Hogsback for Easter!

Sorry its been so long, but I just had the most amazing spring break of my life. It was technically autumn break here or aka Easter Holiday. The leaves are changing colors here incase you were wondering, but it is still really hot during the daytime, it just gets chilly at night. So after my botany test which was on Thursday, I got ready to leave for Hogsback and Port Alfred for the weekend. This was going to be my Easter break so I wanted to keep myself busy instead of getting homesick. Firstly, we went to Port Alfred in our tiny Toyota Yaris. We went sand boarding down these huge dunes for the afternoon and I fell quite a few times. It was a lot different (easier) than snow boarding, but it was very easy to pick up a lot of speed down these hills. Port Alfred was beautiful, it is only about 2 hours outside of PE and it is a very quiet and peaceful town. It seemed like it was predominately white and you could definitely see that the area had money. We stayed at Kowie Backpackers for the night which was a nice tiny house that made you feel at home, and yes they had a TV! I took Nyquil the first night because I hadn’t been feeling well from the Frontier Trip and wanted to get better before we went to Cape Town. I pasted out around 830pm and didn’t wake up till the next morning. Once I woke up I joked about my phone being missing and I couldn’t find it. Long story short, someone came into our room in the middle of the night an swiped my phone from right next to my head. I was without a phone so I used Chelsea’s to call my mom (it was 3am at home) to tell her to cancel my phone account otherwise who ever took it could run up the bill and minutes are super expensive! The police came and took down a report, but I know that I’ll never see the phone again. I got a new one a few days after and it is even worse than the one I had before. After Port Alfred, we made our way to Hogsback, which was the trip I had been wanting to do since I’ve came to South Africa. I am not a big Lord of the Rings fan, but this is the place were J.R. Tolkien was inspired to write the series. I could see where he got his inspiration from; it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too. The next two days was filled with a lot of hiking and I can’t even describe how beautiful the place was. There was even a bath tub situated on the side of a cliff where people could actually take baths! So cool! The waterfall we hiked to was amazing and it cooled us off after a long hike. Some people from the local community were getting baptized as we were passing by which was cool to see. Check out my pictures on facebook or I am going to post some to this blog as well. We saw almost every waterfall in the area and had the most amazing Easter dinner. It was a chicken stir fry with loads of veggies and a lot of chicken. (Mom and Dad I would have loved your dinner even more!!!) I enjoyed the weekend very much and it was the best possible Easter I could have had away from my family. I am sad that I missed the holiday with my family, but I had good company the entire weekend and I got to talk to my parents on that Sunday too! I can’t wait to go home and find all the eggs my parents hid for me and hopefully have a few bottles of Hershey’s waiting for me too!!! ---A chocolate milk would be a nice coming home present! haha ;) I am separating this blog with the Cape Town blog since they were two completely different trips. For now!

