The First Days in PE

Hello Friends!

I arrived in Port Elizabeth last night, and we went out right away.  We went to DnE nightclub and it was very similar to San Diego.  It was an open air bar with a pool table, pool, dance floor, beautiful starry sky overhead, and hippy-ish, tanned, surfer-y South Africans.  The owner was a Scot who came to PE in 1994 “for a bit” and has stayed sixteen years.  He was jamming some pretty sweet beats, however it will take me some time to get into the SA dancing style.  We had trustworthy taxi drivers that showed us safe parts of town and where all of the alleged drug dealers live.  So, we know the safety tips of the concerned taxi drivers of PE.  At the end of the night, some of the group wanted to grab a McChicken sandwich, so the taxi driver took us through the drive through.  It is utterly bizarre that the driver is on the opposite side of the car, driving on the opposite side of the road, and even the drivethrough went the opposite way around the McDonalds than the ones in the US.  It will take me a while to observe before I am comfortable driving our group on road trips.  It will be an adventure that’s for sure.

Today, we took a group trip to the grocery, went to the beach, made an apartment dinner with all of the roommates, and now we’re planning to go to karaoke night at a bar in walking distance.  Today was a great day.  We shook off a bit of the jet-lag.  Taylor, my roommate found a very cool grasshopper on the beach that is well-preserved (a.k.a. crunchy).  It is yellow and black striped with vibrant orange, red and yellow wings, with the exceedingly cool orange and black striped antennae.  He is a quasi-monument in the apartment.  I also had time to do some yoga today which was very refreshing.  I am ready to go out now, and we are waiting for the rest of the group.  The best part of the day was probably playing in the waves with a new, fun swimsuit and realizing that it was February!  What a great realization for a Wisconsin/Minnesotan who wore spandex and wool socks the last three days.

The gist is: I am safe, travel was not very fun, but I’m here now, and I am ready to have a great time.  We leave at 9:45 tomorrow morning for Bush Camp on the interior of the country.  It will be much hotter than PE since the ocean breeze will be lacking.  But, we will have the opportunity to meet other international students who are studying at NMMU this semester.  The packing list asks us to bring clothes that we don’t mind getting dirty… and previous students on the trip advised us to bring clothes that we don’t care about.  They implied that they were never able to get them clean again.

Talk to you after Bush Camp!

Lots of Love to all of my “Followers” out there (see link on the right). xo