Merry Christmas

We all would like to wish you a happy Christmas and a crazy New Year.

                                  source: www.google.co.za

We have a few treats for our readers for this occasion. 

Firstly, do you remember that in the beginning of December Adrian and Zuza were interviewed in local television WTK? Well, here you can watch it!

- the Polish version on the official WTK's website

http://wtkplay.pl/video-id-22435-studenci_jada_do_rpa

- with English subtitles

We do recommend watching it! Adrian and Zuza did their best and on the basis of this particular performance they were officially appointed our Media Representation for the tour.

Secondly, we also celebrated Christmas as a group. There were South African carols, Polish carols and then, somehow, South African popular music and Polish popular music. We ate dishes prepared, or at least bought by ourselves. We spoke Afrikaans and talked about how each one of us would be celebrating Christmas. We talked about the tour and reminisced about our three years spent together. We had a great time and some of us got very emotional after the realization that it was our last Christmas together. 

Thirdly, we found a really interesting, yet comprehensible article about Christmas in Cape Town observed by an foreigner. 

http://www.sapeople.com/2015/12/18/christmas-in-cape-town-is-weird-when-youre-not-from-south-africa/

Merry Christmas one more time!

South African Christmas stamps from 2006

source: http://my-philately.blogspot.com/

Chasing the Horizon Tour's plan

South Africa is a vast and diverse country. With the area of over 1,2 million square kilometers one needs a lot of time to thoroughly explore this country. We don't have so much time so we were forced to compromise. Compiling out tour's plan was an incredibly difficult task. After many heated discussions and democratic voting we worked out a satisfactory solution. Our glory lasted until professor Olivier saw the itinerary. As a driver and a person who actually knows South Africa he put the finishing touches (quite a few of them) and here it is, ready to be applied, the official plan of our tour.

28 JANUARY TO 23 FEBRUARY

                    Activities                                         

28 Thurs       Departure                                          

29 Fri            Arrival and travel to
                    Kruger National Park                        

30 Sat           Travel north through the Park          

31 Sun          Along the Limpopo via Mapunbugwe
                   [Border with Zimbabwe]                  

1 Mon           University of Venda                      
2 Tue           Travel to Gauteng                        

3 Wed          Gauteng Polish Embassy,
                   University of Johannesburg                

4 Thurs        Gauteng Soweto crèche,
                   Adult education project              

5 Fri            Travel to Durban                              

6 Sat            Durban                                              

7 Sun           Travel to Grahamstown                      

8 Mon          Grahamstown Rhodes University,
                   Nat. English Literary Museum              

9 Tue           Travel to Hartenbos vis Garden Route  

10 Wed         Hartenbos                                        

11 Thurs       Travel to Cape Town via L’Agulhas
                    [Tip of Africa]                                  

12 Fri           University of Cape Town                  

13 Sat          Cape Town Primary school                   

14 Sun         Cape Town University of Stellenbosch   

15 Mon         Cape Town                                          

16 Tue         Travel to Sutherland
                   World famous telescope               

17 Wed        Sutherland [High school]
                   Travel to farm                                  

18 Thurs      Sheep farm stay                                    

19 Fri          Travel to Bloemfontein
                  University of Free State                   

20 Sat         Bloemfontein
                  Nat. Afrikaans Literary Museum [NALN]  

21 Sun        Travel to Gauteng                                  

22 Mon       Gauteng Departure                                  

23 Tue        Arrival in Poznan

Here is what it looks like:

We are also very proud to announce that our preparations for the tour are in full swing. We are very active in looking for sponsors and media exposure. We have written to many institutions and organizations and there is a lot of interest in our initiative. If you are carefully following our blog you can see how quickly it changes. Almost every day there is a new institution's logo in the right side of our blog, whether it is a sponsor, a media patron or a friend.

And speaking of media! Tomorrow, two representatives of our group, Adrian and Zuza, will give an interview in the local television! 11.12.2015 at 8:30 at WTK television, in a Poranek WTK with Liliana Skibińska they will talk about our tour! It is a must-see! It will be very interesting and, knowing Adrian i Zuza, highly entertaining! If you don't have WTK or television you can livestream it here: http://wtkplay.pl/live

We encourage you to watch it as well as follow our blog, with the tour being so close we have a lot to report! 

