It's been a while (to say the least), so an update if you will. First, I must warn you that this post will be blissfully and wonderfully unedited, unrevised, and at times grammatically incorrect as I am on my one-year sabbatical from academic writing :o)
I feel like I'm finally settled into DC, my job, and life enough to move out "on my own!" I spent a good chunk of the summer traveling back to Iowa for both planned and unplanned trips surrounding weddings, funerals, birthdays, and the State Fair, and on the weekends I didn't fly west, I'd tour the East Coast (NYC, Philly) or host visitors in DC or find a new mountain to hike or river to raft - I absolutely loved it all! BUT now that's it's fall, I'm feeling less like a tourist and more like a real person who gets exhausted trying to see all the sites all the time! I've been living with a relative in Montgomery Co, MD, who is absolutely wonderful - I couldn't have asked for a better housemate and feel very comfortable here, but the commute is wearing on me (it takes less time to drive from Ames to Des Moines, than it does to get from my house to my office no matter whether I drive, bus, or metro, even though it's only half the distance), so as of yesterday I found an apartment in a rowhouse on the Hill and I'm excited to sign the lease (mainly because it's month to month, so still manageable with my uncertain plans). It's also the same neighborhood as a number of my friend and coworkers, which will make me feel more like I live in a community and not another state (to be fair, at the moment, I do).
I attended a regional conference on International Education in Richmond, VA, last weekend. I really enjoyed learning more about the field and found that I was most drawn to the sessions regarding advising students in an on-campus setting (no surprise there - I really enjoyed working in the Study Abroad Center last year and doing the peer advising). I feel like my knowledge of Iowa State - the academic process, the people, the locations abroad - would enable me to be quite effective if I worked at ISU right now, certainly a lot more effective than I am here in this position in DC, but I am very happy here. It was strange to attend a conference and 1) simply attend without being in charge of anything (I liked being "in the know" at World Food Prize and Lectures) and 2) not know anyone or have any network established yet - rest assured that I'm fixing that!
All in all, life is good. I'm trying to take full advantage of the city's offerings while I can - from theater events to museum exhibits to the night class I took for the past two months on Catholic Social Teaching and Immigration Policy taught by a Georgetown professor. I think my next agenda item will be to join Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. Stay posted...and for more regular communication, email is best!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Service Learning Placement: Take Two
In the last post, I was concerned about my placement at the Office for Institutional HIV Coordination on campus. This is a reflection I wrote for class on my thoughts on the placement and the work we had done about 6 weeks later (in mid- to late-April) - long story short, it was a great place to work and I learned a ton!
In the past week, the links within the community have really stood out to me. In the beginning of the semester, I thought that the Office for Institutional HIV Coordination placement was very separate from any of the other placements in the sense that we would not get out into the heart of communities that need more basic development assistance. On the contrary, working at the OIHC is complementary to many of the other site placements. For example, the congregation where we are planning to host an HIV awareness and testing weekend is the same congregation that runs Legacy in Kayamandi. In fact, our primary contact at the church is the same contact that I have heard the Legacy service-learners talk about. The church contact isn’t sure if it would be appropriate to link the HIV awareness event to the Kayamandi project. Our initial reaction was not to because HIV is a problem in white Afrikaner communities like this congregation, not just in the townships. However, I can talk to Liz and Christiana about whether they see a link as well. It is unfortunate that the contact has not yet made the link that the roles of myself and my partner at the OIHC are parallel to the role that Liz and Christiana could be playing since I have heard from the students placed at Legacy that the church contact only seems to see them as volunteers but seems to recognize myself and my partner as agents of the OIHC.
Another link within the service-learning community (and by extension the wider community within the Western Cape) is that my partner and I will be going with Carly and Sam today to Child Welfare Services to do a presentation for the students about HIV. We had heard them talking in class about how they sometimes have difficulty communicating with the students since the students prefer to use Afrikaans as their primary language of communication. To address this issue, we sent out an e-mail specifically seeking the assistance of an Afrikaans-speaking Peer Educator to accompany us to the site and help explain HIV in clear, simple terms that the students can understand. We got only one response, but that’s all we needed.
Through the process of working at the OIHC, I have gained valuable knowledge about HIV and also a deeper appreciation for the need to care for the person as a whole, not just to treat the disease inside of him or her.
In terms of the way that we have impacted the community, I think this project with Stellenbosch Gemeente Kerk could become a project that service learning students at the OIHC carry forward in future years. Assuming the project goes well, the OIHC will be able to use this example of working with a church in an effective and non-offensive way to build relationships with other churches in the community and reach out to groups that the OIHC has not had access to in the past. Particularly with HIV prevention, it’s important to reach as many pockets of the community as possible to ensure that they have the knowledge and resources to protect themselves and others from contracting HIV. Our community really is the community as a whole, not just the students, because students interact with non-students and transmissions occur in that manner as well.
I’m not sure if the OIHC service-learning students have worked with other service-learning sites in the past, but the service-learning class offers a built-in network with access to a number of other communities that OIHC can reach out to. The OIHC does not currently have the capacity to do all of the outreach that it would like to or that the community needs. Still, I will talk to my supervisor about the opportunity to arrange mini-outreaches like the one we are doing today at CWS if future service-learning students are looking for other ways to do outreach or do not have enough hours.
Throughout this semester, we have helped to establish new networking opportunities for the OIHC. We have been careful to balance the work in the sense that my partner and I are the main organizers on the side of the OIHC in planning the outreach with the church, but our supervisor has been involved throughout to ensure that he makes the connection with the church as well. It would be irresponsible for us to leave the OIHC not having established contact between the community and an OIHC staff member that will be able to maintain that working relationship in the future. It is our intention that this project of reaching out to the faith community opens up the door for future service-learning students to continue partnering with faith communities if they so choose.
