(From April 1)
Hi there, friendly people!
Happy weekend to you all. Unfortunately, although it is technically the weekend for me since it’s
Friday, I still have quite a bit of schoolwork to which I must attend in the
next few days, so it’s not a real restful
weekend like the ones I’ve had over the past month or so. It’s all part of that
commitment to bettering my learning!!! (Which is sounding much less attractive
now that I have to put together a group presentation on a Saturday morning…)
The past few days have been packed with lectures on the
history and economics of Cape Town and South Africa as a whole. They’ve been
utterly fascinating, and the caliber of our lectures is out of this world. Many
of them have been advisors to the UN, and one of the lecturers showed us a
graph integral to the understanding of the economics of Cape Town—and he was
one of the contributors to the study! Learning from the forefront experts in
the fields about which we are learning really enriches our academic
experiences. So that’s pretty cool!
I got smashed by a wave of homesickness yesterday while
texting my mom. She was comforting me about some issues about which I don’t
even feel like thinking about right now, and she made me feel so much better, but not being able to
hear her voice and realizing that I couldn’t just run into her arms and make
her give me a hug brought tears to my eyes. I’m excited to go home.
After taking an hour long nap yesterday then bidding
adieu around 9 PM to go to sleep, my host mother appraised me with slitted
eyes. “You like to sleep a lot, don’t you,” she ventured. I confirmed the
statement. “I could tell,” she responded, with a little bit of sass. Another
host mom disappointed in my lack of raginess. Well, I suppose that’s just me. C’est
la vie.
My long ten-hour sleep that I thought would completely defeat
the jetlag still felt much too short. I woke up groggily to my 7:10 AM alarm
then attempted to sound chipper when my host father rapped on the door to
ensure we were getting ready. We ate a quick breakfast of Kellogg cornflakes
(reminded me of India) and some fruit, then got on our way.
A little bit about Cape Town and where I’m staying, etc.
Cape Town’s weather resembles Southern California’s quite
a bit. It’s a little bit wetter, honestly, but it’s currently fall here, and it’s
in the 60’s—perfectly balmy. Never thought I’d say this (literally never), but
it’s kind of nice to wear a jacket again! I’m living on the base of Signal
Hill, which is a hill (duh) that makes up the eastern border of the Cape Bowl.
I look out onto Table Mountain (v famous) and Lion’s Head, a mountain that
looks vaguely like the profile of a lioness. Behind Signal Hill is the more
rounded bay of Cape Town with the oval-shaped stadium that was built for the
2010 World Cup and is probably more recognizable from pictures. When I first
saw the Bowl, I was slightly jarred, as it seemed more cosmopolitan and less
nature-y than I’d imagined. I think that’s because the other side of Signal
Hill is what I’ve been picturing, so I’m excited to explore that, too. I have a
fabulous view from my homestay’s balcony and look out over the entire Bowl,
which lights up at night and sparkles in the darkness. I also loved that today,
as soon as I rounded the corner of my building and started down the outdoor
flight of stairs, I smelled a fresh ocean breeze. I stopped in my tracks (to
the slight confusion of Savannah, my roommate) and spread my arms wide and savored
being back next to a big salty body of water. EEP LOVE IT.
To get from my homestay to my classroom, we walk straight
down a massive hill, past some beautifully cheery, brightly colored homes that
have come to symbolize Bo’Kaap neighborhood (look it up—they’re so pretty!). We
walk past numerous restaurants, cultural centers, museums, and business places
to get to class, which means we get to observe the city center of Cape Town at
its busiest and most “real” every day. That’s pretty cool. I’ve already created
a list of things I’m dying to see and do before I leave—and I only have four
weeks left!!!
Okay, back to my day. Neighborhood Day, one of my favorite
parts of this program, was today, which means we visit a small patch of the city
and explore it to learn about its history, population, and lifestyle. I went
with a group of five to Claremont, which is really close to the city center and
has a hip college town vibe with yoga studios, stylish (and cheap!!!) clothing
stores, and delicious food. I had to be dragged away from the Forever 21-type
establishments before I cleaned out my bank account. Upon returning to Bo’Kaap,
I ate a delicious dinner of fried chicken and konked out for a two-hour nap.
A bunch of friends are going out tonight because it’s
Friday woohoo!!! But I’m conserving my energy for a weekend full of activities
and sight-seeing and physical activity. Time to snuggle into bed with Infinite Jest—and maybe a class reading
or two—then get to sleep.
Small detour for a second, because the inability to
access WiFi and therefore anything on my phone besides my camera has pushed me
to engage in the most desperate of mobile activities: flipping through my old
photos. I think about who I was in April of last year (happy April!), and I
realize that I’ve been out of the country, pretty independently, for five of
the last twelve months. I’ve seen three Wonders of the World, I’ve traversed
five different continents, I’ve forayed through nine different countries… And I’ve
changed. A lot. I’ve left people behind as I’ve outgrown them, and my burgeoning
maturity (don’t laugh at that, Mom) and my strengthening self-esteem have
allowed me to recognize the differences between a true friend and an abuser of
my generosity. And so the ones that I have decided to shed, due to differing
levels of kindness, worldliness, and empathy, give me no qualms, and I spare
only a fleeting thought of “good riddance” as I swipe past their pictures.
It is those who have left me behind, before I’d attained
this new maturity, and self-respect, and who may have appreciated me more had I
possessed these a few months earlier, that give me pause. And it makes me wish
that I could meet some of these people again, as the woman I am today, someone
of whom I am proud and love a little bit more, so that they could appraise this Aubrey—and maybe some things would have
turned out a little differently.
BUT c’est la vie. In a few hours, while I’m (hopefully)
dead asleep, my rooming situation for my senior year at Harv will be decided by
fate. Fingers crossed that I get a room all to myself for the first time at
Harvard!!!
Contemplative and appreciative and isolated from the rest
of the world,
AubStod
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