Enjoying life :)

Just a quick update from my life down here in South Africa. I’m sorry but this post is going to consist more of pictures than text, since I’m short on time and the Internet connection isn’t the best :)

Right now I’m sitting in a hostel in Knysna, which is a beautiful town placed on the Garden Route. However, let me start with the days before traveling to South Africa, the exchange at the University of Western Cape and the first days in Cape Town.

From the 29^th -30^th of November I have been in Lusaka for having the mid term evaluation. Said in few words, it was nice to see all the other volunteers again and spend some time with them. However, it was not planned and well-organised at all!!! T.I.A. I guess :D I think we spent more time with waiting for the facilitators to arrive than with actually evaluating our stays in the different organisations and host families. 

Here some pictures:

Lina and me enjoying the sun and a good book while waiting

Lina presenting her presentation about her life in Zambia

Doreen, Frank, Steve and Terese listening

Waiting...

Waiting...

Doreen leading the evaluation of the mid term evaluation...as you maybe can guess, we had a lot of things to say :D

On the 1^st of December it finally was time for us to go to Cape Town!!! We were really looking forward to see and experience some new things and especially to get an a bit more westernized life :) And we are definitely NOT living an African life here!!! Cape Town or at least the part of Cape Town we are experiencing, is more like Europe or the USA than Africa! However, it’s an AMAZING city with nice places and lovely food and wine :)

At the waterfront

My, happy to get some christmas feeling :)

The waterfront

Good music at the waterfront

Christmas at the waterfront

Lunch break from shopping :)

But more about this in few seconds, since the main reason why we went to Cape Town is that we werehaving an exchange at the University of Western Cape from the 3^rd-8^th of December.

In short, we had a really good week, with interesting lectures about e.g. “Mega Sport Events”, “HIV/Aids and Sport”, “Gender issues in Sport”, “Sport and community development” and “NCD’s in developing communities” (NCD = Non communicable disease) and a nice spare time programme e.g. consisting of Lady Gaga concert and Christmas dinner.

Here some impressions

Welcome dinner

Welcome present from UWC (University of Western Cape)

Dr. Allen presenting about Mega Sport Events

Vegard ready for lunch

Johanne, Hanne, Vegard and Ingrid presenting 

On our way to the concert

Lina, Terese, Johanne and me ready for Lady Gaga

Lina, Johanne and me even more ready :)

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga

Lina packing

The self-made christmas light

My room at UWC

Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner :) Johanne, Lina and me

Enjoying Anders' speech

Nice dessert

Johanne enjoying the "Political History of Southern Africa" lecture

 

Christmas :)

Ready for our holiday :)

Well, after successfully finishing our exams Saturday afternoon, it finally was time for HOLIDAY!!!!! Yeahhhh :)

And what is/was on the programme????

In short, Sunday and Monday we played tourists in Cape Town, were we went to the Robben Island, Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, Clifton Beach and enjoyed a lot of nice food and good drinks :)

Here some impressions:

Ready for Robben Island

The boat

Lovely ocean

Lina and me :)

A prisoner telling about his stay

The beds

The shower

Nelson Mandela's cell

Table mountain

Nice view

Nice view

at the backpackers

Lion's head

Nice view

The group :)

Me and the table mountain

Enjoying a ncie lunch

Nice with sushi :)

uhhh, the water is cold (Johanne and Janita)

Me

Nice view

Christmas at the backpackers :)

Christmas at the backpackers :)

Tuesday it was time for us (Arnt, Vegard, Janita, Lina, Ingrid, Johanne and me) to start our road trip to Port Elizabeth. The first stop was at the most southern point in Africa, Cape Agulhas, were we spent a nice evening having picnic during the sunset, enjoying some lovely fish and enjoying the lovely beach and ocean. It is sooooo nice to see and swim in the ocean!!!

Janita and Ingrid

Nice bedroom

The backpackers

Christmas :)

Lovely beach

Me enjoying the water

Nice lighthouse

Southernmost Tip of Africa :)

Our car

Me jumping 

Nice sunset

So yeah, now we are staying in Knysna 2 nights, going to Jeffrey’s Bay tomorrow and staying there 2 nights (and were we are celebrating my birthday :)) and ending our trip on Sunday in Port Elizabeth :) Lina, Arnt, Johanne and Vegard are from there travelling to Tanzania and I’m going to drive the bus back to Cape Town with Janita and Ingrid. And the best thing is, I’m going to meet Pascal in 5 days!!! And Patrick in 10 days and my mum in 14 days!!!! Juhhuuuuu!!!!

In case I don’t manage to write a new post before Christmas:

I wish you all a lovely Christmas eve and day, with a lot of good food, nice people and snow/sun (you can choose what you prefer ;))