It just keeps getting better....

        This week is getting better and better every day. Yesterday (Tuesday) we went to schools around Bloemfontein. Each bus went to a different one and the school we went to was called Lekhulong Secondary School. The school has kids from grades 8-12. It was a ton of fun! When we first got there they were so excited to see us. They sang songs to us and the principal introduced himself and all the teachers that work at the school.  This all took place outside under a covered patio. The kids all stood under the covering, while we stood about 2 feet above them on a concrete stage with a covering over it as well. After we were introduced and were introduced to the principal and teachers the kids were sent back to their classrooms. We were split into groups of 5 and taken to different classrooms to interact with the kids. 

       The first classroom we went to, we introduced ourselves to the kids and the teacher introduced herself. The teachers are all called "masters." in South Africa, which is pretty cool. After that she told us we could continue with our "program," to which we replied... "uhhhh... what? we don't have a program." So we just let the kids ask us questions about the United States, since 4 of us were from JMU and one of us was from UFS. We got a ton of questions, everything from, what are you studying? to "do you see celebrities on a daily basis?" to "how can we live above peer pressure?" I actually got that question a lot from people in the class after we split up into small groups to talk with the kids. I thought it was really interesting to see that kids are really affected by peer pressure, and they know it, and they also want to know how they can not be affected by it. It was amazing. 

        After spending some time asking the wide variety of questions, we JMU kids decided we needed to teach them the J-M-U duuuuuuuuuuukes cheer! So we did and they LOVED it! It was so cute! We recorded it and it's on my Facebook if you'd like to see it! It was adorable! However, when we pulled out our cameras to start recording them, it was a mass frenzy for us to take pictures with them. We all have about 50 pictures with them because they all wanted a group shot, then individual shots each. Too cute.

       In the next classroom we went to, we learned about economics and geography. Okay, not for real, but that's what they were supposed to be learning. While in that classroom, I got the most interesting question of them all... ready for it? "Are guys in the US circumcised?" I swear I made the poor kid repeat the question 4 times because I could not figure out what he was saying. Then once I did, I was like why on earth are you asking me that question? It was very bizarre. Another person told me to say hi to Drake and another asked me, "Does what happens in Vegas really stay in Vegas?" hahaha I laughed so hard when the boy asked me that.  Another question I got a lot was, "are your eyes really that color or are you wearing contacts?" I also drew a map (okay general outline) of the US to explain where all the places were and where we lived.  The whole trip was absolutely amazing. They were so grateful we were there and one kid kept grabbing and holding my hands telling me how excited he was to meet an American and how awesome I was, and it was making me so happy! So adorable! 

     The whole experience was amazing and I wish we could have spent more time there! Only 1 more full day here and then we have to come back to the US! :( So sad! I do miss the heat but I'm really going to miss here and all the people!  

Back in Bloem means back to lectures

     On Monday we got some free time in the morning to work on our assignments and blogs and essays. After that we went to Eunice school for our lectures. Eunice school is the number one school in South Africa. It's an all girls school so obviously it's number one! ;-)        We got to talking about "difficult dialogues". All about how to talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion and class, to name a few.  It was very interesting because we were actually able to separate into our cohorts and talk about certain questions. One question was the challenges we face when trying to have a conversation about any of these topics. We also talked about how we can be accountable to ourselves and our institution to encourage diversity. While we were talking we brought up the issue of looking diverse on paper and looking diverse in our actions. For example, I know at JMU sometimes we get some people who only hang out with people who are the same as them. Even though we might look diverse on paper doesn't mean we a hang out and include each other all the time. That brought up a lot of discussion about how we can include others and become diverse in our actions. I was really appreciative of the fact that we were able to discuss as well as listen to what the mentors had to say on the topic. The past week we've just been listening and not able to talk about it. And now we are finally getting the chance to do so.       After that we had another lecture on higher education in Japan. We learned a lot about the culture and what makes Japan unique from the USA and South Africa. It was interesting and he gave us lots of time to ask questions. I think the mentors are finally taking our suggestion into consideration and allowing more student involvement in the conference, which is awesome.         For dinner we had a farewell session and a lecture on the No Student Hungry Campaign. There are students at UFS that are unable to afford to eat, so this campaign helps provide these kids food. It costs about 6000 rand for one student each year and they sponsor 100 students each year. I thought this might be a good fundraising idea for the dorm or in the Social Justice League to help and maybe raise enough money to sponsor a student.           After dinner we were able to sit in on the residence hall meetings. They were so interesting. At the beginning all the first years stand up and say "good evening ..." to each person on the hall council. The hall council is the one running the meetin and each person takes a turn sharing their announcements. They had a sports rep, treasurer, community service and a bunch of others. There were 7 all together including the residence head who's like the hall director. It was very structured and all the first years had to wear their uniforms to the meeting. No pajamas were allowed at all. So different from JMU! They opened with a prayer as well, which if we tried at JMU to do that, we would get so many nasty emails. At the end of the meeting they presented us each a bag. It's a messenger bag with Akasia written in pink on it. It's so cute and so nice.           Everyone was so nice and welcoming and I'm going to be so sad to leave. But I also can't wait to go to the beach and enjoy my last few days of summer! :) 