Frontier Trip

It is Monday, and I should be studying for my test, but I am taking a tiny break. I wanted to go back and reflect on the weekend because it was awesome! We went to Adalaide which is about 3 hours outside of PE. We were hosted by two great families, both of which are farmers and had hundreds of acres of land. One family, which we stayed with first was into dairy farming. Right when we got there, the husband showed us around and we got a chance to milk a cow. It was a weird feeling and I felt like I was hurting the cow, but that wasn’t the case. He also squirted warm milk straight from the utter into our mouths and it was delicious! Probably because I drink milk like it is my job, but not everyone liked it. It was kind of cold and rainy all weekend, but we made the most of our time there and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. For dinner that night we had a chicken stew with a bunch of veggies and some rice. It was an actual home cooked meal and we all sat and ate around their dinner tables. After dinner we just hung out and then the girls were shuttled to the neighbors house to spend the night since that house didn’t have enough room for all of us. The house we were at for dinner was huge and decorated so nicely with plenty of family portraits and pictures. But the house that the girls stayed at both nights was spectacular! It was huge and each room was decorated with a different theme. There was even a zebra room! I passed out that night because I was so tired. In the morning, and yes we got to sleep it which was so nice, we waited for the boys to come to the house (which was about a 20 minute drive even though they were neighbors) so that we could have breakfast together. It was raining outside so we hung out for awhile. It was really nice that they didn’t rush us places because it made it such a relaxing weekend unlike bush camp. After breakfast we went on the back of two trucks to see how this family makes their money which is from the wool industry. They sheer all 4,000 of their sheep by hand and their wool is in demand all over the world. Patrick figured it out to be that they make about 200,000 dollars each year after they sell their wool. Which explains why their house is so nice. We also got a chance to hold some baby goats. Once we were done watching some of the workers sheer two of their sheep, we went to shoot some targets with the husband’s 22 rifle. All the guys went first and everyone hit the paper, but none hit the bullseye. Then it was the girls turn. I have never held a gun before so I wasn’t really sure what to do, but I ended up hitting the paper just outside the bullseye. It seemed by the looks for the paper that the girls had a much better shot than the guys and Chelsea ended up winning the bottle of wine with a bullseye! We went in for some sandwiches after shooting the gun and by then I was so tired. We were outside most of the day walking, or driving in the trucks in the cold and rain. It started to clear up a little after lunch, but all I wanted to do was sleep. They had a hike planned for us after lunch so we drove the trucks up as far as we could to the foot of the mountain. They let us walk up the mountain to see the amazing view from the top. Kelly and I wanted to run, but only made it 6 minutes before it became too steep for us to run any more. Kelly, Scott, Muhammad and I made it to the top before anyone else was even close, so we decided to head the the next mountain over because it was just alittle higher and looked like it had even a better view. I am so glad we went the extra bit because it was all worth it. We sat on some rocks at the very top and gazed out into the beautiful valley below us. I was shaking alittle because of the altitude I think and from using a bunch of different muscles to climb and jump over rocks and boulders on the way up. On the way down it was much more difficult because my shoes were already muddy and it was very slippery because of all the rain. We made it back to the other mountain just in time for some pictures and then headed all the way back down just before some rain clouds moved in. We got back to the house for some dinner, which was actually going to be ready for some time. They set out some beer and wine for us to drink before dinner and I have to say that I have had my fair share of wine and I have hated all of them. But the wine I tasted that night was actually not that bad and I couldn’t tell that I was getting drunk and it hit me all at once. It took me almost an hour and a half to eat my steak dinner because it was so delicious! I savored every bite of it. Just before dinner, most of us were sitting in the husbands trophy room which was filled with heads of various animals from Africa including zebra, wildebeest, kudu, and even a giraffe. He went around the room and named off every animal and told a short story about where he shot it. When he stopped on the story about the zebra I couldn’t listen anymore because he said that it was his favorite hunt and that he had really had to work for it because he had chased it all day long. To me it would only be impressive if he caught the zebra with his bare hands on foot, because I know for a fact he was probably in a jeep with a state of the art gun that requires no “skill” at all. Not saying that I could shoot an animal, but shooting a gun is a lot easier than how people use to have to hunt. I don’t admire anyone who shoots an animal just to hang it on their wall and tell a story. There is a difference between that and shooting an animal for the meat, which I have no problem with. Anyways, he also told us about the giraffe and how when he shot it, it cried (because giraffe’s have tear ducts that allow them to shed tears) He said that hunt had hurt him most, but why hunt the giraffe at all if you knew that was going to happen... Back to the wonderful weekend we had; We talked the rest of the night and went to bed around midnight. We were up a little late the next morning and headed back to the first farmer’s house for breakfast. Directly after breakfast we packed up everything and headed out for another hike, but this time it as to a waterfall. Both husbands drove us as far as they could to the waterfall, but with all the rain that they had in the past few days, we had to get out early and hike the rest of the way. Along the path there were many spiders, which were surprisingly larger than the spiders I saw in the Amazon! The hike was muddy and wet, but it was all worth it when we got the the waterfall. We ended around a pool of water and we could hear the waterfall, but we couldn’t see it. We then had to swim about 30 or 40 yards through a narrow passage of water to see the waterfall. The water was freezing and I had a hard time swimming because I really don’t know the right technique so I got tired rather fast. Once we were close enough you could feel the current push you away from the falling water. Most of the boys were already on top of the waterfall before I even got to the rocks in front of it. The sight of it was beautiful and it is too bad that no one got pictures because of how pretty it was. It would have been way to hard to swim that far and not drop your camera or something bad happen to it on the way. I wasn’t about to take that risk seeing as how I just got a camera! After awhile we all got cold and had to head back so that we could get home at a responsible hour. I was so unbelievably cold afterwards and didn’t want to put my warm, dry clothes on my wet spandex so I basically froze my ass off on the way back to the vans. Once we got all gathered up and dried off we were on our way back to PE. All in all I would say it was one of the better weekends here so far. It was relaxing, yet we did and saw a lot! I really enjoyed myself and now I must force myself to study for my exam on Thursday for Botany. This is going to be tough. Cheers!

