Brandon in South Africa pt. II: The Internship

I have arrived and the 1st month is OVER!

2011-09-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

Well I have officially arrived in South Africa and have been here for over a month! Sorry I suck so much at updating my blog everyone. So I guess I'll just give you a run down of everything that been happening.

I am working in the Media and Research office here in Parliament for the Democratic Alliance. Everyone here is really nice and helpful I've been able to meet several of the MPs(Members of Parliament) and I have also met the Parliamentary Leader and the Chief Whip.
My everyday duties are: updating the DA website's "newsroom" (www.da.org.za) with statements that are made by the MPs, Forwarding party registrations to the Province or area leader, and getting the newspapers after lunch...exciting I know.
So far I have had 1 reasearch project which was writing a discussion document on Youth Unemployment in South Africa and ways government can help solve the problem. It was a combined paper between Aubrey and I.

FUN STUFF
We have done lots of fun stuff when we dont work on the weekends.

We went to Simons Town and saw penguins! Yes Penguins in Africa!

Then we went to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the lowest point in Africa

We also went to Robben Island. Which was the prison that Nelson Mandela Spent most of his 27 years of incarceration. The first picture is of me in fron of Nelson Mandela's cell.

The beaches here are beautiful and the weather is finally getting nice and warm its great!!!
I will upload some video of the tour of Robben Island later. And in a couple weeks we will be going to COLDPLAY I am excited!

2011-07-19T14:44:00.001-07:00

Visitors visa has arrived!

New Developments!!!

2011-07-14T01:09:00.000-07:00

Well some exciting new developments have come in the past few days so I thought I would write a quick little note to update you all!

1. My friend and internship buddy Aubrey Jo also has a blog now! She is a much better writer than me and more detailed so to get the full experience you should visit both blogs! Her's is www.aubreyjosouthafrica.blogspot.com

2. I have received additional grant money from 2 different departments at UVU!
The International Studies program has donated $500 to help me and the Political Science Department has donated $400! So a HUGE Thank You to those departments especially Dr. Brian Birch, Grant Skaeblund, and Dr. Kat Brown! It is greatly appreciated!

So now my total fund raising dollars is $2000! So thank you to all those who also donated money to me through my pay pal account as well! You seriously have no idea how much you have helped me! Just to give you an idea this internship experience is gonna cost me around $3500 after everything is said and done! It would be more but my AMAZING parents donated their miles to me for my plane ticket as my birthday back in April so that helped a ton!!!!

PS 35 DAYS LEFT!!!!

PPS Its never too late to help a brother out! Seriously every dollar helps! If you can it will be greatly appreciated!

YOU GUYS ARE ALL AMAZING FRIENDS! :)

The Apartment and Car!

2011-07-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Well time is flying by I only have 45 days til I leave to South Africa to start my internship! Im really excited, we've gotten a lot done but still have lots more that we need to do. Most recently we reserved our car and apartment. I'll be posting pictures of both of them at the end of this post. I'm still figuring out how to do this whole blog thing.

As you may notice there is now a "donate" tab at the top of the blog. Even though I received $1000 from Dean Yells and his department, I am still short of my fund-raising goal. Which is where all of you can come in! I know with the economy and everything going on times are tough but any amount will help, and I really mean any amount. I know that won't be possible for most of you and thats ok!

Well now onto the new stuff!!!
We have reserved a car while we are there it is a Volkswagon Chico for all those who have been to or lived in SA you've seen these cars everywhere! But for everyone else here is what it looks like:

Ya I know its gonna be awesome!

And now onto our apartment. We will actually be living in a hotel! Which I think is pretty cool. It not a super nice hotel in the ad it was described as boutiquey ha! But it still seems very nice! Its right behind the local grocery store/mall and 450m from the beach or a little more than a 1/4 mile or approx. 6 min walking (according to Google maps) If you wanna see for yourself the address is 3 Holmfirth Rd., Sea Point, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.

That's the outside! Now for the inside!

So ya thats what everything looks like so far! Thanks for all your support and help everyone!

WELCOME!

2011-05-11T00:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog!

As some of you may know I have recently been accepted as an intern for a political part in South Africa called the Democratic Alliance (DA).

I am super excited for this and I will be leaving for South Africa on August 18th and I will be there until December 19th.

I'll keep you updated on everything and I already have 2 hugely awesome updates!

1. My best friend Aubrey Robinson has also been accepted as an intern and will be coming along as well!!!

2. As some of you know cost of international travel is expensive especially because I will not be being paid for my internship. I asked a few different departments at UVU to help me with my costs and expenses and to my great excitement I received an email from Mr. David Yells. Mr. Yells is the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at UVU and he has agreed to donate $1000 to my experience there!

I am so grateful for this donation. And there is no way to say how grateful I actually am. This donation will help me greatly!
So again THANK YOU Dean Yells and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for your very generous donation.