I can't find my pen...

You know it's exam time when...

Now, where did I leave my pen...?

I was just holding it before I picked up my laptop, I'm sure I just put it down on the book I was making notes in, how could it have gone so far away...

Oh... There it is... Please excuse me if you find chewing on the back of a pen offensive. This one does not have much life left anyway. I'm studying like a boss, but going through ink incredibly fast.

A superficial treaty

Over the weekend there was a march, the International Parade. What does this mean? It means that people dress up in the colours of an assigned country, and march carrying that flag down through the streets of town.

Taking over the streets of Grahamstown

Local groups and schools added to the festivities, leading the march in dance

What it's supposed to be is promoting unity of our Rainbow Nation, and rising up against xenophobia. Because xenophobia has been a problem in South Africa in the past, awareness of it and activism against it is a great idea. The problem is that majority of the people participating don't know this, and just grab the opportunity to dress up with their friends and do something different with their weekend. There were some comments of people not even knowing what many of the flags were, understandably, so some educational value of the march was lost there as well.

Going all out for China

What I found ironic was the way in which different countries "mingled". Because the march represents countries standing together and putting aside their differences, these interactions demonstrate how we can all just get along (as countries). The issue, though, was that most of the countries were being represented by people who don't know anything about the country they are representing, so the meaning of this is lost, to a degree.

Mingling... Any suggestions on which countries these two are?
What about the nature of the relationship between the countries?

Zimbabwe of course had a substantial following, with most
of those representing it being from Zimmmmm

The event was a lot of fun, it certainly brought groups together (like residences and societies), and it was a little educational. Unfortunately it wasn't advertised enough, so there was apparently a smaller turnout than in previous years. With their advertising they also would have been able to get more of the messages across about why they are doing it. Within each country/representing group, they probably also could have worked on making sure that people knew at least a little something about the country.

Margaret Smith House (my res), represented Cameroon. We made "traditional" masks as props, because that seemed to be a common trend on Google, but I think we should at least have found out more about what the masks mean. It was all in good fun, though, and I'm glad we participated. Last year our participation was so enthusiastic that we earned a cake for the res. Let's hope we did so well again this year, that cake was delicious.

Margaret Smith House representing Cameroon

Preparations: Chrissi Preuss (RSA)
paints flags onto Jenny Guild (Zim)

Kettle baths and loads of laundry

In my previous post, I reported on how there was no water in Grahamstown. Here are some details on living in these conditions. Not to be read by the weak-of-stomach...

The water supply was dodgy from Sunday lunchtime, something we became aware of as we were served our lunch on polystyrene plates with plastic knives and forks. This is becoming more and more of a problem, as it is now Wednesday, and we are still unable to flush our toilets, or have a shower.

Luckily, we have rainwater tanks behind our building. Unfortunately, it hasn't rained in a few weeks, so this supply is dwindling as well (unsurprisingly, as it has to cater to the water needs of 73 girls), and our neighbouring building of 88 boys has run out of their rainwater supply completely, so I hear.

I had my first kettle bath yesterday. I am fortunate to have a sink in my room: I don't know how I would feel about bathing from a sink in the bathroom where people come, do their business, and leave, unable to flush after themselves, and leaving a horrible smell behind them. You come into the building, and you are just hit by a wall of odours, emanating from bodies who, like me, have been unable to shower as often as they might have, and who, apparently, don't know how to fill up a bucket of water to flush the toilet after themselves. It is severely unpleasant.

This morning I decided the kettle bath wouldn't work for me, so I went down to the gym where there was rumoured to be water. Apparently I was not the only one to have heard such rumours: the change rooms, which are normally otherwise fairly empty at 6:30 am, was full, the floors wet, as ladies endured harsh conditions. My shower was brief: it was cold, with little water pressure (a huge disappointment, as the gym pressure is normally exceptionally good). One of the showers was blocked, verging on flooding. But I got to wash my hair, and my whole body. I now wait with anticipation for the water to come back, dreading the possibility of it not returning before my Spinning class that I have to instruct later today (the uniform for which I have to wash by hand, again).