In the past week, the links within the community have really stood out to me. In the beginning of the semester, I thought that the Office for Institutional HIV Coordination placement was very separate from any of the other placements in the sense that we would not get out into the heart of communities that need more basic development assistance. On the contrary, working at the OIHC is complementary to many of the other site placements. For example, the congregation where we are planning to host an HIV awareness and testing weekend is the same congregation that runs Legacy in Kayamandi. In fact, our primary contact at the church is the same contact that I have heard the Legacy service-learners talk about. The church contact isn’t sure if it would be appropriate to link the HIV awareness event to the Kayamandi project. Our initial reaction was not to because HIV is a problem in white Afrikaner communities like this congregation, not just in the townships. However, I can talk to Liz and Christiana about whether they see a link as well. It is unfortunate that the contact has not yet made the link that the roles of myself and my partner at the OIHC are parallel to the role that Liz and Christiana could be playing since I have heard from the students placed at Legacy that the church contact only seems to see them as volunteers but seems to recognize myself and my partner as agents of the OIHC.
Another link within the service-learning community (and by extension the wider community within the Western Cape) is that my partner and I will be going with Carly and Sam today to Child Welfare Services to do a presentation for the students about HIV. We had heard them talking in class about how they sometimes have difficulty communicating with the students since the students prefer to use Afrikaans as their primary language of communication. To address this issue, we sent out an e-mail specifically seeking the assistance of an Afrikaans-speaking Peer Educator to accompany us to the site and help explain HIV in clear, simple terms that the students can understand. We got only one response, but that’s all we needed.
Through the process of working at the OIHC, I have gained valuable knowledge about HIV and also a deeper appreciation for the need to care for the person as a whole, not just to treat the disease inside of him or her.
In terms of the way that we have impacted the community, I think this project with Stellenbosch Gemeente Kerk could become a project that service learning students at the OIHC carry forward in future years. Assuming the project goes well, the OIHC will be able to use this example of working with a church in an effective and non-offensive way to build relationships with other churches in the community and reach out to groups that the OIHC has not had access to in the past. Particularly with HIV prevention, it’s important to reach as many pockets of the community as possible to ensure that they have the knowledge and resources to protect themselves and others from contracting HIV. Our community really is the community as a whole, not just the students, because students interact with non-students and transmissions occur in that manner as well.
I’m not sure if the OIHC service-learning students have worked with other service-learning sites in the past, but the service-learning class offers a built-in network with access to a number of other communities that OIHC can reach out to. The OIHC does not currently have the capacity to do all of the outreach that it would like to or that the community needs. Still, I will talk to my supervisor about the opportunity to arrange mini-outreaches like the one we are doing today at CWS if future service-learning students are looking for other ways to do outreach or do not have enough hours.
Throughout this semester, we have helped to establish new networking opportunities for the OIHC. We have been careful to balance the work in the sense that my partner and I are the main organizers on the side of the OIHC in planning the outreach with the church, but our supervisor has been involved throughout to ensure that he makes the connection with the church as well. It would be irresponsible for us to leave the OIHC not having established contact between the community and an OIHC staff member that will be able to maintain that working relationship in the future. It is our intention that this project of reaching out to the faith community opens up the door for future service-learning students to continue partnering with faith communities if they so choose.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Service Learning Placement
Disclaimer: this entry is less upbeat, but know that I still love it here!
I’m beginning to grow quite frustrated with the registration process for classes here. I am in a program that is pretty much set. I have several 9 hours a week of Theory of Service Learning and Community Development, 3 hours of Afrikaans, and 3 hours of a political science elective. I really want to take a number of them, but the ones I like best (and am allowed to select) are Negotiating Transitions and Transitional Justice. These were originally scheduled for Saturday morning and afternoon. Not surprisingly, they had low enrollment. The positives are that they are combining the two so I don’t have to choose one over the other and that they are rescheduling. The frustrating part is that I don’t know when (though Friday night is most likely), so I can’t finalize my schedule yet even though we’re two weeks into classes and final decisions are due on Thursday. Still, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot in whichever elective course I end up in and will be glad I could take it.
Today I found out my placement for the service learning portion of my course. I have to say, I was initially disappointed. Last week, the initial list (that was subject to change) posted me at CWS, partnered with my friend Carly. I didn’t know what CWS meant until today, but I was excited to be with Carly and we suspected we would be working with children since that is the most common placement and we both work at summer camps. I found out today that my placement changed to working in the Office of HIV Coordination. That’s an on-campus placement, and from what I can tell so far, it’s mainly an educational campaign. I was placed there because of my background in event management. It turns out that Carly and another girl will be working with children who are HIV affected (HIV+ but not AIDS) or infected (HIV has progressed to AIDS). That was essentially my dream placement. It’s a new community this year because the community where they worked last year isn’t so safe due to uprisings surrounding the upcoming presidential election. When I heard that, I was crushed. I felt cheated: instead of interacting with children in townships, I’ll be staying on campus and encouraging students to get tested and handing out condoms. That’s not what I signed up for.
Now, it’s not fair yet to judge the placement because I haven’t even gotten there yet, and I do enjoy organizing specific projects with an outcome rather than something that is less tangible like making children happier for six hours a week. I’ll have my first meeting with the organization next week and by the end of this semester, I’m sure that I will have a deeper understanding of how to effectively reach out to people and talk about HIV. I’ve wanted to work with HIV care and prevention for 5 years, and this is my chance. I suspect I’ll even be glad I got this placement by the end, but I just hope that I have a chance to get out into the community beyond the borders of the Stellenbosch bubble. For now, I’ll stay positive and try not to judge the experience too much before I find out the full description.
