Greetings!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to update on this blog, so I hope you haven’t been too worried about me yet… I know some have heard about my adventures this past week, so feel free to skip over the parts you’ve already been informed about, though I might slip in some surprises!

Last Monday-Wednesday we had our camp for the beginning of the school year at Cornerstone. All of the first year students were required to attend, but many second and third years came as well. Of course all of the Bethel students had to attend. To be honest, it was a difficult situation for all of us to be in. Some of us knew that it was an orientation, but some had no idea why we had to go away for two nights! We soon found out that we had to attend workshops during the mornings and then the afternoons were free to do whatever! Probably the least structure “orientation” I had ever been to! Introducing myself to everyone was not a problem, however, after that I had nothing to say to all of the students! It got to be old really fast so all I wanted to do then was be with the Bethel people. Not what I planned, but that was most comfortable! A lot of us felt very unsocial towards everyone by Monday afternoon. Don’t get me wrong though, I really liked all of the people I met and I’m really excited to get to know those that I met those three days. In fact I get to have class with most of them tomorrow! The school has only 200 students! I love the fact that I’m not only going to class with South Africans and Americans, but also people from Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique, District Republic of Congo, plus many more! Talk about multicultural!

Thursday after class we had a “walking tour” of the city of Cape Town with Alan Jansen, our program director in case you did not know. Trust me, we did not walk through the entire city of Cape Town- it’s way too huge! We saw the oldest building in South Africa, which happened to be a castle that the British built in the 1600s. It even has a mote running around it!

Friday after class (class ends at 11) I went with Rachel and her host parents to an area called the Wilderness. It was a four hour drive on the Garden Route to the place we stayed, which had an amazing view of the Indian Ocean! Rachel’s birthday was Saturday, so Felix and Val(her host parents) decided to plan a weekend with her and a friend in the best city in South Africa! I was definitely very lucky to be invited to such a place! I basically laughed at Felix the whole weekend. He was our entertainment. I have never heard such a unique laugh in my life! Picture an old man with grey hair laughing like a little boy with a high pitched laugh! It was truly unbelievable. He would say in his South African accent, “Can you believe it?” after everything he said, followed by “I can’t believe it.” Hilarious, eh? I don’t know if you’ll think so, but I sure did.

Saturday we took a ferry from Knysna to the Featherbed Nature Preserve so we could take a Land Cruiser up the mountain to see THE MOST GORGEOUS VIEWS I have ever seen! Picture two mountains (two heads, as they call them) that face each other as an opening to the bay of Knysna! The ocean waves crashing against the huge reddish orange rocks that stretch all along the mountain side give it an almost make-believe look! Many people have built homes on one of the two heads! Even though I was not prepared for the walk down in my Teva flip-flops, it was definitely worth it!

What a weekend! Now I must get ready for my “official” classes that start tomorrow! Yikes! Hope they’re not too difficult!

Hope everything is going well on the other side of the equator

Blessings!