4 days remaining

I can't believe its almost over! Its going to be a bitter sweet goodbye. I'm super excited to get home, but leaving here is going to be extremely difficult. Since the last post i've done a few new things. I went bungee jumping! It was off the Bloukrans Bridge near Plettenburg Bay and holy crap was it intense. Its about 708 ft. off the ground with a fraying oversized rubberband being the only thing holding you from splattering all over the valley floor...no biggie:). Khrystyna, Abby, Bitsy, and Mikey also went and they loved it too. The best part of it all was watching each of them get pushed off and hearing their resistance and seeing it on their faces the second before they went off the edge. I'll NEVER do it again, but it was totally worth it! I also went to Hogsback the other weekend which was AMAZING. Hogsback is this little village up in the mountains about three hours from Port Elizabeth. Its apparently the inspiration for J.R. Tolkien's book "The Hobbit". Me Jason and Jenny stayed our first night in this little private cottage at a place called Camelot where there was a "Fairy Walk"...the owners sculpt all thise faries and troll things and put them all over the property along a path. It was pretty funny to go through. The forest up there is so beautiful and looks like its straight out of a fairy tale. We also saw two gorgous water falls, and went to this Eco-shrine thing where this womuan made all these beautiful paintings depicting the origins of earth and how we are a part of it and need to take care of it. The whole thing looked over the Hogsback area and it was cool beyond words. The second night we stayed WAY out of town on this family's farm in another private guest house and we got to go fishing! I almost caught a trout, but Jenny was the winner and got us a tasty dinner out of the water. We pretty much just spent that night fishing and playing cards and we made an amazing fish/chicken/rice/garlic bread dinner. It really refreshed me for finals and the last week here.
All my finals have went well. I studied hard for them and did good and passed I think. My one exam was about 25 to 30 essay questions and it took me forever to finish, but I did it! I have a final on the 11th, but probelm is I head back home on the 10th. SCSU told me to try to change my ticket and they'd pay for it, but theres waiting lists for flights which you have to pay to get on, and the flights i'd be waiting for are probably not until July or August which is not an option! I'm just going to come home and have SCSU and NMMU sort it all out.
Best thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that I found Rockstar Energy Drink at the local grocery store!!! Its basically my most fav drink EVER and I didn't even know they carried it here at all! I probably bought over half of the stores supply but now they're out:(( Good thing I come home soon!! Well off to enjoy the rest of this beautiful day..its finally sunny and warm again! Miss you Minnesota and I cant wait to get to MPLS airport!

Till later!

43 days left...

AND SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON!! I would have posted earlier, buuuuttttt about two weeks ago I wrote a whole long entry and it got deleted because the internet here hates me. But anyways...
CAPE TOWN IS AMAZING! Went there over easter holiday (flew of course) and it is by far the most beautiful and amazing place i've ever seen in my entire life. I would so live there one day. Me, Renae (staxx), Matt, and Anna (Snickers) all stayed right downtown in the Holiday Inn like total tourists and it was definately the best hotel stay i've experienced...the receptionist booked all of our tours and worked the prices down by one hundred + rand and she said hi to us every day and would blow us kisses when she saw us haha. And we had a bar right in the reception with rediculously cheap glasses of wine, and a wonderful complimentary breakfast. And to top it all off our hotel room had a lovely view of Table Mountain! And a TV!!!! God I miss TV.... But yhea, we had private tours out to Stellanbosch wine country where we did three wine tastings and a cheese tasting which was quite the experience (I now understand why people love wine and all things wine-like so much), we took the cable car (YIKES) up Table Mountain, and we did another private tour out to Cape Point where we saw Penguins, Babboons, the Cape of Good Hope, and more. I'd upload pics but the internet has been super crappy and slow for the past two weeks. Just go on Facebook. Besides that we went to the V&A Waterfront with all the good shops and the aquarium which is by far the best aquarium i've ever seen. And I have to say, you really DO run into Minnesotans everywhere because I saw a good handful of them in Cape Town, even one from Burnsville at the airport! To top the whole trip off, when we flew out of Cape Town back to P.E. the pilot flew us around the city and over Table Mountain which gave us the most beautiful postcard-picture worthy view of the city.

