Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Class, Cricket Matches, and Surfing

In recent days of my adventure in Cape Town I've been confused, annoyed, happy, and satisfied. I'll start off by saying the University of Cape Town has some of the most nonchalant people working in their registration offices. Coming into the start of classes last week I was excited to take four classes that held my interest like never before. But to my surprise the admin had decided to change the times of the classes so that 3 out of my four classes we schedule for the SAME time. I was absolutely frustrated. With this occurrence I had to spend the next 3 days going here and going there, hearing I can't help you go here, the advisor for international students went on vacation so I had no help on campus. Thank God for my advisor back at UNCG, she helped me sort everything out. Nonetheless I spent the whole first week of classes cleaning up a mess that I didn't make. As my dad says this is my education and I have to deal with the hassles until its all completed.

Moving On, last Friday I went to my first ever cricket match. Now ladies and gentlemen, I'm just going to say Cricket is the most mind-numbing sport I ever seen. I'd rather watch Olympic Curling or Underwater basket weaving lol. Sure it's kind of similar to baseball but I promise it is completely different and for me to explain it right now would not do a world of good to your understanding. I did enjoy the experience but it'll probably be my last cricket match while I'm here next up I plan to go to a Rugby Game!!!

Lastly, I Spent all day on Saturday learning how to SURF!!! Now this is huge for me. Growing up in Wilmington, NC the beach life has always been apart of me. I could always swim, fish, boat, and many other water things but I never learned how to surf. Around noon on Saturday a few of my housemates and I joined the Surf Club for their free surfing event at Muizenberg Beach. We were fitted with wet suits (I got the coolest one -a HURLEY brand- which is the Nike of surfing) and given surf boards according to size. One of the keys to surfing is finding your balance and paddling as the wave approaches then hoping up, getting a good grip at the center of the board. Im sure that sounds hard and I probably could have explained it better but that process was definitely the easiest of them all. For the first 30min most of us struggled with the assumed easiest step- Paddling Out into the Ocean. I assumed that you simply just swim over top of the wave,,well that only got me slammed on my back and tossed towards the beach. The pros take the board and swim underneath the wave before it comes crashing down. As I graduated from the trial and error phase I concurred one of my many bucket list items. I rode about 7 or 8 strong waves and Honestly, I've never felt so in sync with the ocean. Truly tapped into my inner beach boy lol.

Through it all the week was a success. My classes are set, I'm checking off bucket list items, and growing stronger as a person everyday. This Wednesday marks my fourth week here, time has definitely flown by. Missing home but not home sick. Peace

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you're having an awesome time, Sam. Glad I was of help in the registration process ;)

    ReplyDelete