15 days =(

Dear friends,

I can hardly believe that I will be departing Cape Town in almost two weeks. The past month or so have been busy with many final papers and the beginning of final exams. Lectures ended on May 20th and I took my Xhosa final yesterday. It went OK, I think. I realized that I learned more than I thought I did during that class, so that was a nice realization. Today I had my African Dance practical exam (where we had to perform the warm-up, across-the-floor exercises, and 4 dances that we have been working on all semester for an external examiner). That went well. I REALLY enjoyed that class so I was sad to leave at the end. Tomorrow I am taking the African Dance written exam (a waste of time in my opinion) then on Monday June 1st I am taking my Medical Anthropology final.

In other news, since I’m finished with my finals by June 1st (hip hip hooray!) I am planning a trip with my friend Maria to do a pony trek in Lesotho. Pony trekking has been a popular trip among the CIEE students—it’s a basically a 4-day trip consisting of horseback riding during the day to the most remote (and apparently the most beautiful) parts of Lesotho and camping/staying the night in villages during the evenings. Sounds pretty incredible, right??! For those of you who don’t know, Lesotho is a mini country-within-a-country in South Africa in the center-ish. There is another mini country inside SA also called Swaziland, which is in the north-east part of the country. Both are their own countries. Take a look at an SA map if you want, its pretty weird/cool. We are still working out transportation, though its looking like flying is (surprisingly) going be to our cheapest option. The plan is to leave either June 1st after my evening exam or early June 2nd and returning on either Friday the 5th or Saturday the 6th. So a short (and relatively cheap) trip that is sure to be an amazing experience and, I think, a perfect way to top off my amazing semester here.

As you can imagine, with my departure quickly approaching I am experiencing quite a mix of emotions. There is very big part of me that is very sad to be leaving Cape Town. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to live in the coolest city on earth (Ok, maybe I’m a tiny bit biased). Also I have met so many wonderful, fun, and interesting people who I am sad to be leaving, Its times like these that I thank the technology gods for inventions such as Facebook and Skype and e-mail because they will help me to keep in touch with these people. Many of these people live in SA (or other parts of Africa) so chances are slim that I will ever see them again so that is difficult to deal with. This also applies also to the mere acquaintances I have made who I see mainly in classes and on campus—I will really miss seeing their faces and enjoying there senses of humor and insightful contributions to class. Luckily for me chances are better that I will get to see some of the other CIEE students who I have really enjoyed getting to know. They are seriously the coolest group of kids who I have ever met. I am looking forward to reuniting with some of them in the States sometime in the future.

Also, I’m sure most of you have heard through the grapevine that I have been dating somebody here. Next week marks 4 months that we have been together… do the math and you’ll realize that we met quite early in my stay here – at the very beginning of February—and due to our immediate chemistry we have been together ever since then. His name is Valery, he’s been studying and living in Cape Town for the past 3 years although home for him is in Cameroon, West Africa. We have shared quite a special few months and leaving him is sure to be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. However I again bow down to the technology gods for the opportunities they provide, yet I curse whatever gods control how much stuff costs (the financial inflation gods?) because currently neither one can afford to fly to see the other anytime soon. For now so what is in store for he and I is still unknown, but we never know what the future holds.

You should know that despite that, I am still excited to be returning home! Especially since many of my friends have begun their summer vacations recently being here has been harder and as wonderful it has been to talk to them, hearing about their fun adventures at home is making me more and more homesick. In addition I really am missing the familiarity of home and most especially the people who are there, aka you people!! I really can’t wait to see all of you and give you BIG hugs and kisses.

So, as difficult as it will be to leave Valery and all of my other wonderful friends here, Dorothy is right- there is definitely no place like home.

See you in a few weeks!

Lots of love,
Melissa

a note

dear loyal blog followers (aka people who still check this thing. are you still out there?),

it is becoming quite clear that i am not the blogging type. i really thought i was going to be really great at keeping regular updates but i suppose over 3 months and 9 posts i've been proved very wrong. i feel quite bad because i know that many of you are dying to know what i'm up to here and are possibly feeling slightly dissapointed at my blog slacking, so my abundant apologies for that. i have been feeling this constant pang of guilt for not updating so i thought now that i am approaching the end of the semester (lectures end may 20) as well as the end of my stay here(only 5 weeks left)and a heeeeefty load of essays to write and tests to take, i will try to resolve some of this guilt by writing this note to say that it is quite likely that there will not be another update before i leave Cape Town. on that note, however, i have been journaling in my own personal journal and will translate some of my entries into blog posts this summer. so there is that to look forward to, as well as, of course, personal accounts if you ask me!

so in order to take the pressure of myself and relieve you of the task of constantly checking my blog to see if i've updated (ok, i'm flattering myself a little here), i am writing this apologetic note. i am looking forward to blogging over the summer upon my return, so i do hope that you will all join me on take two of my blogging journey.

love to you all. i miss you.
Love,
Melissa