Along with the travelling that I have been doing, there have been plenty of things going on in my day to day life. Of course I have had classes (which I am enjoying so far), my first round of papers due, a test, and a number of other activities.
One thing that I have always wanted to do is scuba diving, and what better place than South Africa? In order to dive, you need to become certified and it just so happens that classes are
about ½ the price in South Africa as at home. With the ocean so handy and the price incentive, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream. So myself and five others took a private class over the weekend of February 21st and 22nd and finished with a dive on February 28th. The class was pretty fun and I loved going on the dives. We saw a bunch of marine plants on the reef we were at, a lot of fish, a squid, and even a Ragged Tooth Shark that was about 6 feet long! Our instructor was also really cool and he agreed to guide us on some dives in the area, including night dive and a shark dive! I am really excited.
Another fun part of our trip has been the different sporting events that we have attended. The faculty director, Gary, is a pretty big sports fan, so he has arranged for us to go to a number of professional sporting events here. My favourite ones were probably the cricket matches that we attended. Cricket is a very popular sport in South Africa, so they have a well-followed professional league and one of the best national teams in the world. Since arriving I have attended three matches of Port Elizabeth’s professional team the Warriors, and they were a blast. They were earlier on in the trip, taking place on Friday
February 6th, Sunday February 15th, and Wednesday February 18th. At first I didn’t really think much of the game other than a hard to understand and slow paced game, but towards the end of that first match when I started to understand it, things started to get exciting and I got hooked. We also attended a professional soccer game in PE on Sunday February 8th. I didn’t enjoy that one as much, but it was definitely a cultural experience. It is difficult to describe, but I would say the most interesting part would have been right near the end of the game, as PE was losing 1-0. All of a sudden maybe half or more of the couple odd thousand crowd stood up and, out of nowhere, started singing in Xhosa (a tribal language) to rally the team. This wasn’t the rowdy crowd type of singing that you would expect, but actually really good. Everyone was on key and there were even people singing in harmony. It was better than a lot of choirs that I have heard and is a great reflection of the large role that music plays in everyday South African life. We also went to a Rugby Match between NMMU and the University of Johannesburg on Monday March 16th. I enjoyed it somewhat, despite the fact that it was a pretty cold, windy, and misty night. There wasn’t anything too unique about it and was similar to any other college sporting event.
Along with all of that, we have more recently done a couple of special field trips for classes. On Thursday morning March 12th, for marine bio we took a trip to the Sardinia Bay beach for a practical on sandy beach ecology. We spent all morning on the beach collecting samples of sand and sifting through them, collecting the marine life that we found. It definitely makes me envious of our professor who, before we started, welcomed us to her “office” that was the beautiful beach we were on. We also had a little field trip for our South African Music class this past Wednesday night the 18th. A band called Babu had a concert at NMMU in the little theatre, so those of us in the music class went to that. The band was all instrumental and kind of a mix between Indian
music and rock, with a guitarist, bass guitarist, a drummer, and another percussionist who played the bongos and the oboe. It was a pretty relaxed, the musicians were very talented, and I loved the music.
I am also enjoying the fellow students that are on my trip. All 30 of us have gotten to know each other pretty well and are having a good time. Being on a trip like this, we end up spending a lot of time together since we live in such close proximity and have all of the same classes, so I have really been getting to know everyone well. A favourite social activity is going to dance clubs in the area. Wednesday nights seem to be the popular night and we mostly go to a place about three blocks away called Toby Joe’s. We also have done a number of events put together by people in our group. One example is potlucks that we have in our flats. The 30 of us are split up into 6 different flats, so every other Tuesday one flat hosts a potluck. They choose a theme and assign the other flats dishes to bring and we spend maybe an hour or two just eating, hanging out, listening to music, and having a good time! My flat hosted the one on Tuesday March 3rd. Our theme was Bosnian food since one of my roommates, Boris, lived in Bosnia before coming to St. John’s.
Well, I think that’s about it for now. Life is still good down here, the weather is nice, and I am trying to experience “South Africa with no illusions” as Gary, our faculty director, would say. I am hoping to get a blog posted later this week on the various group excursions that we have done, so be sure and check back!
