World Traveler: My Semester in South Africa

I have been neglecting this blog, so first of all, I would like to apologize for that.

My last month in South Africa was filled with studying, drinking, and freaking out about my departure back to reality. I had 4 final exams, and I passed all my classes (YES EVEN THAT ECON CLASS!). After exams, I just hung out - tried not to spend alot of money so I couldn't do much.

My last night in South Africa I spent at the local student bar, Bohemia. And it was one of the most special nights of my life. I've never felt so loved by all the people I met in South Africa, and they all told me how much they would miss me. It was really sinking into me that I was leaving this magical place... 

OH, and I got my first tattoo. Wanderlust. On my shoulder. It's beautiful.

I'm currently in Madrid now, visiting my bestfriend. I'm about to head to Portugal tonight for the weekend. It's a nice break before going home, but I miss South Africa sooooooo much already.

First, I would like to say that I had one of the most amazing weekends in South Africa at Rocking the Daisies! It was a 3 day camping music festival at the Cloof Wine Estate. It was an unforgettable experience and I've gained a couple new bands in my itunes! Rudimental, Crystal Fighters, and Jeremy Loops - GO LOOK THEM UP!

Second, I am dreading my hair. It's pretty awesome and I'm loving how its looking. I'm not dreading all of it because I do need to adhere to social norms concerning professionalism (borrrinnnggggg) but it's looking quite cute. My best friend Jessi does them for me :) what am i gonna do without her when I get home!

Third, I've gotten some assignments back (big ones, like papers) and I got A's!!!!! Super excited. The only class that I'm freaking out about is my ECON class because I am NOT an econ major but we will see how things go. I have one more test left and I need to ace it in order to pass. ONLY 3 WEEKS LEFT OF CLASSES OMG

Sorry for not writing here for a while! After break, I have just been working on my gender paper and attending classes. I finished my paper, and am not currently having a mental breakdown over my econ test on Tuesday. I AM NOT AN ECON MAJOR, so this stuff actually is challenging. It really makes me want to take another class on economics, perhaps macro economics, so I can get a sense of it since its important in International Relations. I'm guessing I'll be taking some classes on stuff like that in grad school.

Oh that reminds me, I have to do my graduation audit soon. I GRADUATE ON MAY 10th AND IM FREAKING OUT. Time is going by so fast. I only have about 6 more weeks here in Africa….

We went wine tasting yesterday…hit up about 4 wine farms starting at 9am. We were on a mission. Then we all went home and took well-deserved/needed naps. Stellebosch has over 200 wineries, so it was a great culture experience even though I don't enjoy wine. like at all.

Anywho, the music festival Rocking the Daisies is in 4 days! Its a 4 day, 3 night camping festival with tons of artists. MGMT is going to be there! I missed so many festivals in Chicago that I needed to go to one here, so almost everyone in our group has tickets. It's going to be an amazing time! I am going to post the video to see what I am talking about!

Gender paper for my gender and culture class: To what extent is the South African government taking a stance against rape culture, and what are the actors, policies, and ideologies that have shaped this culture in the first place? 

7-8 pages due on Wednesday ahhhh!

Honors project: Here is a snippet from my abstract... 

"For my paper, I would like to explore this notion of doublethink and cognitive dissonance and expand on how it is necessary to apply to areas such as gender roles, women’s sexuality, ideas of feminism, etcetera. Furthermore, I would like to investigate on why it is important to be able to accept contrary opinions and beliefs on a more general sociological level to become a more conscious and compassionate person. In my paper, I will generally argue that experiencing cognitive dissonance and doublethink are necessary in in the efforts to queer society, dismantle oppressive institutionalized beliefs, and foster tolerance and compassion among the people."

International Relations Thesis: FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS WHATTTTT 

I'm just starting to collect research and putting them in a folder to read later, since I have to work on the two above papers first. But here is a good little blurb on it from wikipedia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_(international_relations)

hey everyone!

I'm sorry I have not been writing on here. I'm going to do a few posts today. This one will be about all my spring break adventures! I'm just going to make a list of what I did on the Garden Route/ ADDO Elephant park...

Pet Elephants (amazing, best day of my life)

Monkeyland - monkeys roaming everywhere with no cages!

Cat park - lions, tigers, jaguars, cheetahs etc!

Ostrich farm

Canopy zipling

Cango Caves

Found a cool religious man who pretty much made a hotel out of a cave to help out homeless folk (AMAZING! will do a seperate post for that)

Game drive in the natural habitat of elephants, lions, rhino, etc (elephant almost trampled us, video soon)

Tsitsikamma Suspension Bridge

Went to the southermost tip of Africa, where the atlantic ocean meets the indian ocean

Went to the hills where J.R Tolken got inspired to write Lord of the Rings

Horseback Riding

Spent the 18th birthday of the backpackers called Island Vibe in Jeffreys bay...and lets just say we got weird

So many adventures, and its a blessing to have two spring breaks in one year! In March, I went to Haiti for spring break - and then this one here in South Africa. Absolutely amazing.