I’m beginning to grow quite frustrated with the registration process for classes here. I am in a program that is pretty much set. I have several 9 hours a week of Theory of Service Learning and Community Development, 3 hours of Afrikaans, and 3 hours of a political science elective. I really want to take a number of them, but the ones I like best (and am allowed to select) are Negotiating Transitions and Transitional Justice. These were originally scheduled for Saturday morning and afternoon. Not surprisingly, they had low enrollment. The positives are that they are combining the two so I don’t have to choose one over the other and that they are rescheduling. The frustrating part is that I don’t know when (though Friday night is most likely), so I can’t finalize my schedule yet even though we’re two weeks into classes and final decisions are due on Thursday. Still, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot in whichever elective course I end up in and will be glad I could take it.
Today I found out my placement for the service learning portion of my course. I have to say, I was initially disappointed. Last week, the initial list (that was subject to change) posted me at CWS, partnered with my friend Carly. I didn’t know what CWS meant until today, but I was excited to be with Carly and we suspected we would be working with children since that is the most common placement and we both work at summer camps. I found out today that my placement changed to working in the Office of HIV Coordination. That’s an on-campus placement, and from what I can tell so far, it’s mainly an educational campaign. I was placed there because of my background in event management. It turns out that Carly and another girl will be working with children who are HIV affected (HIV+ but not AIDS) or infected (HIV has progressed to AIDS). That was essentially my dream placement. It’s a new community this year because the community where they worked last year isn’t so safe due to uprisings surrounding the upcoming presidential election. When I heard that, I was crushed. I felt cheated: instead of interacting with children in townships, I’ll be staying on campus and encouraging students to get tested and handing out condoms. That’s not what I signed up for.
Now, it’s not fair yet to judge the placement because I haven’t even gotten there yet, and I do enjoy organizing specific projects with an outcome rather than something that is less tangible like making children happier for six hours a week. I’ll have my first meeting with the organization next week and by the end of this semester, I’m sure that I will have a deeper understanding of how to effectively reach out to people and talk about HIV. I’ve wanted to work with HIV care and prevention for 5 years, and this is my chance. I suspect I’ll even be glad I got this placement by the end, but I just hope that I have a chance to get out into the community beyond the borders of the Stellenbosch bubble. For now, I’ll stay positive and try not to judge the experience too much before I find out the full description.
Monday, February 9, 2009
First Rugby Match!
On Monday I went to my first live rugby game. I didn’t expect it to be such a big deal, but about an hour before students in Maties Rugby shirts started walking towards the stadium. When I got there just after the start of the game (kickoff?), the stadium was packed. It’s probably about the size of Valley Stadium, but with seating in either endzone. Monday night rugby here is as big as Saturday college football in the USA! I had fun watching, though none of us knew what was going on for the most part. I had only limited knowledge from watching a couple of games with avid fans at King’s, an English sports bar in Leiden. My favorite is when the ball goes out of bounds and there’s something called a “line in” (I think) where each team lifts up one of their teammates off the ground to try to hoist him high enough to get the ball before it comes within reach of the rest of the players.
After the game, I had my first meeting as the co-director of recreational activities for the International Student Organization of Stellenbosch. Ironically, my co-director goes to the University of Iowa. We’re really excited about planning adventure trips and hikes and visits to theater events in the coming semester! I’m thinking white-water rafting, sky diving, abseiling (like rappelling), sand boarding, surf lessons, sea kayaking, and at least one hike up Lion’s Head Mountain in Cape Town during a full moon. The best part: since I’m planning them, I can go on them all!
Also, there was a full moon out tonight (or close enough to full that it counted) and that made me happy :)
After the game, I had my first meeting as the co-director of recreational activities for the International Student Organization of Stellenbosch. Ironically, my co-director goes to the University of Iowa. We’re really excited about planning adventure trips and hikes and visits to theater events in the coming semester! I’m thinking white-water rafting, sky diving, abseiling (like rappelling), sand boarding, surf lessons, sea kayaking, and at least one hike up Lion’s Head Mountain in Cape Town during a full moon. The best part: since I’m planning them, I can go on them all!
Also, there was a full moon out tonight (or close enough to full that it counted) and that made me happy :)
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Stellenbosch Vineyard Tour by Bike: Asara and Neethlingshof
At about 11am today, I got an SMS (the local lingo for text message) from Kathrin, my German neighbor. I had to laugh at the fact that she messaged me since we can each be standing in our kitchens and talk through the windows to each other. She asked if I was up for a bike ride to a local vineyard. Absolutely! (It turns out she was still in bed and was only planning to get up if I was going, which explains the SMS rather than a knock on the door.)
Stefan, another German in Kathrin’s program, is off exploring Namibia this week, so we had his bike. After visiting a couple of bike shops that were closed on a Sunday, a petrol station attendant was able to help us lower the seat on Kathrin’s bike so that I could actually sit in the saddle while riding for the duration of the day. Kathrin braved the height of Stefan’s bike since she has very long legs and can manage such things. Then, armed with bottles of water, sunscreen, sunglasses, and bags large enough to hold any future purchases, we were off.
Asara is about 5 kilometers outside of Stellenbosch, so not a bad ride, but it’s been a while since I biked in a place that was either sunny or had hills. By the time we reached Asara, we were ready to sit. Luckily, the cellar was air conditioned. We sat down at a large table and made our selections – try any five wines for 30 rands (~$3). As we waited, I practiced my new German phrases (I can now say, “Let’s go out!” and “Have fun tomorrow!”), we listened to two small boys at the adjacent table sing “Twinkle Twinkle” with South African accents, and admired the view of the lake, flowers and mountains.
