Boring update.

Greetings!

It has been a busy week here in South Africa! I started at my practical Tuesday. I really enjoy it so far! Mostly just training though. After work yesterday I had the opportunity to lay out on the beach for a couple of hours. Today I am in the office all day doing more office work. The program I work for was robbed Sunday night, so their wifi is currently down. The church has been gracious enough to let me work from their office today! No great pictures to share. Kind of a boring post. however, since I am not online nearly as often as I thought I would be, I thought I would post the update still. :)

Love you all back home, and hope you all are enjoying the cold. It is 78 degrees here today. I might never leave!

Lions, a tiger, and cheetahs! Oh my!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

We started the day at John's church. Yes I went to church. You are welcome mother. Following church we went to the lion park! There were tortoises, chickens, ducks, rabbits, alpacas, spring bucks, one tiger that we could find, lions, one cheetah, and lion cubs! We had JUST missed the feeding for the animals. However, the lions were still eating. We payed 10 South African Rand (approximately $1) to sit in the cage and play with the cubs. We were not allowed to pick the cubs up. I was playing with one using the leaf, and the lady instructed me to not lift it above their heads to keep them from jumping. One younger boy got bit on the wrist by a cub before we went in. Amateur with cats, clearly. I enjoyed the cubs, however, the worker informed me we could not keep one. Disappointing. We do have plans to return to the lion park so we can interact with the cheetah. They feed on Sundays and Wednesdays, and are protective of their food and not safe to be with on feeding days. Our luck to visit on one of the off days. We then went to the boardwalk and sat and watched a group of young guys surfing the little waves. Please enjoy this hungry lion, playful cheetah, two adorable pictures of the cub I played with, and one of the surfers falling in a wave. (If you click on the pictures, they will get larger)

3 days in!

Hello all! Just finished my third day here, and it feels like it has been over a week. Current updates: I got sun burnt on the first day, found two geckos in our house on the second day, and went to a braai that was hosted for us today. John, who has been the most amazing and helpful person ever, hosted a braai to officially welcome us to South Africa. He and his wife Emilie made us a delicious meal, and even sent us home with left overs. One of the biggest hurdles we have faced so far is technology. Wifi is not the same as in the states, or even as I experienced in Ireland this past summer. The government owns the internet here, so you pay by the gb of data for internet. So posting on my blog and using various apps to contact home have become difficult. Also, my classes online have become difficult. I will definitely post better stories later. I am committed to keep family and friends updated with posts and pictures. However, pictures are better than words so here are two beautiful scenes for you: 

This first picture is the view from my bedroom window. Also the view from our porch, where we get to sit and relax or eat meals. This view will be hard to leave. 

This picture is the view from John's back porch. One of the many reasons he will never leave South Africa..... And why would he?

I hope these pictures warm all you mid-westerners up!

I've landed!

Sorry for the long delay in posts, but now I'm posting from South Africa! The pictures are terrible because they are on my iPad. However the left is leaving D.C. and the right is leaving Dakar. Thankfully on international flights they provide alcohol which helped me sleep. I am in Johannesburg for the night and fly to East London tomorrow morning. I get to sleep in a real bed at the hotel tonight which is a nice change from the airplane. We were very fortunate to have a plane with empty rows in the back so we were able to stretch out more. Hopefully I will be able to access wifi tomorrow, however, I feel as though it will be at least a few days to a week before our house in East London has wifi. Until then!

11 days! #TBT

11 days, say what?!  Yesterday I disconnected my cell phone.  While I have been without my cell phone before, doing it while in the United States is a lot harder.  I do enjoy not having the responsibility of answering it.  Also, the suspense of leaving a mess at either parents’ house and them not being able to reach me until I return is thrilling. 

In honor of throwback Thursday, I am sharing a beautiful memory from my first real experience abroad (sorry people, but Canada and Mexico do not count).  Egypt may have only been about a week long, but it sparked a lifelong passion to travel elsewhere in the world.  I hope to one day return to this beautiful place.  

Now back to laundry and packing I go. Stay tuned!

Here goes everything!

So I have a blog?  While this is extremely new to me, here goes everything!  I am preparing for my next journey.  In 12 days I will be departing Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport with the final destination as East London, South Africa!  Due to popular demand (and some nagging from family), I will be blogging about my experiences abroad.  While I have gone abroad before, I have never been gone for an entire semester.  These journeys are filled with many ups and downs; however, they always end up enriching my life in ways I never dreamt possible.  Since I want to inform everyone about my trip, I will do my best to keep this regularly updated.  To try to get used to this blogging thing, I will have a twelve day countdown leading up to my departure.  Stay Tuned!