Twas the best of times, twas the worst of times. This past week has been just that. It started with absolutely amazing experiences around Cape Town with some absolutely phenomenal people and then…BAM! Little B is knocked off her feet with a bad case of strep throat. My left tonsil looks like there’s a lump of charcoal covered in white netting. My lower cheeks and neck are quite swollen and sore, making me look a bit like a pear-head. This is an exaggeration, but adds to the imagery. I’ve never had strep throat so severe. After a few days of letting it go and immersing myself in activities 137%, I finally pulled my weak feverish body to health services, where the nurse immediately sent me to the doctor for some help. That was yesterday. Today was all videos! And for those of you who know my well, I am often opposed to movies for a few reasons, the major one being they take away from time that could be spent productively working or building relationships. However, extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. Interestingly enough, one of the videos I picked from my roommate’s collection happened to be the Beyond Words video from 2001 of a group of Bahá’ís from around the world who came to South Africa, traveled around and did dances with messages about eliminating the extremes of poverty and wealth, ending poverty, staying away from drugs, and stopping domestic violence among other things. Low and behold when I turned it on and watched the members of the group dance in from offstage, I saw TWO PEOPLE I knew! My first-year roommate, Jess Thimm, and my good friend, Jenni Burke! It was so amazing. Talk about globalization.

Let me take a few steps back though and update y’all on a few things. Last I wrote I was still figuring out my classes; whether I should take 3 or 4. The second to last day before we had to add claases, I decided 3, but then went to talk with Bill Moseley, my geography professor from Macalester who is in Cape Town for the summer, who told me about a really interesting Urban Geography class, which I immediately took action toward adding. All I needed was the professor’s signature, a seemingly simple task, but by the last day to add classes I only had an email approval. The registrar’s office gave me til Monday to get the signature. So after four long walks up to the top of upper campus to the professor’s office where I was met each time by a closed door, I figured it must not have been meant to be. I want to emphasize at this point that upper campus is not close to anything but upper campus, and upper upper campus is no less than 237 steps away from upper campus. So four walks up and down pretty much gave me my exercise for the next two months. I additionally went to the class at its meeting time on Monday and was greeted with a note on the board that said, “Urban Geography has been cancelled today because the professor is stuck in Johannesburg due to the South African Airways strike. So that pretty much sealed the deal, and I’m taking 3. Being sick right now really makes that feel like the right decision.

Poetry in Motion

Winter in Cape Town
Summer at home
About the seasons
Is my poem

I write right now
Safely inside
While wind blows
On the outside

Rain falls swiftly
At my feet
Hood covers face
Making it hard to meet

People walking around
Cigarettes in hand
To classes, labs
Teachers who demand

Students to work
Day and night
Ah! What should I do?
I took a long flight

To come here to learn
In the classroom and out
3 or 4 classes?
I am in doubt

Whether the weather
Will wither
Or whether the sun
Will come out.

Now that all the big firsts have happened, I am moving on to my seconds: 2nd day of classes, 2nd day in my new flat, and 2nd day of Cape Town winter weather. Let me expand.

Classes… I am taking African Dance; Race, Culture, and Identity in Africa; Critical Psychology; and Zulu. However, as mentioned above, I am debating hard about dropping a class for sanity’s sake and for being able to have more time to experience life as well, including some really amazing volunteer opportunities. Two of the courses I have are going to be pretty tough, one being a post-grad 6-credit course and another being an undergrad 6-credit course. Unfortunately it is Zulu that would have to go, which was my 2nd choice of languages (going with the theme) because the other 3 classes are nicely fulfilling all sorts of requirements at Macalester. But 2nd choices or options are sometimes just what is meant to be. After all, South Africa was also my 2nd choice and it’s been great. So I’ll keep y’all posted on what I decide in the next 3 days.