We also went out to a farm the other week where we stayed with two families who host groups of international students every year purely out of desire to meet new people and play host to us. They were seriously some of the kindest people on the earth for all the did for us. Every day they made us breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks at tea time. On top of that their farms and houses were quite nice. I milked a cow and drank milk staight out of the utters (eww), got to hold baby lambs, climb a mountain, and I almost had a panic/heart attack while standing in the back of a moving pick-up truck. Its funny how you don't realize that scares the crap out of you until its about to roll over down the side of a mountain and people are telling you "lean left up there otherwise we'll roll down the side of the mountain like a bag of potatoes" :/ Yhea... Don't worry mom, I survived.

Not a ton else has been going on. Iron Man South Africa was this weekend and Port Elizabeth was craaazzzzyyyy busy with people. I would have gone but it started at 6AM and my body doesn't function at that hour. The weather here is getting on my nerves because its getting a bit chilly. Its in the 70s still during the day but this whole 60 degree nights thing isn't cool. I'm sure if I came here now from being in MN i'd be loving it but not now so much. School is winding down. I have a test tomorrow (hence the blog entry...procrastination), a test friday, and then I should have another test next week or the following. I got some papers back and did really well thank god. Voulenteering is going really well at Cheshire (a home for the disabled). We all had a Braii (South African BBQ) with some of the guys who live there and it was amazingly delicious. Too bad we all got way too drunk off Stroh Rum, Beer, Brandy, Jameson, and playing 7's for about two hours haha. Piet passed out in the Braii area in his wheelchair after we left lol. He was feeling pretty rough the next day. We're pretty sad though actually cause Piet is moving out of Cheshire this weekend to go back home for a job, so we're going to have a party tomorrow night with the guys again to say goodbye. He's a really great guy and i'm sure he'll be happier at home, but its sad to see him go. I'm really happy I chose to go to Cheshire cause i've really been enjoying my time there and the people i've met. I'll definately always remember it. If I ever get a chance to come back to PE one day, i'll stop in to say hey!

The other day a bunch of us went on a hike here in PE which turned more into a beach walk out on this nature reserve area. We collected a huge load of shells and climbed all over the rocks to look at tidal pools and play with sea aneminies (sp?). They're so wierd! You just put your fingers by them and the little tentacles latch onto you and feel like velcro! The sea out here is sooooo powerful. I couldn't believe how crazy those waves were crashing way out before the beach. I'm alot more into nature and stuff since being here. I'm hoping to go out to Hogsback with Anna before I leave where theres this nice hike and a gorgous waterfall. I'm just dying to go up north when I get home for some reason now. With all the nature-ness around me and the smell of Braii wood burning and smelling like a camp fire it just sparked the urge. I'm so not looking forward to getting back into fast paced America, but theres alot about home i'm really REALLY starting to miss...especially having a car! And food...lots of food...like panera, taco bell, dq, champps, gcfb, and I could just keep on going.

K well I need to study now now. I'll try to update more! That is if anyone is actually reading this haha. Cheers!

More Pics!

Sardinia Bay, Port Elizabeth Cheetah attack!

Nice Cheetah...

Giraffes at Kragga Kamma

Zeebra at Kragga Kamma

Busy, busy, busy!

So its been a while so lets see if we can catch up on the last few weeks!

School has been going good but was a little hectic the last two weeks. Ive had two tests and a big paper due. I passed my Afrikaans test just fine and it was really easy. My marketing test went really well also and I passed it with a 70% which is actually pretty good apparently cause alot of people in the class failed it. I had a test in my Tourism Destination class as well and I think it went okay...and I had a paper due in that class on ecotourism and sustainable development and it went good I hope. The way they do papers here is kindof strange. I had to have a table of contents and rather than make the paper nice and flowy, I had to seperate it into 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, and so on and it was just really REALLY weird to write like that. Now I have a good two week stretch of nothing being due besides a paper on April 1st which ought to be really fun because I think I have to go to a car rental agency here and interview a worker there on some stuff.

