Sorry I'm a Slacker

Once again I've done a pretty piss poor job at updating this thing, and for that I apologize. In my defense since my last post I've had 3 huge papers and 3 huge finals with my last one tomorrow morning. I'm partially questioning why I'm writing in this blog when I have a final in about 8 hours, but I digress.

Anyways, Today is November 11th, technically the 12th in Cape Town I suppose. I leave on my trip (my super awesome trip to Durban and Lesotho and Swaziland and Mozambique) on November 19th. That means I have 7 days left before I leave Cape Town pretty much for good. 7 days left in my house, 7 days left with my roommates, 7 days left with all the other amazing people I've met here, 7 days left in the city I've grown so attached to, 7 days left before i have to say goodbye to my kids, which I'm dreading the most I think. Part of me is happy at the thought of going home and seeing the people I've missed so much, but a big part of me wants to cry. I'm no where near being able to process this whole thing or being able to explain or articulate it to anyone who hasn't been through this with me, and I'm not particularly looking forward to the adjustments or decisions or changes that are waiting for me at home. But I guess most of all I'm grateful for everything that I've been through and gotten to see and experience during the last 5 months of so, for the next month of my life which should prove to be possibly the greatest 30 days ever.

But enough about my ramlings...In other news, trying to name some highlights of the past two weeks...I got my hair cut and got emo bangs. They're pretty fun. At first I really hated them..the woman who cut my hair kind of messed up the bangs, I think she had a nelly furtado vision that went really wrong. So I left the salon and had a minor (major) freak out..their were tears...but my roommate grabbed some scissors and fixed me up and now they look pretty sweet. I'm enjoying them. Picture!:




........God I'm so vain:


In other news, the Rugby victory parade was last week. The parade route went along the road that my house is on, so I watched out the window while frantically writing a paper until the players were close. The parade was so fun, it honestly made me so happy. All of the schools in the area let the kids go watch so there were a bunch of little kiddies running around with flags in the yard infront of my house, and they went nuts when the team drove by. I know I said this last time but the Boks winning the world cup was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen or been a part of. In summary I really like parades and I really like sports and I really like South Africa:







Ok I should probly like.......study now. But I'm saving a story for tomorrow when my finals our done so check back soon. hooray.

RUGBY!!!

I've spent the last 2 days trying and trying to upload video of the footage I took after South Africa won the Rugby World Cup on Saturday, but my internet is just too darn slow. Oh well.

But Anyway, in case anyone hasn't heard SOUTH AFRICA RULES THE RUGBY UNIVERSE. I for sure did not know anything about rubgy until recently, but it's super popular. The national team is called The Springoks and Springbok merch is everywhere. The World Cup started in the beginning of September so it's been going on for a while, and the final match was last Saturday the 20th against England. I watched it at a Bar close to where I live and it was super intense. The best part was after SA won watching everyyonnneeee in Cape Town loose their minds. A mini riot/celebration broke out down the road from my house, it literally stopped traffic. The only thing I could compare it to would be that must have been what Boston was like after the Sox won in '04, except more nuts. At one point, a beer truck tried to drive through the crowd and people were ripping the sides off of the truck trying to get the the cases. In all seriousness, one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life, and it was awesome to a city that's so divided become so unified, even if it was for a night.

Heres some pictures, sorry for the blurriness it was a bit hectic:




The beginning of the Castle Lager truck fiasco



My roomies with random South African. I think this guy picked me up too



Happy mob.




AHAHAHAAH. Cape Town, I will miss you.

RUGBY

That time I almost got eaten by sharks.

Cheers.

So first off, I just want to say that the Yankees have broken my heart, and I really hope that they don't fire Torre. But on the bright side, BC football is apparently #3 right now, so hooray for that. Suck it Notre Dame.

but ANYWAY, this will probably be a picture heavy post because that's more interesting. My life is running pretty smoothly over in this corner of the world, and other than the fact that I'm trying really hard not to get sick Cape Town has been treating me really well. I only have two weeks of classes left before school ends, which is insane. I really can't believe how fast my time here is flying by. The longer that I'm here the more difficult I find it to summarize anything- what I've been doing, experiencing, learning, feeling- anything. But I suppose I should keep trying, so here are some highlights since my last post:

Well first off the most crazy/scary/insane thing that I have done in Cape Town slash done in my whole life was go shark cage diving. A little while ago it was Heritage Day/National Braai Day here SA and because we had the day off from class a bunch of us decided to go check it out, and we were most definitely not dissapointed. For anyone who doesn't know what shark cage diving is, basically you head out to sea on a boat and when you reach great white territory, the crew throws chum (fish parts...lovely..) into the water to bait the sharks, and then you climb into a cage that's strapped to the side of the boat and wait for them to come.

