Day 9 – Monday

I was pretty surprised to find Wynand at home in the morning. He has to leave for work at 6 o’clock in the morning. He’d called in sick for the day. Wynand and Diets were planting grass in the garden when I had to leave at 9 o’clock. I made it without too much difficulty, got a little lost in the streets around Tukkies – but that’s what the GPS is for! Drove through the gate and had to give them my phone number and driver’s license number.

I met Erika in her office and she took me to get registrated at the university. Afterwards she went with me to find the place I would be staying. “Tuksdorp” was about three streets down from the laboratory where I’d be working, no more than a 10-minute walk in the mornings.

The little house I would stay in for the next six months was pretty old. There were two other rooms beside mine, with a shared bathroom and a shared kitchen. The bathroom had two showers and a separate bathroom. The kitchen had an oven, a fridge (with freezer) and pots and pans and the like.

She left me to get settled, which mostly just meant being bored out of my mind. I went down to the store for some food, came back, had a nap. Woke up to find my airtime was all used up. I hurried back to the shops (apparently they close at 5.30) and bought some more. Dinner was cereal, I’m sad to say…