Me and Matt have been hanging out alot with Renae from St. Ben's in MN. Shes a cool girl and shes the only person from St. Bens/St. John's here that I actually can stand so far. Shes not snooty or any think like all the others I've met and shes pretty much a permanant fixture in our flat now...she even has a bunch of stuff in our fridge! She's also reignited me and matt's love for that maverick Sarah Palin haha.

This past weeknd Matt, Abby, Khrystyna, Bitsy, and I rented a BMW (and it was actually an automatic! they only drive stupid maunals here) and we had a lovely long weekend since monday was a holiday. We drove out to Grahamstown on saturday, which is like an hour or so inland from P.E. It's a cute little city with alot of steepled churches in a valley and the views from above the city were really beautiful. The funnest part of that whole day was just being able to drive again for the first time in two months, and it actually wasnt that hard to drive on the other side of the road and car! On sunday we went out to Sardinia Bay which is the gorgous beach surrounded by sand dunes just west of P.E., and then we headed over to Jeffreys Bay again to go horseback riding---that didn't go quite as well. My horse was a mean little thing that would NOT stop running even when I pulled back on the thinggys and yelled whoa and stop. Long story short my feet fell out of the sterrups on the beach and I got kicked off the horse and left completely behind by my horse and the guides and was forced to walk an hour down this empty beach, over rolling sand dunes, and through the woods back to the horse place. My body HURTS. I think I might just have to go back and kill that stupid animal. Needless to say I needed a drink after that ordeal so I went out to Oyster Catcher that night with the gang till 3AM! Monday we went out to Kragga Kamma Animal Reserve where we saw Sprinkbok, Zeebras, Giraffes, and I got to pet a Cheetah! It was soooooo amazing seeing all those animals out in the wild and being just a cars length away from them. We still have the car until tonight so we all are driving to school which is much better than walking 20+ minutes each way!

Our Cape Town trip is coming up in two weeks and I cant wait! Renae, Matt, and I are flying with a discount airline from P.E. to there on the 4th and coming back the 8th, AND we booked ourselves a room at the Holiday Inn Express City Center and we're just steps from all the museums and waterfront! We're hopefully going to Table Mountain and Cape Point to see penguins and then we'll pry go to the water front and the shops and maybe just walk about the city. I think i'm down to around 80 days left here and I cant belive it. Its just flying by so quick. Its gonna be so tough to leave because Annie's Cove and P.E. just seem so much like home to me now, especially now that i've got so many friends here and we're all going to split up.

Not a ton else big has happened here. Just been going about the day to day regular life---classes, movie nights on wednesdays, going out on the weekend, and thats about it! I think we're going Bungee jumping in a few weeks when Natalie's boyfriend comes to visit from England. We're going off the Bloukrans Bridge ---the highest commercial bungee in the world! Its totally safe though do dont worry people! And cheap too for what you get! I'll get a dvd of the entire jump that I can show you all when I get home. When I watched some other peoples dvds it just gave me such an adrenaline rush and I decided I had to do it, because when else in my life will I have this oppertunity!? Its going to be such a blast! Well off to drive some more people to school so till then! Cheers!

Feelin more and more at home every day...

Cool looking spot at the water front in P.E.
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium--Just opened for the World Cup in June

Abner's Bday dinner

Rugby game at the P.E. Stadium

Group Picture! Me, Renae, Matt, Natalie (Brit as we call her-she's from England), and Jenny

Its been a while since i've written so lets see what we can catch up on...

We haven't been doing a whole lot in the past week or so. Just hanging out together pretty much. The other day we went to the big market that they have every first and last sunday of the month and I got some awesome stuff. I got 5 paintings (they're suuuuper cool on canvas and all freyed on the edges and sold directly from the artists) for only about R250 which is like $35, and then I got some cool beaded key chains and a beaded giraffe, some cool carved wooden thinggys, and some delicious ice cream to end off the day :)) We were supposed to go to Addo Elephant Park last weekend but the African lazyness has fully set in and all we did was talk about it rather than ACTUALLY plan the trip. Yhea...