The cage is fairly big but there are pretty big gaps between the bars so you have to make sure you don't stick any limbs outside. SO basically these sharks kept swimming by kind of far away so I remained relatively calm, but one time a shark caught the bait and like trashed around and banged up against the front of the cage, and HIS NOSE CAME THROUGH THE BARS. Basically, I flat out panicked and totally screamed underwater, but managed not to get my arm bitten off. I can't believe I did that either... I felt like I was inside shark week...here are some pictures but even they don't say enough:



That's a good shot of the cage, you can see how far apart the bars are. I'm out of my mind.


Another highlight was last weekend I finally made it to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years along with many many other political prisoners. It was definitely a pretty powerful and educational experience, minus the fact that the ocean was very rough and everyone got sick. I'm really over boats. But yeah, Robben Island pictures, because nothing I can say will do it justice:





4th window in is Mandela's cell

Mandela's cell complete with props





i just thought this was funny.


Ok its getting late here so this will have to be cut short, but i have more pictures/stories to put up tomorrow. for anyone who cares South Africa just advanced to the Rugby World Cup finals, hellz yeah.

word
Ellen

OMG I'M UPDATING

OH, my gosh, i am the worse blog owner ever. I can't believe it has been so long since I've updated this thing. Seriously, my apologies to anyone who checked this and saw nothing new. My b, it will never happen again. In my defense, I did go 10 days without internet, but that’s still not a very good excuse.

So I guess I should pick up from where I left off...Pretty much I spent the first week of September buried in papers and homework. It was the equivalent of mid-term week, which is never very much fun no matter what country you're in. But hey, it didn't really matter because i had spring break to look forward to, which turned out to be the coolest week EVER.

For anyone who didn't know ( I cant remember if I mentioned it) for spring break I went on a tour that started in Jo'berg and ended at Victoria Falls, which is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. If you don't have a map (haha) that means we flew to Jo'berg, and then drove up through Botswana and the panhandle of Namibia, and ended in Livingstone, Zambia. I can't even try to summarize all the bizarre and insane things I saw and did, but I will try via some high-low.

Highs:
-I actually enjoyed camping. I don't really know how that happened. I guess a lifetime of abuse via family vacations has finally paid off. Thanks dad.
- Meeting some cool people from all over the world who were on the tour with us. It was awesome to meet some South Africans not from Cape Town, and just talk to so many people from so many different places with such cool stories.
- The fact that I got to go visit countries that hardly anyone gets to see, and how realizing how lucky that makes me. To put it simply.
- my passport looks way cooler now.
- Going white water rafting in Zambia, which was INSANE. We totally flipped and I flew like 10 feet out of the boat. Good thing I can swim.
- Seeing animals, such as elephants and hippos and crocs, INSANELY close. Which was kind of scary and totally ridiculous.
-Victoria Falls wins for nature-y beautiful thing I have ever seen. Its one of the 8 wonders of the world, and I totally get why. Go there.

..i could really go on forever but that would be boring for everyone, so instead i will put up some pics.

Me flying a plane over the Okavengo Delta in Botswana...or just sneaking in the cockpit after we landed..
Sunset in Chobe National Park, Botswana


Vic Falls, Zim side...


Swingin' in Zimbabwe...


Seconds before this croc decided he didn't like having his personal space invaded and dove back into the water right next to our boat...At which point everyone screamed and fell into the aisle..I got mud sprayed all over me..ask to see the video when I get back it's hilarious


heck yes monkey...this guy hung around our campsite in Namibia...he bit me but it was cool.



I dunno I just thought this was funny...


