aSo after a very very very very long 15 hour plane ride, I landed in Joburg around 8:30 am (2:30 am in the US) yesterday. Most of the group didn't get in til the evening, so the 5 of us who came in on the early flights got a ride to our backpackers house and got to hang out for the day. We spent lots of time sitting in the sunshine, even though it's winter here in South Africa. Because Joburg is pretty far inland, the temperature have been in the 40s and 50s, pretty chilly coming from 80s and 90s. Once we leave for Durban, we'll be in more of a subtropical climate so it'll be more like 70s and 80s which I'm already looking forward to.
Once the rest of the group arrived, we had dinner and had a brief orientation with Zed, our academic advisor and general director of our program. The two other SIT staff with us are Thula and S'du (pronounced Stu) who drive our vans. We've already been asking them how to pronounce things in Zulu and figuring out how to distinguish between the 3 different clicks in the language.
This morning we had an early breakfast and traveled to Soweto, where the movement against apartheid originated. We toured the house where Nelson Mandela and his family lived for 40 years, then went to the Hector Pieterson museum, named after a 13 year old boy who was killed in protest riots. Afterward, we headed to a mall to have some lunch and pick up some basic supplies and food.
Tomorrow we're driving 6 hours to Durban, our home for the next 3 months. I'm actually looking forward to having a longggggggggg nap... I still haven't gotten over my jetlag.
Hope everything is well in the United States! I don't know the next time I'll have internet, but I'll try to make another post in the next few days :)
Sounds like you are off to a good start. We'll be following you. Get some sleep.
ReplyDeleteIt's exciting to hear about your trip. I just watched invictus last weekend and it was very good. Take care of yourself and I look forward to reading your blog.
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