Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

We are now half way through the academic portion of our time here in South Africa.  We only do our main classes for 6 weeks and then the rest of the time is service learning and touring around.  I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks! And it's been more than a week since I've posted on this blog so lets get to it...

Most of last week and this week I've been busy with homework during the weekdays but weekends are always full of adventure and sometimes our weeknights can get adventurous too!

Adorable Cuttle Fish!

Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World!! uShaka is in Durban so it was about an hour drive away but it was well worth it!  We began our day at uShaka by visiting some sea animals and going to the aquarium.  There were many cute sea creatures and even some scary ones.  When we were in the aquarium, we were looking at some fish and noticed that some people were scuba diving and snorkeling with them.  We decided we wanted to do this! So we made plans to go snorkeling after lunch and headed to the water park.  The water park was so fun and we went on a really hot day too, so it was perfect to cool off on water slides.  uShaka has the tallest water slide in the Southern Hemisphere so clearly I had to go on it!  I was a bit nervous about this at first because once you get up there you realize just how high

highest water slide is on the far left :)

up you are but I went for it!  It was really thrilling but most of the way down I was getting water splashed in my face and once I reached the bottom... major wedgie! Haha, but luckily I had shorts on :-)  Anyways we went on many more slides later and went through the lazy river.  We had lunch and then headed over to snorkel with the fishies.  Once we paid and got out snorkeling gear the guide just said to get in and he would call us when it was time to get out.  We paid for 30 minutes so that was plenty of time.  The place we snorkeled was huge and we were so excited to explore and see all the fish.  About 2 minutes in, all 4 of us popped our heads out of the water and yelled "shark!"  We didn't realize it but there were many sharks in the water we were snorkeling in.  We were a little frightened at first but

Sharks we were snorkeling with

realized the sharks weren't too big and everything would be okay.  So we continued exploring for well over 30 minutes, until we decided it was time to get out.  Swimming with sharks was definitely the highlight of my day!  After we finished we all went down to the beach for the hour we had left.  I instantly got in the water with some friends because I was so excited to touch the Indian Ocean for the first time.  The water was surprisingly warm and I loved it!  One of my friends was surfing and he let me try.  My first time trying to catch a wave, I got one and was able to get up on my knees.  It was so fun and I'm determined to stand up next time!  I think I'll be renting a surfboard next time we go to the beach :)

SNORKELING!

Indian Ocean :)

Playing games at the Braii

After we got back that night, some of us went to a Braii.  A Braii is a South African barbeque.  Some people from one of the churches was putting on this Braii for us, so about ten of us went out to their home that night.  It was great to meet new people and hang out with people who live here in South Africa.  We've been spending so much time with just our group lately that it was so refreshing to finally see what life is like for people my age that live here.  We ate some

Hanging out with new friends :)

delicious foods at the Braii and all played a group game similar to "catch phrase."  I got to know some girls that go to the church I would be going to on Sunday.  Somehow we got talking
and they decided to teach me and some friends how to drive on the left side of the road while we were here.  Sadly to accomplish this task I will also need to learn how to drive a manual car but I'm so excited to learn and will hopefully be doing it in a few days!

Sunday we went to church.  This was the last church out of my three options that I haven't been to and I really enjoyed it.  It was nice because it was smaller then the church I went to the previous week but it wasn't as different as the one I went to the first week.  I think I will be sticking with this church because it is the perfect combination of the other two churches.  I feel like this church will challenge me, provide me with great spiritual growth and they also have a great community of people I'm excited to get to know.  After church we went back to campus and had a volleyball tournament.  My team lost our game but we were just playing for fun and definitely not expecting to get far.  We'll see how we do in the loser's bracket next week though.

During the week I got busy on homework and studying!  I had a 7 page paper due Friday and a Midterm to do by Saturday, so my brain got a bit fried.  However this still left time for some adventures during study breaks.

RivLife :-)

On Tuesday we visited a new service site called RivLife and I fell in love with it! I have just been so moved by all these visits to service sites and can't wait to take part in them.  At RivLife they help children without parental support develop skills to get far in life.  They help them with homework, play with them, and teach them any skills that could help them out.  At the site we walked into a room filled with little kids and I was brought to tears by their joy.  I sat down with the kids and didn't want to leave after seeing them.  One of the ladies in charge asked us when we were coming and I wish I could have said "now".  I know we will help when we are done with classes but it just saddens me to know that they need us now and we don't have time to help them.  Even though I loved RivLife, we are visiting one more service site next week and I know I will be happy to serve wherever I end up.

I also went to Home Groups on Tuesday night.  Home Groups is a group of college age students from one of the churches here that get together each week for a Bible study.  This was my first time going and it was great to meet a lot of new people again.  I really enjoyed having this interaction with South African's my age and will definitely be going again!

My delicious dessert at Ladies Night

Having fun in the mall :)

Thursday night, most of us ladies went out for dessert after dinner because it was 50% off at a restaurant in the mall.  It was fun going out and getting away from campus for a bit.  After dessert some of us girls ran around the mall and took pictures on the kiddy rides.
 
And then it was Friday... I finished my 7 page paper on Thursday and got that turned in, then I studied most of the day for my Midterm and took it after dinner.  I'm not sure how well I did on my midterm, but I'll take what I got.  It was difficult because it's for my online class I'm taking so I didn't feel as prepared as I usually do for tests.  Then that night we had a D-Group hang out.  D-Groups stands for Discipleship Groups and it's basically small groups that get together each week to talk about issues and encourage each other in their spiritual growth.  At our hang out us girls had a blast talking about random things and then we even got to hear a couple of life stories.  I love hearing and telling life stories because it helps everyone get down on the same level and truly understand each other.  After the hang out I was planning on going to bed but some of us decided to go on an adventure.  We were trying to decide what to do and then somehow the idea of going on the slip n slide came up so we brought out the slip n slide and had fun sliding around in the middle of the night.  When we were done slipping and sliding we went down to the waterfall to rinse off and the water was surprisingly warm!  This was a great way to end the week and start the weekend!

I'll try to post more often this week but until next time!

God Bless,
Yvette