The only low I can think of happened on the last day. We had a flight at 1 45 but we wanted to go into Zimbabwe early in the morning to see the falls, because they have a better view from that side. So we made it through the border, but on the way back we get help up on the Zim side because of a huge line. SO, on the bridge that connects Zimbabwe and Zambia, we were all in a very big rush and I was getting stressed out. In my moment of anger, I happened to look up and make eye contact with a mommy baboon and her baby. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Apparantly i threatened her, because she proceeded to pick up speed and like crawl/walk right over to me. At that point I yelled and started like walking really fast away but not running. I looked back and that baboon was totally on my tail. So then I started looking around for help but everyone was just laughing at me. Eventually, she started following someone else and I made it to border control. But I was definitely almost beat up by a monkey in Zambia. moral of the story is don't piss off baboons when there is no one around to save you from their wrath.

Ok, it's time for me to sleep. Once again, I'm sorry I've been neglecting the blog for so long. It will never happen again. Expect a post in the near future, because I definitely have some more stories.

much love from the western cape
Ellen

This is the fertility vase of the Ndebele tribe. Does that mean anything to you?!?

I'm actually writing a paper on the Ndebele tribe right now. Oh, the irony...

I'm gonna apologize upfront for the length of this post.

The past week has been pretty eventful..

1) I wrote and handed in my first paper, which normally isn't that noteworthy except it totally kicked my ass seeing as i forgot how to write over the summer, plus i had to figure out how to use the UCT library and complete an obstacle course to hand it in on time, but hey...work always gets done, unless of course it doesn't...

2) On saturday I went kyacking. Which was AWESOME. It was supposed to be whale watching slash kyacking, but sadly we saw no whales. However, I made the mistake of eating a huge amount of food shortly before departure and got totally sick mid-kyack. Yeah....that part wasn't really fun..but it's a good story I guess. It was still so fun though, and the view was amazing. I brought my camera but was too scared to take it out and use it because I didn't wanna drop in the water...oh well.

3) Yesterday was awesome. It was Sunday so I spent it at Heaven's Nest, which is always a good time. One of the women who works there, Joan, asked me if I wanted to see some of her pictures, so I said yeah. I figured they would be of her dog or something, but then she busted out all these pictures of her hanging out with NELSON MANDELA. I almost dropped the child I was holding. She and him were like activist buddies, and her father in law was in prison with him and apparently they used to surf together. I'm not making this up. So yeah, Joan is pretty much my new hero, she's started education programs all over cape town and I want to be her when I grow up.

and I got some pictures of the kiddies....


haha this makes me laugh when I look at it...The boy on the left's name is Ctaum but it sounds like Storm with their accent, and they call him stormy, which is badass. And the girl's name is Candice and her lips are purple because they were chapped and thats what color the medicine was..everyone asks me that...



Julian..this kid's a fireball.. I have really entertaining video of him dancing but I can't figure out how to post it...notice all the fuzz stuck in his hair hehehe...

I could post like 8 million of these but I'll spare you all...

It's weird, I've been in Cape Town for about a month and week and It feels like no time at all and an eternity all at once. Now that we're all getting into a routine, and the work is really starting to kick in, It's finally feeling like I'm really here and this isn't some surreal summer camp or vacation.

I've been a little bit homesick lately, which I think is because I just realized I'm not coming home for 4 more months. It's a little bit hard to think about everyone moving back to BC, which is why I'm swearing off facebook till spring break because I think that's the root of the problem hahaha. Damn newsfeed...

Don't get me wrong though, life is outta control here in a totally good way. Everything makes me think....lately I've been thinking alot about how I'm perceiving people. Abroad students are pretty much bombarded with safety talks all the time by everyone- don't go out by yourself, watch your stuff, don't give the kids money, don't ride the taxis alone, blah blah blah. And the safety issue is definitely a reality that I can't really escape. But when I find myself crossing the street to avoid homeless people at night, or ignoring people that talk to me on the street, or not trusting minibus guards, I feel guilty, because I'm essentially judging people by how they live or what they look like..ehh..I am confused. Some food for thought I guess...

OK i really need to write this paper. Thanks for reading this whole thing, if anyone did. More to come soon...

lovelovelove
ellen

Happy Feet

hey hey hey

So I've been meaning to write in this thing for a couple of days, but the internet in my house as been a bit haywire, so my apologies.

