First week of classes

Hello everyone... its been another speedy week of fun and excitement here in Port Elizabeth; more students continue to filter into Annie's Cove each day. Many of them are from Europe mainly Germany because their exams are finally coming to a close for this past semester.  A roommate has finally moved into the room next to mine; his name is Tomas from Germany.  He is another Business Admin. student like

 so many others studying abroad.  Its funny to tell people that my concentration of study is environmental sciences//protection.  Everyone thinks I am going to end up dealing with waste management.  Any how, my roommate Tomas was actually suppose to stay in another apartment accommodation but was able to talk our housing director, Marius, into allowing him to stay.  This past weekend Tomas joined another German on a trip west to a Township in which he plans to promote the company he has worked for: Bayern

(right to left: meredith, me, Kaylie, Mike, anonymous, Sara)

Munich.  Yes thats right, the world renowned football club from Munich, Germany.  He brought a bunch of jerseys with him to give away to kids in the community and I was able to snag one from him.  An 80 euro / $100 USD jersey !  I was very excited and basically wore the jersey all weekend.

Anways I have uploaded a few more pictures for you all to get an idea of what life is like here in PE/Annie's Cove.  Below is a photo of my room, plain I know but its home for thenext five months and I have gotten pretty used to it already.  Each room has a bed, a desk with shelves, and a table for possibly dinner or extending the desk if needed I am not completely sure what its for but its great for hanging your towel out to dry-- since all the walls are concrete they take a long time to heat up thus its usually alw

ays freezing inside my room so its hard to get my bath towel to dry thoroughly.  Any how this is the standard room set up and as for the kitchen we have a microwave, a toaster oven with hot plates on top for cooking --- its the hardest thing I have ever done and probably the only thing I hate about this place; its so damn hard to cook anything decent because temperature regulation on these things is close to nothing.  Any how t

he frigerator is nice and runs 20hrs out of the 24 in a single day.  

I am not quit sure why these photos are so small but I uploaded a few pictures of South Campus NMMU.  South campus is considered the main campus of the 6 that hold the name Nelson Mandela Metropolitan.  South Campus has the 19 story department building with several lecture halls surrounding it.  the Faculty of Art is the dominant prospectus of courses held on South Campus, with engineering held on North Campus, 2nd avenue mainly graduate students and Bird st. heading the Business faculty propectus.  The international office is located on South Campus and it is where I spend most my time in class and hanging out with friends/meeting new people. 

One of the first things we are told as international students here at NMMU is that because the campus is located on a nature reserve, we must realize that we'll come into contact with all sorts of wild life, even monkeys. 

Everywhere you go on campus you run into signs like this one indicating the fact that there are dangerous monkeys around that 

like to steal your lunch or even try to steal your backpack if you permit them. 

So far classes are going smoothly.  I have joined an afrikaans language course just for fun so I that I can pick up a few colloquial terms to try and gain some respect from the native south afrikans.  The other classes I am taking include an intro. course in South Afrikan history as well as a South Afrikan Literature course.  I am taking an music in society and history course that covers mainly classical genres most popular in europe between 1200-1900s, 

and also a course on th

e apartheid era here in South Afrika.  So far I have only gone to three of these courses because one has not yet begun and the other is held in the second half of the semester but as for the others they are quit interesting; the professors are all fun and welcoming of international students. I am one of the lucky few to not have classes on fridays so my weekends have been extended an extra day equating to more time for travel as wel as leisure.  This past friday I went to the beach with a few friends since the weather was quit nice and was able to get out and enjoy some of the waves on the beach.  The point at Summerstrand is probably the best place in PE for surfing because the wind blows off shore and its a right break.  I tried to show some of my friends from europe a few tricks in the water but without a wetsuit i was unable to last more than 15 minutes in the water.  So yes the water is quit cold but on sunny days when the wind is moderate, the water is absolutely amazing. In the afternoon I joined up with my friend Taffy from Zimbabwe who has asked myself and a few others to come out and play for his football team that plays for the school league.  We practiced for a while and got to meet some of the team members. They are all very nice and welcoming and freakin' good footballers.  I hurt my toe the previous week playing so I played pretty bad and was unable to make the game on sunday.  That night we all went out to our usual place at Brookes Pavilion to two places known as Toby Joe's and Tapas.  Nice places to

 hang out and get a cheap beer and dance but since the large majority of us international students have been frequenting these places, I feel they are getting quit old.  The music is always fun though; european nineties house music mixed with apple bottom jeans and a few other popular hip-hop songs.  For some reason they always like to throw in a classic rock song from random american artists.  Hey when your drinking and dancing its a lot of fun.  

