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Published: August 14th 2008
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Hi everyone, I know it’s been for ever since I last wrote a blog and I apologize. I’ve been lazy! And a lot of you are on Facebook. Those who are, you’ve seen most of these pictures and may have heard some of the stories. Uhm, where to start… I was in New Zealand last year until mid-October. Then I went home for a visit stopping by Hawaii and Vancouver. I also went to Scotland and Wales with the Canadian National rugby team where I got my first senior international cap against Scotland. I then spent a few days visiting Wales and Ireland. I spent Christmas at home and then headed to South Africa in mid-January. I’ve been here since then.
I live in Pretoria, the administrative capital of the country which is about 50 km from Johannesburg. I’m attending the University of Pretoria. Yes, back to school! I’m doing a Master of Arts in Environment & Society. The first year is course work (which is almost completed, only one paper and one full course to go) and the second year is focused on writing and defending my thesis. The program is very interesting so far and has taught me
a lot about the environment and about this country. When I first got here, Natalie, Claire (Canadians) and Megan (Kiwi), 3 friends who live in Korea, were here on holiday. Hilary, who is living and studying here as well, arrived a week later. All of us took a few roadtrips since Hilary and I were not starting our classes until the 18th of February.
Hilary barely had time to set her bags down when we all headed to Lesotho (a small mountainous kingdom nestled in the middle of South Africa) with some South African friends. I had been here a week and hadn’t gotten a taste of Africa yet, I was in for a treat! Beautiful landscapes, dirt roads, small huts, colorful outfits, lively music…. We spent a lovely weekend in a mountain lodge called Malealea and we explored the area on horseback. Since there was a group of us, we also went to Durban for a weekend. The third largest city is on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It was nice to see the ocean and swim as it had been quite warm but Pretoria is land-locked. We stayed with friends of Natalie’s in a nice little
town called Uhmlanga Rocks and attended the Sharks’ Super 14 opening match in Durban.
Back in Pretoria, the girls had to leave and Hilary and I had to get into studying mode. Not an easy feat after months of holidays! When we first arrived, we were staying in a sports house close to the gym and sports grounds and free of charge. However, we both had to share rooms with 2 of our teammates who wouldn’t share together and the house was falling apart slightly. We had to open one of the bathroom doors with a fork, the roof was leaking into the kitchen, we had an invasion of cockroaches, food got stolen, there was constant people coming in and out, loud music, and more… Not an ideal situation! So we started looking for a new place. We now live in Tuksdorp, a very clean and quiet graduate residence and I have my own tiny room, heaven (except I had to pay for it)! The campus is about 10 minutes walk one way and the sports complex 10 minutes the other way.
We actually live in Hatfield, a suburb populated mainly by students and employees of the university. Everything
one could possibly need is walking distance: grocery store, shops, restaurants, Movie Theater, bars… Things are quite cheap here which is sweet. For example, a ticket to a professional rugby game at the stadium costs between 3$ and 15$, a quite new movie at the theater costs about 2$ and for less than 10$, we can get a feast at the great Chinese or Indian restaurant. Gas, on the other hand, is about 1,50$ a litre! And people’s salaries are very low.
Loftus Versfeld, the 50,000 seat stadium is less than 20 minutes walk from here so I have attended many rugby games. The Bulls are the professional rugby team based here. I saw them play most of their Super 14 games live, some against the New Zealand teams, including the Crusaders and the Hurricanes. We also went to watch the Springboks play Wales. That was sweet! I’ve been playing as well. I played for Tuks (our university teams’ name) and now play for the provincial team, the Blue Bulls. The caliber is quite low unfortunately and the coaching is lacking as well. We played on Loftus before the men last month though which was awesome!
It’s not
all fun and games however. Safety is an issue everywhere in the country. Every house is surrounded by high fences and many of them have mean-looking guard dogs (some of them are not really mean though. I’ve befriended 2 big ones and they let me pet them but still try to eat most people!). Tuksdorp is a gated community. I need a special card to get in and out and there are always security guards around, 24/7, and at street corners in the neighborhood. The front door of our house is always locked and my room has an individual lock as well. Some girls lock their food away but we haven’t had problems since we moved here. All the windows have bars on them and it is not recommended to walk around at night. Public transportation is also dangerous, especially for women, and white people. It sounds extreme but I guess you get used to it. We got robbed twice and luckily didn’t feel threatened but it is common to hear of people getting jumped at gun or knife point or even with pepper spray! So basically, you always have to watch your back and pay attention to your surroundings.
Now I know not to carry much money on me and if I see someone bee lining across the street towards me, I’m prepared to shout at them. It’s sad that the world has come to this and that people must protect themselves against people.
I’ve been very busy with my studies and training and playing rugby in the last few months so I haven’t had a chance to explore much. Hilary and I went on a tour of Soweto, the biggest and most visited township in South Africa, we rented a car (before my license got stolen) and we went to Sun City (a mini Vegas entertainment area) and Pilanesberg National Park where we saw many animals in the wild. Last weekend, some friends took us to Hartbeespoort Dam where we checked out a lot of cool animals at the snake park. I don’t have any classes, assignments or exams for the next 2 months so hopefully we’ll get a chance to travel a bit more. I’m off to England in 2 weeks for another stint with the national rugby team and I will be stopping in Egypt for a few days on my way there so I’ll
have more to say very soon……
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