New Flat… Yes, that’s right folks! I have a place to unpack my life and my energy; a place to read books, to cross-stitch and to relax, including a TV show every once in a while. I moved in with a Persian girl named Anisa who was born and raised here in SA, however her parents now live in Botswana. Her cousin, Mona, from Thunder Bay, Canada, is also staying here for about another month, then she’ll go home for a bit and come back to do her honors at UCT. She originally came down to southern Africa for a wedding and has since fallen in love, feeling amazingly at home, imagining she could spend the rest of her life here. This is not an uncommon occurrence; I feel like every other person I meet who is not from SA has found it to be the place of their heart’s calling. Me? I’m not so sure for myself, my heart fluttering more at the thought of Minnesota or Jamaica, but one never knows. Nonetheless, these two girls are amazing to live with although I miss having kids knocking on my door every once in a while as well as having the Heegaard family energy around! But the two best things about it are: 1) they are Bahá’í and 2) they live only100 meters from the place I was staying so moving was easy. I couldn’t have found a better place. HOWEVER, my room is completely bare and it needs things to liven it up. SO, I will put my new address where y’all can send me something to put on my wall :)! PLEASE HELP MY WALL.

Address:
Brittany Lynk
#1 Florence Villas
9 Nursery Road
Rondebosch
Cape Town 7700
South Africa

To SMS or text me:
011-27-72-796-8220 (I think that should work)

Weather in Cape Town… Winter here is quite chilly, oftentimes rainy, very grey, and cloudy. Winters here are also sweaty warm, sunshiny, cloudless with a blue background, and completely unpredictable. The whole first week was the second option and now has changed to the first. I have been told also that some days have all four seasons in one. Of course winter here is nothing like in Minnesota, but it’s definitely not conducive to meeting people around campus or enjoying the fresh outdoors for long. Nonetheless it’s the real ting dat, and it comes with the package. I met a girl on the shuttle today who absolutely loves this kind of weather because she comes from Natal in the eastern part of SA where it is always hot…no change. More than anything though, weatherwise, I wish I still had those nice long days of Minnesota. It gets dark here around 6, and with the dark for sure comes the cold (and there’s not really heating like we’re used to), so I just have to stay strong like a true Minnesotan or whip out the one and only sweater I brought due to packing limitations, which isn’t my favorite and really doesn’t keep me warm. But it’s the experience.

On a last note I think it’s important to mention that I had my own first real Bahá’í experience on Saturday. Many Bahá’ís seem to miraculously know all other Bahá’ís, or know of each other through people, meeting at some conference in Munich, serving together in Delhi, being friends with someone who grew up in Haiti with another friend, or whatever…there’s always some way to connect. So I can oftentimes do the connection thing, where I can meet a Bahá’í and find a connection 1 or 2 levels removed, but not on Saturday. So I was getting picked up to go to Bahá’í Winter School for a few days, something like a church retreat for people of all ages and the people driving said they had to go pick up another American girl…they didn’t know her name and didn’t know where she was from. So we stopped and she hopped in, very bubbly and said, “Hi, I’m Soriah and I’m living in Boston.” Now, I was starting to think I recognized her, but didn’t really know how until she said her last name, Anvary(sp?), at which point I remembered she was Baubeck’s sister and I had met her at Kate’s New Year’s Eve party half a year ago! So that was very exciting to me and definitely started off the weekend right. The Winter School was amazing, and I got to meet so many fun pre-youth, youth, and adults; plus I got to eat some delicious food. Mmm mmm! It was lovely.

Tonight, I hit the books and the needle, and I suppose tomorrow will be the day of thirds, full of fun adventures.

I am nearing that all-important “I’ve been here a week” mark. And as I sit here typing I am in the same position I was that long week ago—without permanent accommodation. When I was first making decisions about studying abroad, I was faced with deciding between a program like SIT where the bulk of time is spent with 12 or so other Americans or a university-based program where all classes are taken at the university. There are also a few other programs, I’ve recently learned about, that are university-based, but do a whole lot for the students from finding housing to getting cell phones to organizing fun sports and travel opportunities. As a big senior in college with many debts accruing I decided to take the cheapest route and directly enroll--no frills, no nothing. I figured I could get it all worked out somehow. After all I know people who know people. That’s gotten me quite a ways so far offering very unique experiences, but I am still stuck with my small town understanding of how to figure things out in a big city...hence me not securing housing yet. One perfect opportunity has popped up, but with Cape Town being a first-world city, it costs a pretty quarter, which I cannot decide if I am willing to pay or not. Tomorrow I am heading out of the city and will give the decision-making machine a rest as well as giving the energies of the world time to sort out a few things.

