Leaving Wits Vegas



I apologize for being remiss in my updating but it's been a little busy. My internship at Wits is now over and I was very sad to leave the office. They were a great bunch of people to work with and I hope that I will get to see them again soon. I also hope that I will be as lucky with colleagues when I find a real job after grad school. So the last days on campus were fun. We would watch the games in the conference room over lunch and in the afternoons, chat about team performances and game results in the mornings when we came in, and everyone's spirit was up. We also managed to make some good headway on the IEASA conference. I got some contracts edited down to what we needed and got some good prices. My evenings were pretty boring. A couple of times I went with people out to this one bar we can walk to and watched the evening game with them. That's always a nice break. But otherwise, the internship ended quietly. On my last day, the staff gave me a farewell breakfast and Saraphina serenaded me which was fantastic. I had bought a cake to give to the staff after their marathon meeting in the morning and so it was kind of a celebratory day.

I was really grateful for all the tips the staff gave me and all the opportunities they opened up. The director of the office was kind enough to invite me to the US Consulate in Sandton for the US v Slovenia match. Even though we were totally robbed of a goal, it was a great atmosphere to watch the game in and I had a fantastic time meeting other Americans in South Africa and just being around a lot of people who were rooting for the US team. I will get to this later, but we didn't encounter too many people from other nations willing to support the US.

So I had a wonderful internship at Wits and now I feel like the real trip is starting. Next come all the games and all the travelling to different cities and safaris. I'll also get to see a lot more of Jo'burg once we get the car tomorrow so that's very exciting as well. It will be my first time driving on the left side of the road using with sitting on the right hand side of the car with the gear shift on my left. Adventures in driving and in Jo'burg here I come!

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