the joy in jenna

I have spent a lot of time with my friend Jenna since we got to South Africa. I remember the first time we met. We were standing in line after getting off of the plane waiting to check in, and somehow someone knew my name. From behind me, someone called out to me and said she was told she had to meet me because her best friend from home was one of my pledge sisters from Michigan. From this first round of Jewish geography, my friendship with Jenna has only blossomed, and Jenna has become a really special person in my life.

Since arriving in Cape Town, I have come to really believe in the notion of everything happening for a reason, or as one of my closest friends at Barnard teaching me "gam zu l'tovah" (the Hebrew version, "this too for the good"). Jenna has helped me live out this message, and we have had some unbelievable times searching together for the good in every situation.

One of the more challenging of these situations was Jenna's grandmother dying a few weeks ago. Her grandmother, Beatrice (or Bea as I like to call her) sounds like she was an unbelievable woman, and Jenna has struggled in dealing with this while being so far away from home. But in keeping with our study abroad mantra of finding the good in things, Jenna has come to understand through the passing of Grandma Bea that there is true power in humanity.

Jenna and I have kept coming back to this idea over the past few weeks. She recognized that although she was so far from home, away from her typical support network, her new friends here have made a difference in shifting her focus from mourning her grandmother's death to celebrating Grandma Bea's life. She couldn't have done this alone -- she needed others (humanity) around her, hugging her, holding her hand, taking walks, discussing the past present and future, to get her to this point.

Today while driving back from Muizenberg with Jenna by my side, the mountains in front of us, and the sun beginning to set in the distance, her newest epiphany that the power of humanity is so strong became so clear. I'm only here for another few weeks, and while there are things I still want to do, I find my concentration is on the people I'm here with. While I had a great time adventuring this weekend to an amazing wine festival and market by the beach, what has become so clear is that who I'm with is what makes the experience. Yes, all of the wine we tasted was delicious and the setting was beautiful, but if I hadn't been with Meg and Loreal through this adventure, it would have been without all the laughs and special times we had. Similarly, the market today was indeed a great cultural experience, but Jenna's wit and commentary and the wonderful discussions we had were what made it so enjoyable.

In these next few weeks, I want to take these lessons Jenna has taught me by recognizing how special and individual each person I'm with is and extract the good out of every situation presented in order to make the most of this incredibly exceptional experience that seems to be slipping away too fast.

chilled vibes

I'm going to write more later tonight about this weekend's adventures and thoughts, but I thought I'd share something this morning. I found online a video of the only artist I really enjoyed listening to at Rocking the Daisies. He played on campus the day before and here is a video. As they would say in Cape Town: "chilled vibes." I'm sure you can figure out what that means. Happy Sunday!

Here is Jeremy Loops's bio: 

26 year old Jeremy Loops is a modern day one-man folk band. Born out of necessity whilst working on yachts around the World, Jeremy discovered that there's no-one better to work with than yourself.

Now as the name may suggest, Jeremy has embraced technology in all its illustrious forms and creates his finely woven tapestry of sounds using his Guitar, Ukelele, harmonica and beatbox skills. He runs this all through a gamut of loop pedals, echo and distortion units and through the speakers to leave a crowd quite literally awe-struck, standing there going..."where is this all coming from?"

And there's the buzz word - Crowd.
Whereas Jeremy still sees his project as having the right amount of "pop-sensibility" that will appeal to a mass audience from a listening point of view, he much prefers playing live. Interactivity and crowd participation are key to the creation of his multi-layered structure of beats and rhythms. Having built his career from a very early stage with rapper, Trak, the two exude a perfectly ordered mish-mash of folk, hip-hop, blue-grass funk and blues.

Not simply content with growing his own musical career, Jeremy is also quite literally growing Cape Town and South Africa, heading up the agricultural revolution that is GreenPop - An initiative which is spearheading the conscious push to plant more trees and reduce carbon emissions, amongst other noble ideals.

The crowds are swelling, the excitement is brewing as Jeremy Loops, whether he's by himself in his bedroom or on an international stage, keeps on trucking. 

some of my favorite pictures so far

If you don't know that I love taking and looking at photographs, you probably don't know me all too well. So in keeping with my new blogging tradition of posting lists of favorite things, I thought I'd post some of my favorite pictures from my experience here so far. See below for captions, photo credit, and explanations.

I am not sure who took this photo, but I know it was on my friend Emily's big, beautiful camera. This picture was taken before going out for Loreal's (the one in the dress) 21st birthday. I think I love this picture because I love everyone in it so much and feel so blessed to have been placed with them in our apartment together for the semester.

Arianna took this picture of me at the Zulu dancing fiasco outside of Durban. It was one of the most absurd situations of my whole life, and I could not stop laughing the whole time. I am pictured in a Zulu hut...and I think my sheer amusement is captured here. 

I took this picture of Loreal on a horse on her birthday. She decided that this would be a perfect way for all of us to celebrate her big day. It could not have been a more perfect day, and it was amazing seeing such a good friend totally in her element and so passionate about these animals. 

