Is this real life?

Hello world!!!

I have not only made it safely to South Africa, but I am officially in LOVE with it.  Like, I would consider marrying S. Africa if it were up for it.  Ok well I will attempt to fill you in on the last few days of pure glory...

The flight to Africa = LONG.  We were on planes for about 18 hours. I was worried about being comfortable with my long legs / healing ankle but somehow I got relocated to a seat that had extra leg room so I was able to stretch out and be much more comfortable.  I was separated from everyone else in the group but I was A-ok with that because I would not have been able to handle that ridiculous flight otherwise.  ps. South Africa Airlines food is incredible!  The weird man next to me ate all 3 of the meals like he hadn't eaten in 5 weeks though.  It was amusing.

Then we arrived in Johannesburg and stayed in a hotel that night, spent the next day traveling around Jo-burg and then spent one more night there.  Joburg is like the LA of South Africa.  It was very busy, crowded and did not look at all African-y.  I swear I thought I was still in Cali...

Ok so in Joburg we went to the Apartheid Museum so we could understand more about what this country has been through.  It was so powerful and such a beautiful place.  There has been so much discrimination here for so long and it wasn't until 1994 that this ended.  1994!!!  That is SO recent.  I think that's what hit me the hardest.  Blacks were treated so horribly for so long, being uprooted from their homes by force to make room for whites, and this ended so recently.  (By the way, in S. Africa, the term "black" means someone who is 100% black, "colored" refers to someone of mixed race of black and white, an "Indian" is someone from India or Asia, and "white" is white.)  It's difficult to describe all that I felt at this museum but it was an eye-opening experience to say the least.

We also visited the township of Soweto (an abbreviation for SOuthern WEstern TOwnship) and I LOVE this place.  The people are so so so welcoming.  As you drive by, they wave and smile at you as a way of saying "you are welcome here in our neighborhood."  And that's exactly what it felt like, a massively huge, closeknit neighborhood.  I felt so welcomed.  We ate lunch at a woman's house (it is a restaurant by day) and it was tastyyyyy.  Chicken and rice are pretty much at every meal, which I approve 100% of.

SO FUNNY: the kids of Soweto (who I had to do everything in my power not to steal one) will run up to you and yell "Shoot me! Shoot me!" which means "Take a picture of me!"  I'm glad our tour guide warned us about this phrase beforehand or else someone could have gotten hurt hahhaha

Also, we ran into some local South African boys and I asked them if they think our American accents are ugly and they politely replied, yes.

So then, the best part of all......... TODAY we arrived in Pietermaritzburg at our campus.  I don't even know how to describe this to you.  Let me attempt to describe this place.... Absolute Perfection.  It is without a doubt the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life!  OUR campus!  There are rolling green hills, flowers, MONKEYS, waterfalls, rivers, fresh white buildings, ah I could go on for hours.  Reg, the sweetest man in charge of our S. African semester, says that calls from here to Heaven are local, and he could not be more right.  This place is my Heaven.

I requested to room with Kristina, my roomie from home.  You are placed in little 4 bedroom cabins, called chalets.  However, Kristina and I were split up........ soon to find out that we both have our own rooms alone right across the hall from each other!  This is wonderful because then we won't have to worry about waking anyone up because we have our own room!  Not everyone has their own room, most have a roommate.

Oh ok and, this is the greatest, my room has the MOST beautiful view out of all of the rooms in the whole place (I am not the only one who thinks this, it's in agreement with all).  I am on the 2nd story and my window looks out over the waterfall and green valley/cliffs.  Is this place real?!?!?  I am sitting here in my room typing, listening to Jack Johnson with the sound of water rushing in the background.  Wow, thank you thank you Lord!  His Creation is so beautiful.

Ok one last funny story and then I have to go to bed.  Today we went to the mall down the street, which is just like any mall in the US, and first of all, we stick out a LOT.  From the way we dress to the way we talk, people glance at us politely out of curiosity.  Well, as we were walking through the mall, there were so many people walking towards us and we had to keep swerving to stay out of their way and we were like What's the deal?!  Well, I soon realized that we were walking on the right side of the walkway through the mall; everything in S. Africa is backwards!  They drive on the LEFT side of the road! Once we realized this we felt so stupid and then started cracking up and felt bad at how rude we must have looked.


Anyways, to say the least I am loving it here!  I will update more soon :)

So much love,
Britt