Final Presentations and Harry Potter

This whole week we have been planning and working on our final presentations which were yesterday. My group was the last to go. We worked really hard on it so I was excited to present everything. We made a movie and a slideshow of our work at Pebbles Project. We each get a copy so if anyone would like it see it when I get home just let me know! After our presentations they served us lunch which was delicious. It was a little bit everything so naturally I tried it all with the exception of the veggies. After lunch was over Dom, Erin, and I made our way to see Harry Potter!! It was a great movie; a few parts I didn't like but overall I really did enjoy it. My childhood is officially over since there will be no more books or movies :( After Harry Potter we met up with a few people at the bar/restaurant right down the street from our dorm we hung out there for a bit and then went to our supervisors a capella group's concert! They were so good. Once that was over as a group we went to Catwalk; Erin, myself, and a few others were only there for a about 20 minutes before we went home. Jimmy Mullins told me about this cool wine farm where you can play with some cheetahs so around noon time today a whole group of us are going to go do that!! Unfortunately, they're turning off the internet today so I won't be able to blog for the rest of my time here since tomorrow we're leaving for the Garden Route Tour. See everyone in a week!!! :) 

Cape Town Round Two and Day Off Number One

On Sunday morning Dom, Erin, and I took the train into Cape Town. It was a beautiful day so we were really excited! Our first stop was this cool looking castle. I cannot for the life of me remember the name but it was SO cool. I'll add the pictures to Snapfish either tonight or tomorrow. The castle was really old and had a torture chamber and all these other creepy rooms and passage ways. The view from the top was amazing! After walking around the castle for about an hour we made our way to Long Street but of course got distracted by the markets that were just opening up. I bought a really cool satchel and some decorative items for my room at school. By this time we were starving so we wanted to find a place for lunch. Erin's friend from back home recommended this restaurant called Mamma Africa but since life shuts down on Sundays it was closed. We did however find another great spot. I don't think I have ever consumed that much food in my life. After eating so much we were all just exhausted and wanted to head back to Stellenbosch but unfortunately for us we had just missed the train and had to wait two hours for the next one. We tried laying in the grass but got yelled at ..twice. When it was finally time to go we found some of our friends on the train. The train ride went a lot faster with more people on there to talk to. On the way to and from Cape Town we passed a whole bunch of zebras!! It was so cool. Zebras and baboons within the past two days?! AWESOME! It got me that much more excited for the Garden Route. After laying in bed for a few hours some of my friends and I went to Bohemia which is a bar right down the street from my dorm. It was a lot of fun to just sit and hang out in a non-classroom setting. This morning since class is over and done with I would have normally slept in but since we have our final presentation on Wednesday I was up nice and early to work on that. That and finishing up my final portfolio took up my entire day. I relaxed a bit and then went out to dinner at a place called Cognito. One of the South African guys from option one works there so we went to visit him. It was awesome food but by far the most expensive meal I've had here thus far. It was 140 rand which is equivalent to $20. That might not seem very expensive for a dinner but here it was. Tomorrow is another day that we have to work on presentations or sleep in. I was hoping to sleep in but me being the overachiever that I am is waking up at 8am so I can get my haircut ... bad move on my part. Hopefully, Thursday I'll be able to sleep in! Still counting down the hours until Harry Potter :) 