The next day was a big event for some of us in Annie's.  There is a large group of Angolan students here at NMMU and they all stay in this large apartment complex called Omega Lodge just a block or so from Annie's.  I met these guys during orientation week on the first day.  I was actually extremely hung over possibly even still drunk from the night before and 

was evidently running extremely late according to european standards/american standards.  I was the last of our group to leave annie's and as I was walking/stumbling to campus I ran into a group of these guys who were speaking a language I had not heard yet while I have been here in SA.  Well I knew it wasn't spanish although it sounded like they were saying puto a lot, and  it seemed a bit like french but i wasn't entirely sure.  So i decided to ask the guys and I came to find that they were speaking Portuguese -- an amazing language I have to say.  The way they speak as well is entirely different from Brazilian Portuguese or

 classic Portuguese from Portugal.   Well at the time i thought it was quit amusing and cool so I continued to talk with the guys and got their names and numbers and was able to meet up with them throughout orientation week and play football with them and so on and so forth. So this weekend the group from Angola decided to host a braai at their accommodation.  Many of us from Annie's went over to their place which is really nice and big compared to Annie's. They had plenty of food and beverages and the night was a blast.  I heard music known as Cuduro which is Angolan hip hop/free style music that is very popular among the young people of angola.  It originated in the ghettos and soon become popular around the country after some struggle with the upper class.  I was a bit tired from the week before and decided to head back early, where as others ended up staying till almost dawn but it was the best time I have had here in South Afrika so far. On Sunday I attended the football match which our team, Southwest win the match-- the name Southwest was chosen because of the team's diversity among players oh and just to let all you footballers know, almost everyone here is an Arsenal fan.  I hope my toe will get better and hopefully find some used football cleats around somewhere so I can get out and play.  

Well thats basically were I leave off.  This week I plan to get all my courses settled out, find some cool hiking trails around the school, and journey throughout the city over the weekend.  Talk to ya'll soon. 

Cheers. 

July 10-22: Flight To PE, Annie's Cove, NMMU

So as it seems I am writing my first blog, seeing as how I have time finally to waste on the internet and listen to the mingling of languages that congest the pool area here at Annie's.  Where to start?

So I flew out of LAX Tuesday night July 8 and took 9.5 hrs to arrive in L

ondon Heathrow airport.  It was pouring down rain yet clear enough to see the beautiful city of london as well landed.  I would have to say, London, the suburbs surrounding the big city and all the congested buildings, homes, and streets were so intriguing and mysterious.  I could not help but think I 

might have to extend my stay on my flight home to the states in six months so that I can have time to possibly roam the city.  While at Heathrow, I bought my first guinness with a side of fish and chips.  I thought that was pretty standard seeing as how I was in England and all. After 3 hours at the airport and an additional 45 minutes that myself and others flying to Jo'berg had wait, I was finally on my way to South Africa.  The flight took about 11 hrs if you can believe it.  Flying over Africa was amazing! Nothing, nothing, and more nothing for miles and miles.  The flight over Pretoria, the Capital of South Africa, and Jo'berg was really something else. Housing projects, enormous buildings downtown, rugby parks, cricket stadiums a

nd in the distance I could see the beginnings of the 115,000 person 2010 World Cup stadium being built.  It was an incredible sight.  

After landing I had to run from one side of the airport to the other seeing as how our flight was late I didn't want to miss my connection to Port Elizabet

h (PE).  The route I had to run went outside and since it was 0 degrees C and I was wearing just a t-shirt, everyone was starring at me like I was some crazy foreigner..haha.  Anyways,, I missed the first flight, stood waiting for the woman at the British Airways stand to get me another seat on connecting flight for about an hour when it should have only taken 10 minutes (you must get used to this Africa... waiting I mean).  Finally I was on my way to PE without sleep and hungrier than an elephant.  I arrived 5 hours later than I was supposed and the people picking me up from the airport were nowhere in sight.  It took me about 30 mi

nutes to figure out how to use the pay phones here, they ring even when you dial and the ring tone is just a beeping noise as though the line is busy. I finally fond someone working for the University, 3 pretty girls huddled together with large coats.  It was quit funny to see them in such a way seeing as how it was actually quit nice out compared to Jo'berg.  I finally caught a ride to my accommodations, an international living quarters for students from around the world and different parts of South Africa, known as Annie's Cove.  The houses are quit small, actually the rooms are enormous, larger than the room I stayed in at Poly, but the kitchen is very cramped and compact, standard I suppose for african living.  By this time it was 7pm July 10 and I had not received a decent sleep when I lite knock on my door woke me from my daze and confused state.  It was another CEA student na

med Amanda who supposedly arrived a few hours early and had been sleeping all day and was quit energetic.  We introduced each other, spoke about the basics, who were, where we came from, why we

 chose SA, and so on.  Two other gentlemen soon joined us in our conversations, one from Germany named Stephan and another named Joachim from France.  They live together here in Annie's and are the nicest and coolest guys.  We all four chatted it up for a few hours, before I finally decided to end my night with some long needed and anticipated sleep.  

