A little too much fun in the sun

Last night I wasn’t able to go to the Superbowl due to some miscommunications and safety precautions for travelling at night.  So, I got a pretty good night of sleep and got up early to bring dirty clothes to the Laundrette.  The nice women weigh the clothing and 5kg is a load.  Then, they give you a ticket and a time to return to get the folded laundry.  It costs R39.50 per load, equivalent to about $5. 

We caught a bus to school for our first time on NMMU campus for an orientation bit.  We listened to information from 9-12 and then had yellow rice and curry for lunch, compliments of the university.  After lunch we headed down the boardwalk towards Langerry.  What we thought was a 30 minute walk was actually an hour.  But, there is a cool breeze, which is obvious enough for the 2^nd Windiest City in the World ;) haha.  It definitely cools things down though. 

After we got back to Langerry, the beautiful beach was too hard to ignore any longer, so we headed down to read Poli Sci and lay out.  We talked to our lifeguard friends for an hour and they made terrible fun of us because we asked if there were coupons in the newspaper for the grocery.  At about 3pm, we ran down the boardwalk to the store and figured the phones out to some extent.  Then we ran back and got ready quickly for the rugby match at NMMU from which we just returned.

We grabbed a kombi to the match and it was fabulous!  There is one guy to yell on the streets and get people to ride, gather their destination, and get their money, another controlling the BLASTING music, and the driver is “in the zone.”  We piled about 20 people, maybe more, into the kombi and just jammed on the way to school.  It was amazing that they just kept pulling over and fitting more people in the vehicle.  Then one of the guys came out with us and showed us where the stadium is. 

It was a packed and hoppin’ joint.  There was a huge group of people taking up about half of the grandstands singing African songs, popular American music blared the whole time with an Emcee rousing the crowd not just during breaks, but the whole time, and we sat in the beer garden which any student can of course enjoy.  Although I didn’t understand the game, it was fun to be at such a lively event.

Despite liberally applying sun screen, I resemble Mom’s favorite childhood “pretend-this-is-communion candy,” the Pinkie.  I haven’t decided if I am joining the CSB/SJU group and other international students to the after-party of the rugby match at a bar down the way.

Love from the Beach Bum