Last day of class and Ceres, South Africa

So Thursday was the closing function. I was probably there for an hour, maybe a little less because one of my friends didn't feel well so we decided to come back. That was fine by me because I was exhausted! Friday morning we didn't have class so four of us went out to breakfast, there I had the BEST chocolate shake of my life. Afterwards, Erin, Kristin, and I went shopping where I may or may not have spent a little too much money (sorry mom). We went to this really cool butcher shop and bought some really really tasty kudu biltong! The meat here is ten times better than back home. Then we had to make our way back so we wouldn't be late for class, even though I wouldn't have minded .. Almost everyday Grant had us do some ridiculous check in activity which was mostly drawing (not my strong suit ..) or write something down; he would then hang them up on the wall. Well, we spent about an hour taking them down and gluing them into this book he made us, which he then took back but I'm assuming he's going to give them back to us but then again it's Grant and he can be weird at times. After class Dom Erin and I started the journey to her house! Once we got there we hung out with her family and all her animals!! Her house was AWESOME! I loved it. Her parents made us nice homecooked meal; it was nice to not eat out for a change! It was a very relaxing night. I went to bed probably around 10:30! I was exhausted after this week. Today, we woke up around 9:45 and just layed around and watched Despicable Me. We also walked around her town for a bit where I saw SNOW in AFRICA!! It was cool. Her dad kept talking about this cool meat so naturally I bought some. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I have no idea how to spell or pronounce the name of it or else I would write it. We were supposed to go horseback riding but the lady was a total flake and bailed on us. Not cool. We got back to Stellenbosch around 8:30 and our dorm is EMPTY! Everyone went to Cape Town for the night so it's really quiet .. kind of scary actually. Tomorrow morning we're going to wake up around 7 and take the train to Cape Town for the day. I'm really excited! We have our whole week planned out so it's going to be fun :) Harry Potter tickets have been bought and guess what! They were only $3.15!! Back in the States they would be like $10! I can't wait :) 

Opposite Spectrums

The week before I came to South Africa I babysat for an extremely wealthy family that lived downtown. I had to wake up at the crack of dawn (literally..) so the mother could go work out and shop; I kid you not. She made sure I prepared a healthy breakfast and lunch for her daughter and had the entire day scheduled out. The little girl was just great but all I kept thinking was how awful it was for her not to be able to spend time with her parents. Now here I am in Africa working with a community that is deeply immersed in poverty. These kids were often not bathed and had worn the same clothes 3 or 4 days in a row; some were clearly underfed as well. These were two different worlds and I am a different, hopefully better, person because of my experiences in both situations. While babysitting for the family in Chicago I would constantly dread getting up in the morning to head over there even though I was getting paid but here working with these kids I was not getting a monetary form of payment yet I wanted to be there. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with these kids. I was not getting paid to be with them but I received something even better-- hope. I saw what it was like to have virtually nothing but to still be happy. These kids would wait outside for us everyday to drive us in our bus and when they saw us they all got the biggest smiles on their faces. I learned so much more in those seven days that I could have ever learned in a classroom. Our last day with the kids was yesterday. It was a really sad and heartbreaking experience. All throughout the week there was a boy named Jandre there. He was a quiet but extremely talented and intelligent 12 year old. I usually worked with the older kids so I was with him quite a bit and on the last day we were making friendship bracelets and he asked me to be his girlfriend. I said no but preceded to make him three more bracelets, I will never forget the big smile he had on his face or the huge hug he gave me as we were saying our goodbyes. There was also another girl Fiona who spoke impeccable English. She was there everyday translating for us when Jeanine was otherwise preoccupied. Fiona hugged me crying and said I will never forget you guys, please don't forget about us. I don't think she understood the impact she had on each and every one of us. I have high hopes for her. It's little things like that that make this trip worthwhile. 
Ok now on to other things! Today, we got out of class at 11:30! Erin and I went and had lunch and did a little shopping. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon. At four we had our final checkout because Option One students leave tomorrow for the Garden Route and we won't see them again. In a little bit is our closing function. I'm excited for that because it's a good way to say good bye to everyone. Tomorrow is my last day of class, we have to be there at 3 so I get to have a nice little sleep in! We have to turn in our final paper and then have our last and final check-out. After class Erin, Dom, and myself are going to Dom's house which is about two hours away! I'm really excited because she said she lives with a bunch of different animals!! We'll be there for the night and then on Sunday a whole group of us are going to Cape Town for the night! I'm really excited for that because I feel as if we didn't see much of Cape Town when we went those times. Then that brings me to my last week here! Monday and Tuesday are days that we have to work on our final presentations which we give on Wednesday! I'm SUPER excited for Wednesday because HARRY POTTER COMES OUT TWO DAYS EARLIER HERE! Best news I have ever received in my life.. okay not really but it may be top five. My time here is going by really fast so I need to make the most of my last two weeks! 