Feeling Like This Term Might Be The Death Of Me.

This week so far (its Thursday now) has been on the quiet side, minus last night which was Becca’s 20th Birthday Celebrations! We went to town and danced our ass’s off the entire night and Becca had a wonderful birthday! She had a list of tasks around her neck that she had to complete during the night and she checked all of them off her list. The cab ride there was probably the funniest thing I had ever witnessed. The night was definitely epic to say the least! Since the week has been so low key, I will take this time to vent about classes. I am currently taking Botany and Zoology, both 100 level classes. So I am with all first years. My classes are at least 100 people in huge lecture halls. It isn’t that the material we are learning is hard or anything, but the questions that I have had to answer on my quiz’s have been ridiculously tough. I JUST got my botany book because it wasn’t in the bookstore, and it isn’t like I can buy it off Amazon because it would never get here. So I fell behind early with Botany right from the start and also there was apparently a Botany class offered that preceded the class I am in now, so I lecturer refers to last term and I have no idea what he is talking about. I’ll stick with my Botany class for now because I see myself having the hardest time in there. My lab is on Wednesdays at 230 and it consists of like 120 people. We are split up into two lab rooms and the teacher isn’t even there. Instead they have demi’s which are students, I think, that are suppose to help us if we have any questions. Every single question I have asked, they haven’t had the answer to and they basically brush me off and say I don’t know, I’m sorry. Not to mention the labs are formatted completely different than I have ever seen before. For labs at home, our drawings we turn in don’t have to be technical and our teachers have never stressed labeling or a strict format. Here, I got my prac back and I did horrible because I didn’t know some minor things that these students have probably been doing since high school. It seems that our education in the States in different and almost like we are behind. First years here are taking what I have to take in my junior year at home. Back at LEC, the professors hold our hand through everything we do and answer any questions we have, but here since the classes are so big the students are use to no help. I think this has been the biggest shock within my educational experience here. Also, yesterday my Botany lecturer mentions to us at 1045am that day that prac is cancelled, but we have to attend the science departments graduation at 230 that afternoon, which is when our prac usually is. Now, I would have gone had I not: 1. just come from volunteering and was wearing dirty sport clothes which would not be acceptable to wear to a formal graduation and I also had no time to go home and change since I don’t live directly on campus (a little more notice than a few hours would have been more acceptable). 2. Known where the hell the graduation was! I obviously didn’t go because I knew if I actually did find the place, they wouldn’t have even let me in looking the way I did. Anyways, he took down the names of the people who went in class today and told the rest of us that going to the event was part of our prac mark. I don’t see this fair at all seeing as a graduation had NOTHING to do with learning about botany. I didn’t pay money for this class to go and watch people graduate.... Moving onto zoology, I like the content of this class, but a few things are very frustrating. Like the fact that our lecture period is for about an hour and 20 minutes, but she gets through the material in about 20 minutes and it is impossible to copy down the notes she has on the projector because of how fast she goes. Also, the book isn’t available in the bookstore yet, and she won’t put the slides from lecture online until a few days before the test, which obviously doesn’t give us enough time to prepare. Lastly, even though both lecturers speak english, they still have an accent and sometimes with the way they talk so fast it is hard to distinguish some words making it hard for me to understand what exactly they are talking about. I am feeling very stressed about my classes and this moment and should probably be studying for my test in a week instead of writing this... I’m just hoping that I pass because otherwise it was pointless for me to come here. For once in my life, I am worried about failing a class. School usually comes so easy to me because I am very organized and such a hard worker, but I feel as if I am giving a 100% right now and it isn’t good enough, not to mention nothing seems to be going my way. Hopefully things start looking up soon. I think I have finally gotten over my homesickness. We, as of today, have been here for exactly 10 weeks and only have about 2 and a half months left. Only 5 more weeks of classes and then exams in June. There are a lot of exciting trips planned over the next few weeks including Frontier this weekend and Capetown, Hogsback, Port St. Alfred the following weekend and Victoria Falls in May! I’m super excited to be travelign so much after being stuck in PE for the past few weekends. For now that’s all I have! Cheers!