I mostly just wanted to post a picture of thisssssssss:



oh yeah..penguins. We finally went to see them this past weekend in Simon's Town and it was fantastico. They were adorable, as this picture demonstrates. It was kind of weird to see them on a beach in 75 degree weather though, since I always picture them with the north pole or something..

And this is Betsy, the seal that we saw a couple weekends ago.

.

Ok that's enough animals...

Things have been going pretty smoothly over here. I finally hit the month mark, and now that i'm a little past it I feel like things have smoothed out and I'm getting into a routine...

1) I planned my spring break trip! Me and some of my roommates/amigos are flying to Jo'berg and then taking a tour up through Botswana and Namibia, and ending at Victoria Falls, which is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. (although we probly won't get to go into Zim because of everything going on there) I'm really excited about the trip so hooray...! I just need to get through 5 papers before then...awesome

2) Some people have been asking for my skype name so here it is... ellen.mccartney....creative i know. and in case anyone wants to send me love letters, my address is
2 Church St.
Rondebosch 7700
Cape Town, South Africa

3) I hope everyone that's doing Summer Appa is having a blast this week...I gotta say it's a little weird not being a part of it, or not packing to go back to school, but hey...

I hope everyone at home is getting pumped for a new semester, it's strange that I've been in school for so long and the rest of the world is still in summer mode. Soon you'll all be joining me in the world of papers and classes and reading...bwaha.

umm..i dont really no what else to say write now..my brain is kind of fried at the moment. lately I've been a bit all over the place...

I'll write tomorrow when I'm more coherant but for now this will have to do. and good luck to everyone who's getting ready to go abroad. Be safe, have fun, and learn alot. and tell me all about it.

word
Ellen

I GOT YOUR BITCH RIGHT HERE

this blog entry is brought to you by Laura.

Hi I am Laura and one day I called her the B'word of course it was a joke cuz i luv her but neways her response was I got ur bitch right here soooo dats how dis line came ta b and now she says it far too often neways...iama let her get bac ta typin then we're gonna bond over some stomp da yard...coco is gonna teach her ta step and I ama teach her ta krump n pop n lock....fun timess ta come 1.

...she really types/speaks like this. the best part is she goes to Trinity...yeah..I know.

...hey miss thang i ain feelin u dissin me...see now all yall kno why i called her dat bad word which i will not uter again...lol utter i like dat word makes me feel smart. Okay she'll prob go bac ta talkin shit but whateva iama jus have ta get coco ta jump her!

and that is my life, at 2 Church St. Rondebosch 7700, South Africa. send help!

...nah yall don send no help iama take care of schmellin ight...but i ain frontin if she gets a tude wit me then iama have ta slap her but jus a lil slap nuthin too hard...maybe with a broom or chuncletta like the good hispanics in my hood do...okay now iama go front like i really like her but now yall kno the truth peace

amen.

P.S. If any of you are bothered by the nasty language in this entry I apologize, I am not a bad person nor wish illwill upon Ellen, I actually like the girl. But I do advise Parental Control over this blog...no beeps where available however, I felt tenacious while trying to get my point across so my bad B 1 ...by the way B is a term of endearment used in the hood, slang bascially when u come across heads (aka people), you could also use fam, bro, homey etc...and 1 derives from one love (aka bye)

SPIDER PIG

so i'm really tired right now but i wanted to write about the best day ever (or at least one of my favorites so far in cape town)...

As I've talked to some of you about, It's been a bit of a struggle finding a volunteer program that I really liked and that suited me here in South Africa. The program that they push at UCT is called SHAWCO, and it's really wonderful but also enormous and doesn't require much of a regular commitment. I'm still trying to figure out my place with it (and waiting for people to e-mail me back) , so I've been searching for some other options, mostly through UCT. After hitting a couple of dead ends my friend Angela asked me if I wanted to go check out a orphanage/temporary home for children with her on Friday.

