First Post from Africa

Hello, All!

We finally got internet access this afternoon. Our time difference from WVU is 6 hours so it's almost midnight here. I took a 4-hour nap earlier so I'm wide awake and ready to write a little.

It turns out that I can use my blog for honors credit, so I will try to post a little bit each day about what I've been up to.

I'll try to catch you up on the journey getting here now...

I flew from Pittsburgh to NYC Sunday morning and spent the day exploring the city with my friend, Molly. We ate lunch at The Grey Dog, then dessert at Little Cupcake Bakery. That night I boarded for Doha, Qatar. I landed there on Monday night and stayed at the Oryx Rotana near the airport. It was very, very nice and everyone was very friendly. The next morning I left early for Cape Town, with a technical stop in Johannesburg.

I finally arrived Tuesday night and got to my flat in Concordia around 9 p.m. I met my roommate the next morning. She is a fellow American, Emmi from Montana. We had a long day of orientation and then explored campus and the mall, then went to dinner at a restaurant called Does (?).

Thursday was another day of orientation. We learned a little Afrikaans and isiXhosa, which was really fun, and then talked about registering for classes. I'll explain more about classes in a later post. It was also Mandela Day! We celebrated Madiba's birthday by watching videos and writing inspiring quotes on paper tiles to place on the wall as a mosaic.

That night we participated in the South African tradition of a braai, or barbeque. It was so much more than a typical American barbeque, though! We played drums at our tables, had lamb from a huge grill, and then danced until it was time to go back to campus. Then we went to a local place called Bohemia, followed by a sports pub called Springbok, then finally home.

This morning we set up our internet and computers. It rained all day so we all stayed in and napped. Which brings me to right now.

I've left out a lot of detail, but you can see how busy I've been. I'm having a lot of fun and learning a lot. Tomorrow we are spending the day in Cape Town so I might not be able to post. I will make up for it Sunday, promise!

Good night from South Africa!

Corie