Ironman South Africa

It’s the only official Ironman event held on African soil, and it all happened in Port Elizabeth today! 2.8km swim, 180km bike and a 42.2 km run (which is a marathon). The race was to begin at 7am and the athletes had until midnight to complete all three stages of the race. There were almost 1,800 competitors that started the day at Hobie Beach, waves were calm and it was a beautiful day! Chelsea and I woke up at 4am and left for the pier around 430am. We hauled ass on our bikes because it was still dark outside, but no one was out anyways and once we got to the main road people were already setting up camp for the long day ahead. We locked out bikes up and made our way over to the pier to get prime standing room to watch the start of the race. It was only 5am by this time, 2 hours left until the start of the race. The anticipation grew as 7am drew closer. There were so many tents set up and athletes walking around getting their stuff together. The bike transition area was crazy to look at, so many bikes. I could only imagine how much money was sitting behind the fence. We waited as the sun rose, dolphins swam, and helicopters soared all over the sky. People started to pack the pier around 630ish so I was glad we got there early. We watched as some of the racers warmed up in the Indian Ocean and finally they started to line up. The first wave, which was filled with the Pros, started in the water clear ahead of everyone else. Behind them on the beach was the rest of the swimmers ready for the gun to signal the start of a very long day. Once the gun went off, they all rushed into the water and before I knew it people were already out to the first booey and ready to make the turn. We watched as they swam their first lap, then got out of the water and ran a loop on the beach then made their way back into the water for their final lap. The first person out of the water was an Austrian followed closely by a South African and a Belgium. The front swimmers got out of the water around the 45 minute mark, which was amazing to me! We watched as a few more people made their way to the transition area and then we decided it was time to change location. We walked off the pier and tried to catch a glimpse of the racers getting onto their bikes. We couldn’t see very much, but I got a few pictures. After that we decided since we had been up so long we would walk over to the Boardwalk and get something to eat for breakfast. We met up with the rest of our group that came down around 6ish to see the start of the race, but unfortunately didn’t make it out onto the pier. I had a waffle and we all enjoyed our breakfast with the commentators voice in the background. Afterwards, Becca, Sara and I decided to go to the beach to lay out for awhile since the bike portion of the race would take awhile. There was a 2 hour and 15 minute time limit for the swim and then the bike needed to be completed by 530pm. Once we were burned enough from laying on the beach, we moved back up to the road to watch as the top three male and females made their way around the marathon loop 4 times. The top three for each group had a designated bike rider to follow them so that people knew that they were in first, second and third. Once the top male finished his third loop we made out way over to the finishers stretch. I grabbed a spot right along the fence so I could be involved in all the action, but everyone else went up to the stands to get an overhead view. The helicopters in the air followed as the top runners made their way to the finish line, so when the chopper got close we new he was making his way towards us. Everyone in the crowd was given clappers, horns and balloons to cheer the South African on, who is actually from PE. As he made his way down the home stretch, the crowd was so enthusiastic and there was so much energy!!! I took a video of him finishing and then he came back out into the crowd to give some high fives and waves! The crowd obviously loved him since he is from PE! The German was next to come down the home stretch and the South African gave him a high five and he went by to congratulate him. I still can not get over the energy all the people were giving to these outstanding racers! The music kept on bumping and then I think my favorite part of the day was when the first female crossed the finish line, breaking a world record for a woman’s Ironman! She was all smiles and just like all the runners before her, collapsed after she crossed the finish line. I will update this post with names and times when they are posted online after the races is completely over. After we watched some of the top people finish, I walked back by myself and followed the course that they were running. Most people at this point were towards the back and some were walking, but still I felt inspired by them because they didn’t give up! I think that I may have fallen in love with Ironman and racing in general this weekend. I love running and I also love biking (with my bike at home, because the one I have here sucks; I’m missing a pedal and my front tire goes flat every third day) and if I can learn to swim properly I will compete in an Ironman. I am going to focus on my 50K in July and the sprint Tri in Fairport, but then I have to commit myself entirely to volleyball for my last season ever. Afterwards, I will consider an Ironman and hopefully one day come back to beautiful Port Elizabeth to race will all the great athletes that inspired me today.

