Me and Hillary

Sooooo, I haven't been blogging at all lately. Partly, because I was pretty bummed that no one suggested new names, but I just had to post this picture of me and Senator Clinton (and some other interns.) I saw her this morning at a rally for fair pay and then personally asked her to take a picture with the Feminist Majority Interns! Then, later in the day, I ran into her crossing the street and said "hello" to her and chatted for a second. It made for a pretty awesome day!

Glover's Walk Contest!!!

I've been thinking that it's time for a new name for my blog since I'm no longer living on Lover's Walk. I'm heading off to DC tomorrow, so the new name could be DC related, but it could also be something that would last longer, perhaps into my senior year...

I'm having a hard time thinking of what the new name should be--so I think I'll leave it up to all of you!! I'm keeping the web address, so it would be nice to have something related to Glover's Walk, but that's not a requirement. Please post some fun ideas, and if you pick the best one, you get the pride of knowing its the new blog title!!!! I know, you'll feel good about it.

I'm looking forward to some heated competition!!

Sweet home, Chicago

I've been back in Chicago for about five days now, and I'm finally getting used to the time difference. There were a couple very early mornings on Monday and Tuesday, but I slept until the late hour of 8:30 this morning.

So far, I've been hanging out at the house and seeing friends. My mom and I have been doing some shopping for business casual clothes; my dad took a couple days off work so we went for a great bike ride this morning and worked in the garden this afternoon. Tomorrow my dad and I are sailing with my Uncle Jim--I'm really hoping it doesn't rain because I'm super excited for a day out on the lake.

I love Chicago in the summer and it's a little sad that I'm only spending these two short weeks here. I'm really hoping to go to some good outdoor concerts before heading to DC.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to continue blogging now that I'm home. I might keep the blog going for my summer in DC but I'm not sure how interesting that will be. Additionally, I suppose I would have to change the name since I no longer live on Lovers' walk.

All semester, I've been meaning to post photos of the Lovers' Walk sign, I finally took them as I was leaving and now that I'm home seems like a good time to put them up. Here they are:

Good Bye, Cape Town

This is my very last morning in Cape Town, I head home to Chicago this evening. Yesterday, I celebrated Cape Town by going to the beach and sitting on some beautiful rocks (way, way too cold to swim). The view continues to amaze me, I think Cape Town is the most beautiful city I've ever lived in. My roommates and I had dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant here; I'm the first one in our little group to leave so it was great that we could have one last dinner together!! I still have a little more packing to do today, but we're also heading out to our favorite organic market for one last chicken avo sandwich (actually the best sandwich I've ever had in my whole life).

I'm sad to end my semester, but I'm super excited to see family and Chicago again. Its been a long time away from home and I'm anxious to see everyone!!

Farewell, South Africa.

Summer Plans

Since I'm leaving South Africa in 9 days, I've been thinking a lot about my summer, and I realized that I really haven't blogged about my plans, yet. I fly home on June 14 and then I have two weeks in Chicago until I leave for Washington, DC where I'll be working for the Feminist Majority.

I'm super excited for my internship--I'll be working on a bunch of projects, but my main project will focus on a loop hole in Title IX (prevents sex discrimination in education) which has allowed for the establishment of single sex classes and schools within the public school system. This is obviously a problem for equal education opportunities and will likely increase gender stereotypes if we separate young girls and boys because "they learn differently."

I'm really excited for the summer, I've always thought that I would love to do policy advocacy work for a women, and this is my chance to find out if I really do like it! Also, the Feminist Majority has a big internship program, so there will be lots of other young people in the office.

I'll be living in Alexandria, VA with one of my current roommates. She has an extra room in her house and has graciously offered me the room for the summer. I haven't been to DC since I was little, so I'm really looking forward to exploring a new city.

Robben Island

I finally made the trip out to Robben Island this weekend; I was lucky enough to get one of the most beautiful days we've had in weeks!! I was really looking forward to going to the prison where Nelson Mandela and other activists were held, but it took me all semester to actually get there.

