First Full Day in South Africa

So it's Jonathan again. Today was our first full day in South Africa and we had an amazing time. The day started with us going to eat at one of the newer food courts on the campus. At breakfast several of us sat with the driver and were able to get a 'real' view of where we are and some of the people. We also had a fun time trying to learn some of the language. After lunch we went the the Neelsie, which is their version of the student center. We had a meeting with Rudi, the 'Brian' in South Africa. We then met with the SCR, the student government. It was amazing to talk to them and see how different their student culture is from KSU's. In fact it is completely different. They are trying to get in touch more with their private students, which are like our commuter students.




After that meeting we had our first South African lunch, which was an interesting experience. The ketchup is sweet and has no salt in it...which is odd to us, but in the same aspect they think the salt in out ketchup is odd. Once lunch was done we moved on to the Sustainability Institute. That was an amazing experience because it really showed how you could use all your resources. (Some of the pictures I took are shown.) From that we all took a hard look at what we do in the US and how we can all take what we have already learned back.


















After that experience we were invited to go to a rugby game and were able to really see THE sport of the country. It is the same as football is here as far as popularity goes. The backdrop for the rugby game was amazing, through all the rain we saw an amazing rainbow.

The final part of the evening was going for dinner to a place that translates into "Turtle Valley". At this dinner we got our first real taste of South African food. We met several of the other staff members that helped and work with Rudi. All and all it was an amazing first day that really showed us another view of the world.

More to come...

Jonathan