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It was a rough start to the morning…Wednesday nights are probably not the wisest night to choose to go out, but we were all ready and waiting at the corner at 8:30 for a Kombi to NMMU! As we were waiting, there were full Kombis that kept going by and we stood out there for a bit…then all of a sudden two Kombis came flying down a side road honking, and whistling for us two guys jumped out (one from each) and both were trying to corral us into their taxi! We recognized one of the drivers as our favorite who has picked us up before and who we worked out an arrangement to have him pick us up twice a week for morning class, so we piled into his Kombi, which didn’t make the other driver too happy! We had our Global Health class this morning, and we discussed communication, group dynamics, and personalities. After our three hour class, we had a post conference session about clinical and we were all done for the afternoon, and the week! We made it through our first week of classes! Christy, Leslie, Kasy, Brenna, Laura, and I went to grab a bite to eat (I had been craving another one of the sandwiches I had our first day on campus) and as we were walking a guy came up behind us and asked us if we were the nursing students from Minnesota. We told him that we were, and he introduced himself as DiDi and explained that Alexa told him to look for us around campus this fall (well, spring to them) and he was supposed to take us out and introduce us to people! He lives in he apartment next to us, and we are planning on meeting him and his “mates” at captains for trivia and happy hour tonight. After lunch, we went to the computer lab to sit for an hour and a half. I think that the world made a complete rotation before I was even finished checking my email. I have never been on a computer that was so slow! I finally got too cold to sit in there waiting, so we left and came home. Carrie, Ashley, and I brought our laundry down to get washed and we stopped at a bakery to pick up some goodies!
The internet guys came to the flat and they FINALLY FIXED THE INTERNET!!! But as soon as they were finished we all went out to Blue Waters Café for dinner. I ordered the chicken stir fry and it was delicious! It was a huge serving, so it will double as lunch for tomorrow! I definitely want to go back to eat at Blue Waters, because the menu had such a great variety and it was hard to decide what I wanted to order! So check that off of the list of restaurants that Molly told me that I had to visit while in PE! Next on the list is Nandos! After supper, six of us met DiDi at Captains for a drink and trivia questions. We met a few of his friends, one of which studied at St. Cloud State in 2005! We talked with DiDi and we are going to all hang out on the beach this weekend, playing football and volleyball! He is a very nice guy who had lots of stories about the students who were here in the spring. Now it’s just a little relaxing and checking emails and all of that business! No class tomorrow...so I get to finally sleep in!
This morning we met as a group at 8:00am to be introduced to the Emmanuel Clinical setting. We met our course coordinator and she explained what was expected of us in the setting and that we were to be divided into groups with her NMMU nursing students. On the drive to the clinic in the township, out driver took a wrong turn, so when she parked the Kombi, she turned it off and walked back to Denise’s car for directions. When she came back and went to start the Kombi, it would not start. She flooded the engine, and now we were stuck, lost, and late for our first day of clinicals. Now we were the ones the other students could say, “It’s Africa time” about. The driver called the other Kombis with the NMMU students and they came and picked us up to bring us to the site. When we arrived we saw the clinic, now when I say clinic, I mean that is the most primitive sense. The container that housed the clinic resembled a metal storage shed, about the length and width of a mobile home. It was surrounded by a large barbwire fence enclosing the clinic and a larger vegetable garden. We later found out that the vegetable garden was planted for the use of all of the township residents. We met the other nursing students and we were paired up among their groups, to ensure that we could have a translator (either of Afrikans or Xhosa). Laura and I were in a group with three of the NMMU nursing students, two guys and one girl. Unfortunately, I cannot remember/pronounce their names correctly, one of the names is Xhosa and has a click in it, so no matter how many times I repeat his name, I will botch it up! All three were very nice, the girl was a little quiet, but I guess I would be too having two “loud Americans” in your group! We walked through the township with one of the Emmanuel caregivers to where our patient lived, because we were doing home visits with the patient and their families. While walking, I was talking with one of the guy students and we were talking about the clinicals that we have done in our previous years. His experience is quite drastic from my own, since I have been in hospitals the last two years with such a huge emphasis on med-surge and recovery, where he has been in local clinics working with TB patients and doing more community and global health. We arrived at our patient’s house, and we stayed there for about an hour asking questions and learning about their illness. When we were finished with our visit we went back to the container and had a debriefing conference with the other groups and then we went home. We only had