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

Here and There

Before I get into things... Happy birthday, Ross! Hopefully by later tonight I will have posted something lovely on your Facebook wall, which will explain all of my feelings in greater depth. But I think we should all enjoy getting older! Because that means we're normal. Getting younger should be reserved for Benjamin Button. Otherwise, the ageing process is a good sign.

Okay, so I've been doing the school thing for about six weeks now. I'm a week away from my short vacation, during which I will be in Tanzania. I'll probably spend the ten days telling everyone there about my time here, but I've come to understand that I'll be answering questions the rest of my life, so I might as well get used to it now.

Right. School.

So, as I said briefly last time, I'm doing courses in religion, history, philosophy, and media. I'm trying to fullly enjoy the fact that I'm not taking any math or science or anything like that. I like all of my courses. I like discussing things, and thinking about things, and writing about things. The thinking and writing I'm realizing (or "realising", I should say... Still getting used to being this British) are going to be thoroughly poured on top of me for this degree, so I probably won't think of them quite as fondly in a little while. But I'll try to remind myself that I liked that at some point.

My goal is to do well in school. Seems silly, but hear me out. Degrees in the Humanities get trashed a little bit amongst UCT students, except of course by the Humanities students. A Bachelor of Arts or Social Sciences is easier than a degree in Engineering, I'll be the first to admit. To pass in a BA program isn't too difficult. It will teach you to think critically and to put your thoughts into words, but it won't require all of your intellectual stamina to be on call. At least, not in my opinion. However, to do better than a pass, to do well, to excel, that's a little trickier. So, that's what I'm aiming for. A 52% is not going to be good enough. I'll let you know how that plays out. So far, I've had a huge range of marks from the little assignments I've handed in, and the future will tell how much work I'm going to need to put into this.

I've become a part of Church-on-Main. If you're concerned for my theological soundness or anything, their website is http://churchonmain.org.za/, check it out :). I've been adopted into the community, and I've actually been quite inspired in my travels at how the Church is seeking the same God. I feel like I haven't missed a beat in my walk with God, despite having jumped across the ocean. Cool stuff.

So I'm finding my rhythm. I'm starting to actually recognise people on campus, which is exciting. It's still a little weird. I feel like any day I'm going to go back to normal life, and this will have just been an interesting break. But I don't think that's the case. The adventure just won't stop. It gives me great joy, laughing in the face of the exchange students who will be returning home in a few weeks. Sucks to be them.

Granted, I do miss Canadian things. Actually, I'll give you a list of things I miss/missed about home:

SNOW, Tim Horton's, perogies, sour cream, BAGELS, pasta sauce, Kraft Dinner, a variety of McFlurry flavours, Dairy Queen, Canadian political references, country music, being able to walk around at night by myself and be safe, beavertails, POUTINE, good and not really expensive cheese!, mandarin oranges, frozen pizza, GOOD SUGARY CEREALS, the first sweet inhale of spring, unlimited bandwidth, free WiFi at random public places, Mr Clean, George Stroumboulopoulos, and A&W. Oh, and some of you people.

So Here's the Deal 2.0

I'm leaving in a week. Didn't see that one coming, did ya?

Really, though. One week from today, I'll be on a plane on my way to Heathrow. So, I thought it was time to give a bit of a practical update to everyone who cares. Here's what's going on in my life for the next little while...

I'm working and frantically packing and wrapping presents and tying up loose ends here in Calgary for the next week. Seeing everyone I need to see, buying stuff I need to buy, throwing out stuff I need to get rid of... Sleeping might take a back seat in the priority bus. Story of my life.

Then, on Wednesday, December 21st, at 20:55, I should be flying off in a 9-ish hour flight to London Heathrow. I have a six hour layover, and then another 9-ish hour flight to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where my parents are residing. By the time I get there it'll be about 7:30am their time on the 23rd of December. Just in time for my Mom's birthday. Considering I'm not usually able to sleep on planes, I'm planning on reading through at least one book, finishing whatever I'm knitting, and really, really messing up my body's schedule. (For all of you attending the IB reunion party thing, it'll be about 11:30pm when my plane lands... So if try really hard I can probably be on Skype with you within an hour and some of that. HOPEFULLY the flights will all be on schedule. Cross your fingers.)