Opps! I forgot to talk about the awesome meal I had yesterday. About 7 of us went to this woman's apartment where her and one other woman made us the BEST meal I've had here. I don't even know what it all was but I loved every bit of it .. even the spinach! We were there for about three and a half hours just talking about the most random topics. It was a great time and I really enjoyed the food :) 


See everyone soon :)

End of last week & Swellendam

Sorry for not updating in a while; hanging out with these kids wear me out! Wednesday was another great day! We went to Durban where the kids were able to decorate elephants, have a picnic lunch on the beach, and got henna tattooed on them! They all seemed to really get into all of the make believe aspects of that day. Thursday was another good day with the kids! We went to three places, Johannesburg Pretoria, and Kimberley Hole, seeing as how Johannesburg and Pretoria are very similar we spent the majority of our time at Kimberley Hole. Here the kids were able to pretend to find diamonds which were actually candy wrapped in tin foil. They loved it, especially the candy part. Thursday night a group of us went to dinner at Apprentice. It's where culinary students come and practice cooking. I ordered the spiced chicken; it was delicious! The portions were a bit small for the price but it was very good! I even tried zucchini and I liked it! After dinner we went to Cubana for drinks. They had all of these fruity cocktails that were so goood! We're going back tonight :) Friday was another day with the kids. We went to Krueger National Park which was VERY hectic. We made binoculars and tie-dyed shirts, socks, and pillowcases. I don't know if the kids were happy about tie-dying or that it was Friday but they were extremely hyper and one was actually hungover. The hungover boy was not a happy camper to say the least. He swore at me quite a few times in Afrikaans and then once in English so I knew what he was saying. After we had "class" with Grant which is actually more like a group therapy session we left for Swellendam! Right when we got there we tried to find a cabin but unfortunately the cabin that was supposed to be our was locked and by that time every other cabin was filled so my friends and I had to split up. At first in my cabin it was myself, Erin, Dom, Bri, Mackenzie, and GEORGE THE BUS DRIVER. Thankfully, they realized how inappropriate it would have been to have a 40 something year old man staying in the next room over. After George moved out Morgan, Lindsey, Carrie Ann, and Lance moved in! It was definitely a fun cabin. The first night we all just hung out by the bon fire drinking and roashing marshmellows. Saturday we woke up bright and early and went zip-lining! Only seven of us did it but it would so much fun!! We went off this big mountain hill thing right into the water. It was about 40 degrees and raining so the water was even colder! I was freezing once I got out of the water but they had a fire going on the boat so we all warmed up there. Once we got back we had lunch, drank a few beers, and went on a hike. Swellendam is gorgeous!! I posted some pictures on Facebook but I will upload the rest on Snapfish either today or tomorrow. Where we stayed also had a bunch of cows we went and played with them! It was awesome. Saturday night I wasn't feeling too well so I ate dinner and then went back to my cabin and read my book for a bit. Sunday morning we woke up and took a 45 minute bus ride to these natural hot springs. We all put on our bathing suits and hopped right in! Then we went on another hike .. it was rough. Then we got back on the bus and headed back to Stellenbosch! It was a successful and relaxing weekend :) Today, all of option two gets off so this morning my small group for the essay worked together and got our section done! In a little bit we have to meet again as a whole to put the whole paper together and then it's time to celebrate the 4th of July!!! I really wish I could be at the lake hanging out with everyone but this will just have to do! We're going to have a bbq and pretend like we're back in the United States for the day. It'll be interesting to say the least. I'll post pictures soon! Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday!! 

