back to school

Today about 20 people and i went to church with one of our CLC's, Reagen. He goes to an Indian church in Pietermaritzburg and it was certainly different, but also really great. The service was in english and because the church has some affiliation with Hillsong we actually knew a lot of the songs so that was pretty similar. The worship time lasted for about an hour and was great, the church is not formal so everyone was very expressive and was very excited about being there. After that the pastor spoke for about an hour. The sermon was not that different and i was expecting to notice some theological differences but it was honestly your pretty standard topical sermon that might be preached from any pulpit in the united states. The pastor and congregation's biblical knowledge was extensive which was probably the biggest difference i saw- they were very committed to the reading and application and memorization of scripture and placed a very heavy emphasis on it. But besides that it was a pretty normal church experience for me. I am going to attend a different church next week, the church where the director of our program goes, but from what i know of that church i am pretty sure that i will be attending the New Life church where i was this week because it is the least similar to what i experience at home and i want to take advantage of that while i am near it. After church we stopped at McDonald's quickly where i learned that South African creme soda is green and is nothing like our cream soda, and then we came back to campus and had lunch. After lunch we explored the nature reserve that surrounds our campus and walked about 3 miles through the trails. Everything is very dry right now but there were some very nice parts and once the rain comes the whole thing will be beautiful. There is a small stream that flows through campus (remember the waterfall?) that also flows through the nature reserve and pools have been damned and bridges built whenever the trail crosses it resulting in some beautiful areas and really scary bridges. So we finished our hike and walked back to campus for tea time (seriously, the greatest) and have been doing pretty much nothing but talking to people from home since then. Everyone gets pretty tired pretty early still (thank you jet lag) so after dinner most people go to their rooms and go to bed so things aren't that exciting in the evenings here yet, but it should get better once we are totally used to this time zone. Tomorrow is the 1st day of classes so summer's finally over even though it's just starting here.