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Vamp
Revamped my website a little bit. Check out the photo section!
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Home
Hi all,
So this could be my last post, unless I decide I’m interesting enough to keep blogging.
Now I have to think back to over a week ago, this is hard…
So Sunday I was alone in the house and basically just packed all day. I went out to read in the garden one last time and thankfully I fell asleep until Clint got there. Packed my bags in the car, decided there was no way I could keep the goodbye sign from Little Bright Stars :( and we went to eat one last time at Eastern Food Bazaar. Nom, per usual. We went to eat by the water and this homeless guy came to the car and said he would be around if we had any leftovers to give him. End up waiting like 10 minutes for the guy ‘cause he’s down on the rocks collecting shells or some shit. Got to Clint’s house, unpacked, then we went to go rent a movie. There was a guy walking around the store absentmindedly with his hands down his pants. I could not stop laughing, making myself look like more of an idiot than the guy fondling himself. Naturally, Clint and I rented Boogie Nights. I thought it was going to be a disco movie but I’m sure you’ve seen it and there’s more sex than you can shake a stick at. Clint kept turning down the volume for the moany parts because his parents were in the next room, god knows what they thought was going on in there, haha! Filth.
Monday we went with Clint’s mom Angie out for breakfast. It was very nice and it was a beautiful day. Clint and I went shopping at the outlet mall and then I think we went to eat for my last time at Nando’s (nom.) Then we went back to take a nap before heading to the beach. Clint was surfing with his brother and I was hanging out on the beach taking photos. I was wearing a dress but I had pulled it down to my waist because I was wearing a bathing suit, naturally. This lady comes up to me and asks me if I’m from Cape Town. I tell her no, and she tells me then maybe I should put my clothes on so something doesn’t happen to me. Bitch! Then she came over 5 minutes later and said she didn’t mean to scare me. Bitch! We had an amazing home cooked meal with Clint’s parents that night. We drank non-alcoholic wine, which I was a little skeptical about, but it was decent! Then some sketchy guy Clint knows texted him and told him he would be at the house in 5 minutes, so we went out for a ride to avoid him.
Tuesday we went out for breakfast at Knead again. Clint had to work so I hung out with his mom Angie all day. We went grocery shopping and I bought Clint Nutella because I’m nice. Angie picked out a beautiful dress for me at Truworth’s and we walked around the mall and got my last Kauai smoothie. We went back to Knead for lunch, then went back to the house so I could pack up the rest of my stuff. Clint gets home from work and then we leave for the airport. I was cryyying and cryyying it was terrible. We ate at some place in the airport and I got a terrible waffle. (is that even possible?) Saying goodbye to Clint was very hard, I’m sitting at the boarding gate, still crying, and these two old ladies kept putting their arms around me, they were so cute. Keep in mind I also have a cold so as we’re taking off I’m coughing and blowing my nose and crying and sneezing. The poor people next to me. Heathrow was boring.
My dad and Brian picked me up from Logan. It was so hot in Boston and muggy, ew! We went to say hi to my brothers and the puppies, and then we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. It was amazing to have a proper Caesar salad. In Cape Town they put anchovies in the salad and in the dressing so I could never get one because that is absolutely repulsive. We got to Brian and I’s new place in Natick, it is SO nice. I’ll have to post pictures when it doesn’t look like shit and we finally get settled in. My first few days were very weird, I just felt like I was coming “home” but everything is completely different from when I left, as far as where I live and who I’m living with, and I’m also done with school, I just wanted to go back to Cape Town. Now I am glad to be back, and I can’t wait to see everyone I’ve been missing so terribly!
FYI this is all my shit in Clint’s room
Wahhh! :(
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Bye?
Hi all,
Sooo most of my bags are packed, I just have to shower and keep myself occupied ‘til Clint gets out of work and picks me up. Not sure if I’m going to have internet before Tuesday, so this may be the last you’ll hear from me until I’m at the airport!
Friday night, after my sad but wonderful farewell at Little Bright Stars, Jordan, Sanjay and I went to dinner at Saigon. It was delicious, per usual. Then we walked to Long Street, hung out at the Dubliner for a bit, and then went to bed. Very exciting weekend, I’m telling you.
