wee news from across the pond

This is a bit of old news, but for those of you that don't know, I was recently accepted to graduate school at The University of Edinburgh so I will be moving to Scotland come September 7th! I will be part of the MSc in Africa and International Development program which is a 1 year social/political science masters degree taking a critical look at development in Africa from social, cultural, historical, political, etc. perspectives. The course options are quite varied which will allow me to focus on exactly what I am interested in such as Southern Africa, gender and development, and development through emerging entrepreneurship. I will take a total of six courses over two semesters and then have the option of an internship in South Africa, Kenya or Scotland. I will write my dissertation next summer and then graduate (hopefully) in November 2013! I am currently busy preparing by working my way through the extensive pre-program reading list. Coming with my undergraduate degree in Accounting and being the number type person that I am, I am expecting this program to be a bit of a challenge, as it is clearly going to be reading and writing intensive. Even so, I am so excited to be studying topics that I am genuinely interested in and can't understand why I even studied something I wasn't interested in!

The University of Edinburgh was founded back in 1583 and the city itself is even older so I am excited to live and study in a place with so much history and beautiful old buildings. I have already signed up for university, flat style housing but haven't found out yet if I have gotten any of my top choices. With luck, I should be living within walking distance of campus though. The university was recently ranked one of the top twenty universities in the world and has quite a few notable alumni such Alexander Graham Bell and JK Rowling (author of Harry Potter series). While Rowling did end up homeless after school, she proved quite successful in the end so there is hope for me too! 

Long lost safari pictures!

I finally found the cord to upload safari photos from my DSL camera and found these gems!

Update

I haven't posted in what seems like forever - mainly because I'm between adventures and well, writing about my daily job search while chowing down on bagels at Bread Co. just doesn't seem exciting enough to make the blog! But to fill you in, I am still looking for my next adventure. I'm hoping for some kind of job opportunity with international development, social justice, micro finance, grassroots type causes, perhaps international education? Something will turn up I am confident! In the mean time I am keeping busy by teaching myself to sew, frequenting the library and flying through books on my 'must read' list, planning my dream nine month trans-Africa journey, and redecorating my room (one of my spur of the moment, irrational decisions that no one can talk me out of since I really hope not to live with my parents much longer).

Itching for a new adventure.

My internship at Women on Farms Project wrapped up back in the beginning of December in what now seems like a blur. I spent my last ten days or so in Durban, South Africa working at and participating in the Rural Women's Assembly which was a people's movement in conjunction with COP17 on climate change. Over 500 rural women from ten+ African countries, as well as women from India and Guatemala, attended the five day assembly. The women had time to voice their opinions and struggles with climate change, share farming advice with each other and form recommendations for the COP17 talks. We also participated in multiple marches and protests. I mainly served as an extra pair of hands while there. This was the largest event that I had participated in while interning for WFP and so it was quite an experience and challenging at times. I definitely learned a thing or two about 'African' time and organization! Despite some minor issues, the assembly did go well and I hope that the women all returned home with renewed motivation and fresh ideas for sustainable and productive agriculture.

Rural Women's Assembly

While I was sad to say goodbye to Stellenbosch, it was not quite as painful as that first goodbye back in 2010. I shed many tears but was excited to be returning home at the same time. I think after my second South African adventure I have a more accurate vision of the country, acknowledging both the positive and negative aspects of life there while also seeing the good and the bad of the States at the same time. I don't think I will ever live in South Africa permanently but I also don't think I can stay away for long. I know I will be back soon - as soon as I find a new reason to go back! 

Anyway, I've been back in St. Louis for three whole weeks now! Just two days after I returned from Cape Town I jumped on another plane and made a quick trip to D.C. for the wedding of one of my closest friends from home, Kaitlin Davidson. Kaitlin married a Chilean named Timo whom she had met while studying abroad a few years ago. There were eight or so other Parkway West people at the wedding so it turned out to be a mini high school reunion. Despite some major jetlag, I had a fantastic time seeing everyone and enjoyed watching Kaitlin walk down the aisle in her beautiful dress!

High school friends at the Lincoln Memorial

Parkway West reunion

With the bride in her beautiful dress!

