Strike Day 2

Okay so first day of class…

Music class was great. Our professor, Lesty Hughes, is a very energetic person! She was so cool and I think I’ll actually enjoy the class very much. She will be teaching us about the Xhosa tribe’s music. So far I think we’ve learned a lot .We even got to do some round singing and rhythm clapping! Lucky for me I was next to a choir singer and was able to copy her the entire time! Class seems just about the same at home I think. Maybe the classes here are more lecture based. Or maybe it’s just because I take education classes that I’m not use to the lecture format. I’m taking the class for only two credits because I already have all my arts credits from the elementary education program at home.

Last night my roommate Emma and I organized a cribbage tournament for all the CSB/SJU students. We had 26 people playing in my apartment. My team got to playoffs, but we didn’t win. But people were pretty impressed with my skills so I told them I got taught by my grandparent’s love for the game!

This morning we woke up to the soft hum of cars driving by. The yelling and honking (or hooting) wasn’t there so I immediately knew that the Combies were still on strike. So we woke up, picked up our laundry (which was folded and neatly wrapped in plastic to be brought home) and went to the beach. It was a great day for the beach and I had a little sand fight with some of the boys. And now Mac, I think I can say I did have a pound of sand in my bathing suit! Or costume as the South Africans say.

Since the professor for today’s class is our director who lives in Langerry Flats with us, we had class a little closer to home. This way, the professors didn’t have to shuttle all 30 of us to campus. We had class in the meeting hall at the Catholic Church two blocks away. It worked out perfectly. It was Senior Seminar, which is a part of the Liberal Arts curriculum at CSB/SJU. The class is supposed to be focused on ethics, so our class topic is South African Politics. This class was very interesting. We discussed the Nelson Mandela book and learned a little more about South African history. After class we just had an all group meeting to discuss upcoming trips and such. Our director also informed us that anyone not taking 16 credits needs to sign up for another class as it is a requirement of the program. That shot my 12 credit, ideal schedule out the window!! I tried to convince him to let me in the marine biology class because it seemed so interesting to me. But the biology prerequisite is pretty important and my professor hinted that it would probably be too hard for me without any background. So the last choice I had was to take South African Contemporary Politics. And I’m so sorry Cassie and all others who enjoy politics, but I really thought that one politics class in my lifetime would be more than enough. But I have no other choice than to sign up for the additional class so that I can stay in South Africa. I am also disappointed because now I have class on Thursday afternoon!!! I know, it’s not fair! Well it kind of isn’t fair because not one credit here will count for anything in my graduation because the education major is so strict that we have to take specialized classes to fill every requirement.

The combies are probably going to be on strike for one more day; so tomorrow we are being shuttled to class by our professors again. Tomorrow I have the service learning course in the morning and literature in the afternoon. I still have some reading to get done for the literature class.

Not much else is going on here. Me and some friends are busy trying to get some weekend plans set up for the rest of the semester. So far, this weekend we are going to Jeffrey’s Bay, home of South Africa’s best surfing beach.

Kay, glad you’re finally here with us! Now we just need some good old Clark comments, so work on that.

Charlotte, I heard about your rain…but at least you don’t have the blizzard like in ND. Or maybe your roads are just as bad because of the ice?

Anna, congrats on getting into Johns Hopkins! That is so awesome! I hope a lot of us will get the opportunity to visit you while you’re way out east! Gosh everyone in our family is so spread out now!

And I also wanted to say congratulations to Rory’s step-sister, Geralyn, who just had her first baby, Owen Richard born on February 7th. Owen is completely healthy and Rory’s excited to have another nephew!

Umm not sure what else from over here. I just hope everything’s going great at home!!

Poll

How did you all know the correct answer??? Lucky guessers I figure. Yes, most South Africans greet each other by saying "Howzit" and I read in a travel book that an appropriate response is "No, I'm fine," but you shouldn't just say "Fine."

I'm at NMMU now and because of the earlier glitch in our day, we are here way too early for class. But we walked to the bookstore to get some books for class. My apartment just bought two of each book and then we're going to shar them. Since we just have each class once a week, it shouldn't be a problem with the reading. My super nice class schedule is as follows.
Monday 8-12 volunteer at Pendla
2:45-5:45 South African Jazz Music
Tuesday 8-12 volunteer at Pendla
2-5 Senior Seminar (topic: South African politics)
Wednesday 9-12 Service learning (this is to go along with our volunteering and only has 5 classes in the semester
2-5 South African Literature (probably going to be my favorite)
Thursday OFF
Friday OFF

So yeah, that's a four-day weekend, every weekend. Perfect for taking small weekend trips. Which I actually am planning one with a friend right now to Coffee Bay nearby.

