Adventures in South Africa: July 18th-19th Weekend

Yesterday I slept in a bit later than I was expecting, but I still had the opportunity to get out and do something. Jon was on-call in the trauma unit all day, so Zack and I shopped around the festival for a while and each got some great souvenirs. For lunch I had another ostrich burger because they are very delicious and I'm sad that we don't have them in the States. After lunch, Zack and I walked to Mimosa Mall. It was less than ideal because when we got there, the mall was experiencing load shedding, which is when the city shuts off power to specific areas for two hours. We first had difficulty crossing the street to get to the mall because the street lights were out as well and people rarely stopped long enough for us to cross. Once inside the mall, all the lights were off and all the stores had their gates closed. It was very warm in the building because the air was off as well, so we went to buy drinks, only to be turned away because no restaurant had a working computer system. We ended up just heading back to campus with the idea of coming back when the power was on. Later that day, we met up with the other international students. There are four people from the Netherlands, one from France, one from Russia, two from Italy, and four from Germany. We all met for dinner and spent some time together at the festival before going out dancing. It was really nice getting to meet some of the other International Students.

Today I had a bit of a rough start. I was woken up at 9 by the girl whose room I had been staying in. She told me that she didn't know where I was supposed to go, but I needed to be out of the room by 10, so I had an hour to pack up all my things and then find somewhere else to go. I ended up sitting in the lobby with all of my stuff just waiting for somewhere else to stay. No one seemed to know what was going on. They ended up putting me in another temporary room, but I'm not sure how long it's going to be before they move me yet again. It's tiresome having to keep moving and not really know what's going on, but I haven't been dwelling on it too much. After I switched rooms, I met up with Zack, Jon, and some of the other internationals and we walked to the mall and got lunch at a restaurant called Mugg and Bean. I read through the menu and it seemed too familiar, and then I realized it was started by two Americans. At first I didn't think anything of pulled pork barbecue, coleslaw, and the word fries instead of chips because I'm so used to those things from back home. The food was really good and I would definitely enjoy going back because there were so many options that I wanted to try. After lunch, we went to Naval Hill. which, as the name implies, is a big hill located inside a small game reserve. At the top of the hill, there was a statue of Nelson Mandela and amazing panoramic views of Bloemfontein. Because the area is a game reserve, we got the chance to see some animals. We saw a pack of wildebeest and got up close and personal with a few zebras. I was so excited that these animals are so calm and used to humans that you can stand so close to them and they don't go anywhere. There were also a few giraffes on the reserve, but sadly we didn't see any. We may go back again to try and see some because giraffes are my favorite animal. I took a few pictures and I'm glad I finally got a glimpse into the wild Africa that I was really hoping to see!