Mullet Madness...

So it’s been awhile since I updated my blog. Don’t worry though; the length of this blog post won’t reflect the amount of time that has lapsed since my last novella. Of course A LOT has happened in the last two weeks, classes started, I went to my first rugby match, I met MORE Norwegians, and I was selected to be on the ISOS committee! I would love to blog everyday because everyday is packed full of weird, crazy, or interesting experiences that, I feel, are worth sharing. But I will save whoever is reading this the feelings of guilt that would surely come from not being able to keep up with the would be incessant blogging.

It is currently Friday and I am now two weeks into classes. I love all my classes! I am taking South African Politics, Political Risk Analysis, and Comparative Political Economy. I know they don’t sound as fun as the Wine Tasting class or even the isiXhosa language class that I really wanted to take but they are interesting to me. Tonight I am staying in to write a paper for next week so I can go hiking aallll day tomorrow! The International Student Organization of Stellenbosch (ISOS) plans activities for the international students and tomorrow is a 17km hike that has waterfall breaks! I have had a hankering for a hike so I am pretty excited to finally go hiking in South Africa!

Around day 4 of my being here I decided I wanted a longboard. I actually decided before coming here that I would try and relive the glory days of Hawaii when I would just cruise around on my skateboard by getting a longboard for transportation. The problem with a skateboard is that the wheels are too small so if I hit the smallest of rocks it would throw me off and suddenly I would find myself sprawled out on the ground with fresh patches of road rash on my knees and elbows. The longboard is soooo much better! I can hang tight while running over a soda can or a coconut! The only problem is that it is so crowded here and I am still trying to get reacquainted with skating so I am a little shy about riding in front of people. I decided that I am going to have to get over this because I just dropped a decent amount of cash money on my awesome new board so I HAVE to ride it. Well, the guy who sold me the board told me about this group called, Longboard Stellenbosch, and that they meet every Tuesday night for skating. So Tuesday came and almost an hour of internal debate I basically forced myself out the door and down the road to the “spot.” The spot was a local grocery store parking lot and I was the first to arrive. I was overcome with anxiety and I was certain I was going to fall and make a fool of myself. Luckily, the group of guys was extremely nice and soon enough the anxiety was gone; I took my shoes off, and started to skate. According to these South African sk8ter boyz it’s really “kiff” for a girl to try skating even if she holds a below amateur status. A week later I was riding my longboard to my first ISOS committee meeting and came up to the four-way stop (people only stop if something is in their way, if you’re lucky) and I hopped off my board to cross the street. As I hopped off I kicked my board and it rolled right into the traffic. Everything was suddenly in slow motion as I watched my new longboard roll through the first set of cars. Someone slammed to a stop and just barely missed my board and it just kept going! It made it to the next set of cars and by that time I had almost caught up to it. I wasn’t even aware that I was running after it as if it were a runaway stroller! That’s when it happened. A mini truck filled with at least 10 people ran over my beautiful new board. I let out a screech as I watched it happen. I looked for it to come out in shards of wood and a wheel or two to bounce out of sight. Nothing. The mini truck stopped and I ran over to it. The driver got out and asked me what he had hit! Apparently he thought he had run over a puppy! I was too busy looking under his truck for my board to pay any attention to his inability to differentiate between a puppy and a longboard. Because the truck was filled with probably 8 more people than it was ever intended to hold it was riding so low that my board got stuck under a pipe! That jam packed little truck saved my board from turning into sawdust! I hugged my board and told the gentlemen that I was sorry for the inconvenience. The driver pointed to me and said, “Look at all the people back there!” and then hopped back in his truck to continue on to wherever he was taking all those people. My board survived with just some minor scratches and I am much more careful about dismounting now. Wow, I really did not mean for that story to be so long!

The most exciting thing that has happened in the last two weeks is getting a volunteer position with a local NGO, RUDNET. I went to the interview on Monday to get more information on their projects and the more the director said the more excited I got. The organization focuses on human rights issues and the primary beneficiaries of their initiatives are farm workers. I should be starting next week and I can’t wait to get started!

Everyday I meet more incredibly interesting people from everywhere and I love it. I am taking mainstream classes so I get a chance to mingle with local South Africans. They are quite an amiable group and I hope to make friends out of some of them. I have also been conducting interviews with some students for some personal and work-related research. Conducting these interviews have been some of the most rewarding experiences since I arrived here in Stellenbosch. I love learning about other people’s thoughts and ideas.

Well, I made an effort to make this a short and sweet blog post but alas I am just long-winded and enjoy sharing my experiences too much! I will end it now before I remember something else to share! I absolutely love and miss my family and friends! I hope everyone is staying safe in their igloos while I enjoy the 90 degree weather muahahaha!