16.8.08

People Post

My Flat

Molly-- She goes to American university, and she's studying.....uh...I'll get back to you on that. She's started playing volleyball here, so she's not in very often. Oh, and she rarely cooks here. Other rooms usually. She has a group of other res people she hangs out with almost all the time.

Mapambapashi- I call him Mappie cuz it's a ton easier. He's originally from Zim, but now his family lives in Jo'burg. He's the middle child of four sisters and is studying engineering. The fun story about him is that he got a 102 in Control Engineering here (an A is an 80) and now he's tutoring the class. He's doing his honors year (see definitions post) and already has a job all set up for consulting within a company. He wants to travel and then marry ten wives and have twenty kids. Robyn got so mad at him over that. I will give him money if he can pull it over before age 50.

Tristan- I don't know much about him. He has a girlfriend (Robyn) and is also doing his honors year but in.....ugh......I can't recall......I'll get back to you on it. He's colored and originally from East London but now his family lives in Jo'burg. He's also going to graduate this year.

Me- I am considering changing my major to politics and just doing a lot of stuff on the side, but for now I'm taking four courses which add up to 22 credits. I definitely won't get them all on my Pomona transcript though. Sad.

Other Flats

Smiley (Sicelo)- He's also from Zim and doing his honors year. Friend of Tristan and Mappie. He's doing computer science and works on campus in one of the labs, so he's either around all the time or not at all. He has a girlfriend (Natasha) and lives three floors above us, with Megan, another CIEE student.

Sally- She's also from Pomona, and lives two floors above me and is studying....AHH....how do I not know these things??.....I know she's taking a zoology class here, but I think bio in general.....ugh, I should know this. I didn't know her before our first orientation on campus. She's very quiet and she's part of the Spring Break group. Yay group!

Claire- She goes to Washington at St. Louis but she's from Conneticut and apparently has never seen a homeless person.....it's kind of a problem when we walk places cuz she talks to them. Also a Spring Break person!

Molly's posse: Ben (Washington at St. Louis), Grant (I have no idea), Lauren (she lives next door and goes to....uh....another school), and Allen (Georgetown?) I talk to Ben cuz he's in my Anthro class, but he always sound distracted, which is kind of odd

David- Friend of Tristan, Mappie, and Smiley. Kind of odd. Likes anime. I know nothing else about him except that he pops in and out and sounds extremely British.

Other residences

Robyn- Tristan's girlfriend. They've been dating for four years. She's doing English and in her second year. She lives in her own flat off campus and also has a car. She's from East London but now her family lives in Bloemfontein.

Natasha- Dating Smiley, lives in Variety, which is a really nice res elsewhere.... She's from Sri Lanka but apparently went to school in Zim....I can't remember. I think she's doing her second year in film. I haven't seen her for a while.

Dawn- goes to Pomona, was originally Public Policy Analysis- Politics like me, but we're both reconsidering. She's in two of my classes, and is also taking an environmental science course. She lives in one of the CIEE houses down the road (Alma), and so it's hard to get back late at night. Another Spring Break person!

Alma house residents:
Ruth, Derek, Courtney, Aaron, Dawn, Ken (the SOLmate)

Evan- from Arizona State, he is very talkative and already know waay too many people here. He's in a homestay, and his family is cool. He lives down the road from the res, so pretty convenient. His parents didn't want him to come here, but it didn't matter as he's paying his own way. He reminds me of Simon from Enloe, but he's not quite so out there.

Derrick- lives at Evan's homestay but he's not related (as far as I know). He's extremely ridiculous and tells crazy stories. He was originally going to go to Jo'burg to have heart surgery but decided against it (???). He's odd, but very amusing.

CIEE people

Quinton- in charge and really awesome.

Felicity- second in charge and also awesome. She has helped me out a lot. I need to stop needing help.

This post will update frequently as I mention additional people I'm too lazy to describe.

Work-week!

Sup sup guys

It's been almost a week since my last post.
It's Saturday and I woke up at 11h30 even though I was up at 7h30 but decided to go to bed. I must put a sign above my bed that reads "YOU WILL REGRET NOT GETTING UP NOW". Because I always do. Now it's late and I still have a ton of stuff to do.

So what's new....

I got a replacement phone. I keep forgetting to take it with me when I go to class though. Weird.

I went out to Thai on Wednesday with Dawn and Sally, then on Thursday went to all you can eat pizza with a huge group of people. The place is fantastic.

I rearranged my entire room later that night instead of doing work. It was nice.

Then yesterday I woke up rather late, went to my tut, then came back and worked on my paper because the computer labs were either full or closed. Very frustrating. Then I stopped getting work done and Dawn was bored so she came over and we got Sally and made pancakes with dark chocolate. SO GOOD. Then we watched Planet Earth.
We have the most exciting Friday nights.

So I have more homework to do this week and Robben Island is Sunday. Rugby is today, but I skipped out on it b/c I have stuff to do.....like post......:( I should go do work. Later guys.

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Now playing: Lisa Stansfield - When Are You Coming Back?
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10.8.08

I've been here a month

Let's see, so what's been going on in the past week? Good question.

My classes are definitely going to kill me with work. I am definitely going to have to dip into my savings. We will probably not have to use Portuguese during our three day trip to Mozambique. In any case, I know enough Spanish that I could get by in Portuguese.
Things close really early on Sunday. But the unofficial shop vendors sell the coolest stuff. But they are very pushy and you have to be good at walking away if you really don't intend to buy the item.
Ethiopian food is FANTASTIC. So is being able to order a bottle of wine for the table. Oh how I'll miss that when I come back (my wallet sure won't).
Everyone is obsessed with safety here. So no worries.
In terms of plans for the four weeks after the semester ends, there's a huge trip up to the equator and back down, but I still need to find out about that. Otherwise I can travel with my roommates and their friends. Yay!
We found another person to go with us on spring break. The plan is essentially to fly up to Durban, spend two days there, then go to Kruger for a two day safari, then take a bus to Maputo (capital of Mozambique) and stay there for three days and do all sorts of fun beach stuff. Then we'll take a bus back down to Johannesburg and spend a day there, then fly back to Cape Town. And have a ton of deadlines waiting for us. But yeah, it'll be awesome and way too expensive. Oh well.
My only worry is if I can get my assignments done in time for it. I'm not used to having strict deadlines like this.
I'll post some pictures once people put them online.

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Now playing: Backstreet Boys - Not For Me
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