Between the two of us, we tried 10 of the 12 wines offered for tasting (excluding dessert wines). I was not at all a fan of the Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc, but did like the Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay Reserve. I wanted to like the reds, but on such a hot day (approx 40C/104F), the chilled whites tasted best. We considered making a purchase or two, but decided that it was too expensive (even at $4.50 - $9 for a nice wine) – but what did we expect from a 5-star resort? We wandered around for a bit longer, tasted some truffles (the champagne flavor is nice, the cabernet sauvignon is not), and enjoyed ice cream cones in the shade as we admired the view from paradise.
After consulting the map, we learned that the vineyard next door was also open on Sundays until 4pm. That was 2 km away, home was 5 km, and the sun was at its hottest. On to Neethlingshof we biked.
Then Kathrin got a flat tire.
On to Neethlingshof we walked.
The map was a bit inaccurate in placing the location of the vineyard right on the road as we walked at least .75 km up the oak-lined drive before the cellar came into sight, but we did eventually reach our reward: 6 wines for $3/€2.
We put on our sweetest faces and told the server of our dilemma (a flat tire 7 km from home) and asked if he knew how we might fix it. Indeed he did and as we enjoyed our wines, the house artist patched up the bike. As it turns out, our server had met an American girl on Friday night and wondered if we knew her. Sure enough, when she left the party where she met him, it was to come dancing with us! From then on, we got extra special treatment and he even brought our wine selections out to the patio for us, rather than making us come in to the cellar for the next choice.
Neethlingshof is a strange vineyard in my mind because while I really liked the Gewurtztraminer at Simonsig and generally like Sauv Blanc and Chardonnay (wooded), these ones weren’t my favorites. However, the Lord Neethling Pinotage was fantastic. [Pinotage is the most famous red wine in the Stellenbosch region.] Of course, it was the most expensive on the list and I didn’t have enough of a desire to bike it back home again. At closing time, we paid for our tasting, ascertained an offer of a free tasting in the future, and promised to deliver the server’s number to our friend.
The bikes were fixed and we were set to go. 1.5 km later, Asara appeared at up the road. If I haven’t mentioned it, and I’m sure I have, the African sun is hot, and the atmosphere is thin. Kathrin is quite tan having spent the past 5 months here, but I have only reached “not pale” and occasionally “bright red”. Asara is open until 6pm on Sundays, has several dining options, and is air conditioned. We turned back into the vineyard we had left only two hours earlier and made our way down to the tapas restaurant. We had great seats in the shade on the deck overlooking the water that gave us the sensation that we were on a dock.
Kathrin ordered a Sauv Blanc/Chardonnay mix, her favorite from the earlier tasting, and pizza. I ordered the Sauv Blanc and stuffed calamari, and we got orders of ostrich and fish to start. The food was good, the wine was great, and the view was breathtaking. I decided that this would be a great location for my parent’s first meal in the country and Kathrin thought the same for her friends who are coming in from Germany next weekend.
At 6pm, we finished our meals, jumped on the bikes for the final leg of the journey, and returned to our flats, thrilled with a Sunday well-spent.
Stefan, another German in Kathrin’s program, is off exploring Namibia this week, so we had his bike. After visiting a couple of bike shops that were closed on a Sunday, a petrol station attendant was able to help us lower the seat on Kathrin’s bike so that I could actually sit in the saddle while riding for the duration of the day. Kathrin braved the height of Stefan’s bike since she has very long legs and can manage such things. Then, armed with bottles of water, sunscreen, sunglasses, and bags large enough to hold any future purchases, we were off.
Asara is about 5 kilometers outside of Stellenbosch, so not a bad ride, but it’s been a while since I biked in a place that was either sunny or had hills. By the time we reached Asara, we were ready to sit. Luckily, the cellar was air conditioned. We sat down at a large table and made our selections – try any five wines for 30 rands (~$3). As we waited, I practiced my new German phrases (I can now say, “Let’s go out!” and “Have fun tomorrow!”), we listened to two small boys at the adjacent table sing “Twinkle Twinkle” with South African accents, and admired the view of the lake, flowers and mountains.
Between the two of us, we tried 10 of the 12 wines offered for tasting (excluding dessert wines). I was not at all a fan of the Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc, but did like the Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay Reserve. I wanted to like the reds, but on such a hot day (approx 40C/104F), the chilled whites tasted best. We considered making a purchase or two, but decided that it was too expensive (even at $4.50 - $9 for a nice wine) – but what did we expect from a 5-star resort? We wandered around for a bit longer, tasted some truffles (the champagne flavor is nice, the cabernet sauvignon is not), and enjoyed ice cream cones in the shade as we admired the view from paradise.
After consulting the map, we learned that the vineyard next door was also open on Sundays until 4pm. That was 2 km away, home was 5 km, and the sun was at its hottest. On to Neethlingshof we biked.
Then Kathrin got a flat tire.
On to Neethlingshof we walked.
The map was a bit inaccurate in placing the location of the vineyard right on the road as we walked at least .75 km up the oak-lined drive before the cellar came into sight, but we did eventually reach our reward: 6 wines for $3/€2.
We put on our sweetest faces and told the server of our dilemma (a flat tire 7 km from home) and asked if he knew how we might fix it. Indeed he did and as we enjoyed our wines, the house artist patched up the bike. As it turns out, our server had met an American girl on Friday night and wondered if we knew her. Sure enough, when she left the party where she met him, it was to come dancing with us! From then on, we got extra special treatment and he even brought our wine selections out to the patio for us, rather than making us come in to the cellar for the next choice.
Neethlingshof is a strange vineyard in my mind because while I really liked the Gewurtztraminer at Simonsig and generally like Sauv Blanc and Chardonnay (wooded), these ones weren’t my favorites. However, the Lord Neethling Pinotage was fantastic. [Pinotage is the most famous red wine in the Stellenbosch region.] Of course, it was the most expensive on the list and I didn’t have enough of a desire to bike it back home again. At closing time, we paid for our tasting, ascertained an offer of a free tasting in the future, and promised to deliver the server’s number to our friend.