Yesterday was our last trip to Biscuit Mill :( It was hard to say goodbye to all that delicious food. There is really nothing like it at home. After BMill I grabbed the train to Muizenberg. The train was 20 minutes late and these teenagers kept talking to me about tattoos and were just being annoying and kept asking if they could get me anything at the bottle store. I’m like, “can I get YOU anything at the bottle store?” Their fake ID’s weren’t very convincing. Get to Muizenberg, Clint takes me to Elephant’s Eye, this hiking trail thing, it was very cool, we didn’t go very far as I was wearing flip flops and Clint was carrying a box that had once held a brownie. Then we went to this beach that was really beautiful. Then we drove around Camp’s Bay and met up with Jordan at Chai-yo, for an amazing farewell dinner. Jordan left at 8:30 last night. It was very sad. I had to sleep in this HUGE nine bedroom house all by myself. Soooo even though I took a sleeping pill I woke up at 6:45 and watched Mission Impossible 2 and packed. Now I’m bored and almost out of internets.
My US phone is activated again, so hit me up if you need to.
FYI this is a beach Clint took me to yesterday. It was nice.
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Last day at Little Bright Stars!
Hi all!
I’ve been dreading this day all week but I’m also kind of glad it’s over.
Wednesday Jordan and I went to Obz and walked around and went to a record store. Then we watched Mad Men and cut up paper and then had our last outing at Alma’s! So sad.
Thursday CCS took us to the Kirstenbosch gardens, which were beautiful. I took the train up to see Clint…we sat in a restaurant all night and drank hot chocolate. I’ve done absolutely nothing all week but it was nice to do absolutely nothing outside of the house.
Ohhhh today! What a day it’s been already. I woke up and I was as nervous as I was on my first day! Kimmie stopped at Pick n Pay for us and I got 3 cakes and a plant for the Little Bright Stars Garden. The kids don’t really understand that I’m leaving. The older ones do a little bit, but it was so hard saying goodbye! They all lined up and each gave me a hug and we took a photo, then they went to nap.
So all the kiddies are sleeping and we’re just sitting around talking a bit, and I’m starting to wonder if we’re ever going to eat the cake I brought, haha. All of the teachers call me into the room and there’s this beautiful spread set up with all the cakes and coffee and a big “Goodbye Charlotte” sign, and a HUGE bag of a bunch of huge bags of my favorite chips. We danced and ate and reminisced about the short 2 months I’ve been here. Then there was a little parade to the van when they came to pick me up. I love when I find myself laughing hysterically and being sad and crying at the same time.
The women at Little Bright Stars work very hard and long hours doing things most people don’t want to deal with. Principal Grace has started this school from one room with 4 children, to a much larger room with about 78 students. They’ve overcome break ins and robberies and so much, but still are so positive. Some teachers will be there at 7am and then have to stay after 7pm if a child’s parents don’t show up to bring them home. These women are troopers and I’m so happy to have had the privilege of working with them. And they know how to have fun!
FYI this is me and all the wonderful, hard working teachers that make up LBS.
Save the last dance…hahah
FYI this is Shareem, Miriam, and Maggie, at the end of my farewell procession
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nom.
Hi all,
These entries are going to get more and more boring so please, enter at your own risk.
Sunday the weather was ehh. Clint and I got a 1,000 movies and watched them and I met his brother and his brother’s girlfriend and his 2 year old niece who could be the most beautiful little girl ever, too cute. That was Sunday.
School today went by pretty fast. I was with the older kids, which was a nice change. We’re starting to make plans for my farewell partay on Friday. The teachers told me I have to get 3 different kinds of cakes, from a bakery that doesn’t exist. Kimmie drove me around all after work trying to find it but we couldn’t. I told him I could just get cakes from Pick n Pay and lie about it but he was adamant about finding this place. Anyway…
You would think that Jordan and I’s last week would be fun filled and outrageous and busy…we took naps and then ate a weird dinner and then walked to Ronde. It was my second trip to Ronde today. I printed photos for everyone at school, and got more Nutella. Jordan and I rented Julie & Julia. Cute movie, but they never explain why Julia Child doesn’t like Julie’s blog. I also spent most of the afternoon cutting up pieces of brown paper and green paper, for school tomorrow.
I just got out of a bath. I decided to use some of the bath salts Jordan and I both bought at BMill Saturday. Now I’m covered in herbs and shit and I feel like a roast chicken. Very fitting for our Monday night movie I guess.
I keep finding leaves on parts of my body where there shouldn’t be foliage.