This picture is of a sign I saw in the Bo Kaap neighborhood of Cape Town. It was not there for any particular reason as far as I know, but I thought it was really interesting given the social history of 

South Africa.

I took this picture of some hippos at a watering hole on my day-long safari with hippos. I fell in love with hippos after this experience, even after learning that if you see a hippo, start praying to God because you will never out-run it. 

I took this picture of my friend Miguel when we were at Robben Island, the prison camp where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. I love how Miguel looks so tiny compared to Cape Town in the background. I also love how you can see all of Cape Town and our beautiful Table Mountain from that view. Climbing table mountain is on the list of things to do this month.

Another picture from Laura's visit: whale-watching in Hermanus, a town about two hours away from Cape Town. Although the vomiting that was inescapable on the whale-watch was pretty vile, the beautiful whales made the whole experience worth it. I cannot believe I am from Boston and had never been on a whale-watch before this. Whales, in my opinions, are really magical creatures.

This picture is of the changing huts at Muizenberg Beach. My friends and I have taken many trips here by taking the train from the suburb that we live in (Rondebosch). Every time the changing huts make me smile. Muizenberg is known for its surfing and sharks....hence why I have yet to try surfing. 

This picture was also taken in Bo Kaap. It shows a Muslim man in front of one of the many colorfully painted houses. I love it mainly because it reminds me of how diverse South Africa is. Who knew that there would be a huge Muslim population here? These diverse communities exist right next to each other, and the nickname "Rainbow Nation" for South Africa clearly rings true 

based on the incredibly diverse population.

More pictures and the stories that go with them to come later on. Enjoy!

rocked the daisies

the main stage

I arrived home yesterday and could only explain how I felt as being hit by a bus. The past 72 hours had been long ones...I will recount the story from the very beginning.

A few months ago, Quinton, the director of our program, sent an email that included a list of dates and events that students on the program usually like to participate in. Included in that list was a music festival called Rocking the Daisies. I looked it up and it seemed really great. Only later, did I find out that it was the same weekend as Yom Kippur so I didn't think it was appropriate to go. As the weeks rolled on and the festival came closer, I was talking to other Jewish friends about their decision of whether or not to go. Most of my friends who had decided to go were planning on lying to their parents about it, and I didn't think that was right. I wasn't going because I didn't think it was right, not because of what my parents thought or expected of me. But on Thursday afternoon, I was lying in the sun listening to live music on campus and I decided I really wanted to attend. I had plans to celebrate break fast with my friends, but I felt like for me, the right decision would be to buy a ticket and go to the music festival for the weekend. 

arianna and meg setting up the tent

Within twenty minutes of making this decision, my cell phone and room keys broke. An angry sign from God? Perhaps. But my friends here convinced me it was the right decision, so I bought a ticket and began to plan for the weekend ahead. My parents, too, were ok with the choice I made. My dad had spent a good portion of his younger years festival hopping, following the Dead, and my mom just wanted to make sure I wasn't planning on fasting there as she didn't think that drinking on an empty stomach would be a good idea... I am not quite sure this would have been the response any of my other Jewish friends on the program would have received, but in keeping with my Dana and Andrews seemingly non-traditional parenting techniques, I was far from surprised.

 We left on Friday afternoon for Cloof - the wine estate where Rocking the Daisies was held. The venue was an hour and a half away in Stellenbosch (a.k.a. South African wine country). Upon arrival, we were immediately transported to hippie land. We parked the car, lugged all of our stuff to the campsite, and set up our tent. We picked a spot that was on the main path, close enough to but far enough away from the port-a-potties. Yes friends and family, I spent the entire weekend relieving myself in port-a-potties....

Shortly after setting up camp, we made friends with the people around us. Frank, our neighbor, was already on shrooms and had just walked the 40 miles from Cape Town to Cloof. He works as a professor at a university in East London, about 11 hours east of Cape Town. I think I spent a while after Frank told us this envisioning my professors at Columbia on shrooms at music festivals...but I'm pretty sure that was an impossible as my imagination could only stretch so far.

We hung out with Frank and his friends outside the tent for a while, and then left to go to the area where the music was. I spent the night with my friend Arianna. We meandered around...were offerred lots of psychedelic drugs, danced in the electronic music tent, and then found the "recharge station," which was essentially comprised of human dog beds. I fell asleep, sprawled out on the dog bed, for about a half an hour, as Arianna had a good people watching session of all the creatures existing around us. When I woke up, she suggested we go back to the tent and call it a night. I agreed, as I came to the conclusion that dubstep music should only be listened to when on drugs. I assure you no sober person enjoyed the electronic music station...I can only describe it as nails scratching a chalkboard while someone else simultaneously bangs on it. 

frank comes into our tent late at night

Although we left the music area, don't be fooled that the campsite was quiet. When Meg and Loreal returned to our four-person tent turned accommodations for five people and all their crap, we were all still up. Frank later came in, questionably not wearing any clothing, and talked to us for what felt like hours about the amazing trip he was having. He was speaking in words and sentences that made little sense. His stories included unicorns, "amazing colors," and explanations of his relatives. When he left, we all attempted to sleep but I'm pretty sure no one was successful, as we were all awake when a strange man who called himself "tall and cool" came to our tent and asked us what accent the tent was speaking at 5:15 am. 

