Three Sentences a Day, As Ordered!

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March 26, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today was mostly dealing with the aftermath of last night which meant, for someone who was there but not involved, I tried to avoid the house to put some time and space between everything that went down and me (partially because it was really frustrating me).  I'm pretty sure the girl who vented to me for 45 minutes and kept insisting that her homesickness was more legitimate/extreme than everyone else's doesn't remember the venting session because she apologized for leaving the club alone (what?) but said nothing about venting.  Anyway, I decided to stay out of my house so I went to my friend's flat and we made dinner and watched TV with her flatmates who I really like so it was a good night in the end and a lot of fun just chilling!

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 25, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today started out with finishing my kick-ass assignment (sexy graphs included), finding out I got the highest grade on the last assignment, eating an amazing lunch, attending a super fun and tiring field hockey practice, and planning to go to a hookah bar with my friends (that's an enjoyable thing for me, just accept it).  Unfortunately, a few of the girls with us decided to get white-girl-wasted and completely alter what most people had expected to be a relaxing night and after a lot of different bars (other than the hookah bar which we went to first), the alcohol left three of my house members in a three-way-fight, and a house member venting to me about why she hates it here which is a rough weight to bear when I already give myself plenty but my plan is just going to be to try to stay out of the house and avoid that anything-but-beneficial energy (here I come, UCT library!).  There were definitely some parts of the night that were fun (for example I made some awesome pool shots) and there were some people there that were really expecting and working towards the chill atmosphere most of us were banking on so they were super great to hang out with!

Missing you tons,

Lexi

p.s. I know it's against the rules to add another sentence but I had to let you know that this is my 50th post even if that meant having 4 sentences haha!

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March 24, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today started off pretty slow but it got pretty interesting when I attended my first rugby game which was a semi-final game against our rivals (Stellenbosch).  I am understating the weather when I say that it was absolutely pouring because I was (quite literally) soaked and it (quite literally) looked like I had jumped in a pool but it was still a ton of fun and I'm definitely glad I went if only because I got some cool pictures (to be uploaded later)!  Unfortunately, the day ended as slowly as it started because I have an assignment due tomorrow and after changing into dry clothes I went to my friends flat where we've been working ever since (though talking political analysis and drinking tea doesn't always feel like work).

Missing you tons, Lexi

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March 24, 2014 - UCT Rugby in the Rain!

(So I went to my first and possibly last UCT Rugby game and a lot of it was spent watching things like this.  I really need to look up the rules of rugby because the amount of times they lifted each other in the air and huddled in a mob like in this picture left me so very confused.  The camera guys in the front are from South Africa's equivalent of ESPN so you can see it was a pretty big game as far as University sporting events here go.  I wish you could see from the picture(s) how insanely rainy it was though because the water was coming down in sheets and it's been 2 days and my jeans still aren't dry.)

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March 23, 2014 - Meat at Mzoli's

(Considering how delicious it was, I though it necessary to upload the picture of the meat we had today at Mzoli's even though I pretty sure I did the same thing last time.  Oh well!)

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March 23, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today started off slow because it was just my roommate home but people slowly trickled in, starting with my housemate and her boyfriend and ending in what will be a full house at 2am-ish tonight.  I tried out my newly-discovered third wheeling skills and went to Mzoli's (the awesome meat place) with my housemate and her boyfriend and this time there was less dancing and more just hanging out and eating the delicious food which was nice.  I've spent the rest of the day uploading my most recent pictures, updating this blog, and working more on my assignment due Tuesday which has culminated in a slow but perfectly pleasant day.

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 22, 2014 - The Skins Still in the Wine

(So this is what the wine looks like when the grape skins are still in it.  Fun Fact: The skins are actually what give red wine its color and bitterness so white wine doesn't sit with the skins at all and rosé does so only for a short amount of time.  You can also see the cup of grape-skiny wine that we got to try which really just tasted like thick and less flavorful wine.)

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March 22, 2014 - Two of My Sexy Graphs

(These were the two graphs I made based on South Africa.  The top on is Freedom House's data on South Africa, the lightest line being Political Rights, the darkest line being Civil Liberties, and the medium line being their overall rating as Free (a value of 0), Partly Free (a value of one), and Not Free (a value of two).  Even though it's cut off it's still pretty sexy ;D.  The lower one is the data according Vanhanen's system of measurement.  The lightest line is measuring Competition of elections, the medium line measures Participation in elections, and the darkest line is South Africa's overall Index of Democracy.)

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March 22, 2014

Dear Cari,

In short, today consisted of studying, eating pizza, more studying, eating cake, and even more studying but the good part (other than the food) is that I now know that I haven't completely lost all of my Excel knowledge (I hadn't realize how long it had been since I used it).  I worked on a project with my friends and made some sexy-ass graphs about measurements of democracy that are actually super interesting in addition to be aesthetically pleasing.  I also found out I got a 72 (which is an A in the South African grading system) so it was generally a good day even with how much studying I did.

