38 Days

My time here is almost up and I still have so much that I want to do.  I am going to Mozambique over Easter break. It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it.  My friends and I wanted to go to Madagascar over Easter break, but the flight was too expensive and we would've had a hard time figuring out how to get there and what not. So we decided on going to Mozambique which is pretty close to Madagascar considering the fact that Madagascar is an island.  I've been doing research about Mozambique mainly what I wanted to do there and stuff. And from what I've read it seems to be very different from Botswana. Botswana is a developing nation compared to Mozambique which is an under developed nation.
         We are going to Maputo which is the capital of Mozambique.  We are hoping to go snorkeling over the coral reefs nearby.  The hotel that we are staying in is right on the beach and I am looking forward to lying on the beach simply enjoying the sun.  In order to get to Mozambique we are taking a combi to Johannesburg South Africa. This is a 6 hour drive I've heard, and basing on a normal combi ride will probably be very uncomfortable.  However it is pretty cheap and leaves every hour on the hour which is really convenient.  We plan on leaving for Joberg (Johannesburg if you weren't able to figure that out...) Wednesday afternoon April 4th. 2 of us have classes until 1 so we will probably leave after that. Once in Joberg we are spending the night in this tiny hotel.  Ironically enough it is the same one that I spent the night in while coming to Gaborone.  Then on Thursday we are flying from Joberg into Maputo.  It's only like an 1 and 1/2 hour flight which shouldn't be too bad. We found a rather cheapish flight.  The flight itself was $99 but there were a lot of fees. As it is the flight was still cheaper than if we were to go to Madagascar.  The economy in Mozambique is better than it is in Zimbabwe but still really bad so I'm hoping that I won't spend too much money while over there.

      If the exam schedule stays the same as it is right now (the actual one comes out April 10th when they figure out if there are any conflicts and what not) then I will have the last week of school off.  That would make me inexplicably happy because I leave May 4th at 3:55 pm and I was afraid that I was going to have conflicts with my exams and I wouldn't have any time to say goodbye to people. But if my exams are over when they say they are right now then I really want to travel one last  time.  I just want to experience as much as possible while over here. I would love to go to Namibia but it is such a sparse country that I'm not sure how I would get places. I'm contemplating Cape Town in South Africa but going there would be a very stupid idea so I'm hoping I can find someone who would want to come with me. Either way I've done so much here and don't regret a single moment. I am even contemplating getting an addition to my moon tattoo. It would be a sun to represent my time "under the sun" here in Africa.  This place will stay with me always I don't want to forget a second of it.

41 Days

The internet in our dorm room has been out since Monday...It's now Sunday.  So this makes my life a lot harder.  There is wifi on campus but only in select spots.  The library, science buildings and the business buildings are areas that I know have wifi.  So whenever I want to go online to do anything I have to pack up all my stuff, then lug it to the business center which is the closet place to my room.  And there I sit. Until I have done everything I need to online, or until my butt hurts from sitting on the ground because there really aren't that many chairs in this building.  I don't understand why this campus can't just fix things when they get broken right away. Another example of that is the laundry machines.  They have about 14 machines, yet more than half are broken.

  The campus is also trying to block websites. I've tried to get on to imdb which a very legal website and when I tried to get on it a screen comes up telling me that the university blocked it because it was entertainment.  Then I look at the screen thinking "really? really? you're seriously going to do that?" I mean come on blocking a LEGAL website because it's entertainment is really stupid and unfair.  They also try to block facebook.  Now, thankfully the school isn't very good at blocking things and I can simply sit the refresh button or then just hit the back button and try again.  But that is besides the point.  We need internet, and we need to be able to do what we want on it. Now I'm not saying this in the sense that the internet is the only thing that offers entertainment. No, it's much simpler than that.  The internet offers communication.  And as an international student, I go on facebook to talk with my friends.  Then I go on my email and email my parents.  The university doesn't understand this.  But we really do need the internet. Also because the internet doesn't work, skype doesn't work.  So for anyone who has a skype date they need to find a new location to do that, or then just reschedule the skype date.
            Blocking things online is stupid. We have the right to do what we want online, and we have the right to visit whatever website we want to.  Who are you to tell me that I can't do something.  The university is not in any place to tell me what I can and cannot look at. Now I've heard that the university is blocking things in order to get the students focus on academics. And I totally understand this. Plenty of students don't go to class and only show up when there is a test.  But there are better ways to get students to go to class.  At my home university most teachers allow a certain number of days students can miss before they start deducting points from their grade.  This works well because most students feel the need to do well in school.  So this is a system that should be tried over here.  This whole internet business is kind of frustrating. Thankfully the university has told us that hopefully by monday the internet will be working in our dorm again. Hopefully, but it probably won't happen until Wednesday, because that is just the way things work over here.

