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