The bikes were fixed and we were set to go. 1.5 km later, Asara appeared at up the road. If I haven’t mentioned it, and I’m sure I have, the African sun is hot, and the atmosphere is thin. Kathrin is quite tan having spent the past 5 months here, but I have only reached “not pale” and occasionally “bright red”. Asara is open until 6pm on Sundays, has several dining options, and is air conditioned. We turned back into the vineyard we had left only two hours earlier and made our way down to the tapas restaurant. We had great seats in the shade on the deck overlooking the water that gave us the sensation that we were on a dock.
Kathrin ordered a Sauv Blanc/Chardonnay mix, her favorite from the earlier tasting, and pizza. I ordered the Sauv Blanc and stuffed calamari, and we got orders of ostrich and fish to start. The food was good, the wine was great, and the view was breathtaking. I decided that this would be a great location for my parent’s first meal in the country and Kathrin thought the same for her friends who are coming in from Germany next weekend.
At 6pm, we finished our meals, jumped on the bikes for the final leg of the journey, and returned to our flats, thrilled with a Sunday well-spent.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Forest Fires Blazing
On Wednesday, I got up and did a bit of scheduling to try to sort out my classes, then packed a lunch and met up with the ISU gals for a hike up Stellenbosch mountain. Hannah, Liz, Shelly (William & Mary in DC), and I made the 30 min trek across town to the base of the mountain, then hiked up for another 30 min or so before taking a break. We intended to hike further up to find a picnic spot, but all ended up sitting on tree trunks, enjoying the view and chatting away as we let the sun turn our hair lighter and skin darker (a paradox that Hannah brought to our attention). Before we knew it, we had to get back down so two of the girls could get to class on time.
I did not have a class to get to, so took advantage of the fact that the gym was at the base of the mountain to try out the equipment. After a quick work out, I met Kathrin and Carly at the pool for sunbathing and swimming laps.
Not too long after we arrived, we saw smoke rising from somewhere beyond the gym. Later, a helicopter flew over towing what appeared to be a container of water. We stayed at the pool for a while, enjoying the last real day of freedom before classes got into full swing. Then Carly headed home and Kathrin and I headed to the Adventure Center to plan for our upcoming visitors: Mom, Dad, Jim, Gina, and Susan for me (YAY!) and two friends from Germany for her. After spending an hour or so with our travel agent, Kathrin introduced me to THE place to get smoothies in Stellenbosch. The smoke had gotten thicker while we were at the travel agency and by the time we finished our drinks, the sun was blocked out by the black smoke originating from the mountain, so all we could see was a pink dot of the sun. It was eerie. We put on sunglasses for the walk home to keep the ash in the air from blowing into our eyes in the wind.
We had a braai (South African bbq) that evening in the courtyard of my residence, but the main attraction was not the fire on which we were grilling, but the one on the mountain. My roommate returned from volleyball practice to tell me that the flames were only feet away from the gym and she had a sore throat from breathing in all the ash. From the third floor walkway of our building (about a mile from the base of the mountain), the mountain looked like lava flowing from a volcano. For the girls from Arizona it wasn’t anything new, but I had never seen a forest fire in person and was amazed at the sheer power of the wind to spread the flames, and the human inability to contain it.
The fire blazed on throughout Thursday, Friday, and today. We watched as the wind carried it from one mountain to the next. On Thursday night, it was mainly burning on the far side of the mountain which created an amazing silhouette of red around the peak in the darkness of night. My camera wouldn’t focus right, but I’ll get pictures from Leena to share.
I got up today for a 10am class. Yes, I am writing on Saturday. “Negotiating Transitions” looks like such a fantastic course that I thought I would try it out, and I can probably manage at 10.00 – 13.00 class on a Saturday morning while most of my friends are still in bed. As much as I would love to take “Transitional Justice,” though, I will not take the course from 14.00 – 17.00 on a Saturday. I was back and forth on the class during the lecture. On the one hand, it’s a course with fascinating topics and it goes in depth on the topics and I think I would learn a lot that I can use in my future. On the other hand, it is a Saturday and the two professors were clearly incapable of saying in 10 words what could be said in 10 minutes. The question: could I handle such complete answers, knowing that I could hear what they said, go off in a tangent about a related thought in my head, realize I wasn’t paying attention three minutes later and start again and not miss anything? Not on a Saturday. But at the same time, I still felt so inspired by the end of the class that it was tempting. Until we went 20 minutes overtime and I lost patience.
At the end of class, a number of students address the professors about the fact that class was on Saturday (they seemed to be oblivious to the fact that study abroad students might be phased by this). After a long negotiation, we agreed that Fridays from 16.30 – 19.30 in Cape Town would be a much better meeting time for all involved (pending agreement by the International Office to find a venue and transportation), and I was happy again, despite just having agreed to take a course on Friday nights.
I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around. It was really too hot to do anything and the whole town felt dead. We had a surprise party for Ethan in the evening (he turns 20 on Monday), and then the most amazing thing happened: it rained.
Logically, we changed into our swimsuits, set up the slip ‘n’ slide into the inflatable pool, and played in the rain and sprinklers.
We all had dinner at Carly’s, then Kathrin came over and we watched Scrubs on my bed. It made me miss my Leiden roommates. In December it became habit that several nights a week we would watch a movie in Annamieke’s room if we got started early or an episode of Scrubs in my room if we didn’t finish up reading and papers until later in the night.
As I go to sleep, I don’t see any more flames in the distance.
I did not have a class to get to, so took advantage of the fact that the gym was at the base of the mountain to try out the equipment. After a quick work out, I met Kathrin and Carly at the pool for sunbathing and swimming laps.