FYI this is :)
AKA Camp’s Bay (I think)
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Why so saggy?
Hi all,
Ahhhhhh! Tomorrow marks the beginning of my last week! This is strange. A few weeks ago, I was so ready to go home, but now I don’t want to leave!
This week has been nice. Me and some of the teachers all have the same cough, none of us can raise our voices, so most days have been chaotic. One boy told me that he was going to bring me flowers and then I could be his girlfriend, too cute! Thursday there were a group of guys smoking hookah in the middle of the street while I was outside playing with the kids, and one of them asked me on a date. No thank you sir! Thursday the program took us to this new park near the World Cup stadium, it was a little windy but another beautiful afternoon. All of the trees in the park are little babies but you can tell it’s going to be such an amazing place!
Wednesday Jordan, Sonia and I went to the beach, where I met up with Clint and finally got to watch him surf! Too cool. Clint joined the gang at Alma’s for the usual veggie burgers and live music. The second band was amazing, I wish they had been selling cd’s! Friday we went shopping at Green Market. I’m finally done buying all of you bitches presents! <3
Went to Biscuit Mill this morning and I finally got some Shine Shine stuff which I am SO excited about, it’s this really cool art/fabric, google it. The girls and I went to the beach, where we got ice cream and met up with Clint. The girls and I kept laughing at all the little kids swimming in their underwear, and how all of them seemed to have the saggiest bums (you had to be there). Then Clint took me to Long Beach (the beach in the woods) and then we met up with everyone for Sonia’s farewell dinner at Balducci’s, nom-tastic. We wanted to take Sonia to a strip club but she hadn’t gotten a chance to pack yet, she’s leaving at 4am, ew.
FYI here’s a thousand children pulling my hair.
FYI here’s a treat Jordan showed me a few minutes ago.
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Minibuses
Ok, now I don’t have any pictures, but there are these crazy minibus/taxis that ride around Cape Town, that are basically chaos on wheels. They also tend to have pretty hilarious names plastered all over them, I’ve been compiling a list since I’ve been here, these are my favorites…
-Strictly for my N****z
-In God’s Hands
-Innocent
-Uncle Boy
-Pitbull
-The Charm Boy
-Passionate Lover
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Beaching
Hi all,
Some government workers are on strike right now, it’s kind of crazy. They want an 18% increase, and the best offer is 6% or something, they’re being ridiculous. I’m on the train going to the beach yesterday and every time it stopped you’d hear screaming and chanting, and banging on the train windows. They’ve also thrown all of the trash in the trash bins all over the place. It’s disgusting and totally unnecessary. Almost every train station was covered in trash. A lot of it has been happening in Rondebosch, right down the street. We’re about to go walk there right now to run some errands, definitely going to stay as a group.
School the past 2 days has been very tiring but wonderful. Remember when the kids found a dead bird and were chasing me with it a while ago? The teacher threw it into the tall grass, and today the kids found it again. Something must have eaten it because it wall all bones and feathers, it was so disgusting, they were chasing me with it again and I eventually threw it over the fence with a stick. So gross! Then the kids kept trying to climb the barbed wire fence and they were throwing rocks at the dog that bit me and the poor thing was getting so angry, if there wasn’t a fence between the dog and the kids they would’ve been eaten. I’m a little sick too so yelling at them was useless, I can’t raise my voice at all, yay!
This weekend was really fun! I’ve been hanging out with Clint, my surf instructor and new best friend basically all weekend. Saturday we met up after Biscuit Mill and he took me all over the place, so many beaches I honestly don’t remember their names. He takes me walking through these woods and we end up at the most beautiful beach I’d ever been too, you wouldn’t have even known it was there from the street. Sunday Jordan and Sanjay and I went to Mzoli’s in Guguletu. It was crazy, it’s such a slum but there’s Mercedes and BMW parked everywhere and everyone is drinking in the streets at like noon and it was packed. They had this breath mint company sponsoring the DJ and these little boys were dancing on stage, it was so cute/weird. After that Clint and I went driving around through Camps Bay and got noms and went to this crazy beautiful restaurant right over the water. Yesterday was my first actual lesson. I cut my foot again, haha, only a small cut, but I don’t know how I keep doing this to myself. The lesson was short lived ‘cause the tides were crazy and the water was all red from plankton and apparently that shit can give you conjunctivitus and other nasty ailments. Then Clint and I got Thai food and then waffles…I need to stop eating.