Around 8 am, we all gave up on sleep and exited the tent, ready to rock the daisies. By 9:30, the heat was starting to become unbearable. We sought shade wherever it was available, but lying on the grass was far from comfortable because of all the burrs and thorns that called this lovely variety of African grass (do not confuse this with the copious amount of other African grass that was being smoked by the festival goers) home. There was a watering hole, also known as the dam, but the cleanliness of the dam was questionable. At one point I was so hot that I lost feeling in my arms and fingers...that was interesting.  

the dam/watering hole

According to reports, it was 32+ degrees Celsius in the shade at Cloof, which is around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I am sure you can only imagine how it felt in the sun. If I had to describe it, it would liken it to the feeling of my skin burning itself off. It was far, far from pleasant. Meg and I fell asleep in the shade in front of the main stage, and when we woke up it was, thank God, a few degrees cooler. At this point, I was over the festivals. In my book, the daisies had been rocked. Luckily, I found my good friend Elin who is able to put a positive spin on any situation, so we spent the rest of the night talking and reflecting on the crazy experience that was the weekend.

Sunday morning I woke up to sweltering heat. The tent was beyond any heat I had ever experienced. I was ready to leave, but the rest of the crew wasn’t so I spent the morning people watching, and mainly pondering the question of why adults would bring their young children to such an event. In the few hours I spent waiting to leave Cloof, which had seemed to transform itself into the Sahara desert, I learned a lot about my friends drug experiences over the weekend. Firstly, I was then informed that the people selling drugs, “the magical orange tent,” were former Jewish Israeli citizens who have basically removed themselves from all documentation, gotten rid of their passports, and travel from festival to festival selling psychedelic drugs. I was glad to know that fellow members of the tribe were also making God proud this weekend… I was regaled with stories from my friends on acid. According to one of them, everyone around at the festival was a scary clown or rainbow human with scales.

the only shade i could find

By Sunday afternoon, Cloof wine estate had turned into a huge pile of trash and smelly port-a-potties. I could not have been more ready to leave, but during the drive home recognized that I learned a lot this weekend:

1.              Psychedelic drugs sound terrible and never do them around people you don’t like

2.              At the end of a three day festival, port-a-potties are really, really, really gross

3.              Bring a portable air-mattress when you go camping

4.              You will never want to drink alcohol in sickeningly hot weather

5.              I’m really happy my dad stopped going to festivals when he was young…anyone at such events at age 30+ is weird

Since returning, Rocking the Daisies is the talk of the town. I may not have had the greatest time, but when I came home and felt like I was hit by a bus based on the lack of sleep and dehydration, there was no denying that it was quite the experience. 

things i've loved this week

sign I saw that reminded me of my dad

1. African drumming
2. Botanical gardens
3. Horseback riding
4. Apple crisp
5. Homemade challah
6. Cider (locally brewed cider, to be precise)
7. SUNSHINE
8. Philosophy (in all its complexities)
9. Receiving thought-provoking emails from friends
10. Long, late-night talks
11. Meeting friends' parents
12. Putting my phone and computer away and focusing on the here and now
13. Defacing money with the Pledge of Allegiance (pictures of this to come)
14. Receiving this message from my dad (after reading this, you will no longer wonder where all the deep, introspective thoughts come from...thanks pops!):

"take me back to a simpler time and place. yesteryear. what you know versus the unknown. its all a gamble. what path you take versus what road should you think you should take. where you end up is not really by chance. it is a series of thoughts. not always the correct decisions, however you dont know that until you have tasted the fruit. sometimes forbidden, sometimes not. you alone can be the judge. may the four winds blow you safely home. its all about the road. hills, potholes, smooth, bumps. the sooner you figure it all out the better off you are. time isnt really real. it is what it is. what do you use as a basis for what is real? everyone hears their own tune. put in your headset and take a mental ride. digest it and really live it. you can always have time carved out. everything is right in front of you. sometimes you just dont realize it. the most important person you will meet is YOU. when you are in the middle of the lake and no one is around and you have to swim to shore, there is only one person that can get you to dry ground. look in the mirror and you will see your best friend. can you dig that?"

go celtics!

I have a huge paper due in the morning that I have hardly started but I really want to update the blog with something so here you go. This will probably be the only time I write about sports on this blog (or any future blog I have)...enjoy it.

After reading a book about Desmond Tutu, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers decided to incorporate the concept of Ubuntu into his coaching. The term then made it into their cheer since the 2007 season! Go C's!

with Doc over winter break last year

Here is a video and at the end of it you can hear part of the cheer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boiAuBaPBn0

Some other articles about the team and concept:
http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/11/5/1113280/new-celtics-embrace-ubuntu-early-on (my favorite)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=mag-celtics

I will update more later on this week after the school work is done. Until then, I hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful start to the week!

Lots of Boston love (YANKEES SUCK!),
Talia