Not too long after we arrived, we saw smoke rising from somewhere beyond the gym. Later, a helicopter flew over towing what appeared to be a container of water. We stayed at the pool for a while, enjoying the last real day of freedom before classes got into full swing. Then Carly headed home and Kathrin and I headed to the Adventure Center to plan for our upcoming visitors: Mom, Dad, Jim, Gina, and Susan for me (YAY!) and two friends from Germany for her. After spending an hour or so with our travel agent, Kathrin introduced me to THE place to get smoothies in Stellenbosch. The smoke had gotten thicker while we were at the travel agency and by the time we finished our drinks, the sun was blocked out by the black smoke originating from the mountain, so all we could see was a pink dot of the sun. It was eerie. We put on sunglasses for the walk home to keep the ash in the air from blowing into our eyes in the wind.
We had a braai (South African bbq) that evening in the courtyard of my residence, but the main attraction was not the fire on which we were grilling, but the one on the mountain. My roommate returned from volleyball practice to tell me that the flames were only feet away from the gym and she had a sore throat from breathing in all the ash. From the third floor walkway of our building (about a mile from the base of the mountain), the mountain looked like lava flowing from a volcano. For the girls from Arizona it wasn’t anything new, but I had never seen a forest fire in person and was amazed at the sheer power of the wind to spread the flames, and the human inability to contain it.
The fire blazed on throughout Thursday, Friday, and today. We watched as the wind carried it from one mountain to the next. On Thursday night, it was mainly burning on the far side of the mountain which created an amazing silhouette of red around the peak in the darkness of night. My camera wouldn’t focus right, but I’ll get pictures from Leena to share.
I got up today for a 10am class. Yes, I am writing on Saturday. “Negotiating Transitions” looks like such a fantastic course that I thought I would try it out, and I can probably manage at 10.00 – 13.00 class on a Saturday morning while most of my friends are still in bed. As much as I would love to take “Transitional Justice,” though, I will not take the course from 14.00 – 17.00 on a Saturday. I was back and forth on the class during the lecture. On the one hand, it’s a course with fascinating topics and it goes in depth on the topics and I think I would learn a lot that I can use in my future. On the other hand, it is a Saturday and the two professors were clearly incapable of saying in 10 words what could be said in 10 minutes. The question: could I handle such complete answers, knowing that I could hear what they said, go off in a tangent about a related thought in my head, realize I wasn’t paying attention three minutes later and start again and not miss anything? Not on a Saturday. But at the same time, I still felt so inspired by the end of the class that it was tempting. Until we went 20 minutes overtime and I lost patience.
At the end of class, a number of students address the professors about the fact that class was on Saturday (they seemed to be oblivious to the fact that study abroad students might be phased by this). After a long negotiation, we agreed that Fridays from 16.30 – 19.30 in Cape Town would be a much better meeting time for all involved (pending agreement by the International Office to find a venue and transportation), and I was happy again, despite just having agreed to take a course on Friday nights.
I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around. It was really too hot to do anything and the whole town felt dead. We had a surprise party for Ethan in the evening (he turns 20 on Monday), and then the most amazing thing happened: it rained.
Logically, we changed into our swimsuits, set up the slip ‘n’ slide into the inflatable pool, and played in the rain and sprinklers.
We all had dinner at Carly’s, then Kathrin came over and we watched Scrubs on my bed. It made me miss my Leiden roommates. In December it became habit that several nights a week we would watch a movie in Annamieke’s room if we got started early or an episode of Scrubs in my room if we didn’t finish up reading and papers until later in the night.
As I go to sleep, I don’t see any more flames in the distance.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Nov 22: Pisa!
On September 4, 2008, I found very inexpensive tickets from Eindhoven, the Netherlands to Pisa and Rome. So naturally, I bought them. The plan: fly to Pisa, catch a train to Rome, then return from Rome, all in 4 days (classes hindered a longer adventure). I had met Tracy a week or two earlier at orientation and she was fun, so I asked if she wanted to join and of course she did! The only “problem” was that we had to wait two and a half months to go. That said, when November 22 did finally arrive, we couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed.
As it turns out, I’m not sure I could have chosen a better time to go. My final pleading session for my international law moot court was on the Wednesday of that week and I was ready for a break. I had enjoyed the class, though. I wasn’t on a team as I had been in mock trial, but getting up and presenting reminded me of a closing argument with a rebuttal, and the competitive side of me was thrilled to finally make an appearance, having had few opportunities since high school graduation. I ended up arguing against a Brit who had much more moot court experience than myself and went on to earn cum laude of our class, but I held my ground and was happy with my performance.
On the night before our flight, I biked through the rain over to Tracy’s flat for dinner with my guide book in my basket. As we ate, we chatted with another tenant in the building about his thoughts on Rome and flipped through the books to plan out our journey. Perhaps some would have planned it out a little earlier, but we were full-time students and Tracy being a master’s student was even busier than myself. I returned home biking this time through hail and realizing how convenient a helmet would have been.
(Sidebar on biking: In all of my 5 months in the NL, I saw maybe 10 bikers wearing helmets, all on men wearing racing uniforms. It’s just not common, but I would still wager that biking there sans helmet is safer than biking in the States with a helmet. In the NL, you have bike-only lanes everywhere next to the sidewalk and separated from the road by a median. There are stop lights for cars as well as for bikes and pedestrians, though the locals seek the bike lights as more of a guideline than car stoplights. Even in turning circles, rather than cars driving past when they could fit through in front of a bike, they almost always stop, even if it means waiting longer than just a pause. The official right of way goes pedestrians, bikes, buses, cars, but in practice bikes are before pedestrians.)