Qwaqwa, Basotho and Clarens

      Yesterday (well it was yesterday when I wrote it now it's two days ago) we came back from Qwaqwa. We were happy to leave the wind and freezing cold behind but sad to leave our new friends and great food. On the way back from Qwaqwa we stopped in Basotho cultural village. We learned a lot about their culture and even met the chief of the village. We got to try their homemade beer where we all sat around the chief and passed around the cup. I was not a fan of the homemade beer. It was almost like spoiled, fermented milk. Kinda gross. After that we toured the village and met the chiefs second and third wife. We also got to try maize, salt and sugar mixed together. She put it in our hand and then we just ate it. It was basically powder and it tasted very strange.  Then we tried corn but it was larger than usual and it was really salty and chewy. I wasn't a huge fan of that either. However, for each thing we did the guys always went first and then the girls were allowed to go.         After touring Basotho we went to Clarens. We were supposed to get an hour to eat and walk around but we ended up getting a half hour. We scarfed down our food and while waiting for our food we took turns hopping into stores around us. It was crazy.        When we got back we got our new roommates and now I'm rooming with a girl from the university of Minnesota. There are 6 of us in Akasia (the name of our dorm) and none of us are rooming with South Africans. Some are rooming alone! We thought that was strange. Everyone in the dorm was very welcoming and so far it's been a great experience.         I even made a friend with a South African who lives on the second floor. She came down to meet us all when she heard there were international students in the dorm. She had just gotten back from App State 2 weeks ago after studying there for a whole year.  When she came I had been in my bed and didn't get out because it was freezing. She noticed this and brought me. Huge fluffy blanket (I know have 5 blankets on my bed) and a heater for my room. It made everything so much better and now you can hang out in my room without having to be under blankets. Getting out of bed in the morning is awful because you're nice and warm in your bed and nothing outside of your bed is warm.         I know as soon as I get back to the USA I'll be complaining about the heat and humidity and wishing for this weather back. But I just like to complain now! :)

