My study abroad experience was AMAZING! I went to South Africa to study English 400, focusing on youth culture is post apartheid South Africa. Let me start off by talking about all the amazing activities we did while abroad. The first day we went to Table Mountain in Cape Town. The view from the top of the mountain was unbelievable; pictures don’t do it justice.
Another activity we did was going to Robben Island which is the prison that held Nelson Mandella for 16 years. We were able to get a tour of the island and the prison from an ex-convict who was imprisoned on Robben Island. This was an impactful experience. I know I had heard of Robben Island before going to South Africa, but actually going to the island was a whole new experience.
Another fun experience was going to Boulder’s beach with penguins! I never thought penguins would like on a beach but they do! There were hundreds of penguins just swimming around the people. They didn’t come up to bug you, they were just swimming around looking for food.
My FAVORITE activity we did while in South Africa was going on the safari. During this safari trip, I got to see elephants, giraffes, lions, zebras, wildebeests, baboons, rhinos and more! These animals were so close to you. The wildlife reserve its self was beautiful. This reserve is made for animals who have been left by their mothers or hurt in some way. The reserve goes out and collects these animals and then taking them to the reserve to keep them safe and healthy. I loved the safari, it was beautiful and amazing!
So while we were abroad, we were given different little writing activities to do to update our family and friends on our facebook page. The final project for this class was to create a travel magazine targeting a specific audience. For my groups magazine, we talked about outdoors and sports in South Africa. Our target audience was teenagers in America who are headed to South Africa or are interested in learning about sports and adventures in different countries. This project was fun to complete. We got to pick topics that were related to activities we did while in South Africa. Below are some of the pages from our magazine we made!
I HIGHLY encourage anyone to take advantage of the study abroad trips offered at Longwood! This trip was one of the best trips I have ever been on, and I got college credit for it! If you make the trip, you won’t regret it!