It has been too long.

I realize it have been 2 weeks since my last post, but not that much has been going on.
I celebrated my 21st birthday on the twelfth with some great friends.  I began the celebration on Thursday night and it continued into Sunday afternoon.  Saturday was the big day of celebrating.  I had a pizza party with some close girls with cake and great conversation.  We continued on to this nice place called News Cafe and had some drinks.  Now, the drinking age here is 18, so I was ordering drinks while I was still 20, but I still made a big deal out of it. From this café, I went out to a club.  I danced the night away with a bunch of other international students and had a great time!  The next day, on my official birthday, I went to brunch (more like dinner-lunch) with some girls and went to a terrible restaurant, but they had good juice, so it was ok. 

 Me with my cake!

 My pina colada and I!

 While we were enjoying our drinks, these drunk guys came up and found out it was my birthday and started singing to me.  They got a little close for comfort, but it is definitely one of my most memorable moments here!

Club goers!

Two days later was Valentine’s Day and they go all out here! There were pink, red, and white things everywhere! Elise and I were bored, so we decided to go out to dinner and movie and have a little date.  We were elated when we went to buy our movie tickets and it was 2 for the price of 1 (it was like $6 for the both of us).  This made our decision to get popcorn much easier.  The movie was so nice.  It was air conditioned and dark and so relaxing.  It was a nice little escape for us.  We then went to this diner place called Wimpy’s, and people were feeling the love there.  This place is like a mixture of McDonalds and Johnny Rockets, just so you know.  They had candles on the table, choices of wine, and 2 for 1 milkshakes.  There were so many couples in there, young and old.  It was crazy but funny.

Since Valentine’s Day, things have been pretty laid back.  I have homework due this next week, so that is a little annoying.  I also have an internship at the Botswana Society for the Deaf and I work there 2 days a week for about 8 hours each day.  I am starting to learn sign language and it is so cool!  I am definitely getting busy again!  I am looking forward to my spring break trip coming up next weekend.  We will be going to the Okavango Delta on a safari basically.  From there I am planning on traveling into Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls.  I can’t wait!!!

Cycling and sickness in Soweto

Last weekend my study abroad program went to Johannesburg (Joburg for short) and Soweto, South Africa.  I was so excited to get off campus and away from possible riots.  We left Friday morning and arrived in Joburg at the Origins Museum and took a quick tour.  This museum focused on the beginnings of humans, which they said began in Africa.  We watched some really interesting clips and saw some pretty cool things.

After the tour, we went to the lodge we were staying in for the weekend.  This place was so cool! It was very laid back and had reggae music playing.  We settled in, ate a delicious dinner, and stayed up for some bonding time (of course it included a couple beers and some good laughs).
The next day was the highlight of our trip!  We went on a bike tour of Soweto, home of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.  I was a little nervous because I have not ridden a bike in like 10 years and I had a pretty bad cold.  I went for it though, unfortunately at the first stop I felt faint and sick.  I refused to let this stop me from seeing things, so I chose to ride a tandem bike with one of our guides. It was great, we called it my limo!

My "driver's" name was Timothy.  He was really funny, and insisted on calling me Missy.  He sang like the entire ride and it was great!

We tried this beer that they drink there.  The boxes were really funny and apparently it can make your knees give out.  It tasted a little weird, but not too bad.  I didn't try much because I didn't want to make myself feel even more sick.

Our next stop was to try a Joburg delicacy, cow cheek.  It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but I prefer other parts of the cow over this.

We ended the tour four hours later and went back to the lodge.  From their we went to the Apartheid Museum.  I really wish I had more time in here because there was so much to see! It was a beautiful museum and it was really intense and just great.

We had another great dinner the next night, and then some of us girls did some crafting.  

We left the next day and made our way back to Botswana.  We attended all our classes this week and it was pretty low key.  This weekend I am going out on the town and I am going to try Ethiopian food! I am a little nervous, but hey how bad can it be!

If you were wondering...

Here is just a little snip-it of the riots and protests that occurred last week.  I was not around this mob, but as you can see things got a little crazy!

Classes seem to be back to normal this week and it doesn't look like there will be any more disruptions.

I will be writing about my trip to Johannesburg and Soweto, South Africa in the very near future, so get excited!