Qwaqwa

       We have officially made it to Qwa-Qwa which is the other campus of the University of the Free State.  It's in a valley between huge mountains, so quite like JMU it's VERY windy. And absolutely freezing. It was actually snowing and hailing a little bit ago and I'm typing in the computer lab wearing gloves.  It's very cold and in about 5 minutes we're supposed to head outside and play traditional South African sports games.
       Yesterday on our way here we got to go through Golden Gate National Park, which was very pretty. We even saw zebras in real life!!!! It was so cool! They were just there in real life! We also saw Wildabeasts, Spring Buck, and bisbuck. Those names may be wrong but it's something like that! But zebras in real life! They were so cool! Then after we got here we checked into our rooms. It's three to a room and the rooms are ginormous and so warm. Warm enough that you actually want to take your jacket off in the room. And they aren't JMU style triples, they're big rooms and lots of room for everyone! It's so wonderful! And each room has it's own color theme and ours is pink. Brooke isn't a huge fan but I love it! After checking into our rooms we headed down to dinner which was STEAK and potatoes. It was delicious. They also served us maize, which looked similar to mashed potatoes but was more grainy in texture. The maize was very interesting and I couldn't really tell if I liked it or not. But the steak and potatoes were absolutely delicious.  After dinner there was a impromptu dance sesh where Michael Jackson came on and everyone formed a circle around this guy who may have actually been Michael Jackson reincarnated. After that we were kicked out of the dining hall because it was closing and we headed back to the room to have a chat with some of our South African friends. It was a lot of fun! Then I decided I wanted to shower after our long 5 hour bus ride from Bloemfontein to Qwaqwa. Turns out everyone else decided to do the same because I had to take a freezing cold shower. It wasn't fun at all. This morning though they had hot water again for everyone who wanted to wait until the morning to shower.
        This morning we went on a tour of the town surrounding Qwaqwa and drove to the top of a mountain to get a bird's eye view of the town. It was freezing and really windy. Kind of like being on Skyline side during the windy winter at JMU. We took amazing pictures and got to see awesome rock formations and got a great view of the town. We all lost feeling in our fingers and toes but at least we got great pictures! After that we headed back to Qwaqwa for lunch which was fried chicken, cauliflower and broccoli covered in cheese and rice. It was delicious as well. We all decided we wanted to stay here and not go back to Bloemfontein because of the food. (Sorry Bloem!) This afternoon we're supposed to be playing traditional South African games, both board games and physically active games, but it's currently sleeting outside. So that makes us all hesitant to leave the dorm and head across campus to the gym where we're playing. Granted, it is only a 6 minute (we timed it this morning) walk across the entire Qwaqwa campus.. Can you imagine? I don't think you could even drive from Festival to Memorial in 6 minutes!
     Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather! If you would like to see some of the pictures from the Conference you can go to the UFS facebook page and look through the photos. Just a warning.... we may or may not appear to be sleeping in some of them. We have to get up at 6am every morning! Here's the website: https://www.facebook.com/UFSUV enjoy!

Cohort 6

During the week we were assigned Cohort groups which are discussion based groups based on a certain theme. My theme for the week was gender. During the discussions we had I noticed that a lot of the time we were always talking about how guys are usually the ones that take over situations because they think they know better. I don't know if it's because we haven't had a lot of time to discuss more in depth about gender, but I feel like this is just the beginning of gender issues. There's the socially constructed roles of men and women that we haven't discussed yet and those differ across all nations. Some remain generally the same across borders but at the same time some are vastly different. I would like to talk about these in our group, but I feel that throughout the conference, they are not encouraging discussion. It's all about the adults and their lectures and there is never time for discussion. I understand that during the question/answer section after the lecture there isn't enough time for everyone to ask their question, but at the same time we need to be able to talk about these things. Especially after yesterday's lectures, everyone had so much to say and when we asked if we could ask more questions after the break, we were shot down.
I think this conference is a good idea, and the lectures are really helping us learn a lot. But we also need to be able to talk about it and make it relevant to us and be able to bring it back to our respective universities. Right now, I'm not sure what to do with all the information that's been thrown at me the past 4 days. I also don't know how to bring it back to JMU and share it with other people or even how to apply it to my life now.  Leadership is all about learning from your mistakes in the past and using that knowledge to move forward and plan for a better future. I think we need to move away from the past and start planning for a better future because dwelling on the past is not doing anything good for anyone.

