Blogs from Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa - page 4

As i am originally from Zimbabwe and living at home all my life, moving to South Africa, Pretoria, for studies was definetely one of the hardest moves for me. Being away from family (especially my mom) and friends was difficult. I am going to share a few of my best memories and pictures that helped me get through it all.... read more

For some reason I decided that a blackout was a good time to write my first South African blog entry. I should have realised when that the radio advert this morning from the government asking people to conserve electricity was serious. The power went out a few times this evening and then went out for half an hour. Considering that the only I had during that time was from candles and my laptop screen, it wasn't great. It was made worse as the only heat source I had in my guesthouse cottage is a little portable heater than runs on electricity. When it’s about zero outside it’s not a good thing! Anyway the power is back now and seems to be ok. It snowed (albeit briefly in Pretoria) yesterday. This is a big thing for South ... read more

Hello everybody! Well, there will be many people who ask me what my favorite part about my year abroad was and the answer will always be my last two weeks, including Normandy and Paris, South Africa was without a doubt the most amazing part of my whole year. If you remember my Paris blog from October I split the trip into about five parts, well, I could probably split my South Africa trip into about 10 or 11 parts, if I wanted to. I won’t do that of course, now that I’m home I’m finding that I don’t have a lot of time or motivation to sit down and write that much and quite honestly the photos speak louder than my words because I really can’t find sufficient words to describe most of the things I ... read more

Went with Steve to Parys in a small Cessna 172 for a Rally. Left Pretoria before sunrise to take off at 7 from Brits Airfield and arrived into Parys one hour later. The flight there was very smooth in the cool crisp air and the view’s just amazing! Met up with Steve’s dad had a good breakfast and attended the briefing before the Rally started. I was invited to do the 2 hour Rally flight and off we went. Steve was the navigator and his dad the pilot. The aim is to find certain locations and then fly over them at a given time. I had the job of identifying specific landmarks but was useless as I was more concerned by avoiding airsickness that eventually caught up with me. I was happy to be back on ... read more

Lieve allemaal, Bij deze mijn allereerste berichtje vanuit Pretoria, Suid Afrika. Een land vol tegenstrijdigheden, zo blijkt al in mijn eerste paar dagen. Eerste indrukken Bij aankomst op O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg bleek dat het nummer van Albert niet klopte en moest ik alsnog de taxi die in mijn aanbevelingsbrief van de universiteit stond bellen. Gelukkig hoefde ik maar een uur te wachten in een cafe'tje op het vliegveld. Onderweg naar Pretoria gaf ik mijn ogen de kost. Overal rode aarde. Dat was vreselijk lang geleden en ik heb het echt gemist. Zo mooi. Mijn eerste blik op Pretoria was een uitzicht op een park - vlak naast de zesbaans snelweg - met zebra's en giraffes. Je kunt er doorheen fietsen, vertelde de driver. Niet lang daarna reden we door Sunnyside, een van de ... read more