I came to Durban 2th of February and my studies in University of KwaZulu-Natal started in 9th of February. I live in a residence where toilet, shower and kitchen is shared with others. There is a lot of girls living in my residence, at a guess at least 60. We have our own rooms. The residence is in the campus. The campus is really beautiful, there is a lot of trees and nice park to hang out. There is also a lot of monkeys and cats in the campus. The animals are really noisy at nights.
I’m doing some courses about mental health, AIDS and social policy and I’m also collecting data for my thesis. The courses are really interesting and I’m learning a lot. Differences in Finnish and South African social services are big. Social problems in South Africa are different. There is a lot of really poor people and HIV/AIDS is a big problem here.
The public transport in here is really difficult. There are minibuses that are really cheap but it’s hard to know where they are going because there is no signs outside. It can be also really slow way to travel. It is not safe to take a minibus if you don’t know which one you are supposed to take. People use a lot of their own cars and taxis. For me the lack of public transportation has been the hardest thing in here. In Finland I live in Helsinki and I’m used to that I can take a subway, tram, bus or a train and it is really easy to get from one place to another. Traffic is in here left-hand and I’m still very confused when I’m crossing the road.
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