The next day I awoke and readied myself for a long day ahead.  Monalisa, CEA director with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) met myself, Amanda and two other CEA students, Kaylee and Laura, who arrived later that night. We took a short tour of the campus

, received our mobile phones, meet the director of the international office, and met back at Annie's to get ready for Tsitsikamma.  Back at Annie's we met the group from St. Clouds, 11 girls and 1 guy from a Minnesotan

University, that were all pumped and ready for their first South African adventure. 

It took about 3 hours to arrive Tsitsikamma and upon our arrival we were sent to the adventure center to get ready for a night of ziplining.  

It was a lot of fun. The greatest part was the guide Ivan and his cousin Spinach who were two crazy South Africans from Cape Town that flew around on the zipline screaming and howlering.  After we retired to B&B area so we could sort out our rooms and get the bra

ai started.  I was joined by Mike, the only other guy in the group, and two south african NMMU students Lanz and Cobis who were there to help teach myself and Mike how to braai.  A braai is style of South African barbecuing that involves waiting for a wood fire to burn down to coals upon which you put a large grilling screen and applying different types of poultry and meat.  The food selection included pork strips, chicken wings and breasts, beef sausages known as woers and chicken sausages that took forever to cook.  I was able to get the Tsitsikamma B&B host to get the group some beers, and after two hours of braaing and drinking beer, the party began.  Everyone ate and drank and I 

learnt that whiskey is the most popular alcoholic beverage among the south african men.  The next morning was harder for some than others to wake up the next morning, upon when we received a nice 

breakfast from the hosts.  From there, the group traveled on to Monkeyland, a small area/range that is dedicated to the wildlife preservation of different types of monkeys. I got some good pictures which I have shared. 

After Monkeyland we all decided to head back to PE and spend the night out downtown.  That night was the first for many in a night club. first for ANYONE where drinks at a night club were less than a euro and about 1 USD.  If you can figure what that equates to I will not go further.  For those of you who don't think 10USD can go far on alcoholic drinks i'll tell you.. it equates to a crazy wild night. 

The following week was Orientation and registration for most of international students and new students arriving this semester. Registration is possibly the most difficult thing I have encountered so far here in Africa.  Took me 5 hours just to pick my classes seeing as how most the ones I got approved from Cal Poly were not being offered this term. So i chose all new courses and was able to email and contact Cal Poly and received good word that the classes I chose would be approved by the General Education Director. So I finally got all my academics situated, which meant I had more time to party, no I am just kidding. I was able to go out and join the others on a nice 

tour of PE which included a tour of the city, a visit to the history museum, red location--a township on the city limits where black south africans were relocated during the apartheid era and hav

e not been able to regain their status since--and bayworld--an acclaimed marine park here in PE. The day was  lots

 of fun and we were able to get back out that night for half off cocktails and make our way back to Tapas.  We were also able to make it out the beaches, now that the weather has warmed back up to were it is  supposed to be---winter time in PE is basically summer time in LA  70s/80s during the day, 60s/high50s at night.   It is amazing.  14 of us, Stephan, Joachim, Ellen, Sarah and Jenn--three other americans here who come from the IS program-- Felix, Jeesy (a guy Finland), 

Merrideth, Laura, Kaylee, Cicilia, and myself were able to make it out to Jeffery's Bay (yes the acclaimed surf spot of South Africa) to watch the Billabong Pro finals.  Kelly Slater beat Mick Fanning for the title and we all bought sweaters for 10USD and spent the day in J-Bay hanging out and meeting the loc

als.  It was good fun and upon our return to PE we found we only had to pay 15USD for the rental of three cars for 14 ppl. It was amazing!  I waves were so awesome that day although the wind was strong from the southeast putting a onshore/offshore side swip across the face of the waves.  

 Over the weekend, many of the other students off for the holidays soon began to arrive back in Annie's Cove. I ended up meeting a few guys from South Africa as well as a few other people from other African states.  I finally met my flat mates, two Botswanan fellows however, I have yet to meet my official roommate who is supposedly from germany. Well I don't have much time to chat, my computer is soon to die so I will rejoin you all later this week if the weather permits which it most likely will.  I have classes all this week which are going quit well, considering all the mess from registration and tomorrow we are going to play soccer and hang out on the beach. 

So for now, Cheers mates!

Matthew