Freezing Bajeezing

Let me tell you how cold it is. Negative degrees I swear. Well negative Celsius not Fahrenheit. It's so cold that you go to bed with no feeling in your fingers and toes and wonder if you'll even have fingers and toes in the morning. Okay so I may be exaggerating a little bit but it's really cold. The worst part is when you're inside and there's no heat. I don't know if it's just because the university is on winter break or if they just don't have heat. But the dorm we stay in has it's doors open every single day the entire day. So the hallways are freezing. When you wake up in the morning you don't want to get out of bed because you just got really warm. Brooke lost feeling in one of her toes Monday and hasn't felt it since. It's a serious issue. It wouldn't be so bad if they had heat inside. But they don't so you never really get warm until you're in bed for awhile and your blankets start working to keep your body heat in. Even during the lectures we all har our costs and scarves on still. I use my computer with gloves whenever I can because it's so cold.  Okay now that I've complained enough about the cold i'll move on to tell you what we're actually doing in the cold. Yesterday we went on a tour of Bloemfontein. It was really neat and interesting. The first stop we made was at naval hill which is the highest point/mountain in Bloemfontein. So from the point you can see basically the whole town. It was cool and our tour guide threw so much information at us while we were there. We were on that point for over an hour while he talked to us about the development of Bloemfontein from the very beginning of its colonization. As we were leaving Naval Hill there were ostritches on the side of the road. And as we drive towards them they decided to wander into the middle of the road. Kind of like Canadian geese like to do at home. They looked at the bus like "oh you wanted to drive here? Well, too bad." it was funny and eventually they ran out of the way but it was really excited to actually see an ostritch in the wild and not in the zoo. Alyson, Brooke and I were total tourists and sat in the very front row of the bus, but guess who got the best pictures of ostriches? We did. No biggie.  After Naval Hill we went down to the town and walked in a square learning about the city of Bloemfontein. It was crazy. We were told to leave everything on the bus except our cameras if we wanted them so we reduced the chance of getting pickpocketed or anything stolen. We walked around, saw city hall, the parliament building and this big square where people had stripped the copper off the statues and plaques there because they needed the money. We also ran into this man who had a bottle he was putting up to his mouth and inhaling. Our tour guide told us it was a substance very similar to glue and a lot of people in the city are addicted to it. He told us that some start as early as 11/12 years old and by the time they're 12 they are so messed up they don't know who they are. It's very sad. The man followed us for the rest of the tour and while we were getting on the bus he was yelling in Afrikaans at us asking why we can't give him money if we all are carrying water and food.  After touring Bloemfontein we went to a gated community called woodland hills. In order to get in you had to pass through huge gates and talk to security. If you didn't live in Woodland Hills you had to show the men your papers and everything to make sure you're allowed to visit. Our tour guide had to pull a lot of strings to let our huge bus into the community because usually absolutely no taxis or busses are allowed into the community. While we were touring the place we saw a kid riding a bike who looked at the bus with wide eyes and his jaw on the ground. We thought it was so funny that he was so shocked to see the bus. The community had its own hospital and mall but not it's own school yet. They were planning on building a pre-primary school soon but the high schools around the community are excellent so they didn't want to compete with them. The point of the community is to not have to leave if you don't want. They have their own water and electricity separate from the surrounding towns. It's amazing. And if you want to live there its only 1.5 million rand for a townhouse and 10 million rand for a single family home. And you better act fast there's only 60 plots left! The whole community is 2000 hectares and the fence surrounding it is 8 km long with tons of cameras along the perimeter and inside the community. The community has existed for 7 years and there has never been any crime committed in the entire 7 years. Zip zero nada. Nothing. Crazy huh? That's only 15 minutes away from the first city we went to. Such a huge difference between the two.  Later in the day we went to the festival again where I had a pizza cone. It was literally a cone of pizza crust filled to the brim with mushrooms, bacon and cheese. It was so delicious. After that I also had a kudu roll which was basically a hot dog but the meat was antelope. That was delicious as well. For dessert we all had cocktails and tried these pancake things. I know, shocker I had a pancake. I don't like pancakes but these were thin and more like crepes but they were rolled up and had cinnamon and sugar inside. You can put cinnamon and sugar on anything and I'll eat it. The pancakes were delicious and were only 3 rand each. Oh and in case you're wondering 8 rand is 1 dollar so 3 rand is less than 50 cents. After eating everything in sight we walked around the vendors looking at all the cool things. Alyson got to use her bargaining skills to buy all her gifts for people back home. The funny thing about the vendors here is that they aren't pushy. They don't come out of their stalls trying to lure you in to get you to buy anything. They don't even speak to you when you come in unless you say something to them first. Not at all what it's like anywhere else where people are basically attacking you to get you to look at their things. The festival was fun and we walked around looking at everything. They had so many cool things i'll have to post some pictures of it later so you can see how cool it is.  Oh and then we got chip twisters again and mini donuts that were amazzzzzzzing! They were covered in chocolate with sprinkles fresh out of the fryer and they were so good! We also got caramel ones too but I didn't like those as much as the chocolate ones.  That's all for now. But I will leave you with this: when we go to Qwa Qwa this weekend it's supposed to snow. Send me some heat please! I'm not prepared for snow in the middle of July. 

