The 41 hour trip

Yes, that my friends, is correct. I had a 41 hour trip from london to mississippi. . .and on the most crucial part (flight from london to miami) my entertainment system of my seat did not work! OK, let me begin by telling you about the flights. We were stuck on the runway at heathrow for 6 hours, which lead to missing flights and delays in the flights I got. American airlines serve Pizza on their flights.....hate to say it, but typically! Miami airport was chaos! Most of the announcements was in I think Spanish, and the check in and security procedures was VERY unorganized! Me, as well as a lot of other people became friends with the "matmiete" (insects) on the carpet for the night. hehe! when I got to Atlanta the next morning, my flight to Memphis was cancelled, and at that point, nothing was funny anymore! So I had a little rude conversation with the supervisors, and luckily got on the flight 4 hours afterwards. They gave me a business class ticket. Just before the flight, the asked me if I would volunteer to stay behind, and spend a night in an all expenses paid hotel and give me a free flight to anywhere in America, but at that point of time (and yes, now I regret it) I was too tired to care about anything and just wanted to het here. So I took the business class flight. Nice! A friendly guy was waiting for me at the airport to take me to the university. He had an ole miss sign. (English speaking people, sorry for the following sentence, but it is meant only for the Afrikaans people). Die dude het gedink S A is in europa!!!!! Kan jy dit oorvertel! HEHE! When I got to Oxford, I stayed at the Inn at Ole Miss. Nice hotel with a pool. Pool emphasized because it is 36 - 40 degrees here everyday! In my next posting, I will add pictures of all of this. Yesterday, the nice lady from the international office (Ruth) picked me up at the hotel, and took me to my dorm (Kincannon Hall). It is pretty much the same as the residences in Stellenbosch. The only thing is here you have a telephone line in your room, cable, and also a network port with free internet! Cool! In the past two days, I had to open a bank account, which was a bit of a hassle, go for a medical examination, open a post box, hand in my visa documents, get a student card, register for the meal plan (which by the way from this Sunday, I can eat when I like and as much as I like!!), look at second hand cars (yes I am buying a car asap!), register at the IT department, open email accounts and more stuff that I cannot think of. The great thing is they have a gym, and it is free! So with the eat as much as you like, I will most definitely have to visit the gym as well. Today we went on a campus tour, which was quite cool, because I got to see where my classes will be. After the tour they gave us nice pizza and cooldrinks. Was kinda like to be very lekker hey! At 2 today we went to Wallmart, which is a big store....kinda like game, but only 3 times bigger. I wanted to buy an voltage converter for my shavers (yes I do look like Saul Barnard by now), but it was 17 dollars cheaper to buy a new shaver! Crazy!

The people here are very nice, very friendly, and very helpful. On Saturday, a guy in an little art gallery at the square invited me to an exhibition with cheese and wine later that day. I went, and it was quite cool. I met the artist, and he himself was also quite interesting. Most of the houses here looks very nice, and yes some do look like the desperate housewives houses and are also in little lanes. The people here ONLY drives big SUV's and trucks . Mostly Jeep and Dodge. The big Dodge trucks (picture will follow) looks really cool! I want one of those!!! Saw one on eBay for only 3500 dollar! So you never know! I will definitely let you know what car I buy.

People, today I only realized how VERY honored I should be for this AMAZING opportunity that I have. I am hugely grateful to be here, and mostly to Ruth who organized everything. I am very happy where I am now, and life is treating me probably the best it could. I am living a dream and I am sooooo thankful for being so blessed! There is absolutely nothing negative about being here, and it takes stress off my shoulders for another two years. The only thing is that I really do miss my people. My family, Mitke, and all my other friends, but I realize that it is a sacrifice that I must make to have a great life now, and in the future.

Ok, nuf said. I will now post the kiekies.