time to make a quick lunch (leftovers from Barney’s) and change, then it was off to NMMU for our senior sem class, which is South African Politics. Our teacher was away for the day, so we had a substitute who does all of our course coordinating, class was supposed to be three hours, but we were finished in fifteen minutes. Carrie and I went to the library to read books on reserve for homework. Although neither one of us could focus, and the last place we wanted to be was sitting in the stuffy library, it is a nice feeling to have next week and part of the following week’s assignments completed. We took the Kombi back to Langerry and we got ready to go out on the town! Peatrice took us out, so Tonya, Carrie, Katherine, Alex, Christy, Leslie, Laura, Brenna, and I went to Primis for a drink. It was such a fun restaurant/bar! The servers run everywhere they go! The drinks were very delicious; I ordered a litchi daiquiri, but my favorite was the raspberry teapot! When we were getting ready to leave, our waiter asked Brenna to come back in the kitchen with him. She was confused but went with it, and started to go back there…little did she know that Christy told the waiter that it was Brenna’s birthday (her birthday isn’t until January 23rd but we thought that it would be funny!) So Brenna was brought back into the kitchen and told that she had to wash dishes, they put an apron and hairnet on her and she was back there for about five minutes. Then everyone from the kitchen (cooks, dishwashers, and servers) came marching out clapping, dancing, and singing. They put Brenna on a chair and they all sang happy birthday to her! I can’t remember the last time that I laughed as hard as we were during all of this! We have all of it on video, and lots of pictures to document the special event! After the commotion died down, we went to Toby Joes, where it was Wednesday two for ones! I discovered a new love for Savanna Dry (not only a great drink but it was only R14, which is $2.00!!!) and Tonya and I drank a few of those throughout the course of the night! We all went out on the porch and the waitress came up to me and asked me if we were the Minnesota group and she wanted to know how many of us were in the group. A few minutes later, she came out with tequila shots for everyone, compliments of the owner! We made a lovely friend in the bathroom…the woman who gives you the paper towels and before we knew it she came out on the dance floor and was dancing with us! It was so much fun! At midnight, Tonya, Carrie, and I walked back to go to bed, because we had class the next morning at 9:00! Let’s just say that not many of us were feeling quite in the mood to be waking up and having to get to NMMU that early! But all was well and our initiation into the PE nightlife was a great success!
Today we woke up early to catch the van to the House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. The driver showed up on time, however, she did not bring a large enough van for us, so she had to go back and get a new one. We all sat on the front steps and read our books for class. An hour and a half later she came back with a new van, freshly refueled, and a broken door, which would open up as we were driving on the freeway. Good thing Carrie wasn’t resting against the door, because she would have flown out when the door swung open! We arrived at the AIDS Haven after a twenty minute drive and we were brought into a chapel and met with Aggie, the matron of the Haven, and she began to tell us about how the Haven was founded and about the nursing duties, the number of residents. The AIDS Haven houses and cares for adults (which is considered twelve years and older), children, and babies. While Aggie was talking to us, two of the little boys arrive home from school, both are in grade R (which is similar to Kindergarten) and they walked in with their uniforms on. They looked like little Golden Gophers, because their uniforms were maroon and gold wind suits! After Aggie was finished talking with us, she gave a tour and we began in the children’s room where they sleep. There were eight sets of bunkbeds lining two walls, and every bed had a little one in it, bouncing up and down, waving, doing gymnastic tricks, and making faces at us! It probably wasn’t the wisest to bring us in there because they were just getting ready to take a nap, and our arrival wound them up! We were showed the baby room, and I think that I fell in love with the beautiful babies all standing in their cribs waving their bottles. Who needs to have their own child, when you could adopt all of those little babies who just want to be loved? I can’t wait until I can go back and spend more time with them tomorrow. We ate lunch at the House of Resurrection, except, I didn’t do much eating. Lets just say that the hotdogs that they served us resembled a pink bubblegum “It’s a Girl” cigar. Just thinking about it now makes me feel sick. I felt so bad, but I couldn’t make myself eat it, so I just ate the bread and went hungry until 6:30pm when I finally was able to eat dinner! After everyone finished, our driver drove us straight to NMMU for our music class. I added more money into my printing account and I made my way to the computer lab to print my syllabus and to check my email. I have never been so grateful to have my own personal computer. First of all, there was a line of people waiting to get into the full computer lab, so we had to wait fifteen minutes to get into the lab. Then, as I was trying to check and send emails, it moved slower than dial up internet at home. I was online for twenty minutes, and I was able to reply to