I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted. That is much the South African way of life though, just getting around to things when you get around to them. I do, however, have a bit of an excuse...I went on an impromptu quick visit back to Canada! For those who I was not able to see, I apologize, however there was not enough time to journey far to visit all those who are near and dear to my heart. I assure you however, that I will make time to see you when I am home again in November.Here is a quick catchup regarding what transpired in the lead up to my trip home: my roommate, Jen, returned home to Canada at the very end of May for just over two months. That left just Ilya and I to entertain ourselves (and cook for ourselves! AHHH!) for awhile. Needless to say, with our resident chef out of the country, there were a lot of dinners that consisted of soup or salad and a great many dinners eaten out at restaurants! Ilya was also planning on going home for awhile and although I had not intended to go home at all until November, I decided that I did not want to stay in Cape Town alone and that the weather was too cold and wet for it to be worthwhile for anyone to come and visit. Thus, I decided to hop on a plane and head back to Canada for a bit. The experience of being home however, was a very unusual experience and one worth sharing...
Reverse culture shock is very difficult to explain to anyone who has not personally experienced it themself. I can really only best describe it as feeling "lost". It is difficult to travel to what one considers "home" and feel that it really doesn't feel like the same old "home" anymore. For the first week I felt sad, unsettled and frustrated and I know that at first I may have disappointed my friends and family who were so excited to see me. The second night I was home I went to a bar to party with all of my friends and by the end of the night I was in tears because it felt so weird to me. You see, South Africa feels like a temporary home and yet my home in Canada didn't feel like a place where I fully fit in anymore and this gave me a terrifying sense of being "ungrounded". It was really scary. I resented the materialistic and robotic routine that I felt when being at home at first and I missed the poverty that quite frankly keeps me humble. I missed the slower pace of life and the emphasis on taking time to really ponder life. I love Canada and I love my family and friends dearly and this bizarre experience was no reflection of changing feelings for my country or my loved ones. But it did however reflect upon the fact that I have changed and that my values and my view on life and myself and the world have drastically changed beyond anything that I could have imagined. The important lesson that I learned from all of this is that it is easy to get caught up in a fast pace of life and not take time to really think about what is important and who one is as a person, but when one is removed from that fast pace of life, things are put into perspective and a person can one day wake up and realize that the routine they lived was really only just day-to-day motions that he/she never questioned. We must therefore always question everything that we do on a day to day basis and weigh out its value. How much do we do because we really want to and because it makes us truly happy or provides us with self growth or self discovery and how much do we do just to fill the time or because it seems to be what everyone else is doing?
Now I am happy to say that with a bit of time, I adapted to life in Canada a bit more, but in a way I almost didn't want to. It's so easy to jump back into routine and I didn't want to forget what it felt to be on the outside of that. I spoke to a past co-worker who visits Kenya every year and she said that she experiences reverse culture shock when she comes back every single time, but it keeps her humble, forcing her to remember what it's like to be outside of that routine. I guess that if I end up living in Canada for the rest of my life, I will make regular trips to South Africa to keep myself humble and to remind myself of what is important in life.
Since arriving back in South Africa I have been balancing touristy activities with a brand new school semester. Ilya's sister is visiting, so we have made trips down to Cape Point, where we saw baboons and penguins again. We also went to the wine regions for some wine tasting. The highlight however, has been driving east up the coast to Hermanus, where we saw whales!! We took the most breathtaking drive along the ocean for about 2 hours and ended up at this sleepy town which has some of the best whale watching in the world. People line the cliffside to watch southern right whales play around in the bay. You don't even have to go out in a boat and you really don't even need binoculars, you just stand or sit there and look out and you can see whales. It's absolutely amazing and something that I was incredibly excited to have seen. We ate lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the bay and while we ate we were able to gaze out at the beautiful mountains and the odd whale popping out of the water. I think we will return to Hermanus at the end of September when there is a big whale festival because at that point there can be up to 70 whales in the bay!! (note: I added a pic of Hermanus and a pic of a whale, but I was always way too slow with the camera to get a good whale pic, so I gave up on the camera and just enjoyed...I will get better whale pics later cuz the one I have posted sucks, sorry.)
As for school, I have two new classes...one is called "Economics of AIDS in Africa" and the other is "International Organizations". The Economics class is taught by a very well-known researcher named Nicoli Nattrass, so I'm very excited to be in her class. There are only 7 of us in the class and the class format is basically just group discussion on various AIDS topics so I absolutely love it!
I apologize again for my very long absence and I promise to blog again very soon...weekly at least!
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