South African Movie Nights Again!

The first part of our South African movie program is already behind us. We are proud to announce that it has been a success. We have a dedicated and actively participating audience as well as beer. 

We spent a lot of time trying to come up with the next set of movies which would be as interesting as the previous ones. Lucky for us South African cinematography is rich and diverse. The problem is logistics. We leave for South Africa in the end of January and Christmas holidays are soon, which leaves with only two movies to show before our trip.

The first one is Olivier Schmitz’s movie Life, Above All. It was released in 2010 and was very well received by the critics. It is based on Allan Stratton's Chanda's Secrets and depicts a story of a 12 years old Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka) who after the death of her newly-born sister struggles with destruction of her family and, being alienated from the rural community due to a gossip. She decides to leave home and starts to seek for her mother. Life, Above All has made it to the January Shortlist for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film and was also present in Cannes Film Festival. The movie is dedicated to children orphaned by AIDS. It shows an incredible maturity and endurance of the main character as well as problems concerning rural South African community. The director was mostly appreciated for telling such a painful story without platitudes, while Khomotso Manyaka is said to have given an incredible and row performance.

The second movie is Disgrace. As you may suspect it is based on Nobel Prize winning novel of J.M. Coetzee. It is actually an Australian movie but it is set in post-apartheid South Africa. It was directed by Steve Jacobs and was released in 2008. David Lurie (John Malkovich) is an ageing professor teaching Romantic literature at a university in Cape Town.  David has an impulsive affair with one of his students and as a result he is brought before a disciplinary board and fired. He takes refuge with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Haines), who owns a farm in the Eastern Cape. There they face a tragedy and struggle to cope with it. ‘Disgrace’ rises a lot of important questions concerning personal downfall, guilt, violence and post-apartheid South African reality. We all know how easy it is to flatten the best book by a bad adaptation but Jacobs’ Disgrace is a very faithful adaptation while Malkovich remains a compelling and cerebral screen presence. 

The venue is the same - Pub Van Gogh, ul. Żydowska 12, Poznań so see you there!

South African Movie Nights

Whenever I tell someone what I study people get very confused. Most of them are not able to grasp the idea of our English and South African studies. “Why?” they keep asking, “What are you going to do after this?”. They understand the English part easily, but with the South African they struggle. 

“What language is there?” – another standard question, but I await it eagerly as it is a prelude to my favorite part. 11 official languages. There’s something that catches your interlocutor’s attention. “How come?” and here I go, with a brief history, reminding them of Nelson Mandela’s values, talking about the role of English and Afrikaans. South Africa is such an easy place to interest people with. There are so many stories to be told and Poles are the best listeners- attentive, surprised, intensely curious because what I tell them is nowhere near what they expected to hear.

We want to talk about South Africa. We want to share this country’s stories anyway we can. That is why we organize South African Movie Nights. We choose a movie that we find worth watching, we invite friends, family, teachers, strangers, everyone is welcomed, we screen the movie for them in Van Gogh, excellent local pub with amazing atmosphere, and then we try to discuss it, answer questions. Our South African lecturers are with us ready to share their knowledge and experience. It’s a friendly event, packed with interesting people with very welcoming and easy-going atmosphere. We find that it’s the best environment to encourage people to open to new cultures and share their own.

Last week on Monday we screened ‘Tsotsi’. It was our first South African Movie Night in this academic year and it took place in a completely new venue, so there was a lot of anticipation and wondering if anyone is coming. But people came and we can boastfully say it was a success. 

When everything was ready and our spirits high...

We started with welcoming everyone:

Then the movie started:

Our little crowd was interested...

Very interested!

And of course the discussion:

 And the after party! 

Of course we want to invite you to our next movie 'Invictus'! We chose this movie in connection with the Rugby World Cup. Despite Springboks' loss in it, we still support them wholeheartedly and want to share our enthusiasm by screening this fascinating picture, directed by Clint Eastwood. You will have a great opportunity to watch an incredibly inspiring story based on facts. Not only does it present rugby in a completely new light but it also offers an insight in Nelson Mandela's policies and values. 

