I have finally moved into my housing here at UCT. I am sort of concerned about my living situation for the next five months, but that hasn't stopped me from having an otherwise nice time.
A few nights ago CIEE took us to an amazing restaurant in Stellenbosch for dinner. There was lots of dancing, wine and facepainting.
Today we toured the Cape Peninsula--the jackass penguin colony (I loved this last time i was in SA), Ocean View and the Cape of Good Hope. These are some of the girls I've met--the one on the far left is Kate, who goes to DePauw, the second is Chrissy who goes to Tulane, and next to me is Emily, who goes to USC.
on the cape of good hope--the wind turned me into a troll
me and my Colby pal George--amazingly I didn't know him until this trip. notice the colby shirt he's sporting. one of the most beautiful places in the world
The internet has been lacking for a few days. I'll get it when I move into my apartment but for now I have to rely on an internet cafe down the street.
table mountain in the background The world's longest hike to the top of table mountain, all jetlagged
I've made it to Cape Town. I got in late last night from Amsterdam. The two ladies I sat next to on the flight were really old, really British, and really drunk. They told me how they come to Cape Town every winter to play golf for six weeks and how the weather is their favorite part. They also asked me if the light on the tip of the airplane wing was another plane, and they were worried that it was getting to close to our plane and that a crash was imminent.
I'm at the Excellent Guesthouse right now which my dad so expertly found through Travel and Leisure. The guy who drove me from the airport last night was incredibly friendly but I could hardly understand him because of his Afrikaans accent. Now I'm sitting outside by the pool, where it is really warm and really sunny. In Maine it's -15 degrees. This is why I wanted to go abroad in the spring.
I have sort of fallen in love with Amsterdam over the past four days. It's been beautiful, fascinating, eye-opening and a lot of fun. One thing I've noticed and probably taken for granted is how safe I've felt as a young and single female traveler. When I was in Cambodia last summer, I felt constantly on guard and uncomfortable when I walked around. Here, I felt absolutely unthreatened, even walking around at night. I experienced no street harassment, which is something a lot of young women deal with all over the world and even in the US. Of course, I remained pretty aware of my surroundings (last night, maybe not so much), but I didn't worry about my safety walking around Amsterdam. That was definitely a welcome change from my travels in Cambodia.
When I reread that it sounds absurd to compare a place like Amsterdam to Phnom Penh, but those are the only two places I've traveled alone so they're the only comparisons I can make.
I was sort of hesitant to travel alone after the summer, but being in Amsterdam has completely reaffirmed what I like about traveling alone. I like being independent and making my own schedule. I like being able to decide if I'd like to go to sleep early or if I'd like to go out. I like deciding whether I'd like to bike, walk or take the tram to my destination. I really like autonomy.
So, in a way, I'm a little bit sad to relinquish my traveling independence to my study abroad program, but I'm also really, really thankful that I'll be with a group and have built in companions for my time in South Africa. I don't like orientations and forced interactions (I was reminiscing to my mom the other day about COOT, although not positively) but I feel a lot more secure knowing that I'll be with other students who are just as clueless about living and studying abroad as I am.
I have spent a lot of time walking around since I've been here. It's pretty compact and most things are within a thirty minute walking radius. Yesterday I went to the Historich Museum. I also had a delicious lunch with incredible mint tea with a bunch of actual mint leaves in it. I was so excited.
Last night I met up with one of the people I found at the pub crawl Friday night with the intention of going out to the bars again, but we found that the group was composed mostly of (what appeared to be) fourteen year olds dressed as fairies. I walked into the bathroom and could barely reach the sink to wash my hands because there were hordes of them blocking the mirror, smearing glitter all of their faces. Needless to say, we abandoned the pub crawl for a coffeeshop. A disclaimer to my parents and whomever of my elders are reading this: marijuana is highly tolerated in the Netherlands, and smoking in a coffeeshop is on Lonely Planet's top five things to do in Amsterdam. So I don't feel guilty saying that I Indulged and got remarkably stoned.
A group of Asian men asked for individual pictures with me, so of course I had to get one on my camera too. This tends to happen when I travel. Are we related?
Today I wanted to get outside of the city so I took the train to Alkmaar, which is famous for its cheese market. Unfortunately the market only runs from April to September, but it was still fun to see a smaller town outside of Amsterdam.