With Love,
Kirby
One thing that I have always wanted to do is scuba diving, and what better place than South Africa? In order to dive, you need to become certified and it just so happens that classes are
about ½ the price in South Africa as at home. With the ocean so handy and the price incentive, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream. So myself and five others took a private class over the weekend of February 21st and 22nd and finished with a dive on February 28th. The class was pretty fun and I loved going on the dives. We saw a bunch of marine plants on the reef we were at, a lot of fish, a squid, and even a Ragged Tooth Shark that was about 6 feet long! Our instructor was also really cool and he agreed to guide us on some dives in the area, including night dive and a shark dive! I am really excited.Another fun part of our trip has been the different sporting events that we have attended. The faculty director, Gary, is a pretty big sports fan, so he has arranged for us to go to a number of professional sporting events here. My favourite ones were probably the cricket matches that we attended. Cricket is a very popular sport in South Africa, so they have a well-followed professional league and one of the best national teams in the world. Since arriving I have attended three matches of Port Elizabeth’s professional team the Warriors, and they were a blast. They were earlier on in the trip, taking place on Friday
February 6th, Sunday February 15th, and Wednesday February 18th. At first I didn’t really think much of the game other than a hard to understand and slow paced game, but towards the end of that first match when I started to understand it, things started to get exciting and I got hooked. We also attended a professional soccer game in PE on Sunday February 8th. I didn’t enjoy that one as much, but it was definitely a cultural experience. It is difficult to describe, but I would say the most interesting part would have been right near the end of the game, as PE was losing 1-0. All of a sudden maybe half or more of the couple odd thousand crowd stood up and, out of nowhere, started singing in Xhosa (a tribal language) to rally the team. This wasn’t the rowdy crowd type of singing that you would expect, but actually really good. Everyone was on key and there were even people singing in harmony. It was better than a lot of choirs that I have heard and is a great reflection of the large role that music plays in everyday South African life. We also went to a Rugby Match between NMMU and the University of Johannesburg on Monday March 16th. I enjoyed it somewhat, despite the fact that it was a pretty cold, windy, and misty night. There wasn’t anything too unique about it and was similar to any other college sporting event.Along with all of that, we have more recently done a couple of special field trips for classes. On Thursday morning March 12th, for marine bio we took a trip to the Sardinia Bay beach for a practical on sandy beach ecology. We spent all morning on the beach collecting samples of sand and sifting through them, collecting the marine life that we found. It definitely makes me envious of our professor who, before we started, welcomed us to her “office” that was the beautiful beach we were on. We also had a little field trip for our South African Music class this past Wednesday night the 18th. A band called Babu had a concert at NMMU in the little theatre, so those of us in the music class went to that. The band was all instrumental and kind of a mix between Indian
music and rock, with a guitarist, bass guitarist, a drummer, and another percussionist who played the bongos and the oboe. It was a pretty relaxed, the musicians were very talented, and I loved the music.I am also enjoying the fellow students that are on my trip. All 30 of us have gotten to know each other pretty well and are having a good time. Being on a trip like this, we end up spending a lot of time together since we live in such close proximity and have all of the same classes, so I have really been getting to know everyone well. A favourite social activity is going to dance clubs in the area. Wednesday nights seem to be the popular night and we mostly go to a place about three blocks away called Toby Joe’s. We also have done a number of events put together by people in our group. One example is potlucks that we have in our flats. The 30 of us are split up into 6 different flats, so every other Tuesday one flat hosts a potluck. They choose a theme and assign the other flats dishes to bring and we spend maybe an hour or two just eating, hanging out, listening to music, and having a good time! My flat hosted the one on Tuesday March 3rd. Our theme was Bosnian food since one of my roommates, Boris, lived in Bosnia before coming to St. John’s.
Well, I think that’s about it for now. Life is still good down here, the weather is nice, and I am trying to experience “South Africa with no illusions” as Gary, our faculty director, would say. I am hoping to get a blog posted later this week on the various group excursions that we have done, so be sure and check back!
With Love,
Kirby
Picture Captions:
Top (Right): Three of us Scuba Divers getting ready for one of the training dives on Feb. 22nd.
Middle (Left): View from the stands at our first ever professional cricket match!
Bottom (right): Myself and five others on the trip, hanging out outside of the Library at NMMU! From the Left: Bree, Laura, Me, Jenny, Kelsey, and Nick.