Back to the story: I got home around 11pm to find two of my roommates in quite a state, dancing around Stoyan’s room with assorted liquors. Apparently they had just turned in a large assignment for their moot court competition as well, and it was time to celebrate. At their insistence, I stayed and attempted to teach a Bulgarian and an Irishman how to do a country line dance. By the time I got back to my room, it was about 1am, so finished the last of my packing and decided to chat online with some friends back home for a while – I had to be up at 3am anyway to catch the train to Eindhoven and board my 8am flight.
Tracy and I met at the train station as scheduled and boarded the 2.5 hour train to Eindhoven – a very long journey as neither of us had slept. We then waited, shivering in the train station for about an hour until the first bus came to transport us to the airport. We shuffled through the snow that was falling lazily and sticking to the ground and imagined the warmth of Pisa.
Upon boarding the flight, I immediately fell asleep. I woke up to find we were back on the ground, very disappointed to see that there was indeed snow in Pisa as well. Tracy quickly corrected me – the flight was delayed, we were still in Eindhoven. So I resumed sleep and when I next woke up during our descent, the sun was shining and the snow was gone. As we stepped off the plane, we took off our jackets enjoying the warmth. We bought two train tickets to Pisa Central and onward to Rome and jumped on the next train. In Pisa, we stored our bags and wandered into the city.
Our wandering took us past a lovely pastry shop, so we had to stop for some treats. It reminded me of Joseph’s with the assorted treats and the spritzer cookies with pink frosting. Eventually our wandering took us around a corner, and there in the middle of everything was a grassy knoll and THE Leaning Tower of Pisa! We walked into a nearby shop, purchased two slices of pizza and drinks, and sat in the grass, eating lunch and admiring the view against the clear blue sky. We didn’t have tickets to go up the Tower, but did wander into a church (unfortunately without my guidebook handy I can’t recall which one) and stared at the beautiful paintings and sculptures.
After purchasing a few souvenirs and taking photos of us holding up the Tower (or attempting to at least), we went in search of other Italian foods to try. Alas, the next slice of pizza was a bit of a let down. We walked along the river and stared at the way the sun struck the buildings as it sank lower in the sky, making the bricks appear to glow. Occasionally we could hear a roar that we speculated might have come from the crowd at a football stadium, though we never found it. For the most part, the streets that did not immediately surround the Leaning Tower were pretty empty for a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Around 4 o’clock we found what appeared to be a main street in town. There were children everywhere jumping rope and playing other games for what appeared to be a school fundraiser or perhaps just a game day organized in which parents could have fun with their children. As we walked up the street, a number of shops were just opening – very different from in Holland where the shops would be closing up at that time. We admired the clothes in the windows, tried on real Italian leather boots and wished we were already rich, successful lawyers so we could buy them, and stepped into a chocolate shop already decked out with holiday décor to sip hot chocolate and cappuccinos.
As we made our way back through town to catch the train, we decided that we couldn’t wait to return to Florence, not even having left yet. We wandered through a little craft market and I lingered to look at Christmas ornaments in various colors, shapes, and sizes. The bell with the nativity scene inside reminded me of Fr. Jack and Aunt Mary.
Just outside the train station, we passed a large parade of protesters waving signs and shouting and police on either side, ready if it got too rowdy. Unfortunately, my Italian is not up to par, so I didn’t catch the reason for the protest.
At the station, we retrieved our bags from storage, got an ice cream cone from McDonald’s, and jumped on the train to Roma. By 5:30pm, the sun was waning, so for most of our journey we couldn’t actually see the countryside. It would have been nice to be able to see it, but another time. We didn’t want to spend our daylight hours on a train anyway.
Several hours later, we arrived at San Pietro station and we greeted by my cousins, Brendan and Rachel Egan. It was soo wonderful to see them! The homesickness and culture shock had gotten to me a bit over the previous two weeks as I missed Grandpa’s birthday, harvest, Helen’s birthday, Mary’s birthday, and there was other excitement and drama with friends at home and I was ready for a weekend away – my own personal fall break. Seeing my college friends and getting a wonderful Rachel Downey hug (her surname until May 2008) made me feel “home” again, even in a place I’d never been.
Rachel and Brendan walked us around Rome and the Vatican City, pointing out historical buildings, St. Peter’s Basilica (hard to miss), the Pope’s window where he holds audiences each Sunday, and other places they liked to visit, like Old Bridge – the most gelato with the best flavor at the best price in the city. Naturally, we had to try it immediately. We were in awe of the flavors, but finally chose three that sounded good and jumped on the bus back to Brendan & Rachel’s.
Brendan and Rachel were living in Rome for three months preparing for 1 – 2 years of service in East Timor through a Catholic organization based in Rome by learning the language, the culture, and how they could best share their faith through their actions. At the time we were there, they only had two weeks left in Rome before they began the journey to East Timor and we could tell they were getting excited. They had been kind enough to find us two extra beds in the house and their housemates – other lay missionaries as well – were warm and welcoming. They made us some dinner and we chatted for a while, then turned in early, ready for a big day of sightseeing on Sunday!
As it turns out, I’m not sure I could have chosen a better time to go. My final pleading session for my international law moot court was on the Wednesday of that week and I was ready for a break. I had enjoyed the class, though. I wasn’t on a team as I had been in mock trial, but getting up and presenting reminded me of a closing argument with a rebuttal, and the competitive side of me was thrilled to finally make an appearance, having had few opportunities since high school graduation. I ended up arguing against a Brit who had much more moot court experience than myself and went on to earn cum laude of our class, but I held my ground and was happy with my performance.
On the night before our flight, I biked through the rain over to Tracy’s flat for dinner with my guide book in my basket. As we ate, we chatted with another tenant in the building about his thoughts on Rome and flipped through the books to plan out our journey. Perhaps some would have planned it out a little earlier, but we were full-time students and Tracy being a master’s student was even busier than myself. I returned home biking this time through hail and realizing how convenient a helmet would have been.
