Location: Simon's Town, South Africa

The Penn State Education Abroad Office, in partnership with State College magazine, is excited to announce the inaugural Penn State Study Abroad Writing Contest. The winner of this contest will be published in the October 2012 issue of State College magazine. This is an excellent opportunity to communicate your experiences to a broad audience and be published in a professional magazine.

Click here for more details and to find out how to enter!

Location: Penn State University, University Park, Education Abroad Office

While packing all the gifts I bought for myself and others I decided to write a blog about the best places to get some really cool gifts so that you don’t get ripped off.  The first place I would suggest to go if you are good at bargaining is Green Market Square preferably before 1pm. If you do go at one you might miss some venders who have already left for the day but the good part about going late is that you get their packing price where they are more eager to sell things to you. You can find almost everything at green market square (fabrics, jewelry, sculptures, paintings, bags, traditional wear, etc). If you are not that great at bargaining but you are on a budget as we all are the craft market at waterfront. At the market there is a store called Siyakatala that has set low pricing for all their products. You can find gifts as cheap as R20. They have beautiful beaded jewelry, kitchen ware, drums, bow and arrows, sculptures, masks, Zulu hats, and so forth. Their prices are similar to that of waterfront and they can be used as a standard for pricing. The only problem is that they do not have the wide variety as green market Square.  The next two places do not have low pricing for jewelry but have a lot of things you can buy in bulk and more importantly sell fabric and sew clothes. The African Women’s market on Long Street sells some really good quality fabrics and patterns which may cost more than other places. There are cheaper fabrics and patterns available also. If you want cheaper fabric and you do not want to go all the way to the city you can go to the fabric store at Station road in Observatory right by stones (don’t  worry you will know these areas in like two weeks of being in cape town).  They sell cheaper fabrics and offer some pre-made traditional wear for children. They also have a scrap bin that my friends and I raided to find some cute cloths and turned them into head bands and wraps. We all plan to wear them when we arrive back in the states. 

Location: Cape Town, South Africa