routine

I am definitely starting to develop a routine. I have officially been out of the US for 10 days, and in PMB for 7 days. A week sounds short, but thinking about how it's a change 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it starts to make sense why I feel like I have been here for a month already! My body is adjusted to the meal patterns, breakfast, tea, lunch, tea, dinner; on the other hand, my body is not quite adjusted to the jet lag. I still am exhausted by 8pm and waking up pretty easily by 6am, but the hours are starting to get more normal. I'm also developing a pattern regarding classes. I have most mornings and early afternoons free for studying, homework, and mall runs, and then I have isiZulu class from 4:30-8:45pm. So evenings are long, but the class is absolutely great. There are only 10 of us so having a small class is really nice. Less intimidating and more focused attention. I'm finding that the language is really challenging, like no language I have ever encountered, but it's also fun! But seriously, "sowubona, unjani, ngisaphila" looks like I just pounded my fist on the keyboard! That translates to, "Hello, how are you, I'm still fine." Crazy, huh!
Yesterday we had our first official excursion. We went to the Birds of Prey exhibit. We saw falcons, owls, vultures, etc. They flew some of the birds for us and it was cool to see their hunting tactics. Birds aren't really my thing so I snapped a few pictures, but overall I liked playing with the dog who lived there more than looking at the birds. :) After the birds we went on a mini tour of PMB and saw the train station where Gandhi was thrown off the train. He had a first-class ticket, but since he was non-white sitting in that section, they threw him off. That is what sparked his non-violence movement. After the station we went up to a lookout point that gave a beautiful view of PMB. We could even see the AE campus from there!
It was a long day but a group of us decided to venture out for dinner and went to the Keg and Hedgehog down the road. It was so nice to have some American food again and to get off campus. It had never really registered with me that I would be spending a whole semester without any means of my own transportation or anything. Luckily Leslie and Reagan are great about taking us places, picking us up and dropping us off--it's like middle school again!