Once we get home from Ronde I’m napping ‘til kingdom come, with a short break for Thai food with everyone in the house.
FYI this is Hout Bay, where all the seals live. Wish I were a seal.
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Catching up
Hi all!
Sorry it’s been a while. Honestly the only excuse I have is laziness, because I haven’t been that busy.
Went back to school Wednesday after our holiday, only to discover that our school had been vandalized! This group of 8 year old kids got in through the ceiling and were running on top of the ceiling tiles. The neighbors saw some commotion and alerted one of the teachers who lives across the street. A bunch of neighbors jumped the fence and found 2 kids hiding in the ceiling, the rest had run off. The kids wouldn’t come out and eventually the ceiling collapsed and they grabbed the kids. Our kitchen is ruined and so is the principal’s office. It’s really sad because we just started renovating and a styrofoam artist ? came in and is building all of this fantasy land castle world stuff, and now there’s even more to renovate, and the kids tore out the electrical wires. We had to move to 2 empty classrooms in the primary school, it’s really too bad. The only good thing is now they can renovate faster because they can work even when school is in session because the kids can’t go in that building anyway. What’s heartbreaking is 2 of the vandals have little brothers that attend our preschool :(
The rest of the week was pretty chill. We went to the mall Thursday and I bought cookies. We went to the Souk yesterday and went scarf shopping, and last night we went out dancing at 31. It’s a club on the 31st floor of the ABSA building, the view was beautiful! They wouldn’t let Sanjay in because he was too young, and we thought he went home but we came down 3 hours later and he was still standing outside chatting up the bouncers. He’s crazy, it was freezing.
So basically everyone is leaving today. There’s almost 20 people in the house, and after this weekend it will be only me, Jordan, Sonia, Turner and Sanjay, and then Sonia and Turner leave next weekend. 2 more weeks to go! With Sanjay and Jordan to the very end! We’re about to go to Biscuit Mill, I have to eat my weight in carbs.
FYI this is the dog that bit me. He really is so cute.
FYI this is the destroyed kitchen :(
FYI this is me and Jordan, my roomie ‘til the end!
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Women’s Day
Hi all!
Happy Women’s Day to all you ladies out there. Bra burnings across South Africa! (I made that up). Today is a public holiday so we had the day off!
Sunday I woke up and everyone was gone. It was strange. I guess they all went on the Cape Point tour that corresponded with their wine tour the day before. So I took the train down to the Muizenberg beach and read an entire David Sedaris book in one Sunday. I was the only white person on the train ride home and it was packed and everyone was staring at me. These 2 completely wasted, drunk, drooling guys got on the train and started screaming at me and banging on the windows trying to get my attention. It’s best to ignore these crazy people.
Monday some of our placements were closed so they sent us to other places. Jordan and I volunteered at this orphanage in Langa. The facilities were amazing! The building was really nice, as were the bathrooms, the play area, the beds, and the kitchen and dining room. There are only 6 toddlers there and there were about 5 of us volunteers. I kind of felt like I was sitting around all day. I literally pushed one girl on a swing for almost 30 minutes. I wish my placement had the resources this orphanage does, at least some more volunteers! Sometimes I have 20 kids all to myself, and our kitchen doesn’t even have a fridge or a real stove/oven, they use a hot plate to make huge amounts of food for the kids, it takes forever.
Today Tiana and I took advantage of our day off by going on the Cape Point tour. Our guide’s name was Charlotte! She was also the first woman I’ve ever been driven by in this country, it was interesting. We started off in Hout Bay, with a quick boat ride to see some crazy adorable seals. Then we were off to the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Point, the southern-most part of Africa, and where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. It was such a beautiful ride, I didn’t want to fall asleep lest I miss anything. Our lunch at Cape Point was AMAZING. So delicious and perfect and we had a great view of the ocean and birds shitting on people’s tables. Then we stopped at Simon’s Town to see the penguins at Boulder’s Beach, this was my second trip seeing the penguins and they were still cute as hell! Got home, had dinner, lived life…I’m going to shower and go to bed now.
FYI these are a shit ton of seals.
FYI this is Hout Bay.
FYI this is me at the Cape of Good Hope. I don’t know why I’m standing like that.
Charlotte is home now.
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So this blog once was used for chronicling my volunteer trip to Cape Town, South Africa. Now I'm home and less interesting things are happening.
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