Shutterfly

Hello everyone.

I just want to let all of you that are viewing my blog know that I am no longer going to be updating this blog. BUT no worries, I am creating something new for you. This blog is too hard to update, as it takes forever to load pictures and it only lets me upload about 5 at a time, and with the amount of photos I have, I would be uploading them until the end of my stay here and I don't want to be doing that.

Instead I have created this: http://mysecondhomesouthafrica.shutterfly.com/

You can view much more photos, and you don't have to sign up for an account if you want to leave comments... at least I don't think. At the very least, you get to see more photos - which is a HUGE plus.

So from here, I leave this as my last blog post. Enjoy the new site!

Garden Route Day 1 and 2 Accommodations

Our first and second nights were spent in a backpackers right on the beach. We stayed in Buffalo Bay. It was beautiful there.

Enjoy the photos. I have been at the computer all day loading pictures - and it is time for me to sign off. I need to get away from my desk for a bit. There are many more postings to come as the Garden Route Trip was about a ten day trip.

Garden Route Journey Day 1 and 2.

Over the holidays for Stellenbosch University our AIFS group went on a week's journey to different places on the famous Garden Route east coast of South Africa. Our first day was an early departure at 4:45AM. Our first stop (besides the petrol stations) was an ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn, South Africa.

There was also an option to ride an ostrich, but no thank you. Some of the kids in our group did though. Enjoy the video.

The men that helped people ride the ostriches were also avid riders... here is how they ride:

After all the fun at the ostrich farm, our next stop was the Cango Caves.

It was hard to take pictures inside the caves, but I did take a little bit of video... although, it doesn't do the caves justice.

Beaches, Concerts, and Kirstenbosch

This will probably not be a very long post, but it will have some cool sites for you followers to visit.

The beginning of the week... which is now last week (Feb. 21st - 27th) was just a plain week. Nothing too much to report - just classes and laying low in my flat. Sometimes its nice just to hang out at home and take it easy. Sometimes I feel like everything needs to get done now and I need to pack everything in - but then I have to slow down and realize, 'Hey, you will be here until June, slow down!' So, the beginning of the week was a take it easy week.

On Sunday the 27th my international group went on a trip together up to Kirstenbosch, which is a botanical garden area. Really beautiful. We went up there to attend a concert which featured one of South Africa's most prominent bands. They are called Prime Circle. The concert was outdoors and it was basically like a big picnic day. The atmosphere was very laid back.

In case you are wondering what Prime Circle sounds like, you can listen here:




And if you would like to know more about Kirstenbosch, just explore this website:
http://www.uncoverthecape.co.za/event-calendar/kirstenbosch-concerts.htm


Then, to start this week off, I went to the beach today (March 1st). I don't have classes on Monday. The beach is awesome. I took the train with one of my friends here - which was an adventure in itself. I am including just a picture of the beach I went to. It's name is Strand Beach.





The week started off wonderful - and now its back to classes! Afrikaans in the morning and an English film study class in the afternoon for tomorrow. My Wednesday class consists of South African History. Thursdays include just a morning class of Afrikaans, and Friday is a sociology class called Negotiating Transitions.

Enjoy the week, everyone!

Beachside Entertainment

Here is just a small blog post. As I was visiting Boulder Beach these boys were performing by the open markets (the markets where you can barter for prices... and I am no good. I have decided that I am taking one of my local friends with me next time I want to go so they can barter for me!). These boys were really good performers - but the video is rather short because people kept stepping in front of me.

I believe that they are singing in Xhosa.

Enjoy!

They Didn't Die to Have a Memorial...

As I am living in South Africa there is no possible way to step around the issue of apartheid. In a country that abolished it only a few years ago, the air is still sometimes thick with separation. In one of my classes Negotiating Transitions we are currently on the topic of apartheid, but I think we actually finished with most of the topic today and will be moving onto the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Before I continue with what I have to say regarding Negotiating Transitions I'd like to pass on some of the things I learned when I first got here - I should say some I learned and some were refreshers...