Irongirl 10k

It’s the middle of the weekend, but I feel like so much has gone on since I last wrote. Thursday we went out for ladies night like always, but I opted not to drink seeing as I had a race the next day at 4. We got in kind of late, but I didn’t have class until 1pm. Class went by fast, thank goodness because we had to rush to our race. Once class was out Chelsea and I rode our bikes back to Annies and got ready to head out to Hobie Beach which is where the race started. It is about a 45 minute walk so we left with just enough time to get there. There were so many women, most dressed in pink, to support the Ironman and show that they are dedicated to a healthy lifestyle (that was what the run was about). Becca, Chelsea, Meli, Julia, and Isabel represented our group of internationals! Becca Chelsea and I are from the states, Julia and Isabel are from Germany and Meli is from Austria. We were all grouped around the speaker telling us some of the rules and he even called to the front a South African gold medalist from the 1984 Olympics named Zola Budd Pieterse. She spoke about how she was there to have fun and was so inspired by all the women that came out to run in the beautiful city of Port Elizabeth. She then stood by some people and Becca and I jumped in and got a photo with her! haha We aren’t even South African! They then turned us around to line up at the start. We didn’t realize we were going to be all the way at the back, so Becca grabbed my hand and basically pulled me all the way to the front. We didn’t get very far so we had to wait for the gun to go off and everyone to start, and straight away Becca and I were sprinting to get ahead of everyone. I was out of breath in the first 5 or 6 minutes because of this. Not to mention the wind was probably at about 20mph against us, like any other day in PE. The wind was against us all the way down to the SAMREC penguin center, which is were I volunteer at, and then there was a turn around and come back. The whole run was along the beach with the campus on our right and there were so many spectators at random places cheering everyone on. The sun was hot, but you couldn’t feel it when the wind was blowing. I couldn’t decide while I was running if I would have liked there to be no wind so I could run faster, but then I would be hot or if I would rather the wind pushing against me so I could stay cool. Once we got close to the turn around, Tomas and Anno, both from Annie’s Cove, came out of no where on their bikes and rode next to us and cheered us on. They couldn’t have came at a better time because it was the half way point and I was feeling a tad bit exhausted. After the turn around the wind was for the most past at our backs, but sometimes there would be a gust of wind into our face and that meant I got a mouthful of sand. By the end of the race I was covered in a thin coat of sand. I had been following a girl most of the way because she had a good pace going that challenged me, but was enough for me to stay with her. The whole way back I kept thinking to myself about how easy it would be to slow down and take it easy because no one was around me, just the girl in front of me. I fought with myself and decided that I needed to stick with her or I would slow to a pace where people could catch me. I liked the feeling of my legs towards the end because they hurt just enough to make me go faster and my breathing was perfect now that the wind wasn’t in my face. I hit the last water stop and picked up a bag of water (every race I have ever competed in they usually have cups) so I didn’t really know what to do with it. I tried my hardest to open it, but decided that I was wasting too much energy and just threw it on the ground (not something, as an environmentalist, I am proud of). At this point, I slowed just enough that I lost pace with the girl in front of me. I then had to fight myself to keep a strong enough pace to keep my place. Once I could see the Ironman set up, it just clicked to me to start my finishing pace, which is way to fast, but I figure since I’m almost done I don’t really need to walk the rest of the day. There were so many people along the path cheering everyone on, it was so exciting to get closer and closer to the finish. At the end it was kind of confusing because the path got skinnier and we had to weave in and out of the stands so that we came into the finish where the crowd was sitting. It was a dead sprint from me once I turned the corner to the finish. I remember hearing what I thought might be all my friends that came to watch in the stands, but I had no time or energy to turn my head. I was dead set on sprinting across that finish line. Once I crossed I was given a medal around my neck, which says Irongirl South Africa, and an ice cream popsicle!!! Yes, I ate this even though I gave up sweets for lent, I figured that I deserved it and it was a gift and God wouldn’t want me to turn down a gift! I waited for everyone else to finish and we all got together for hugs, congratulations, and pictures from our groupies that came to watch. I cramped a little bit at the end, so it was a little hard for me to walk. We headed over to the Vodacom Amphitheater were the awards ceremony would take place with Julia, Chelsea and Becca. They started off saying how great PE is and how awesome the Ironman is and then they went in order by age groups for the prizes. I was so shocked that I got 3rd in my age group with a time of 50:09, 23rd overall out of 698 women. I walked up to stage, I wanted to cry! They handed me a basket full of goodies and a rose and congratulated me! This was such a great experience and I am so happy I got to be apart of the first ever Irongirl in Port Elizabeth South Africa. I am still a little sore today, but I will hopefully get in some miles on Monday, not many though! Cheers!