42 days

"Today's topic class is..." the food.  Since I've gotten here I've had more chicken and rice, or chicken and noodles then I'd care to admit.  Most of the food at the dining halls for each meal is either rice,pasta, or pap, chicken/beef, some form of vegetable.  I usually get a pie and juice for lunch and then suffer through a real meal. The food really isn't that bad. Granted it's not that good either, but it really isn't horrible. But if you eat it for every meal every day you can get tired of it very quickly.  So, my friends and I usually go out for dinner at least twice a week. Thankfully we have 2 malls within walking distance and the restaurants are open pretty late. 

      Right outside the gate of UB (that's University of Botswana, if you haven't figured that out yet you might wanna reread my previous posts) there a few stands with homemade food. I haven't really eaten there except for this one pizza place we affectionately called "Ms.E's Pizza".  You would order what type of pizza you'd want, I usually get the Chicken supreme which had onions green peppers chicken and cheese, and then they'd make it right there.  They had their own brick oven.  However that pizza place went out of business recently and we're all very sad about that.  Besides the pizza place I really enjoy going to Nando's.  Nando's is a chicken place.  Not like the dining hall chicken, though you could get it that plain if you wanted.  They offer sauces ranging from Tangy Tomato to Extra Hot. I usually get a chicken burger, which has cheese tomato lettuce, pineapple on it in the Hot sauce.  Their chips(fries) are delicious and I usually crave it at least once a week.  

        Since I've gotten here and had the cultural dinner I haven't eaten another worm thankfully.  They do sell them in the market and you can get them by the bagful if you'd like.  I have gotten in the habit of asking for a fizzy drink instead of water.  To them soda is soda water aka seltzer.  Also fries here are chips, not just potato chips but french fries as well.  The one food that I crave the most, and will be included on the car ride home from the Boston airport is American Chinese Food.  I miss Orange Chicken and Pork Fried Rice like I was a little kid who lost their favorite blanket.  

43 days.

So before I came here I had to do an advising agreement.  I pretty much choose the classes I wanted to take and had to go to each department they were under to make sure they would transfer over.  Once I got here I registered for those classes.  Now, I took Calculus I last semester, and registered to take Calc. II  here.  On the first day of classes, I quickly realized that something was fishy.  The first few classes focused on an continuation of power series. Only, I didn't even learn the basics of power series in Calc.I like the locals here did. So I came here lacking knowledge I was suppose to have in order to take the class.  However, the teacher I had was very good at teaching and soon I caught up. I had to learn a few things on my own, but once I did I had no problem. And I still don't have a problem.  I really enjoy the teacher because he makes what could be a difficult topic easy to understand.  He also has a great sense of humor and often tells a story somehow, except sometimes not, relating to the topic we're learning.

   I'm also taking Linear Algebra. The first thing that we did was matrices. Which is something I did in high school.  So this topic was fairly easy for me.  I really do not like this teacher though. He is sloppy, has the worst hand writing, and really doesn't do a lot to help the students.  A lot of the class failed the first class, and I believe that a students grade reflects the teachers ability to teach, so if most of the class failed, what does that tell you about the teacher? Every time I get out of this class it makes me want to bang my head against something heavy until I can't feel anything. And i say that a lot.  But I guess I can't really complain because so far the topics we have been covering are really easy.