As long as I’m on the topic of searching for things, I should add that if you’re ever searching for a worldly experience or if you’re the type of person who wants to travel the world, you could save yourself time and money by taking one big trip here to Cape Town. I have learned more about Northern Ireland by chatting with they Northern Irish girl I have been staying with the last two days than in all my years combined. I’ve also been informed about Botswana from a Ghanaian who grew up in Botz and now lives in NY, but is planning to move to South Africa. The only people I have yet to find are probably Mongolians. Of course, there are a few other nations I haven’t found, but Cape Town is quite a mix of anything you could think of. It’s perhaps like New York with half the population. You can see Chinese, Indians, Persians, Malay, English, Americans, other Europeans, a few South Americans, and Africans from around the continent as well as any mixture combination of the above. It’s pretty interesting to be in a place where culture and identity feel so fluid and dynamic. However, once the census comes around there are only 4 choices of race to choose: White, Black, Indian, or Chinese, creating a very stiff social construction around race changing what could have been “Out of many, one people” to “Out of many, four people.”

Lastly I want to give Macalester a thumbs up for its international recruitment, especially when it happens to get kids straight from their home countries. There are a lot of really cool, deserving people out there who may never have heard of a UWC. Plus it has been these kids that have been the ones who are known by people I have met. One Italian boy from Arusha I met went to high school with Elliot Kinsey and the Ghanaian from Botz went to high school with Ssebbaale. It’s a crazy small world.

This is WHERE?!

Who would think that a hairball could cause so much trouble. Tonight was my first hair washing in South Africa and I couldn’t get the extra hair to destick from the top of the bin, which has been one of the hardest things thus far on the trip. This is an exaggeration, but I have been surprised by how not difficult or non-irritating things have been. Yes, I know I need to wait til culture shock sets in, but for now that’s my feeling. God’s protection and love is on my side in a crazy way. I couldn’t be more grateful.

So ever since I’ve gotten off the airplane I’ve been wondering where I am. The architechture screams EUROPE, the accents scream EUROPE, and the prices scream EUROPE. The hair is blonde, the eyes are blue every which way I turn. So I wonder, did the plane take a wrong turn. No, it couldn’t have, because I have seen Macalester students Rachel Tenney, Seth Schlotterbeck, and Prof. Bill Moseley here and there and know for sure that they never planned a trip to Europe anywhere in their itineraries to and from South Africa. So I must really be here in South Africa, but it’s not what I imagined. American and European international students are swarming in packs around the areas and I buzz around trying to get a feel for the different bees. None of them have stingers and are lots of fun to talk to, but I am holding back my 100% and running around with excitement at about an 87%. And would y’all believe that at 87% I’m still remembering a fair amount of peoples’ names that I’ve met, whether from Holland, Zimbabwe, or Wisconsin? I’ve also officially met my first and twenty-first white South African. Crazy. I also knew there were white South Africans, but could not really imagine how it all worked. I have had no chance to engage any race conversations, which I have been told are a favorite for South Africans, so will report back later on the current integration results and race relations, which could be a whole university course.

Special advice to all the folks out there: Learn greetings (i.e. Hello, How are you?) in as many languages as possible. Not only was it a fun thing for me to do at Macalester, it has paid off hard core here in increasing my coolness (i.e. my validity as someone interested in getting involved in the local scene as well as helping give Americans a new image as knowers of little known American knowledge.) Zimbabweans, a Ghanaian from South Africa and a number of other South Africans from various ethnic groups have bulged their eyes and produced confused smiles as a likkle white girl from Minnesota has somehow pulled out a Shona, Twi, Zulu, Tswana, or Sotho greeting. Also learn the capitals of as many countries as possible, especially the obscure places, which will come in handy at the most random times. Well, tomorrow is pre-registration, so I must get some rest and let the earth and its energies do their magic in putting the crazy mixed up details of my life in place.

P.S. There is a place to comment on the blogsite, and I’m going to run a question & answer forum where you write a question and I will respond. For the first question, which I actually asked myself before I left: “What will you say when people ask you where you’re from?” Well, the best answer so far has been Minnesota! Proud to represent! Although one person thought it was somewhere in Europe, most people have either known, generally known, or pretended to know about Minnesota’s existence. So next time you’re abroad and afraid to say you’re from the USA, just say your state (where applicable.)

Aiports, Energy, and Insights
Note to readers: If any of you are familiar with Courtney Dicmas’s emails from Brasil, you know she has a special flare for bringing the place to your emotions and tactile senses. And Keon West’s random drama from France bringing such real feelings to the reader, you will understand where I am trying to draw my inspiration as I begin writing these blogs. We’ll see how successful I am, and who knows, maybe I’ll create my own style by the time I am done.