Holla at yo camel riding girrrrrrl!

Okay real life. Today was the best day ever. First, let me tell you about yesterday.. For day 1 they decided to jam pack our day. We had a lecture in the morning, which was quite entertaining, and then a mini break followed by a painful lecture by a woman who wasn't too good at public speaking. The content was okay, but the actual delivery wasn't on point. We had so many things to do yesterday, they were hustling us around everywhere from session to session. Most of us still felt jet lagged (I still do kinda today) and it was just a lot a lot for the first day. Also, some of the topics they had us talking about were deep and it was kind of weird diving right into these things. But oh well, you win some you lose some.  To put it into perspective... One of the teachers was giving a talk later in the evening and she referred to a lecture that was "yesterday" but in fact was just earlier that morning. Yeah if the teacher's think it's been a long day then it's absolutely been a long day.
Anywhoooo, last night we were exhausted but we decided after dinner to go to the mall. It's literally right across the street from UFS so it was maybe a 15 minute walk from the "res." While we were there, Felix, the OIP/Study Abroad director decided we should get pizza and beer. So of course who are we to turn down pizza and beer? Even though we are in South Africa we went for the pizza and beer. While we were there I ordered a glass of Sangria, which was uh-may-zinggg and Alyson got herself a Smirnoff storm, while Felix went for the traditional African beer. After eating we got the check and we learned that you add the tip before they run your card in the machine or else it won't get added. Interesting right?
So enough about boring yesterday and on today, the day I RODE A CAMEL! Okay, but really today during the day we had more blah blah blah stuff and we took a group picture and listened to another lecture on the evolution of higher education which we listened to one yesterday. So after we were done with the lectures and listening to a little bit of Hamlet, we were given free time before dinner. We went to the arts festival which started today and we rode camels! It was only 30 rand, which is less than $4! SO COOL! Even though at first our camel got up and down at least twice. That part was kind of scary. Brooke and I were on it together so we were worried that we were too heavy, but the real problem ended up being that the camel had just given a ride and was lazy and didn't want to get up. It was scary. But we did it and got to ride camels! HOLLLLLAAAAA AT YO CAMEL RIDING GIRL! lolz anyways and then we got potato chips on a stick. They took an  apple peeler thing, peeled a potato, put it on a stick, fried and then seasoned it. It was soooo good! So good!

But my computer is dying and I should publish this right quick so I don't lose it. That would stink. Oh and I need to buy a new adapter oops. Not good.

Traveling Dayssss

       Well we finally made it to South Africa. After a grueling 17-hour flight just to get us to Johannesburg and then another flight that was only an hour we are here. It was quite an experience.  Our first flight landed in Segal a country that when you look at a map might be the most western country in all of Africa. We landed there and some people got off because that was their final destination. However, those of us who were continuing onto South Africa/Johannesburg, we were not allowed to get off the plane.  We were allowed to stand up, walk around and do some stretching after sitting down for a little over 7 hours. That first “leg” of the ride was actually not bad at all.  The movie selection on the plane was amazing. We could pick whatever movie we wanted to watch, anything from Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows to the Lorax (both of which I watched) and then Hunger Games Breaking Dawn, the Truman Show, MIB the original, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Madagascar and even some “African Picks.” I can’t remember any of those, I didn’t recognize any of them but that’s what the menu option was called on the screen. And, as if the movie choices weren’t enough, we also had a couple episodes of TV series we could watch too! Like the Brittany/Britney episode from Glee? Yep, it was there BUT they cut out the snake dance Brittany does while under anesthesia. So after that, I turned it off and moved onto Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and even started the pilot episode of Alcatraz but I fell asleep shortly after starting it.  The screens also had playlists of music for you to listen to and games to play. It was very high tech and kept us all entertained. Oh and I forgot to mention 21 Jump Street was one of the choices for movies and there were sisters sitting in front of Alyson and I who decided to hit play at the same time on both their screens so they could watch it together. Now mind you, these ladies are over 30 okay? It’s about 11:30pm when they start, lots of people are sleeping the cabin lights are off in the plane and it’s pretty quiet. These ladies are watching 21 Jump Street CACKLING, literally, at everything. And to make everything worse, they had reclined their seats ALL THE WAY so my knees were already in pain pushed up against her seat and every time she laughed she would throw herself back into the chair digging the chair into my knees. Now, I will admit that I did push back because how annoying can you be right? Finally, one of our chaperones who was sitting two rows behind Alyson and I and 3 behind the sisters got up and asked them to quiet down because it was now almost 1:00am and they were cackling like 13 year old girls.  HIGHLY unnecessary.  However, once that stopped the rest of the plane ride to Segal was lovely. Once we got to Segal it was 3:00am on the time we were on, but 6:00am in Segal (or was it 7:00) I’m not sure. We stretched and walked around trying to get feeling back in our bootys after sitting down for so long. More people got on the plane and then tadaaaaaa on to South Africa we go! We were instructed to keep the shutters on the windows closed so people could sleep so that was helpful, but it was so hard to get comfy.  Finally we made it to South Africa, where we had to run through customs and grab our bags and recheck them and then try and get to our next flight in time. We did make it in time though! And we got on a bus which took us to our tiny airplane, which ended up having more leg room than the previous plane we were on. Go figure. 