And then I'll be in Tanzania. Living it up. Not climbing Kilimanjaro, sorry to disappoint.

Now, after that is still quite the situation. I still have this conditional acceptance to Cape Town. I think I've fulfilled most of the conditions. A letter was mailed to me almost a month ago, and I haven't received it yet. So it's hard to say what's going on, really. I've reached the point now that I'm just going to dive head-first into this thing, and see what happens. UCT wants me as a student. They're just bad at making that happen. So I figure if I keep emailing them and sending them random documents they'll eventually just let me in for sheer determination. That's my plan. I won't even tell you what the back-up plan is. I don't care what the back-up plan is. Sometimes you just have to think about Plan A.
I don't know if God wants me in Cape Town. But He hasn't let me know that that's where He doesn't want me, and since that's where I want to be, that's where I'm heading. I hope that if He ever does direct me elsewhere that I'll have the humility to go that direction and give up on what I think would be sweet. We'll cross that bridge and clear that hurdle and brave that storm if and when it comes.

In the meantime, I have stuff to do. And by stuff I mean lots of stuff. Getting to Tanzania means several things to me. Firstly, I get to see my family. Awesome. Secondly, I'll be in Africa. Awesome again. Thirdly, it'll be Christmas. Awesome to the max. Fourthly, I won't have to go to work or any such place. Oh, sweet relief. Fifthly, it'll be the end of this phase and the beginning of a new one, and it's always an adventure when that's the case.

Anyways, more reflections will come later. That's enough for now. That's your summary of my life for the near future. Hope you're having a wonderful Christmastime. Jesus always has the best birthday parties.

Back to Not School

This is the first time in, oh, 13 years or so, that I'm not in school at this point in the year. It's weird. Normally this would be a thrilling, busy, new time in my yearly cycle. Well, right now, I could call my life mildly thrilling, yes; busy, NO; and new, yes. The whole feeling of being on a new adventure hasn't quite left me yet, thankfully. But my daily schedule is so uneventful... I've read three books and watched six movies in the last week and a half. Seriously. But now I can add the movie Good Will Hunting to the (miniscule) list of movies that have made me cry. Possibly because it was 1am and I was over-tired. But who knows.

Bottom line is, I really need to get a job. But I'm getting more creative with my job searching, and possibly a little more desperate :) We'll see what turns up. It's funny, since I don't feel that anxious about actually getting a job. I more just feel that I'm wasting everyone else's time, the longer I go without one. Like I'm wasting my basement room, I'm wasting everyone's confidence in me to be productive. I don't know. It's actually only been 9 days or something, so I don't plan on losing faith too quickly.

However, in other news, I found a really sweet church today. Well, yesterday technically, since it's Monday now. It's called Abundant Life Church (from the verse John 10:10), it's within walking distance of my house, and I went into the service not knowing anyone, and came out knowing a dozen people's names. I also thought I was late coming into the service, but they started 15 minutes after their service officially starts. I like all churches that don't take punctuality too seriously. And I got invited out for Lebanese food for lunch. If that's not a winning church, I really don't know what is. I declined the invitation this time, but if you know me at all, you know that I will hold them to that invitation until it is fulfilled.
I think finding some friends in this city will be good for me. Friends that can hold me accountable and maybe keep me company while I watch movies. Sigh. I've forgotten what one does with friends.

Well, that had potential to be a positive paragraph and turned into a sad commentary on my life. Ha.
I feel as though I should go to bed soon. One of these days I'm going to have something to do in the morning, but by then I'll be so used to my staying up 'til 3, waking up at 3 schedule, I won't even know when the morning is. Okay, my schedule's not that extreme. But I reckon it could be problematic.

Thanks for reading. Oh, I forgot to mention that I found an HMV that was going out of business the other day, so I did get to purchase four CDs for $30. Jamie Cullum's 'The Pursuit' is so good. Just FYI.