   My last math class is Differential Equations.  I found out the first week that Calc. II was a prerequisite for this course. So that is one strike against me.  I needed to know how to differentiate partially, and we're just about to cover that in Calc. II. It is also a junior level course, and I am only  a Sophmore, so a lot of the other students know things that I don't.  This class is kicking my butt hard core. I am trying so hard to do well in this class, and I gear that my efforts will be for nothing.  If I can pass this class, notice I say pass and not pass well, I will consider it one of my greatest achievements.  Thankfully the teacher is very willing to help me succeed and I hope that together we can have me pass.

   My last class is Intro. to Setswana.  This class is for international students. I've been in this class since the beginning of the semester, and only now are we covering sentence formation.  The teacher is nice, but we cover very little topics.  I do like learning it and although we only learn a tiny bit, I love being able to understand what the students are saying.  Granted the locals speak tens times faster than I would like, and I only pick up maybe one word in a sentence I still feel cool for taking a class in Setswana.

  Now the grading system here is a little different. An A is considered 100-80, then B 79-70, C 69-60, and a D is 59-50, then F 49-40.  I think there are two lower grades but I'm not sure what it is.  While this makes my life a little bit easier it also means that the tests are a tiny bit harder.

So I thought I would include some pictures because a post without at least one picture is like a zebra without stripes.

The count down begins...44

So with 44 days left here. Yes, that's right, 44, I figured I would do a count down. I can't really say what will be in the posts, I won't know until I start typing. So yeah, that's plan.  This one will be focused more on the people. When I say people I mean all people.  Fellow international students, the locals, and  the coordinators.
         When I first applied for this I expected  that once I got here I would be helped.  Any questions would be answered and I could to them with any problem.  I got here and did the orientation.   That and the first week was the only time I saw the coordinators.  They helped us register took us on a few trips, then released us to muddle our way through.  I would have loved it if they had told me during registration that I was about to take the prerequisite and  the course at the same time. This was not information provided to me.  The only time I see these  people is when I pick up my stipend check every other month, when I needed a form signed, or when I'm checking to see if I have mail.  But maybe perhaps because they have left me to my own devices I was able to find my way better than if they held my hand the entire time. I am traveling on my own, and have been to many different places, and perhaps if the only time I went on a trip was with them, I wouldn't know how to plan a trip. So, as much as I really wish they provided more help, I'm grateful at the same time.
         The locals here are interesting to say the least.  The girls are often curious as to where I come from and the guys are curious to know if I have a boyfriend/ if i do do I want a local one. I don't have too many local friends here except for Dean and Kevin who have gone on the trips with us and help me when I need it.  The accent these people have is rather thick and even now I still have a hard  time understanding them.  I receive a lot of attention for being white, and at first I found the attention really nice, but now I tend to shoo the guys away when they approach me.  The locals here are very nice, but I desperately wish that they knew/wore deodorant because being under the sun for so long creates some very bad body odor. About every other day I open the door to my room and walk into a wall of B.O because my roommate has a lot of friends over in our very tiny room and all of them stink.  Also, the students here don't really seem to know where anything is. Whenever I need to find something I tend to wander for a little bit and hopefully come across what I need.  But for all my complaining the locals are very nice and make this place what it is.

        There are over 30 people in my program (ISEP) and at least 20 others in one other program.  I do not know how many people are actually here.  I know most of the people's names but I don't know everyone's.  I hang out with only a small chunk of the people here, but I am close to them.  Most of the international students here LOVE to party and really enjoy drinking as well.  I don't often hang out with those guys because I am not big on partying.  Most of the international students here are from the states, and I have met a girl from CT.  All of the international students are really nice, and I really liked the week long camping trip because I got to know them better.   I will miss a bunch of the group when I go home and I hope that at some point in time I can visit the others from the states, or vise versa.  I also hope that I keep in contact with all of them once we part ways.

Victoria Falls

 On Friday we went to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It was around a 1/2 hour drive from Kasane. After a stop at both the Botswana boarder post and the Zimbabwe boarder post we were on our way.
        The first activity that I did was the lion walk.  It was this incredible experience where you could pet the lions and walk with them for a ways.  However, you are constantly reminded that they're not tame; your not allowed to pet above the neck.  It  was so cool to be in such close contact to the "king of the jungle".  The lions we walked with were around 8 months old and they were already so big.  We took a lot of pictures with them.  They really did their own thing and we couldn't make them walk where or when they didn't want to. But this was perfectly fine with me, because I was just in awe to be so close to them.