(Sidebar on biking: In all of my 5 months in the NL, I saw maybe 10 bikers wearing helmets, all on men wearing racing uniforms. It’s just not common, but I would still wager that biking there sans helmet is safer than biking in the States with a helmet. In the NL, you have bike-only lanes everywhere next to the sidewalk and separated from the road by a median. There are stop lights for cars as well as for bikes and pedestrians, though the locals seek the bike lights as more of a guideline than car stoplights. Even in turning circles, rather than cars driving past when they could fit through in front of a bike, they almost always stop, even if it means waiting longer than just a pause. The official right of way goes pedestrians, bikes, buses, cars, but in practice bikes are before pedestrians.)
Back to the story: I got home around 11pm to find two of my roommates in quite a state, dancing around Stoyan’s room with assorted liquors. Apparently they had just turned in a large assignment for their moot court competition as well, and it was time to celebrate. At their insistence, I stayed and attempted to teach a Bulgarian and an Irishman how to do a country line dance. By the time I got back to my room, it was about 1am, so finished the last of my packing and decided to chat online with some friends back home for a while – I had to be up at 3am anyway to catch the train to Eindhoven and board my 8am flight.
Tracy and I met at the train station as scheduled and boarded the 2.5 hour train to Eindhoven – a very long journey as neither of us had slept. We then waited, shivering in the train station for about an hour until the first bus came to transport us to the airport. We shuffled through the snow that was falling lazily and sticking to the ground and imagined the warmth of Pisa.
Upon boarding the flight, I immediately fell asleep. I woke up to find we were back on the ground, very disappointed to see that there was indeed snow in Pisa as well. Tracy quickly corrected me – the flight was delayed, we were still in Eindhoven. So I resumed sleep and when I next woke up during our descent, the sun was shining and the snow was gone. As we stepped off the plane, we took off our jackets enjoying the warmth. We bought two train tickets to Pisa Central and onward to Rome and jumped on the next train. In Pisa, we stored our bags and wandered into the city.
Our wandering took us past a lovely pastry shop, so we had to stop for some treats. It reminded me of Joseph’s with the assorted treats and the spritzer cookies with pink frosting. Eventually our wandering took us around a corner, and there in the middle of everything was a grassy knoll and THE Leaning Tower of Pisa! We walked into a nearby shop, purchased two slices of pizza and drinks, and sat in the grass, eating lunch and admiring the view against the clear blue sky. We didn’t have tickets to go up the Tower, but did wander into a church (unfortunately without my guidebook handy I can’t recall which one) and stared at the beautiful paintings and sculptures.
After purchasing a few souvenirs and taking photos of us holding up the Tower (or attempting to at least), we went in search of other Italian foods to try. Alas, the next slice of pizza was a bit of a let down. We walked along the river and stared at the way the sun struck the buildings as it sank lower in the sky, making the bricks appear to glow. Occasionally we could hear a roar that we speculated might have come from the crowd at a football stadium, though we never found it. For the most part, the streets that did not immediately surround the Leaning Tower were pretty empty for a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Around 4 o’clock we found what appeared to be a main street in town. There were children everywhere jumping rope and playing other games for what appeared to be a school fundraiser or perhaps just a game day organized in which parents could have fun with their children. As we walked up the street, a number of shops were just opening – very different from in Holland where the shops would be closing up at that time. We admired the clothes in the windows, tried on real Italian leather boots and wished we were already rich, successful lawyers so we could buy them, and stepped into a chocolate shop already decked out with holiday décor to sip hot chocolate and cappuccinos.
As we made our way back through town to catch the train, we decided that we couldn’t wait to return to Florence, not even having left yet. We wandered through a little craft market and I lingered to look at Christmas ornaments in various colors, shapes, and sizes. The bell with the nativity scene inside reminded me of Fr. Jack and Aunt Mary.
Just outside the train station, we passed a large parade of protesters waving signs and shouting and police on either side, ready if it got too rowdy. Unfortunately, my Italian is not up to par, so I didn’t catch the reason for the protest.
At the station, we retrieved our bags from storage, got an ice cream cone from McDonald’s, and jumped on the train to Roma. By 5:30pm, the sun was waning, so for most of our journey we couldn’t actually see the countryside. It would have been nice to be able to see it, but another time. We didn’t want to spend our daylight hours on a train anyway.
Several hours later, we arrived at San Pietro station and we greeted by my cousins, Brendan and Rachel Egan. It was soo wonderful to see them! The homesickness and culture shock had gotten to me a bit over the previous two weeks as I missed Grandpa’s birthday, harvest, Helen’s birthday, Mary’s birthday, and there was other excitement and drama with friends at home and I was ready for a weekend away – my own personal fall break. Seeing my college friends and getting a wonderful Rachel Downey hug (her surname until May 2008) made me feel “home” again, even in a place I’d never been.
Rachel and Brendan walked us around Rome and the Vatican City, pointing out historical buildings, St. Peter’s Basilica (hard to miss), the Pope’s window where he holds audiences each Sunday, and other places they liked to visit, like Old Bridge – the most gelato with the best flavor at the best price in the city. Naturally, we had to try it immediately. We were in awe of the flavors, but finally chose three that sounded good and jumped on the bus back to Brendan & Rachel’s.
Brendan and Rachel were living in Rome for three months preparing for 1 – 2 years of service in East Timor through a Catholic organization based in Rome by learning the language, the culture, and how they could best share their faith through their actions. At the time we were there, they only had two weeks left in Rome before they began the journey to East Timor and we could tell they were getting excited. They had been kind enough to find us two extra beds in the house and their housemates – other lay missionaries as well – were warm and welcoming. They made us some dinner and we chatted for a while, then turned in early, ready for a big day of sightseeing on Sunday!
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