September 1, 2007

This morning we woke up and got ready to go to Green Acres (the mall). Petrus took six of us girls, and Alex in the Buckey to the mall. At first we all were going to pile into his tiny little compact car, but we decided that we wouldn’t be able to buy anything if we were packed to the roof without mall purchases! So he got the keys for the Langerry Buckey (which is a little pickup truck…I mean smaller than a Ford Ranger…with a cover on it) and the girls al piled into the back. We were crammed in with legs crossing on others, and arms up wherever they could hold onto! We were quite the site. When we got to Green Acres, we all unfolded out of the back and were on our way to do a little shopping. We soon learned that the mall is huge and has all of these different branches to it. It seems that they built one section of the mall, and just kept building additions wherever there was room to expand or connect different sections. Not only did I feel like I was a mouse trying to find the cheese in the maze, add State Fair sized crowds also trying to navigate the halls of the mall! I have never seen crowds like that unless at the State Fair, it was so overwhelming! We started the trip in Mr. Price where I found a nice over the shoulder bag for really cheap, a cute shirt, and a necklace. All of which came to a whopping $15.00! My mission for the trip was to get a new watch that could be durable for clinicals. After going into what seemed like every store that sold watches, I found one at a surfshop. And it was on sale! Plus it maden me happy because it looks just like my old watch that I lost the week before I left for South Africa! We went to the grocery store (there was a grocery store the size of a Cub Foods in the middle of the mall) and got a few groceries and went to meet Petrus and Alex to go home. I don’t think that I will ever go to Green Acres again, unless I was desperate and had a list of things that I needed to get!

On the Buckey ride home, my foot and leg fell asleep, and when it was time to get out, I couldn’t even feel my toes. My flip flop fell off of my foot and I couldn’t tell when it was back on. I ended up having to carry the sandal because it kept slipping off without me noticing. It was the creepiest sensation, because I couldn’t even lift my leg to get up the stairs. Laura was experiencing the same phenomenon with her legs, and we literally had to pick our legs up to go up the stairs! It felt that I was paralyzed from the waist down and the feeling didn’t go away for almost ten minutes!
When we got back to Langerry, Katherine, Laura, and I went to Nandos for lunch. Everyone who suggested it was right…their food was great! I had their chicken wrap with the lemon and herb sauce, and I have to say that it was one of the better wraps that I have tasted! After going to Nandos, we walked next door to the surf shop because we were going to have a lesson. Six of us (Katherine, Brenna, Kasy, Alex, Carrie, and I) all were squeezed into wet suits, given surfboards and we met our surf instructor Jamie who was quite good looking. Let’s just say that I felt the part better than I could act it, because I didn’t do so well with the actual lesson! We started on the beach and practiced getting up, which already proved to be a challenge. There are too many things to concentrate on. Like balance with your hands, jump up directly to your feet, twist your hips to stand sideways, and land with your feet wide (this is where my problem was, I wouldn’t twist and I never popped up with my feet wide enough). I drank more saltwater than I would have liked, but it was a great time! Kasy and I were just laughing the whole time at each other because you look so goofy when you are focusing so hard and bound and determined to do it, but you just end up on your butt on the bottom of the ocean, with water rushing up your nose! Carrie and Alex both did a great job because both had been able to stand on their board for longer than .2 seconds! The extent of my rides were either on my knees or one knee and one foot. However it was a fun two hours and I would probably go out and do it again! While we were surfing, Ashley and Laura stayed on the beach to take pictures and some of them are so cute! My favorite is all six of us walking down to the ocean carrying our boards and we all have our backs to the camera! I want to blow it up as a black and white! After surfing we came back to the apartment and were lazy! We sat around talking and didn’t get anything accomplished all day! I guess that is what Sunday is for! Didi stopped over for a while and we all sat around talking with him. The roomies and I all curled up in comfy places in my room and we had girl talk time, then it was early to bed.