two emails that were sent to me (both Mom and Dad) and then it was time to go and find our classroom. We met our music teacher, Lestie, who seems like a very nice woman. She was a little frazzled today because nothing seemed to be going according to plan. The TV and VCR were not working, they she ran out of her syllabus and notes, and then spilt her water on the desk and broke the glass. It seems like it is going to be an interesting class. She taught us about Nguni music of the Xhosa people, and we watched a (homemade) video about the musical bows that were used to make the music. The bows resembled a regular old bow for a bow and arrow and it was pretty amazing how the man on the video could play a musical scale with one piece of string and using his mouth to amplify the sounds. Lestie also taught us a Xhosa song that we all sang in a round, the song was titled “Umzi watcha” which translates to, “The house is burning.” By the time our two hour class was over, it was raining and we all piled into the Kombi, which breaks the previous record…there were 23 of us in there. I was squeezed between Brenna and another student while Carrie sat on my lap, and as soon as we started the song “Ride It Dirty” came on, and we couldn’t stop laughing. We must have been a sight driving down the street. We were thankful to be back to the flats and all four of us rushed into the kitchen to make dinner! Two pots were filled with four different types of pasta and we all sat down and ate dinner together. After dinner, I was having a terrible craving for candy, so Ashley and I walked to the gas station in the rain and we stocked up on Skittles, Kit-Kats, and milk chocolate. Now Carrie and I are sitting in our cozy room reading and journaling while listening to the rain outside. I’ll probably start on some homework that we have to do this week here in a bit, but when I start, it makes the school year official, and I would rather delay that process for as long as I can…I guess the only good thing is know that this is my last year of doing homework, and then I finally will be a nurse!
Today we woke up early to catch the van to the House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. The driver showed up on time, however, she did not bring a large enough van for us, so she had to go back and get a new one. We all sat on the front steps and read our books for class. An hour and a half later she came back with a new van, freshly refueled, and a broken door, which would open up as we were driving on the freeway. Good thing Carrie wasn’t resting against the door, because she would have flown out when the door swung open! We arrived at the AIDS Haven after a twenty minute drive and we were brought into a chapel and met with Aggie, the matron of the Haven, and she began to tell us about how the Haven was founded and about the nursing duties, the number of residents. The AIDS Haven houses and cares for adults (which is considered twelve years and older), children, and babies. While Aggie was talking to us, two of the little boys arrive home from school, both are in grade R (which is similar to Kindergarten) and they walked in with their uniforms on. They looked like little Golden Gophers, because their uniforms were maroon and gold wind suits! After Aggie was finished talking with us, she gave a tour and we began in the children’s room where they sleep. There were eight sets of bunkbeds lining two walls, and every bed had a little one in it, bouncing up and down, waving, doing gymnastic tricks, and making faces at us! It probably wasn’t the wisest to bring us in there because they were just getting ready to take a nap, and our arrival wound them up! We were showed the baby room, and I think that I fell in love with the beautiful babies all standing in their cribs waving their bottles. Who needs to have their own child, when you could adopt all of those little babies who just want to be loved? I can’t wait until I can go back and spend more time with them tomorrow. We ate lunch at the House of Resurrection, except, I didn’t do much eating. Lets just say that the hotdogs that they served us resembled a pink bubblegum “It’s a Girl” cigar. Just thinking about it now makes me feel sick. I felt so bad, but I couldn’t make myself eat it, so I just ate the bread and went hungry until 6:30pm when I finally was able to eat dinner! After everyone finished, our driver drove us straight to NMMU for our music class. I added more money into my printing account and I made my way to the computer lab to print my syllabus and to check my email. I have never been so grateful to have my own personal computer. First of all, there was a line of people waiting to get into the full computer lab, so we had to wait fifteen minutes to get into the lab. Then, as I was trying to check and send emails, it moved slower than dial up internet at home. I was online for twenty minutes, and I was able to reply to two emails that were sent to me (both Mom and Dad) and then it was time to go and find our classroom. We met our music teacher, Lestie, who seems like a very nice woman. She was a little frazzled today because nothing seemed to be going according to plan. The TV and VCR were not working, they she ran out of her syllabus and notes, and then spilt her water on the desk and broke the glass. It seems like it is going to be an interesting class. She taught us about Nguni music of the Xhosa people, and we watched a (homemade) video about the musical bows that were used to make the music. The bows resembled a regular old bow for a bow and arrow and it was pretty amazing how the man on the video could play a musical scale