Sorry for the lack of updates this week. We have been without internet for almost five days in our house and it seems that it is unclear when it will return. Typical Africa situation. But I'm rolling with the punches and going to cafes to get it instead! It is nice to get out of the house even though the weather hasn't been so great…lots of rain and cold. The silver lining to all of this is that I get to wear my puffy vest a lot, which is my favorite article of clothing.
I have been missing New York a lot this week. I don't know if it's because all my friends are moving back into Columbia or I'm just feeling like I've experienced most of what Cape Town has to offer or if I am fed up with the slow pace at which this town moves. My feelings are probably a combination of all of these possibilities, along with a pinch of homesickness. It's hard to explain how it feels to live in a different country that on the outside looks really similar to home in a lot of senses. There are grocery stores with everything available that we have at home (besides cliff bars and ziplocks - thanks, Laura!), gyms, restaurants, etc. The homeless people aren't that different than the ones who stand outside stores across New York, there are just a lot more of them. As I said, everything looks similar but the infrastructure is not even remotely as good and there is absolutely no consistency with anything.
We are coming on eight weeks since departure from the states and everyone is definitely getting a little testy. Everything is becoming normal and we are for sure warming up to each other. No longer is every activity new and exciting, because the second and third or twelfth time you go somewhere it, of course, isn't going to be nearly as exciting as the first. I feel like the girls in my apartment are my sisters and that comes with two things: acting like your real self (1) but even when you're screaming or crying or frustrated you thoroughly love each other (2). We are all finally getting a lot of homework (papers, tests, etc…everything that midterm usually brings at home) and it's clear that we are all missing our families (a lot). I'm so lucky to be living in an apartment with such amazing girls (the two American guys we live with are never there), but that doesn't take away from the fact that I am thousands of miles from home…that no matter what my mom isn't there to help with anything and I can't leave to just "get away" because for the next few months, this is home. That's something, though, that studying abroad is all about - making the people around you family and taking it all for what it is. Accepting that you're far away from "real" home, and learning from every difficult afternoon, every pang of homesickness, and every new experience. Understanding that there's no one to take care of me besides myself, and that I am blessed to have the friends I have made to be my family has been a huge lesson I've learned this week.
Tomorrow begins spring break (remember: southern hemisphere) and my journey to the other side of South Africa. I am flying to Durban tomorrow night with two of my friends in my house, Kara and Arianna. We are staying at a hotel called Ammazulu Palace. We have been jokingly been calling it "I'm a Zulu Palace" and it should be quite the experience. It is in Zulu Land (KwaZulu-Natal) and looks over a nature reserve. Then Saturday we will go into the city and stay at a hotel on the beach where three of our other friends will meet us and we will spend the week there. If anyone is looking for a vacation spot, let me tell you, hotels in Durban are cheap.
As usual, sending lots of love to everyone back home!
Talia
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