I really AM in South Africa! I promise!

I think the reason it has taken me so long to blog was because every time I would go to start, I would feel like I had missed so many days already and did not want to have to catch up in writing. During the first 3 days we didn't really have internet and then after that, the task of writing about all that I had missed in writing seemed so so daunting.

SO

I'll just give a brief overview of the past almost 3 weeks. And, after that I'll try to update more often and in detail from here on out :)
THINGS ARE GOING GREAT! This whole experience is simply beautiful. I feel so so blessed and the past few days I've felt overwhelmed by the turn of events in my life and just about how much I see God's hand and will in my life. How cool!

I never thought I'd study social work. Journalism was in the plan,. I never thought my study abroad experience would be in South Africa of all places. Oxford was in the plan. I remember hearing about the Oxford program and I just said "Oh well that's a given. I'm going there for sure, now to just figure out which semester..." Europe was my favorite place I'd ever been, Roxy and I had been talking about our love for Oxford since we were freshman in High School, and it was focused for people who loved and studied English. HA little did I know that God would change my plans. And, I have absolutely no regrets about not being in Oxford, I don't really want to be there at this point in my life. Now, Spain next summer, that's a different story! (more to come on that later). I'm just loving where God has brought me and can't wait to see where He takes me next.

I felt as if today He was speaking to me again, and telling me exactly where He wanted me to be the next month. We have service sites that we will volunteer at for the next month and recently we've been visiting the 5 different service sites so we can figure out which one we want to request to work at. RivLife seemed great today, I thought it was so amazing, but the funny thing was, after we left, a lot of the other students that I talked to said that they didn't like it and were confused by the whole place. haha. Funny the way God works: gave me a love for a place that others didn’t like? We'll see if I actually get placed at RivLife where I want to be. There have been other times that I was sure I knew what God wanted for me, like the time I was sure I was being called to Ghana but didn't get accepted onto the team. That was a humbling experience. So, we will simply see where God wants me :)

Anyways, that's some great stuff I've been realizing recently, but I will catch you up a bit on before recently.

We had basically the longest travel time in the entire world. It took all in all about 22 hours to get to Johannesburg - South Africa's only international airport. Suprisingly, I didn't mind the flying too much at all! I'm a mellow person who doesn't always have to be moving so I enjoyed the majority of the flight. I slept a lot, read, listened to music, talked to friends, and watched movies. Doesn't that sound like a nice time? Once we arrived, we stayed for two nights there. Sarah Moll was my roommate for the few days and I just love her :) The first day we got there, it was evening time so we just went next door to a restaurant and ate. Here is where I first really saw that South African food is pretty different from American food. This is still taking some getting used to. It's not that it's anything crazy that they're serving us, it's usually just that the way they prepare it is different and doesn't exactly remind you of the comforts of home. But hey, who travels half way around the world to have home?

The next day we went to a city called Soweto. Soweto is mainly a poor area and this is where I saw a township for the first time. We also visited the largest Catholic church in Johannesburg, which had a beautiful, memorable, stain glass window. On one side of the stain glass, facing the outside, was a picture of a black Jesus and Mary. On the other side was a white Jesus and Mary. This was meant to represent that Jesus came for both blacks and whites. By the way, in South Africa, the terms they use for race are black, white, and colored. At first I didn't know the difference when they were referrring to black and colored, but colored is any person who is not fully black or fully white. Someone who is half black and half white would be called colored, someone who is Indian would be called colored, I would be called colored. Anyway, that was a neat piece of art to see. Also on this day we went to the apartheid museum. The museum also happened to have a Nelson Mandela exhibit going on which was neat to see. There was this outdoor quote wall that had a lot of quotes from Mandela, which a thought was really neat and is what sticks out most in my mind about that museum.

The next day we hopped on a plane pretty earlly that morning and flew another hour and a half to Durban. That flight went so quick! Basically ascended, then descended, then off the plane. Yay! We were finally home! We drove about another 45 minutes into town to Pietermaritzburg (or just Maritzburg) which was where we would be staying for the next 3 months! I had no idea how beautiful this campus would be! it was absolutely breathtaking! It was the weirdest thing, I felt like I had never ever seen the campus in pictures before. I did my fair share of research before deciding to apply for this program and had thought up of some totally different image in my head of what the campus would look like! But, like I said, it was an amazing first experience. The only down side was how ridiculously hot it was that day haha. Pietermaritzburg has an average of 90% humidity. Yes, and it runs about in the 90 degree Fahrenheit range on most days. As Uncle Rich would say, "It's a scorcher!" Right gabbie? :)

I was also amazed that day to see what a cute new "chalet" my roommie Tanya and I would be living in, which is somewhat like a dorm, and that there is an incredible waterfall right outside my window!!! Talk about breathtaking and perfection. I don't think there's a better depiction of those two adjectives, than this view outside my window. We can hear it babbling all day and night, which I now realize that I tend to tune out, unlike at the beginning. But, when I remember how lucky I am, I take some time to sit and listen to the rippling sound.

