South Africa

Where to begin? Well, first of all, I'm guest blogging because I won a game at the fiscal new year's party with jimmy mac, and blogging rights were the prize. I'm happy to do it, though, as it's a pleasure to share my experiences in South Africa thus far with nerds everywhere.

South Africa is a visually stunning country, the climate is fantastic, but most of all, I've met some of the greatest people I've ever met in my life here. I kind of made an effort to distance myself from the other Americans here so that I'd be forced to make friends, and as a result, I've made great friends with people from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Nigeria, Mauritius, and all over South Africa. I think I did the best thing I could have done, because when you're legit friends with people, you can talk about legit things. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd have spent 6 months making small talk with people I kind of know from classes.

So what's Rhodes like? Well, first of all, it's 4000 students manage to make it the #1 drinking university in the world. These kids are professionals. The kids are friendly in general, especially the girls in my res. We have a lot of fun.

As far as travelling goes, I've been to Cape Town twice, Hogsback, Mossel Bay, Outdshoorn, Joburg, and Port Elizabeth. The next trip I have planned is to Botswana for our 2 week April vac. One of my friends from my res invited me to her home, and I'm really excited to see another side of Africa.

I know people are probably curious about the race issue. Racism is not in your face day to day, it's more of an underlying thing, and all white people are not racist, but some are. I have black, white, and colored friends, and we can joke about race. (One thing I can't get used to is saying "colored"; I kind of hold my breath when I say it. ) While we can joke about race, we also have serious conversations about it. I learn more and more about apartheid and it's legacy everyday.

What I can also say is that I think that it's a shame on our part and amazing on their part that it seems to me that they have come as far (in terms of current race relations) as we have in only 16 years time. What I'm saying is America has a long way to go, as does South Africa, and I think they'll get there sooner by facing the problem while we're busy pretending that it's already solved.

I could go on and on and on about the past few months, but I actually have to run to dinner.

Until next time, Cheers!