 On the right is a picture of the two lions we walked with. One is a boy and the other a girl.  They are not siblings.

 This the group of us who wanted to do the lion walk.  By doing this activity we kind of isolated ourselves from the rest of the group and just ended up doing the rest of the activities together.  I almost thought it more fun with a smaller group than a bigger one.

 The last stop on the walk was a little river where the lions stopped for  a drink. As for the stick in my hand, we were all given one before the walk. It is not to beat the lions with or to poke them.  If a lion came up to you and wanted to play and you didn't want them to you would tap the ground with the stick and say "no" in a loud firm voice.

 The next activity was the Gorge Swing.  The picture on the left is off the gorge which is towards the end of the falls.  The Gorge Swing is kind of like Bungee Jumping except you are attached at your waist instead of your feet. Also once you reach the length of the rope after a free fall you begin to do a tarzan swing across the gorge. The drop is 120 meters, and this was one of the most terrifying and awesome things I've ever done.  The group of us that did were talking when I suddenly noticed the guy hooking me up the a rope connected to the ledge. I had become the first one to jump.  Once on the ledge and after the guy gave the safety briefing he asked me to walk towards the edge. I said no constantly but continued to walk. Once at the edge he  said "5,4,3,2,1" and that was it, I was off. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out.  There was no belly in your throat feeling like with a roller coaster, it was just the ongoing sensation of falling. Once at the bottom I swung across the gorge and was able to fully enjoy the incredible view.

   
     On the right is a picture of me all geared up and ready to go.  I had been slightly terrified from the second I decided to do this, which was 2 weeks before we left for this trip.

 This is me about to jump into the gorge.

 After the gorge swing we went on a tour of Victoria Falls.  We decided to get the wet part over with.  Now, when we went it was at the beginning of the high water season and at some parts the mist was so thick you couldn't actually see the Falls.  The wet part, was very very very wet. By the time we were done with the wet part we were all drenched.  With each step I took bubbles emerged from my sneakers.  Victoria Falls is one of the 7 World Wonders and is the widest waterfall in the world. It is considered one of the great among Niagara Falls and another one I can't remember.

 This is a picture of me in front of the falls after the wet part.  Clearly you can see that I am drenched.

 Victoria Falls was breath taking.  You could see a rainbow almost where ever you viewed it, and the view was stunning.  I've never seen something that came close to its beauty.

Victoria Falls had multiple falls to it all connected together.  Among the Falls there were the main falls, the devils cataract, the danger point, and a bunch other that I forgot. All together they make up Victoria Falls.  Zimbabwe and Zambia each have a claim on Victoria Falls and while you can walk more of the distance on the Zimbabwe side, Zambia can claim more of the actual falls.

Monday through Thursday of the Safari trip

 Monday was spent driving  from our first campsite to the next one.  We spent Monday night and Tuesday night in the mababe side of the Chobe National Park.  Now Chobe has the largest population of elephants in the world! And it showed.  After driving for an hour on this dirt road we began to see elephants everywhere!  I took so many pictures of Elephants.  The campsite we slept at was in the bush.  When I say in the bush, I mean in the bush.  We were at least 4 hours away from the park entrance, and there was no sign of civilization anywhere.  Once we got to the park on Monday we unpacked and then went on an afternoon game drive where we saw a lot of animals.  That day also set the pace for the week. I would go to bed around 9 pm then wake up around 5 am.  Get some breakfast, get into the car, go on a game drive, get lunch, another game drive, then come back for dinner and down time.
The food that we had on this trip was amazing.  I find it so funny that the food we ate in the middle of the african bush was better than any meal I could get in one of the dining halls on campus.

 So this was the first elephant I saw.  A lot of the elephants were really close to us.  None of them seemed angry at our presence and most of the time just kind of ignored us.

 Another elephant picture.

