No work and all play

Emily and I have been very social the past few days, and it's been great! First off, co-workers in the neuro section threw a "party" (snacks just before lunch) for one of their birthdays and celebrating my last day in neuro. They told me I had been a great student to have and made me feel like I had been very helpful (I hope!). Much appreciated. That evening we had a social event (dinner out) with some co-workers. They filled us in on every kind of food we should try while here in SA. Some already taken care of, but there still is a huge list. They also offered to bring their favorite South African foods one day to work so we can try them all, and they have a delish South African braai (BBQ) in the works for us! We were introduced to rusks this week (crunchy biscuits that you dunk into coffee) and a couple of traditional appetizers most of which include meat. Their biltong (jerky like stuff, but way better), bunny chow (anything stuffed into a hollowed out 1/4 loaf of bread), and boerewors (sausage) are very popular foods here which we have already tried and love. I think that I have eaten more red meat in the time I've been here than in the past 6 months at home, but I still can't wait to try everything new they have to offer! Friday we had to see all of our patients before noon so that we could participate in team building! That afternoon we split up in colored teams and had to dress in our color and bring snacks that were our color. We completed challenges, mostly mind and team/cooperation games, for points. All I have to say is way to go winning black team!!

A lot of fun (and smack talk) was had by all!


Today (Sunday) Nici took us to the cradle of humankind which is the caves/excavation site where they found the oldest humanoid bones/fossils. We got to walk around in the naturally formed caves and see the areas where these fossils were found/still being excavated 14 years later (pretty delicate process). It was a beautiful area, and it was a lot of fun to learn about all of this and how it was formed and later found.

This is where Mrs Ples (oldest fossil) was found:

But tomorrow it's forget the fun and back to work in a new section! We'll see how it goes.