the end?

Ok, so I didn’t get to post this after I actually wrote it because I was writing it in the airport and on the 19 hour airplane back home, which had no internet access. I have decided to post it now, a little more than a week since I arrived back in the States. It actually sort of feels like longer than a week because it has been a weirdly easy transition back into my life in the States. So much so that it feels like my time in South Africa happened months ago, even though I know I can think back a week and remember being at Wits. I was warned about ’culture shock’ both going into South Africa and coming back to the United States, and surprisingly I didn’t really notice experiencing it either time. So anyways, I think this post will serve as a good last or near to last post for this crazy semester.

(Nov 18, 2009)
Last night was our final get-together for IHRE. We had little finger food, everyone got dolled up and lots of hugs were given out and pictures taken. I also have been going through my room, throwing away a lot of the staples that have gotten me through this semester (my granola, pasta, garlic, stupid bag of rice I could never seem to cook correctly, oatmeal… yeah ok, I ate other things, but I kind of stopped shopping recently, so those are the things that have remained despite a lack of shopping expeditions). Anyways, all of this sort of finalizing has made me come up with lists about what I am going to miss in South Africa and what I am looking forward to having back in the States. I thought I would share.

What I will miss (not necessarily in any order):
-The International House community (mainly the other American students, but others of course) which have fostered many game nights and tennis adventures, as well as just being a really nice base to come back to every day.
-Bunny Chow: this is an amazing Indian dish that I have never heard of in the States. Basically, you hollow out a loaf of bread and fill it with a slightly spicy dish including chicken or lamb etc It’s so yummy!
-Informal clubs on campus, I don’t feel like I really utilized these as best I could, but they had a really nice atmosphere and it was a great place to meet students who may or may not live on campus. Plus the atmospheres were a lot chiller than real clubs where you actually get dressed up and have to pay a cover fee etc.
-Walking around and being surrounded by all different languages and types of speech. While the language thing made me feel incompetent with my one language I am fluent in, it was so cool to be able to be around people with such language knowledge.
-All of the amazing people I have met through this program. While I feel like five months is a good amount of time for me personally to spend away from my friends and family at home, I do think that more time to bond with people here would have been amazing. I am a little disappointed I did not always take the most initiative to hang out with people, and I think I would start doing that more if I was here longer. However, I thoroughly appreciated every person I met through this program and the international house at Wits.
-The vuvuzelas blasting into the night keeping me awake and making me believe there was some sort of party going on that I was missing out on…. Oh wait, I can live without that actually.
-Staying at pretty nice backpacker establishments in places in the world that sound foreign, and learning that these different countries are not really as foreign as they are sometimes portrayed.
-Living in a place where the people are still very connected to their political situation and consciously working to move past the horrors of their very recent past.
-Cheap food. I love cheap food.
-The constant harmonizing and group singing. I am going to work to bring this back to the States. Haha
-People’s expressiveness. I feel like people here are much less reserved in expressing things like how they feel about situations or performers or anything.
-Clothing stores that sell clothes I can see myself wearing. That is kind of hard for me to find in the States sometimes, probably because I don’t do trendy that much. Not that South Africa isn’t trendy, but I think clothing stores may not focus as much on it or something.
-The expressions people use to punctuate sentences or thoughts. These include saying ‘aish’, kind of like when people in States may exhale in an audible way (So are you working this summer? Aish I don‘t know, I haven’t heard back from anyone yet). Also using hey at the end of sentences (it‘s been such a hectic semester hey?). Oh, and everybody calling each other ‘bra’ in replacement of ‘bro.’
-Summer

Things I am looking forward to going back to:
-My friends and family (surprise surprise)
-Progresso soup, especially minestrone. Yep. And on the subject of food: salsa (it’s not the common here)
-Driving on the right side of the road, and driving in general. And the prevalence of automatic cars. My mom and I had some major issues with the standard car that we rented in Cape Town. No crashes though, so yay!
-Not having to worry about how the dollar is doing versus the rand and getting upset about how much worse it is getting.
-Not having to worry about cooking for myself, eating delicious food cooked by my parents
-Speaking of which, Thanksgiving!
-Visiting Vassar
-Seeing David in My Fair Lady (and Full Monty at Vassar)
-Unlimited texting and not having to worry about buying airtime
-Student-run theater. Why do you not really have this Wits?
-Hanging out in my house, getting to see my dogs, sleeping in my own bed

I feel like that kind of diminishes both South Africa and home a bit because I can only outline a few things that stand out to me at this particular moment, but I hope it conveys how much I like both places. I don’t know if I will ever have another travel experience quite like this. Well, obviously not exactly because I finish school next year and will not be going abroad again for studies, but I mean the kind of emersion that I vaguely got to experience in South Africa. Yes, the studying part of study abroad is important and everything, but I think the most valuable thing you can get out of a study abroad experience is being able to truly experience a culture different in va personal way. Living in an area instead of traveling as a tourist is such a unique experience, because you interact with people in a different way, you get to do regular things like shop for food etc and you’re forced into the culture. You may not completely belong within the culture per se, but you certainly get a very good feeling for it and can learn how to interact within in it. This kind of experience is really why I decided to do a study abroad program and I think I got as much out of it simply through the cultural immersion as I did through the classroom, and honestly I probably got even more out of it in that sense. Anyways, I am incredibly grateful I got such a wonderful cultural experience, and actually I am also glad to be back with family and friends... even though my winter break is now two months long and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep myself occupied for that long. I'm planning on filling my time with lots of trips to see people at Vassar, and maybe some time earning money.

Anyways, happy thanksgiving everyone. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog because I really liked having this place to record my experiences. I'm guessing this will be my last blogging attempt, at least for awhile, so I am signing off for now.