Normal Days

It must not be thought, dear reader, that Josh the blogger has been careening from classical ruin to classical ruin, beach to beach, with hardly a paper in between.  In fact, I’m devoting a whole post to demolish this myth, and I lay it here at your feet.  I’ve decided to record my weekday schedule, …

DREADLOCKS!

I love dreadlocks!                I wanted to lock my hair since I went natural four years ago. So when I arrived in South Africa and saw all the people with dreadlocks I figured why not get locks in Durban. Therefore on Saturday November 14, 2015 I woke up at …

5 Reasons to Study Abroad

All semester I’ve been thinking to myself, “Why doesn’t everyone study abroad?! It’s probably the greatest thing ever!” So, I thought I’d make a list of 5 reasons why I think you should study abroad, or at the very least, travel. 1. Culture Culture is probably one of my favorite parts about traveling! I love …

Southern Excursion: Part 2

On the fourth day we left Tozeur and headed towards Douz. along the way we stopped at the Chott el Djerid Salt Lake. It is the largest salt span in the Sahara and it 160 miles long. We had some fun walking around and exploring. We drove for several hours through the desert and wide …

Southern Excursion: Part 1

Last week we spent eight days traveling all around southern Tunisia. We learned about water in the desert, rode camels, and visited Star Wars sets. We left Monday morning and headed to Kairawan where we visited the Grand Mosque. It was a beautiful structure. Next we headed to Sidi Bouzid. I have been waiting to …

Living in discomfort

Wanna hear an irony everyone? The more I am in Durban the more I understand white Americans discomfort in entering other cultural spaces. On Monday, October 27th, I went to a Black Consciousness talk about Black Consciousness and democracy. I didn’t really know what to expect, so when the host introduced the first speaker Chumani …

“Now watch me whip, watch me nae-nae…”

Ok all, prepare your minds and hearts for a bit of a rant. After being in South Africa for two months, I wonder if Americans fully understand the pervasiveness of American popular (pop) culture globally. What do I mean? Well I’ll bet, and I’m not a betting person, that you can walk up to any kid …

Mozambique there and back again

September 20-23rd, my peers and I drove to Maputo, Mozambique from Durban, South Africa in order to get an on the ground look at the relationship between South Africa (ANC) and Mozambique (Frelimo) during and post apartheid. In order to get to Maputo we crossed the South African border into Swaziland then from Swaziland into …

Hiking in Hammam Lift

I have only been to downtown Tunis twice during my time in Tunisia and have been wanting to return. The two times I visited downtown were to visit some NGOs as part of one of my SIT courses. So last weekend two of my friends and I decided to explore Tunisia a little bit. We left …

A Glimpse into Kiwi Living – Homestay Weekend

The best part about living in a small town is the community. Everybody knows everybody and, undoubtedly, everybody knows about the American students living in The Old Convent.  Kaikoura only has a population about the size of Hope’s, so throughout the last 6 weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to meet members of the community through …