Looks like my group is about to leave the computer lab though to go get something for lunch before music class. In case anyone was wondering, I am wearing jean capris with a yellow shirt ;) And a jean jacket because it's cloudy and rainy today. I did get a 1st Day of School picture taken in front of the library and offered to take pictures of the other CSB/SJU students too. Only a few wanted one to send home to their moms.

You're probably getting close to waking up now! So have a good day everyone!!

1st Day of School

So we kind of had a wild start to our first day of school.

6:30 I woke up with my other roommates. We all took showers, which caused water to seep through the walls into the kitchen and hallway. This is not the wild morning because that’s been happening since we got here; they’re trying to fix it.

7:15 Everyone eats toast with peanut butter for breakfast.

7:40 We rush out the door so that we are not late for our ride. We are going to Pendla Primary School for our Welcoming Ceremony. We all have our cameras packed because the children are supposed to a very cute performance for us. We also will get tours of the school and people like me will get assigned to a classroom to work in.

7:45 Thirty CSB/SJU students are waiting by the front gate for our private taxi cab service to pick us up.

7:55 Thirty CSB/SJU students are still waiting.

8:00 After a phone call to the taxi cab service, thirty CSB/SJU students are told that the taxis are not running today. That’s a nice way of saying the drivers are on strike.

8:00-8:15 Our professor, he can be long-winded, explains to us that it isn’t the private taxi companies that want to be on strike. It’s the independent drivers (who drive what we would normally take to school, Combies) that are on strike. The government is trying to phase these taxis out to make public transportation more used for the upcoming World Cup in 2010. For safety, private taxi drivers also have to take the strike. And actually, for safety also, the buses go on strike too. So unless you have your own car (not many people do) you have to walk to work, school, Pendla…

We had to cancel our trip to Pendla because it was too far to walk, and it was raining. We will have the Welcome Ceremony on the first day of volunteering, next Monday. The students going to the House of Resurrection will not be able to attend the Pendla Ceremony.
But we still have to get to NMMU somehow, because it is the first day of school. So our director and assistant director (both from CSB/SJU) are going to shuttle us in their tiny cars, making 4 round trips to get us to class. We’re going early to activate our cards so we can use the internet and to buy books. Then class starts at 2:00. Hopefully there are no other glitches in our day because I really want to get a first day of school picture taken! I’m pretty disappointed about not getting to go to Pendla today. I was very excited for that and now we have to wait till next week. Also, now we’ll be missing out on a day of classroom work since next week will be the Ceremony on Monday. We are scheduled to volunteer every week, Monday and Tuesday from 8:00-12:00. Great for my resume!

The soccer game yesterday was fun. It was a very local team (minor, minor league) so they weren’t very good but it still was super fun. During the game, the fans would sing beautiful songs in Xhosa. They were all great singers; and although we didn’t know what they were singing, we were all enchanted by the music. They would start off slow, then get faster and end with a strong clapping beat that cheered on the team. Someone in my group said they were singing a 4 part harmony. At a soccer game!

Right now to prepare for my Senior Seminar class, I am reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. I am really enjoying it so far; I’ll let you know if it’s a must-read.

I brought my first load of laundry to the launderette today. It cost $3.50 to wash 5 kilos of laundry. Seems pretty cheap to me! And they do it for you! Everything is pretty cheap here. A movie costs $3; although I don’t know how many of those I’ll be going to see while I’m here. Sorry Erin and Andrew, the cost of living here is a little bit cheaper than in Nome.
Anyway, we’ll probably be leaving for school soon (hopefully!) I’ll write later to tell how the first day went! We’re eating lunch at the school cafeteria; I hope it’s like at home, all-you-can-eat style.

Hope you’re all enjoying your semi-warm weather and the snow melting doesn’t cause the roads to get super icy! Love, Lauren

Over the Weekend

Jeez sorry about all the pictures last time! I was having a hard time deciding which ones to post! I uploaded a lot more onto my facebook albums if you have access to that or know someone who does!

But here will be just a recap of my weekend!

On Friday morning we went to House of Resurrection Aids Haven. This is one of the two sites our group will be volunteering at. The other site is Pendla Primary School, which is where I have chosen to volunteer. Nonetheless, the whole group still got to go and take a tour of House of Resurrection. This is a facility run by a Sister that houses children with Aids. Children are not supposed to stay there after the age of 8 (they are supposed to move on to a state-owned house) but probably because the children need so much care, they are staying past that age. This was a really fun place to go to and I got my dose of playing in for a little while. We took a tour and found out about the facility, then were allowed to get to know the children. All of the older children were at school. But we got to see the 4 infants who live there and the preschool room which had probably 15 children. 10 percent of the kids who live at this house do not have Aids. In that case, their parents most likely died of Aids and left their child at the House. The house is also a clinic, so adults do come and stay a while, but do not live their permanently like the children. I taught a six year old boy, Tando how to make a snowflake with paper and scissors. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know what a snowflake was, but he did have fun making the designs. The other children loved to be held and thrown up in the air, played with our hair and jewelry and did anything to get attention. It was super fun and the CSB/SJU students who will be working there will have a blast. I am also very anxious to see the Pendla Primary School and what my experience will be like there. The school is having a welcoming ceremony for us on Monday morning.

