it's been a while since I wrote on here and I definitely promised in my last post that I would be updating more often. That didn't occur as planned, but honestly, can you blame me? When there's a waterfall outside my window, volleyballs to be used, a soccer field to be played on, monkeys to shoot with paintball guns (....yup!), and a pretty heavy class schedule, I don't find the urge very often to sit at my computer and type. But! no more excuses, here goes three posts in a row :)
I am part of the Activities Committee here at AE (African Enterprise - the place where we stay) and joining it with about 14 of my peers was one of the best decisions I've made here thus far. It's a blast! We have so so many wonderful ideas of things to plan, and they're actually happening! We are a plannin' and our first event went on without any glitches.
Just some of the Activities Committee :)
We planned a Valentine's Day dinner, complete with a gourmet meal that we chose, roses, tea lights, and secret valentines! We held the dinner in the Jabulani (zulu for "happy") tent on campus. We reserved it early and set up round tables with red and black table cloths and rose centerpieces. We began setting up a few hours prior and came up with more and more ideas as time passed about how to better the night. We came up with the idea of having a photographer stand at the entrance to take pictures as every one walked in looking their best. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we made it a semi-formal affair. Everyone looked beautiful! We also came up with the idea of making a playlist for the evening that featured artists such as Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, and Dean Martin. Everything looked so classy.
Logan was chief planner of this event, and has somewhat informally taken on the role as leader in our Activities Committee. He is wonderful at it! He came up with the idea of featuring a movie after the dinner, and he even moved couches into the classroom so we could comfortably watch the movie - 50 first dates - on the big projector screen. He came up with, at the last minute, having popcorn for the movie! Without hesitation he got the kitchen going and popcorn was being made! A nice taste of home.
The dinner was so so delicious! We chose to have chicken fettucini alfredo that night with salad and watermelon. The food was such a wonderful change of pace from what we normally have for meals here. Yummmm!
The order of the night went as follows:
1. First, we walked in, dressed to the nines and took a lot of pictures with eachother! It was so nice to actually get ready for once here. None of us really straighten our hair here, due to the intense humidity, and we don't really wear make-up beacuse we usually would end up sweating it off or washing it off from jumping the swimming hole or waterfall. But, that night, everyone looked great!
2. Next we ate the delicious food that the nice cooking staff prepared. During dinner we also took a lot of pictures! Lots of goofy ones :)
My friends and I goofing off with the roses
3. During dinner, Logan got up and announced that it was time to do our secret valentine gift exchange. We had all drawn names and bought a 5 dollar gift for our secret person within the days leading up to Valentines day. Five dollars goes a LONG way in South Africa! You would be so surpised. My secret person was Tony Jien. He is awesome! He's honestly the comic relief on this trip and I love having him as a new friend. Did I mention that he is from Bolivia? Or that he speaks at least 3 languages....but with how fast he's learning Zulu, i'm sure he'll be quadlingual in no time. I had to get him just the right gift. I went with African painted Moracca's - and they were a hit! He loved them and was taking pictures and dancing around with them....AND so was everyone else! It's so funny looking at the pictures from that night because the lime green moraccas seem to have made their way into almost every one of the pictures.
Tony and I goofing off with the Morrocas!
4. After dinner, people walked around to everyone else, asked about their secret valentines and took more pictures. Some people had the bright idea of swing dancing, so they began doing that too. I'm not sure whose doing it was, but all of a sudden, swing dancing turned into salsa dancing after someone switched up the music. It was so fun! Everyone was laughing and simply having the best time trying to learn new moves from Leslie, our coordinator, and Tony, same guy mentioned above. It was spontaneous and easily went on the record for best night in South Africa thus far. One of the greatest parts about this program is the relationships, as basic as that is. We spend every waking (and sleeping) hour together, and I love the times when we're just able to have fun with eachother and laugh - which is pretty much every day.
5. After all this, those of us in the Activities Committee cleaned up, and then everyone watched 50 first dates and ate popcorn and our valentines chocolates. I ducked out of the movie a little early to skype my family and do homework that was due late that night, but all in all it was a fun, wonderful, night!
South African Valentines day > any other Valentines day out there :)
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