And then we had classes...

We've arrived here at the Pietermaritzburg campus yesterday, and started classes today. It was a long day, but a long day that went by fast (if that makes any sense). It looks like Mondays will be my busiest days for the next 6 weeks. We started the day at 7:30 with community breakfast at the dining hall, followed by a chapel service next door in one of our lecture halls. We stayed in the lecture hall for our first class of the semester: History and Culture of South Africa, lectured by Reg Codrington, a native South African with a grandfatherly charm and storehouses of wisdom. Reg used the time to give us a more specific orientation to our campus here in Pietermaritzburg at the African Enterprise Center. This consisted of a few powerpoint slides, mostly showing pictures of all the deadly animals we should look out for, with Reg sharing a few stories through his half smile as he talked. Reg's orientation was followed by what I think will quickly become one of my favorite parts about living in South Africa: tea breaks. Twice a day, we'll take a break in our classes to get refreshed olde English style: tea and crumpets - no joke. So after our first class session with Reg, we gathered in the dining hall for our first "refreshment break". My next class was Humans and the Environment, the biology class I'll be taking this semester. This took up a big chunk of the day as I sat through a long lecture from my professor Stanhuisen, who's thick South African accent and quiet voice make her lectures a little hard to follow. Thankfully, she provided a powerpoint to accompany her lecture. What was most exciting about this lecture was finding out that every Thursday we'll be going on various "practicals" where we go out on a field trip and spend the day off campus in various nature reserves and beaches. Sounds like my kind of biology class. Tomorrow: no class til my 4:30 psychology class, so lots of reading, relaxing and photography to do tomorrow. PICS TO COME