On flying high and climbing mountains...

I started wondering the other day about the fact that during my year in South Africa I, of course, want to do and experience as much as possible. A typical exchange student, busy trying to see and do everything because time is limited. South Africa certainly offers enough things to keep you busy with some of the most amazing things you can do from bungee jumps, national parks, hikes and road trips to skydiving, which seems to be a hit this year...

We have been climbing mountains. We have done road trips, some have done bungee jumps, skydiving and what else...
Local students often wonder where the international students find their time and money to do this, maybe it irritates them, at least the different lifestyles can separate the international students even more from the local students...

We just had our Easter break. While local students spend the holiday visiting home and studying for exams at the end of the semester, international students have been traveling in Namibia, Mozambique, some "just" did the Garden Route in South Africa.

Most of the exchange students I know are leaving in a couple of months time. Time is running. We need the memories to prove that this time of our lives was important, worthwhile, different and fun. That we did the kind of stuff we normally would not do at home. At home we would study, work, have the normal cycle of our daily routine keeping us occupied and safe.

Even though I went to Mozambique for Easter holidays and am planning to go to Namibia during the winter holidays, something has changed in me. When I left Finland I had a list in my mind of the things I want to do and experience during my stay here. Now instead of running around I feel like settling down and trying to live a normal life here the local way. I feel like I am at home, I feel like I am happy just doing the normal day to day things. Somehow skydiving does not seem that necessary to keep me satisfied. I guess there are many ways of spending the year as an exchange student. Some go for climbing mountains, some rather plunge into the local life and try to forget the fact that they are from somewhere else.

I guess I don't see myself "only" as a international student because I've lived here before and part of me has already decided to never leave this country. The thought of living here is so tempting that it scares me.

It is a fantastic feeling that you get when you realise that you actually understand this country more little by little. Things are not new and exciting, things are familiar and understandable.
You start knowing your way around and adapt to the South African way of getting things done. You even learn not to lose your mind when things are not getting done.

Your basic instinct tells you to be aware of things around you when you walk alone at dark, your inner voice actually blames you for even doing so. You don't even wake up to the extremely loud singing of the birds in the morning. And soon it doesn't even matter whether you are a South African or not. You forget being an outsider. Someone presumes you being a South African and you don't even bother to correct them. After all, even Jacob Zuma struggles in defining a true South African. There should be no outsiders in South Africa.
I'm in South Africa now. Yebo, and it's flippin' nice.