with one piece of string and using his mouth to amplify the sounds. Lestie also taught us a Xhosa song that we all sang in a round, the song was titled “Umzi watcha” which translates to, “The house is burning.” By the time our two hour class was over, it was raining and we all piled into the Kombi, which breaks the previous record…there were 23 of us in there. I was squeezed between Brenna and another student while Carrie sat on my lap, and as soon as we started the song “Ride It Dirty” came on, and we couldn’t stop laughing. We must have been a sight driving down the street. We were thankful to be back to the flats and all four of us rushed into the kitchen to make dinner! Two pots were filled with four different types of pasta and we all sat down and ate dinner together. After dinner, I was having a terrible craving for candy, so Ashley and I walked to the gas station in the rain and we stocked up on Skittles, Kit-Kats, and milk chocolate. Now Carrie and I are sitting in our cozy room reading and journaling while listening to the rain outside. I’ll probably start on some homework that we have to do this week here in a bit, but when I start, it makes the school year official, and I would rather delay that process for as long as I can…I guess the only good thing is know that this is my last year of doing homework, and then I finally will be a nurse!
This morning Ashley and I woke up and we went to mass at the Catholic Church across the street from our flat. It was a smaller church but it got crowded. Ashley and I sat at the back of the church and we just observed how the mass went. Everything was the same (which is to be expected) except when it came time for communion, we waited for our row to file out after the row in front of us. Well this didn’t happen, because everyone just randomly stands up and walks to the center aisle and files back to their pew like little ants cruising through their anthill. After mass we walked back in the sunshine and came back to the apartment to change into clothes for warm weather…the capris and flip-flops came out and a group of us (well, actually the whole group) walked across the street to the beachfront market and we browsed the little stands. I found the Moses paintings and I had to use all of my willpower to not buy one when I was there. I want to wait to buy things after I have become more acclimated to the money and the price of things, and I have to start thinking in terms of Rand versus converting it to dollars. I also don’t want to spend all of my money in one place at one time, otherwise dad will be getting a phone call to transfer money into my checking account! While walking up and down the sidewalk, there were dancers performing and we sat and watched them dance, and I am amazed at how well some of those little girls can booty pop! After the market Kasy, Laura, and I walked down to the boardwalk so I could buy a watch, and we browsed the shops. We stopped at Dulce (my new favorite place!) and had coffee and organized our planners. We sat at a table on the outdoor patio next to the pond in the center of the boardwalk. The weather was gorgeous sitting in the sun outside and just relaxing and working. As we were sitting there, I looked around, and it the scenery was like I could have been anywhere in the United States; there were clothing and candy stores, an arcade, pizza places, and coffee shops all along the boardwalk. It just didn’t seem like Africa! When I think of Africa, I think of the savanna with zebras and lions grazing like the movie Lion King, but so far, we have not seen that part of Africa! While we were at Dulce, I ordered a hot chocolate with caramel with a warm blueberry muffin, which was probably the best muffin I have ever had! We sat, chatted about the areas of nursing we wanted to get into and where we would like to be after we pass the boards, and we organized our planners and schedules for the semester. When I was all finished with my organizing, I began reading one of the books that we have to read for class. When we were all finished with our coffee, and finally were given our bill (it took us about 1 ½ hours by the time we sat down, ordered, ate, and were given our bill…just for coffee and muffins!) we walked back to our apartment and I have been sitting in my room just relaxing with Katherine, Ashley, Alex, and Carrie. We are taking turns picking out songs to listen to, arguing about musicians and songs, dancing, and laughing at pictures that were taken before summer started. We all are pretty darn tired today from the wandering around today, the walking that we have done this last week and just soaking in the life that we will be living for the next few months. I know that I keep saying this, but it just doesn’t seem real, I mean it just feels like we are on a vacation for a week or two and then its back to the states! For example, today at the market, I kept seeing things that I wanted to buy, and I was mentally going trough my list of people to buy things for, and I kept thinking that I needed to buy it all, but in reality, I have three months to browse the markets and shops for the most perfect gifts! Which also means the pressure is on the find the best gift with lots of thought put behind it! Hopefully tonight will be an early night, because we have to be up and ready to leave at 8:15 for the AIDS Haven, which is something that I am very excited for! I have the names of kids that I am supposed to send hugs and love to from those who visited in the spring! Well, now its just a little bit of leisurely reading (because who knows when I will be able to do that again) and then bed time!
