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

In the Bush

Hey, We're sitting here, outside sipping champagne and looking out at the most beautiful view. The bush is not like the desert, like I thought. It's very green, full of short trees and bushes (like a small and less dense forest). All the trees are different and beautiful! On the drive to Kate's house we were so lucky to see almost every animal!! We saw zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, black mamba snake (lucky for us it was just killed by a car on the side of the road, otherwise it's deathly poisonous), blisbok (sp?), kudo and this and that that I can't remember! That was just on the drive, then we got to the house. The house is like those houses you see on tv, a mansion in the bush. It is all open, beautiful decks overlooking the bush, an outside shower, a small pool, a huge fireplace and everything! Gorgeous, I'll upload pictures once I get back to Kate's house (which is also amazing). Tomorrow we'll go for a game drive in a souped up jeep! Post more soon, I'll I can say is that we love it so much!! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the cold weather!! Love Lauren

Night Before

Hey everyone...this is another (almost) pointless post, but I just have to write because Mac and I had some fun tonight (see link below).

I'm all packed, all my bags are zipped shut although I'm sure I'll find more to add tomorrow morning. We'll be waking up early tomorrow, 4:30 to get all ready and on the road by 5:30. Rory (my awesome boyfriend) is coming with me and he has a flight to Atlanta that leaves at 7:45. My flight doesn't leave until 10:15, but I'm going to try to hop onto the earlier flight so we don't have to fly alone.

From Atlanta, we have till 3:40pm to change our minds and then we're on our way to Johannesburg! I think its an 18 hour flight with a 1 1/2 hour stop in Dakar, Senegal to refuel. I'm pretty sure we don't get to get off the plane there, but I'll let you know what the runway looks like.

Arriving in Johannesburg right around dinner time on Thursday (maybe around 9am Thursday in MN). Kate (exchange student my family hosted when I was in high school) will be picking us up. We'll have Friday to get situated, sleep and go to to the mall while Kate is at work. But then Friday-Monday we'll be at her parents house "in the bush." I think it's near a game reserve so we'll be seeing the Big 5 (take that poll down the page on the left side).

Doo doo doo, see the video and I'll be posting once we get there!

I couldn't upload this onto the blog, so you'll have to go to YouTube to see it. Use the link below, or go to youtube.com and search "lauren in south africa." I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52SGuLEBdOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yzYx6hWS4

2 Weeks Away

So far, there is not much to report on this blog. But soon (in only 13 days), I'm sure I'll have a lot to post as my adventure starts in South Africa. Please follow along as my trip takes pinpoint turns, goes up, down and backward! You will not be disappointed!