My laundry is piling up: it was my intention to do laundry the other afternoon. I could have done it in the morning, but I was procrastinating. "It's fine, I'll do it this afternoon!" I had thought. I will never put off doing my laundry again: I am nearly down to my last set of underwear, and I am running out of laundry "shelf" space (the laundry basket was full a very long time ago).

Hold thumbs that pressure returns the water to us on the hill soon, and I am able to clean myself before I return home on Friday: we wouldn't want my mother thinking I am unable to look after myself at university.

Confession time

Ok, I have a confession. I am an addict. But I'm going to say it's not a problem. We are all addicts in a similar way. The content of mine is just different. Some people have Facebook, some have computer games. Some people are addicted to YouTube, while others are addicted to 9Gag. Me? I'm addicted to something a little more unhealthy (but sometimes it can be good for you...).

I am addicted to food porn...

"What is this "food porn" you speak of?" you may find yourself asking. Well, my dear friends, behold...

Rolo brownie trifles from Bakingdom.com

Coconut cake with chocolate chunks and coconut
drizzle from Heidirobb.com

Easy pad thai from Browniesfordinner.com

Sweet & spicey bacon chicken from
diaryofarecipeaddict.blogspot.com

Food porn holds the wonders of all sorts of magical food. Sometimes it comes with a recipe that you will never be able to follow, because it either is way too complicated, or you live in a third-world-country where you don't even get half of the ingredients!

And never mind the healthified recipes: if you are lucky to have access to the ingredients (should you know where to even find them!), the ingredients are worth quadruple the value of just buying a simple packet of biscuits. Which is much quicker than having to make all these delicious things from scratch. I want my brownies, and I want them NOW!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar from

www.kevinandamanda.com

Ever worried about being unhealthy? Ever felt concern that the massive, fudgey, ooey, gooey, chocolate brownie mess with the melted marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles might just go straight towards making those gym pants even tighter? Never fear! Food porn won't make you fat! As I've mentioned, I'm a Calorie counter, but, luckily for me, poring over delicious food doesn't add any fat or calories or carbs to your food diary.

Apparently this light BBQ chicken pizza from
pinchofyum.com only has 150 Calories per piece...
And it looks delicious! Mmmm pizza...

Hey look! Healthy-ish food! I made this
one pot pasta from Marthastewart.com,
and it was really delicious

What does sometimes happen, however, is that it consumes your time. There is also the chance that you do end up getting fat anyway because you were too busy staring at the food, and not going to exercise instead. I find this happens a lot with looking at inspiringly slim girls as well... Too much time looking and wanting, and not enough time getting off my ass and doing something about it!

Maybe I'll go into the evils of "planning" instead of "doing" one day. Today is not that day. Instead, I'll just leave you with some deliciousness. Which, luckily for you, is silent, and does not require that you instantly shut your laptop screen should someone walk into the room. Enjoy!

Caprese lasagne roll ups from cookingclassy.com. I
don't think we have easy access to such long pieces
of lasagne here. So I thought I could find a recipe for
fresh pasta, and I can make my own! Lol that's not gonna
happen...

My brother is desperate for me to make him molten
cupcakes. I'll find a recipe similar to this Betty Crocker
one (another product we can't get here...   

NELM - No one Even Likes Museums

We had our second on-site Journalism practical this week, and we found ourselves in yet another historically rich museum that I had never heard of: NELM - the National English Literary Museum. So, like, I'm not really a huge fan of museums, right...? Other people are though, and that's okay too.

People from all over the world have visited NELM. Imagine 

we had something like the Internet?

But, when you don't have a choice when doing something, you just have to make the most of it. I think the most significant thing about that day was the blistering heat, and the best part of the museum was that they had air-con (in one of the rooms only...). The exhibition in the foyer was nicely done though, and I appreciated the fact that all the printing was done on recycled materials, and that, in trying to preserve the environment (/landscape) that they were promoting in the exhibition (literary landscapes), they avoided some unnecessary irony.

