I'm in South Africa!

I'm here!

Let's just say I have been here less then a day and it has already been amazing! The plane ride was definitely not the most exciting thing in the world, it felt like it would never end. However, it was worth it.

We got here late last night and right when we got to our hotel, I went to bed. Today when we woke up though we ate this really nice breakfast at our hotel which was almost identical to our breakfasts at home and then we went on a tour of the city, Johannesburg. We have this huge bus thing that is super nice that our whole group of 53 students and a few other people fit on. The first stop of the trip was in one of the hugest malls here and let me just say it was AMAZING. We only had 15 minutes in it though because they just wanted us to see it but it was even nicer then the one in Roseville...didn't expect that here. They had these huge see-through ball things (almost like a hamster ball) in this pool of water and you can go inside of them and attempt to run in them for 20 rand! Which is 3 dollars U.S. money. So of course after about 5 minutes of walking in the mall, Tanya, Angie, Rob and I see them. I definitely wanted to try it out and since we are only in this city for 2 days and we aren't going to be coming back Rob and I started to hand money to the guys as the girls were complaining that we wouldn't have enough time. Of course though, we all ended up doing it and I will put pics up later! The whole rest of the group got to us as they were walking through the mall and they started taking lots of pictures and laughed at us, a lot.

After that, my legs hurt so much it was a pretty intense work out if I do say so myself. I also had trouble breathing but it wasn't asthma. It took the next 20 minutes or so to catch my breath, haha...

We then took a look at one of the biggest catholic churches here and then went off to lunch which was really fun!

Then we stopped at this restaurant that was more like the side yard of someone's house for lunch. We had certain foods to choose from and then for desert they had super good mangos and bananas! I love fruit and that seems to be something that's at every meal so I'm super stoked. Towards the end of the meal, some kids from the neighborhood came in and did a dance for us. It was one of the coolest things.

Then we went to a museum about the Apartheid and the whole Nelson Mandela Civil Rights Movement. Basically the history of South Africa. It was very interesting and pretty heavy stuff. They made us walk in separated as blacks or whites based on different cards we received when we got out tickets. It was similar to the Holocaust and also the whole slavery things that happened in the U.S. also.

It was a very good experience and I now understand a lot more of South Africa's history. I love the fact that now, Blacks and whites get along and they love one another even though everything took place within the last 50 years. They seem to be a lot more free from racism then we are in America.

We headed back to the hotel after that and we stayed up playing cards. I got to know a few more people while laughing non-stop for the night.

I love you all and I hope you are all doing well :)