Tour of PE

Okay, the pictures posted big and a lot of them!!!

1. Picture with my roommates overlooking the ocean.

2. The cute little kids who were so excited to see us.

3. A yard in New Brighton (township).

4. A house in New Brighton.

5. A group of us on the pier (harbor is behind us).

6. The apartment's kitchen.

7. The apartment's living room.

8. The view from my bedroom!!!! And the balcony and living room have this view too.

9. My roommates and I on the beach.

10. "To the memory of one of the most perfect of human beings who has given her name to the town below."
11. The pyramid dedicated to Elizabeth.

12. The rest of these are from when we were with Kate. Us with Graham Smith, captain of the SA national cricket team.

13. A huge lion outside our window in the lion park.

14. Scary hyenas!

15 & 16. Rory and I playing with lion cubs! I didn't really play, just posed for the picture!

Today is a day I actually feel like I have something to post about! So get ready, this might be worthwhile.

Since last time I posted I went to NMMU for an academic orientation. A professor talked to all the international students about how SA schools are different (harder). Students should accept 51% as good. Luckily, not a lot of that applied to the St. Ben’s/St. John’s group, because we aren’t direct enrolling at the school. We are just having their professors teach classes just for us. The downfall of that is that we don’t have any of the South African students in our classes. Another downfall of coming with 30 students from MN is that it’s hard for us to meet the other international students! We’re such a big group that they don’t want to talk to us that much and we have no need to seek them out. We also live in a different location than them. I hope to still meet people through clubs or “societies” on campus. Some of those that I’m interested in are underwater hockey (YES! I’m not sure how this works yet, except for in the picture the players are wearing snorkels), wine tasting and hiking. Anyway I hope I get to make some friends here. At the very least, I will make new friends with people from CSB/SJU. After that orientation, we went to Green Acres mall. Had lunch there and shopped a bit. Didn’t buy too much because I know I’ll have other opportunities to buy souvenirs.

Then today we had a super long, all-day tour of Port Elizabeth. We first drove to the harbor and talked to a captain. He explained how it worked and some interesting tidbits about the shipping business. We hopped back on our double decker bus and drove through downtown, or Central. We drove through the townships, where most of the population of the city lives. They were packed full of shantys, barely even houses. Some people had actual houses that were obviously built by the government. Everyone was out on the streets walking or working and waving to us constantly! They were so friendly and it was nice because I felt rude to be taking a tour of their neighborhoods. We went to the Red Location Museum which is located in the heart of one of the townships, New Brighton. It’s called red location because when the black people were relocated and forced to move to the township, they houses were built out of metal. When the metal rusted, they had red houses. A massacre (one of many) occurred in the township and that is what the museum commemorates. It was very moving; the architecture, the pictures, the story all touched the heart. Outside of the museum were five children who were so excited to see us. One little girl, maybe three years old held onto my hand for a while. They were very cute and I’m not sure where their parents were. But I looking into how the adoption process works down here because I want to bring a little someone home with me!! The tour took us back to Green Acres mall to eat lunch. Then we saw the stadium being built to host the 2010 World Cup. We also went to this big pyramid that was built to remember the Elizabeth the city is named after. Our tour guide who is Afrikaans (from the Dutch settlers) wasn’t too impressed with this Elizabeth though because it was the English who named the city even though the Dutch were here first.
When we got home from the tour, I was certain I needed a nap. But then the sun came out and a big group of us went down to the beach. We played soccer on the beach (8 vs 8) and had a good time. I played goalie and only let one goal in, but at least I didn’t have to run around too much. We also played in the waves because they were huge today! One of the guys on the trip got stung by a jelly fish while we were doing this. The lifeguard was nearby and put vinegar on it and he was fine after.

Oh and I forgot, I think I’m going to swim in the Mile River Race. I don’t know what river, but it’s in PE. I’m not racing to win because SA’s Olympic swimmer is also racing. But a couple other girls are going to try and do it with me too. So I bought goggles and a swim cap and I decided to start practicing! But my big problem is that when I swam with the goggles on I kept seeing sharks and turtles and jelly fish! Now I don’t think I really see them, well at least I hope I don’t. But the shadows just get to me. So I don’t know how long I’ll be trying to train in the ocean.

I’m going to put some pictures up from the day. And I’ll probably be posting again soon because I have a big weekend coming up! My first cricket match is tomorrow night and it is a playoff game. Should be a good one. I hope you all have good weekends too! Football is over now, so I guess you’re all watching basketball? I hope Grandpa doesn’t get to worked up over the Suns!