When we got back from the House, we went to the beach again. What a drag, I know. It was pretty windy again though so we didn’t stay long. I’m working on my tan though and I’m one of few on this trip who hasn’t gotten sun burned yet! Friday night I got to attend my first cricket match! The game was between the Port Elizabeth Warriors and another town in South Africa, I’m not sure though. It was very exciting and fun. Our whole group went and it was the first social activity that we all did together. So it was really fun! Cricket seems very confusing, but it is actually a lot like baseball. I loved learning the rules; don’t ask me to explain them though because I don’t think I know it that well! It was just fun to be there with everyone and watch the game from an outdoor stadium. My roommate Emma and I sat next to two men from South Africa who took pity on us and tried to help us understand the game more. English wasn’t their first language though, so with that and the accents we had a hard time understanding them. The real thing we learned from them was when to stand up and cheer! PE won the game so that was exciting and by the end, I could understand how they won. After the game we went out to a bar as a large group. We were definitely the minorities at the bar (as we are in most places, whites are only 10% of the population) but it was fun on the dance floor and we met some cool people.
Saturday was a free day for the group. So my roommates and I had a lazy day. In the morning, we spent a lot of time at the beach. It’s not so windy in the morning, so we were only there from 9:00-12:00. One time, the five of us were out riding the waves and we had a whistle blown at us from the lifeguard. We all freaked out, thinking maybe he saw a shark in the water or something and swam in as fast as we could. On the way in though, my roommate Shannon got stung by a blue-bottle jelly fish. The tentacle (I think that’s what they’re called) wrapped all the way around her rib cage and onto her arm. When we got out of the water, the life guard said that we needed to stay in between these two flags he set up on the shore. I think they just wanted a smaller range of ocean to watch. He also warned us about the blue bottles, although it was too late since she already got stung. After a couple of washings though, she felt better; there is a red burn line still there.

Saturday night we went out for dinner to a nice pizza place. The pizzas here are very thin, so you can almost eat a whole one on your own. I don’t like bananas so I didn’t order South Africa’s special bacon and banana pizza; but I did have feta, bacon and avocado pizza. It was really good! Eight of us went out and we all had pizza, so we were trading pieces back and forth. I probably only ate two of my own pieces! Then we walked around the boardwalk and through a casino. After finding out one of our friends didn’t know how to play blackjack, we went back home and played cards the rest of the night!

I’m going to a soccer game today. I have no clue what teams or anything like that, so I’ll be posting later to talk about that. Soccer is pretty big here too, after rugby and cricket of course. All I know is that we are walking to the stadium. It isn’t smart to even make the ten minute walk without putting on sunscreen, so I’ll be applying that soon!

Oh and I think I’ll be wearing jeans and tees to school. Don’t know for sure yet, but that seems pretty standard. Well I guess not jeans, but jean shorts or capris! I’ll let you know after my first day tomorrow though! And wait till you hear my class schedule!

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!

School Visit

Hello over there!
Just got back from a tour of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University…it’s a beautiful campus!! But oh so large, and almost pointless because I really didn’t learn where anything is. I was lost the whole time, but I’m pretty sure that’s how everyone feels when they’re on a college tour. Anyway it’s full of beautiful (although all concrete) buildings and tons of very cool trees. My favorite part of the campus is that there are signs ALL OVER that say “Beware of monkeys. Do not feed the monkeys.” It is a very exciting prospect to have monkeys on campus, but in the whole tour we only saw one monkey. I saw where our classes will be held. We start on February 9th. We were also fed a bagged lunch that consisted of an apple, a sandwich with lettuce, tomato and cheese (I had a cheese only one) and a water bottle. No one got filled up from that lunch and we still had a lecture and a long walk to do afterward. All meals are smaller here than at home. I always ate fine at Kate’s, but I’ll tell you, the worst thing in the world is to go out to eat at a nice restaurant and come home hungry! That totally defeats the purpose of going out to eat!

The rest of this week we have orientation at the school and for the city. We’ll be having a variety of tours. So real life doesn’t really seem like a study abroad life yet, more like a vacation life. But that’s okay too! Next week reality will hit with my Monday-Wednesday days of class (yes, Thursdays and Fridays off).