Stop, 2 • 3, Breathe, 2 • 3, Think your way to sense. Airports are crazy places with all sorts of people from random places going random places. Each with a story, a life journey, pain and sorrows, and countless joys. The air is stale, with a constant message booming through telling people to find their parties. I sure wish I could get invited to one of these parties some day. Bleach blonde 57-year-olds walk around with tight jeans, a thong and an American flag poking out of their purse. Do they remember they’re traveling? It is continual “hurry up and wait” routine. It is full of accents, languages, tears, and “Love Actually” hugs. I have to say I am thankful that signs are still in English, cause those Italian signs did not get my anywhere I was supposed to be. However, I am still not in the correct location to wait my 8 hours until the non-stop flight to South Africa begins. But once I find a place, I am just going to sit and chill, letting my body go into a semi-hibernation mode for the time being.

Last night was the bomb-diggityest goodbye party with a plethora of people coming over to wish me off. WOW is my word of choice to describe my resultant feelings. I thought the beach party earlier this summer was amazing, but WHOA, this was tha real ting dis. Sushi and spring rolls, banana bread with chocolate chips and without, and jello with freshly-picked strawberries among other things found their way into the mouths of the people. Laughter, loudness, and lavishness characterized the evening. However, there was really no time to talk to people, for as Nyalleng said, “You have to talk to everyone, so you don’t really get to talk to anyone.” And even now, it really doesn’t feel like I’m really leaving for half a year. It’s gonna be good. I feel it in my fingers; I feel it in my toes.

Anyway, I’ll let the airport energy consume me for awhile and give your poor reading eyes a break. Until next time…. Brich-i-neeeee

P.S. Those of you who wrote messages in the little book Demoya was militarily instructing you to sign, you had me laughing and crying on the plane…no joke…out LOUD in true Brittany style. The words, the poems, the memories were so awesome and make me feel less lonely here in my little airport seat. Much love y’all, and keep it real!

Well, here I am...approximately 30 hours and 37 minutes til I hop my plane to JFK where I will wait 7 hours and enjoy my body's cool built-in walking feature before I sit down to an endless journey from JFK to Johannesburg and then to Cape Town. For those of you who have ever travelled, you are probably aware of the stale air that begins to accumulate in airplanes after fours hours or so. Well, imagine that multiplied by four and you will get an idea of what a 19 hour plane ride might be like. I leave New York at 5:55p on 8 July 2005 and arrive in Cape Town at 9:10p on 9 July 2005. Figure those hours and then subtract 7, which is how many hours South Africa is ahead of Minnesotan time and you have yourself a long journey. I am arming myself with a good book or two, a journal, and a cross-stitch in hopes that I will keep busy. I am quite fond of flying, so I am looking forward to the journey. What will happen when I get off the plane in Cape Town is my current worry, for I am without a place to stay for the first week. Not to worry, for something WILL come up, but not knowing is giving me just a bit of a scare. My current mantra is "Challenge creates growth." I hope the growth is not the stunted kind. But nonetheless I'm in fairly good spirits. It's been hard saying so many goodbyes over the last week, but it's also been fun to have several parties. It started first with a dessert party with the Heegaard's, the wonderful family I've been living with for the past year. Cheesecake and stories filled our tummies and spurred our laughter and thoughts. Then came 6/30th, the party at the Birkland's with Nadjla cooking up some delicious Persian rice and the most flavorful chicken I've ever tasted. Following that was a gut-busting party with Kim and family at Bucca de Beppo. Kim is my "non-boss" at Macalester college relations. We pretty much laughed the whole evening, bringing it to an end with the Star Spangled Banner, which I sung with her mom. Then my long weekend home with the girls (the "Roommate-a-Thon" as I called it) for the 4th of July brought my closes with my family. We all had a wonderful time going to church, driving to Itasca-the headwaters of the Mississippi, climbing a 100-ft. tower, playing Khaos, tubing down the river, picking strawberries, and having a race down the "Wadena Road," which Koby won of course. Finally the rest of the goodbyes will take place tomorrow evening at the goodbye party for friends around St. Paul. I'm definitely going out with a bang. Before I start going into details about the Jell-o with strawberries I'll be serving, I better log off for now and get some rest for what will be the almost last night in my bed.