            After a quick one hour flight, on which they gave us cheese, crackers, some chicken, pasta salad and a chocolate raspberry cake thing, we made it to Bloemfontein. When we got there and picked up our luggage, Patrick’s luggage wasn’t on the belt. It’s okay to laugh now because it ended up coming back to him, but at the time it was NOT funny. At all. We were picked up at the airport by a nice gentleman from the university and then 20 minutes later we were pulling into the University of the Free State. We were one of the last groups to arrive and we even missed the welcome session, but we were quickly fed, given our keys to our rooms and let loose. We saw two of the guys that came to visit us last year and they helped us check in and things which was really nice! After that, we just tried and tried accessing the internet on our computers. We had emailed our parents already from the girl’s computer that I’m staying with.  Alyson got hers to work right away, mine wouldn’t work for the life of me. Eventually it did and I gave my mom a quick shout out in my Facebook status to know I’m alive and then it was off to bed. Even though it was 9:45pm here and only 3:45 back home we were exhausted and we had a 6:00am wake up time just waiting for us the next morning. Tooooo early.  

Packing, packing, packing.

So today kind of starts the beginning of our trip to South Africa. And by kind of, I mean I'm finally starting to think about packing.  Even though we don't leave until Saturday, which is a full 5 days away, I am starting to pack now. This is so that when I realize I forgot to pack something or I don't have something, I can run out and get it. Also, since my 21st birthday is on Wednesday I don't know how much packing I'll want to be doing on my birthday.

I'm super excited to be going to South Africa, but at the same time I'm giving up 2 gorgeous weeks of my summer to spend in the "winter." Granted, winter in South Africa means daytime temperatures of around 50/60 and nighttime temperatures in the 20/30 range.  So not really winter, but definitely not the 90 degree weather we're having here in Virginia.  And since it is summer here I'm finding it hard to pack "winter" clothes.  I'm afraid since it's not winter, or even remotely cold outside, I may forget something important for the winter. But not to worry, I have my jeans, fancy JMU heavy (ish) jacket, my northface, scarves and sweaters all set out. I think I'll be good to go.

I am really excited to go to South Africa and learn more about their culture from a first hand experience.  We learned a lot when the UFS students came and stayed with us during the Fall last year, but I think I will learn even more going there and meeting more people. The conference we are attending has a ton of schools coming from the US, like NYU, Texas A&M, Appalachian State, the list goes on. Also, schools from Belgium, Egypt, Japan and the Netherlands will be there as well.  I think it will be an awesome experience! And hopefully I learn more Afrikaans than "I need to go to the bathroom" (Eck vul han peepee) the spelling may be off on that but the phonetic part is right! :)

For the complete schedule or to poke around at what exactly we'll be doing here's the website for the conference:  http://www.ufs.ac.za/gls

I guess I should get back to packing, so my mom stops stressing out and I won't have to work on my birthday!