After debating for about 10 seconds whether I should skip class and go I naturally came to the conclusion that class is for punks (sorry mom it won't happen again) and opted to go. After an hour long minibus adventure we arrived at Heaven's Nest, home to about 12 rediculously cute little kiddies.

sidebar: minibuses are one form of cape town public transportation...essentially they are extremely crowded 15 passenger vans that run along various routes in the city. When they pull over to the side of the road the guard for the van will jump out and scream the destination, and the driver will honk, repeatedly. Everyday I wake up to the honking and people screaming WYNBERG!! right outside my window. They are really fun and they cost like 4 rand (about 60 cents)

So anyway, Heaven's Nest is a temporary home for children. Some of the kids don't have parents and are awaiting adoption, some have parents that can't take care of them due to various reasons (they're abusive, are addicted to drugs, have AIDS, are in jail, etc.) Some of the kids have HIV, some don't, but they're all treated the same. The staff is wonderful and so dedicated, and they give me cooking tips I desperately need. So after Friday I decided to spend at least every Sunday there, and hopefully some other time slots as well. It's a little tricky because I have to make sure to leave by 3 or 3:30 to get back on the minibuses safely which makes it tricky with classes, but I'm really optomistic about the whole situation right now and I had a really phenominal time today. hooray. Major major props to Angela for finding this place.

And then after I got home Moses, who is our house's collective Ugandan psuedo big brother slash tour guide, took us out to dinner and then to ice cream and then to one of the many beaches (which is so outrageously beautiful at night elton john and david beckham have houses there) and then to see seals. Seals are mad cute I saw one really super up close! good times all around.

I really want to write more but I need to do homework (damnit.) I'll post pictures soon, I know reading all this is boring.

miss you all
Ellen

PURPLE

I just dyed my hair. It came out ok. I wanted it to purple-y, and it came out kind of tinted purple, but more purple than it did last time I tried in January. If anyone remembers that.



Today is national women's day in South Africa. It's a public holiday, everything closed and everyone gets off school and work..how sweet is that. Why doesn't the US have a day like this?

I think rugby should catch on in the US.

I need to stop procrastinating.

jam packed weekend of south african action

oh hey guys.

thought i would post some pictures from this weekends festivities.

friday was a funfilled day of classes, going into cape town, eating a chocolate bannana spring roll (which was awesome), and having one of my roomates laura (the only one who can actually cook) made us the first home cooked meal ive had in forever. hooray!

On saturday me and a whole lot of other people drove up to Stellenbosch, which is about an hour from cape town for the Stellenbosch wine festival. Once we finally made it to the wine festival it was a pretty fun time. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of attending a wine festival, all there is to do really is taste wine. lots and lots and lots of wine.... i haven't really developed a taste for wine but i'm working on it.

i got lazy ( i guess from the wine) so this is the only picture i have of the wine festival:

people lounding, enjoying their wine i guess....

the best part was I got a picture of THIS:

ostrich!!! i know some if you have been waiting for this. they're everywhere in south africa. apparently ostrich meat is really good, they offer it in restaurants and stuff. maybe some day i'll try it. but anyway, we saw ostriches and zebras which was cool.

Today was a hike up to the top of Lion's Head, a pretty initmidating looking mountain in Cape Town. I was under the impression it would be a nice relaxing stroll with a great view. However, it became apparent pretty fast that this was a for serious hardcore mountain climbing adventure. The way up was super steep. At one point it was just straight up and you had to hang onto a chain and like spiderman your way up the side of the mountain. I am going to be really sore tomorrow. On the way down, I made friends with a tour guide who told me that people fall down the mountain pretty regularly...awesome.

But the view from the top was pretty much godsmacking. I know I keep mentioning how beautful cape town is, but the view from the top was like nothing I've ever seen. Heres some pictures:

um yeah its taking a really long time to upload these pictures...so ill put more up soon but for now i need to do some homework. much love coming your way, drop me an e-mail or a comment and let me know how you all are.

ellen

two things:

1) hehehe. so i just reread what i posted last night and there are mad typos...oops...sorry about that....i was kind of tired...

2) If anyone is planning on calling my cell phone from the states (and hopefully none of you are because skype is way cheaper and you should all try that) the number is +27 76 456 1097. Theres no 0 before the 76. That was made apparent when people kept trying and it didnt work at all...my b.

its raining again....oh cape town.

ellen

howzit

hello hello.

