South Africa!: Pietermaritzburg

I still have a lot to learn about this blogging thing, but for those of you who are as new to this as I am, if you want to see a larger view of one of my pictures, just click on it! Yay!

Sunday we flew to Durban and took a bus to African Enterprises (AE) in Pietermaritzburg (PMB), where we will be staying for the next few months.

The entire group! This was actually taken at LAX.

Our group of 33 struggling to carry all the luggage to our gate. We played a HUGE game of catch phrase and I think we annoyed every single person at the airport who was not in the game. We were loud and excited!

Taking over South African Airlines

One of the buses that we will be riding in frequently this semester.

We arrived at AE around 6pm, and I have been in constant awe of how beautiful this place is. It is situated in the middle of a wildlife reserve on 60 acres of land. Below is a picture of our dining hall and four of the classrooms.

Here is the chapel and some other buildings... I am not entirely sure what they are yet!

On the bus we kept talking about how “normal” it would seem if we saw dinosaurs wandering amongst the trees. PMB looks like something out of Jurassic Park. I have never seen more green in my LIFE! Apparently we have to lock our windows and doors because of monkey invasions. In fact, the boys’ chalet has already been attacked, and the monkeys decided to sprinkle sugar packets all over their stuff. Two of the guys woke up with a monkey in their room. It opened a jar of tea bags and dropped the lid, waking the boys up. One monkey tried to “confront me” by jumping in front of me, staring at me, and hissing. They are mean! (And hilarious). When I was taking the picture of our dining hall, I looked up and saw this crazy guy staring at me (this was not the confrontation):Can you see both the baby and the dad?

I was given my own room in this little “chalet” that has two showers, toilets, and four bedrooms. Most of the people share a room, but they gave the three nursing majors and a select few upperclassmen their own rooms. Most of the students here are sophomores, but we have a couple freshmen and juniors as well. Everyone thinks I am “so old” but we do have two people who are 23! Haha.

I live on the bottom level of that chalet.

The view looking in at our chalet. There are four bedrooms, and mine is the top right. If you turn right past my door there is a short hallway that leads to the bathroom.

My room!

Showers and sinks! The toilets are behind me. I thought this was a prettier view.

This is the view from outside our chalet looking to the left.

This is directly behind our place. Just below that is running water from a waterfall.

The guys live in these chalets, which are on the other side of the big grassy area. If you are looking straight at the dining hall, the girls' chalets are on the left (there are 3 of them) and the guys' are on the right.

AE is treating us very well. We actually have someone who comes to clean our bathrooms daily, and our rooms every other day. We have a laundry service that will clean, press, and fold all of our laundry for about $2.50. We have meals served to us at 0800, 1300, and 1800. Tea time is at 1100 and 1600 :). We have a common room called the “Cougars’ Den” (APU’s mascot is the cougar) that has couches, snacks, a tv, a pool table, and the library. Aside from all that, the intense beauty here is so overwhelming (in a good way). I feel like I am in paradise.

The view from the "Cougars' Den" which is just up the hill from our chalets and just to the left of the dining hall. This is also what I see when I look out of one of my classroom windows!

Steps on the right-hand side of the waterfall, below "Cougars' Den."

This place is beautiful, but it is so WET! It rains frequently and it is very humid. I wonder if I will ever feel dry here. Even my sheets/bedding was damp last night. The bathroom floors and walls are wet, so I bought some cheap rubber flip flops to wear. Yuck. On the "bright" side, South Africa is so colorful. Where greenery does not completely cover the land, the dirt is bright orange and the contrast is incredible. Even the trashcans and pay phones are colorful.