Tuesday, February 10th, 2015
6:00pm South African Standard
Time
Weather 80°F Sunny
Port Elizabeth is so beautiful! The
weather has been in the 70’s and sunny for the past few days and I am loving it.
I do not miss the Minnesota ice box one bit. A group of us get up every morning
to go running at 6am. It is in the 60’s by then as we run along the beach
watching the sun continue to rise. There is nothing like fresh ocean air in the
morning before class.
Friday night at the Beer Shack
was an experience. Although crowed, I still managed to have a good time and try
some unique and tasty craft beers. At one point later in the evening someone
dropped a beer glass and a friend of mine was wearing sandals right by where it
fell. I felt the bottom of her foot right away and felt that a piece of glass
that was stuck in it. Another friend and I helped her outside as she held on to
our shoulders. Once outside, I was able to remove the glass from her foot with
the help of my iPhone as a flashlight. The bouncer got me some band aids
because there is a good amount of blood from the glass and her pinky toe that had
a nice cut as well. I got her bandaged up and she was good to go for the rest
of the night. Moral of the story…wear shoes to a bar.
This weekend was very relaxing.
Saturday was McKenna’s birthday, so we had a Braai at the hotel. A Braai is
what South Africans call a community BBQ. Everyone brings their own meat and we
all sit around grilling and socializing. It was great fun. Our hotel even has a
special patio with a grill for us to use that overlooks the ocean. Another
reason why I am enjoying South Africa’s beauty. Later in the evening the power
went off, so we had to continue grilling under our phone flashlight apps while
we observed an entirely black city. Our hotel has an excellent generator that kicks
on after a few minutes, so we are lucky not to be too inconvenienced during a power
outage. The power company calls the outages “load shedding” because the power
grid is being overworked. Since we got here there has been an outage almost every
day, and even the locals are beginning to become annoyed at the frequency.
On Sunday a group of us went to
the Sunday market along Kings Beach. It is a flea-type market where the locals
come to sell their wares and souvenirs. I was very impressed by the quality of
the handcrafted items neatly lined up on blankets along a half-mile stretch of
sidewalk. After making our passes through the market, we walked the beach back.
It was a beautiful sunny day in the 80’s. We got to see some awesome para-surfers
riding the waves on the ocean. It looks like so much fun, but I know they were making
it look easy.
Monday was the first day of
classes at NMMU. I am taking courses in Microeconomics, Afrikaans, Computing,
and Communication Studies. With the exception of Afrikaans, my courses are in
large lecture halls and have well over 200 students in each class. It is such a
different environment compared to SCSU, but I am excited to experience a very
lecture based method of teaching. All of my professors are great. They all love
teaching and have fun doing it. Even in the lecture halls packed with students,
the professors are able to speak with energy and excitement. It is evident
that they are enjoying themselves when they teach. I am still learning much of
their humor though. Many times the teacher will say something and the local students
in the class with respond with laughter as us international students wonder
what was so funny. Sometimes it’s the deep English accent that throws me of,
sometimes it’s a cultural difference, and sometimes it just goes right over my
head. Regardless, the teachers all know how to make the local students laugh
and I enjoy the energy it provides in the classroom.
Since all of my lectures have
just been an introduction to the course, I have no studying to do…yet. This has
led to very productive activities like going to the beach, shopping, dining at ocean restaurants, sunbathing, swimming in the pool, and other very labor and mind intensive work. NOT. After class it is the best thing in the world to walk out from my patio and
jump in the pool to cool off. Then we sit in the pool chairs and sun bathe
while drinking cool drinks until we are hot, jump in the pool and repeat all afternoon.
We are living the life right now. It will change as our classes start their actual
lectures, but we are enjoying every minute of it while we can.
Blake
Gabe loving his Irish Coffee
View from the Something Good Resturant
Ted grillin at the Braai
Gabe, Erin, Tamarah, Lily, Angela and Blake at the Braai
Sunday Market
Walking along the beach
6am run (early bird surfers in background)
Lecture halls
Computing class
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