It has been far too long since I updated this thing. I don't really have a good excuse, only that It's been a very hectic week and a half since I arrived in Cape Town and I haven't had very many chances to organize my thoughts..

So instead of making my brain hurt and trying to form coherent paragraphs I'm just gonna put up 10 random and possibly unrelated thoughts about what I've done so far and where I'm at..

1. Cape Town is COLD. It's been slightly warmer the past two or three days, but overall its been pretty chilly. I know everyone like, hey ellen, you go to school in boston, get over it, south africans don't believe in central heat. so my every building I go in to is always like 40 degrees...alas. Good thing I am a sweatshirt junkie.

2. I bought Harry Potter approximately 12 hours after my last post and finished it within a few days...I don't wanna say anything in case someone hasn't finished...but yeah...no one ruined it for me, thank god. I am sad that its over. If you wanna talk to me about it lets do it..And there is building on campus named Snape. I'm a loser.

3. high: Cape Town is gorgeous overall, but UCT wins for most beautiful campus that I have ever been too. It is literally in the mountains. Nothing I can say will do it justice, I just need to get around to putting up some pictures. low: the walk the campus is literally the million dollar stairs at BC times like 5. uphill all the way, and i can't wimp out and take the elevators.

4. There are times where I feel like I'm in Africa and times where I feel like I'm in San Francisco or some other city in the US...It's pretty strange to see such extremes of wealth and poverty exist so close to each other...I heard this a million times before I left but South Africa really is a 1st world and a 3rd world country at the same time. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this in the future but there's too much to say to tackle now so I'm putting it off...but overall this is for sure one of the most complex and unique places I've ever been too..

5. I have a new found appreciation for the ability to register for classes online...basically to register for classes at UCT you have to fill out forms and then run around like a crazy person getting signatures from the department heads, and then wait in a super long queue (haha i say queue now) . plus you never really know when your class meets or what time...but as stressful as it was my classes so far are amazing. If anyone cares I'm taking religion in africa, post-colonial and colonial encounters, thinking africa differently, and some 4th class yet to be determined...yay drop-add. and my professors are from what I can tell brilliant, definitely on par with BC.

6. Spring Break is in a month. I feel like I should be going on Appalachia or something..I've never had to actually think about what to do. Theres a trip to Botswana and Zambia that would be amazing but I'm not sure if its what I want... Aside from the fact that its expensive the people I meet are always challenging foreigners not to perceive Africa that way that its fed to us, as a place filled with primitive people and wild animals..So i kind of feel like I'm selling out or something by going on a safari..but how can I got south africa and not do all the touristy stuff? theres nothing wrong with a vacation...clearly I'm very confused about it... thoughts? alot of you guys think about this stuff, give me some wisdom...

7. I can't cook ANYTHING. its an issue. I'm trying though...Big step tonight I made chicken...hooray..

8. Don't worry I'm making friends. Whenever I talk to my mom I get the impression she thinks I'm not so in case anyone was concerned I'm not being a big emo kid loner : ) There are really excellent people studying abroad here from all over the world that are super, and south africans are pretty cool too.

9. Which reminds me: Today I was leaving one of the building on campus and I saw an add for a trip to the US through some random travel company. It had pretty standard pictures; shots of people in nyc and san francisco, skiing in vermont, etc. BUT, and I'm not kidding, the biggest picture was a girl in front of a freaking wal-mart. I almost threw up..in case any of you didn't know i really hate wal-mart. I tried to explain what a super wal-mart was to my friend Phomi whose from SA and she was kind of horrified...

10. Thank you so much to everyone who e-mailed me over the past few weeks. I'm sorry if I haven't written back to everyone, I promise that sooner or later I will. But they made me so happy to read and I am constantly reminded how great my friends are, so thanks to everyone who has written on my facebook wall/e-mailed/i'm'd/skyped/or called me. its appreciated more than you know.

um, ok, i need to do some homework. i hope everyone else is enjoying their school-free august, you'll be joining me on the dark side soon enough..bwuahaha.

i promise i will write more frequently from now on! I'm gonna put pictures up from Europe soon.

heart!
Ellen

cell phone

for anyone who cares:

i got my cell phone today. the number is 076 456 1097 and the country code is 27.

