Acquainted with South Africa!

Cruising along the South African sky!

Locals playing the marimba, sounded beautiful...



After much delay and contemplation (and mostly just plain old procrastination) I have decided to commit myself to writing on here- minimum once a week. There you go, it's in writing now that I have to write once a week! Ok, long story short, I have now been in the Eastern Cape of South Africa for more than a month and love it. Everything, from the people, the town I live in, the University I work at, to the trails I run on, there's no doubt it is all exceptional. As you can imagine, I have a lot to write about over this past month, but rather to keep things under control I will just write about a few bits and pieces and hopefully this week I will work on filling in the gaps.

For starters, the work I've been doing has been busy but in a good way, there's much going on and rarely a dull moment so it keeps me on my toes (and off of this blog). Dabbling in a few different things, some writing, designing, travelling, video work and more.  Since I work at a University I've also had the opportunity to attend some seminars, conferences, plays and concerts. Unfortunately it is the end of the uni year here for students so campus life has already started to tame down and won't pick up again until February. Nonetheless, there's always lots to do. We spent a week out in the more remote rural areas of the Eastern coast, formerly called the Transkei, now the Wild Coast. It was simply amazing, in my next post I will write more about it.

Adapting to South African culture has been relatively easy, I think most would be surprised at the many things in common. I have to say my only real culture shock revolved around the precautions people take here in terms of safety. Undoubtedly for good reason, although I certianly do feel safe and secure here; keeping in mind there's an electrical fence around my property, gated entrance, security guard in the evenings, security system and most places have burglar bars, however not at mine. Walking around by myself is perfectly fine during the day, night I wouldn't, but I probably wouldn't back home either. It also helps living in a University town where there are students around all the time, day and night, so it's a bit more of a relaxed environment. I am certainly adjusted and kind of feel like home.

Although I have so much more to write I won't at this moment. I will progressively add more...and just maybe eventually catch up!


The clock tower at the University