Here there is a difference between 'colored' and 'black'. If you tell a colored person they are black or vice versa, you have insulted someone. Plain and simple. Moving on with insults... if you have ever heard the word kaffer, you know not to use it - unless you are looking for serious trouble. Kaffer = non-believer (in a nutshell). When I got here, I already knew that term, but what I didn't know was that there is also a term to insult the white Afrikaaners: boer. That is a name you don't just throw around. Some people here use it as slang with their close friends, and there is a way to use it so that it is not an insult, but being a foreigner I WILL NOT be using that word. In my eyes, I don't have the right to use the word.

On to what my class discussed today...

When I quote my teacher "...they didn't die to have a memorial..." I am referring to some of the discussion our class had on the Gugulethu Seven. The Gugulethu Seven was one of many murders in the fight against apartheid. It is hard for me to explain about these murders because I am just learning about them myself.

The movie Long Night's Journey Into Day explores some of the TRC (Truth & Reconciliation Commissions) and the Gugulethu Seven are one of four murders featured, and like I said, I can't fully explain them, so I will let the following websites be your teachers.

Website to the movie:

http://www.irisfilms.org/longnight/ln_biehl.htm

Please try and read all four stories. I have given you the link to the description about Amy Biehl's murder to start with. If you then look at the left hand screen you will see Stories in red, please view the other three below: Cradock 4, Magoo's Bar Bombing, and Guguletu 7.


I wanted to post a blog about this because... well... I was moved. There is no other way I can put it; there are no words I can form to explain to you what I felt when watching the tears fall from the faces of the victims' family members who were left behind to deal with the aftermath of their loved one's demise. If you can, watch the movie.


More interesting websites:

http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/index.html

http://www.capetown.dj/Regions/CapeFlats/Gugulethu/GugulethuSeven.html

http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/gugulethu-7-memorial.htm


In one of the articles I had to read for class, which was actually written by one of my teachers and a colleague of hers, they started their article with a poem that I would like to end my post with.

Untitled

When the first slave was brought to the cape
he looked at the awesome mountain
which roots us to an eternal beauty
hundreds of years later affirmed

I am as free and as tall as this mountain
this mountain is more chained that I am
I will climb to the top one day
and call the adhaan before dawn

My voice will carry across the seas
to my loved ones in a land
I may never see again
and they will know that I

and the treasures I carry with me
are safe and always will be
for as long as beauty
and this mountain survive

- Shabbir Banoobhai

Penguins and Beaches.

The reality of how poor some people are in South Africa is everywhere you go... but there is also beauty everywhere you go as well. Many people have a negative outlook on South Africa... well Africa in general, and through some of my postings I'd like to change that outlook - even if it is just a few people. South Africa is a place that I would recommend to anyone to come and visit; just don't expect to have a week of vacation here, plan on making a month out of it. Trust me, you will want to make a month out of it after you sit on a plane for almost 24 hours.

The following pictures are from Boulder Beach where penguins reside and also from Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point. Enjoy. :)



The first picture here is the lighthouse at Cape of Good Hope.
The second is come of the coast by Cape of Good Hope.
The third picture was taken closer to where the penguins where. These boys perform on the street as entertainment and as a form of making money... They were actually very talented.




1) Granted this picture is of just a mouse, this mouse is still part of South Africa's wildlife. I am trying to get as many pictures of any wildlife I can. Striped-mouse is the species. Birds here are too fast to get a picture of... more animal pictures to come! :)
2) Baboons are mean, take these signs seriously. I am honestly trying to get a picture of baboons but a) I can't get my camera out fast enough before they run off and b) Ive been in a moving car. Neither option allows for quality picture taking... and I am not going to get close enough for one of them to STEAL my camera, as that would be the demise of my blog.
3) More coast at Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point


1) Lighthouse from further away
2) Coast by Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope
3) Coast closer to penguins... also was a good swimming spot! :)


1) Coast close to penguins
2) Boy jumping into the water to cool down
3) Coast by Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope... on the way home in the bus snapping pictures


1,2,3.. PENGUINS, need I say more? :)



More penguins...







Best Valentine's Day EVER. What more could you ask for? Penguins are by the far cutest date I have ever had. ;)