Well, I wanted to start start my new official blog by pasting in the first two blogs entries I wrote at the start of this journey to South Africa, but unfortunately I wrote them into Microsoft Word before I had this site set up and the copy paste option does not work on here. So the long story short of the first two blogs is that I flew for many hours over a period of two days and made it here to Port Elizabeth, South Africa safely!
I definitely think I have liked the first two weeks more than I liked the first two days. Don't get me wrong, the first two days in Port Elizabeth were fun and exciting, but they were also filled with plenty of fear, anticipation and uncertainty. I've described this experience as being like wiping the slate clean and getting to decide what goes on it. At first I was unsure what to put on it. I was not sure if I needed sleep, to make friends, get groceries, find internet or figure out how to get to campus where I am working. After I reasoned with myself that settling in would take time and that it is not rationale for me to expect everything to come together at once, I was more cool, calm and collected about the whole experience. I definitely think this trip has already strengthened my patience, as well as my comfort with the unknown.
I arrived in Port Elizabeth on Monday the 12th of July. The first day was spent setting up internet, getting groceries and familiarizing myself with Annie's Cove, the international student housing complex where I live. On Tuesday, I started working at my internship in the Student Counselling, Career Development Centre (SCCDC) on the South Campus at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. I worked a half day, which was a nice transition in. Wednesday and Thursday were full days, and Friday was a short 2 hours of work. Those first 4 days of work were training with the other interns of the SCCDC, which was nice both for getting to know people, as well as orientating myself with my department.
I am enjoying the work I am doing at the SCCDC. I have started presenting workshops to students including "What Color is Your Personality", "Learning Styles" and "Stress Management". I am also working with the other interns in the department to plan for Wellness Celebration Week which is the first week in September. There are 5 campuses at NMMU, so we are planning activities for one campus each day. This past week I participated in a 2.4 k Fun Run on a team with some of my SCCDC co-workers. We literally came in last, which surprised me because we seemed to be walking at a nice rapid pace! It was fun though, and a nice afternoon, so I enjoyed it as much as if we would have won the race!