I thoroughly enjoyed being home for Christmas and spending quality time (mostly eating) with family and friends but now it's time to start figuring out my life. I spend hours each day at my office (Panera) applying for 'normal' jobs but I secretly hope a new world adventure presents itself. I have the itch to pack and go - now I just have to figure out where and how!

Christmas day with my cousins in our homemade tacky sweatshirts - Goodwill was
picked over by the time we went looking there!

Playing Tourist.

This weekend I decided to be a tourist and headed into Cape Town with a North Face backpack and a DSL camera around my neck; two telltale signs of the American tourist. Though I consider myself a South African resident at the moment and hate being lumped in with the tourist/backpacker population, I thought spending two days sightseeing wouldn't hurt. Since I am not on a study abroad program this time around, I have found it more difficult to get out of Stellenbosch and thus haven't been on as many adventures as I would have liked. So Friday afternoon I took the one hour (on a good day) train ride into the city and got a bed at a local backpackers.  I have found the backpackers/hostels here to be fantastic - cheap but always clean, friendly, safe and an overall good way to meet some interesting characters from all over the globe. 

Saturday turned out to be the most beautiful day we have had here since I arrived in July. I ended up taking the City Sightseeing tour bus and loved it despite being super hesitant of it's extreme touristic nature. It is a double decker bus that is open at the top so you get excellent, unobstructed views. It has two different routes that each make about 15 stops around the city and surrounding areas. I got to see many places I wouldn't have been comfortable or able to visit on my own. I visited the oldest wine farm of South Africa, Groot Constantia, which was built way back in 1685, then headed on to the Imizamo township. Later I explored the harbour at Hout Bay and got to experience the madness that is Saturday afternoon fishing.  I also walked around Camps Bay a bit before the African sun started to fry me. Camps Bay is the Venice Beach of Cape Town and is where celebrities such as Prince Harry can be spotted quite frequently. Sadly, Harry was no where to be found this weekend so there won't be a royal wedding for me anytime soon! I ended the night watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean from Signal Hill which looks out over all of Cape Town and the ocean. (put new CT pictures from this weekend in my Stellenbosch Rondte Twee album on the right --->)

 Groot Constantia

Imizamo Yethu township

Hout Bay

Camps Bay

Sunset atop Signal Hill

Table Mountain at night

Bit of exciting news here: Table Mountain in Cape Town was recently declared one of the New Seven Wonders of the World along with Puerto Princesa Underground River in the Philippines, Komodo Island in Indonesia, Jeju Island of South Korea, Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Argentina, Halong Bay in Vietnam, and the Amazon Rainforest of South America. 

Today, Sunday, was like a whole different season. Cold, rainy, and windy which is by far the worst here in Cape Town. I spent the morning taking the bus around the second route and then wasted an hour or two in Cape Town's aquarium before calling it a day and taking the train back to Stellenbosch.

Countdown to St. Louis: 24 Days

To sum up my last few weeks...

After my last update in NYC, I had a 24 hour layover in Dubai before making it back to Cape Town. Originally, I was excited to spend the day sightseeing in the city. When I got there though, I was exhausted, it was hot and because it was a Friday, and thus the Muslim religious day, the public transport and pretty much everything else were closed until 3 in the afternoon. In addition, I found it a bit more difficult to navigate the city than I had expected so I ended up just taking the metro into town and walking around for an hour or so. A bit disappointing! Next time I will know to book a tour or something. Because of this, my pictures are not too exciting! Really, Dubai was just hot and sandy - everything was brown.

When I arrived back in Stellenbosch I slept for almost two days straight. I have been back two weeks now and my sleeping habits are finally getting back to normal. The temperature is beginning to rise and I think summer is just around the corner here - finally! Last weekend some friends and I took the train into Cape Town. We went to one of my favorite places, the Old Biscuit Mill, which has a market on Saturday mornings with the best assortment of delicious foods and local up-and-coming designer clothing. It is very upscale, trendy and you will find all the Americans of Cape Town here.

Old Biscuit Mill

View of the countryside from the train on our way back to Stellenbosch 

This past weekend I enjoyed hanging out around Stellenbosch and went to another local Saturday morning market.