After the end of apartheid, the prison was turned into a world heritage site and is now basically a museum, obviously no prisoners are held there any longer. I really don't know if its on purpose or not, but the prison grounds are not well kept up and the whole island felt quite deserted. The tour was conducted by a former inmate who told us about his time on Robben Island and his time in detention, he didn't give us much detail but revealed that he was brutally tortured while in detention. It was definitely interesting to hear his story, but it was clear that he's probably told it a million times. The highlights of the tour were seeing Mandela's cell, seeing where he hid his manuscript (later published as The Long Walk to Freedom), walking in the limestone quarry (where prisoners performed daily hard labor), and, frankly, the ferry ride there and back which provided beautiful views of Cape Town.

Xenophobia

As many of you know, there has been an outbreak of xenophobic violence throughout South Africa. It started in the townships outside of Johannesburg, but has spread to Durban and Cape Town. I haven't seen or really felt any of the effects of the rioting, it's mainly contained in the townships; Zimbabweans and Somalians have been the main targets of violence, many of them having their homes and stores burned. Refugee centers have been set up all over, many people are staying churches and community centers.

Today, I went to an anti-xenophobia rally at St. George's Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral where Archbishop Desmond Tutu preached against apartheid. One of the South African women I was with, told us that the church has always been a site of social justice gatherings and that her son had been chased in there in the 1970s and beat by the police. Needless to say, it seemed a fitting place for a rally against the intimidation and violence occurring across the country.

We got there early and helped hang up posters and organize t-shirts. Everyone wore t-shirts which read "foreigner" on the front. The rally began with the Chief Justice of the South African Constitutional Court who spoke about the human rights embodied in the constitution and the need to celebrate human dignity. Speakers continued after that, including the current archbishop of Cape Town; there were 18 speakers in total. Although many of the speakers were compelling, listening to so many at once was a little overwhelming and at times boring. I was a little disappointed that the we weren't mobilized to do something about what was going on; I felt comforted by the fact that so many people showed up to the event, but I think the event could have used a little more energy.

Here are some background articles:

Xenophobia hurts like apartheid

Mozambicans flee over the border

Mbeki's rule in limbo as townships burn

Cape Town in May

Again, I've let too much time go by before posting! And, there is really no excuse--most of my classes are pretty much over, and I've been doing a lot of reading for pleasure.

May started out with crazy amounts of work, including several long papers, but this last week my work has totally disappeared! Now that I have all this free time, though, Cape Town has really taken a turn for fall. Today it is pretty nice out, but generally there has been a lot of rainy, cloudy days. To occupy my days, I've been reading a couple books. Last week I read The Nine about the Supreme Court which answered many of questions about how the Court works and helped me understand a lot more about the current justices' personalities and jurisprudence. This weekend, I went a different direction and read On Chisel Beach by Ian McEwan; I loved reading Atonement so I was pretty excited to pick this up. It was a nice, short read which definitely kept me occupied for the weekend. On Sunday, I started East of Eden which I really like so far, but I'm intimidated by its length.

Other than reading, I have done a little exploring. I went to the town of Kalk Bay which is on the ocean and totally adorable. We just took the train out for an afternoon and did a little shopping. I also went out for Sunday tea at the fancy Mount Nelson Hotel. It happened to be a beautiful day and we got to sit out on the veranda, an idyllic setting for afternoon tea. The food was delicious!! I'll try to post some pictures soon.

Things are starting to come to an end, in about a month I'll be back in Chicago!! There are still a couple things I have to do before I leave, but luckily there is a super long study break before exams--lots of time for all the touristy stuff I've missed.

Back to Reality

Well, last weekend was a quick trip to Namibia. I haven't calculated it, but it seems like we spent almost as much time in Namibia as we did on the bus. It ended up being a 25 hour ride each way, and we were only in Nambia for about 3 days.

The highlights include: sand boarding, camel riding, and a dolphin cruise.










Now, I'm back in Cape Town with a ton of work to do. I have three papers to write this weekend, so its been a harsh transition back to reality. So far, I've averaged a paper a day for the last two days, so hopefully that will continue today!!

Weekend in Namibia

I'm off to Namibia for a couple days!! Abby, Avalon, and I decided to take advantage of our long weekend and head off to Namibia. We're taking a bus and it should be approximately 22 hours...but once we get there it promises to be another adventure!!

I'll make sure to write all about it when I get back.