately sweating. The temperature was around 95 degrees and we were obviously not prepared for it. They took us to our “accommodation” which is their word for dorm or apartment. Hannah (fellow OT from UNH) and myself decided to share a flat. We each have our own room and bathroom and share a small kitchen area. Outside of our door is a large common room for us and the 6 other people on our floor. There are 2 boys and 1 girl from the US, 1 girl from Holland and another form Tanzania all living on our floor. There are boys upstairs and boys and girls downstairs that we have become fairly close with over the past few days. Our building is called Blok 5 of Academia.

After we got settled Angelo took us to the store to grab some things like extra towels and sheets, and some groceries. That night we went out for some food and drinks at a local pub called mystic where we met up with lots of other international students.

The next day we sat through an all day orientation where we learned about everything from safety to how to use the Internet. Unfortunately unlike in the states, Internet is paid for by usage and we are limited to about 4,000 MB per month. Although feeling limited isn’t great, I’m sure it can only make my experience that much better!

After the orientation, we were invited to what is called a braai. Which is basically the Afrikaans term for barbeque. The library is actually underground and located in the middle of campus. There is a huge cut out of stairs that lead down to it and there’s a small place for a performance with the stairs surrounding it, and this is where they held the braai for all of the international students. When we got there, there were four people holding bongo drums between their legs. On the steps were probably about 200 drums, there for everyone to use. We sat down and they incorporated us into their songs. It was so much fun. After this we got drinks and waiting in line for food. There was salad, beans, potatoes, pasta salad, and when we got to the grill at the end of the line the man was serving everyone ostrich. Apparently it is eaten here very commonly. It tasted like very lean red meat, and was delicious.

We had another orientation, only a half-day instead of a full day, the next night. We decided to have a little get together at Blok 5 and ended up going to a club called Springbok with probably 20 or so people. It is funny to hear the music they play at bars and clubs because 90% of it is American songs. They are actually pretty up to date with what is popular in the states too (except for one night when they only played 90s rock songs).

The next day, all of the international students got taken on a tour of Cape Town. We hopped on buses and drove down into town. We got off the buses and walked around for a while and saw a few landmarks. After that we got back on the buses and drove a few miles up a mountain. There was a place to stand and look over to take pictures. I, along with two others, decided to venture down a little bit to take better pictures. The view was incredible. We were overlooking the ocean and most of Cape Town, and could see the world cup stadium they used over the summer, so cool. We then got dropped off at what was called Victoria’s dock. There was a huge shopping mall and a bunch of restaurants that overlooked the harbor. We walked around for a while and took some touristy pictures and even saw a few seals laying on one of the docks. After a long day we headed back to campus and had a low-key night.

The view from our apartment is absolutely breathtaking. There is one mountain that faces us that is gorgeous and we heard that you were able to hike it. After asking around we figured out how to get there, and ventured out on Sunday morning at around 8am. We started hiking probably around 9 or so and let me tell you, this was no beginner’s hike. The terrain was mostly loose rock and pebbles. I felt like a legit rock climber. After getting to the first peak, we noticed there was another higher peak and figured if we already made it this far why not keep going…. This happened about 5 or 6 times. Finally after getting to about the 6^th peak around 2:30pm we heard that there was only one more peak but that it was very difficult to get up to and would take atleast another hour. The majority of the girls decided that our skin was frying (even after multiple sunscreen applications) and our legs were getting shaky. We decided to venture down while the boys kept on trekking. Unfortunately, the climb down was far worse than the climb up. It was hard to see which path was easiest or would take us where we wanted to go. It took almost 3 hours to get all the way down. Fortunately, the pictures we took from the top of the mountain were absolutely breathtaking, making all of the sweat and pain worthwhile!

Last night after we got back we showered and napped and found a place nearby that delivered pizza! We were far too exhausted and burnt to walk into town to eat so we were all pretty thrilled about the delivery service. A bunch of us hung out all night and our friend Ky from Germany suggested we play a game he used to play back home. Funny enough, the game was werewolf, which we were slightly obsessed with in high school, go figure.

This week is “jool” or rag week. It’s basically an initiation or orientation for the freshman, or 1^st years. There are lots of events like trolley races, a parade, and a concert on Saturday. So that’s what I’ve been up to for the past week! I’ll be sure to keep you all posted by the end of this week as well. : )