First Two Days of Working with the Children

Monday was our first actual day with the kids, there were only about 11 of them there when we were supposed to get around 50! I think the youngest was about 5 and the oldest 12. They were so much fun and seemed to really enjoy themselves! We played a few games with them and then  did a few craft activities. Some understand and speak English very well and others not so much but that doesn't seem to matter to them. Today was even better.We got a few more kids to come, the oldest being 14! They learned all about Cape Town and did a few crafts that involved Table Mountain. One thing that I have learned is that these kids love to dance and listen to Justin Bieber. They know every single word!! I'm really excited to see what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully, we get even more kids to show up. The other group has over 200 kids and they all speak a way different language than Afrikaans but thankfully of them they get interpreters which I'm sure helps a lot. This week is going by so fast; this whole trip is actually! Three weeks from tomorrow I leave to start my journey back home. This trip has definitely been an experience for my stomach -- so many strange and interesting foods. Tonight three of us went to Simply Asia and I got a type of Thai Curry. It wasn't awful but definitely not the best thing I've ever eaten. After dinner we went to McDonald's and got the BEST McFlurries. I don't even know what it was called but I will definitely be returning sometime soon to get another one. Hopefully tomorrow and the rest of the week goes well and the kids continue having fun! Here's the link to see some pictures from this past weekend at Table Mountain. Enjoy! 

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/fe/l=en_US/p/dasta/Main/AlbumID=3853573026/a=5151520026_5151520026/s_c=0/s_ru=FALSE/s_se=FDR#ss=%7B%22uc%22%3A1%7D

Hell Week

This past week just FLEW by! I dubbed it Hell Week seeing as we had so much homework to do. It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would thanks to my group coming together and working as a team to get everything done. Friday, we met with the organization again to go over our activities proposal with them and they loved it! That was a huge load off of our shoulders. Grant was feeling especially nice and let us out at 3 instead of 5 so a few of us went to the little market they have in town. I may have spent a little more than I had originally planned but everything was so cool! I even learned how to barter and wasn't as bad as I thought I would be. Afterwards, we went to the Braai (Braii?) I forget how to spell it but once again I had ostrich! It's so good!! Then onto the bars to celebrate Hell Week being officially over. Now that was A LOT of fun, maybe too much fun. I celebrated a little too hard and waking up at 8am to take a bus to Cape Town was not ideal. Once we got to Cape Town we went straight up to Table Mountain which is absolutely breathtaking. I will post the pictures on Snapfish after my meeting tonight. Then after that we got to walk around Cape Town. A few of us went to the Aquarium which was so cool! One minute we were petting starfish and then we turn around and there were penguins right behind us!! It was so cool to see that. Then it was time to get back on the bus and make our way back to Stellenbosch. A few of us went out to this seafood place, I was pretty darn nervous to say the least. I've been trying to expand my horizons as much as possible so I decided to try Hake which is some type of fish. It was wonderful! I was really excited and ate almost all of it. After dinner I was a cool kid and stayed in to read my book and relax. I slept in today until about 230ish -- definition of a lazy bum. Well I gotta go to my meeting so I will try to post tomorrow after my first day with the kids! Wish me luck :) 

Pebbles Project

Hello! So I'm going to write a quick post now before I have to continue with all my homework. Last night I went to bed around 2 last night and waking up around 7:30 today so needless to say I'm exhausted especially since we had a FULL day. This morning the group I'm in (Pebbles) went to the organization to meet the coordinators. The group of nine will be looking over 47 children and have to make a plan that has 5 days. Our theme for the week is different cities and landmarks around South Africa. After doing a little planning we got to meet some of the kids. They're so cute! Unfortunately, due to a privacy clause we had to sign I cannot post any pictures on here, Facebook, or Snapfish. The children speak very little or no English but surprisingly there wasn't really a language barrier. The kids just wanted someone to hang with and show us what they were doing. After a quick tour of the facilities we went to this woman Rebecca's house where we ate lunch. She lived in one of the townships and spoke some English. She made us a traditional African Curry. I was extremely nervous because we all know that I am a picky eater. When she gave us our plates my worst fears were confirmed: it was mainly veggies and rice with a few chunks of meat. I didn't want to be rude so I attempted to eat as much as could. Everyone else loved it by the way. As we were saying our goodbyes Rebbeca started to cry because she was so happy that she had Americans come and eat in her house.It was very touching. During lunch other men and women from the township kept coming into the house to say hi and to look at us. It was a very different and humbling experience. After this we had to go back to class for another 4 or so hours which was awful. Now I'm sitting in my room doing everything but my homework.... yikes I better start that now! 