This morning was the first morning in which I got to sleep in! I woke up at 9:45 and it was wonderful! And even better was the fact that I was finally able to take a hot shower! It was a great morning! At noon we were picked up by a driver and we went on a Calabash tour of the city of Port Elizabeth. Our first fun fact that we learned was that there are 1.4 million people living in PE. We started in Central and we went up to Fort Fredrick, the oldest building in PE which was built to protect the port from the French, however not a single shot was ever fired from the fort. Nelson, our driver took us through the city and pointed out where the mall was, so now we know where Green Acres is and how to get there (via taxi or bus!) We then were taken into the Townships to see where 500,000 of the people in PE live. I had an image in my mind of the Townships, and I knew the conditions that people were living in, but I didn’t realize how many there were and how close the different Townships were to each other. It blew my mind standing on this overlook with the valley filled with tiny shacks and tin houses. It was interesting having the tour from a Xhosa man’s point of view who lived in the Townships. Nelson told us that many people prefer to live in the Townships because that is where their people are and they feel connected with their community. He said that it is not uncommon to find a BMW pulling up to a house in the townships. Not all of the townships are the ruined shanties, the government has gone in to rebuild areas and rebuilt nicer homes in some of the areas that we visited. What I found the most amazing was that Nelson was telling us that in the areas that they were rebuilding people were chosen to inhabit the new homes, while others were left behind until more places could be built, and rather than being bitter and jealous of those who were selected for the newer houses, the people left behind named the new Townships “Our Hope” It made be stop and think about how if that happened back at home, I don’t think that people would have the same reaction if they were passed over and they weren’t getting the bigger and better things in life. The Xhosa’s reaction truly embodied the sense of community that they cherish so much here. Another amazing thing about the community is how everyone comes together for funerals, and we drove past many funeral processions. Nelson told us that they have to specify days in which funerals can be held, because otherwise the streets would always be crammed and traffic would be so slow from the continuous processions. The only way to describe how large the cemeteries are is to compare it to driving down County Road 2 when we would see rows upon rows of corn, they see rows of headstones. They are large, vast, free of trees, and dotted with tombstone after tombstone. The cemeteries are not nearly as nice as ours are with nicely kept green grass and where we have flat even ground, they have mounds and overgrown weeds. And seeing the amounts of people attending the burials was as large as a crowd at a hometown football game. It is so difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that your weekend activities consist of attending funeral after funeral. We actually got out of the van in one of the Townships and we went to a small craft sale and looked around. As soon as we started walking down the paths with our cameras out, the kids all appeared and followed us, tugging on our arms and shirts to have their picture taken! They would pose, and everywhere you turned little ones were pulling each other into groups to have their pictures taken and they immediately grab your hands to show them the picture! Everyone here gives the thumbs up sign, the kids, people on the streets, and others we pass all do it to us as we go by. Also, on our tour we were stopped and Nelson was talking to us about containers (or cell phone booths that can be used and paid for per minute) two younger guys were standing outside of the van and they opened the door and asked us to take their picture. They shook people’s hands and said that they were so happy to have us in their country and they had never met or shook the hand of a person from the United States. They just wanted to talk and finally the driver told them that we had to continue on! During the tour we stopped at a bar/place to eat and we were treated with roasted bread and jam, which is a staple food that is generally made by the Xhosa mothers. After a little over three hours, the tour was over and we were back at Langerry. A group of us swapped cameras and memory cards and started putting them on the computers. Then some of us walked to the Boardwalk and Pick ‘n Pay. On the walk we saw a bunch of windsurfers dotting the beach and combing the shoreline. That would definitely be something that I would want to try! It looks like fun! Alex and I went to the Boardwalk to search for a watch for me to wear for clinicals, but the only ones I found were at Billabong for R500 ($71.00) and I was not willing to pay that much for a watch! I want a cheapie for like R70-100! We bought fifteen minutes at the internet café (seeing that the internet is still down here, and I continue to just type my blogs in Word until it is up and running). We walked back and it was so windy! Now it’s just a little down time and we are going out for Chinese food tonight as a group. Denise says that it is the best Chinese food that she has had down here, so hopefully it will be good! And I think that we are going to go out and see the local bars and hangouts tonight! There is a live band playing nearby so we might go and check that out!