As I have become increasingly interested in feminism over the past few months, one of the parts of Amsterdam that has interested me the most has been prostitution. I wanted to see the Red Light District but didn't feel comfortable doing so alone, so thanks to the internet I found an amazing tour that I joined last night. A former prostitute named Chantall led us all around the Red Light District, but our first stop as the Prostitution Information Center, started by another former prostitute, Mariska Majoor. She was absolutely amazing and completely candid about her work in the sex industry. Her main mission is to educate visitors and sex workers, and above all, to cultivate the respect that sex workers deserve. Sex work is not a field that women choose to enter as their career choice or life path, but it is work like any other, and the women who participate are worthy of the same respect of any other worker. I am not pro-prostitution; I don't think anyone is. But like drugs, prostitution has and always will exist, and it's probably much better to make it safe and monitor it than it is to sweep it under the rug and ignore it, which subsequently endangers all the parties involved.
Pictures were only allowed in certain parts of the district, such as on this bridge. The pink elephant behind me is the sign for the world's largest live sex show theatre. As part of the tour we were offered a discount to see it. I passed.
I didn't take this picture, but this is Belle, a statue that Mariska placed in the square of the Oudekerk as a reminder to respect prostitutes, who are just as much humans and women as anyone else.
After I returned from the Red Light District tour, I took a walk around my area to see what was up on a Friday night. I saw an enormous group of people around my age going into some bar, so I decided to go in. It turns out it was a huge pub crawl (almost all the participants were foreigners). I ended up joining in and didn't make it back until 3:45 this morning. Amsterdam parties a little later than Colby, or even Athens. The 2 AM last call does not exist.
I'm embarrassed to say that I'm just now getting ready to start my day. Isn't some of my exhaustion still from jetlag? I would like to think so.
Myself included, even though I probably shouldn't.
After enjoying an obligatory canal tour this morning, I rented a bike. I cruised around with no problem until I turned a quick corner and ran head on into a woman with two plastic tubs of clothing on the front of her bike. Neither one of us was hurt, but her plastic tubs fell open on the ground and the clips on the strap of my bag broke. She was incredibly friendly about it and after I apologized and helped her gather her things, she headed on her way. There was a group of four older men near me, all unshaven and a bit dirty looking, sitting on a bench smoking. As I tried to fix the clips on my bag, one of them offered to help, telling me that he was very strong and could easily put them back together. I was a little bit hesitant to hand my bag over to four homeless looking men, but they assured me they wouldn't take anything. I watched as they all pressed the metal clips into the wooden park bench, demonstrating their alleged strength. Indeed, they repaired my bag for me and sent me on my way, wishing me well in Amsterdam and advising me to be careful when turning corners on my bike.
I abandoned the streets for the less dangerous park from yesterday which I circled six times. It was therapeutic.
I have made it to Amsterdam. I got here early this morning and while I tried my best to follow the example my dad always set when traveling overseas (get off the plane, start touring immediately), after a sleepless night flight, I couldn't resist a nap today. I walked around a bit, through the Museumsplein and Vondelpark, but I'm going to save the rest for the next few days.
While I am thrilled to begin my study abroad in South Africa, I'm also absolutely nervous and uncertain. I have travelled a lot, but I've never left the USA for so long for a place where I don't know anybody. Whenever I'm asked about my travel plans, I always have to admit that I have no idea what to expect, and that is a daunting feeling.
Yesterday when Cameron dropped me off at the airport, she offered me words of advice to "do it afraid," something her brother had told her when she studied abroad in college (apparently their mom learned it from none other than Kim Bassinger, who supposedly followed the mantra in college).
I am afraid, I will admit that. But it is too late to turn back now, and I know I would forever regret it if I didn't seize this opportunity.
On a similar note, last night somewhere over the Atlantic, the R.E.M. song "E-bow the letter" from which my blog is named came up on my ipod's shuffle. Last summer I chose the title aluminum adrenaline simply because I always liked the song. But while listening to it last night, I realized that in some way, the lyrics really apply to how I feel about all of this:
"aluminum, tastes like fear, adrenaline, it pulls us near"
There's fear, but despite that fear, I am drawn to the excitement of travel, but I can only do it without expectations.
These are some of the girls I've met--the one on the far left is Kate, who goes to DePauw, the second is Chrissy who goes to Tulane, and next to me is Emily, who goes to USC. 
on the cape of good hope--the wind turned me into a troll
me and my Colby pal George--amazingly I didn't know him until this trip. notice the colby shirt he's sporting.
one of the most beautiful places in the world
