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

Definitions

I have a few spare minutes between lunch and my first meeting at 2...so I decided to post an entry that defines many of the words that I will be using in this blog:

Maties = Students at Stellenbosch University (it is pronounced "mah-tees")
First Meeting = At SU the classes offered for international students have these things called First Meetings. They take place at scheduled times during the first week of classes, but the actual class will not start until the First Meeting has occured. Class schedules, exams, and class layout are discussed at these meetings.
Braai = A braai is a barbeque. It is a huge social event here and there are barbeque pits outside of each residence. The students cook various types of meat over these fires and spend nearly all night eating, drinking, and socializing.
Timetable = Your class schedule
Robot = Traffic light
Neelsie = The student center at SU

Another issue that has come up is crossing the street. Campus is huge but filled with main roads that traverse our walking routes. The problem that I am having is that in South Africa they drive on the opposite side of the road. Therefore when I go to cross the street, I look to the right then the left to check for cars...but here you must look to the left then the right, or else you will probably get hit by a car. It is hard to make a conscious effort to look the other way first, but we are getting better at it. The same goes for walking around; people walk on the left instead of the right. On our first day myself and some friends were walking down the stairs on the right, creating an awkward moment between us and some locals coming up the stairs on the same side.

Today the weather is beautiful as it has been for the past few days. The sun shines all day without any clouds (and let me tell you, the South African sun is quite hot even though it is the winter season!). The nights are still pretty chilly and the sun sets around 6:30ish, but it is nice to have the sun back instead of the rain. I will update again soon!

Totsiens,
Megan

Hello!

Well I figured it was about time to update everyone on my adventures here in South Africa! I apologize for keeping you all in the dark for so long, but this first week has been incredibly busy, exciting, and exhausting. I left Boston on the 12th for the most epic plane adventure of my life. While waiting in D.C. for our plane to South Africa, I met about 13 of the 30-something AIFS students who would be traveling with me. We left D.C. and flew for about 9 hours across the Atlantic and landed in Dakar, Senegal in order to refuel the plane. It was nice that the flight was broken up into two sections, except we were not allowed to leave the plane in Dakar, so we just sat there on the tarmac for about an hour. After that it was back in the air for another 8 hour flight to Johannesburg. We went through customs at Jo-burg and then got on our final plane to Cape Town (but at least it was only a two hour flight this time). I pretty much slept the majority of the way, and spent much time getting to know the other American students that I will be living and studying with for the next four months. We got to the Stellenbosch Univeristy campus at around 11 on Monday night, and were quickly divided up into rooms and houses. My roommate Kimmy and I live in the Academia complex where we have our own bedrooms and share a bathroom and kitchen area. The rooms are nice, but not as decorated as my room at SMC would normally be. The next few days were full of orientation sessions, meetings, tours, and plenty of walking. Compared to SMC this campus is HUGE. It is absolutely beautiful here, and the mountains are stunning. I guess I forgot what 40 - 50 degree temperatures were like, because it is so cold here. South Africa is in the middle of its winter season where the average daily temperature is about 60 degrees and at night around 40. There is also no central heating in any building, so that makes our rooms quite chilly at night. Yesterday we went on a tour of Cape Town and had our first chance to see the landscape in the daylight, seeing as we landed after dark. Table Mountain is daunting but we have already decided to hike it (if possible?) at some point in our trip. We were guided around the historical parts of the city and then got to experience a panoramic view of the area from the top of Signal Hill. We luckily had a beautiful day (it was about 70 degrees, sunny, and very clear) and could see everything from Table Mountain, the entire view of the city, the harbor, Robben Island, and of course, the gorgeous new world cup stadium, Green Point. The world cup is advertised everywhere down here, and there are so many plans in place for the event that starts June 11th 2010. The South Africans are very proud that their country will host the game, and that pride is reflected in their eco-friendly, glass roofed venue that can accomodate over 60,000 people. While on the tour we learned about Robben Island and imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. Speaking of him, yesterday was his 91st birthday and the South Africans most certainly celebrated. There were parties all over Stellenbosch and Cape Town, and many people dressed up for the occasion.

Our days consist mostly of walking, eating, and orienting ourselves with both the campus and the town of Stellenbosch. The school has about 20,000 students (all of whom returned to school this weekend for the start of classes on Monday) and until now campus has been relatively quiet because the main students were on holiday. For orientation we were with all 250 international students, from the undergrade to the post grade level. We had talks on safety and security, classes, culture shock, AIDS, accomodations, and everything else there was to talk about. At night we have been exploring the local bars and restaurants with the other international students and taking the time to get to know some of the South African people who are in the area, especially the students. Everyone has been quite friendly and kind, but I'm sure not everyone is going to react the same way. It is fun to meet so many people from so many different places, but it is very exhausting as well. This morning was the first morning where I had the chance to sleep in past 8 am, and both my roommate and I took full advantage of it. I think this is all I have for now, I have rambled quite enough through this post. I will write again after my first week of classes (ahhh!) and hopefully I can share more stories with you from South Africa! I will leave you all with a short list of things I have learned so far...

1. Smoking is allowed in bars and restaurants...and everyone seems to take advantage of this. All of us who do not smoke are developing smokers coughs, and I'm not a fan of my clothes and hair smelling of nicotine. This could defintely take some getting used to!
2. They do not have regular tomato ketchup in South Africa. They are a variety of other condiments for food, but I'm going to miss my Heinz!
3. The U.S. dollar to Rand ratio is incredible...and everything costs less here. It's been weird to have to convert the money in my head to see how much I have spent by American standards, and to find out that there are much better deals here. (This also goes along with my new ability to understand 24 hour time and know that 17:30 is really 5:30pm)
4. Everyone knows you are American. For some, the Northface jacket is a dead giveaway, or maybe it's the decibal of our speech or the fact that we wore sneakers to the bar, but before we can introduce ourselves people often say "ahh you must be from the states". So far we have had pretty positive reactions at least from the other international students (many from Holland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark). Some of my friends and I decided that we need to go shopping and learn to dress less American.
5. Nearly everything is closed on Sundays...which is how I ended up here writing this entry instead of grocery shopping...
6. I have so much to say about South Africa already and I have only been here a week. I am really looking forward to the next 19 weeks, and I know that I have so much to learn!

Totsiens,
Megan