January 29, 2008
Spring-ing into the semester
BURRRRRR!
All I have to say is, I liked the weather in Africa a lot better! The spring semester is here, unfortunately the winter weather is sticking around for awhile! It was bitterly cold walking to my classes today, and I don't think tomorrow will be much better. Oh well, can't do much about it. I got home from Africa on Saturday after about 30 hours of travel time. Needless to say, I was ready to come home after that! All of us had a really great time and we are already planning our reunion.
Classes
My spring semester classes sound like they will be pretty cool. I have a honors section of history, sociology, philosophy, and communication theory. I have attended all of them once now and judging by the syllabus I think it will be a demanding, yet interesting, semester. I have a lot of friends in my classes as well so I think we will be having a lot of study sessions together.
Other stuff...
Besides classes, I will be busy with Scope, SPJ, and my internship this semester. I had my first day at WCCO yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Very fast paced and full of action. There is ALWAYS something happening; you have no time to sit and relax. I like that kind of atmosphere though, it lets you know you are alive.
For the rest of the week I will just be getting used to the weather and to doing homework every night again! Keep in touch. Later!
Shane
Posted by Shane at 02:45 PM » Want to read or post comments about this? »
January 22, 2008
Is it over already??
Hey guys! It is hard to believe but J-Term is almost over, and that means I will soon be heading back to cold Minnesota for the start of the spring semester. We are in Cape Town for the last week of our course, soaking up the sun and shopping for curios along the waterfront.
The first day we were here we went to the top of Table Mountain. It is about 3000ft at the top and the view is amazing! There were clouds at the top of the mountain the day we were up there and they just flowed like a waterfall. It was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. Yesterday we went to Robin Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for eighteen years. We saw his cell and got a tour of the prison and island. Today we went to Christal House School. CH is a free private school for poverty stricken families. We got to teach a class on music lyrics/poetry and interact with the students. They were very friendly. They asked many questions about America, asked for our autographs, and LOVED getting their pictures taken with us! It was truly a great time.
Tomorrow we are heading out to Parliament and the District Six Museum, and Thursday (our last day) we are visiting a South African wine estate for a wine tasting and dinner. Friday we fly back; we'll get back to Minneapolis Saturday afternoon. Sunday we recover, and then it's off to class Monday morning. Kind of a lot for one weekend.
Hope no one is freezing back in Minnesota, I hear it is quite cold there!
Shane
Posted by Shane at 07:54 AM » Want to read or post comments about this? »
January 16, 2008
Sawubona!
That means 'hello' in Zulu, one of the eleven official languages here in South Africa. We are into week three of our study abroad class and things are going great. This week we have been spending a lot of time talking with different groups of people about issues here in South Africa.
On Monday we visited with faculty at the University of KwaZulu-Natal about an AIDS education and prevention program aimed at elementary and middle school students. AIDS is a huge problem in this country, but since I have been here, it can be put into perspective. The US has many different health problems as well, and I have learned that preventing the spread of AIDS is more complicated than we may think.
Yesterday we went to a local hospital to talk with docots and administrators about health care. Kind of like colleges in the US, the health care has a public and a private system. The private system is for those who can afford it (about 15% of the population) and the public is for those who can not (85%) As you can imagine the private hospitals are state of the art and rival hospitals in the US, while the public hospitals are very poor and can not care for everyone that needs their help. It is a sad issue in this country, and one that the government is working on to fix.
Today we went to Steers which is the South African version of Burger King and visited with the owners about economics and business practices. They were very interesting to listen to, and afterwards we all got free lunch! Can't go wrong there. Tonight I think we are all going to hit up a fancy Italian restaurant in downtown Durban because it is our last night here. Tomorrow we leave for a national game park for the weekend to see some wildlife and then Sunday we fly to Cape Town for our last week of the course.
Being away from home for this amount of time has definitely opened me up to all the things we have in the US that we take for granted every day, like internet access or tap water or even working bathrooms. I have learned to adapt, but being in a foreign country for any amount of time changes a person. I would highly suggest studying abroad during your college years, maybe more than once if you can! It is a great experience. Not to mention, the weather down here is extremely nice!
Hope everyone is having a good time back at home. Stay warm! (I sure am :-)
Shane
Posted by Shane at 05:34 AM » Want to read or post comments about this? »
January 11, 2008
Durban is (G)RAND!
Hey guys! I'm here in Durban, SA which is about 10 hours south of where I was last week. We're still having a great time on our trip. We have been seeing lots of interesting things. On Tuesday we went to a Zulu Tribe setting and watched native dancing and saw how these people still live in primitive huts and use simple tools to live. It was very eye opening and very different from our US culture. We also took a tour of the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) to see how media plays a roll in this country. Being a broadcast journalism major, this was especially cool for me.
Tomorrow we are going to a street market to get some African artifacts and then some of us might go skydiving! Hopefully we can pull that off because it would be really fun! I'll keep you all updated at a later time because I have limited internet access here and my time is just about up!
Talk to you later,
Shane
Posted by Shane at 08:14 AM » Want to read or post comments about this? »
January 05, 2008
Hello from Africa!
Hey everybody! I hope you are all enjoying your time off from school. I am here in Johannesburg, South Africa, having a blast with all the other St. Thomas students here studying intercultural communication. It has been a whirlwind of a week so far, so let me tell you all about it.
We arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon South African time after about 26 hours in the air. It was a long trip, but it has been well worth it so far. Once we cleared customs we made it to our hotel and just recovered from the long trip. Our hotel is really great. It is a campus of sorts with lots of different buildings. My door opens to the outside and there are trees and all kinds of plans within two steps of my room. We eat breakfast every morning in this great outdoor restaurant at the hotel that serves real authentic African food. Some of it is pretty good, while others aren’t too good for my American stomach!
On Thursday we visited a township called Soweto which stands for Southwestern Townships. It is a place where poor blacks were forced to move to by the Apartheid government. I’m sure we all have some idea of what “poor Africa” is like, but until you have seen it for yourself you really can’t understand it. We visited a community where the children run around barefoot amongst broken glass. Families literally live in metal and plastic shacks no bigger than a res hall room, and there is only one faucet of running water for the entire community. They use that water to cook, drink, and bathe. There are other parts of Soweto that aren’t too poor, and we went to visit those as well. We visited the home of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both lived on the same street and both are Nobel Peace Prize Winners. After visiting those places we ate lunch at a Soweto restaurant called Wandie’s. It was quite a cultural experience. Needless to say, the food preparation laws are not the same here in South Africa as they are in the US. Nevertheless, the food was good and it was nice to visit with the locals.
On Friday we visited the US Embassy and then just hanged out together as a group. We had a good time socializing. Today we went to see the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill, home to the South African Supreme Court. We are in Jo’burg for one more day and Monday we move on to Durban. I’ll try to get some pictures on my blog so you can see what’s all going on.
Have a great day guys!
Shane
Posted by Shane at 07:42 AM » Want to read or post comments about this? »