Add on to my other post

Today in class for our check in activity we had to draw our golden childhood memory and I drew, very badly I might add, a summer day at Lily Lake with the family. I'm upset that I'll miss the family reunion up there! Also, I finally finished my first paper and now I'm making my organization profile and the organization that I'll be with works with children who have fetal alcohol syndrome due to wine farmers paying their workers with alcohol in the past. Crazy crazy stuff! When I go tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to take pictures of the farm and I'll post them on Snapfish when I get the chance! :) 

First Day of LSCE

Hello :) So I've decided to write to distract myself from doing the massive amounts of homework I have to do tonight. Probably not the best idea but hey I'm really good at procrastinating! Today was the first day for my Learning Through Sustainable Community Engagement class. It last EIGHT hours with a few short breaks here and there. Surprisingly it went by fast and was very interesting. We're learning about community development and how this will help us with our volunteering next week. Grant, our teacher still really intimidates me. He's very punctual and wants us early for everything which is slightly hard for me but I'm trying! I'm exhausted after this long day but I have an even longer night ahead of me. :( I'm currently writing my paper for my class that was last week and after that I have to do two or three more things for my LCSE class. It will be worth it in the end just because it will help me with my Social Work degree but that doesn't mean I can't complain just a little bit.. Tomorrow we're going to meet with the organizations that we will be working with and they're making us lunch! I hope it's something tasty because the dinner I had was not good. I went and got Chinese and I never knew you had to ask for no vegetables because Danny usually orders when we get Chinese so I ate around the veggies and ate the chicken. Next time I'm going to ask for a fork and no veggies! It was another nice day here which I was happy about because it was pouring yesterday. Alrighty, I guess I should finally finish all my homework! 