This morning I woke up, and again took a freezing cold shower…but no worries, the guy came this afternoon to fix it for us (apparently we had to flip a switch to turn the hot water on, and no one informed us about that!). We all took a Kombi today for our Nursing orientation at NMMU. There were 22 of us squeezed in the Kombi! The people in there with us were laughing at all of us “international students” for taking pictures and laughing at each other. The driver told us that we were all beautiful American girls, but we all looked alike! I believe that the exact phrase that was used was “They beautiful, but they look alike!” He told Alex how did he get so lucky to have all of the girls with him, and his response was, “I’ve been trying to get rid of them!” So the driver said that he would take five of us, and he would yell to everyone on the street that he had a Kombi filled with American girls and he got to keep five! At school, we finally figured out our computer IDs and passwords, and I am so grateful that I brought my own laptop, because the computer lab was completely packed with people! We then had our orientation with the nursing director and other professors in the department. And all of us had lunch together before we caught the Kombis back home. When we got back this afternoon, Christy, Leslie, Ashley, Carrie, and I went down to the beach for the first time and we took pictures of PE and the ocean! The sand is so soft and fine, and the beach was so clean! I couldn’t believe how pretty it was, and we were the only ones leaving footprints on the sand! The water is such a beautiful blue, but it’s not like the beaches in Cancun, where the water starts a light blue and turns to cerulean the deeper you look out. Instead it is the deep blue as far as you can see with white rolling waves. I’m sitting out on our balcony as I write this in the sunshine (but it’s still chilly!) and I can feel the breeze from the water and a sailboat is out on the water framed between the palm trees. It’s a different view from up here, because you can see palm trees, and then trees next to them that resemble evergreens! And it’s only 4:00pm here and the moon is already coming out (although it is still sunny right now, the sun will set within the next hour and a half). It’s such a strange feeling because I know that I am in South Africa, and I have been talking about it since last Thanksgiving, but it still seems surreal that I am finally here! Sitting here it feels like I am just visiting some distant place and I’ll be home next week. I look up and just take it all in and I just keep telling myself, “You are in Africa! How amazing is that?!?” I just can’t wait until the weather gets a little warmer so we can go to the beach and trying surfing lessons and boogie boarding. And I can’t wait to see the dolphins! But September 1st marks the first day of spring down here, so the weather should be getting nicer very soon!
Now it’s just a little downtime and then we all are meeting as a group to go over our syllabus and weekend trips for the semester. Then tonight we are going as a group to see Bourne Supremacy (Denise, our professor, has been asking us all day if we are going to go tonight, because she really wants to see it!). So we have to check on movie times and prices and that is the plan for our first weekend night in PE! Then tomorrow it is the city tour at noon! I’m hoping to get some pictures uploaded to the internet so you all can view them, so when I have that done, I will send a web address for you to view those!