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 21, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today I went on another wine tour, this time with another group of people for my friend's birthday.  I got quite drunk (dammit being a light-weight) but it was a lot of fun and a lot different than the last one (which makes me feel less bad about going on two).  We went to five different vineyards and got to tour around the back or the grounds of all of them which meant we learned a ton, got to try wine straight out of the barrel and when it still had the skins soaking in it, and now I can tell you what makes different kinds of wines and champagnes different which is pretty cool.  I spent the night sobering up and just hanging out but I also have resolved to become even more knowledgable about wine (maybe become a connoisseur?) because I actually find it super interesting and I feel like it would make for more appealing small talk that Abraham Lincoln facts.

Missing you tons, Lexi

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March 20, 2014

Dear Cari,

After an uneventful day, I went to my mom's camp-friend's house for dinner (she currently lives in Israel but is originally American and she's on sabbatical from Ben-Gurion University and living in Cape Town for the year) which was absolutely fantastic!  I didn't realize how much I had missed a family atmosphere and her, her husband, and her kids and awesome people (awesome as in kind-hearted, intelligent, good-natured and all around a pleasure to be with) so we had a great time first food shopping, then dealing with a spilled and broken wine bottle, talking whilst she cooked a delicious smorgasbord of food, and talking about what it's like to be in Cape Town.  It's really nice to have that resource in Cape Town and I'm so glad I went to dinner (even if I was nervous), I'm hoping she takes me up on my offer to babysit and I can't wait to see them again (at the very least when my parents are here) so even though I didn't go out that night, I can definitely say it was a good one.

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 19, 2014 - My Favorite Picture of the Night

(Even if I did spend the evening third-wheeling, their flirting created this amazing picture that I am absolutely obsessed with and want to recreate with my imaginary/possibly future significant other)

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March 19, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today (as in the day time) was pretty uneventful but I had a fun night-time-escapade.  What started out as a (failed) study session ended up with me having four friends sitting on the floor of my room "chilling" and then me and another girl walking up the mountain to Jammie steps (on campus) and having an absolutely stunning photo-shoot and hangout session with her South African friend (whose nickname is patches which is pretty awesome if you ask me).  They spent a lot of the time flirting (even though she had promised me they wouldn't and there would be other people there) but I had fun photographing them and hanging out any way (I also am starting to realize how good I am at third wheeling which I don't think is a talent to be proud of).

Missing you tons, Lexi

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March 18, 2014

Dear Cari,

I (along with the rest of my group of course) totally kicked ass on the presentation even though I finished it drunk so the day started out awesome!  I then had to be convinced to attend me first Field Hockey practice because my social anxiety and comfort in my new workout routine was telling me to quit but I am so glad I went because I made friends and worked out an had fun and (somehow) was roped into playing goalie in exchange for my teams eternal gratitude (and offerings of alcohol, so that's cool).  I rounded off the night with a study session, lots of good food, and a Skype interview for Orientation Leader (which think/hope went well).

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 17, 2014

Dear Cari,

So I'm getting worse and worse at remembering these but that may be because interesting things are happening to me less and less as I find a routine here (though I am sticking to my workout routine thus far).  After a grueling day of studying and then a test, I went out to the two bars that were celebrating St. Patricks day (one was American and one was Irish) which was surprisingly fun and included me trying an Irish car bomb for the first time (Google it!  It's both alcoholic and sciencey!).  I'm now home at about 12:30 and have to finish a presentation that I'm giving (with my group) at 11am tomorrow morning and I may or may not still be drunk so wish me luck!

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 13, 2014

Dear Cari,

Sorry I haven't written for a few days, school has been occupying most of my time and nothing that interesting had happened.  Today I resolved to start a new workout-eating healthy regiment tomorrow in the hopes of losing some weight before I come home.  I wish I had more to tell but I really don't, thinks are pretty typical at this point.

Missing you tons,

Lexi

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March 10, 2014

Dear Cari,

Today was the first day of South Africa's "Israel Apartheid Week" and I made the mistake of thinking the students there would want to have a discussion about the issues because I was a little taken aback by there approach and interested to hear their opinions.  Instead, a horribly immature and disrespectful debate ended with a woman telling me I "don't deserve to have an opinion or participate in this discussion" because I am American (the attack she issued on me was a lot longer than that but that was her conclusion) and me walking off crying and, minus 4 people of the 40 observers, everyone clapped that she had managed to scare off someone that didn't agree with them by making them cry.  Yes, everyone clapped, and it was terrible and then I ate my weight in sushi and drank a lot of tea and now can officially tell the story without crying (which is a pretty good step) and plan on working on writing an article about the experience because I can't tell you how much I learned yesterday (I'll send you it when I write it).

Missing you tons,

Lexi