Photos!

Okay! I figured out the pictures. now let's just see if they actually load....

it worked!!! okay well this is the front of my dorm. We live in a block of buildings called Las Vegas because they are kind of on the edge of campus and so when they were being built it looked like a bunch of lights in the middle of a desert, like Las Vegas.

I took this picture of Kgale hill when we went to a mall called game city. This is the hill we are going to climb on sunday morning and hopefully get to see some cool wildlife.

This is a huge cactus that I saw when we were driving to Game City in a taxi. There was traffic so the taxi driver took us through a neighborhood and I got some cool pictures of the people and houses. I'll be sure to post some later but I have to go to sleep for tonight!

P.S.- dad, the toilets do flush the opposite way.

Today we had the first day of official orientation. That was quiiiiite interesting. Once again, things move at a different pace. At the convocation type thing they were playing 50 cent "shake that ass for me".... not exactly the arcadian hills of kalamazoo or whatever our song is. The woman leading the ceremony also didn't know the people she was introducing and the ceremony finished with the student body president declining to give a vote of thanks because of a housing issue that has gone unresolved for the students or something. Like I said, quite interesting.

We also learned about some security issues and visa stuff which will have to get sorted out in the next few weeks. Tomorrow we are continuing orientation. We finally got all of the international students (mostly) on campus. There are people from all over! Japan, US, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Korea. I'm excited that I have the opportunity to meet all these people from all over. I've almost got the pictures worked out when I finally do I'll definitely post some pictures!!

the first few days

So I can finally make a post because we FINALLY have internet! It has been pretty good so far. FREEZING. way colder than I expected. It is winter here and when the sun is out it is probably 70-80 degrees but when the sun goes down (really early! at like 6:15) it gets to 40 degrees or lower! When we got here we were assigned to what we thought were temporary rooms but turns out they are going to be permanent (the university isn't exactly organized). We also got some blankets, all of which are stamped with "UB" on them. Kind of feels like an institution! The stamp is even on the pillow and shower curtain. We even have a warden. I finally just got unpacked this evening.

Things definitely move at a slower pace here. We waited in line yesterday for 4 hours just to get an id card. it was kind of ridiculous! we even got there 45 minutes before it opened. I haven't gotten my classes worked out but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Classes start on monday but I've been told numerous times that professors probably won't even show up until friday or next monday because it's drop/add period until august 17th. I don't really get the point of that but the international student advisor said that I should just go to classes and try to get syllabi and then I can fax that back to K to see if the classes are approved for transfer. Quite the process.

It's really pretty here. A desert surrounded by mountains kind of. I think we are going to climb the main hill in the middle of the city on sunday morning. I'm pretty excited about that since I've heard that baboons and leopards live there. There are a few malls. I've been to Riverwalk and Game city but not main mall yet which is in the city center where all of the government buildings and such are. They have pretty much anything you want, clothing stores, book stores, restaurants, cell phone stores, linen stores etc. I think I've finally gotten everything I needed! Not too bad for 4 days I guess.

The campus is really big and I know I'm going to get lost (again). But the people are really nice. I've mostly met international students so far. They are from all over. Mostly from America and Europe (Sweden, Germany, Norway) but one from Syria and another from Japan. They are all really nice and we have been hanging out in a group mostly. Just yesterday UB students started arriving so hopefully we will get to mingle with them soon. One thing that is going to take A LOT of getting used to is the food. The cafeteria (or refectory as they call it) serves pretty interesting stuff. There is a dish called pop or something that they serve a lot. It looks like mashed potatoes but I guess its actually like mashed up rice. pretty flavorless so they serve it with a beef gravy thing over it. At the stores though you can find lots of stuff. Today I got some granola and cereal. They even had peanut butter and jelly. So I guess I will make it! Whew I think I got caught up! now that I have internet I can post more regularly.

Getting Ready To Go

So I'm getting ready to go and just wanted to figure this whole blogging thing out before I leave. Just a few more days!! I really can't believe I'm leaving so soon. I still have so much packing to do. Let's see if this blog worked....