Day 4: It’s hard to believe that our first week is almost over. Time is flying by already. Yesterday evening we moved into our graduate flats at the University of Botswana (UB). The five of us girls (Leslie, Jayne, Meeka, Marinda and myself) are sharing a flat with one other grad student from Kenya - she seems pretty friendly. The boys (Jack and Matt) are right next door.
We woke up early and joined Riley (a grad student from Canada) for a nice breakfast in the staff cafeteria on campus. We then had a few meetings with the international student office, security etc..as well as a tour of campus. Beautiful campus – it’s refreshing to see the staff and students so proud of their school. So far everyone has been very friendly, especially around UB. We need to get comfortable using Setswana greetings…it’s a bit uneasy at first but we will get the hang of it.
This afternoon we joined Ana and Jessica (two other K-State student also living at UB) for lunch in the Riverwalk shopping centre. We spent the remainder of our afternoon exploring the shopping plaza and buying a few things for our flat as well as grocery shopped at Pick and Pay. Had a good time picking out a bowl, plate and mug each, candles (for scheduled power outages as well as the unexpected) fresh fruit and bread.
Its nice to recognize the simple pleasures of a day.
Day 3: Woke up early and explored the grounds of the Backpacker’s. A really beautiful view from the top of the gardens. Took a little walk down the street to find some food. Found a gas station and settled for hot dogs for breakfast.
We woke up early and joined Riley (a grad student from Canada) for a nice breakfast in the staff cafeteria on campus. We then had a few meetings with the international student office, security etc..as well as a tour of campus. Beautiful campus – it’s refreshing to see the staff and students so proud of their school. So far everyone has been very friendly, especially around UB. We need to get comfortable using Setswana greetings…it’s a bit uneasy at first but we will get the hang of it.
This afternoon we joined Ana and Jessica (two other K-State student also living at UB) for lunch in the Riverwalk shopping centre. We spent the remainder of our afternoon exploring the shopping plaza and buying a few things for our flat as well as grocery shopped at Pick and Pay. Had a good time picking out a bowl, plate and mug each, candles (for scheduled power outages as well as the unexpected) fresh fruit and bread.
Its nice to recognize the simple pleasures of a day.
Day 3: Woke up early and explored the grounds of the Backpacker’s. A really beautiful view from the top of the gardens. Took a little walk down the street to find some food. Found a gas station and settled for hot dogs for breakfast.
above: view from the backpacker's ritz
Caught a cab from the Ritz to the Intercape bus station. Boarded the bus for a 7 hour journey to Gaborone. Pretty scenery. Crossed the South Africa border (where we all climbed out of the bus and walked across the border in the middle of the night) and were slightly harassed by the Botswana border patrol. Only received a 30 day Visa…oh well, we can take care of that later. Important thing is that we are finally in Botswana! We have been planning this trip for so long for some reason it feels strange to finally arrive at our destination.
Arrived in Gaborone and had a slight mix up of transportation from the university – this was easily fixed by shuttling back and forth a few times. Unloaded in the Graduate Flats at the University of Botswana – home sweet home for the summertime :)
Days 1/2: Flew from KCI to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Johannesburg. Had no idea what time or day it was when we arrived in South Africa. Picked up at the airport by a man named Frank, who patiently waited as we exchanged our U.S. dollars for South African Rand and helped load all of our gigantic luggage into his van.
On the way to our hostel he proceeded to try to outrun the cops. ..Probably for about 5 blocks until the cop pulled out in front of us. Welcome to Jo-burg!
Still unclear as to why he got a ticket - I think it had something to do with the broken tail lights on the trailer…and him not pulling over for a mile or two… Stayed the night at the Backpacker’s Ritz…about 10 dollars a night and all the character that goes along with that ten bucks. I liked it. The seven of us shared a dorm room full of bunk beds. Matt couldn’t sleep and crawled in and out of the windows trying to ‘explore’ throughout the night. Pub in the hostel that I was unfortunately too tired to test out…planning on making another stop at the Backpacker’s on our way back.