We promise you will have an amazing time and we will do everything to make you feel welcomed and appreciated.

It happens on Monday 02.11.2015 in Van Gogh Pub (Żydowska 12) at 7 pm

You can learn more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/898173100267114/

We look forward to seeing you!

AL

The Springboks in my life.

17.09.2015- The Day I Met the Springboks in Person

It was an exceptionally beautiful September day in Brighton. I was just happily standing in the coffee shop I was working in, minding my own business, expecting just another slow afternoon, thinking about what to eat for my lunch.

The vast majority of people on the Brighton Pier that day were rugby fans from all over the world. They came to Brighton to cheer their national teams and to enjoy the atmosphere of sporting event. I was admiring South Africans who were always easily distinguishable from the crowd, wearing proudly their national colors in a variety of ways. On seeing a teenage girl in a skirt with a South African flag pattern I almost ran after her to ask where I could buy one. I thought I would steal the show back at my university in a dress like this. As it turned out I did steal the show but not with the dress. I was really looking forward to this rugby tournament and all the cheering and celebrating that comes along with it. 

Suddenly, I saw something that made my heart stop. I saw Springboks. Just three of them walking around the Pier, visibly interested by the idea of amusement park on the sea. But they were far away and I could not leave my adorable small coffee shop. I spent the next half an hour not blinking, hoping they would come closer. Then I gave up and decided that just seeing them in my workplace was a huge achievement for a Polish girl. I felt so inspired I texted all my friends and invited them for South African braai. I decided on the menu- 'n vleisbraai met gebakte aartappels en baie klippies en coke (a lot of meat, baked potatoes and brandy with coke). 

Then I looked up from my shopping list and almost fainted. Willem Alberts was standing in front of me, smiling and asking for three cappuccinos. I stood and kept staring at him. I couldn't speak for so long that he asked if I was all right. 'Hell I'm' I regained my voice and started to speak. And I spoke. And spoke. I told him about my studies, our trip, our struggle to find sponsors and great many other things, all completely irrelevant. They seemed pretty amused by my outburst of enthusiasm and Martin started to speak Afrikaans to me. That was a quick remedy for my talkativeness, since in all my excitement I couldn't focus and understood nothing. Smiling apologetically I decided it was about time I got down to the cappuccino business. As a dedicated worker I always do my best serving customers but this time I put my whole soul into those three coffees. Although I took my time soon enough the coffees were ready and paid, and all three gentlemen went their way. 

Now that was amazing. Springboks drinking something I made. But it wasn't the end. On my break, while I was attacking yet another innocent victim with my story I spotted the Springboks again. This time I had my phone with me and I couldn't let them leave my life forever without a picture. So I ran. When I caught up with them, panting, Willem was laughing at me 'Oh, our miss South Africa!'. We took the picture. I still cannot believe it. I have a picture with Lood de Jager i Willem Alberts.

Needless to say I'm a huge Springboks fan and I wish everyone else was as well. That is why I would like to encourage you to watch the semifinals tomorrow, Saturday 24.10.2015 at 4 pm. South Africa plays with New Zealand. It will be a fascinating game and I'm positive it will draw your attention even if you don't know rugby very well.

A.L.

Welcome!

We would like to warmly welcome you to our blog. We are a group of seven students of English and South African studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. In February 2016 we are going to South Africa. We called this project "Chasing the Horizon Tour". We will see everything what we have learned about for the last three years. We will share with you all news about our big adventure as well as everything about the planing required.

The tour is officially sanctioned and supported by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of English but we ourselves have to raise the money to cover the costs, primarily the tickets to South Africa and the expenses involved in travelling though the vast country, including the hiring of a minibus and the price of the fuel.

The purpose of the tour is not only to put the skills acquired during three years of studying language, culture and history into practice, but also allowing for cultural exchange between South Africa and Poland - taking advantage at the unique opportunity to give South Africans an insight into our own language and cultural traditions. Our group are going to visit a number of South African universities, including Venda, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Free State, Stellenbosch and Rhodes. As in the past, we will be taking part in the Afrikaans community project in Soweto.

A.L. & Z.W.