Reflections

So much as happened in the past week. For starters, the homework load has significantly increased, so that's why I haven't been as present on social media and this blog. Also, I've been trying to take in as much of Langa and Cape Town as I possibly can. My days here are numbered, and I honestly don't know if I'll ever have the chance to come back here again. It feels like I've been here for years already. (No seriously, I don't freak out when we drive on the highway anymore and see the cars coming from the opposite direction!) My Xhosa is improving, thanks to my amazing host family. I'm not served first for dinner anymore, meaning my family isn't seeing me as a guest and more as a member of the family. The neighbors know me by name, and I'm finally sleeping through the night without waking up to the loud noises that always happen in Langa. I am beginning to finally feel more at home here, which is an incredible experience for me. The one thing that I can't get used to is eating with my hands -- my host family digs into their food, especially the chicken, with their hands, and they constantly tease me for using a fork and a knife. I hate, hate, hate getting my hands dirty - I have hated that since I was little - so the fork and knife is just something that is going to have to continue.

While I am having an amazing time here and loving every second of it, I can't shake this intense fear of missing out. That seems totally silly, typing that out. I mean, I'm in South Africa for goodness' sake. Whatever I'm doing here is exponentially more fun than anything happening in Illinois. Yet I feel like I'm missing some really important milestones: my mom's graduation, several of my closest friends' graduation, my dear friend finding out she's cancer free, all of the fun things happening at my university. And I know I have an excellent support system back home full of friends and family and loved ones who are cheering me on and wishing me the best, but there are always those moments where I wish more than anything I could be back home.

That's not to say that I'm not enjoying my time here in South Africa; that's not what I'm saying at all. I just wish sometimes that I had better internet connections so I can Skype friends and family more often. I wish I could talk to my loved ones more.

However, that being said, I am also grateful that I'm not constantly seeking out my friends and family. It's giving me more of an opportunity to explore this brand new city in this brand new country. I'm doing some incredible things here, things I would not have had the opportunity to do in the States. And for that, I am so humbled and grateful. But also, that's not to say that I won't jump at the opportunity to talk with my friends and family at a given chance.

Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff. Let me tell you what I've been up to this past week: my activities have included a trip to the beach, lots of class time, and observation at a high school. The high school visit was interesting: we were broken up into five different groups and each group was given a different high school to go visit. My group went to observe the Cedar House High School, which is an independent school in a really nice area of a suburb of Cape Town. However, the school itself was more like an "alternative" learning campus: the classroom was structured around student participation and students more or less ran the classtime. There was no uniform, so the school encouraged the self expression of its students. It was interesting to me to see that, since I have horrible flashbacks to the strict dress codes of my junior high and high schools. There was also a skate park in the middle of the school front lawn.

Education is not one of my passions, so the visit was more of an escape from classwork for me. However, when the whole class got back together to go over the different schools we all went to, it was startling to see the extreme differences ranging all across the city of the different schools. Next week, we get to visit NGOs, which I know I will enjoy much more.

I'll wrap up this post with two pictures from my beach trip on Saturday: it's always nice to just the day relaxing and soaking up the sun (and getting sunburned - this South African sun is relentless!) Sobonana!

Table Mountain from Camp's Bay Beach

Live On at Camp's Bay