Back again, for the update about tonight…we all met as a group and went through our travel plans for the semester with our weekend trips and our spring break (sounds funny to say for fall semester!) trip to Cape Town (which I am absolutely excited for)! After our meeting, Denise gathered a group of us to go see Bourne Ultimatum, so eight of us walked down to the Boardwalk (which reminded me of Seaport Village in San Diego, lots of great shopping places, with an indoor market, and tons of cute restaurants all situated around a water area). We ate at Dulce for supper and the eight of us went into the theater. It’s different buying movie tickets in PE, because when you do, you are assigned a seat, rather than choosing your own place to sit. The movie was so good, but I probably would have enjoyed it a little more if I had seen the first two, but now it makes me want to go and rent the other two movies, Kasy said that she’d do it with me because she hadn’t seen the others! It was strange sitting in the movie theater, because it felt just like at home, except that it was only R25 ($3.50) to see a late showing! It was great! It was a fun night, and I am excited to get back to the Boardwalk during the day to see the shops! I’m already starting to get ideas about what to bring back for people!
This morning we were up and ready to catch a van to NMMU at 9:40…40 minutes later, the van showed up. We learned first hand what “South African Time” means. The man I was sitting next to on the plane warned me about it and told me to be prepared to be late or expect people to be late for meetings, rides, and at restaurants! We finally were on our way, and we had a driver named Darren who worked for the University who was such a crazy guy! He was telling us about his car with big subs and speakers, and that you can’t enter from the back door, because they are broken! We arrived at NMMU and were greeted with muffins and juice as we watched a movie about the University, then we were given a tour of campus, which is so pretty because it is on a nature preserve! The campus is in the shape of a box, and over 27,000 students attend between the four campuses! We were given welcome bags with tourist information, and a t-shirt that said “Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University International” so now it’s official, I am an international student (Gen, if you are reading this, I too am an IS…I immediately thought of you when I finally realized this!) We got our books, and found out where our classes were. After the tour, we went to have lunch, and I tried a sandwich called a tram. It was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had! But I tried the ketchup, and it definitely was not Heintz! It’s actually a sweeter taste and almost tastes like there is cinnamon in it, Kasy and I decided that we were going to buy ketchup and carry it in our purses! After the tour of campus, we all had our first ride on the Kombis (taxies) which are basically large vans with only 10 seats, but they squeeze 20 people into them! I was sitting next to Kasy and ended up having the man next to me half sitting on me to make room for more people! Then three people were squeezed into the front, and whenever someone gets out, or we drove by people on the street, the driver honks his horn and a guy stands on the inside part of the door and whips it open and closed! It was an interesting experience! After our day at school, we all crammed into Brenna, Kasy, Leslie, Christy, and Laura’s room to think of questions for Loaded Questions and we all were sitting in there laughing and thinking of funny questions! Later on, we went to get more groceries and do a little more shopping for things for the flat. For dinner a bunch of us ordered pizza and we learned the perk of African time…free pizza! We finally got our pizza delivered 2 hours later! We decided that pizza (especially if it is free) is going to be a regular meal for us! The rest of the night was spent laughing at each other and just really getting to know everyone better, although we have all had classes together from our first day freshmen year, the juicy stories started coming out! It’s been fun with the group so far! Can’t wait until we start going out and seeing the city and country!
Well today was a day of adapting, adapting to people driving in the right side of the car and on the left side of the road. Learning labels at the Pick ‘N Pay, as well as acclimating to the prices (a jar of peanut butter is R21.99, which is about $3 US). It was quite the surprise when I was paying at the grocery store and my bill was R645, my jar dropped, but then quickly did the math a learned that I spent about $85.00, which is much better than the 645! I was very grateful that they did have Diet Coke (or Coke Light) because I don’t think that I could have survived had I not found that! My roommates and I had to team grocery shop because our fridge is slightly larger than a mini fridge, so we had to make sure that we could share food and have enough room. Speaking, of roommates, I am sharing a room with Carrie, and Katherine, and Ashley are in the other room! We have a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean and the ocean front from our balcony! The living room and kitchen are a tight space, but Carrie and I already were rearranging our living room/dining room and our bed room to maximize space in a tiny flat! But back to the adjusting…the time difference is been playing tricks on my sleeping patterns! We didn’t get much sleep last night