From "Counting Up" to "Counting Down"

With the press of a send button yesterday afternoon, I crossed the threshold into the second half of my South African experience. As I’ve mentioned, my degree program is composed of four month-long modules. The end of each module is marked with a final assignment, and yesterday I submitted the second of those: a 26-page, 5955-word paper about improving student learning in South Africa. In case you were wondering, that’s 40,703 characters… the equivalent of 290 140-character tweets. Whew.

I’m halfway through more than just my academic program, though. I had originally thought my degree program would function on a traditional semester timetable (as most programs here do), which left me thinking I’d be in South Africa through December.

Since my final module (Changing Frameworks of Curriculum: Policy, Implementation & Evaluation) will run from 16 July to 13 August, I’m reevaluating the duration of my stay in Cape Town. Don’t mark your calendars just yet, but I’m preliminarily considering returning to Kentucky by mid-October.

If that ends up being the case, I will have spent 9 months in Cape Town, which sounds like a very long time… until you consider that I’ve already been here for four months (or, as my sister informed me yesterday, precisely 120 days). That’s right, folks. I’m only a couple of weeks away from being halfway to mid-October.

I’m only a couple of weeks away from being halfway to home.

Which means that my mindset will slowly change. Because I’ll be “counting down” instead of “counting up.” And I’ll start realizing all of the things I’ll miss. And I’ll eat way too much of all of my favorite foods, drink way too much of all of my favorite coffees. I’ll start “remembering” things before they’re ever gone in an effort to take it all in.

Even through the fog of impending nostalgia, though, I realize that there’s still a long way to go. There are plenty of memories to make, lessons to teach (and learn), things to see, do, and eat…  and, most importantly, people to meet. Including one more to-be-determined roommate.

And while returning home will be incredible, it will also mean that I’ll be exchanging what we’ve jokingly referred to as our “The Real World: Cape Town” experience for, well, the real world. I’ll finally be pursuing my career in education, and I’ll fill my life with roots such as a permanent address, a full-time job, and a car payment. Luckily, those things come with a side of family, friends, and favorite things, too.

A few recent memories worth remembering:

Driving on the left side of the road from the
right side (America's passenger seat) of the car.

Cinco de Wino! A day spent in the "wine country" of Stellenbosch
for a fun wine tour with good people.

I taught my Blikkiesdorp friends how to make the Kappa Delta
sign while I was volunteering in their township.