 The sunsets I saw were beautiful.  I've never seen any as beautiful as the ones over here. I took so many pictures of them, but the pictures can't even come close to actual thing.

 I was so excited to see a hippo.  I never did get a very good view of a hippo out of water, but I was just excited to see them.

 Impala...everywhere.  Pretty much wherever you turned you could see impala.

 I really didn't see that many zebras but I did a bunch of really good pictures.  I decided that Zebras are my favorite African animal.

 It was so cool to see Giraffes.  We saw a few giraffe babies as well which were really cute.  I found out that a group of giraffes is called a tower. I find that really funny.  We also saw baby elephants, baby warthogs, baby buffalo, and baby hippos.  All of them were really adorable.

  The park doesn't allow people to drive past 7 pm.  But just as we were heading towards our campsite we came across two lions!  One of them was hiding in the bush preparing to hunt some of the impala. We never  did see it kill any though.  The other one was just chilling in the grass.  Later that night we heard lions on the edge of campsite.  They were really close and a few people from our group were really nervous about them coming.  However, they never did grace us with their presence, but I am certain they passed right next to our site.

 On Thursday we went on a river tour of the Chobe River.  It was as if we were in a painting.  On the edge of the river you could see baboons, buffalo, elephants, giraffes, antelope and a lot more coming to get a drink of water.  It was very surreal.

 The buffalo.  One of the big 5.  The big 5 consists of buffalo, elephants, rhino, lions, and leopards. If I remember correctly the big 5 are called this because way back in the day hunters found them the hardest to kill. I unfortunately have only seen 3 out of the big 5.  I hope one day to see all of them.

 Another picture of a sunset.  If you haven't figured it out yet, I really like taking pictures of the sunsets.

And lastly a picture of a warthog.

Safari Trip (1 of a few posts)

 Because it was Spring Vacation we took a trip to the northern part of Botswana and then to Zimbabwe.  We left early Saturday morning. And when I say early I mean early. We left at 5 am.  After a miserable 10 hour bus ride we arrived at a back packers lodge where we spent 2 nights. Saturday night included some drama between some of our drunken group and 2 locals.  Sunday we went to the Okavango Delta.  There we got in these canoes and went down it.  Each canoe consisted of 2 international students and a guide.  The canoes moved by the guides using these long sticks to push off the bottom of the Delta. It really wasn't very deep in some places.

 The Delta had a lot of water lilies and long reeds.  I felt like Pocahontas as we maneuvered through the lily pads and water lilies.  It was very hot though, because there wasn't any shade.  After around an hour on the Delta we arrived at this island. Once there we went on a walk around it.  We had hoped to see some animals but we didn't see any.  I would have enjoyed the walk better if it wasn't so hot and if the walk was shorter. We ended up walking for about 3 hours in the very hot sun.  I also did not enjoy this plant called Love Grass that attached itself to any clothing. I still haven't gotten all of it off my socks.

 Once we were done with our walk we had lunch in this really nice area.  It was in the shade and was a clearing.  Lunch consisted of sandwiches and fruit.  While we were eating we came across a snake in one of the trees. Being the international students that we are and the tourists that we are, we all went and looked at it.  We found out later that it was a very poisonous snake, so I am very glad that none of us got bitten.

 On the way back we stopped at this part of the Delta so that we could swim. I unfortunately  could not swim because of a wound that I have, but did wade around in it. I also attempted to canoe. It is a lot harder than it seems.  Using the stick to move forward wasn't so hard, however turning was nearly impossible.  I also did the scene from the karate kid (the original, not the most recent crap one) where he stands on the edge of the canoe and attempts some karate moves.  However, before I could attempt any of the moves, I was told to get off.  It was really hot this day, and it was the only time I got burnt.

We rode in these safari trucks for the duration of our trip.  There are no seat belts, and the edge of the car isn't very high. At first I was very afraid that I would fall out, however I soon got over that fear.  Sometimes the next campsite was far away and we would spend at least 5 hours in the truck.  Most of the time the road was dirt and had a lot of bumps in it making anything except listening to music nearly impossible.  My hair was such a mess when this trip was done because of the wind that accompanied the openness of the car.