South African Glossary.

I wanted to write a little bit about the lingo and some of the culture really fast.
Here is a tiny glossary of words that South Africans use almost daily.

Lecca-Cool
Robot-Traffic light
Zebra Crossing-Cross walk
Brew/Brah-Bro/Brother
Cheers-Bye, See ya
Backi-Truck
Keen-In a sentence "I'm keen to watch a movie"
Terpec-White Out
Sack-Bag
Tomato Sauce-Ketcup
Biltong- Like beef jerky, but people are obsessed with it here!
Biscuit-Cookie
Sista-A girl, instead of saying Miss
Sorry-Excuse me. When they try to grab someone's attention it's "Sorry"
The Bush-Similar to the woods.
Braai-Just like a BBQ
Chips-French Fries!
Howzit!?-Like saying How are you or What's up!?
Just now-This means it will happen soon, but since we are on South African time, don't expect anything anytime soon.
Shame- This is said always, "Shame, what a cute dress" Yeah I don't get it either?! haha
Tekkies- Sneakers/Tennis Shoes
Isit/Izzit?!- It's like you are saying "Really?!" Yeah I picked up on this one.
Must-They use this instead of "have". ie) I must do my homework. instead of: I have to do my homework.
YOHHHH- This is used when something is surprising. It's like Yo, but it more drawn out and has an H at the end. I have also picked this up.
Minibus vs Taxi vs Cab- It is important to know which is which. A minibus, also sometimes referred to as a taxi, is a white van usually with many dents that charges 7 Rand ($1) for a ride to basically anywhere. They don't care about traffic laws and will run anyone over if given the chance. Not only do they require a terrible and impatient driver, but they also employ a man to open the door and persuade people to get in with whistles and yelling "TOWN!" even if that isn't where they are going. You can not ride these at night by yourself because apparently it is easy for them to rob you. So after dark take a cab. A cab, is just like a taxi at home, although they aren't yellow here. Since I live at Annie's Cove it seems as if Pang is our our personal cab driver. He controls a fleet of cabs and never sleeps because he loves money too much. They can fit five people although the legal amount would be four. They charge based on how far you go (Pang sets the prices) and don't use a meter, although they threaten to use it most nights because we complain of the rates. The most important aspect is that no matter where you are or where Pang is, he will always be there in "10 Minutes".