First Week

Hello everyone! Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, it's been a pretty hectic first week. So here's what been happening since Tuesday: after Robben Island we all went to Brazen for the pub quiz, my team failed miserably even with the help from Aunt Molly. At this quiz you can win free bar tabs which includes food so I REALLY wanted to win but the South Africans know all these weird facts like who won the Canadian Grand Prix and such so we got killed. After the quiz we all hung around there for a bit and then as a group went to a few of the other bars or as they call them here the pubs. Wednesday, we all woke up and made it to class which was pretty boring. Around lunchtime is when I realized that my debit card was missing so I freaked. I ran back to my room and looked for it everywhere then checked online to make sure no one had used it; thankfully no one had. After searching ALL day I decided that it was gone and cancelled it. Two hours later I find it right outside my door in the hallway. Needless to say I was angry. So for the past few days I've been living off my American Express Card which is widely used here so I got lucky. My new debit card should be here in a few days (thanks mom). I'm just going to skip to Friday because nothing else fun happened Wednesday or Thursday. Friday option one and two all had class together up until 1:00 and then we had a lunch break but then at 1:30 option two students had our orientation for volunteering!! I was really excited to find out where and what we would actually be doing. The teacher, Grant is extremely intimidating and slightly scary. He split us up into groups, mine has nine people in it and will be volunteering somewhere called Pebbles. He didn't give us any information about it so hopefully it'll be nice. I am kinda mad though because we'll only be with the kids for 7 days and I was under the impression that we would be with them for longer but I'll take what I can get. Here we also received our course syllabus and all of our homework. This week alone I have a 4-8 page paper due, a few journal submissions, a 30 minute presentation, and two tests. I will be locked in my room all week not having a life, YAY! After that we had a Braii, which is like a BBQ. We had to bring our own meat and drinks, I brought ostrich and Black Label which is the cheap beer here. Ostrich was surprisingly very good! I was soo nervous but I'm glad I tried it. After that we went out to Catwalk which was like a techno club, so I  sat outside with a few friends who weren't into that either. Saturday was by far my favorite day! We went to Cape Point and Boulders Beach which were absolutely gorgeous. First we went to Cape Point, which is the southern most point of Africa!! It was stunning, words or pictures cannot even describe. It was quite the hike up there but it was totally worth it. Before we got there the grad assistant kept warning us about how bad the baboons are and how they love food so I was super excited to see some giant baboons but unfortunately the only ones we saw were when we on the bus and they were playing in the street. We did get to see a lot of lizards and dassies who's closet relative is the elephant even though they're tiny, furry animals! After Cape Point we went to Boulders Beach where the penguins live!! It was amazing, they're just right there in front of you! A few were just feet away, I fell in love. After about two hours there we were walking back to the bus and a few people stopped at the little stands where you can buy some really cool things and can barter the prices! We finally made it back to Stellenbosch and I decided to take a quick nap before dinner .. well that nap turned into me sleeping until 12:30 - 1:00 am so dinner was out of the question. We had a free day today so eight of us girls decided to go on a wine tasting. We went to five vineyards and paid 350 rand which is about $50! It was a lot of fun and really interesting. The vineyards were beautiful! At one you would look out the giant windows you would see the mountains and all the vineyards. When we were driving to each vineyard   I would look out the windows and see these gorgeous houses and vineyards and then see a few shacks, which were very depressing and sad. The gaps between the classes here just blow my mind. According to one of my teachers the black middle class is growing but it still just boggles my mind the way some of these people live. It makes me feel very fortunate. Tonight, we're going out to dinner with everyone so that should be fun!! I uploaded some pictures to Facebook and I am in the process of uploading the rest of Snapfish so everyone who doesn't have a Facebook can see them! Here's the link to my pictures: http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3853573026/a=5151520026_5151520026/


Enjoy!

Cape Town/Robben Island

Hi! So today we traveled to Cape Town to visit Robben Island were Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for 27 years I think? I don't remember the exact number of years but I'm sure it's around there somewhere. It was really cool because one of our tour guides was actually a prisoner there at one point during the apartheid. He had a really amazing story, from what I remember he was in charge of the weapons that the blacks would use because they used guerrilla warfare tactics. The police found out about him and arrested and tortured him until he told where the weapons were.  He didn't seem to care at all when he was telling us this story, I came to conclusion that he was proud of what he did for his country and he should be; not many people could handle what this man went through. One of the cool things we saw while on this tour was Nelson Mandela's cell. It was extremely small and didn't even have a bed! Where we were at in Cape Town was gorgeous. I took a lot of pictures but they don't do it justice. It is simply breathtaking. Later on in the trip we get to go to Table Mountain which overlooks the coast and I heard it is beautiful so I am very excited for that. A few things that I've learned in my short time here are:

1. South Africa is beautiful

2. Rugby if life; it brought white and black people together post-apartheid

3. We are extremely blessed to live in the United States

4. Accents are the coolest thing ever 

5. Speed limits tend not to exist here

6. "Colored" is an acceptable term to call someone who is dark skinned

7. Nelson Mandela's first name is not actually Nelson

8. 70% of  the country lives in tiny tin shacks 

9. Stores close at 18 (6 pm)

10. All the cars are TINY

I've also learned other things that I can't remember right now but the thing that has affected me the most so far are the townships that the majority of the country lives in. The government said that they would either build and enclose ONE bathroom for every FIVE houses or they would give each house their own bathroom but they would have to enclose it themselves. Naturally, the public chose to each have their own bathroom but not everyone was able to afford to enclose it. I don't understand what type of government could allow this? This country has extremely high taxes but it doesn't seem to do the people any good. It just boggles my mind and it makes me feel extremely blessed to live in the United States, recession or not. Someone out there has it much worse than we do in the States and I don't think many people realize that. I hope by me being here and volunteering with the children I will be able to make a difference in at least one of their lives. 

