toilet water flushes counter-clockwise in South Africa!

That's right...I've seen it with my own eyes! The water does flush the opposite direction here than it does in the United States....very thrilling. Anyway, I just have a short blog today (probabaly). We started the day with a lecture from Steve, an amazing guy who grew up in exile and traveled many parts of the world furthering his education in political science, public administration, cultural economics of South Africa and China, and probably a few other things that I can't remember because he had so many! It was interesting to hear him talk about his life growing up in exile, all the traveling he has done, and the places where he felt the most culture shock. He also gave us some great advice about our trip to the townships next week such as always greeting people when you approach them, and only taking pictures of people with their permission. He also said that kids LOVE getting their picture taken, so I am looking forward to having fun with that.

After the lecture we all went out to lunch at an African restaurant near the waterfront. The food wasn't that great, and it seemed like just about everyone agreed. It may be that most of us are not used to the way things are cooked and the seasonings they use, but we all left pretty hungry after that.

In the afternoon we took a boat to Robben Island to tour the maximum security prison that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in during Apartheid. The boat ride was 45 minutes long and Stella threw up which always sucks. It's no fun to feel sick when you're on a trip! Once we got the island the tour seemed really quick and I wished we would have been shown more of the prison and learned more about the way it was run and more history of it. Overall it was pretty neat. 

That's all I really have to say for today, but expect a nice blog for tomorrow because we are all waking up at 4:30 in the morning to go on an African Safari! I'm really excited about that!

Oh, if you want to check out my instructor, Aaron's, blog, I posted the link on the right had side of the page. He has pictures posted too as well as links to the rest of my classmates' blogs!