So much to do...

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There are a ton of different organizations on campus, and I’m going to have a hard time deciding which to join! There are something like 30 clubs (sports) and 60 societies (everything else). You have to pay to join each of the groups, unlike at home where everything is free. But it’s really not too bad, usually somewhere in the $20-30 range. This past week was sports awareness week on campus, meaning all of the clubs had open practices so that students could try them out before deciding what to join.

I’ve played soccer everyday, and really like the team so I’m definitely planning on joining. It’s very relaxed, and there doesn’t seem to be pressure to make it to every single practice. They play games in Port Elizabeth on weekends. I’m planning on traveling a lot of weekends, but if I’m ever in town I’ll definitely try to play with them.

I also did archery one day- I’m pretty awful at it. The target was only 5m away and my first couple shots completely missed. I got better as I went on, but it’s not something I’ll be sticking with. Rock climbing was another thing I tried. Not very good at that either haha; I get too scared. They have a couple walls in one of the gyms, and the first time I tried to go up I got stuck and just jumped down. But then one of the girls in the club who was taking pictures asked me to go up again - because my tie dye Geneseo shirt looked good against the purple wall haha. Of course I’m going to help out someone taking pictures, so I did it again and ended up making it to the top that time. So I’m pretty sure I’m going to join the mountain club; I’ll probably try rock climbing some more, and they also do a lot of hiking.

Another attempted sport was aikido. It’s a martial art that apparently involves a great deal of pain haha. First we practiced a lot of rolling which made me very dizzy. Then we worked with partners and you had to twist their arm into horrible positions until they slapped their leg - telling you they were in incredible pain and you needed to stop. A girl in the club had to leave the room because she was just about reduced to tears by one of the things the sensei did to her! Wasn’t really my thing haha.

Yesterday I went to Settlers Dam with the sailing club. There’s a nice little lake and its only about 20 minutes away from school. I tried windsurfing, and wasn’t too bad at it! The board was a lot more stable than I expected it to be. Also I think the fact that there was very little wind made it somewhat easier for me to stay on. I could not figure out the steering for the life of me though. Thank god it wasn’t too windy or I would have ended up at the opposite end of the lake and needed to be rescued. But I definitely plan on trying it again sometime because I had a lot of fun.

There’s an African Drum Society here, and they seem to sit outside and just jam all the time. Now I can’t drum at all so I wasn’t planning on joining the group, but it turns out they also juggle! And there’s this sweet fire juggling thing that I’m going to try to learn. They were giving out free t-shirts to anyone who signed up, so that also kind of drew me in haha.

There's also a photographic society and zoology society that I'm thinking about joining, and a few places I want to volunteer at. Still have to figure out how much time commitment and money are involved in all of these, so we'll see what I end up doing.

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Comments

[lindsay]

did he make you assisant to the sensei?