But my roommates and I are just about to go for a walk on Beach Rd (the one we live on) so I’ll be heading out now. Hope you’re all having good days at work and school. Good to hear all the comments. How was the big family reunion at the lake? I never heard about that, did you catch any fish? Get any snow mobiles stuck??

1st Night in Port Elizabeth

In no great order, the pictures are:

1. warthogs drinking and eating outside their house

2. the view from the upper deck of the house

3. our first braii (barbeque). we got to eat warthog and kudu. it was really great. there was also steak and chicken, so a really manly meal!

4. me in close proximity to a giraffe

5. rory sitting on the "tracker's seat" of the game drive vehicle

6. me before i flew to atlanta

7. an awesome pic of a springbok

I'm also going to try to post another video on you tube, so go to youtube.com and search lauren in south africa! you should all be really mad that i couldn't get the first one to upload. It was Mac and I, the night before I left singing an old Companeros favorite with different words. If the idea of me singing doesn't make you laugh, the Companeros song would. I'll still try and get that one up!

So sorry I haven't written in about a week, I really mean to keep up on this. It was just hard to find time to hop on the internet when we were at Kate's house because we were pretty busy. But now I am in Port Elizabeth (PE) and have limited acess to the internet. Hopefully the problem will be resolved, but right now we're paying per minute.

Anyway, here's what's happened since the Friday night in the bush. As I said we went on game drives, which is when you drive around looking for animals. The Kearneys have a game drive vehicle (large jeep, 5 rows of almost stadium like seating) so we went out in that. I don't remember how many game drives we went on but it was a lot. Each time we saw a ton of animals, I have lots of great pictures and some animals got really close too. My favorite were the zebra. Rory liked all of the bucks (springbok, blisbok, I don't remember more names but there are like 10 kinds). And I know you've all been patiently waiting to find out which of South Africa's Big 5 I saw. So they are cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino. Of those, I actually only saw the lion. But I also saw babboon,s vivart (sp?) monkeys, warthogs, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, all those kinds of bucks. I can't even remember what all we saw, I'll have to look through the pictures again. And I saw the lions in a special enclosure.

The rest of the time in the bush, we sat around had good food, took naps (because we were still recovering from the time difference and because it was like a cabin and thats just what you do), and played Farkle (I brought the game and got everyone hooked). It was so great to stay in this house and I am so lucky to have gone!! When I got to PE everyone here was very impressed by how much I already knew about SA, they thought I had been here before or something.

We went back to Johannesburg with Kate and her brother, John, on Monday. The rest of this week was spent touring around Jo-burg with John. He dropped his mountain bike on his achilles tendon and is unable to drive. So Rory drove us around and John just guided. Driving on the left side of the road was an adventure, but it definitely helped to have John there. He took us to the Lion Park where we got to drive around lion enclosures. Lions seriously came right up to the car. And cars don't seem that safe when you have a full grown male lion looking at you through your window! Here we also got to play with 4 month old lion cubs. You know me though, I didn't play that much with the kittys but Rory and John did. The cubs would "friendly" bite and scratch you, it was a play at your own risk sort of deal. We would have spent more time playing with the cubs if it wasn't for SA's annual summer 7 day of rain stretch!

We also went on a World of Beer tour and tried some good South African beers (Castle Lager is the most prevalent) but they also have Miller Genuine Draft, called "Millas" because they don't pronounce the "r." That deal was 2 1/2 beers, the tour and a beer glass for $2.50 American! Not everything is that cheap here, but most things are a little cheaper than back home.

Kate's 25th birthday was on Tuesday and we went out for a seafood dinner. It was great and fun to go. Friday was her birthday party, she rented out a section of an upscale bar near her house and invited 40 of her closest friends. It was great though, I met a lot of people. Including Grahm Smith, captain of the SA Cricket team. He was very friendly and glad to take a pic with the Americans.

Then Saturday morning Gary, Kate's boyfriend, and Rory dropped me off at the airport. It was very sad to leave. I had so much fun staying at Kate and Gary's and felt used to being there. Saying goodbye to Rory was also a little sad.

Got to PE yesterday, I'm the only one in my apartment so far. The other 4 Bennies leave MN today and will be here tomorrow I think. But there are other CSB/SJU students in the building that I've been hanging out with. Yesterday we went to the beach and out for dinner. It's very beautiful here. I've got an ocean view from my bedroom, a balcony and the biggest apartment. We're right across the street from the beach so it's very cool. But the street is very noisy all the time. And they don't do daylight savings time here so in the summer it gets light at like 5:30am and dark around 7:00 or something.

Anyway that's enough posting for now, hopefully not tooooo long! But I'll write more again soon! Give me some updates of back home, I heard there is a warm spell??

Love, Lauren