Blake Tyra's South Africa Study Abroad Blog: Paintball!

Friday, May 29th, 2015

3:00pm South African Standard Time

Weather 75° F Partly Cloudy

My final month in South Africa has begun. I have finished all of my classes and have a week still before my first exam. I've been keeping busy with a good balance between work and play over the past two weeks, and now just have to study hard as my exams approach this month.

Two weekends ago, I went paintballing with 22 other international students at a field just outside of town. Most of us had never played paintball before, so it was fun to all learn together. We started with a game of capture the flag and then rounds of Ironman, in which you play until your gun is empty. We played on many fields including a large and extensive woods field that was quite the challenge because of the many hiding places and tress for cover. Everyone had a blast and it was a great way to get together with many of the other international students staying across PE. We ended up going through 6,000 rounds of paint, which left for some nice welts and orange hair on all of us. We had a braai in the evening and none of us could stop talking about the game as our “war stories” seemed to go on all night about who shot who and how much fun we had.

Speaking of group outings, I went to a rooftop party in Central Port Elizabeth the other weekend. It was set up in the same way as the boat cruise I went on in March, meaning there was a good mix of international students and local students to mingle with. The party was on the roof of a film studio and had a nice view of the harbor and downtown PE. We would have caught a nice view of the sunset, but it was very cloudy and eventually started to rain. We didn’t let that stop us as we just took the party inside and finished out the night socializing and dancing on an empty set inside the film studio.

Aside from the occasional rain shower, the weather has been very nice this past month as autumn is now upon us in South Africa. There was initially a few weeks of very cold weather (around 50° F, 10° C) in April, but since then it has been staying in the high 60’s during the day with little rain. It has also been beautiful weather for surfing. We found a store where we can rent surf boards for $3 an hour and have been going out every once and a while. I find it much cheaper and more fun than golf, so I think I will wait to continue my golfing until I return home. I also taught a friend of mine how to surf this past week and she was able to get up during her first time out. I’ve only had 4 surfing lessons here, but I found it pretty easy to teach the basics and had a blast teaching while my other friends surfed around me.

Throughout the next 3 weeks, I have 4 exams before taking my final trip in South Africa. I will be traveling to Cape Town with my friends Gabe and Angela, who are also both freshman from St. Cloud State. We are planning on going Shark Cage diving and just seeing the sights while enjoying our last few days in South Africa before returning to the states. From my wonderful trip to Cape Town in March, I agree it is the gem of the country and am excited experience even more of its rich culture and stunning beauty.

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