after missing our flight to PE and although we were put up in a very nice hotel (probably the nicest I have ever stayed in…we were welcomed with glasses of wine and fresh squeezed orange juice) but I didn’t get much sleep, I guess it was all of the worrying about catching our flight the next morning and getting to the airport at 4:00am! The hotel was nice, Delta paid for the hotel and covered a very fancy dinner! The room itself was amazing! The shower was a little funny because it was against the wall in the bedroom so when we were showering, we could see the silhouette of the person in the shower! Thank goodness we had four rooms, three girls in three rooms, and Alex got his own! Also, I called home today for the first time today and I wanted to make sure that both Mom and Dad were home, and I couldn’t wait any longer, so I called at 2:30pm our time, which was 8:30am at home…so I woke Mom up, but I don’t think that she will be upset with me! Actually, as I write this all three kids in my family are in three different countries! Dane is back in the U.S. Marcus is in Canada for a roadtrip before heading to college, and then me in South Africa! Poor Mom! It was nice hearing Mom and Dad’s voices, especially since was the one last night while we were trapped in the airport, I just looked at my friend Carrie as we were sitting on a watching 40 bags of luggage, and I said, “I want my mom and dad!” Then when I was worrying in the hotel at 2:00am, she kindly reminded me that this is part of traveling and to breathe in the love and breathe out the stress, which I think will be the mantra of the trip when the going gets tough! But now that we are settled into the rooms, there are a few things that I still need to go and pick up for my closet to be organized (there’s my type A personality), although my closet is very empty compared to what I have been used to! After everyone got settled in, the whole group went to dinner at Buffalo Bills. I had a salad and chicken with baby red potatoes with a yummy glass of wine! All for the whopping price of $10.00 and now I have lunch for tomorrow from the leftovers! On the walk to Buffalo Bills we were able to scope out other places to eat (like those recommended to me my Molly and Alexa, Nandos and Blue Waters)! I am excited to see more of the city. Now, the roomies and I are sitting down in our “living room” and watching a movie before going to bed for the night. Tomorrow is orientation at NMMU!
P.S. The internet is not working yet at Langerry, so when it does, more emails and blogs will follow!
I finally made it to Port Elizabeth, South Africa after what seemed line an eternity of traveling! We missed our flight from Jo'berg to PE, and we had to run through the airport trying to find Delta Representatives to help us out, and finally after an hour and half of talking to the representative, we were put up in a hotel and were rebooked for a different flight at 5:50am the next morning! We went to the airport at 4:00 before the lights were turned on! But we finally made it! I'm running out of time on the computer, so more details will follow and more updates about the trip will be coming soon! Miss and love you all!!!
Hey Everyone!
It's the night before I am leaving for Port Elizabeth, South Africa! I am very excited...just a few more things to pack before I go to bed! I will email everyone as soon as I am able to when I arrive in PE! If you want to email me and update me with what is going on in your life, my email address is lcpleiss@csbsju.edu! And now it begins...
It was a rough start to the morning…Wednesday nights are probably not the wisest night to choose to go out, but we were all ready and waiting at the corner at 8:30 for a Kombi to NMMU! As we were waiting, there were full Kombis that kept going by and we stood out there for a bit…then all of a sudden two Kombis came flying down a side road honking, and whistling for us two guys jumped out (one from each) and both were trying to corral us into their taxi! We recognized one of the drivers as our favorite who has picked us up before and who we worked out an arrangement to have him pick us up twice a week for morning class, so we piled into his Kombi, which didn’t make the other driver too happy! We had our Global Health class this morning, and we discussed communication, group dynamics, and personalities. After our three hour class, we had a post conference session about clinical and we were all done for the afternoon, and the week! We made it through our first week of classes! Christy, Leslie, Kasy, Brenna, Laura, and I went to grab a bite to eat (I had been craving another one of the sandwiches I had our first day on campus) and as we were walking a guy came up behind us and asked us if we were the nursing students from Minnesota. We told him that we were, and he introduced himself as DiDi and explained that Alexa told him to look for us around campus this fall (well, spring to them) and he was supposed to take us out and introduce us to people! He lives in he apartment next to us, and we are planning on meeting him and his “mates” at captains for trivia and happy hour tonight. After lunch, we went to the computer lab to sit for an hour and a half. I think that the world made a complete rotation before I was even finished checking my email. I have never been on a computer that was so slow! I finally got too cold to sit in there waiting, so we left and came home. Carrie, Ashley, and I brought our laundry down to get washed and we stopped at a bakery to pick up some goodies!