Next weekend we're thinking about doing something really really REALLY crazy and fun, but I'm going to keep it a secret because its one of those things that you just have to tell people you did when you get home so they're even more surprised and excited! Don't worry though parents...its safe and okay!

Still working on the tan big time. The farmers tan is damn near impossible to get rid of here when you're walking thirty minutes every day to campus and then the same distance to the grocery store, internet cafe, etc. Mind you that walking speeds here are slow...and when I say slow I mean SLOW. Comparing my walking speed here to my walking speed at work or the mall at home, its like i'm doing a jog in the latter. But when I go the mall here I still get stared at like i'm crazy for how fast i'm walking. Its going to be tough getting back into the American speed of things when its time to go home in June, especially at work. I'm thinking its going to be quite the reverse culture shock going on when the time comes.

I'm also slowly beginning to pick up on South African phrases and words here. Mainly i'm beginning to say "eh" like five hundred times a day (they say it here more than the Canadians believe it or not), and occasionally I catch myself saying "cheers" for goodbye when I'm around South African people. I'm definately hoping to have a little S.A. twang in my voice when I get back to the states because i'm guessing it will translate into bigger tips at work. Everyone loves a good accent!

This next coming week we've got another shipment of St. Cloud State student teachers and professors coming over to see what its all about here, including my german teacher from school so it will be a nice little dose of home to see her and Shahzad (the head of this trip who came here with us in the beginning). Classes are still going ok. Its really hard getting used to this whole hard core studying and reading thing with no homework to help grades go up. I've got and Afrikaans test monday, a marketing test tuesday, a case study, paper, and test the following monday, and then hopefully i'll be home free for a bit. We're also still planning on hitting up Cape Town come Easter break and hopefully we'll be flying there though. Prices are a bit costy but I know if we drive over (8 to 9 hour drive) i'll go crazy spending money on the garden route. The one plus side to driving though would be seeing a South African winery beacuse their wine here is pretty bomb.

One other thing we've done is that we went to the first rugby game in the new Port Elizabeth World Cup stadium! It was versus Eastern Province Rugby and Argentina and it was pretty intense. Rugby is probably one of the few sports I can watch live and get into cuz its so brutal. It totally makes American Football players look like a bunch of pansys with all their pads and helmuts and stuff. The new stadium is soooooo cool too. The architecture is just really smooth and flowy and beers there are only like $2! A STADIUM BEER. Of course it wasn't very good beer, but watver. Well not much else going on to talk about so till next time eh? Cheers!

Just a pic or two...

Walking out of the Boardwalk to the Pier && Ocean

The group (and then some) at the Annie's Cove Toga Party a few weeks ago...good times :))

Jeffreys Bay, South Africa---Beach was BEAUTIFUL

Takes too long to upload more right now but thats a taste!!

One Month In...

So it's almost been a month now that I've been here and I can't even believe that its flying by so fast! I mean sure I still have four left about, but to say a month is already gone is crazy. I feel so settled in here and it feels just like home and I know that leaving is going to be really difficult...but atleast it will be warm in MN when I get back!

This past weekend we all went to Jeffrey's Bay, a cool little surfer's town about an hour down the coast. Apparently its one of the #1 surfing destinations in the entire world. It was a really sweet little place with cool shops and restaurants, great bars, and the beach was BEAUTIFUL. I thought the beaches here in P.E. were nice, but damn. The water was Caribbean blue and the waves were perfect. Its funny how South Africa reminds me of the U.P. of Michigan where my family cabin is---theres people walking around town all the time barefoot and in swim suits, theres cool little shops and stuff everywhere and theres sand everywhere on the sides of the road and just beneath the soil. But back to J-Bay...we stayed in a cool little hostel called Jeffrey's Bay Backpackers and basically the entire place was rented out to St. Cloud students and other friends of ours. We all were 4 or 5 to a bedroom and the workers there were really nice. One of them had a new puppy that me and Kara got to take for a walk on the beach Sunday morning before we left!