Environmentally friendly displays of the African landscapes

As far as content goes, I thought that it was rather interesting that they had the actual works of famous writers, great writers, and most of all, South African writers. I think what put me off was the fact that I would never use this institution: if I need to get a hold of a piece of writing, I will get it off the Internet. I am glad, however, that the original artefacts are somewhere tangible though - everything needs a home, and it's not as though you could just throw away the original manuscripts of Herman Charles Bosman!

Some of the writers whose works are kept at NELM

Considering the historical relevance and significance that many of their artefacts have, I was not impressed with their filing system. It's not that big of a deal for now though, as they will be moving to a more "state-of-the-art" facilities, where there will be appropriate preservation methods put into place. It kind of reminds me of the Vatican Archives (and scenes from Angels and Demons).

The most interesting thing I learnt about this place was that it existed. And that some guys discovered diamonds and scratched on the windows, with the scratches still being visible today. I also learnt about how significant Guy Butler was to Rhodes and Grahamstown. I think I need to learn more about this character who seems to have started every little thing at this University...

Photographing the diamond-scratched windows for the assignment

The History of Printing

Newspapers hanging up to dry

This week took us to the Eastern Star Museum in Grahamstown. It's the centre and origin of much of South Africa's printing history, with regards to the press.

It was quite interesting: it definitely gave me a renewed appreciation for computers. Thank goodness we have proper printers now! Setting up each individual letter in the forms was just far too finicky. I can't imagine having to do full sheets for the real newspapers, and the letters are even smaller! What a dirty job as well...

Because we love to cut loads of copies of newspaper manually

I suppose it was somewhat beneficial for us to visit this place. It was interesting to see where we, as journalists, came from, however, I don't think that it is necessarily imperative to us being good journalists.

I did find myself wondering, though, why Grahamstown was so important and at the forefront of so many social and economic advances, yet we find ourselves still stuck in almost the same kind of time! We seem to come up with all these amazing companies or discoveries or progressions, only to have them passed on to some bigger and better place, not advancing this town nearly as much as the other city (often Johannesburg) we had just advantaged.

Finicky, finicky, all the time

Now, it is time for me to make a postcard. To no one in particular... Using on of the pictures you see in this blog post. Fun times!!! :D

But no one even reads backwards anymore, anyway! 

My first time(s)

This is definitely the week of firsts. I gave my first tutorial this week, as an official Human Kinetics and Ergonomics tutor. That was fairly nerve-wracking, but went well, I think. As an introvert, I found it very strange to have fourteen people watching me and hanging on my every word for a whole 45minutes. But it's definitely a position that I think I can grow into, because it is driven by my passion for the subject and for the human body. So that will be able to guide me nicely.

Practice makes perfect from the instructor's bike

On the other hand, however, I took my first Indoor Cycling class today. This will have to take some getting used to. I think I am going to need a lot more practice, so I must definitely get myself some more studio time. I had issues with music (even though I was prepared, you know when you just over-anticipate things... Well, that). As I said, I am an introvert, for the most part, so voice projection was also a bit of an issue. I'll just have to remember to lower the music when I want to talk, until I become one of those intensely energetic and loud spinning instructors.

There were a few other firsts this week, but none quite as substantial as those two. This is going to be a great year. :D

This is my home (kind of...)

And at the beginning of my final year of Undergraduate studies, I decide to blog about my experiences, and to share some of the going-ons of this small town that is trying so desperately to steal my heart from big-city Johannesburg.

Grahamstown: a quiet University town in the middle of nowhere. I had never been here until the very first day that I was expected to be here. The Eastern Cape? Where was that even? The province even cost me marks in my final Geography exam when I couldn't remember that it existed.

Being here serves as a frequent reminder of why South Africa still can't be classified as a first-world country. As a city girl, this small town life took quite a bit of adjustment on my part. I think I am slowly getting into it though, ever so slowly becoming a part of this historically-rich and unique town.

I am undecided about my future path (aren't we all), so what I am studying will keep my options open. Maybe at the end of yet another year here, I will be a little closer to knowing what I want to do?

Join me as I experience this town for another year. This will be a writing platform, hopefully expanding my writing abilities, and it will serve as a note to you, the reader, on some of the goings-on in this town. Maybe it will grow on you faster than it has grown on me.