South African Time: Whenever you want. So if you are late, its okay!

Penguins at SAMREC

Today was such a stressful day! I woke up around 6am with plenty of sleep and still felt tired. I met Kristen down the street and we rode our bikes to SAMREC which is the penguin sanctuary that we are now volunteering at. It is very similar to Penitentiary Glenn in Kirtland that I had volunteered at over the summer. We got there a little early so we just chilled out a little. Once we were inside we followed a lady around all morning as she showed us what to do. I can’t remember her name, but there was also a student from NMMU there to volunteer as well. Her name was Kristy and she was in her first year studying biology. We watched as she put vitamins inside of about 20 fish gills so that the penguins wouldn’t realize they were taking pills. We first tended to the IC birds that had to be tubed. Penguins have two holes in their throat, one for eating and one for breathing, so you have to be careful to hit the right hole otherwise you could send liquid straight to their lungs which would cause them to drown. You have to hold the birds between your legs and shove the tube down their throat and then gently squeeze the syringe. Everyone else around also must crouch down so that the birds are stressed out while they are feeding. After we were finished with the IC birds, we headed out to the swimming pool filled with penguins. Some of them were in the pool swimming while others were sunbathing on the rocks. They are only about knee height or shorter and are only found along the coast of South Africa. Each penguin was fed a limit of four fish, and whatever they ate was recorded. It is important to record their diet because if they continually eat less, then there could be something else wrong. It took awhile to get all the penguins fed, but you could tell by their eyes that they were full afterwards. Penguins eat twice a day and must swim at least 3 times a day for 20 minutes so that they don’t dehydrate. Afterwards, we had a lot of cleaning to do, which is really important yet boring work. This building was so clean and well organized, a lot neater than PG. We left SAMREC around 930 because I had class soon after. It wasn’t a very long bike ride because the back gate to campus was opened. My botany class wasn’t anything special except for I found out that I had lab that afternoon? This wasn’t written anywhere, so thank god that I was sitting next to a nice girl who told me where it was and at what time. Lunch break went quick and I just sat outside the library to eat. Zoology lecture was next and she went through an overview of what we learned in ecology and evolutionary biology all last semester. It was incredible how fast she went through the slides, but I made sure to sit in the front for this class so that I could see the board. Straight after zoology, I made my way to the botany lab. There were probably about 100 people in the lab room and we were split into two groups so that there were 50 in each lab. I don’t know anyone in that class so I just sat down and made conversation with the people next to me. I had to ask to borrow this one girls book because they don’t have it in the bookstore yet so they are ordering it for me. I went through the lab a lot faster than everyone else, and I don’t know if that is a good thing or bad thing. I didn’t think it was that difficult, but I also didn’t take my time on the sketches so I’m sure I’ll get docked some points on my neatness. Also, I was asked about three times today if I had any “terpec” which is a brand name of whiteout here. I had no idea what that meant, so every time someone asked me I would just turn my head and say huh?! After class I made my way home and basically now am just chillen. I got a chance to skype with my family from PA just now and it was great! They are getting Pottsville Pizzeria right now and I would probably give an arm to have a slice of that. It is also weird to think that in three more months I’ll be home and back to normal life. I am a little homesick, especially since I have had to deal with two deaths in my family since I’ve been here, but this place is so amazing that I could stay here forever. If only I could move my friends and family here then it would be perfect! Cheers!