School is still going good. The homework isn't hard at all, but the professors expect us to do alot of out-of-class research just for our own knowledge. The way students percieve college here is really interesting. Only around 10% of South Africans actually attend University, so its a big deal that they're in school, but for it being such an oppertunity some of them have zero respect for the Professors. All day in class today people were constantly ignoring her and talking while she was, while others were very in to her lecture, and on top of that when we had our first homework assignment I was the ONLY person who did it! Out of about 50 students! Its just confusing. Also, its still very segregated here in terms of socialization between races. Whites and Blacks tend to stick with eachother and never seem to interact much. Also, at restaurants and shops most of the front of the house employees are white while blacks and "coloured" people (which is the term they use for anyone besides whites or blacks, i.e. Indian, middle eastern, etc) work back of the house jobs or more labor intensive jobs. I suppose its expected when apartheid only ended about 15 years ago but its still shocking to see.

Well my fingers are tired so i'm outtie. Pry gonna hit the pool or beach today considering its like 100 freakin degrees out here! I soooo don't miss snow :)) Cheers!

Just a few random stories...

Running out of time at the Internet Cafe so this will have to be quick---Just a few things I forgot to mention in recent posts!

Was about to leave for class last Thursday and as I was running back to my house from the girl's house I heard pouring water coming from my kitchen---The celing was POURING water and there was a good inch or two of water flooding into my house! I sent Khrystyna to get the landlord, meanwhile Matt was completely sleeping through the WHOLE THING! Turns out our hot water heater burst and we had to get a new one the next day (for free) and nothing got ruined thank god.

Had a Toga party the first weekend here at Annie's Cove and it was craaazy! There was a ton of people there and we had to get shut down by the landlord, but it was still amazing. We threw it just to initiate our new British friend as an American since we're the main people she chills with :))

Went out last night to Barney's then Captains. Yup, thats right, went out and got crazzzy on a Tuesday night. I didn't have class today so its all good!

Started voulenteering at Cheshire Homes for the disabled today and met a few really cool guys! They're really open when talking about their disabilities and just all around good guys. One used to be the main Chef at a restaurant in Cape Town, so we're gonna try to visit his place when we go there for Easter Break---his family took over for him when he moved to Cheshire I guess.

I'm on my last minute here so talk to ya'll again soon!

Settling into South Africa

So the second week of classes has started and its really interesting how different...and difficult...their school system is here. The majority of your grade is basically based upon two tests, a project, and your final exam. YIKES! I hate studying and reading and now I have to do both more than I ever have before. But everyone from St. Cloud said that classes are easy so I'm assuming that the tests are really not all that difficult, but I'll be sure to prepare like crazy. I did end up having to ditch one of my tourism classes for a Child Development class (which has nothing to do with my major) because this school is really confusing to make a long story short, but it will transfer back to SCSU and still help me to graduate credit-wise I suppose.

Aside from school everything is still amazing here. Yesterday we all laid out by the pool for HOURS and did chicken wars and got nice and tan---NOT sunburned! And today its freaking hot as hell out. Atleast 90 or 95 degrees with only a light breeze so needless to day I'm sweating my ass off. Normally i'd complain endlessly about sweating but now i'm just used to it :)

Next weekend or else the following we're all probably going to go out to Addo Elephant Park, which is apparently amazing accoring to some of the SCSU guys that went out there this past weekend, or else do an Apple Express day trip, which is an old fashioned steam train which brings you out into the countryside and over the largest single track something-or-other bridge in the world (just google it), both of which are super cheap in American $$$. Hopefully Cape Town will still be an option money wise once the Easter holiday comes around. Well off to chill at Barney's for a little bit and then maybe the beach if i'm lucky. And seriously people...keep in touch! Get an international calling card at Walgreens and CALL ME! Bye!

Getting Settled && starting school

So this week was the first week of classes here in PE at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and its going pretty good. I have three tourism classes, Afrikaans (which is gonna be suuuuper easy cause its alot like english and german), and I'll be voulenteering at home for disable people down the road from Annie's Cove every Wednesday, and I'm actually really excited for it. I've seen alot of the residents out on the sidewalk getting some fresh air before on my walks to school and they seem like good people. Alot of them were injured in car accidents or in sports and they really just need people to lift their spirits.