First and Second Day!

Hello from South Africa! I made it here yesterday morning, which was surprising given my luck earlier. Yesterday I got here and right away met my roommate Jillian, we get along really well (we both love Harry Potter..). A bunch of the girls walked to the mall where I was able to buy a cell phone to use here, it's pretty old school. Then we had orientation which is when my jet lag began kicking in and I preceded to fall asleep during those sessions..whoops. I was supposed to attend the opening ceremony thingy but I fell asleep and didn't wake up soo I hope I didn't miss anything too important. I set my alarm for around 8 this morning and slept right through that and almost missed laptop registration so for tomorrow I set three different alarms to make sure I am awake on time! Today was also the first day of class, it's interesting but having class for three hours straight it very hard especially since I was exhausted! Tomorrow we're going on a field trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner along with many other political radicals so it should be very interesting. After class got out Jillian and I went back to the mall to buy other things that we were going to need and I needed cheap black flip flops that I could wear in the communal showers ..well the man tried to charge me R249 which roughly translates into $35, I think he was trying to rip me off because I'm American. Needless to say I did not buy them. An interesting thing that I learned today was that here they close all shops down at 6pm! So strange. The coolest thing about my room is when I look out my window I see the giant mountain. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures on here, if not I will upload them to a photo site. For those who don't know I have a skype number (708) 505-9096 and that is free for anyone in the United States to call if I don't answer it means my internet is disconnected because for some weird reason you pay as you go for the internet so I don't want to rack up a huge bill and have my parents kill me at the end of this. Well, that's it for now!

Flight from hell

 Let me tell you this has not been an easy journey so far but it can only go up from here! So who's ready to hear all about my wonderful time at O'Hare airport?! First, my flight on Thursday gets cancelled which was not cool but my parents rebooked me for the very next day and I got to hang with Danny and go see Bridesmaids (which by the way is hilarious). So Friday my mom and I head to O'Hare and that is when everything went downhill. According to Continental I was not booked on the 2:00 flight to Newark, even though I had a reservation and seat number. They kept insisting that I was not on that flight and in fact they had no reservation for me at all that day! Well if you can imagine I was less than thrilled and they received a few less than kind words from myself. Which they deserved because they were not too kind themselves; I was on hold for about 50 minutes so when they finally got me back on the phone I put them on hold to show them what it was like. All they say they can do is put me on the standby list and of course I don't make it so at 2:15 I head over to be put on the standby list for the next flight at 3 and the woman looks at me and said, "Mam you were supposed to be on the 2:00 flight." That was when I burst into tear of anger and frustration. I knew I was right because let's face it I usually am ;) So these very nice women put me on the next flight to Newark, New Jersey and I safety made it there. Once I get there I had to check in and I had booked aisle seats the entire time because who really wants to sit in the middle or next to the window on a 7 hour flight!? Well Continental must hate me now because they put me in the middle .. so I politely asked to be put back in my original seat  and they told me they had given it away. What little patience I actually possess was long gone and I not so nicely asked for a window seat. I am now in London and decided not to leave the airport because with my luck so far I'll get shot or mugged. So if you see this and want to entertain me because I am bored out of my mind let me know and I can call you or we can skype! Hope you all enjoyed my little rant and hopefully my next post will be all good things about South Africa!

Hello all! I've decided to keep a blog/journal well I'm abroad. For those who don't know I will be in South Africa for 6 weeks for a service learning trip. I will be studying and also volunteering with poverty stricken children. I leave today around 4 (well hopefully, dang weather) and will get to Cape Town June 11th. The internet usage in limited there, or so I've been told so I will try to get on Facebook and on my e-mail as much as possible seeing as how that and skype are my only ways to stay in contact with everyone! If you get a call from an Unknown number it's me and you should answer! Well I'll post again once I actually get to the University. See everyone in 6 weeks! :)