From the Mountains

Hello everyone!
Sorry it has been so long since I last posted, I've been super busy with classes starting as well as exploring Bo-land (as Stellenbosch is affectionately known as). Classes officially began this week and despite my brain still being on summer vacation, I've successfully designed a course schedule. On Monday and Wednesday mornings I have Afrikaans, which might become my favorite class. Our classroom has comfy chairs, pillows, carpet, no desks, and tons of decorations...it almost feels like a kindergarten rooms. My professor is fantastic and when we walk in the door she shouts (literally, she shouts) "HELLO MY LOVIES HOW ARE YOU?" Yesterday we learned the Afrikaans alphabet and how to pronounce important letter combinations. The point of the class is to learn social Afrikaans; to learn how to get by while we are here. The accent is going to be difficult (it sounds like a mix of Dutch and British accents) but I am very excited. My second class is Economic and Development Problems in Africa and South Africa, which I haven't actually had yet. The professor is out of the country so class begins next week...I'll be sure to update you all on how that one goes. My last class is the Service Learning class which has three main parts: Community Development Theory (Thursday night class), Application and Reflection (Friday morning class), and Service Learning at my worksite. I will find out where I will be doing my service learning in approximately 2 more hours! I don't think I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to take a 9 credit class, but I do know that I already had two papers due as well as tons of reading for this class. However I am sure it will be worth the effort in the end, and as my schedule becomes more routine I will find the assignments to be more manageable.

As for non-academic things, I am involved in a group called ISOS (International Student Organization of Stellenbosch) which involves international students and local students working together. They sponser fundraisers for local charities as well as excursions to places such as Robben Island, Cape of Good Hope, and hikes on nearby mountains. Also through ISOS is the Kayamandi Project, where international students can volunteer to help out in the local township. At last nights meeting I found out that I will be volunteering at the Kayamandi afterschool program on Wednesday afternoons for the rest of the semester. My roommate is going on Wednesday's too, so it should be a great way to get out into the community and also play with some kids! Over the weekend some friends and I decided to hike Stellenbosch Mountain, which is located behind the gymnasium just off of campus. We followed the trail that lead to the mountain, however due to wild fires back in the beginning of the year as well as rain, the trails have completely eroded away. Therefore, we literally climbed up the side of the mountain. I kid you not, we were practically on our hands and knees crawling up the loose dirt and rocks of this mountain. It was quite the interesting experience that brough some scrapes and bruises, but a whole lot of fun. The views were incredible...the mountain has no more trees on it because of the wild fire and the amount of rocks, so the entire way up we were able to see views of campus, the vineyards, and even as far as Table Mountain in Cape Town and the ocean. Even though it is the winter season, the sun is strong and without any shade for the whole hike we were pretty exhausted by the end. The climb up was steep, which led to us sliding down nearly half the mountain on our butts, but we all made it down safe. This upcoming weekend AIFS is taking our group to the local wine fesitval where we will have the opportunity to taste up to 500 different types of wine (I didn't even know there were that many?) and then on Sunday I am going shark cage diving with some friends. My roommate went shark cage diving this past weekend and loved it, so I am super excited to see some great whites!

Along with excursions and academics, I have been exploring more of Stellenbosch. We have found some great restaurants such as Java and Binnendorf (which has half off pizza specials every Tuesday and therefore we are making it a tradition to go every Tuesday night...I wonder which kind of pizza I will get tonight...). Nearly everything you might order here has either feta cheese, avocado (or as they say, "avo"), bacon, or peppadews (peppers) in it. Now since I love all of these things, it has been a great food experience so far, and I especially love trying things at weekend braais (such as lamb or billtong). Everything here is very cheap relative to American standards, so we haven't quite determined if it is cheaper to go out to dinner or to purchase all the necessary fixings for dinner at the grocery store, but so far it has been a nice balance of both.

I am still loving it here, but I do miss home from time to time. I am currently in the midst of an epic laundry fail (lots of broken machines plus like 300 students all trying to wash their clothes plus my student card refusing to work) which led to me handwashing some clothes so that I could make it through the week, so hopefully this will work itself out soon or I'm in trouble. But other than that things have been great. I love hearing from home and I get excited when people read this blog, so that is defintely helping with the homesickness. I wish I could show you all some of the pictures I have been taking but not having my computer here makes it harder to do so, but I will certainly try.

Oh and as a last though: the title of this post is "From the Mountains" and there is a little story that goes along with it. South Africa was colonized by the Dutch so there is a huge Dutch influence on everything from architecture to language. This works in my favor because Vandenberg is a Dutch name, and everyone here can pronounce it correctly (I still don't understand why it is so hard for Americans to say it though). During attendance on my first day of Afrikaans, my professor delightedly asked me if I was Dutch because of my last name. I told her that I had some Dutch/German ancestry, and she asked if I knew what my last name meant. Apparently, Van Den Berg means "from the mountains" (Berg = Mountains). I thought this was both hilarious and approproiate seeing as wherever I am I'm pretty much always surrounded by mountains (even though Mt. Mansfield looks totally different from the mountains here). Some of the mountains here remind me of the aggro-crag from the old Nickolodeon show GUTS. But anyways that was my story, and I will be sure to post again soon! If you have any questions or just want to know something about South Africa, feel free to comment with a question!

Totsiens,

Megan