Speaking of walks to school, I have a LONG one. Lucky me gets to have two classes twice a week at NMMU's 2nd Avenue Campus, which is quite far from both Annie's Cove and the main campus'. Its right by the beach and the Boardwalk though which is sortof a plus. Well my first day I decided to leave for my class there an hour early so I could find a Kombis(a mini bus taxi..and i might be spelling it wrong), but of course none were stopping for me no matter how much I waved them down. So about 20 minutes after leaving Annie's I get to the Beach and Marine Drive where there are plenty of Kombis willing to stop, but stupid me figured "It can't be that much further to 2nd Ave! I'll just walk!" WRONG DECISION. It was another 15 blocks down, and the I had to turn left and go up another 3 or 4 blocks...I was walking for 45 minutes carrying my laptop under the hot African sun IN FLIP FLOPS. It still feels like I broke my foot and its been like three days. Ugh.... Well watevs I shouldn't complain cuz I'm in South Africa!

Not a ton else new is going on here. Everyone has been hanging out together and having a good time and for the most part we all get along well. Abner's Birthday was on sunday so we all came together and made a HUGE dinner with corn on the cob, pasta, curry rice, salad, garlic bread, desert, and more and it was pretty sweet. Me and Matt got her some nice little presents that she really loved and she was over the moon that we all celebrated her 20th so big. We'll pry all go out to the bars tomorrow night though to celebrate more.

On the sunburn front were doing better. My forehead and everything has finsished peeling, but I still have a killer farmers tan that most def has to go away, and my sandals have given me quite the interesing tan line....Don't worry though kids, I've got 30, 20, and 10 SPF sunscreens to use so I can slowly work my way to a more intense tan that you can all be rediculously jealous of when I get back to MN.

Well off to make some lunch and take a nap. Wish me luck with school and I'll be back to update again ASAP! Keep Reading!!!!

The Arrival!

So I'm here! Port Elizabeth and South Africa in general are AMAZING! Sure it sucked flying for over 24 hours but watevs...its worth what I'm experiencing here. First off, the weather is SO awesome. Its like 80F right now with a wonderful ocean breeze and thats what its going to be like for months. Annie's Cove is where i'm staying---i'm rooming with Matt and its a pretty goo setup. We have a shared bedroom, a kitchen, bathroom, and a common room accross the way. The pool is just a few steps away and all the people that live at Annie's are super nice and from all over the world (Germany, France, Camaroon, USA, Zimbabwe, and more).

The first weekend we went out to the Bush at Umlambo Bush Camp and it was---interesting. It was hot, there were bugs, and those bugs were LOUD at night. You know how when ur up north and you cant sleep cuz of all the noise? Imagine that but literally about 100 times LOUDER. But it had its fun parts and I got to know alot of people. All the people from St. Cloud State here are super cool and we all get along great. Last night I opened Will's Beauty Salon and with Abner's help we cut about four of the guys hair haha. I had a sign and everything! Pics coming soon I hope!

We have done our share of partying. Barney's is the the new hot spot for us. Its a sweet bar on the ocean with a huge patio and you wouldnt believe how gorgous it is. Speaking of the ocean---SO AMAZING! I have never seen a more beautiful beach. Its just too amazing to describe in words.

Hmmm...what else is going on.... Well I got REALLY sunburned in the bush but now the tan is setting in. Jealous much??? Yhea I thought so! Things are really just so cool here. I still can't believe im here for 5 months. My cell # here is 01127780105945 if anyone wants to get a calling card and call me! And please do cuz its free for me and I'd love to talk to some of you!!! I might get internet soon so I'll be able to write/facebook/email more often than right now (internet cafe only for the past week), but i'm strangly okay with not being to access it so much. Its just so laid back here and relaxing that ive become comfortable with being seperated from technology more, but thats not to say that I still was dying to get a cell phone once I got here haha. Well I'll keep you all updated as much as possible and I miss everyone so much!!! Keep in touch!!!