Bush Camp

We left early on Friday morning for a 2 hour bus ride to Tsitsikamma Falls with the other American and European International Students at NMMU, about 95 of us total. It rained all day long. But that didn't stop us from taking a walk down by the river. We came back soaking wet. We then listened to a lecture from the head of Study Abroad at our University about the South African Secondary Education system. After that the rest of the afternoon was spent inside playing cards and getting to know students from other places in the world. I listened to so many different accents, I'm struggling to keep control of my own! I made quite a few new friends, particularly the girls from Germany who roomed with us. We stayed in a hostel-like setting with many beds and bunks with many people in one large room. After eating a traditional South African dish called bobotie, we had an African Drumming lesson which was very fun! My fingers did get nice and red and swollen and bruised by the next morning, but totally worth it. The sun finally showed its face on Saturday!! It was nice to get out and observe the beautiful scenery around us! We were surrounded by mountains and lots of greenery and waterfalls! We started the day off with a lecture about the history of South Africa. We then got our chance to go ziplining across the waterfalls and got sprayed in the face with mist! So awesome! We then spent the afternoon hiking up and around the mountains and trying to convince ourselves that it was actually real. Also got a little sunburned since the sun is much hotter than back in MN. For dinner we had another African Dish called braai. It was very, very delicious! We had a dance-off that night which was a great way to end our couple of days there. We came back today and spent the afternoon on the beach which was prefect. We also went to the market and met some wonderful people including a painter who remembered the group last year who came to SA. I also was able to haggle down the price of a pair of sunglasses from over $4 american to under $3 which I was quite proud of (and everyone now thinks I'm a pro!). What a fantastic weekend! We have many orientation sessions all of this week. It still feels like summer camp, so I'm curious to see what the rest week is like!