That first day we arrived on campus was 17 days ago. In the last 17 days I've been getting acclimated to this new place and to starting school again. It is SO much harder to focus on school here when there's a lot of other fun things going on around you and outside in the warm sun or cool watering hole. For fun, we play soccer, we lay out on the lawn with our laptops and books, we take pictures in the beautiful green jungly scenery, we go in the waterfall or swim in the watering hole, we go on walks through the game reserve, we do pilates in the hallway, we go the the Keg and Hedgehog restaurant down the road. That's the majority of our leisure.

As far as planned activities, I've gotten to go to a lion park (which was really cool, obviously!) and we all spent the weekend in Durban this weekend, which was so great. I got to go in the Indian Ocean for the first time! That is the third ocean I've been in, how blessed am I? Some people never even get to see a real beach in their lifetime! The Indian Ocean runs 77+ degrees. Crazy, right? It was soooo warm. A little too warm? But still wonderful!

One of the coolest experiences here was when I got to see Zebras!!! It's pronounced here as zeh-bras actually :) We were just going on our morning walk through the game reserve and there they were! So amazing! Four zebras: 3 adults and one baby :) My other favorite experience so far has been going to the service sites. I'm excited to see where I end up and I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy the month portion of our study abroad experience!

Random jump of topics, but as far as Pietermaritzburg goes, I feel I should mention what the city is like. Well, the population in this city is mostly black, and more specifically is is mostly made up of Zulu people. There are multiple tribes in South Africa, but being that we are in the Kwazulu Natal province, the zulu people make up a large part of it. The Kwazulu-Natal area also has a lot of Indian people. In fact, Kwazulu Natal has the largest Indian population outside of the country of India. Pretty sweet, huh? The Indian culture was the focus of our weekend in Durban - the one where I got to go in the Indian Ocean. We got to go to an Indian church and eat at the pastor's house after with all of his extended family. They were so incredibly hospitable and it was such a great experience.

My classes here are going really well. I am learning so so much in my Life and Teachings of Jesus class. I loving learning about the Bible so so much, which has been a stuggle for me, at times, in the past. I'm loving reading the Bible. I'm learning so much and it's exactly what I need right now. My teacher, Reg, is phenomenal. He presents the info so well and is so credible. He has spent his entire life basically studying the Bible and researching what others view as errors and discrepancies in the Bible. He has so much info to give and I love hearing it. I actually am restraining myself from asking so many questions in class because I don't want to annoy the rest of the class with my constant raised hand! (I know some of you may think that I should just ask all my questions anyway, but whatever, I'm asking the important ones haha).

The group here is so great as well. I've made some of the greatest girlfriends. And, I love having a group of 53 students instead of 35 like they have had in previous semesters. I feel like I always get to hang out with someone different and get to know everyone a little bit better. It's so fun and everyone on the trip is saying the exact same thing, WE HAVE SUCH A GREAT GROUP! I love love these people :)

As far as the people back home, I am missing my family, and gabbie and alexa. And some APU friends. I miss my brother a lot a lot, with his constant joking - i love that about him! I feel so lucky when I get to skype with my mom dad and brother all at the same time. I just love seeing that dynamic again. I like skyping with the one or two of them too, but seeing them together is the best. This is all a difficult feeling to explain, because, I usually don't feel homesick, but I do miss home when I think about it. At the beginning, I just didnt really think about it so I didnt get homesick and it took me quite a few days here until I actually skyped my parents for the first time. I was completely ok with that and it didn't make me sad to see them. Now, however, I tend to think about them a lot more, which in turn makes me miss them, and then when I see them on skype, sometimes it makes me sad. I got really frustrated one day because I missed them, and was trying to tell them that, but skype kept cutting me out, so I had to repeat it 5 times and then basically just hang up right after. Between my frustration with skype and missing them and having to admit 5 times that I was missing home which was hard for me to say (It was a pride thing, I know it. I was somewhat near people when skyping and I hated having to say that I missed home in front of them. As if I'm not allowed to miss my family. But I realize that I do feel like that), between all of that, I hung up on skype and I just cried. That's the only day I've cried about missing home.

After that paragraph, it may seem like I'm not fully enjoying being here, but I totally and completely am! I'm loving it. It's just a big change that I'm not fully used to yet. I'm like the kid who goes to college out of state his freshman year and is not quite sure what to do with himself yet, it takes a little time! :) I started D-group yesterday, which I'm super excited for - just another reason why I'm loving my time here! It's with a group of 8 other wonderful girls and I can't wait to grow with them and have fun with them! yay!

Also, today I got to go on an art fieldtrip! We went to a gallery, but a large part of the gallery happened to be closed down at this time. Since our driver wasn't going to be back for til 12:30 and we basically walked around the who museam twice before even 10:00, we got to sit in the coffe shop for 2 hours! Our whole art class with our art teacher, in the most adorable, artsy coffee shop inside the gallery. It was beautiful.

Well that was basically what I did today, went to that art gallery, and then just worked on papers. I have a lot more work to go so I better get to it!

Want to be a pal and send me mail?

Send letters to this!:

Bianca Portal
PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, KZN
South Africa


or send any packages to this!:

Bianca Portal
1 Nonsuch Rd.
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3201


Mail takes a long time to receive so even though I'm going to be at this campus another couple months before traveling down to Capetown, they suggest that any mail be sent out within the next 4 weeks.

That's all for now...
love you!
Bee