The Year in Review

I'm on the verge of being in denial that my first year at the University of Cape Town is over. I often struggle with feeling of time passing, and I wonder how I flew through a season of my life so quickly.

I arrived on the 31st of January - terrified, excited, overwhelmed, confused. Little did I know... That phrase has never been so accurate. And now, on the 20th of November, I'm making the trek back to my homeland, which I've been calling 'home', but I've also talked about flying 'home' to Cape Town in January, so the term has become a bit ambiguous.

Instead of just blabbing for too many paragraphs about my feelings, I'm going to break down the year for y'all into a list of accomplishments and things I've learned. Some of them will be more impressive to you than other things, but due to the diversity of readers of this blog, I'm going to say that you won't all be impressed by the same things J.

Accomplishments:

-finished approximately 8 jars of peanut butter, 8 bottles of sweet chilli sauce, and waaay too many litres of milk to count

-passed all my courses, and even did well in most of them

-learned how to say "Xhosa". That's the only part of the language I know, but still.

-went up Table Mountain, to the Waterfront, ice skating, to several beaches, to Robben Island, to a rugby game, amongst other touristy things

-swam in the ridiculously cold Atlantic Ocean

-didn't get mugged or threatened or anything scary at all (mildly stalked, but hey, I did live in Mowbray)

-ate pap and gatsbys and other important South African foods

-dressed up in pyjamas, as a hippie (twice), a Jedi, and an '80s workout instructor

-read about 18 non-school-related books

-made the flatmates watch the Lord of the Rings

-got used to people driving on the wrong side of the road

-grew my hair out to longer than it was before I shaved it

-won a Talent Show and a Croquet Tournament

-made lots of friends

-developed impressively strong calf muscles from climbing many stairs - good times going to a university on a mountain

-didn't run out of money! Woo!

 

Things I've Learned:

-Canadian politics are a lot less messy than South African politics

-how to throw a rugby ball and use a cricket bat

-Americans are really obvious and can be quite annoying in large groups

-How I Met Your Mother and South Park have taught South Africans everything they know about Canada

-racism is a lot more complicated than I thought

-how to communicate more effectively with flatmates with different personalities :)

-Dutch Blitz is the best game no matter where you play it

-Cape Town is the most hipster city in the world

-everyone has a cousin in Canada

 
-IB actually did prepare me for university... weird

-more about myself than I could have ever imagined

-God is a big God who does big things

-how to keep in touch with people far away. I still suck at it, but not as much as before, I'm going to say.

-how to Sokkie

-living without internet has pros and cons, heavy on the cons

-how to ask people for lifts

-how to speak 'South African' - stay tuned for a future blog post!

-having no home and having many homes looks almost the same

-I am so blessed

-the future is a beautiful place