Greetings--it's week 5!

Yay!

Okay, that exclamation is partly out of joy that I have finally attended more than one day of college, and partly out of relief that I'm not too far behind in studies. I'm really enjoying my classes, even if it can be difficult to acquire the readings. See, they don't really expect you to buy textbooks here--they put the books on reserve at the library and you're expected to sign them out, make the copies you need, and then return the books for the next person to copy. Quickly one learns tricks, such as signing off on a sheet that grants you hand-delivered copies of all of the readings in exchange for the equivalent charge on your student account in copy fees, and borrowing someone else's copies of the readings because they feed through the copier faster. Make sense? Anyway, it's a learning process, as is printing out papers from one of the two fickle copiers--did I mention the computers are rather fickle too? Fortunately, the lecturers are very understanding and the librarian and student library assistants are very helpful.

There's going to be a birthday braai on Thursday for Maren, one of the Bethel study abroad students. I love braais. I think it's really cool how people seem to have braais at the drop of a hat hereabouts. Usually meats of various kinds, including chops, chicken, steak, or boer wors are braaied. Boer wors is a rich, fatty, coarsely-ground farmer's sausage that's absolutely delicious, in my humble opinion, even if it is horrible for a healthy diet. You have to live a little. ;-)

A random fact about South Africa: the tap water is drinkable (at least in city and suburb areas--I can't speak to rural regions). This is an absolute God-send for me, because I inhale water like no tomorrow and it's very convenient to be able to fill up out of the sink instead of pay loads of money on bottled water. The tap water actually tastes better than Beaver Falls tap water (though that isn't really saying much). Another food fact is that feta cheese is available quite easily here--even many convenience stores have it, and a greek salad is a very common side salad option in many restaurants. However, you have to search high and low to find any signs of Mexican foodstuffs, which nixes my idea for using cheap corn tortillas. Tortilla chips here are called "nacho chips" and they are a mixture of wheat and corn. I guess we're a looong way from South of the Border!

Oh, and baloney here is "polony." It tastes the same though. :-p

So yes, I have a 6-page paper due on Friday that I need to write and a group presentation due Thursday that I need to prepare for.

Laters!