Today was cool except my debit card got eaten by an atm. so I don't really know what I'm supposed to do about that. alas.

night

Hi from Cape Town

Hey guys,

It's pretty late here but I just wanted to post saying I made it to my apartment safe and sound. I wish I could say the journey went smoothy but that would be a lie. Basically my driver and his van went missing at the cape town airport and I was stuck there by myself for a pretty good chunk of time...it was pretty sketchy not gonna lie...but ANYWAY, I'm on the internet now so obviously it all got sorted out. I'll write more when I actually do something in the city, so far its just been alot of unpacking and meeting my roommates, all of which seem pretty cool at this juncture.

anyway, a really quick summary of europe via one of my fave ice breakers, the classic high-low:

Highs:
- hanging out with Sara and hearing about Cameroon
- almost having a heart attack when my friend Lindsay who has been abroad in Berlin all semester surprised me in Paris.
- getting to push the button on the paris metro that opened the doors. I'm a loser.
- newlondon/newparis walking tours. basically they are free walking tours of the city designed for poor college students. check out their website and definitely hit them up if you're gonna be in the area, i developed pretty serious crushes on both of my tour guides.
- fireworks behind the eiffel tower on basitille day.
- discovering that there is a Cheers in London...bizarre.
- british accents
- seeing Prince Harry (or someone who looked ALOT like him) in Buckingham palace during the changing of the guards
- Abbey Road. go there if you are in London it is the coolest thing I did. There's a homemade monument of Beatles quotes and messages on the wall next to the street. SO awesome.
- the 5th Harry Potter movie. Ron kind of got cute. I cant wait for him and Hermione to get together...anyway...

Lows:
- There is no Bastille anymore. I guess it got torn down awhile ago. There is, however, a metro stop called Bastille. very confusing.
- the conversion rate of the pound to the doller. that sucked.
- having to carry all of your luggage for five months all over Heathrow airport by myself. If it were not for the kindness of random British people I would not have made my flight for sure...a big shoutout to that random British airways man who carried my bag up the escalator..i love you

OK I need to go to sleep. now. One last thing:

It is after midnight, which means that the latest and final Harry Potter book is on sale right now in South Africa. I can actually look out my window this very instant and see a store selling copies. HOWEVER, I am not supposed to leave after dark, which is definitelty a wise move. I dont know when I will be able to get a copy because most stores will sell out. SO IF ANYONE RUINS THE ENDING FOR ME I WILL KILL THEM. SERIOUSLY. PLEASE DO NOT TRY AND TALK TO ME ABOUT THE BOOK, I WILL FOR SURE CRY IF SOMEONE TELLS ME WHAT HAPPENED.

on that note, much love from cape town. ill write more soon

peace
ellen

oh..hey.

i figured i'd better post something today since i'm about to send out an e-mail telling people to read this, and i didn't want anyone to check and be dissapointed, you know?

anyways, heres some info for anyone who wants it:

I'm leaving tomorrow, July 10th- ahhhhh- my flights out of JFK is at 7pm and I'll be getting into London the next morning, and then immediately swimming to Paris to meet up with the one and only Sara Bedford. ( if anyone doesnt know her, facebook her because she is awesome.) That should be pretty exciting cuz she was abroad in Cameroon last semester and I haven't seen her in eons. wahoo!

So I'll be tooling around in Paris/London for a week, during which I am pretty pumped to see the new Harry Potter movie in London and be in France for Bastille Day. I'm flying out of London on the 18th and arriving in Cape Town in the early afternoon of the 19th after a short layover in Johannesburg.

After that I pretty much dont know what will be going on, except orientation start the 22nd and classes start the 31st...ew...i almost forgot i had to take classes. so...we'll see how that goes...

i promise this will be my most boring blog post, because no one really wants to know about my flight information, but i don't have much else to write about right now, plus if i think too hard about the fact that i'm going abroad tomorrow i might throw up.

on that note, ill talk to you kids later when i'm in a more interesting place than upstate ny.

peace out, and stay cool because it is really hot today
Ellen

Hello All, and welcome to my blog. If anyone actually reads this.

This blogpost is actually a test to see if this thing actually works. I'm leaving for Africa in 16 days. freak out!!

much more to come.